Notes from author
Here, I am exploring ways to dish out max possible damage in the widest variety of scenarios.
This is something of a barebones 'checklist' of the things I know I want to base my build around. I'm posting in case it inspires others, but have not finished 1st NG, gotten far enough in to test this, nor have I played Demon's Souls; Be wary of possible suck.
From this calculator, it seems that the best melee damage is unlocked using Power Within and CMW. My assumption is that a swifter weapon gives more of a fighting chance in PVP & makes better use of CMW than a slower weapon would.
Spells:
Power Within: HUGE scale to all dmg, slowly chips away HP over time
Crystal Magic Weapon: +365dmg buff to weapon based on mAdj
Equips:
Sanctus: Having in equip slot replenishes hp over time, negating PW hp penalty
Crown of Dusk: Magic dmg: +20%
Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring: 20-26% dmg to HCS
Lingering Dragoncrest Ring: 50% duration to CMW & PW
TCC: best catalyst for the int range the spells need you at
Stats:
40 dex (max stat scales to iaito before dropoff)
32 int (next bump to best mAdj from TCC after unlocking CMW & HCS @ 25int)
14 str (to weild Iaito)
All armor except for the rings and crown are arbitrarily thrown in; Partly because I'm amused that the chestpiece looks like what you put on after waking up from a sleepover at your vampire boyfriend's house, and partly because the build generator thought the other pieces gave the most available poise given the amount of equip load left before 50% for at least half-assed rolls.
Would love any feedback on how you would expand on this build to make it viable for pvp (what's a good ratio of endurance to vit?) or anything I may have gotten wrong in my assumptions when making it.
I'm thinking +10 magic Zwei/Quelagg furysword/other fun misc wep for in between situations where you would want to cast CMW since they are so limited in use and you may want to save them for PVP.