A lich is an undead spellcaster, usually a wizard or sorcerer but sometimes a cleric or other spellcaster, who has used its magical powers to unnaturally extend its life. (SRD 3.5)
“Lich” is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid creature provided it can create the required phylactery. (SRD 3.5)
The process of becoming a lich is unspeakably evil and can be undertaken only by a willing character.
An integral part of becoming a lich is creating a magic phylactery in which the character stores its life force. (SRD 3.5)
Each lich must make its own phylactery, which requires the Craft Wondrous Item feat. The character must be able to cast spells and have a caster level of 11th or higher. The phylactery costs 120,000 gp and 4,800 XP to create and has a caster level equal to that of its creator at the time of creation. (SRD 3.5)
As the quintessential “self-made” undead, a lich is a spellcaster who becomes undead through a complex ritual that takes years of research and careful experimentation. This involves the creation of a phylactery, a vessel to contain the lich’s essence. (SRD 3.5)
The process requires Craft Wondrous Item, 120,000 gp, and 4,800 XP. Discovering the proper formulas and incantations to create a phylactery requires a DC 35 Knowledge (arcane) or Knowledge (religion) check. This check requires 1d4 full months of research. Note that this check represents starting from scratch and can be bypassed entirely if the knowledge is available (such as through a tome or tutor). (SRD 3.5)
Perhaps the most common form of the accompanying ritual for arcane liches—although not the only one—involves the spells create undead, magic jar, and permanency. (SRD 3.5)
When a dread necromancer attains 20th level, she undergoes a hideous transformation and becomes a lich. A dread necromancer who is not humanoid does not gain this class feature. (Heroes of Horror)
Liches surface from time to time as a result of Wizards of High Sorcery lured into false promises of power by Chemosh. (Bestiary of Krynn Revised)
Liches are characters who’ve voluntarily transformed themselves into undead, trapping their souls in skeletal bodies. (Complete Divine)
Many clerics of Chemosh hold their positions for generations, using their powers to cling to control even after death by transforming themselves into liches or other dread beings. (Dragonlance Campaign Setting)
They wish to enter the Necrotic Cradle to transform themselves into liches so that they need not fear sunlight, but they haven’t yet been able to get past the guardian. (Player's Handbook II)
The comparable rite for clerical liches involves create undead, harm, and unhallow. (Dragon 336)
The lich template class has two special requirements. First, the base character must have the Craft Wondrous Item feat so that she can make a phylactery to hold her life force. The would-be lich must craft her phylactery over time, as described below. Second, she must be able to cast spells at a caster level of 11th or higher. It is this power, coupled with the knowledge of the process required, that allows the transformation to occur. (Savage Progressions Lich and Weretiger Template Classes)
To complete her transformation to a lich, the character must create a phylactery using the Craft Wondrous Item feat. The phylactery is crafted in three stages, and the lich transfers a bit more of her life force to it at each stage. It does not, however, grant her any of the normal benefits of a phylactery until it is fully completed. (Savage Progressions Lich and Weretiger Template Classes)
Paying the cost of each stage of its construction is a prerequisite for the corresponding level in the lich template class. Thus, to take the 2nd level in this class, the lich must invest 40,000 gp and 1,600 XP in her phylactery. She must spend the same amount again to take the 3rd level, and once again to take the 4th level (for a total investment of 120,000 gp and 4,800 XP). She can complete the phylactery early if she wishes, though doing so does not grant her any additional abilities until she takes the appropriate levels in the template class. (Savage Progressions Lich and Weretiger Template Classes)
For the purpose of determining item saving throws, the phylactery has a caster level equal to that of the lich at the time she completed the most recent stage of work. For example, if a human wizard 11/lich 1 crafts the first stage of her phylactery, it is caster level 11th. She gains three more wizard levels before finishing the second stage of construction, giving it caster level 14th. At that point, she takes the 2nd level of the template class. She then takes one more level of wizard and completes the phylactery, which is thereafter caster level 15th. (Savage Progressions Lich and Weretiger Template Classes)
