Character backround:
The sole survivor (w/ his half-vampire slave) from Family Wars. A Drow (Ranger2/Necromancer7) in search of revenge ("love" for his family, if there ever can be such a thing among the drow. Propably not, but it´s a nice excuse for revenge).
Goal to become the most powerful being he knows - a Lich. And after that Underdark dominion etc...
Thus, I´ve taken skills and feats which are required to make the transition to Lichdom described in Encyclopaedia Arcane Necromancy possible. But, now it all seems a bit lame. Or some would perhaps say vanilla.
So, I´m thinking is there some other way to achieve Lichdom? Some prestige class perhaps?
In Ultimate Prestige Classes 1 there is The Crypt Lord. Seems to be a bit more fun to play.
So ,I guess it comes down to pros/cons to Necromancer16 vs. Necr10/Crypt Lord10.
Necromancer:
+ only 9 levels to go, requirements met at level 16.
- needs a hell-of-a-lot of gp.
- the possibility (5%) of failing the dice roll upon transformation.
The Crypt Lord:
+ automatic Lichdom at CL level 10.
+ upon gaining Lichdom spell casting as a lvl 20 wizard, thus a nice "logical" continuance to epic levels...
+ doesn´t need some much gp.
+ "clerical" abilities gained.
- gaining 2 less feats (wizard lvls 15 & 20).
- 13 levels to go (requirements for CL prestige met at level 10).
The Crypt Lord seems to win this comparison.
Your input on the matter is appreciated. Other, "more flavored" ways to achieve Lichdom?
Oh, and I have a question also. In EAN there is the feat Death Touch and the end of the description reads "both the use of this spell and the touch attack are considered to be a single standard action.
So, is this a feat or is this a spell?
Your comparison leads me to beleive (understanding that tone and intent are hard to get from this type of post) that your goal is to min/max - if that is the case (nothing wrong with that if that is what you are into) I can't help, or rather there are others who could help more.
If you want to get creative well -I like to think I am creative:
Spell Pacts: Sacrifices are made to gain supernatural abilties - say at the end of each day (or night if nocturnal) all remaining spells are sacrificed to a dark power - this power grants a special ability - about the power equivalent of two feats - however if the sacrifice is NOT made character is in great pain (-2 to dex all spellcasting/skill checks require a concentration check)
Prosthethics Grafts - a demons hand, eye, horns, wings - grant special abilties.
XP sacrifice - for the benefit of special abilties.
Dark Familiars - not necessarily different from normal familiars - but have special powers.
Ritual Sacrifices - of wealth, people, loved ones, family, magic items, ability scores, spell slots, - in return for different abilities.
The binding of demons into exotic magic weapons/items.
The creation of character specific spells.
You need to figure out what makes sense for your game world and campaign - and keep the sacrifices and abilities balanced.
And then risk - Deck of Many Thing type gambles great risk and reward.
Those kinds of things are what will make your character unique - if its from a book - it HAS to be vanilla (the mot popular flavor by the way), because the abilties are written to fit a generic game world (nothing wrong with that - its actually much harder to do that come up with something campaign specific).
I guess I´m basically just picking my fellow-gamer´s brains here.
All I know at this point is the goal.
If you can find it, I think there was a Van Richten's guide that covered Liches fairly extensively. I'll check it out when I get home.
2E had some pretty extensive "you need this stuff to make the elixir that will turn you into a lich." The only reason I remember is because my defiler had to hunt down a demihuman for its blood.
Of course, the DM (my brother) ruled it must be gnome blood. A little hard to come by on Athas. :D
Point is, make it unique and memorable. If you require the wannabe-lich needs to get the Petrified Heart of Azrak-Kul-Tesh and grind it into a powder, so that it can be made into a paste, with which arcane sigils are smeared on the body, do it. It makes it all the more interesting for the character.
Not to mention the immortality! "What? Why do you mention that? I'm undead, of course I'm immortal." Any fool with a big enough sword can destroy an undead creature. "But, like a vampire, I am not immediately destroyed." A vampire has to have a coffin, which is fairly conspicuous and design possiblities can be limited. Also, it has to be within a few miles of you.
No, what you cannot underestimate with the lich is the true immortality provided to you by that little soul-box! You can have your body destroyed as often as those fool adventurers want, but you are invincible in the long run so long as they don't have that precious item. Put it in a forcecage in an Abyssal ocean of acid if you want! Let's see them track it down and get it then. Especially when you place all forms of magical traps around there, specifically ones that summon nasty nasty demons and such. And you can easily do that as a lich since they are all spellcasters!
