>Ghost Lich whose soul is bounded to one of his magical tools and can't cast spells without it
>"Transhumanist" lich who became immortal by becoming something else than human such as a spirit, planar being, dragon,ect...
>Chinese style immortal lich who perfected his body through internal alchemy, physical training, breathing exercises,ect...good for martial types
>Mainly for druid type of characters, becoming a genius loci, the guardian spirit of a place
>A deity (or spirits, planar beings and similar) itself become your phylactory and you will be resurrected until they change their mind or you accomplish some mission they tasked you with Good for priest and paladin types Alternatively, your phylactory is a relic (worshiped remnant of someone considered holy) and you are a kind of "living" saint for your religion, maybe a bridge between mortals and the gods
>Koschei the Immortal style lich, his phylactery need to be destroyed to kill him, otherwise he can't be killed at all.
You know becoming immortal does not mean you are a lich.
Eli Morris
Time to repost an older post so that the young'un's aren't limited by what 5e has to offer. >Each PC get's a to roll for their Lich Salient ability (Read Van Richten's Guide to the Lich, then Monsters of Faerun, then the Sword and Sorcery Ravenloft modules) Lichspell, Lich artefact, and Lich Power rituals, the first roll determining how many of these they get >Each PC rolls for what kind of Lich they are- To list the following- >Base Lich (See 'Blueprint to the Lich' - (DMG&BestofDMG) which followed onto 'Van Richten's guide to the Lich', which then went on to 3.5's Monster Manual template, then it's Web Enhancement which detailed it in monster class form as well as actual tidbits of the progression and method to transformation) effectively onward, this became the default Lich of D&D. To note, this lich covers all medium humanoids, the only one by canon to apply lichdom to non-humanoids is Lichdom acquired through the 'Death Master' base class in Dragon Compendium, meaning the user is Orcus's bitch. >Suel Lich (2e-3.5, 3.5 template found in DMG) Functionally the IS the Lich from Adventure Time, hop from body to body or die trying, you aiminf for demilichdom to stop your host bodies decomposition, and from technical perspective, your very soul is negative energy now, which is hilarious because it means you've a shitload of lore-based shenanigans at your disposal because of this. >Lichfiend You're a Lich in service to a Demon Lord of the Abyss, and will never die so long as your master wills it, death means it's off to him and back in 24 hours, so keep him happy and you have secured eternity. Despite what the Libris Mortis published on the subject, this is the correct Lichfiend 'see 'Dark Myrakul' from DM116' - allegedly (Both might be valid) >Banelich You are one of the elite of the God of Tyranny, but he doesn't make anymore of you anymore because 'reasons' !notHulkHogan with higher CHA doesn't like you much either (monsters of Faerun and 2e)
Ian Ward
>Alhoon Fuck the Elder Brain. You're an Illithid Sorceror who took up Lichdom, to note, you did lose some of your natural abilities for making the transformation (Monsters of Faerun & 2e) >Elemental Lich (2e, Ravenloft, Sword and Sorcery Ravenloft for 3.5 template) See that Paladin? You can bitchslap him into falling. Also, you get to summon Demiplane of dread issued elementals and you get unique Demilich powers when you hit that stage. Fucking great right? Did we forget to mention touch based attacks that make you Lich Kenshiro? >Drowlich You're an evil aligned race with an evil aligned deity with an evil aligned set of variant classes, racial benefits an innate abilities, and your Lichdom is also slightly bolstered by you being evil, Not much has changed, (2e, was not in 3.5, but had a template in a d20 work The Complete Guide to Liches which serves the same purpose) >Shadow Lich You are an undead so obscure, that even your appearances have only occurred three times over the history of D&D, and you're effectively a Shade and a Lich in one, even your method of disposal is fucking super obscure. The bigger benefit is how your state tremendously helps your shadowcasting, but even better is that you barely look dead, barring your eyeless sockets, but your biggest secret is that the means to your transformation is one of the most stress-free rituals possible in the planes. Talk about fucking lucky. Fuck all Shar worshippers though, the Shadow Weave is concentrated ass. (Present in Neverwinter Nights, mentioned in 3.5's Tome of Magic but not covered, see the Shade template, Shadow and shadow template, and the Lich Template to detail and elaborate, as well as Ravenloft, Book of Shadows for the actual appearance of said lich)
Adrian Cruz