The most common physical form for a phylactery is a sealed metal box containing strips of parchment on which magical phrases have been transcribed. The box is a Tiny object with 40 hit points, hardness 20, and a break DC of 40. Other kinds of phylacteries can also exist, such as rings, amulets, or similar items. (Savage Progressions Lich and Weretiger Template Classes)
Perhaps the evil wizard discovered an ancient ritual that transformed him into a lich. (Villain Design Handbook)
The template system makes it easy to quickly create these special types and understand how they work, but there is little detail about the villain’s actual preparations to become such a creature. After all, the villain doesn’t just go down to his laboratory, drink a magic potion and instantly become a lich. It takes time, hard work and the use of unnatural magical powers. (Villain Design Handbook)
Once a villain makes this choice, he may seek one of many paths. One of the most straightforward is to use a miracle or wish spell. For reasons known only the Lord of the Underworld himself, the miracle or wish spell does not allow one to become a lich or a vampire, though it does allow one to become a “lower” form of undead, such as a zombie. (Villain Design Handbook)
Becoming a Lich (Villain Design Handbook)
To become a lich, the base creature must prepare his phylactery himself. This requires he begin with an object worth 120,000 gp. While he need not construct the entire object, he must participate in the creation, assisting the craftsman. Most often, the phylactery takes the form of a sealed metal box with strips of parchment holding magically transcribed phrases. At least one of these phrases must be a special, rare prayer to the Harvester of Souls. (Evil non-followers of the Bringer of the Grave have been known to kill for these prayers. Without this special prayer to Tellene’s god of the undead, the ritual is ineffective.) The box is typically attached to a leather strap to be worn on the forehead or arm. Whatever form the object takes, every aspect must be of the finest materials and workmanship. (The box phylactery is Tiny and has a Hardness of 20, along with 40 hit points and a Break DC 40.) The phylactery can also take the form of a ring, amulet or other object. (Villain Design Handbook)
Once the object is prepared, the potential lich applies his Craft Wondrous Item feat. It takes at least 12 days to complete the complex process of enchanting the phylactery, and uses all of the sorcerer or wizard’s spell slots from magic jar, permanency and possibly limited wish for that entire time. (Though clerics can become a lich through this process, the majority of those who attempt it are wizards or sorcerers.) (Villain Design Handbook)
The preparer may use outside help for reincarnation or raise dead (instead of limited wish). Usually this involves using a ring of spell storing. Another caster charges the desired spell into the ring and the creator of the phylactery then need only use it once, but thereafter that spell can never be placed in that ring of spell storing again. (Any attempt uses the spell slot, but has no effect.) (Villain Design Handbook)
THE FINAL STEP TO LICHDOM (Villain Design Handbook)
Additionally, the caster must have a certain potion for the final ceremony. Most casters refuse to leave the creation of such a potion to anyone else, but the imbiber need not be the one who brews it. The potion can be prepared up to one year before the final ceremony. It must be a lethal concoction, and all the following spells must then be cast upon it: permanency, chill touch, fear, hold monster, protection from energy (cold) and animate dead. (Villain Design Handbook)
The final rite is performed at midnight after the phylactery is complete. The base creature must find a secluded area (often an area cursed by the Harvester of Souls or one of his temples) and, with the phylactery within range of the magic jar, complete the process. This involves drinking the potion. The imbiber must make a Will save (DC 16). If he fails, he is permanently dead. If he succeeds (and the phylactery is not destroyed in the intervening time), he rises as a lich in 1d10 days. (Villain Design Handbook)
A few scholars have suggested that adding certain other spells to the concoction can grant the imbiber a bonus (and presumably also penalties) to his Will save. No villains volunteered for experimentation regarding this possibility (i.e. it is up to the DM). (Villain Design Handbook)
Prerequisites: Minimum 11th level sorcerer, wizard or cleric; Craft Wondrous Item feat; magic jar, permanency, reincarnate or raise dead or limited wish; GP Cost: 120,000 (phylactery, caster level = caster’s current level in the appropriate class); XP Cost: 4,800 XP. (Villain Design Handbook)
