How to become a Lich??


Rules Questions

Scarab Sages

Hello gang, and thank you for reading this.

I am playing a Gravewalker Witch in "Hell's Vengeance" AP, and she is an agent of the Whispering Way.

I do plan to take the PRC "Agent of the Grave", and I am seeking advice.

Are there official rules on how to become a Lich?

If the character were to move into Lichdom, does it keep class levels? How would this character continue to function in the AP?

Clearly, being a 5 level PRC, with a relatively easy entry, she would probably hit lvl 5 of the PRC while the AP was still going on.

Thanks for the help!


When you become a lich, you basically just gain the Lich template for your character. It doesn't remove anything the template doesn't say it removes.

As for becoming a lich, there are a couple ways. The Lich template information includes a way for you to do so. An alternative route exists in the Eternal Apotheosis occult ritual. Both of these can be helped significantly by the +5 that the prestige class provides.

Scarab Sages

OK.

To be an Agent of the Grave PRC, one must be able to cast "Animate Dead".

The Gravewalker archetype grants that spell at LVL 6, but the spell is NOT normally on the Witch Spell list.

What level spell is it for the Gravewalker Witch?
Clearly that means that I couldn't enter the PRC until Character Level 7 at the earliest.

Would I still be able to cast the spell? The highest level spell the Witch could cast at level 6 would be a 3rd level spell.


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You gain it in place of the 3rd level patron spell, so it's a third level spell for you. You are right that you can't take the prestige class until your 7th level.


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In the days of old you had to be a 17th+ level NPC magic-user or cleric ;)

As the PrC says, it is up to the DM now.

If looking for inspiration for the ritual, check out the old AD&D books and 3.0 material. The central piece was always the manufacture and enchanting of a pendant which houses the soul of the lich from then on. While it exists, the lich would always reform, though it may take decades - but what does that matter to a quasi-immortal? There was also the level requirement, since only the highest level spellcasters could become liches. Nowadays I believe they let 11th level apprentices in...


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Actually, the phylactery doesn't have to be a pendant, it's often a box filled with arcane parchments, or a Jewel, or the most outrageous things... some liches have been very creative in designing their phylactery so it will never be sussed out and destroyed.


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Vatras wrote:

In the days of old you had to be a 17th+ level NPC magic-user or cleric ;)

As the PrC says, it is up to the DM now.

If looking for inspiration for the ritual, check out the old AD&D books and 3.0 material. The central piece was always the manufacture and enchanting of a pendant which houses the soul of the lich from then on. While it exists, the lich would always reform, though it may take decades - but what does that matter to a quasi-immortal? There was also the level requirement, since only the highest level spellcasters could become liches. Nowadays I believe they let 11th level apprentices in...

One of the things that Paizo added, or perhaps merely clarified is that the process generally involves an act of mass evil... typically the slaughter of mass numbers of innocent sentients.

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