>Bard Lich Despite your name, you are not- infact a Lich, or a Dirgesinger for that matter, you just sort of got into one of those-undead-like states caused from overexposure to negative energy signatures associated with a Lich, in a same means in which many necromancers slowly become undead-like over time, like Orcus's return to life with his undead-like benefits, the Pale Master, the Deathwalker, Mortibund, and practitioners of the eastern school of the necromancer wizard variant. Despite your predicament you still have some benefits of Lichdom, barring their natural abilities as undead connected to the plane of negative energy, but effectively, in a sense, you're still the nice guy people remember you to be, if a little-dead looking. (Ravenloft 2e) >VassaLich Rather than sell your soul to Orcus for power, immortality, and strong bones, you managed to convince a Lich to suck on his liquefied black bile bone marrow to become a Vassalich, a creature that is in effect, what vampire spawn is to a True vampire. Now you have all the benefits of Lichdom, but are subservient to your master, and cannot level up unless it is his whim, but soon you will be able to afford the time to craft your own phylactery and become independent of him (2e ravenloft and 3.5 S&S ravenloft) >Defiler Lich You are literally the biggest fucking cunt in the multiverse, and equally just as terrifying, you rape nature for your art and destroy entire ecosystems casting spells over the mid-tier mark, when you become a Demilich you can cast curses so detrimental they permanently render people unable to take important functional actions in life, (Literally perma bar game mechanics) and Druids can sense you, and will do everything to kill you for what you are and what you do. (2e, Dark Sun and 2e Ravenloft but for 3.5 is basically the Lich template with the Dark Sun defiler feat and table found in dragon magazine + alt abilities to use as a demilich)
Joshua Jenkins
>Inheritor Lich Death doesn't stop important legal proceedings, you just came back and took your property rightful owed to you like a real fucking man, (this one I don't know enough about) >Master Lich You're a Lichfiend. Except this time you're not limited to a Demon Lord. You're basically Pious from Eternal Darkness, enjoy letting the Old Ones in. You're also weaker than the base Lich for some reason. (2e) >Firelich You fucked up any of the following. >Psionic Lich Fuck astral seeds, shove all your psionics in a phylactery, die, and comeback through sheer willpower (2e Ravenloft, but for 3.5, use S&S's Hyperconscious - Explorations In Psionics, though Pathfinder did the same thing but better having you Astral seed your shit as well, but you know, shit happens, you should look them up and combine the best of both.) >Dry Lich Druid or Cleric, you can generate limitless salt, get more phylacteries but can't replace them, and use infinite pocket sand and a pocket sand as a variant that instantly kills, to become one you require a PrC, Walker in the Wastes. A benefit includes a Planar Touchstone for the guild associated with this PrC that technically grants you this Lichdom, granting you fast healing also. You're a more territorial version of a Tomb King from Warhammer effectively. Also makes you balls to the wall fucking rich, because salt has extreme value in D&D due to the multitude of uses it has in magic, and from a technical perspective, should actually stack with Suel Lichdom making it even more silly, if you can figure out how to meet the requirements for this, that its.
Nathaniel Fisher
>Archlich A lich that is good, read into the lines and filtered the facts from bullshit and disinfo from years of accumulated resources to cheat death- and nerfed for being as such, Evil Liches get to be generalist & specialist caster again anyhow, and even then you're in for trouble if Atropus or another nasty undead commander comes along, and nothing is stopping the zealous from trying to purge your oh so benevolent not evil ass. Well, you can't be turned. >Good Lich Based on your logical circuits, you repented your evil or actually managed to make up for it, and got the benefits of an Archlich. You'll probably die anyway, and this is a super rare thing, to boot. >Baelnorm Privileged Elf cunt with sometimes the same benefits as a Lichfiend when it comes to rejuvantion, except it's instantaneous, because your racial deity is seriously this much of a massive hypocrite favoritism prone elitist, yes, that's right, tickle his little sissy sack the right way and you won't even need a phylactery, the downsides of course are being stuck taking up cleanup jobs for all those oh-so common all-out Elven fuckups of the Slaanesh degree and being pent up in ancient ruins libraries or on "keeping the Elder Evil sealed away" jobs. >Dracolich You're stuck with the older 2e standards of regeneration because a Phylactery can't grow a Dragon carcass because of how your ecology works. Luckily, you're not dumb and trained your batshit insane cultists and Kobolds to practice Transmutation to simply MAKE the bodies for you to inhibit via Polymorph. Kind of amazing no one thought to build that shit in, but there you go, fuck you Sammaster. >Spontaneous Lich Some Magic deity likes you so much they made you undead without you noticing, you'll crumble to dust when you finish your work, but this is the very process that helped change Lichdom in the planes forever, all of modernized 3.5 lichdom is actually based on using this as an exploit!
