>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.
