Lich looks

How does one design a lich that isn't just visually uninteresting? Every "decayed corpse" lich I've seen illustrated looks like shit. Skeletal liches seem like the ideal, but all skeletons pretty much look the same.

>all skeletons pretty much look the same.
You goddamn racist.

Individualize them based on personality. You choose your clothes, makeup, hairstyle etc. based on what you like/can afford/have gotten. Why wouldn't a lich do the same?

My main Lich decorated his skull with magical gems so that he retained darkvision and other effects, as well as to accessorize. He has runes etched into his bones so that he never has to worry about a spellbook but has them set up in a stylish way.

This is not a problem with liches, it's a problem with creativity.

Very nice.

>A vain lich who is using illusions and preservation spells to retain a youthful, beautiful appearance, but is so old even the strongest magic lags behind and glitches occasionally. Results are deep into the uncanny valley.

>Squeleton lich who dipped their bones in liquid metal because hey, why not? Free, constant armor! With maybe intricate designs into the metal, or runes, or jewels...

>A lich wearing a porcelain "body" over their squeletton, with a mask, making them doll-like.

>A lich litterally grafting hunks of flesh on themself. Why? Why not. Sometimes, you may need flesh.

>A lich who actually thought about it all and decided to mummify themself.

The way I have it set up is that health potions will cause undead to regrow lost flesh and organs this means they can be anything from skellies to looking perfectly human or anything in between(though they are still dead and that meat will decompose). More often than not though they will just choose too look like a normal person so they can move freely which is I think a pretty scary thought.

>>Squeleton lich who dipped their bones in liquid metal because hey, why not? Free, constant armor! With maybe intricate designs into the metal, or runes, or jewels...
>Apprentice has to oil her metalobones up or she gets stuck

Keep in mind that different races/species have different looking skeletons. A lich could look wildly different from his peers even without decoration, depending on what he was in life.

it's all about what he dresses himself in, and his attitude.

> Outfit is made up of ghosts, which serve as additional clothing/protection
> Bonemold armor
> Individual parts of its body are imbued with separate intelligences all yoked together, turning it into an undead Voltron

In my own setting, the Undead as a faction tend to look like Elizabethan humanists at a Victoria's Secret Fashion Show -- all lace and black silk in the newest and most daring fashions. It's done for marketing purposes, since people are more likely to give up the corpses of their families without a fuss if the resulting monsters look like idealized humans rather than undead atrocities. So even the liches look like Byronic heroes, with their flesh preserved and well cared for.

Subtle redpill detected.
Another thing to do is have missing teeth or fingers or something where they had scars before lichdom like cracks in the bones. Something like that, especially if the lich is really old, is good. That along with the clothing based on personality seal the deal, at least for me.

chino pants and a nice red sweater

Non-human Lich

Would it be possible to have a Dullahan Lich?

space Lich

Sure, fictional creature. You have the same amount of authority as anybody else.

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How does one design a wizard or warrior that isn't visually uninteresting? Beards, muscles, scars... but don't neglect their gear. Flowing robes or a fuckoff sword are perfectly fair game for other characters, don't ignore them for skellies.

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Catacomb saints are excellent reference for ornate undead in general.

Seeing them in person, you almost expect a health bar to pop up right before the music starts and they jump at you with a sword made of spacetime or something.

What's the best way to make a fat, classy lich, like Orson Welles? Skull-headed mummy?

From Pathfinder, a technological lich.

Gentle Repose

Keep the rotten corpse look, but have him wear a mask and robes to hide his true form.

"Draw me like one of your French girls."

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>Not, A Pimp named Slichback
One job user.

That filename, thanks for the new antagonist idea.

Atomic lich > all other liches

atomic lich?

It was in a GURPS book. I don't recall which one.

basically a guy who used radioactivity and magic to become a Lich powered by radioactivity or something.

how strange. it'd make a great fallout villain desu

how about a whole bunch on skelly-men rolled into one big one?

>Apprentice gets to run his grubby little hands all over those beautiful and lissome bones
>Gets to oil them up and rub each and every bone to make sure that everything is oiled properly

Lucky motherfucker. While he's out oiling up sexy liches, I'm stuck here studying the materialization of the soul

This is silly. The Psionic equivalent of a lich should be some sort of preserved brain.

Hey, if you ever figure out the Third can I be your apprentice?

Filename says it all

>but all skeletons pretty much look the same.
Das raysis mang! U sayin only wite bois gets ta be liches? Niggas be rollin wit da dark majic since africa! WE WAZ KANGS AND MUMMIES AND SHIET!

You not a humerus person, are you? Just let the feel of nature flow.

... oh yeah. Druidic lich. Never thought about it.
Flowers and mushrooms growing in eyesockets. Or maybe a family of bird nesting there.

Voodoo and Hoodoo Liches would be legit terrifying.

magical girl liches

>Dipping yourself in metal for armour
>Not dipping yourself in gold
>Do you even bling lich?

Groucho Marx

I kinda like to imagine skeletons covering themselves with a fake skin, crudely made of clothes. Then real clothes on top.
As it get ripped up you can see that beneath ther's nothing but bones.

I came on here to suggest this. WMH isn't a perfect setting, but their mecha-undead have a great aesthetic. Pic-related is a personal fav... gotta love an undead wizard with power armor, tattered wings, and impeccable fashion sense.

Huge. Fucking. Hats.
Body horror.
Mechanical augmentations.

Stealing Full Metal Skeltals for my next undead encounter thanks

>hoodoo liches

I lived near a place where appalachian hoodoo was practiced. It would be a neat change of pace, it's less terrifying than voodoo (hoodoo is more naturalistic) but it could work.