[Wish]

shield of accursed is by far the best shield that isn't unique, primarily because of its stats, not its horror marking. most shield give lousy defence, but that shield gives 7.

For a while I had a pretty good setup to give an assasin or succubus which included no unique items. rod of incineraton, shield of the accursed, boots of stone where the mainstays. the helmet could either be the wraith crown or the elemental helm, the first providing ethereal form and a small set of undead guards, the second would kill weak commanders on its own. (i use amon hotep once unique items are available, nothing like magic resistance and invulnerability, all in one hat. The best thing of being a wish based pretender is that you can steal unique items back from the computer.) the trinkets can beanything really, gauntlets to add more protection, etc. i usually go with a ring of regeneration and an amulet of antimagic. it made an assassin nearly unstoppable on its own.

now for a single leader who is nearly unstoppable there are some neat combinations of items. one of my favorite is fenris' pelt, soulstone of the wolves, lifelong protection, wraithlord crown, any boots (teleportation boots are nice on this one), any weapons, but faithful is nice for added luck, and maybe a shield that plays an active role, like aegis or scutta volturnus, or for the theme of added battlefield creatures: lantern shield. alternatively you can go with some staff that allows for summoning, and seet them to summon more critters into battle. you actually end up with so many wolves and undead and imps that you usually can't even get to the enemy.