Liches for Other Classes - Pt. 2
Header Art: Dragon Magazine #360, 2007 WotC
Previously we had looked at what Lichdom could look like for Bards, Druids, Sorcerers, and Warlocks - all full spellcasters who can harness great feats of magic. But what about the other classes? Not everyone is willing to let death defeat them, and each has their own unique way of avoiding the grim reaper.
You’ve probably heard of the Death Knight, an undead paladin who has fallen and its only hope of a true death is through redemption. The following six Lich-like monsters take that idea to Artificers, Barbarians, Fighters, Monks, Rangers, and Rogues, all using their skills and legends to exist in unlife.
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Aethen - Monk
While many powerful monks have learned to survive off of the ki that flows through their body, they can still reach death as time does not slow for them. Old age finds them in their sleep or in their meditations, which is enough to cause many to fear for their lives and turn to a vampiric-like existence. By siphoning the ki from another, often younger source, a monk can extend their own life, tricking time and avoiding the fate of undeath.
While the first few victims won't turn a monk into an aethen, as they drain more ki, changes can be noticed in the monk. Their skin grows gaunt, their eyes hollow, and a sense of doom surrounds them. Upon draining more and more ki, a monk turns into an aethen, a ki vampire who drains the life force of others.
Enlightenment. While many might see the aethen, and recoil from terror, an aethen sees its form as just another step as it becomes one with the universe. By consuming an ever greater number of people, the aethen begins to believe it becomes closer to the multiverse. In truth, the more it feeds, the closer it is to being one with entropy and the negative energy plane.
Hidden Teachers. Because the knowledge of aethens is forbidden by most monasteries, any who become an aethen must learn to hide the marks of their affliction. While some leave, many prefer to stay at their monastery due to the vast quantity of knowledge within, as well as an easy supply of ki. Since dead bodies will only attract attention, an aethen quickly learns to drain their victims without killing them, this leaves the victims drained of emotion and mind.
Ætheric
Aethen is based on the idea of an ætheric, or etheric, spirit and body as well as the concept of a psychic vampire, someone who drains the emotions and mental capacity of another. Aethens feed on the ki, or qi, of others, rejuvenating themselves while draining their victims.
For more information Etheric Body - Wikipedia or Qi - Wikipedia.
Biogic - Artificer
A practitioner of biomagetics, a biogic has learned to fuse magic, flesh, and technology into a singular form, allowing them to escape the frailty of life. Each biogic crafts their form into an expression that they believe will be the most effective, sometimes implementing plate armor beneath their skin or removing a limb and placing a large mana collector that shoots beams of lightning and fire, turning their enemies into ruin. It isn't uncommon to see what was once a man be covered in wires, tubes, and metal.
Split Soul. An artificer builds a lot of items in its life with a few of the most powerful magic items requiring a bit of the artificer itself to empower them. Typically an artificer has 1d6 major magic items that contain an essence of its soul, and an artificer is aware of each item that it invests a portion of its being in. Often, an artificer is willing to let one item wander the world so that not all of its remains are in one place. It only needs one item to return to life.
Different Forms
A biogic can craft other abilities for itself, based on its magical focus. The following are examples:
Vials of alchemical potions it can shoot.
Goggles that allow sight into the Ethereal Plane.
An electrified suit of armor.
Legs made of flexible material to increase its jumping.
Bionic Biomimetics
Bionics and biomimetics is the fusion of biology and electronics, a direct inspiration for artificers who blend their biology and magic into their form.
For more information Bionics - Wikipedia.
Odr - Barbarian
Odr, pronounced OH-thur, are those who ascended into an eternal rage, whose entire focus has been built upon a divine madness that pushes them to ever greater feats of violence. Legends tell of the odr, sometimes mistaken for gods of war and thunder, who wiped through villages and armies, their axes never stopping as they sought to achieve enough glory to be remembered for eons to come.
Divine Madness. Sometimes thought to be mad, the odr are warriors whose lust for battle ensured that they could never stop. They are incapable of ending their wars, even when they have no enemies left to face. Typically, only evil warriors actively seek to become an odr, as an odr is incapable of making allies out of the living, only aligning itself with the undead as it sees no life for it to vanquish within the walking corpses.
Death. Only the absolute removal of strength from an odr can one ever be defeated. There are many tales of odr being tricked, and the source of their strength taken away from them, though few odr have a physical source of their strength.