Sebastian Bell
>3rd Party Lich Your fucking spell turning/counterspelling/jumping in the beam of X energies of a Necromancers Lich ritual turned you into a Lich, effectively stealing it. It's whatever Lich template the ritual intended, but your lack of self awareness/selfless sacrifice/absolute bullshit/reality warping luck let's you keep your original alignment. Nigel Turnbottom you lucky bastard. >Death Knight (Original, Greyhawk - Demogorgon) Infused with the hatred of all life as a martial paragon of Unlife, with the Prince of Demons himself supplying your hatred of everything else making you a martial champion of evil, by literally raping you in the eyesockets until you became undead, your sword is your unlife and also pseudo-phylactery, and you ignore your foes AC and attract undead to you to command in your crusade against all things decent and living. >Death Knight (Divine, Krynn) You pissed the deities off and now you're pretty much unfeeling, immortal, and have the same abilities as the above + two extra (su)s. Hilarious. And technically finally- Demilichdom The Creme of the crop. As a Demilich you can make 100 clones of yourself as a Lich to distribute and control however you please with no penalties to HD CAP, Contact any Evil Outsider in the universe with a DM-issued control of somekind, freely change the weather, and take control of headless bodies to wield their class skills as long as you're attached.
Henry Wood
The Lich isn't a physical Undead instead in a malevolent spirit a force of power who's phylactery is his skeleton which has been entombed deep in the catacombs of a great castle that was drug beneath the soil of his forbidden land. His power corrupts the land and whatever dies within it rise as a member of the dead wandering his domain and acting as a great sea of death protecting him.
Angel Rodriguez
Some powers will vary for your choice of Lichdom, making this stage even more fun, but the best comes from the control of weather, as over the years D&D has wracked up the like of the Black Rain (EAT SHIT CLERICS) and many other fun weather effects, such as Dragon Magazines Arcane Weather Article. Unleash pure fucking hell. Lastly, to note, Demilichdom is applicable to ALL forms of Lich, so there's that little cherry on top for players. The official 3.5 issued base class means to Lichdom is Dread Necromancer (Humanoids only, and the 3.5 class for 2e's AZN Philospher Necromancer Queen, Kazerabet) Death Master, which applies to all who use the class and not just humanoids, which makes your Orcus's bitch. And lastly, the Walker in the Wastes PrC.
Gavin Brown
Honorable Mentions- >The Obscure not detailed enough Mummy-Lichdom featured for the Neverwinter Nights 1 SOU campaign's Lich >The Lich's Old Memory globe, shove unwanted memories in here, like another Phylactery for every embarrassing moment in your life on a replay and slideshow! >People who don't understand the size category to phylactery table issued variants for your phylactery and think you're getting your hands on an Ancient netherse spell owned by a fat Lich who had a contingency spell in place to turn him into a Lich on death that lets him split up his phylactery into bones he can polymorph and hide around his cave >The fucking Undermountain vampire using a Phylactery because the Twisted Rune love to live up to their silly reputation >Random non-Lich phylactery users over the course of D&D >All unlisted non-standard Liches made by curse, and Lich-fiend like Outsider involvement >Deathless, but they're more or less Undead without the Negative Plane of energy feeding them that secret executable viral code to kill everyone and everything ever, so they can't suffer the "Atropus has arrived, fuck your Necrocracy" asspull >Half Liches, AKA Kharlat Jhareg, and every Level 4 Lich monster class template NPC that couldn't make it >The literally no info on this- Lichthrall from the Hombrew Lich handbook on that forum site that is actually made up. There was only ever Vassa-Liches, whoops- well- that and whatever Larloch is doing to enslave his cabal of liches in FR.
Elijah Wood
Ravenloft's Shadow Virus on the last days of infection + What is basically the Shade Transformation Ritual from Shadovar but as an Alchemical potion which should be possible via the Master Alchemist PrC in Forgotten realms if you wanted to do it yourself. Effectively, it's a state for the Old 2e Shadow Mage kit before the Shar made the Shadow-Weave and introduced her special brand of bullshit and it works because of that part of the Demiplane of Shadow that borders the Negative energy plane. As for how it works, instead of the Paralysis touch, the Lich Drains strength as an undead shadow would, it has the Shade's ability to Dim light sources, and affinity for shadows. As for it's appearance, it looks like a shade, but it's eyes are hollow sockets, so it's hard to discern anyhow. Technically speaking one can still play a 2e Styled shadow mage, you just have to Pick the Variant Base class options from Unearthed Arcana and Transversed Arcana in D&D to get the same benefits from casting shadow spells from the illusion school like the old 2e kit.
