Help creating a necromancer with lich aspirations. Evil alignment in good party.

[Mark8147]

I've come up with a somewhat elaborate idea for my next 5e character. The outline is that I will be secretly playing an evil aligned necromancer in a good aligned party (I have checked with the rest of the party that their characters would be OK with the use of necromancy). Here's my plan for making it work...

To my party my backstory would be that I was a wizard attending a magic college/academy/university and showed a natural affinity for the arcane arts. I was a gifted pupil and learned quickly. However I began to be plagued with dreams and visions of an impeding evil, one that could not be defeated with the accepted schools of magic, one that could only be stopped by controlling death itself. So I secretly began to study necromancy, until I was discovered and banished from the college. Now I seek adventurers and companions with whom i can increase my power and protect my people from the evil in my visions.

But... my real backstory, only known to me and the DM would be...

I attended the college of magic but showed little affinity for the arcane arts. Mocked by my peers most of my time was spent cleaning robes and preparing meals as i watched the other pupils grow stronger. One night i either a) found a secret library containing books about the school of necromancy and prayed for someone to grant me this power
b) cursed my peers and called out in hatred for someone to grant me this power.

And someone answered. Either a powerful lich or Orcus himself offered to tell me how to gain a power beyond all others, the power to control death itself. But it would require a pact, and an offering, of souls. So the following morning I laid out the robes and cooked the breakfast before I left the college for the last time, leaving behind my old life and dozens of poisoned wizards.

There's a great video that outlines what it takes to become a lich by Dawnforgedcast on YouTube (I don't have enough posts to post the link)
-Must discover the dark knowledge required
-Must be an evil wizard humanoid of at least 17th level.
-Must construct and enchant a phylactery (takes 10 days and 500,000 gold) and imbue it with the soul of a powerful creature.
-Must prepare a potion of transformation
-Must drink the potion and die.

This seems to work well with the back story I was planning. I couldn't achieve this by myself so would have to seek out a band of adventurers
- to help me become strong enough (level 17)
- to earn the gold to build my phylactery
- to pay my debt of souls to whoever I spoke to because the party kills A LOT of people.

If I ever did become a lich i could either hand control over to the DM or play him myself which could introduce a cool mechanic of knowing my parties strengths and weaknesses in the fight (like when batman had a plan to take down the justice league).

This is a very brief outline, any advice or help to flesh it out into a complete character would be massively appreciated. Any ideas for better back stories or how I could go about getting a phylactery without the cost ( it seems a little unreasonable that i could earn that gold without the party knowing), even which spells, races and backgrounds would all help me a lot. Thanks.

[StoicLeaf]

I DMed this in my last campaign.


The wizard in the party had always wanted to become a lich but didn't want the evil baggage associated with it. We spent almost a year dancing around the subject, I offered him alternative forms of power but something about the lich just enticed him.
Ultimately, he decided he was going to go for it. I outlined the basic gist of what I was going for: a slow descent into being a horrible human being that would end the campaign with some sort of stand off with the rest of the group (they were all .. well, not good, but not evil).
Over the course of a few months he:


Moved his laboratory into the nearby forest so he could do his horrible experiments. "Safety concerns". Built a fake "normal" laboratory over the necromancy one.
Stole from the party's communal bank account.
Exhumed all the graveyards in the region for materials.
Killed random commoners for fresher materials and soul experiments.
Captured, tortured, broke and "turned" a druid ally of the party who then planted and cultivated a gulthias tree for the budding necromancer (excellent phylactery material!).
Kidnapped and sacrificed the soul of a party member's love interest to the book of vile darkness.


This all culminated in the necromancer creating a ruse where the previously loyal Mystra acolyte NPCs sent to help the cleric PC had apparently started some sort of dire ritual at an arcane mote (magical site sacred to the cleric PC). The necromancer offered to help and then convinced his apprentice (warlock PC who was multiclassing into wizard) to read a magical scroll he would prepare. The scroll would cause the reader's soul to go poof to activate the phylactery.

The necromancer had prepared an army of the skeletons the days leading up to this, the remaining PCs barely survived the skeletal army, the necromancer fled and is now somewhere in Chult, plotting his dominion over the world.



1) The PCs (including the warlock) took it rather well and thought it was really cool. In retrospect, this could have backfired HARD and I'd recommend anyone else wanting to do this to really think about what sort of players you have at the table.
2) PCs are incredibly stupid. I mean there where multiple occasions were stuff simply didn't add up or weird things were going on. They didn't investigate any of it. Depending on whether or not your DM wants to give the others a chance to suss it out (I did. I didn't want the necromancer player to "win" for free) you might need to add more or less clues to the campaign. You've already set up some goals for all of this to work, those are prime candidates for giving the other players a chance to figure out what you're up to!


Regarding your backstory:
It sounds dumb. OK that sounds harsh. I mean you're either a good wizard or you aren't (and it sounds like you want to be a wizard). The moment you start getting power from other entities is the moment you've become a warlock. Or a cleric. Or a divine soul sorcerer. But not a wizard. Because wizards get to being awesome by having an awesome intellect.
Everything else hinges on whether or not the other players are supposed to have a chance to figure you out and then murder you.

[Constructman]

Regarding your backstory:
It sounds dumb. OK that sounds harsh. I mean you're either a good wizard or you aren't (and it sounds like you want to be a wizard). The moment you start getting power from other entities is the moment you've become a warlock. Or a cleric. Or a divine soul sorcerer. But not a wizard. Because wizards get to being awesome by having an awesome intellect.

