Good/neutral-aligned liches

I'm gonna be DMing for the first time in a couple of weeks, and I really wanna do something with a lich in my campaign but I dunno how I feel about liches only being traditionally evil. Are good/neutral liches a thing, and how would they work?

The Old Man from the Dread Empire series.

That said, since you started with the premise of "good undead to be different" rather than created a character and realized you were accidentally describing a non-world-devouring version of undead, you're going to fag it up and shouldn't try.

While not a typical lich, Avernus is an example of a neutral aligned one.

From Dragon Age 1

My most successful BBEG was a neutral lich. His main thing was revenge against his former mentor, also a lich. Everything else was inconsequential. Start an orphanage? Sure. Zombify a town? Sure. Whatever it takes.

Took my players a long time to figure out his motivation, but the reveal was welcomed, OOC.

Reminder that whoever the Necromancer was before lichdom is completely destroyed in the process, there is no turning yourself into a lich with good intentions, there are good intentions that disappear completely once the lich is created.

Monsters Of Faerun, for 3.x .
There is a monster/template called 'Good Lich'.

I like the idea that someone posted a few years ago. Liches aren't inherently evil, they're so old and ancient that they follow morality that is ridiculously outdated/harsh. Think about all the shit Greeks/Romans did that we'd fine heinous today, and vice versa.

adventure zone balance had a few, but i don't know Veeky Forums's overall stance on it

>Are good/neutral liches a thing, and how would they work?

Elias is basically a Neutral Lich with Aspergers.

>Are good/neutral liches a thing
If you want them to be, they can be. That's one of the fun parts of DMing your own setting.

>how would they work?
Either they've figured out a way to contain/not cause negative energy corruption common to necromantic magic and a way to circumvent the wholly unspeakable rituals needed to become a lich normally, or your setting doesn't involve these concepts.

Beyond that? Fucker's old and undead, but not a prick.

They’re about as much a thing as evil paladins. People want to use the name and the awe it invokes while ignoring a key concept. So sure, you can call it a red dragon all you like but everyone sees that it has green scales

This.
In D&D, only Faerun, iirc, has "good" liches, known as Baelnorns, and they are elves who have extended their lifespans in order to provide protection and a walking connection to elder times to their communitites.
What OP wants would not be a "lich", it would be something else, because a lich is a particular thing.

Eberron has good undead too (also involving elves).

The Underking in Daggerfall.

Sure, you can have a good/neutral lich. Just make sure that he only fuels his phylactery with the souls of unjust people, like criminals or people with terminal illnesses.

Why not just have the wizard achieve immortality through different means?

>In D&D, only Faerun, iirc, has "good" liches,

Well now, Spelljammer had these things called "Arch Liches", and they could be priests or bards that had turned lich to serve the greater good.

the greater good

They differed from the evil, mage focused Liches not only in alignment, but in not having a phylactory - they had a magical item they had created instead that served a similar purpose. When they were destroyed, their remains would teleport to the item to Regenerate. They could not gain experience, but they had access to several spell abilities.

You'll find them in the Spelljammer Monstrous Manual supplement. I used one once as a patron in Spelljammer - always useful when no-one can accidentally kill the client.

You see this picture? This is not just a prop skeleton. This is a Saint. Meet Saint Pancratius. Catholicism loves dressing up their dead saints, though sometimes a suit of armor is not befitting of someone (or what very little remains of them), so they instead lay them in a chest. Whatever it is in which a Saint or a relic of their being, be it a piece of them, a cut from their garb, or perhaps an item they used, are contained, be it armor, a chest, or a vase, it is known as a Reliquary. It's literally a holy artifact.

Now, make them walk, talk, revered by the church, perhaps have the local parish serve them, and call upon the Holy Ghost to aide them in battle. There, Lawful Good liches.

I like the idea that there are variations on the exact ritual to achieve lichdom. In my setting the standard ritual involves sacrificing people and channeling the resulting negative energy through their souls and into their phylacteries to bind them to it. Variants include: convincing and evil spirit/powerful necromancer to supply the necessary energy and channel it for you, but doing so leaves your soul vulnerable to whoever is assisting you; summoning and channeling the negative energy yourself, which runs the risk of dissolving your soul if you fuck up even a little; powerful enough necromancer's can also just make dead mages into lesser liches that are subservient to them.

Basically there are a lot of ways to become a lich without being strictly evil they but are risky enough for most people to disregard them; making non evil liches fairly rare.

It’s your game amigo Liches could mean gumdrops and butterflies for all your players know. Just remember that mechanically (at least 5e) Liches must feed souls to their phycalytery or else they turn into an insane demilich that will destroy everything it sees on sight. That’s not to mention the heinous ritual they most likely did to become a Lich that crossed all boundaries of good and evil. Oh and devouring souls denies them their afterlife, so your Lich is by all means an asshole.

The act of cannibalizing a soul is an utterly evil act, only foul demons, nighthags, and various horrifying abominations along with certain utterly evil undead eat souls. It doesn't matter whether they are the souls of evil people, the simple act of eating a soul makes you evil.

Destroying souls gets you on the naughty list right quick and probably permanently.

>or people with terminal illnesses

The Make-A-Lich Foundation

Read up on the Millennial King

kek