Looking for a template to give lich-like immortality to non-casters

[Barbarian MD]

Alright, I've searched these boards, other boards, the website that must not be named, and The List of Stuff, and I'm coming up blank.

Does a template exist that can be given to non-casters to turn them into liches?

Specifically, I'm interested in the phylactery aspect. The character concept is a guy who wants revenge at any cost, and the tragedy is that he's going to face an eternity of hate and grieving. By taking the power offered by a caster to turn him into a lich, he'll gain an eternity to seek revenge, but (and here's the RP part that I'm excited about), the caster will hold his phylactery in escrow, if you will. The lich won't understand all there is to know about phylacteries, and the caster can tell him that if he destroys the phylactery, it will kill him, and even if we don't do that, it will be impossible for the non-caster lich to create a new one. So he has to play nice.

So, ideas? I'm specifically looking for non-homebrew material, as the DM hasn't responded to simply refluffing the lich template to allow the character to pay the XP/GP cost but have the crafting itself done for him, although the work started by Oslecamo in the homebrew thread is mostly being accepted to the campaign. I'm aware of the Death Knight, but I'd really like to find a reason for the lich to have to obey his creator.

[Rixx]

Graveknight may be what you're looking for:

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/mon...night-template

[Chilingsworth]

Is this for PF, 3.5, or an ealier system?

I can think of two templates that might work with alittle retooling: the Revenant and the Curst. Both are originally from Mosters of Faerun. I think they've been updated, but I'm not sure where.

[Scarlet-Devil]

Death Knight is a template primarily for martial characters.

Edit: Whoops, didn't read junk.

Edit: What if the character felt extremely indebted to the one who transformed him into a death knight because it allows him to enact his revenge? If this is a lawful character (maybe something like a former knight who placed high value on his honor and loyalty), then the conflict could come from not wanting to betray that act of "goodwill" on the part of the god/archfiend/whatever who granted him immortality in the form of undeath.

[Barbarian MD]

The biggest fear I have of Death Knight is that, if killed and then resurrected, you return to mortal form, negating the whole thing. At certain levels of play, that's a pretty big liability for a character...

But yes, I see your point. For a lawful character, it's an option.

It's for 3.5. I'll try to find this Revenant that you speak of.

[Waker]

Revive Undead (Libris Mortis) can resurrect undead creatures that have been destroyed.

[Vemynal]

If the DM is having problems due to you going up 4 ECL by becoming a lich, I'd suggest to him the class that is 4 levels and allows you to slowly gain the lich template by taking these 4 levels (it is indeed the lich template exactly).

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20031212a

ignore the challenge rating as your not a monster/npc, the 4 levels work as your "level adjustment"

[Chilingsworth]

If the DM is having problems due to you going up 4 ECL by becoming a lich, I'd suggest to him the class that is 4 levels and allows you to slowly gain the lich template by taking these 4 levels (it is indeed the lich template exactly).

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20031212a

ignore the challenge rating as your not a monster/npc, the 4 levels work as your "level adjustment"

There are also the undead monster classes in Libris Mortis.

[Barbarian MD]

It's not the power level of Lich. It's the lack of casting as a prerequisite for the template. I'm trying to apply this to a non-caster, and the DM is being particularly strict about the casting requirement, and doesn't seem to be interested in house-ruling the fluff to ignore the casting/crafting requirement.

So I'm trying to find a template that someone else can apply to this character, and I'm hoping to find one that gives power to the one who does, such as holding the phylactery hostage, and thereby forcing the character to work for the one who turns him into a lich.

[Urpriest]

Ghost could work. Spellcaster offers to kill the person in such a way that they can't move on while <object> still exists. Caster then keeps hold of <object>.

Actually, if you simply want a non-casting undead hostage to a more powerful character, Vampire does that right out of the box.

[Chilingsworth]

Well, if you're looking for a way to strengthen you character while giving someone else control over him, you could try the mineral warrior template. It's in the Underdark Forgotten Realms book. It works by casting a spell on the recipient (who must be willing, though coercion is possible.)

The resulting template gives some sweet bonuses for a non-caster, +1 LA, and makes the recipient the slave of the spellcaster that turned him for one year. It doesn't give the undead type or imortality, but it might be handy. If you're dead-set on being undead, you could turn into a mineral warrior, then go through the process of becoming a necropolitian or something.

[Vemynal]

then I say take a single level in a casting class as a middle finger to him =p

no but seriously, if the power level isn't coming into play at all then I don't get not hand-waving that fluff requirement.


On a more productive note: You said you wanted "some one else to hold your phylactery". This basically comes down to said wizard using a form of compulsion on you so that you have to obey him or he will destroy you.

Much to a similar effect you could take on the vampire template, being bitten etc. You would be compelled to obey your Sire in this sense as well.

only problem is most the vampire templates i know of arn't worth it because of the incredible over kill placed on their LA (the lowest I've seen was +5)

[Analytica]

How about clone? There can be a mad spellcaster with lots of clones of you in stasis, more made whenever necessary. When you die, you wake up in the next one, which hasn't aged while in stasis. Not undead, and there is level loss, but that can be handwaved (be plane shifted to the hells for a level-up workout killing pit fiends for a week after you wake up in a new clone, or even in a fast-time demiplane combat gym, then go after the heroes again...). If you disobey the spellcaster, she pulls the plug on the necromantic clone freezers...

Otherwise... you just need to be able to cast spells, have a caster level of 11, and the Craft Wondrous Item feat, which requires a caster level of 3. Possibly spell-like abilities count for caster level purposes, and there is a FR feat that gives you the ability to cast a few cantrips.

Then there is the lichfiend template, which requires you to be an evil outsider and have SLAs of the proper level.