Lich
Description
Few creatures are more feared than the lich. The pinnacle of necromantic art, the lich is a spellcaster who has chosen to shed his life as a method to cheat death by becoming undead. While many who reach such heights of power stop at nothing to achieve immortality, the idea of becoming a lich is abhorrent to most creatures. The process involves the extraction of the spellcaster's life-force and its imprisonment in a specially prepared phylactery—the spellcaster gives up life, but in trapping life he also traps his death, and as long as his phylactery remains intact he can continue on in his research and work without fear of the passage of time.
The quest to become a lich is a lengthy one. While construction of the magical phylactery to contain the spellcaster's soul is a critical component, a prospective lich must also learn the secrets of transferring his soul into the receptacle and of preparing his body for the transformation into undeath, neither of which are simple tasks. Further complicating the ritual is the fact that no two bodies or souls are exactly alike—a ritual that works for one spellcaster might simply kill another or drive him insane. The exact methods for each spellcaster's transformation are left to the GM's discretion, but should involve expenditures of hundreds of thousands of gold pieces, numerous deadly adventures, and a large number of difficult skill checks over the course of months, years, or decades.
An integral part of becoming a lich is the creation of the phylactery in which the character stores his soul. The only way to get rid of a lich for sure is to destroy its phylactery. Unless its phylactery is located and destroyed, a lich can rejuvenate after it is killed (see Creating a Lich, below).
Each lich must create its own phylactery by using the Craft Wondrous Item feat. The character must be able to cast spells and have a caster level of 11th or higher. The phylactery costs 120,000 gp to create and has a caster level equal to that of its creator at the time of creation.
The most common form of phylactery is a sealed metal box containing strips of parchment on which magical phrases have been transcribed. The box is Tiny and has 40 hit points, hardness 20, and a break DC of 40.
Other forms of phylacteries can exist, such as rings, amulets, or similar items.
Combat Stats
- Melee
- touch +5 (1d8+5 plus paralyzing touch)
- DR
- 15/bludgeoning and magic
- Defensive Abilities
- channel resistance +4
- Aura
- fear (60-ft. radius, DC 18)
- Racial Modifiers
- +8 Perception, +8 Sense Motive, +8 Stealth
Ability Scores
Proficiencies
Weapons: Simple
Special Attacks
grave touch* (9/day)
paralyzing touch (DC 18)
power over undead* (9/day, DC 18)
Feats
Craft Wondrous Item, Defensive Combat Training, Extend Spell, Improved Lightning Reflexes, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Maximize Spell, Quicken Spell, Scribe Scroll, Toughness
Special Abilities
Universal Monster Rules
Special Abilities
Feats, Traits & Items
You can create a wide variety of magic wondrous items. Crafting a wondrous item takes 1 day for each 1,000 gp in its price. To create a wondrous item, you must use up raw materials costing half of its base price. See the magic item creation rules in Magic Items for more information.
You can also mend a broken wondrous item if it is one that you could make. Doing so costs half the raw materials and half the time it would take to craft that item.
You treat your total Hit Dice as your base attack bonus when calculating your Combat Maneuver Defense (see Combat).
An extended spell lasts twice as long as normal. A spell with a duration of concentration, instantaneous, or permanent is not affected by this feat. An extended spell uses up a spell slot one level higher than the spell's actual level.
Once per day, you may reroll a Reflex save. You must decide to use this ability before the results are revealed. You must take the second roll, even if it is worse.
All variable, numeric effects of a spell modified by this feat are maximized. Saving throws and opposed rolls are not affected, nor are spells without random variables. A maximized spell uses up a spell slot three levels higher than the spell's actual level.
An empowered, maximized spell gains the separate benefits of each feat: the maximum result plus half the normally rolled result.
Casting a quickened spell is a swift action. You can perform another action, even casting another spell, in the same round as you cast a quickened spell. A spell whose casting time is more than 1 round or 1 full-round action cannot be quickened.
A quickened spell uses up a spell slot four levels higher than the spell's actual level. Casting a quickened spell doesn't provoke an attack of opportunity.
You can create a scroll of any spell that you know. Scribing a scroll takes 2 hours if its base price is 250 gp or less, otherwise scribing a scroll takes 1 day for each 1,000 gp in its base price. To scribe a scroll, you must use up raw materials costing half of this base price. See the magic item creation rules in Magic Items for more information.
You gain +3 hit points. For every Hit Die you possess beyond 3, you gain an additional +1 hit point. If you have more than 3 Hit Dice, you gain +1 hit points whenever you gain a Hit Die (such as when you gain a level).
Skills
Craft (alchemy) +20, Intimidate +17, Knowledge (arcana) +20, Knowledge (planes) +20, Linguistics +20, Perception +24, Sense Motive +24, Spellcraft +20, Stealth +24
Spells
- Type
- Undead
- Alignment
- NE
- Size
- Medium
- Environment
- any
- Organization
- solitary
- Treasure
- NPC gear (boots of levitation, headband of vast intelligence +2 [Perception], ring of protection +2, potion of invisibility, scroll of dominate person, scroll of teleport)
- Senses
- darkvision 60 ft., life sight*; Perception +24
- Aura
- fear (60-ft. radius, DC 18)
- Languages
- Abyssal, Aklo, Aquan, Celestial, Common, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Giant, Gnome, Goblin, Ignan, Infernal, Orc, Undercommon
- Source
- Bestiary