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View Full Version : [3.5] Statting Up A Badass Lich



Dralnu
2010-10-30, 11:17 PM
Last session in my evil campaign I introduced the party to a powerful, badass NPC. The setup was great and the party absolutely understand not to mess with this dude. Unfortunately.. I have no clue how to mechanically do the things I said he did! Can someone help me with a build?

For those interested in the context, here's a recap:
The evil party's mission was to break a powerful lich out of a prison dubbed "Elfcatraz," the highest security prison on the continent which holds some of the world's most dangerous criminals. They break in and find out that the prisoner's souls are trapped inside individual magic jars while their lifeless bodies are kept in the prison cells. They find the lich's magic jar (a gem) and begin to plot their next move.

The party is suddenly interrupted by clapping behind them. A gnome and his duplicate images flickers into visibility, smiling and congratulating the group for making it this far. It's the warden of the prison, a powerful wizard in his own right. He says that their bumbling triggered all sorts of silent alarms and with a snap of his fingers he could get elite guard storming down from the floor above, but he'd rather deal with them personally to teach them a lesson in humility.

The party attacks, but the wizard is powerful and had ample time to prepare. It's almost impossible to penetrate his mirror images, displacement, and other defensive buffs, especially in the narrow hallway that they're fighting in. The wizard toys with them, using spells like Backbiter and Confusion to make them attack themselves, cackling with glee as he nauseates them with Stinking Cloud.

Don, the Favored Soul in the party, realizes that they fight isn't going well and tries to dispel the magic jar. He's convinced that if he dispels the gem, the lich will be able to possess someone in the hallway and maybe swing the battle in their favor. He rolls epicly... and nothing happens. The fight continues.

Suddenly a couple rounds later, the prison walls tremble and the torches dim just for a moment. A round later, the party hears faint screams. Another round, and the walls shudder while the torches flicker, almost going out, while the screams get louder. Two rounds after that, the walls and ground shakes violently and the torches go out. Everyone hears bloodcurdling screams while four bloodied corpses of elite guards are hurled violently into the wall in the corner at the end of the hallways. The warden isn't so smug anymore. He decides that now would be a good time to retreat, and does so.

As the party ponders what's going on, there's an eerie silencing effect. Sounds are muffled and quieter than normal, and the air becomes chilled. The lich casually walks around the corner into view. He thanks the party for breaking him free and offers them a painless death as their reward. The favored soul gains his co-operation though -- by threatening to destroy the lich's phylactery, which he just pulled out of his bag.

Long story short, I want to make a lich that can hurl stuff around with his mind or simple gestures. Stuff like breaking down a metal door or chucking some hapless guards into a wall. I like the idea of a badass casually walking down a hallway while effortlessly tossing around guards with an invisible force.

All books allowed except for Dragon Magazine cause I don't have those. Level 12-16 would be ideal.

Zeofar
2010-10-30, 11:54 PM
Just straight off the top of my head, telekinesis can do the things you described I believe. To capture the "casually walk down the hall" effect, it could be silented and stilled.

If you really want to take it to the RAW mechanical level and/or have more options, there is (Some of these have focuses which the lich might not have in jail, but then again, you're the DM...):
An Invisible Explosive Spell: Can move people around and is invisible.
Half of the Bigsby's Spell Line can do something like this, so there.
Force Wave from Magic of Faerun: Deals minor damage, moves people around.
Battering Ram from Magic of Faerun: Deals minor damage, Bull Rushes and Busts open doors.
Invisible Defenestrating Sphere from Complete Arcane: A sphere that throws people around. Might not need to be invisible, since it is a sphere of air and all.
Cyclonic Blast from Dragon Magazine: Throws people around and does damage. Explosive spell can be applied, if I'm reading right, for extra blasto fun.
Horizikaul's Versatile Vibrations from Magic of Faerun: Can throw people about.

