Can a Lich be Good in D&D?

#shorts #dnd #dnd5e #dungeonsanddragons
Can a Lich be Good in dungeons and dragons?
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[@SteelySam]

My prediction for this comment section: "SO YOU'RE TELLING ME THERE'S A CHANCE?"

[@chillcannongames5758]

You should link pointy hats recent videos. He did one about liches for other classes. I won't spoil it but he did a bard and then a sorcerer.

[@zimattack9994]

I made a good lich he spent his life to scare contain and protect the world from a tarasque feed his phlactery rabbit souls

[@rhysbriggs8621]

Can you do any demon you haven't done its your choice.

[@RandomGuy-nt1no]

Can you do a video on the d&d KZbinr Pointy Hat please

[@Nazo-kage]

I actually have a campaign idea where the players are trying to stop the early awakening of the “World Lich” It’s phylactery is actually the core of the planet. So destroying it is not an option. The thing is the world glitch is a Neutral being. And would in fact be very angry at the Cult if they succeed in waking him up early. Because before it becomes the world Lich it gets to be human for a while, and get to enjoy life before it’s for us to do, it’s job to try to end it.

[@raonair]

So, basically. Possible: yes. Likely: hell no.

[@ronben-ezer8373]

Actually, such a lich does exist in an official source, the video game Neverwinter. One of the game's main NPCs is Makos, a good aligned tiefling lich, who had to become undead to escape the evil influence of his fiendish father, and only feeds on the souls of evil creatures to stay alive. So it's more realistic than you think.

[@raonair]

@@ronben-ezer8373 1st: this is cool! 2nd: it's still unlikely

[@logansullins4545]

Lady Alathene Moonstar is another such good-aligned lich. The Masked Lords of Waterdeep sponsor/tolerate her continued presence beneath the House of the High Moon.

[@metrostatistics9807]

🤣

[@RonOnTheWay]

The arguement I would use for a character is that a mage's family is killed by a tyrant/powerful character and the mage needs more time to bring about the downfall of those responsible. Punisher Lich. But this isn't "good".

[@satanic_panic666]

There are actually good liches in D&D lore called "archliches". Archliches don't create phylacteries and instead use practical magical items that could serve as more than just a repository for their souls. It's a really interesting read! You should make a video about them! Consider this day 1 of asking for Archlich

[@donutderpdragon8549]

thats a cool fact

[@Truthliberation]

I'm pretty sure he already made a video about Archliches

[@satanic_panic666]

@@Truthliberation Nah, just checked

[@pouncerlion4022]

Don't forget Psionic liches, they also reach undeath through different means and don't need to feed souls to anything. It's one of those "too stubborn to die...properly" issues.

[@blueflameking]

Yes! came here to say exactly this. Love a good Archlich I've got a recurring one in the game I'm currently running. They originally became an Archlich in order to keep a promise to an old friend and safeguard a powerful magic relic from the forces of evil. Then after the party from the original campaign they appeared in collected the relic they wanted to take some time to enjoy the mortal plane for a bit before passing on. Sort of like an undead retirement. BUT, while they were trying to enjoy post plot point unlife background and foreground plot stuff kept happening to them. They want so badly to move on now but these damn lifebags cannot get their shit together long enough to not need him for some minor inconvenience that somehow ties him to the mortal realm for another 1000 years

[@onionknight8128]

The only reason I became a lich was to annoy my elf neighbors and their descendants.

[@philiphockenbury6563]

Valid

[@skitariiranger4346]

The correct reason

[@bkane573]

And suddenly all lichens are good.

[@sasquatch8245]

Based lich

[@connormcgehee9349]

Now I'm just imagining a human lich dancing on his elven druid enemies grave after 10k years

[@L4g__]

I made a good lich in a campaign and his reason was that a few centuries before he was born the Lord of his town sold the souls of everyone from the town for the rest of time to a devil for power. The lich found out about it and studied arcane magic to try and break the deal and in that time he converted himself into a lich to prevent the towns folk from being sent to hell as well as reanimating corpse snd skeletons to do menial tasks like working fields and protecting the town. He also brings in tourism with his "Evil lair" where adventures can "fight" him and then get "i defeated a lich t-shirts" from the gift shop and he pays taxes on everything as well

[@starbomber]

Brings new meaning to the phrase "live long enough to see yourself become the villain"

[@unknownchicken2284]

Could be you're Some anti hero. Hunting down the wicked who deserve to be fed to the just

[@NoName-sv7pp]

That was exactly the original meaning, minus the lich part. I still liked your comment.

[@onionknight8128]

Insanity will be the last of your worries.

[@abdallahhakeem5185]

​@@unknownchicken2284 Till you run out of the wicked and your phylactery is running oh so low... ...the souls of potential criminals and petty thieves start looking real juicy...

[@Morethanannoyed]

dont forget baelnorn - good elven liches raised with the blessings of the Seldarine

[@danqarious4733]

I came here to say this!!!

[@shanem8145]

Same

[@roosterdf]

Same

[@RedLithic]

They're positive energy undead and they're specifically bound to important places or items ala the grail knight in last crusade.

