Lich

Spellcasting

Liches are very powerful spellcasters and continue to progress as if doing so in their highest level spellcaster class upon taking this prestige class. If you have equal levels in two full spellcasting classes, you must choose which to progress as and cannot change this decision at any point.

Phylactery

Also at 1st level, you have found a way to bind your soul to a phylactery. Traditionally an amulet in the shape of a small box, the phylactery can be made in the form of any item possessing an interior space into which arcane sigils of naming, binding, immortality, and dark magic are scribed using fine inks and precious metals.

Creating the phylactery is a process which first requires the tiny receptacle, comprised of materials worth at least 50,000 gold. You must then perform an 8-hour ritual which includes sacrificing a sentient creature of challenge rating 6 or higher.

With its phylactery prepared, the future lich drinks a potion of transformation—a vile concoction of poisons mixed with the blood of the creature whose soul is sacrificed to the phylactery. You then fall dead, expending all of your hit dice, rising as a lich at 1 hit point as your soul is drawn into the vessel where it forever remains.

A lich must periodically feed souls to its phylactery to sustain the magic preserving its body and consciousness. Once per day, no more than 10 minutes after you reduce a creature to 0 hit points, you may use an action to trap its body and soul inside the phylactery.

The phylactery must be on the same plane as the lich for this to work, and may only hold one creature at a time. While a 9th-level Dispel Magic spell cast upon the phylactery releases any creature imprisoned within it, a creature imprisoned for 24 hours is consumed and destroyed utterly, whereupon nothing short of divine intervention can restore it to life.

A lich who fails or forgets to maintain its body with sacrificed souls begins to physically fall apart, and might eventually become a demilich, at which point it is up to the DM to determine what happens to the character. For each adventure that passes, you are required to sacrifice at least 1 creature of challenge rating 2 or higher. The DM may determine more sacrifices are required given the length of the adventure, however, if the one sacrifice is not made, you suffer a level of exhaustion which cannot be lost except by feeding the phylactery. You gain at least 1 additional level of exhaustion for each adventure that passes without sacrifice, or more as determined by the DM, or for every two months which pass outside an adventure.

If you die while your phylactery has had at least one recent sacrifice and you are not suffering from the aforementioned exhaustion, you return to life within 1d10 days, appearing within 5 feet of the vessel at full health but with none of your previous equipment.

Cursed Abode

A lich often resides in the place it favored in life, such as a lonely tower, a haunted ruin, or an academy of black magic. Alternatively, some liches construct secret tombs filled with powerful guardians and traps.

Everything about a lich's lair reflects its keen mind and wicked cunning, including the magic and mundane traps which often secure it. Undead, constructs, and bound fiends may lurk in shadowy recesses, emerging only to destroy those who dare to disturb the lich's work.

At 2nd level, you are able to create a lair in which you keep your arcane secrets and possibly hide your phylactery. Once per month, you may perform an 8-hour ritual in which you prepare an area using special paints and powders worth at least 3,000 gold, and sacrifice a living creature of challenge rating 3 or higher.

You may only have one designated lair at a time, and performing the ritual in a new location terminates the effects in the previous lair. No matter what form your lair takes, the magic does not exceed 1 miles in radius. While within your lair you confer the following benefits:

• You are always under the effects of the detect magic spell and automatically detect the use of magic within your lair, its location instantly becoming known to you.

• Any spell you cast is treated as one level higher, to a maximum of 9th level. When you take a short rest within the confines of the lair, roll 1d6 and regain a spell slot of that level or lower.

• You have have advantage on all Intelligence checks and gain a +5 to said checks. You also gain advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

• When you expend hit dice to regain health, you may add an additional hit die to the result.

Death's Grasp

At 3rd level, you gain a special melee ability which allows you to drain the life from your enemies and freeze them in their tracks.

As an action, you reach out and share the cold, uncaring touch of death with your enemies, making a melee attack against one creature within range. If you hit, the target takes 2d10 necrotic damage, 2d10 cold damage, and must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or be paralyzed until the end of their next turn.

Armor of Undeath

At 4th level, the forces which commonly drain life from others now serve to further strengthen your undying will. You gain immunity to bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage from non-magical sources, as well as resistance to cold damage, and your necrotic resistance is now immunity. In addition, when you fail a saving throw, you may reroll the saving throw and use either result. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier per long rest.

Forbidden Arcana

Starting at 5th level, your knowledge and study of the dark arts has granted you access to unnatural abilities not meant for mortal minds to understand.

Horrid Stare

Your eyes strike fear into the hearts of those you face. As an action, you fix your gaze on one creature you can see within 30 feet of you. The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw against this magic or become frightened for 1 minute. This ignores immunity to the frightened condition, though the frightened target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a target's saving throw is successful, the target is immune to the lich's gaze for the next 24 hours. Creatures within 5 feet make the saving throw with disadvantage.

Wilt and Bloom

You are able to disrupt the life force of those in your presence. As an action, each non-undead creature within 15 feet of you must make a Constitution saving throw against this magic, taking 3d6 necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. You gain temporary hit points equal to half the total damage taken, and creatures who take damage from this Forbidden Arcana cannot regain hit points until the start of their next turn.

Wretched Tether

You can bridge the gap between life and death. As an action, you target one creature you can see within 30 feet of you and create a crackling cord of negative energy, tethering you to the them. The target must make a Constitution saving throw whenever you take damage. On a failed save, you take half the damage, rounded down, and the target takes the remaining amount in the form of necrotic damage, granting you hit points equal to half to damage taken. This tether lasts for a number of rounds equal to your Constitution modifier, or until the target is more than 60 feet away. When you deal damage to the creature you are tethered to, the target has disadvantage on subsequent saves to take damage using this feature.