There are a bunch of options here, and there are probably more. Shouldn't be too hard to find something that fits your flavor and is useful too.

Dark_Nohn
2010-10-30, 11:57 PM
Telekinesis is a good start, but there are some restrictions that you wouldn't be able to get around with RAW (375 lbs, most metal doors are heavier.) Ring of the ram is powerful enough to cover that gap, as would invisible versions of bigby's X hand.

aetherialDawn
2010-10-31, 12:50 AM
I think that, as above, a lich with invisible, still, silent metamagic would make good sense, both from the point of view of 'useful to a lich' and also as far as what makes him enough of a security risk to be in a special prison.

As for the silencing aura and such... It seems like that might just be the ambient effects of an old and powerful undead creature. Maybe even integrate it as something the players can notice to spot other undead before they arrive, if they're sharp.

Runestar
2010-10-31, 01:22 AM
This is going to sound heretical, but consider advancing a beholder to 15HD (cr14), applying the dungeonbred template to make it medium sized, find some way to make it undead, and reskin it to look like a humanoid. :smalltongue:

Dralnu
2010-11-12, 05:18 PM
Just straight off the top of my head, telekinesis can do the things you described I believe. To capture the "casually walk down the hall" effect, it could be silented and stilled.

If you really want to take it to the RAW mechanical level and/or have more options, there is (Some of these have focuses which the lich might not have in jail, but then again, you're the DM...):
An Invisible Explosive Spell: Can move people around and is invisible.
Half of the Bigsby's Spell Line can do something like this, so there.
Force Wave from Magic of Faerun: Deals minor damage, moves people around.
Battering Ram from Magic of Faerun: Deals minor damage, Bull Rushes and Busts open doors.
Invisible Defenestrating Sphere from Complete Arcane: A sphere that throws people around. Might not need to be invisible, since it is a sphere of air and all.
Cyclonic Blast from Dragon Magazine: Throws people around and does damage. Explosive spell can be applied, if I'm reading right, for extra blasto fun.
Horizikaul's Versatile Vibrations from Magic of Faerun: Can throw people about.

There are a bunch of options here, and there are probably more. Shouldn't be too hard to find something that fits your flavor and is useful too.

Wowza, this is some good advice! So lots of silent + stilled force effects. Are all force spells invisible?

Also, does anyone with knowledge of psionics know if they have better forms of telekenesis? I feel like the lich's portrayal of casually throwing stuff around might be better suited as a psion of sorts, but honestly I have no knowledge of those mechanics or classes. It "sounds" psionic though.

Keld Denar
2010-11-12, 05:31 PM
Force spells do not indicate that they are invisible by default. He's refering to the Invisible Spell metamagic feat in Cityscape. Its a +0 MM, so you might as well throw it on all of your spells.

Another good force effect that moves people is Melf's Unicorn Arrows (PHBII or CMage, I forget which). Its a decent spell. There is no saving throw, so its actually a decent spell to chain with Chain Spell metamagic.

Zeofar
2010-11-12, 06:07 PM
Force spells do not indicate that they are invisible by default. He's refering to the Invisible Spell metamagic feat in Cityscape. Its a +0 MM, so you might as well throw it on all of your spells.

Another good force effect that moves people is Melf's Unicorn Arrows (PHBII or CMage, I forget which). Its a decent spell. There is no saving throw, so its actually a decent spell to chain with Chain Spell metamagic.

Ah, I didn't know whether or not force spells were automatically invisible myself. Also, this clears up some confusion that was caused by another version of the invisible spell feat that I found when I googled it (I remembered seeing it, but not details); +3 sounded really high...
Anyhow, Unicorn Arrow is indeed in PHBII. I don't know anything about psionics, but the SRD has "Telekinetic Force/Maneuver/Thrust" powers that emulate the effects of telekinesis separately and a Tornado Blast power that can throw about and do damage to people in a 40' radius. I can't find anything that I would specifically call a better version of Telekinesis, though.