Sorry for rambling on, but the sheer power a lich gains from being clever when hiding his phylactery is enough for an "evilgasm", in the words of the great lich Xykon from OotS.
I'd deffinately go with the lich. How could that possibly be bland? The desire for an Underdark dominion sounds a little boring to me, but that's just becasue of the location. How fun is it to rule over a big cave? No, you need to go carve out a little kingdom for yourself on the surface and start making undead and magical abominations to plague the countryside!
I can't think of anything specifically off the top of my head that pertains to this situation, but I think Libris Mortis would be worth a look if you don't already have it.
I think an Underdark domain would work out quite well - if a lich could perchance study the faerzess (to use a Forgotten Realms term) and learn how to enhance and amplify his power.
Dread Necromancer in Heroes of Horror. Automatic Lichdom at L20.
Pros
* Automatic lichdom. No XP or gold.
* Lichlike abilities as you go up in levels, many ultimately replaced by lich abilities.
* You get a single martial weapon, and light armor proficiency with no arcane spell failure for light armor.
* This class is just flippin cool.
Cons
* No prestige classes pre-epic, or you don't get lichdom before epic.
* Very limited spell list, though Advanced Learning offsets this a /little/. Mostly necromancy spells.
* Poor attack bonus and one good save (Will).
Another note about this class: You qualify for the dracolexi PrC in Races of the Dragon, which gives you access to powerwords, expanding your spell list even more.
Dread Necromancer seems ok, but for me it is out of the question.
Even if i were able to take it as prestige, it would be kinda hard to cast spells with my Cha 5...
Nice new feats´n´spells though, thanks 4 the info.
Those kinds of things are what will make your character unique - if its from a book - it HAS to be vanilla (the mot popular flavor by the way), because the abilties are written to fit a generic game world (nothing wrong with that - its actually much harder to do that come up with something campaign specific).
Going outside D20 sources, Ars Magica supplement Wizard's Grimoire had a ritual (or series of rituals) to turn a character into a lich...including things like making the sacrificial athame dagger with which you kill yourself in the end (and if you are lucky, become a lich) which of course requires lots of hard-to-get and/or yucky ingredients, destroying your past life (destroying all the magic items you have manufactured and dispelling all the long duration spells you have cast...) and other such things. Definitely not easy and for many min/maxers probably not even worth it but a fun storytelling scheme.
Probably not what you're looking for but Hyperconscious has a psionic lich template you could use. It's been a while since I last looked at tit but I believe the power level is about the same as the traditional lich. Obviously how to become one would be (or at least should be) very different.
Just a thought.
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I think an Underdark domain would work out quite well - if a lich could perchance study the faerzess (to use a Forgotten Realms term) and learn how to enhance and amplify his power.
I did this in a campaign I ran last year. A drow lich had found an area of faerzess and spent about 100 years learning to maximize the power of it and work it into his spells. The party's wizard was very, VERY confused by all the craziness. It was a very tough fight, too. The grand finale was a scroll of Mordenkainen's Disjunction from the wizard followed by a maximized sunburst from the cleric. The ranger was practically dead and the fighter spent most of the fight paralyzed. Good times.
Dread Necromancer seems ok, but for me it is out of the question.
Even if i were able to take it as prestige, it would be kinda hard to cast spells with my Cha 5...Nice new feats´n´spells though, thanks 4 the info.
You might want to reconsider Lich, then, and maybe go for some other form of undead. All of your Lich abilities are going to have crap saving throws, since they're all Charisma based. Granted, the primary benefit of the lich is the phylactery, but Charisma is, IMO, important so you can make full use of their abilities.
Thus, I´ve taken skills and feats which are required to make the transition to Lichdom described in Encyclopaedia Arcane Necromancy possible. But, now it all seems a bit lame. Or some would perhaps say vanilla.So, I´m thinking is there some other way to achieve Lichdom? Some prestige class perhaps?
In Ultimate Prestige Classes 1 there is The Crypt Lord. Seems to be a bit more fun to play.
just a little heads-up. Ultimate prestige classes is a bit (actually make that a lot) overpowered. in other words, I'm not surprised that the crypt lord *wins* in your comparison. I'd be surprised if it loses in any comparison to a wotc prestige class.
As a DM, I don't allow prestige classes from that book unless I'm able to play-test and or tweak them thoroughly. Then again I don't really trust any of the non-wotc prestige classes. I'm not saying 3rd party sources don't make well-balanced products, it's just that I don't want to assume they're balanced.