The life of a lich

[GhoulishVisage]

I have always been fascinated by liches in fantasy, and they remain one of my favorite antagonists and creatures.

However, I've always wanted to be able to actually play as one, and no game that I have played to this day has been adequate.

The Pale Master from NWN2 was disappointing and didn't feel like anything other than a fancy wizard. There was however a lich mod for Oblivion that I found fun.

 

I was thinking that that since Obsidian are listening to fan input I'd share one of the things I'd always hoped for in an RPG: To become a lich.

This could be a sub-class of the wizard that you have to undertake a certain quest to unlock, performing forbidden soul magics and signing dread pacts or traveling to a dark cave of ill repute to fetch poisonous ingredients or something similar.

 

I know Avellone like writing this sort of stuff, so I just thought I'd throw this out there in the hope that it catches someone's attention.

What do you guys think?

Edited October 4, 2012 by GhoulishVisage

[metiman]

I think Might and Magic 6-8 had something like that. You could pick the dark path and eventually actually become a lich. I don't have a problem with that idea. Although it might be hard to implement in a game without alignment.

[DocDoomII]

I have always been fascinated by liches in fantasy, and they remain one of my favorite antagonists and creatures.

However, I've always wanted to be able to actually play as one, and no game that I have played to this day has been adequate, the Pale Master from NWN2 was disappointing, but there was a mod for Oblivion which I found fun for a bit.

I was thinking that that since Obsidian are listening to fan input I'd share one of the things I'd always hoped for in an RPG: To become a lich.

This could be a sub-class of the wizard that you have to undertake a certain quest to unlock, performing forbidden soul magics and signing dread pacts or traveling to a dark cave of ill repute to fetch poisonous ingredients or something similar.

 

I know Avellone like writing this sort of stuff, so I just thought I'd throw this out there in the hope that it catches someone's attention.

What do you guys think?

That could be interesting, but once you are a Lich, then what?

I doubt that any level-headed villager or merchant will ever speak to you...

[NerdBoner]

and where would you hide your phylactery, at your player house behind that painting of dogs playing poker?

[Moogle]

I have always been fascinated by liches in fantasy, and they remain one of my favorite antagonists and creatures.

However, I've always wanted to be able to actually play as one, and no game that I have played to this day has been adequate, the Pale Master from NWN2 was disappointing, but there was a mod for Oblivion which I found fun for a bit.

I was thinking that that since Obsidian are listening to fan input I'd share one of the things I'd always hoped for in an RPG: To become a lich.

This could be a sub-class of the wizard that you have to undertake a certain quest to unlock, performing forbidden soul magics and signing dread pacts or traveling to a dark cave of ill repute to fetch poisonous ingredients or something similar.

 

I know Avellone like writing this sort of stuff, so I just thought I'd throw this out there in the hope that it catches someone's attention.

What do you guys think?

That could be interesting, but once you are a Lich, then what?

I doubt that any level-headed villager or merchant will ever speak to you...

If he really needed, at this stage, to interact with mere mortals, a simple illusion should suffice.

Edited October 4, 2012 by Moogle

[GhoulishVisage]

That could be interesting, but once you are a Lich, then what?

I doubt that any level-headed villager or merchant will ever speak to you...

 

An illusion spell should cover all areas.

 

and where would you hide your phylactery, at your player house behind that painting of dogs playing poker?

 

This is Project Eternity, where old tropes are made new. The traditional phylactery doesn't have to be used at all, a suitably imaginative alternative would suffice or it could just be gotten rid of entirely.

Edited October 4, 2012 by GhoulishVisage

[Weyln]

If there should be a Lich class then it should be a proper one. Please don't let it be just a glorified necromancer who happens to moonlight as a skeleton.

 

 

What makes a Lich a Lich is the phylactery, of course. And a wide, wide, WIDE array of spells as normally Liches are, in fact, very high level wizards who have sought a way to defeat mortality in order to learn even more of the arcane arts. So much so that their spellbook bleeds over into Mage and Sorceror territory. Yes, controlling the dead is a part of it, but so are dark pacts and contracts and scroll-writing and alchemy.

 

A lich is a man who has cast off his humanity, defeated mortality, and let everything around him crumble to dust in the pursuit of knowledge. The class, if implemented, should reflect this specific set of ideals as much as possible.