[@robertalexander5892]

I was looking for this comment, as it was the first thing I thought of.

[@austa10]

Good Litch idea: A grand wizard feels desperate to conduct the ritual, giving him the power to do good. It turns him into a Litch but has major reprocussions to others. Casting himself out of society, he does good deeds in the shadows while only taking willing souls for favors in order to keep himself alive.

[@rellix6528]

I love that, the Hidden Guardian

[@Startbreak12]

Forgive me for having a turn at grammar nazi, but... While Lich is traditionally pronounced lit-ch, the proper spelling is/has been L-I-C-H. No T. And yes, I have heard some places pronounce it similarly to lick. Always "hit the ear wrong" to me.

[@vhirtue0594]

I feel like you could make a ends justify the means type character like they need the power and longevity lichdom offers to beat a greater evil though I don't know what alignment they would be not lawful good as they will sacrifice people but not lawful evil as there end goal is to save the world so maby lawful neutral

[@killerabbit003]

There's a lich you can encounter in Princes of the Apocalypse that had something similar happen. I'm fuzzy on the details, but he and his brother were part of a fighting force who was about to be overrun. They conducted the ritual and he became a lich. However his brother and many others still died. Now he can be found keeping to himself and researching in the Sacred Stone Monastery

[@ChannelOfJoris]

It's also cool because you can let the party hear rumours about cultists and they'll immediately think they're evil, so when they're asked to join they can seize the opportunity to infiltrate only to slowly learn through secrets and espionage that they're actually the good guys

[@heysamuelhere2733]

Perhaps a high magic kingdom could have a lich royal mage that doubles as the local executioner. Feeding his phylactery that way. Definitely and idea I'll keep in mind for a high magic setting.

[@JainZar1]

Make the Lich the head of a vigilante group, that aims to kill villains permanently, so they can't be resurrected. After all, you can't resurrect someone who doesn't have a soul.

[@tscaglione131]

That is a cool idea, but Archliches (Good Liches) don't use phylacteries. They just use magic items to store their souls iirc

[@satibel]

Imagine a lich who's phylactery is a guillotine blade.

[@biggswigg2613]

Was seconds away from commenting this very idea.

[@TheAchilles26]

Feeding souls to the phylactery is SO MUCH worse than just killing them

[@IzzyOrnitier]

Obligatory message: Baelnorns are basically the equivalent of a good lich

[@zujujjj]

Also archlich

[@griffinmckenzie7203]

Yes, but with the drawback of only being elves. Gross.

[@immortalstar0138]

@@griffinmckenzie7203 found the dwarf

[@griffinmckenzie7203]

@@immortalstar0138 I got a whole page in the Book ready for you of you mean that in a bad way, Umgi.

[@timseyer6769]

I just realized that your videos are so enchanting in part to the fact that your lighting setup gives your eyes a kind of special glow. Kind of like galadriel in LOTR.

[@laughingbuddha5427]

It's a light ring, and they definitely give a cool reflection in the eyes!

[@diogoteixeira4950]

I had this idea about a Lich that is the emperor of a country that uses the souls of the criminals that would be executed to fill his Phylactery

[@travisperkins9920]

So the god emperor from wh40k?

[@thedyingmeme6]

​@@travisperkins9920 oh Big E doesnt eat criminals' souls he eats psyker souls But yeah TTS Magnus called him a lich so

[@TinyBitMouse01]

That is pretty lawful Evil. I don't imagine many "Good" aligned societes siding with execution of criminals

[@Mastikator]

If you turn criminals into food for your emperor you're going to start finding reasons to make new criminals, or just convict innocent people.

[@hulmhochberg8129]

​@@TinyBitMouse01 well execution maybe, but feeding the very souls to something? Thats truly evil. I cant imagine a society with enough criminals, that are soo evil they would deserve that, to sustain a lich.

[@Sdogofdoom]

Had a neat idea for an npc in our dnd setting. A lich who had become so solely through defeating bandits/evil people, who is seen by the population at large as a "good guy". He sets up orphanages with his vast wealth, these orphanages teach the children how to become adventurers with a kind of do-good boyscouty feel. He helps kingdoms settle disputes, but otherwise roams the world with his horde of followers/undead running almost an eternal carnival. There are games and prizes but also the largest magic item emporium. For all his "good reputation" however, he is actually what i would call "practical evil", in that he does not care for the lives of others and would kill anyone without any real hesitation, but he has a goal. He wants to absorb all of the knowledge of the cosmos, and to become as powerful as possible in the process. He realized that, as both a single entity and an immortal, two things were true. One, he couldn't be everywhere and do everything on his own, and two, he had plenty of time to achieve his goals. And so he realized that if he were to maintain an almost holy reputation while also being incredibly generous, he could invite people to sell him whatever rare books or scrolls they found. He could pay them handsomely, let them go, and over time his money would always return to him. The orphanages teach the children to adventure so that they will delve into dungeons and seek out knowledge for him, his deals with kingdoms inevitably result in access to their libraries and records. So in the end, everything he does is for the selfish and evil goal of becoming some kind of god, and yet all the practical effects of his existence are good.