AslanCross
2010-11-12, 07:43 PM
This is going to sound heretical, but consider advancing a beholder to 15HD (cr14), applying the dungeonbred template to make it medium sized, find some way to make it undead, and reskin it to look like a humanoid. :smalltongue:

The Beholder's Telekinesis is extremely, limited, though. It's limited to the "move" effect. It can't do the violent thrust effect.


Wowza, this is some good advice! So lots of silent + stilled force effects. Are all force spells invisible?

Also, does anyone with knowledge of psionics know if they have better forms of telekenesis? I feel like the lich's portrayal of casually throwing stuff around might be better suited as a psion of sorts, but honestly I have no knowledge of those mechanics or classes. It "sounds" psionic though.

Most force effects are described as almost invisible (transparent distortions), but they will still involve movement.

Alas, psionics breaks down Telekinesis into three different powers: Telekinetic Force, Telekinetic Maneuver, and Telekinetic Thrust. You can only probably have one or two of them if you choose powers for your highest levels at every level. Also, psions don't qualify for lichdom by default, as lichdom requires a caster level of 11 or higher and Craft Wondrous Item.

Tvtyrant
2010-11-12, 07:48 PM
Alas, psionics breaks down Telekinesis into three different powers: Telekinetic Force, Telekinetic Maneuver, and Telekinetic Thrust. You can only probably have one or two of them if you choose powers for your highest levels at every level. Also, psions don't qualify for lichdom by default, as lichdom requires a caster level of 11 or higher and Craft Wondrous Item.

As the DM I'm sure he can houserule that a Psion can use craft wondrous item with its psi-powers.

Can you maximize telekinesis to double the amount it can move? Because if so that would be win.

lord pringle
2010-11-12, 07:55 PM
The easiest way to make a scary lich is to make him seem twice or three times as powerful as he really is. Just ask any of my players who fought The god of decay. He used potions, scrolls, a horde of assistants, and the homebrewed dabble-master class found on these forums to make him seem godlike. In reality he crumbled rather easily. Except for the fact that he split his soul into 5 different trinkets (for mass CON and WIS damage) and he hooked him self up to an artifact so that anytime he died the world would begin to decay.

Gorilla2038
2010-11-12, 08:02 PM
Theres always Master of the unseen hand as well. Fun enemy if you dont have a max-op party.

AslanCross
2010-11-12, 08:03 PM
As the DM I'm sure he can houserule that a Psion can use craft wondrous item with its psi-powers.

True, but I'm just basing things off RAW here.


Can you maximize telekinesis to double the amount it can move? Because if so that would be win.

How can maximizing double something? Maximize only maximizes variable effects.

EDIT: Looking at the Psionic telekinetic powers, I realized something: They're lower level (3rd) and by default are weaker, but can be augmented to throw much more than the Telekinesis spell. For example, Telekinetic Thrust can throw 250 lbs at ML 5th (the level you can get it), but a 16th-level Manifester can augment it to throw 525 lbs maximum. However, this will burn through the psion's PP reserve very quickly. A 16th-level manifester would have upwards of 221 (a 20 Int Psion would have 261) PP, so that makes for a dozen or so tosses, assuming he uses his PP for other things.

Fishy
2010-11-12, 11:14 PM
To move ridiculously large things with Telekinesis, add in Master of the Unseen Hand and Hulking Hurler. Hurlers can treat any object less than a light load as an improvised weapon, and MoUH lets you telekinetically move any weapon you could wield.

For other options, the Urban Magic Web Enhancement (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070307a) has Umbral Fist, which is sort-of-kind-of the Shadow Magic version of Telekinesis. Shadow Magic is a lot better on villains than on PCs, because they get less stage time and don't have to worry about uses per day. Not deadly by itself, unless you can squeeze some Dungeoncrasher in there, but there are all sorts of horrible ways a Lich Shadowcaster can off people.