Óðr or Odr
Odr is based on the word Óðr, which represents old Nordic for divine madness or frenzied mental activity. Óðr could also refer to the husband of Freyja, a goddess associated with beauty, gold, love, magic, and war, or is another name for Odin.
For more information, Óðr - Wikipedia and Norse-Mythology.org.
Reaniment - Fighter
There are great tales of powerful warriors that could never be bested in battle, or they were bested in battle, but still their spirit lives on. These stories cause many to be blind to their flaws, believing in their own legend. Those who let their greatness blind them often seek ways of surpassing their legends, often turning to undeath to accomplish it.
A fighter is typically known for a single legendary item, a blade for a great swordmaster, a powerful defender sheathed in armor, or a shield against evil. Whatever weapon, armor, or shield a warrior is most known by becomes their sentient item, a powerful artifact that houses their spirit. If a fighter falls in battle, by placing their spirit inside of their item, they can ensure they live on past death.
If they do fall in battle, their equipment is gathered up by their enemies who wish to keep it as trophies. Thus, the fighter's final revenge begins.
Possessive Death. As the days pass, the warrior spirit within the item attempts to corrupt any who wield it. Upon possession, the spirit fills the body, returning the fallen warrior to unlife.
Tsukumogami and Possession
Reaniments are spirit infusers, infusing items they once held in life. The tsukumogami, yōkai, possessing spirit, and more all feature a powerful, sometimes demonic, soul taking over an object or the body of another.
For more information Tsukumogami - Wikipedia and Spirit Possession - Wikipedia.
Shade - Rogue
Those rogues and assassins that have sought the shadows to hide from all of their problems have stumbled upon how to avoid the grim reaper. Hidden from death itself, a shade has learned to blend itself into undeath, allowing the shadows of the shadow plane to replace its life essence with negative energy. While this allows them to walk unnoticed through shadows, they are ever fearful of light and its ability to remove all hiding places. This supernatural fear is said to even be enough to kill a shade from fright, though that is more rumor than truth.
Contract Killers. While the number one concern for a shade is to remain hidden, it can't help but want to use the skills that it honed in life. Because of this, shades often take on some of the most dangerous jobs, to prove that even in undeath, they are still the greatest of their era. Unfortunately for them, this is often their undoing, as the more attention they draw to themselves, the sooner that death eventually finds them and burns them from the shadows they cling to.
On the Run. Many shades have gotten themselves into trouble, allowing themselves to feel comfortable and death almost found them. Because of this, many shades drift towards the plane of shadows where the omnipresent gloom brings with it reassurances. Some believe that if a shade resides in this plane long enough, it could grow so powerful as to become a dark power.
Sheol & Tsalmaveth
Inspired by the concept of Sheol and Tsalmaveth, a shade is one who is a death shadow or resides in a place of still darkness in death. Shades have hidden themselves from death, partially from removing that which makes them alive, allowing them to drift through the still shadows, fearless of death finding them.
For more information Shade - Wikipedia and Shoel - Wikipedia.
Wiljag - Ranger
This skeletal figure wears ancient armor barely clinging to its frame, wielding weapons coated in rust and decay. Sometimes called lichen hunters, many of them are covered in lichen, fungi, and moss. In truth, a wiljag is a ranger, forager, or hunter whose drive to hunt a group of creatures has so consumed them that they have continued into death, uncaring that their spirit should have traveled to the wild lands of the afterlife. They have a single foe they must destroy, a driving force that won't even let death stop them.
Favored. A wiljag has a single terrain that it hunts through, rarely leaving its land. This isn't out of fear, but rather they have forgotten all else but the territory they patrol. Anything beyond it is firmly out of their care. On rare occasions, if they hear rumors of their foe, they may be willing to venture out for short periods to kill their prey before quickly returning to their lands, ensuring it remains free of their enemy.
Ancient Hunter. There are said to be hunters so old, that they have forgotten everything from their life. Their bodies are so ancient that their bones rot to dust and decay. These spirits still prowl through their lands as ghostly forms, continuing the great hunt for an enemy that has consumed their life and unlife.
Wilde Jagde
Wiljag, named after Wilde Jagde or the Wild Hunt, is a great hunter who is said to work with the fae, fiends, and all other manner of creatures. To them, the only thing that matters is the hunt, and they have little care for who they hunt.
For more information Wild Hunt - Wikipedia.
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