[@ZarHakkar]

he just like me fr fr

[@Waggleton.p.tallylicker]

I remember in an online DnD game I play during the Amber Temple portion of Ravenloft there's a forgetful lich you have to help out in regaining his memory and he ends up being a pretty chill guy who just hangs out in a lab all day and doesn't attack you.

[@eldritch-tailedfeydeer7320]

A good lich is one thing. Now imagine a lawful good Tarrasque king. That’s an idea I have for one of my own campaigns that I would like to run someday.

[@Guille2033]

Impossible. A Tarrasque is non sentient (basically an animal) so it's cannot be lawful nor chaotic (heck, the stat block even states it's unaligned). It also doesn't have a concept or good not evil. It destroys everything it comes across because that's just its nature

[@AnathemaMysticalcel]

So Godzilla....

[@eldritch-tailedfeydeer7320]

@@Guille2033 Well, I was thinking that in the campaign the tarrasque would come into contact with some kind of artifact that would bless it with intellect and morality, but if said artifact were ever stolen, it could revert to its primal ways. That would then be a main focus of the campaign, either retrieving it or making sure that it doesn't get stolen in the first place. (Yes, I do know that the tarrasque has a resistance to magic. Resistance does not necessarily equate to immunity. This spell would most likely have targeted its Intelligence or Wisdom. Intelligence is by far its worst stat with a -4 modifier and its Wisdom has no modifier at all, so this hypothetical spell/artifact could have a chance of working even with the Tarrasque's advantage.) The campaign would mainly just be a fun "What if?" story. "What if a tarrasque was a good guy? A king even?" It's a fun, cool gimmick for the players to ponder and explore. Sure, it couldn't ever canonically happen in the world of D&D, but that's what homebrew is for, after all. It's not canon, so I don't think it would hurt to flex the rules just a tiny bit to have an interesting story.

[@fanusobscurus4309]

So here's where I mention the fact that there is infact canoni ally an entire world full of intelligent tarrasques from back in the Spelljammer days. Pretty sure there's even a portal to it in Dungeon of the Mad Mage

[@beastwarsFTW]

Was the Tarrasque cut off from nitrogen? Because that's what makes them into mindless rampaging gluttons. Honestly that could be a plot point on they they can't fix everything, he can't leave the palace unless he specifically wants something destroyed or else he will loose control until someone knocks him out and brings him to his nitrogen free palace.

[@pieboygames]

I've always had an idea for a revenant knight who is on a quest to slay the wizard who cursed him with undeath. The finale of his story would be confronting the Wizard, now lich, and finding out that he is indeed the Lich's philachtery. The moral conundrum for the party would be, do we let our friend destroy himself to end the lich, or do we find another way?

[@kalamander8563]

That's actually an awesome idea

[@JackDesert]

@@kalamander8563 had a similar one before. It was an Npc they had to escort and yes I did roll for him in clear view. But the party found out the guy was a mobile phylactery. Not one turn more from that revaluation did the barbarian do his best to kill him. The others were stunned. They liked the guy as he was a lead to various treasures. But the player said "he is weaker than the lich... Faster victory .

[@justaneedlessboi6710]

Sounds like you're ripping off Harry Potter

[@nightxsabbath]

I know I'm older editions there used to be what were known as Baelnorn, a type of elven undead that were similar to a lich but generally did not require the use of a phylactery. They were generally made by a High Magic or divine ritual, and they often did so to serve or safeguard their families, communities, or important places, and acted as keepers and protectors of elven clans and holdings far beyond the lifespan of a living elf.

[@brainymapache]

I love them, they are awesome

[@redtexan7053]

I have a good lich in my homebrew campaign. He was part of an adventuring party that saved the world like a thousand years ago, and since the evil they faced was never completely destroyed, he decided to become a lich so that he could ensure the world would be prepared when it returned. He’s partners with an Ancient Silver Dragon and an Enlightened Tortle Monk. My players loved these guys.

[@turtleinvader2982]

In a book monster's of feuran it mentioned a species of good liches but as a note 1: These were very rare. 2: They usually had the process forced upon them 3: This book was for 3.0/3.5. Back then the phylactory didn't need souls to work, it would just work by default.

[@LastOptionPils]

Baelnorn elf liches.

[@turtleinvader2982]

@@LastOptionPils that was one of them but in pretty sure they're was a more general version

[@patricgillespie2128]

You either die the villain, or live long enough to see yourself turn into a hero.

[@alexismarchand105]

The “good” Lich: “I exist out of pure spite because I’m not dying until the BBEG, who backstabbed me, dies first!!!”

[@oneleghendo5239]

We had the approximation of a super hero in one campaign who turned out to be a lich. He was an adventurer(the DM’s old PC) from a previous campaign who’s family was killed by a sociopathic leader of a crime syndicate(who was an elf disguised as a human) while he was out saving the world from whatever. He devoted what was left of his life to planning his revenge, and 300 years later he was dismantling the crime syndicate, brutally. After the BBRG was ended, he willfully handed us his phylactery to destroy.

