LichLegacy Content
Source Book of the Dead pg. 50The path to
lichdom is long and winding, with many pitfalls that overcome all but the most accomplished and precise spellcasters. Despite the trials you underwent and decades spent sequestered away with magical tomes, you know with every fiber of your being that it's all been worth it. You devised a unique and incredibly evil ritual to tear your soul from your body, and you painstakingly crafted a receptacle to house your freed soul. Immortality now lies within your grasp.
Becoming a lich requires much more than just magical knowledge. It demands fierce intelligence, bold ingenuity, incredible determination, unending patience, and a strict adherence to perfection, along with incredible skill as an artisan, for each lich must create their own
soul cage. A mispronounced word or flaw in the construction of your
soul cage would end not in immortality but ignominious death. You have all these skills in abundance and now, with your ascension, you've proven your superiority beyond a shadow of a doubt.
As a lich, you understand better than any the power and potential of magic. Many liches strive to increase their magical skills and foil the magic of any who dare oppose them. Others delve so deeply into necromantic arts and foul rituals that their flesh can burn the living, causing biological processes to falter and filling those who behold them with uncontrollable fear.
Regardless of what paths they pursue, nearly all liches are obsessed with their
soul cage, spending untold hours and a veritable fortune to protect it, surrounding it with magical and mundane hazards, and guarding it with powerful, loyal defenders. Some liches prefer to secure their
soul cage through obscurity rather than force, enshrouding it in magical abjurations or illusions to hide it from prying eyes. The most gifted crafters among liches tinker and improve their
soul cage over time, rendering it nigh indestructible. This is a dangerous proposition, undertaken by only the most confident and arrogant magical engineers, as physically altering one's
soul cage could have unintended consequences on its function. Many
wizard liches instead learn to tap into the
soul cage's magical energy from afar to fuel their own spellcasting.
Additional Feats
Source Player Core pg. 215 2.0Some archetypes include a list of “Additional Feats” that appear in other sources. The list includes each feat’s level, which might be different than normal when gained from the archetype. You can take the feat as an archetype feat of that level, meaning it counts toward the number of feats required by the archetype’s dedication feat. When selected this way, a feat that normally has a class’s trait (such as the fighter trait) doesn’t have that class trait.
Click here for the full rules on Additional Feats.
Legacy Content
Rare Archetype Dedication Source Book of the Dead pg. 50Archetype LichPrerequisites expert in
Crafting; living creature, ability to cast 6th-level or higher spells from spell slots, completed ritual to become a lich and crafted a
soul cage
After years of study and careful planning, you finally completed a
soul cage to house your soul and successfully performed a ritual to transform yourself into a lich. Now, neither death nor time can prevent you from pursuing your studies and achieving your grand ambitions. You gain the undead trait and the
basic undead benefits. Your undead craving is for knowledge.
You gain a unique
soul cage—a magic item that houses your soul. Whenever you would die, your soul flees to the
soul cage to allow you to be rebuilt. As long as your soul cage exists, you can't truly be destroyed.
Special You can't select another dedication feat until you have gained two other feats from the lich archetype.
Legacy Content
Archetype Source Book of the Dead pg. 50Archetype LichPrerequisites Drain Bonded Item, spellbook;
Lich Dedication
You make your
soul cage into your bonded item, allowing you to harness its abundant magical energy. Once per day, when you use Drain Bonded Item, you can choose any spell in your spellbook that you can cast, even if you haven't prepared or cast it that day. Your
soul cage doesn't need to be on your person for you to use Drain Bonded Item. If your
soul cage is broken or destroyed, you can't use Drain Soul Cage. Even if you can Drain Bonded Item more than once per day, for instance if you are a universalist wizard, you can still only choose a spell you haven't prepared and cast once per day.
Legacy Content
Archetype Source Book of the Dead pg. 50Archetype LichPrerequisites Lich Dedication
You wreathe your
soul cage in an ever-growing collection of obfuscating illusions and protective abjurations to hide it from your enemies. You disguise the
soul cage as any non-magical object of the same Bulk, and it gains the effects of the
magic aura and
nondetection spells. The effects have unlimited durations, are heightened to half your level rounded up, and use your spell DC against any attempt to
counteract them. The magic aura makes your
soul cage appear non-magical. You can ignore the effects of any of these spells when dealing with your own
soul cage. You are mentally alerted whenever your
soul cage is damaged.
Legacy Content
Archetype Source Book of the Dead pg. 51Archetype LichPrerequisites Lich Dedication
Negative energy intensifies your undead form and makes your very touch the antithesis of life. You gain the
advanced undead benefits. The damage die for your fist increases to 1d6 instead of 1d4, it deals negative damage instead of bludgeoning damage, and it loses the
nonlethal trait. Your fist becomes
magical.
When you critically hit a living creature with your fist Strike, the creature is
slowed 1 until the end of your next turn unless it succeeds at a Fortitude save against your spell DC. This is a
critical specialization effect.
Legacy Content
Detection Divination Magus Oracle Sorcerer Wizard Source Secrets of Magic pg. 48 1.1,
Core Rulebook pg. 211 4.0,
Advanced Player's Guide pg. 80 2.0Archetype Lich* This version of the Magic Sense feat is intended for use with an Archetype and has a different level for access than the
original feat.
You have a literal sixth sense for ambient magic in your vicinity. You can sense the presence of magic auras as though you were always using a 1st-level
detect magic spell. This detects magic in your field of vision only. When you Seek, you gain the benefits of a 3rd-level
detect magic spell on things you see (in addition to the normal benefits of Seeking). You can turn this sense off and on with a free action at the start or the end of your turn.
Special This feat has the trait corresponding to the tradition of spells you cast (
arcane,
divine,
occult, or
primal).
Legacy Content
Archetype Source Book of the Dead pg. 51Archetype LichPrerequisites Lich Dedication; legendary in
Crafting
Your constant efforts to augment and perfect your
soul cage have bolstered its efficiency. Your
soul cage has Hardness equal to your level and HP equal to four times your level. The time it takes your
soul cage to rebuild your body is reduced to 1d6 days rather than 1d10 days.
At 20th level, the time it takes your
soul cage to rebuild your body is reduced to 2d12+12 hours.
Legacy Content
Uncommon Archetype Source Book of the Dead pg. 51Archetype LichPrerequisites Lich Dedication; legendary in
Crafting
Inspired by the degenerate
demiliches your kind sometimes devolves into, you've embedded a gem into your brow, fusing it to your necrotic flesh. This gem has been specially calibrated to hold one of the following spells:
repulsion,
scrying, or
true seeing. You must decide which spell your gem contains when you take this feat; changing the spell requires retraining the feat. Once per day, you can drain the gem's magical energy to Cast the Spell without spending a spell slot.
At 18th level, you can heighten whichever spell you chose to 7th level. At 20th level, you can heighten whichever spell you chose to 8th level; regardless of which spell you chose, you can instead drain the gem's magical energy to cast an 8th-level
spell turning without spending a spell slot.
Legacy Content
Archetype Aura Emotion Fear Mental Source Book of the Dead pg. 51Archetype LichPrerequisites master in
Intimidation
You're surrounded by a palpable sense of menace and power that's terrifying to behold. The aura is a 15-foot emanation. An enemy that enters or ends its turn in the aura must attempt a Will save against the higher of your spell DC or class DC.
Success The creature is unaffected and temporarily immune to your Frightful Aura for 1 minute.
Failure The creature is
frightened 1.
Critical Failure The creature is frightened 2.