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Here is a homebrewed Half-lich character concept. Do you think it's balanced? Overpowered? Any problems you see?
Slow Speed (–1 RP)
Flexible Stats (2 RP)
Standard (0 RP)
Half-Undead (5RP)
Rejuvenation, Lesser (1RP)
Celestial Resistance (3RP)
Skeletal Damage Reduction (2 RP)
Natural Armor (2 RP)
Improved Natural Armor (1RP)
Mostly Dead (2RP)
Half-liches contain within them the unrestrained power of the heavens as well as the open-mawed destruction of the undead force that crafted and twisted them from their heavenly purpose. They possess terrible power and exceptional inner strength to face challenges ahead of them. Their stories usually are passed down as tales of greatness or of mighty fear as their empires raised up last for centuries rather than a generation. The strength within them only grows as they age and amass capability and tenacity.
Cultures vary. In some cases, half-lich beings can be seen as those who carry great importance to a lich. Whole nations can be ruled by them with mighty governance and with great charisma, intellect, or wisdom. They can be the power under a lich’s throne, so to speak, or can be numerous in number by those societies who honor and place great importance on the undead. In most cases, however, they are solitary and alone. Between the rarity of the ones who created them (in most cases a lich) and the chances that one of these half-lich creations manages to survive their younger years, it is a wonder that any survive outside of the protection of their creator.
Evil beings commonly seeking to destroy celestials often find their way around to picking up that familiar scent in the blood of a half-lich and seek to destroy them. Those under instruction from less tolerant gods and goddesses may see the half-lich as an abomination and send various clerics or paladins to rid the world of a half-lich. In some cases, it seems like everyone is against them. For this reason, those who do end up rising to power are often alone in the world among their kind.
Typically half-liches are manipulated by a being of pure evil and a master of death. There are numerous reasons why a half-lich is created. Some are made out of a desire for familiar unions before the individual became a lich and they wish to retain some semblance of their life before. Some are the subject of experimentation and put to death shortly after. These individuals are painfully forced to endure the transition through soul fusing and bodily manipulation into one being. Then they are forced to endure some of the processes that bring a person into the powers of lichdom. These beings are ones who have been put through a vast degree of torture. They are brought in and out from the realm of death and life multiple times and so each transition is expected to have some negative side effects. The more practiced a lich is to make one of these, the less likely this is to happen, but for those who are tampering with magics beyond them, this can cause disaster in their creations.
Physical: The physical characteristics of a half-lich are typically shared with the original race that the celestial was infused with. The soul transference may have some strange side-effects dependent on the base race and the type of celestial being sacrificed for this creation. Where a human may have had green eyes before, perhaps after the transition, their eyes share a similar multicolored hue as an azata’s eyes. An elf may have at once had silver hair, but now it has a slight golden sheen to it after mixing with an angel. Therefore, half-liches are as varied as their parent races, but most features will be almost indistinguishable between a normal base race and the half-lich. Due to the undead quality within them, a half-lich usually bears a lighter skin tone, almost anemic-looking in a way, yet not quite as devoid of life as a pure undead or a dhampir. Being long-lived, these creatures often amass great wealth over the generations and usually keep to themselves, meaning they are likely capable of great understandings of fashion and poise in later years.
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Ability Score Modifiers: Half-lich characters gain a +2 bonus to two ability scores of their choice at creation to represent their powerful celestial and undead nature.
Type: Half-liches are humanoid creatures with both the outsider and the undead subtypes.
Size: Half-liches are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Slow Speed: Half-liches do not have an optimal interior anatomy, and as a result have a base speed of 20 feet. Their magical origin allows their speed to never be modified by armor or encumbrance.
Languages: Half-liches begin play speaking Common and Necril. Half-liches with high Intelligence scores can choose from any of the following: Abyssal, Celestial, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Infernal, Undercommon. See the Linguistics skill page for more information about these languages.
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Defense Racial Traits
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Celestial Resistance: Caused by the sacrifice of an aasimar to be infused in their blood, they possess the same celestial resistances given to them by that sacrifice. Half-liches gain acid resistance 5, cold resistance 5, and electricity resistance 5.