[@WayonHardee]

Elves had a form of lichdom called bealnorn. They closely resembled a lich but no phylactery. They were of any non-evil alignment and they kept all their skills.

[@jp1116]

I remember someone used a disease that reached haveic across the land. The gods had abandoned them, and one necromancer was working to help Using skeletons to work the fields and tend to Graves. Eventually teaching others how to do so for when he passed himself Then, he caught the disease. Making everyone panic. They begged and begged for a way to keep their savior until he finally snapped and told them how. And they said "ok we'll do it." The ruitual was different (a child sacrifice) His grand daughter walked up as a willing sacrifice. In the end the dm taught the players that "no in this story you are the bbeg. You ruined this world by killing all the necromancer and burning every town, those left alive will starve by winter."

[@johnanderson3559]

Were you guys given info about the lich before you guys murdered him?

[@MonkeSeeMonkeLaugh]

That's a very interesting premise.

[@jp1116]

@@johnanderson3559 nope The party ignored the dms narration and world lore. Saw undead and killed them until they made there way to the capital

[@MikeAsbestos]

Heard a story from a friend about a good lich. He had started off evil, but over time had grown to learn empathy. He created a large community and used his tremendous power to give them long, happy lives. He collected souls from volunteers, and let them know the full implications of what they were offering before he accepted. Volunteers became immortalized within the community and revered as heroes. It was a very challenging moral situation for the party, especially because the lich was upfront about everything. He didn't try to hide what he was, how he sustained himself, or his past sins. He didn't want to invite conflict into his community, and politely asked the adventurers to behave themselves. Even the people in the community understood their situation and explained that they stayed by choice. How do you take issue with someone like that?

[@nLinggod]

Killing someone specifically to eat their soul is still evil even if you convince them to agree to it. Otherwise all those cult leaders irl who convinced their members to consent to horrible things arent evil either.

[@MikeAsbestos]

@@nLinggod I'd argue this isn't at all like cult leaders. Cult leaders manipulate desperate people using deceit and psychological tricks for their own gain. This lich is living a life of altruism, only accepting what is offered to him and only if the person fully understands the actual implications of the decision they're making. I don't think the lich in his canon functioned 1:1 with the ones in official canon either. He'd only take souls of people who were already dying and only if they agreed to it. It left him much weaker than a normal lich you'd encounter. Homebrew stuff 🤷

[@MikeAsbestos]

@@nLinggod Also, I never argued it wasn't evil, I just said it was a difficult moral situation for the party

[@ardenhayle7825]

What if you had a lich graveyard keeper, who lived a horrible life as a wizard and was always told they would die to an unmarked grave. So they instead opened a magical assisted graveyard, where they would use the souls to aid them in living on, while providing a home to the souls of the forgotten?

[@axelnext779]

A phylactery devours the souls it consumes, so you could it’s just your then consuming them and the only way I can see that character as good is if they were unaware which calls into question how they managed to become a lich as it requires extreme levels of knowledge on souls and magic. In addition to obtain the knowledge necessary usually it the kind of dedication to live(or fear of death) that will drive someone almost single-minded lay down that path. Sorry for the wall of text just love lichs and interesting characters/mechanics of a world.

[@darcraven01]

so i started to write a book.. while doing so i was going to have a "good lich". the idea is that he started out as an unwilling lich (was forced into becoming one as his home village needed him aid and he was dying of a curse. while not able to lift the curse he was able to alter it to turn him into a lich so he could "live" on to assist his village). he didnt want to feed his phylactery souls and looked into other things that may work. he discovered that high magic regions (such as where ley lines cross) were powerful enough to force pure magic into his phylactery to sustain him. this actually changed his undead state, grew skin back on him, and turned him into more of a magical entity rather than an undead one. this interested him and he ran tests. he only maintained his new form if the phylactery stayed in the high magic region, else he reverted to the boney undead lich state. all this is to say that a version of this could be used for a good lich in dnd

[@mechametalhead]

We had an Elf that was actually a Lich. He was a part of a sect of Monks and Clerics, one of his members started working with necromancy and our PC had interrupted the ceremony at the last moment. Although the PC had become the target of the ritual, he had kept his heart and faith in his deity. The deity gave him an amulet that helped him keep his sanity, change into humanoid forms, and he was able to keep his spells.

[@valvatorezsardine1881]

A good lich that runs a top of the line hotel that only eats the souls of their most vile customers.

[@theemmjay5130]

As someone who worked in a hotel for twelve years, I approve.

[@powerplayer5465]

When I DMd CoS, I made Exethanter a good lich. Strahd was the problem. The souls that were in his phylactory were the souls of his wizard comrades that either died becoming a lich, died from the dark powers, or over time as Exethanter was defending and guarding the ancient tower he was in. Other souls that died from coming to Barovia were also sucked in sometimes, but it was all so the lich could continue his job of not letting more of the dark powers out. It was a fun RP when my party found it out 😁

[@andrewgause6971]

The elves have an entire "subset" of normally good aligned liches called Baelnorns. They lack some of a lich's powers at the tradeoff of not having to feed souls to the phalactary. The reason they stick around is usually serving as an eternal guardian/watchdog for their family. Basically, he or she is that cool aunt/uncle that brings the weird gifts at parties and make sure no one causes too much of a ruckus. At the tradeoff of, well, being undead.

