IMPLeroyJenkins's page

So Book of the Dead is here, and obviously it's got a lot of fun new shenanigans. In particular, the possibility for players to attain lichdom.

There are two problems I'm seeing right now in the way the requirements for the Lich Dedication and the description of the Soul Cage are worded.

First, there seems to be an inconsistency in the requirements.
Soul Cage's crafting requirements are listed as:
"You have Lich Dedication".

Lich Dedication's requirements are listed as:
"living creature, ability to cast 6th-level or higher spells from spell slots, completed ritual to become a lich and crafted a soul cage; expert in Crafting".

So unless I'm missing something, you can't take the Lich Dedication until you create a soul cage, but crafting a Soul Cage requires you to have the Lich Dedication. This recursive requirement makes me think there's something that isn't worded correctly here. Is the intent for you to craft the soul cage at the time you take this dedication?

Second, Lich Dedication mentions "completed ritual to become a lich" as one of its requirements, but no such ritual spell exists in 2nd edition. 1st edition has Eternal Apotheosis, but there is no equivalent in 2e as far as I can tell. Is it simply referring to the crafting of a soul cage in this case? The description of a soul cage does explicitly state that you store your soul in the cage as part of the process of crafting it- "As you Craft your soul cage, you trap your soul within it".

Fair enough, should've checked the list before getting too deep into this. Is there a way to get the Ritualist archetype in PFS then? Otherwise it feels like necromancer is more of a backstory choice than a mechanical one, and I'd be better off being a universalist to cast animate dead more often.

Assuming I buy this ritual for 20 AcP through Esoteric Spellcaster(CRB), I was confused as to whether I'd need to buy this once for each specific creature I might have cause to create.

The spell's text specifies "There are many versions of this ritual, each specific to a particular type of undead (one ritual for all zombies, one for skeletons, one for ghouls, and so on)". So does that mean I'd need to buy Esoteric Spellcaster once for each type of creature, or just once in general for the ritual, and I can choose the creature at the time of casting?

Also, is there any way to unlock Ritualist Dedication in PFS? Doesn't seem to be an AcP boon for archetypes other than a few from the newer books, so I assume I'd need to find an adventure that unlocks it or it's just not useable.