Undeath Resistance: Half-Liches gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against disease and mind-affecting effects.
Natural Armor: Half-liches gain a form of natural resistance to feeling pain and enduring harmful blows. Half-liches gain a +2 natural armor bonus to their Armor Class.
Resist Level Drain: Half-liches take no penalties from energy-draining effects, though they can still be killed if they accrue more negative levels than they have Hit Dice. After 24 hours, any negative levels they’ve gained are removed without any additional saving throws.
Skeletal Damage Reduction: Given that their very bones are infused and hardened with magic, this makes them harder to kill. Half-liches gain DR 5/bludgeoning.
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Senses Racial Traits
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Darkvision: Half-liches gain darkvision out to 60 feet.
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Weakness Racial Traits
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Negative Energy Affinity: Half-liches are harmed by positive energy and healed by negative energy. A half-undead creature with the fast healing special quality still benefits from that quality.
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Other Racial Traits
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Mostly Dead: Half-liches do not breathe, eat, or sleep, unless they want to gain some beneficial effect from one of these activities. This means that half-liches can drink potions to benefit from their effects and can sleep in order to regain spells, but neither of these activities is required to survive or stay in good health. Because of their undead quality coupled with a living quality, they do not age at a normal rate for their race. They tend to live far beyond their initial age ranges before perishing. When they reach their old age, they die as normal unless they have become a full lich. Half-liches are raised as normal except that the ritual costs to raise them cost an additional 200gp per level.
Rejuvenation, Lesser: A half-lich is a mostly completed lich. The one who created them may have elected to have made a phylactery for them or not (subject to GM approval). This can be done without their knowledge as their creator with an intimate understanding of the subject’s soul. If the subject ever completes the process of becoming a lich, the material requirements for creating a phylactery are increased by ⅓ of the cost. The half-lich is also fully capable of retaining their alignment regardless of the evil requirement to become a lich but they will be fully undead and will decay as normal. They also lose their celestial resistance. To become a full lich, they must still meet the level requirements and all other requirements.
When a half-lich is destroyed, its phylactery (which is generally hidden by the half-lich in a safe place far from where it chooses to dwell) immediately begins to rebuild the undead spellcaster’s body nearby. This process takes 1d10 days—if the body is destroyed before that time passes, the phylactery merely starts the process anew. After this time passes, the half-lich awakens fully healed (albeit without any gear it left behind on its old body), usually with a burning need for revenge against those who previously destroyed it.
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. To make her own phylactery, she must use the Craft Wondrous Item feat. She must then be able to cast spells at a CL of 11th or higher. On top of that, she must provide 160,000gp (Normally 120,000gp) in materials to create this device.
XP 19,200
Human lich necromancer 11
NE Medium undead (augmented humanoid)
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft., life sight*; Perception +24; Aura fear (60-ft. radius, DC 18)
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DEFENSE
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AC 23, touch 14, flat-footed 21 (+4 armor, +2 deflection, +2 Dex, +5 natural)
hp 111 (11d6+55 plus 15 false life)
Fort +6, Ref +7, Will +11
Defensive Abilities channel resistance +4; DR 15/bludgeoning and magic; Immune cold, electricity, undead traits
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OFFENSE
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee touch +5 (1d8+5 plus paralyzing touch)
Special Attacks grave touch* (9/day), paralyzing touch (DC 18), power over undead* (9/day, DC 18)
Spells Prepared (CL 11th)
6th—circle of death (DC 22), globe of invulnerability, maximized fireball (DC 19)
5th—cloudkill (DC 21), cone of cold (DC 21), quickened magic missile, waves of fatigue
4th—dimension door, enervation, fire shield, wall of ice (2)
3rd—dispel magic (2), fireball (DC 19), suggestion (DC 19), vampiric touch (2)