[@sleepyspartan1367]

Honestly. This is like my good deathknight concept. The idea that a Paladin chose to be a death so they would be immortal and carry out their paladic oath until that oath is no longer needed. The only issue would be they'd lack the humanity they had and would become a representation of their oath then a Paladin carrying out their oath

[@janschievink1586]

The soy Paladin fears they will die before completing their oath does magical ritual to become Undead. The Chad Paladin pursues oath to fervently to even feel the march of time or the oncoming of age dies resurrects as a revenant immediately due to sheer force of will. fully sentient and emotion experiencing Undead time!!!

[@sleepyspartan1367]

@@janschievink1586 I love that.

[@janschievink1586]

​@@sleepyspartan1367 is on board flaming skeleton Justice time baby!!!

[@sleepyspartan1367]

@@janschievink1586 just the idea "even in death I serve"

[@peccator821]

Quick question, do they have to be the souls of people? Or can it just be a bunch of livestock, I don't know why but I really want to make a farmer lich who just wants to keep farming for his town

[@theemmjay5130]

I'm not familiar with that particular area of D&D lore, but I'd imagine that only sapient creatures have souls.

[@larrylightfoot22222]

While you don't have to repeatedly feed it good souls, a phylactery does require a single good soul sacrificed for its creation, if I recall

[@venusianblivet9518]

Just find someone who’s positive impact on the world would less than the positives of your immortality for the world, and you’re still good from a utilitarian perspective. If you’re not a utilitarian maybe you’d want to find someone suicidal or someone who fears the afterlife, or someone willing to trade their soul for something else if you wouldn’t find that exploitative.

[@stefanofalzari6623]

There is a good lich template in Libris Mortis (pg. 156) which is 3.5 edition There is also the Baelnorn, which is a good-aligned elf lich also found in Faerun.

[@ZamboniZone]

3.5 had a good litch template as well as the Ilthid-litch. In the forgotten realms handbook, it was stated that occasionally a wizard may want to further master a school of magic or perserve some manner of knowledge. Also, in 3.5 phalacteries did not need to be fed souls, they just needed to be hidden and be near a corps

[@doomsdayng]

Back in 3.5 Forgotten Realms, there was a sub-type of lich whose name I forget that were Elven Liches who decided that their already long lives would not be enough to serve their people, and became Liches in order to be lorekeepers and guardians of magic sites. There were a couple of them that were big NPCs in Myth Drannor, protecting libraries and helping adventurers.

[@doomsdayng]

Baelnorns, that was them! Baelnorns are the good Elven liches.

[@N008Nightmare]

In one campaign i played in, due to some unfortunate rolls on both party and DM side, my character (a chaotic good wizard) ended up as the only survivor of a battle. We had been fighting the second in command of a cabal of slave traders who had ties to the bbeg, and had information regarding a key weakness for the main guy. I managed to get the info before he died. Unfortunately, in this campaign resurrections were considered an affront to the natural order so no clerics would resurrect my party, and as there was a hard time limit before the bad guy took over the continent i had to plan for a rebellion that might take a while to occur. So i capitalized off the fact that my whole party was assumed dead and began looking into ways to extend my life so that i could aid in bb's defeat. Which naturally ended up with my character as a lich (since resurrection wasn't on the table intelligent undeath seemed like the best alternative). I fed my phylactery the souls of slave traders and bandits until eventually (almost a year irl) the new party came looking for the info. Because of the motivation, as well as how i fed my phylactery, when the cleric cast detect evil i did not show up on it, despite having been undead at this point for something like 80 years in game. Course once the bbeg died i helped the new party destroy my phylactery so that i could finally die having avenged my party and ensured the downfall of a tyrant bent on multiplanar destruction. In short, the goal wasnt immortality, but duty, and by holding true to that i avoided falling into evil despite becoming a lich.

[@talinpeacy7222]

This reminds me of one of my favorite TBS games "battle for westeros" where a guy becomes a lich in one of the campaigns to send undead armies at the orcs who would constantly attack his homeland and raze cities. He ends up waging an "eternal war" against them while "heros" of the "good" races keep sending armies to try and eradicate him for being evil. The stories in that game are incredible and I wish it got more love these days but it's stayed pretty niche despite all the mods and custom games people have made for it.

[@ts25679]

The was some lore about high elf liches who defend their civilisations or the Feywild from evil, who use a slightly different process to become "good liches", but they were essentially pariahs since the had to hid their undead nature.

[@edoherty9097]

Offhand I kinda remember reading (in 3E I think) that some elves became liches to be the elder /patron/whatever of their family.

[@jurekovacic1739]

We have that in 5e too. I think they are called Baelron

[@edoherty9097]

@@jurekovacic1739 Definitely sounds Elvish.

[@macoppy6571]

This is the entire premise of the Undying Court of the Arenal elves in the Eberron setting. They are more like mummies than liches, but the comparison holds.

