There are essentially two ways to become a lich: the slow and safe(r) way, and the quick and dirty way. The second is dirty because the overwhelming majority of those who try it end up as a putrescent stain. It is quick because the other way requires one to become a magical polymath and then dedicate centuries to research and ritual.
You are someone on the quick and dirty way to becoming a lich. You’ve taken the first step where so many others have stumbled and now stand on the edge of infinity. What does your future hold, when it has the potential to hold so much?
GLOG Class: Lich Aspirant
Starting Equipment: Phylactery, tattered cloak, your own skull
A: Barebones Phylactery, Strain
B: Enduring Phylactery, Death Grip
C: Monumental Phylactery
D: Choose one of Incorruptible Phylactery OR Manifesting Phylactery OR Endless Phylactery
A:
Barebones Phylactery: Your soul resides in an object that takes up one inventory slot and is as fragile as a glass jar. If this object is destroyed you die instantly and horribly. If your body dies it reforms one day later in the nearest open space by your phylactery. If your body moves more than 10 feet from your phylactery it dies. Your bodies are magical constructs and provide no nutrition if eaten.
Strain: Your body is not your true vessel. You can push it past its breaking point to wring every last bit of performance out of it. Take 1d6 damage at any time to gain that same amount as a bonus on your next physical roll.
B:
Enduring Phylactery: Your phylactery is now as durable as hardwood. Your body reforms after one hour rather than one day, and can go up to 30 feet from your phylactery before dying.
Death Grip: If you let a close-ranged enemy attack automatically hit you, and you are capable of movement after being hit, then you can cling to that enemy to disable that attack. Also, after one of your bodies dies you can choose to lock parts or all of it in a rigid position.
C:
Monumental Phylactery: Your phylactery is now as durable as granite. Your body reforms after ten minutes rather than one hour, and you can go up to 60 feet from your phylactery before dying.
D:
Incorruptible Phylactery: Your phylactery is now as durable as adamantine.
OR
Manifesting Phylactery: You no longer have a limit of how far you can move from your phylactery.
OR
Endless Phylactery: You can choose to reform your body in only one round with only 1 HP.
It could be interesting if, rather than dying instantly if you move more than x ft from your phylactery, you begin to decay on a time limit. It's not about making it less deadly, but it could create some interesting risk/reward scenarios. And the grotesqueness and panic of seeing yourself decay in real time seems fitting.
ReplyDeleteIntriguing... but it's a class with no spells, which doesn't "fit" the traditional lich... Or am I missing something?
ReplyDeleteWhat I was going for with the first paragraph was setting it up so that the traditional lich is the "slow and safe(r)" way, the wizard/necromancer who achieves lichdom as the capstone on a lifetime of magical mastery, vs. the lich aspirant who's so dedicated to doing this magnum opus phylactery spell that they skip over all the intervening steps but can't do much else.
DeleteAnyways that's the lore side, the mechanics side is that I wanted this class to have its immortality from template A, and mixing that with magic feels like a bit much, especially as the GLOG tends towards the lower end of the power scale.
Initial concept for the class was for each template to give a roll on a "lich tricks" table that would have Strain, Death Grip, as well as spells and more spell-like stuff such as drinking the souls of the dying. Maybe I'll do that somewhere down the line, or someone else can do it.
Another post planned for GLOGtober is coming up with rituals for the various GLOG wizard schools to become their own versions of liches, which will hew closer to the traditional lich.