2nd—darkness, extended mage armor (already cast), false life (already cast), scorching ray (2), see invisibility, spectral hand
1st—magic missile (3), ray of enfeeblement (2), shield (2)
0th—bleed (DC 16), detect magic, ray of frost, read magic
Prohibited Schools illusion, transmutation
*Necromancer power
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STATISTICS
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Str 10, Dex 14, Con —, Int 22, Wis 14, Cha 16
Base Atk +5; CMB +5; CMD 25
Feats Craft Wondrous Item, Defensive Combat Training, Extend Spell, Improved Lightning Reflexes, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Maximize Spell, Quicken Spell, Scribe Scroll, Toughness
Skills Craft (alchemy) +20, Intimidate +17, Knowledge (arcana) +20, Knowledge (planes) +20, Linguistics +20, Perception +24, Sense Motive +24, Spellcraft +20, Stealth +24; Racial Modifiers +8 Perception, +8 Sense Motive, +8 Stealth
Languages Abyssal, Aklo, Aquan, Celestial, Common, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Giant, Gnome, Goblin, Ignan, Infernal, Orc, Undercommon
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SPECIAL ABILITIES
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Fear Aura (Su)
Creatures of less than 5 HD in a 60-foot radius that look at a lich must succeed on a Will save or become frightened. Creatures with 5 HD or more must succeed at a Will save or be shaken for a number of rounds equal to the lich’s Hit Dice. A creature that successfully saves cannot be affected again by the same lich’s fear aura for 24 hours. This is a mind-affecting fear effect.
Paralyzing Touch (Su)
Any living creature a lich hits with its touch attack must succeed on a Fortitude save or be permanently paralyzed. Remove paralysis or any spell that can remove a curse can free the victim (with a DC equal to the lich’s save DC). The effect cannot be dispelled. Anyone paralyzed by a lich seems dead, though a DC 20 Perception check or a DC 15 Heal check reveals that the victim is still alive.
Rejuvenation (Su)
When a lich is destroyed, its phylactery (which is generally hidden by the lich in a safe place far from where it chooses to dwell) immediately begins to rebuild the undead spellcaster’s body nearby. This process takes 1d10 days—if the body is destroyed before that time passes, the phylactery merely starts the process anew. After this time passes, the lich wakens fully healed (albeit without any gear it left behind on its old body), usually with a burning need for revenge against those who previously destroyed it.
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.
Alright, well I think that was just a mislabeling on my part. So they would be humanoids with the half-lich subtype then. If this then is the case, would it be too powerful?
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DR5/bludgeoning? No.
Gathlain can get a scaling DR that starts at DR1/cold iron, and increases by 1 per 5HD. So DR2/cold iron @ 5HD, 3@10, 4@15, and DR5/cold iron at 20HD...
You want to start, at level 1, with DR5/bludgeoning? Things like this should throw up huge red flags when you are piecing together your ideas. There was just a pretty lengthy thread on why you cannot simply use the points in Race Builder at face value. Yeah, it's "only" 17RP, but some of items in there are flat out not "priced" correctly to begin with, and none of the "pricing" increases due to exceptional synergy... like when building custom weapons... if you want extended crit range AND extended crit multiplier, you pay the big boy price, which is more than the two simply added together.
A Half-Lich should just be a version of the Dhampir without the Vampire stuff... and with more Lich stuff... but it should be no less and no more powerful than a Dhampir...
Thanks for the insight!
I've removed the natural armor bonus completely.
I've reduced the DR5/Bludgeoning to DR1/Bludgeoning +1 every 5 levels.
I've added a spell-like ability to detect undead 3/day (similar to dhampir).
I am not so concerned about it being as powerful as the dhampir. I see it as being a bit stronger due to the source (liches in my mind > vampires). I do want to keep it on par with an aasimar in strength, as celestial is an influence in its creation as well.
As I'm looking at it, I don't see it any more powerful than an aasimar as its strengths over that race seem to be countered by its weaknesses. I would even say an Aasimar is more powerful due to its playability and usefulness of its abilities. It is very unlikely a GM is going to give a phylactery to a player, and even less likely the campaign you'll join is going to be within the level requirements of making one, so even though it counts as something a half-lich can do, the chances you'll ever use its rejuvenation ability are slim, whereas you will always use the aasimar's abilities.
I approve.