[@hondaaccord1399]

Antihero Lich who wanders the globe slaughtering villains 👀

[@BIacklce]

"I want to live forever so friendship can be never ending"

[@redpolscorp]

A Lich working for the king. There is a worse punishment than death in the Kingdom: Getting your soul offered to the Lich. 😂

[@cadenz7719]

There’s a Lich NPC in my campaign 3rd son of the first king of the country. Surviving because he wants to outlast his father’s kingdom, but wants it to collapse in on itself. He resides in lawless town where him and his guard are the only safe ones. He retains his sovereignty because he is a prince and can’t be taken out of power. Also how he gains souls is he let’s a purge occur every month on the full moon. So it’s a safe haven for a bunch of lycanthropes who get to go feral on the full moon with no repercussions.

[@berserkervtuber6285]

I can see a Lich studying a specific cure for a village who, once they've discovered it, would willingly release the magics of Lichdom seeing the task completed.

[@mistermacabre2564]

The setting for a campaign I ran was a sort of unexplored island continent inhabited by a bunch of different kinds of people. My personal favorite were the Ash Elves. They lived in a dusty wasteland after being freed from their captivity as necromancy test subjects, but in the wasteland, they made use of one of the only tools they had to survive, that being the undead. All that to say, one of their main lines of defense was an extremely powerful lich that used the souls of their enemies to keep themself alive. The elves saw this as one of the highest duties a person could carry, and the lich was always treated with the upmost respect and reverence.

[@t3nryu31]

A good follow up to this one would be Baelnorn elves who become liches usually to guard something

[@IaconDawnshire]

Me who would become a Lich: I need to finish my backlog

[@SteelySam]

This made me chuckle

[@silence_dais]

I can see being a wholesome good Lich that wants to see their descendants grow up, being kind of a protector that devours the souls of those that try to harm it's loved ones but having to stay away from them as well because you know...they're undead and kind of scary looking.

[@TheAzrael666death]

I read a novel where the MC goes to a wizard/knight school and the principal was a lich. Maybe the pursuit of arcane knowledge and it's spread is a nice angle for a "good lich"

[@iampierce7474]

A good reason to stick around indefinitely could be that only this lich has the knowledge required to stop a certain evil entity and they can’t actually communicate the method to stopping it due to a curse so they have to do it themselves

[@matthewreed5117]

I wrote a post apocalyptic setting where the planes collided and the gods were either killed or stripped of power, one of the surging settlements decided they needed a protector and chose a pure hearted mage to become a guardian lich who would then turn the bodies of the deceased into guardians for the city. After so many years as an undead guard the citizens would get to rest. They whole settlement made this deal in order to continue living in this horrible world, and it was working. The good hearted lich king protected them and the in turn willingly powered the phylacteries and gave their undead bodies for the future generations to thrive.

[@mattmade94]

I'm imagining a spaghetti western scene in a town run by a sheriff who is actually a lich. Each time trouble rolls into town, he takes care of it in a shootout at high noon and then uses their soul to extend his life as a lich.

[@MrClawBoy]

In earlier editions there was an Elven Lich who was gifted undeath by the Elven pantheon an eternal guardian. Plus there was We Jhas who was a good aligned undead themed diety.

[@markchapman8253]

I could see it as Grim Reaper style creature helping people move on

[@Unlockingparadoxes]

Much love and respect to you and your channel SteelySam.

[@duphasdan]

I think it is possible. I once saw a wholesome comic where a person enjoyed being a grandpa and taking care of the grandkids so much that he became a lich just to keep doing that with each new generation. Such a kind person popular with the kids, playing toys and games with them.

[@drzoamon]

I'm actually running a Undead who is a Life Domain cleric and party healer. He is currently studying to become a Lich because he believes it will lead to a greater understanding in the balance between life and death.

[@jcmohr]

One character I made is a Shadow Sorceror whose great-great-great-great-grandfather is still around, and he's a pretty decent guy as far as liches go. He became undead to ensure he could continue protecting his family and descendants after he became cursed, which doomed his descendants to be afflicted by evil forces for generations, hence why he continues existing, feeding the souls of those who try harming his cursed family to their phylactery.

[@MrVideo540]

I like the thought of someone becoming a Lich, only to regret it immediately and wants to spend eternity helping others to atone for their sins against the gods

[@robertmorrison5731]

I actually have a NPC lich named Sago Illgem the Immortal Tome who does exactly this. He's the head wizard at a Collage that teaches all who arrive. He had become a Lich to ensure that no information and myths of the land fade into obscurity, in addition to hunting down any of his students who abuse their power for the wrong reasons. I did a bit of lore altering and made it that he was among the founding Red Wizards, but left after many fanatics bagan to corrupt the true intentions of the group. As for how he gets his souls, he has earned the favor of many kingdoms in the area. Instead of public executions, they are soul sucked without the public's knowledge and given a burial with no headstone

[@BackFiredProd]

I have a feeling that a 'good Lich' is a prime example of 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions'

[@ZattNam]

I liked in 3.5 they introduced the Belnorn (sp?) Which was an elf lich that voluntarily became a lich to guard the tombs of their ancestors.