Dude


Secrets of Undeath. No wizard takes up the path to lichdom on a whim, and the process of becoming a lich is a well-guarded secret. Wizards that seek lichdom must make bargains with fiends, evil gods, or other foul entities. Many turn to Orcus, Demon Prince of Undeath, whose power has created countless liches. However, those that control the power of lichdom always demand fealty and service for their knowledge.

Not being a Warlock or a Cleric doesn't preclude you from asking Outsiders for favours.

[Mark8147]

I DMed this in my last campaign.


The wizard in the party had always wanted to become a lich but didn't want the evil baggage associated with it. We spent almost a year dancing around the subject, I offered him alternative forms of power but something about the lich just enticed him.
Ultimately, he decided he was going to go for it. I outlined the basic gist of what I was going for: a slow descent into being a horrible human being that would end the campaign with some sort of stand off with the rest of the group (they were all .. well, not good, but not evil).
Over the course of a few months he:


Moved his laboratory into the nearby forest so he could do his horrible experiments. "Safety concerns". Built a fake "normal" laboratory over the necromancy one.
Stole from the party's communal bank account.
Exhumed all the graveyards in the region for materials.
Killed random commoners for fresher materials and soul experiments.
Captured, tortured, broke and "turned" a druid ally of the party who then planted and cultivated a gulthias tree for the budding necromancer (excellent phylactery material!).
Kidnapped and sacrificed the soul of a party member's love interest to the book of vile darkness.


This all culminated in the necromancer creating a ruse where the previously loyal Mystra acolyte NPCs sent to help the cleric PC had apparently started some sort of dire ritual at an arcane mote (magical site sacred to the cleric PC). The necromancer offered to help and then convinced his apprentice (warlock PC who was multiclassing into wizard) to read a magical scroll he would prepare. The scroll would cause the reader's soul to go poof to activate the phylactery.

The necromancer had prepared an army of the skeletons the days leading up to this, the remaining PCs barely survived the skeletal army, the necromancer fled and is now somewhere in Chult, plotting his dominion over the world.



1) The PCs (including the warlock) took it rather well and thought it was really cool. In retrospect, this could have backfired HARD and I'd recommend anyone else wanting to do this to really think about what sort of players you have at the table.
2) PCs are incredibly stupid. I mean there where multiple occasions were stuff simply didn't add up or weird things were going on. They didn't investigate any of it. Depending on whether or not your DM wants to give the others a chance to suss it out (I did. I didn't want the necromancer player to "win" for free) you might need to add more or less clues to the campaign. You've already set up some goals for all of this to work, those are prime candidates for giving the other players a chance to figure out what you're up to!


Regarding your backstory:
It sounds dumb. OK that sounds harsh. I mean you're either a good wizard or you aren't (and it sounds like you want to be a wizard). The moment you start getting power from other entities is the moment you've become a warlock. Or a cleric. Or a divine soul sorcerer. But not a wizard. Because wizards get to being awesome by having an awesome intellect.
Everything else hinges on whether or not the other players are supposed to have a chance to figure you out and then murder you.

I see your point about being a good wizard or not, and the power coming from myself rather than an external source. So I need to think of why my character is particularly drawn to necromancy and from there becoming a lich. Any ideas?

[Mark8147]

Dude



Not being a Warlock or a Cleric doesn't preclude you from asking Outsiders for favours.
I had read that about necromancy often coming from pacts with more powerful being so i thought it made sense.

[mrumsey]

I don't see what the issue is with the deal with Orcus/whomever. If they can unknowingly make you a warlock, surely they can grant you the finesse, patience, intelligence...whatever is needed to access magic directly yourself. Entities of that magnitude of power don't really have to follow the rules in a book to do as they please.

For all we know, his character could have had a block placed on his access by an enterprising entity who saw the possibility of corruption in the future. When Mark8147 decided he would really like to kill a whole slew of people so that he could make an unseen servant wash his undies, it could have been a good time to remove the block.

There are always ways to make the story work - if the story would work with the other players.

[Mark8147]

From what I read, the pact with the powerful being doesn't necessarily need to grant me intelligence or something tangeable. They merely have the information on how to become a lich. So instead of being a **** wizard maybe I just found limitations with the accepted schools of magic and even necromancy itself.

[Mark8147]

I don't see what the issue is with the deal with Orcus/whomever. If they can unknowingly make you a warlock, surely they can grant you the finesse, patience, intelligence...whatever is needed to access magic directly yourself. Entities of that magnitude of power don't really have to follow the rules in a book to do as they please.

For all we know, his character could have had a block placed on his access by an enterprising entity who saw the possibility of corruption in the future. When Mark8147 decided he would really like to kill a whole slew of people so that he could make an unseen servant wash his undies, it could have been a good time to remove the block.

There are always ways to make the story work - if the story would work with the other players.

The main advantage to this is that I don't think the rest of my party would doubt my intentions at all, especially in its early stages. My two backstories align, wanting to become more powerful etc, it is only in the later stages when I'm preparing to become a lich that they could become suspicious.

[Mark8147]

What about this for my good/untrue backstory. An elf who fell in love with a human and seeing her, their children and grandchildren grow old and wither away while he lived on drove me to seek power over mortality and potentially be reunited with everyone I lost. But as became more obsessed with necromancy I realised it can only be a curse, not something I would wish upon my loved ones and so I set out to use my powers for good so one day I can be reunited with them.