Adam King
Umbran the Shadow Lich is the one in 2e, the 2nd one was in Neverwinter Nights, Shadows of Unrentide as a Netherese Shadovar who was in the degenerated state of Shadow Lichdom due to the Weave fucking up during the Karsus folly, it sort of 'bordered' the old condition You have to read Ravenloft Book of shadows to understand it and the one in 3.5 is mentioned in the tome of magic, but whether it is a Shadow Lich in the vein of Umbran and NWN1's 2nd campaign is unknown as it isn't statted beyond it's mention as part of a Shadowcaster guild, so it's probably a Shadowcaster Lich at best. As for means to destruction, the Lich doesn't use a Phylactery but it's tied the shadowstuff it merged with to become a Shadow Lich in the same manner as a shade is, and it reforms around it's bones, which it can generate, repair and hide under in it's own shadow. The only way to get rid of it is to blast it in a containment field and use light spells repeatedly, but who the fuck would know that? there's no way to even identify it has a Lich beyond the eye sockets and fear aura, for all intents and purposes, it looks like a Shade.
Hunter Collins
Also, there actually isn't a reason for Liches to die if their phylactery is destroyed, doing this simply returns the liches lifeforce (D&D slang for soul, or rather the composite energies that actually make the thing up) to their bodies- the kicker is that it simply means the Lich will stay dead when you kill it following you smashing up their phylactery- but there IS an actual explanation as to why for some quests, campaigns and story narratives why this process actually works, and that's down to the fact that on returning to the body, which is now- effectively a puppet on strings of 'literally the energy released from a body in a short burst when it dies repeated a few thousand times over to oversaturate the body and do the will of death' pretty much does not agree with life-force AKA lotsa postive energy and some other stuff, it effectively SHREDS the soul to pieces when it returns- and there's also the fact that said person is a skeleton, so resuming pre-undead activity effectively stops the stasis the body is in, meaning instant split-second decomposition, nevermind that the undead have no CON score, meaning returning to that equates to instant death, unless the Lich has an ability that actually gives them a CON point, surpassing the rules of undeath, which isn't something uncommon, as Undead can get their hands on interesting feats of that nature- the subject of Phylactery destruction and Death is also tied to the the use of the Soul Jar spell, which is a consistent requirement in the fluffed details of Lich rituals when that have shown up in D&D materials that is, so the rules of the spell are- theoretically at work there in addition.
It's something of a flavor issue in effect, you'd have to gather some degree of published Lichdeaths to get an idea of what to work with when the time comes.
Brayden Williams
You're confunding immortality with lichdom.
But I'll humor you and post some cool immortality and lich ideas.
>Shadow Lich
>Astral Lich Ghost-like fucker, like a lich but immaterial
>Artifact "Lich" If destroyed, you can regenerate yourself quickly, but not because of a philactery fuckery. Rather, you linked yourself with a very powerful artifact or divine creature. To destroy you, someone would need to either destroy the artifact or creature, or unlink your soul to it in some form or another. Think Dagoth Ur from Morrowind or The Emperor from Jade Empire. Artifact Ideas: The Heart or Body of a Dead God, an artifact weapon, a castle, palace or fortress.
>Nature Guardian / Baelnorn A druid who took an oath to protect either a place or the entire world. Maybe the transformation links him to a specific place so he can't travel too far from it. Think the Three Eyed Raven from Game of Thrones Place ideas: The World Tree TM, The Fountain of Youth / Knowledge TM, the sealing place of the big bad evil
>Divine / Demonic Ascendant Basically a God / Demon transforms you into a extraplanar creature. You serve him and his goals, and if destroyed in another plane you return after some time.
> Other ideas: Becoming a good/evil extraplanar without outside help, becoming a dragon through blood magic
Oh right, there is also a Frost Druid Lich in Forgotten Realms. No- that doesn't make any fucking sense, but it's in there. So I can only guess someone had a boner for Ner'zhul at the time of writing that trite.
Jaxson Bell
Forgotten Realms is a shit setting and this only furthers the point
Kevin Adams
Sounds like something from Warcraft.
Noah Ross
The guy watching the Graal in Last Crusade.
Daniel Reed
Running a D&D game where the main "antagonist" is just a guy who did something to make himself immortal so that he can gather more resources, people, and power to defend against a bigger bad coming later.
Then I discovered Archliches. What are some details I need to flesh out to accurately retroactively make my npc an Archlich that the players encounter and potentially fight / join?
