Player archlicdom

[Great cthulhu]

I have a character who wants to become an archlich. His elf wife died, and rather than commit suicide to join her, he instead strives to obtain immortality, so he cannot make the same mistake. This character raises the dead, and is cold and heartless, but he is not evil. He is a knight, and has a code of honour. He does things in the name of justice and righteousness. So a lich is totally not an option for him.
But an archlich...

How?:xykon:

[Tiadoppler]

So, an apathetic Lawful Neutral knight practices honorable necromancy in the name of justice and his wife, whom he cannot afford to have resurrected.

Do you want mechanical infinite lifespan (based on class skills/spells/combos), or a "quest reward/ritual" of archlichdom? Is there a reason he's avoiding his late wife? What class/level is he now? He might need to multiclass.

[Deathtongue]

I have a character who wants to become an archlich. His elf wife died, and rather than commit suicide to join her, he instead strives to obtain immortality, so he cannot make the same mistake. This character raises the dead, and is cold and heartless, but he is not evil. He is a knight, and has a code of honour. He does things in the name of justice and righteousness. So a lich is totally not an option for him.
But an archlich...

How?:xykon:

Cast Imprisonment on yourself at level 17 for the Hedged Prison option. This also has the advantage of letting you designate a small number of loved-ones to live in immortality with you. You may want to hurt your and/or their Wisdom saving throw first, typically through measures such as Bestow Curse or a several-day fasting ritual (exhaustion). Otherwise, they're immune to castings of that spell... from you.

Of course, you're then confined to a tower/dungeon/castle forever -- unless you're packing a reasonable Imprisonment-ending clause and/or a high-level Dispel Magic, which you SHOULD -- but a lot of people would say it's worth it.

You can also use 'Clone' for insurance, too, but the spell is expensive for immortality over the centuries if you want to stay within a certain age band, especially if your character is something short-lived like a human or a half-orc. Seed a few Demiplanes with Clone, line the walls with Glyphs of Warding and Symbols to protect your investment, and then spend the rest of eternity brooding in your extradimensional palace.

[Great cthulhu]

Cast Imprisonment on yourself at level 17 for the Hedged Prison option. This also has the advantage of letting you designate a small number of loved-ones to live in immortality with you. You may want to hurt your and/or their Wisdom saving throw first, typically through measures such as Bestow Curse or a several-day fasting ritual (exhaustion). Otherwise, they're immune to castings of that spell... from you.

Of course, you're then confined to a tower/dungeon/castle forever -- unless you're packing a reasonable Imprisonment-ending clause and/or a high-level Dispel Magic, which you SHOULD -- but a lot of people would say it's worth it.

You can also use 'Clone' for insurance, too, but the spell is expensive for immortality over the centuries if you want to stay within a certain age band, especially if your character is something short-lived like a human or a half-orc. Seed a few Demiplanes with Clone, line the walls with Glyphs of Warding and Symbols to protect your investment, and then spend the rest of eternity brooding in your extradimensional palace.

No. He wants archlichdom

[Unoriginal]

I have a character who wants to become an archlich. His elf wife died, and rather than commit suicide to join her, he instead strives to obtain immortality, so he cannot make the same mistake. This character raises the dead, and is cold and heartless, but he is not evil. He is a knight, and has a code of honour. He does things in the name of justice and righteousness. So a lich is totally not an option for him.
But an archlich...

How?:xykon:

No such thing as an archlich in 5e. Unless it's a regular lich, but stronger.

[Great cthulhu]

So, an apathetic Lawful Neutral knight practices honorable necromancy in the name of justice and his wife, whom he cannot afford to have resurrected.

Do you want mechanical infinite lifespan (based on class skills/spells/combos), or a "quest reward/ritual" of archlichdom? Is there a reason he's avoiding his late wife? What class/level is he now? He might need to multiclass.

He is multi classed already.He is a fighter/wizard (necromancy school).

He wants her resurrected with his own hands.
...and he's a little tight on cash at the moment

[Great cthulhu]

No such thing as an archlich in 5e. Unless it's a regular lich, but stronger.