[Badmojo]

Yea, not just a litch but some sort of undead (and monsters) like vampire, soul eaters, ghouls, zombie..etc I have said in other threads that I hope we have necromancy and can be necromancers, and it is more than just raising skeletons and dumb zombies. I want to summon the spirits of the slain to talk too, I want to reanimate the dead not just as a mindless corpse, but as a undead thrall with its soul bound in its corpse(able to use all abilities/skills it knew in life), forced to serve me as an undead thrall until I release its soul. Not just transforming into a litch, but other undead like vampires, ghouls, zombies...etc. Immortality and power should be a big draw to the dark paths.

[GhoulishVisage]

A lich is a man who has cast off his humanity, defeated mortality, and let everything around him crumble to dust in the pursuit of knowledge. The class, if implemented, should reflect this specific set of ideals as much as possible.

 

I like that. A lich doesn't necessarily have to be evil. Just driven.

[RosesandAshes]

and where would you hide your phylactery, at your player house behind that painting of dogs playing poker?

 

I know! I know! Wait until the protagonist's asleep, then magically encase the phylactery in their flesh, that way, suicide would be the only option if they want to defeat you!

 

Unless you can only be a certain distance away from it. In that case, you're screwed.

[Gorth]

They could make it an all or nothing quest. If you succeed, you become a lich. If you fail, you become a wailing banshee, crying out your misery until the end of time (or some adventuring party ends your existence). Of course, you wont know until far down the path, so you can't just reload a recent save

[IndiraLightfoot]

I love the lich concept as well! Imagine some possible path in some story of PE, where your greed, necromantic interests or evil tendencies may turn you into a lich. But alas, your phylactery is stolen and taken for ransom! Then if you were intent on doing reasonably good and lawful deeds before, you are forced by the extortionists to do horrible deeds that of course affect the overall campaign, so you have no choice but to take that phylactery back, and if it's not intact at the end of that mission, you're bones will be left to bleach somewhere. And if you succeed, then follows an optional mission of somehow shaking you lichdom like some foul disease. :D

[septembervirgin]

I think such a thing should wait for an expansion. Perhaps an expansion that features a haunted land.

[nikolokolus]

A lich is a man who has cast off his humanity, defeated mortality, and let everything around him crumble to dust in the pursuit of knowledge. The class, if implemented, should reflect this specific set of ideals as much as possible.

 

I like that. A lich doesn't necessarily have to be evil. Just driven.

 

Au contraire!! they must be evil!!

[Monte Carlo]

I've been a lich for the past five hundred years. It's OK, I like watching the passage of time and being hilariously OP, but TBH it's overrated. Bits of me fall off nowadays, and the villagers tend to cringe when I go to the shop for some glue to put my fingers back on. And the relentless sucking out of souls / general nastiness has got more like work than a hobby. Prozac and booze simply doesn't work on my cadaverous exoskeleton so I have to take solace in souls / blood / suffering. It gets to you after a while.

 

Hey, give it a go if you want, I'm all for choice, just don't build your lair / crypt whatever anyplace near mine. The last thing I need right now is competition or another lich war *sighs*

[utgardloki]

no, not even in d&d. true, the original lich template requires an evil alignment, but there are dozens of alternatives for neutral or good characters. baenlorns for good or neutral aligned elves, and dread necromancers who can also be neutral gain a lich "light" template at level 20, there is also the archlich template.

[GhoulishVisage]

I think such a thing should wait for an expansion. Perhaps an expansion that features a haunted land.

 

A Mask of the Betrayer styled expansion that features an optional lich quest would be awesome.

 

Au contraire!! they must be evil!!

 

And Avellone loves writing evil paths.

[maggotheart]

I have always been fascinated by liches in fantasy, and they remain one of my favorite antagonists and creatures.

However, I've always wanted to be able to actually play as one, and no game that I have played to this day has been adequate.

The Pale Master from NWN2 was disappointing and didn't feel like anything other than a fancy wizard. There was however a lich mod for Oblivion that I found fun.

 

I was thinking that that since Obsidian are listening to fan input I'd share one of the things I'd always hoped for in an RPG: To become a lich.

This could be a sub-class of the wizard that you have to undertake a certain quest to unlock, performing forbidden soul magics and signing dread pacts or traveling to a dark cave of ill repute to fetch poisonous ingredients or something similar.

 

I know Avellone like writing this sort of stuff, so I just thought I'd throw this out there in the hope that it catches someone's attention.

What do you guys think?

 

I made a similar suggestion concerning different states of being with a poll if you want to check out what people thought:

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60709-states-of-being/

 

Seems like a mixed reaction though most people seemed to think it was a good idea in principle. In particular I think the idea of becoming undead has a lot of potential... Perhaps what class you are could determine the kind of undead being you can become: Fighters become master vampires, Wizards become liche lords, Priests become tortured wraiths and so forth.