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PDFInstead of Lichdom (Lichery?) being the end result of a lot of effort, why not make it the inevitable result of a lifetime of meddling with chaos? At some randomly determined age, a mage starts to slowly dry up and desiccate. Remember that in ancient times, 40 was considered quite old to many, so perhaps 30+2d20 would be an appropriate age for the transition. Over the course of the year, even if no adventuring or spellcasting happens, the mage gains a level and no longer resembles a living human.
The lich-in-transition would suddenly take an interest in cosmetic illusionist spells, anti-stench spells and start looking for a safe base of operations and perhaps servants. At any rate, he or she is suddenly unable to knowingly commit suicide or allow someone to kill them without a fight.
When I do get a campaign going next summer, I’ll use a lot of the ideas from my series on the Magic User. One of the more important ideas in it is that Magic Users are not trusted or wanted at all in society. They are the ultimate taboo to normal men. Perhaps part of that is that they have the reputation for becoming immortal ghosts or demons. Among the magic using community, there may be a profession of slayers, whose job it is to kill those who begin to turn.
Here’s your plot hook: There’s a mage caravan headed out toward Vulture Pass, hoping to make it south for the winter. They are lead by Marius, a tenth level mage who must be at least 50 years old. There was a rumor that Marius had a bad smell about him at the last Gathering of the Argnac clans. One of his students and a mercenary were sent by the Great Bulwark to investigate last spring, but there has been no word sent back.
The party is somehow asked to look into it. Perhaps the party mage is a former apprentice of his, or a niece. Some possible developments (Roll 1d6) :
1- Marius is a lich and has killed then animated is caravan.
2- The investigators were killed in route by bandits, Marius does indeed smell but is not a lich.
3- Marius is actually a mage/vampire. He has converted the two investigators.
4- Marius is in the process of turning, has unwillingly murdered his caravan and others to protect himself and will desperately fight the party he hopes will kill him where others have failed.
5- Marius is not a lich, because he has found the fountain of youth.
6- I can’t think of 6 tonight. Roll again.
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An interesting campaign twist can be to have the act (or the desire for) becoming a Lich to be the product of over indulgence in using Wish spells: manipulating reality for one’s own vision separates the MU from nature.
I would recommend reading “The Myth of the Magus” by E.M. Butler. He examines historically tales of Magi through the centuries. This of itself is worth the price of entry. Then there is a Campbell type hero myth analysis applied, and the magus is compared with the hero. He concludes that there is a major chance that a wizard will become an abomination of some sort, and a minute change they actually have a heroic death. I always thought about running wizards this way in campaigns I run. The struggle is to not become a lich, and the odds are stacked heavily against them.
I will definitely look that up, Shawn. There’s a lot of material I want to review and as soon as I finish up this semester in a few weeks, I should have a little pleasure reading time. I hope.
Scottz: Wishes should definitely be worse than regular spells. In fact, one could use a percentile system for lich conversion, starting with 01% at first level, adding 1% for each level earned and 2 years aged and an extra fiver percent per wish spell cast.
I should also mention that in my mind, this would be a system for NPC’s more than PC’s. I wouldn’t want to railroad a player into this unless they agreed it would make a good way to “retire” a high-level character.
I also realize that in the traditional system, becoming a lich required a lot of magic and money and to some thinking, it is an achievement (immortality). I’d just rather make it a curse.
For those who are new to my blog, welcome. This is a home to halfbaked ideas I have for freshening up old-school type campaigns. I try to do this while staying as close as I can to the old basic/expert ruleset, although I rarely use rules and even statblocks are relatively rare.
This is half-baked? Damn, looks done to perfection to me.
Making this relative to the power of the magic-user (say 1 year less to lichdom for the highest spell level known) so that the more powerful magic-users are more prone to changing seems good. This reminds me of the slow corruption you’d see in Ravenloft or the Red Steel settings.
I like this idea a lot! You could just keep a tally of spell-levels cast and say every 10 spell-levels creates a 1% cumulative chance of turning undead. Or make it just a measure of how close to lichdom you are — say that 10% undead = one hand withers, 20% and the grave stench is noticeable, 50% and you look pallid and emaciated; 90% and much of you flesh sloughs off (think Thulsa Doom with his skull-face in the Kull story, or Blackwolf in the film Wizards).
Not sure if 1% / 10 spell levels is too much or too little though.