[@rheafonfabre]

There's a guy in a campaign I'm in who used to be a lich but he became one by accident. So he was actually a pretty chill dude.

[@kingasparagoose6849]

A lich veterinarian that stays to look after animals who have been injured and either rescue them or help them pass on

[@GreycatRademenes]

In the Princes of the Apocalypse you meet a good Lich - Renwick Caradoon.

[@drako7222]

Motive could be: wanting to be a guiding, helping hand in the background to elevate humanity to greatness and destroy evil

[@Aerowarrier]

I could see like a lawful neutral Lich that’s a vigilante and feels like their work is never done so they can’t let themselves pass on

[@heyitskae]

I was in a campaign where myself and the other players came across a town that was being run by a Lich mayor. This mayor used almost every moment of their entire day helping out the people in need, drawing on their immense power and centuries of knowledge to construct better buildings, repair damages, heal the sick, cook extravagant food, etc. When the question of where the souls went, they responded that the people of the town accepted that the Lich spends every minute of every day making their material lives better that they offer their dead in tribute. That one took a while to come to grips with.

[@treyatkinson7564]

Aaaand this is why you serve a death god, and become a mummy lord instead lol

[@itsninjaboy7985]

I've actually been thinking of adding a Litch to my game as a random NPC. He once was a powerful Litch that was able to obtain immortality, but he's been alive for so long he got bored of ruling, ditched his powers and now just chills in a little village.

[@joshwalton25]

Yes. 3.5 had a template for creating a Good-aligned Lich, powered by positive energy. Iirc, you still had to start as a regular Lich.

[@tordlindgren2123]

"for the greater good! Long live the empire!" Is something I can see happening.

[@alpha_mist2839]

I’ve had several nights of thought on this and came to a simple conclusion based on a idea. Fiends and Celestials have souls, and therefore could be fed to a phylactery, if you can catch the soul before it escapes to plane of origin. This of course works both ways as you could have a good aligned lich feeding souls of Fiends to their phylactery, or a particularly evil one who thinks himself too good for mortal souls and desires the souls of Celestials. You are welcome to make a short or comment debating this with me.

[@connormcguire484]

Hey, this was a great short! Quick & to the point, with just enough “but technically” details to keep it interesting. Good stuff, dude.

[@jacktheripper7735]

I actually had this idea a while back, but it never came to fruition because my wizard died for the reasons she wanted to become a Lich in the first place. She sacrificed herself to save the party and it was for that reason, that she wanted to become a Lich, so that she could protect her friends and have the strength to do it.

[@Legion69420]

I have had an idea in my head that a Phylactery doesn't *need* souls to run on, but would still need something to power it. Most Liches opt for soul stealing because it's the easiest and fastest way to ensure you live longer. But I had an idea for a Lich whose Phylactery was hidden in their garden, feeding off the ambient plant life. The garden is large, and requires almost constant maintenance, so the Lich's free time consists of caring for the plants. (The phylactery has a side effect of killing off weeds.) The Lich isn't a bad person, rather an herbalist who cares so deeply for plants that they've made a collection. And they want to live long enough to be able to grow every plant that has ever existed right in their own home. The creatures that serve this Lich have no ill intent, either, maintaining the Lich's garden home in their absence, or fetching plants and other agricultural items for them.

[@Sarge1886]

Reminds me of that lich from konosuba. He was already immortal but got desperate defending his hometown and raised enough undead to qualify.

[@peterlane7128]

Good to see you Sam, youtube's algorithm hasn't been sliding your vids my way in a while

[@conner121100]

We actually had this in our campaign, not sure about the souls bit, but the lich was created in a last ditch attempt to seal away a great evil, now, thousands of years later, the lich exists only to hold back this thing from escaping. Unfortunately he is fading, and his memory is almost lost, he lives in an enchanted hidden crypt and created a city shielded with strong enchantments that probably prevent his detection from holy gods. Quite a fun twist from our DM and it was pretty cool to play around

[@abj6920]

For a school campaign I made the principal a lich who was just a wizard very dedicated to education and keeping children safe in a world raveged by monsters. There was actually a whole thing where he had sort of accepted death because he couldn't find anyone he hated enough to feed their souls to his philactery, so the teachers were scrambling looking for evil people so that he'd stick around for longer. The hole school was basically "what if the cult trying to get their leader to lichhood was actually just former adventurers who were fed up with the system and wanted to make a stable life for their children?". Also, obviously this was a secret, and the viceprincipal was doing all the public apperances while the lich handled security, reasources and actually teaching next level magic to kids. In case it wasn't clear, the party was students who saw their teachers kidnapping inmocent looking criminals and the like, all the intrigue of "us vs grown ups"... Oh, also, the lich had chosen to make his skeleton appear pink so that it wasn't as scary looking (it didn't super work, but he was making an effort)

[@throg4657]

i could see a situation where a wizard volunteers to become a lich in order to spend eternity watching over some ancient threat or something being a good basis for a atleast non-evil lich

[@Devils7thstring]

SPACE CLOWNS PLLEEEEAAAAASSSEEEE

[@jackthegeat2234]

A creative way of doing this would be some apocalyptic event destroyed a city, and a wizard, in his final moments, felt an intense, limitless well of magic, not realizing it was the thousands of souls from the people in the city who had just died. The wizard pulled all this energy and, storing it in his staff, felt something leave him at the same time. He had become a lich by pure dumb luck, and now moves forward, determined to find the cause of his people’s destruction before allowing himself to move on.

