Trying to build super-hero, but he dies too easy!

[sector24]

My standard SC in singleplayer is a Wraith Lord with:

Spirit Helm
Boots of Quickness
Luck item (Faithful or Pendant of Luck)
An AE sword like a Fire Brand helps too.

Script Soul Vortex -> Attack Rear. The cold aura and the soul vortex wipes out most everything in single player. From there you can develop your own guy. Examples:

Air 4 unit with ring of tamed lightning and some air gems.
Script Wrathful Skies -> Eat Sandwich.

An earth magic SC can wear a ring of regeneration and some defense gear and spam earthquake.

From my brief experience it sounds like your defense keeps going down every time you get attacked in the same combat round, so if you get swarmed you can still die. AE damage is the key. And of course none of this stuff by itself works in MP, but I'm sure that's not an issue for you at this point.