Weird... because the first time i ever heard of an archlich was in 5e. They are basically good liches

[Unoriginal]

Weird... because the first time i ever heard of an archlich was in 5e. They are basically good liches

Where did you heard about them, specifically? Because there is nothing about them in the rules or the lore.

Archliches were a thing in previous editions.

[Lombra]

There's a ritual to become a lich, kinda described in the DMG, but you should ask your DM for that. There are some spells that make you virtually imortal, like Clone for example. If you want to bring people back from the dead then I'm afraid you chose the wrong spellcasting class. Only Clerics and Sorcerers (favored soul) gain access to resurrection spells.

[Tiadoppler]

He is multi classed already.He is a fighter/wizard (necromancy school).

He wants her resurrected with his own hands.
...and he's a little tight on cash at the moment

If this is the characters primary goal, the DM should be supporting it as a roleplay opportunity. Different options include:
> Getting on good terms with a good deity and having them provide an Epic Boon (at level 20+) of Baelnorn/Archlich status
> Finding an ancient necromantic ritual and going on a massive quest to obtain the ritual components
> Look up shenanigans regarding spells like: Soul Jar, Clone, Simulacrum, True Polymorph.


I believe that there's a specific Monk/Chaos Sorcerer build that allows for eternal youth by abusing chaos magic's low probability of aging or de-aging the caster, a monk's immunity to aging effects, and casting a large number of spells per day so that that effect triggers with some regularity (through simple probability).

[Great cthulhu]

Yeah, probably option 2

[Great cthulhu]

There's a ritual to become a lich, kinda described in the DMG, but you should ask your DM for that. There are some spells that make you virtually imortal, like Clone for example. If you want to bring people back from the dead then I'm afraid you chose the wrong spellcasting class. Only Clerics and Sorcerers (favored soul) gain access to resurrection spells.

When i become an archlich, then I will multiclass EVERY class, get all the spells in the game, and then, take over the world! HAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!:xykon:

[Unoriginal]

If you want immortality, just search for someone who can grant you the Boon of Immortality.

And even if you did become an Archlich, you couldn't resurrect the dead elf.

[Anymage]

This is one of those places where PRCs might work in 5e. You're effectively multiclassing into "lich", and you need to meet certain prerequisites because liches don't work as first level characters, but it's conceptually doable. Probably requires a good deal of homebrew, though.

A few things to keep in mind, though:

-5e has moved away from the idea that there are powerful nice undead as contrasts to the powerful mean undead. Lichdom is one of the most obvious cases; it isn't just that the ritual itself is evil, it's that liches require a constant diet of souls to stay active. I'm sure there's some alternative way to keep powering yourself without needing to devour souls on the regular, but being entirely self-sustaining isn't part of the current philosophy. Your DM can freely override this, but he's just as likely to say that you need some other costly food source to keep going.

-"I'm not evil, I just know how to make the hard decisions" is very much the sort of thing that evil characters like to say.

-Channeling immortality from a divine source, the sort of thing that would make a good immortal paragon type creature type work, sounds like the sort of thing you get at the end of your character's arc. You get your power, maybe go on one last adventure to play with your cool new toy, and then promptly retire. Stacking bonus types endlessly is not the direction the game wants to go in.

[furby076]

Is there a reason he's avoiding his late wife? What class/level is he now? He might need to multiclass.

probably didnt do the dishes

[bc56]

Ignoring the evil that is devouring people's souls.
Can he cast Imprisonment?
If he will never be able to cast this 9th level spell, he can't be a lich, because it's how they devour souls in the first place.

[RSP]

He is multi classed already.He is a fighter/wizard (necromancy school).

He wants her resurrected with his own hands.
...and he's a little tight on cash at the moment

I'm assuming attaining any type of lichdom will require resources above and beyond that of the 1,000 gp gem needed for Resurrection. He might want to re-evaluate his goals: "I'll get the 1,000 gp diamond, and bring back my love, first; then worry about becoming a Lich."

I do like the idea of his beloved coming back and wanting to know why she had to stay in Hades for a 100 years while he earned lichdom, rather than just going on an adventure to find 1,000 gps and talking to a nice older cleric.