[@TheScottishKayaker]

Please sir do Living spells! Others need to know there can be a castle beset by a mysterious antimagic field is actually filled to the brim with counter spells that roam the halls canceling magic for giggles.

[@timwrigley102]

Dr Doom as a lich.

[@caffeinatedentropy8391]

I once had a litch that was not good but they were also not evil. They were created from the idea of Voldamorts fear of death as inspiration. He grew up constantly seeing death and the painfull ways people have passed on while also aspiring to see the world grow and flourish and wanting to see it with his own eyes and help it if he can. Through this desire he found necromancy and as a result litchdom. He was disgusted at it in his youth but as his clock of life kept ticking he became more and more aware of his mortality. He had tutored many a great people in the world and became known as a wise old man. It isn't till one of his closest students dies trying to stop an evil tyrant that he hits his breaking point and performs the act of becoming a litch. Not just to guide the world and help heros flourish but to be the final stopping block for any who would seek to rip the world apart. Using the sound of the heros who pass due to evil and the souls of said evils to keep him alive.

[@iang257]

Be a good Lich to spite the gods due to a personally vendetta against them

[@erinjohnson8737]

One DM I played under had a city whose protector was a good lich. He was skeletal but had his bones etched and inlaid with gold and silver and always wore nice robes. No decaying about him. There were always monsters, bandits, and other nasties trying to attack the city since it was on a large vein of precious metals and gems. This allowed him to gain the souls he needed for his phylactery without endangering the innocent

[@finnmchugh99]

In the Mad Mage adventure module there is a Transmutation wizard lich that doesn't look lichy with wings and youthful appearance etc. Also iirc there's a bunch of elves that have a way to become liches as a way of being librarians or guardians of significant culture

[@logicallayman2267]

Baelnorns are good elf lives created through High Magic and not Dark Magic, therefore not requiring a phylactery normally and those that did never needed souls. Furthermore being a Baelnorn was an honor as they were chosen after much consideration to be a guardian, lorekeeper, or mentor to their people and were, though rare, generally welcome in elf society (though they themselves sequestered out of respect of their appearance). Most notably they are so good and beneficial that the Church of Kelemvor does not require their destruction.

[@frill2578]

Fear of the after life, they hate every moment of it but their fear keeps them from dieing

[@silentcalling]

This reminds me of a story I read on reddit, of a campaign of murder hobos the DM wanted to teach a lesson. The gist is, they were chasing their own growing bounty, never realizing they were the dreaded mercenaries plaguing this countryside, and the lich they killed at the end of the campaign didn't want to, but his homeland had been suffering a plague and he being the only doctor in town was desperately sought after. His own granddaughter offered her heart and soul to ascend him to lichdom so he could raise the dead to try helping stave off starvation for the dwindling few remaining. The corpse of his granddaughter was the first risen undead they slew.

[@jonathanmillis2015]

I outlined a campaign that I never ran, where one of the earlier 'bbegs' was a lich and they were a pretty typical villain. The party would kill the lich and stop it from raising an undead hoard, but never find the phylactery. In the next arc the party finds the lich's crypt and uses a resurrection stone to bring him back to life. As I ruled it, becoming a lich, turned the wizard evil but when he was turned back, he could guide the party to stop a world ending threat.

[@robertbadgley6291]

In the game I’ve been running since the pandemic, the parties patron has been a lich realigned by the deck of many things, who now wishes to share his gifts of immortality with those he deems worthy. The part of his soul inside the phylactery was out there before the alignment change. I wonder what’ll happen if the two are reunited. Nah, I’m sure that won’t happen.

[@philiphockenbury6563]

I actually came up with a npc character who is a good litch. He runs a literal ghost town full of the wayward undead and helps them to move on. He destroys anyone trying to just run in and level the place and gets rid of the real nasty undead, but is otherwise very chill and kind.

[@Unch0sen1]

Renwick Caradoon, the Snowcloak. Brother of the legendary knight Samular Caradoon. Renwick was a powerful wizard who created the lichnee potion to save his virtuous brother from death but his brother ultimately used it to save Renwick. He is lawful neutral and as of 1491 has sequestered himself from the world in a monastery deep in the dessarin hills.

[@superchrispiks]

My DM actually permitted me to be a Homebrew Lich called a Marrowkai. The phylactery rests in place of where the heart would be and they’re basically walking skeletons with red energy floating about them. His name was Aksis, sadly once my other character returned from his pilgrimage he had to get Oogway’d back to his home realm. Suffice to say, the party and even my DM appreciating my acting as Aksis, the tragic Marrowkai who never wanted to be what he is now, yet possibly has one of the most charismatic personalities in the party, even if the jovial, perhaps whimsical and chaotic side he portrays is mostly an act to hide his sadness.