To become one, an evil spellcaster must knowingly consume a potion that will end his life only to resurrect him as an unliving vessel of pure evil. (Complete Guide to Liches)
Liches are powerful undead creatures – mortal wizards, warriors, and other beings of might who use the dark necromantic arts to make their spirits immortal. (Complete Guide to Liches)
No one knows for certain how the first liches came to be. (Complete Guide to Liches)
Sages say that the necromantic arts of lichdom came from failed sorcerous attempts to find immortality, or even godhood. (Complete Guide to Liches)
The creation of a lich requires a willing, living subject. (Complete Guide to Liches)
The process of becoming a lich is a dark and arduous one. The secrets and spells that must be learned in order to create a lich are numerous and difficult – it can take a lifetime alone just to learn all that is required. (Complete Guide to Liches)
In order to create a lich or a lich variant, two simple elements are essential above all others: a skilled spellcaster to create the lich, and a willing subject to become the lich. (Complete Guide to Liches)
The spellcaster can be any high-level spellcaster, including epic-level paladins and rangers. (Complete Guide to Liches)
Spellcasting: Caster level 11
Feats: Craft Wondrous Item
The subject must be a willing subject. Should the subject not truly desire to become a lich, or understand and object to the fact that becoming a lich involves actually dying and being reborn as an undead creature, the subject will never become a lich or lich variant. Suggestion, charm, or any other sorts of magic spells and psionics used to convince a subject that becoming a lich is a good idea are not enough, nor is misleading the subject about what the lich creation process entails. Only a subject that chooses to be a lich of his own free will can ever successfully become a lich. (Complete Guide to Liches)
Once both the spellcaster and the subject are ready and willing, a phylactery must be created to begin the process of lichdom. (Complete Guide to Liches)
Creating the phylactery requires the Craft Wondrous Item feat. This phylactery costs a minimum of 120,000 gp and 4,800 XP to create, and possesses a caster level equal to that of its creator when it is made. (Complete Guide to Liches)
With the phylactery (and, optionally, the vessel) in place, a ritual is required to bind the soul to the phylactery. Different cultures and magical traditions have developed slightly different rituals for spellcasters who wish to become liches. (Complete Guide to Liches)
The Potion of Undead Life: A potion of undead life slays the drinker unless he succeeds a Fortitude save (DC 20). A creature so slain cannot be brought back from the dead by anything short of a wish or miracle. If a creature has undergone the necessary ritual to bind its soul to a phylactery (and optionally, its mind to a vessel), the potion of undead life does not immediately slay the drinker; instead, it causes the creature’s physical body to rapidly decompose, turning into little more than dust and ash in less than two days. This is often to the horror of the lich, who cannot be certain the ritual was effective. But 1d10 days after the subject’s body drops dead from drinking a potion of undead life, he returns as a lich, looking very similar to the way he did in life. (Complete Guide to Liches)
Binding the Twin Winds: For this ritual, the prospective lich must find a windy cave, which acts as his phylactery. A ritual binds his soul to the cave, but to make the bonding permanent, he must die amid the cries of both mourning friends and victorious foes – the twin winds of the ritual. After the prospective lich takes its last living breath, his body is suffused with a black miasma of negative energy that slowly dissolves his body. Only once there are no breathing creatures within a hundred feet will the lich be reanimated. Though a difficult ritual to perform, the benefit is that the lich’s phylactery is nearly impossible to steal or destroy. Though the cave only has hardness 8, it has tens of thousands of hit points. (Complete Guide to Liches)
The Sultan’s Curse: A thousand years ago, the sultan of a desert nation was blessed by a djinni to be able to invoke a curse of his choice once during his reign. That curse was lain upon a foreigner who defiled the holiest city of the land, and he was struck down by a bolt from the heavens. But the foreigner’s magic allowed him to steal a bit of the divine essence of the lightning bolt, bonding his soul with the twisted glass created when the lightning seared the desert sands. His body reformed from the sands of where he died, and he lives to this day seeking revenge. Similarly, if a mage prepares the proper ritual, and if he is slain by a spell channeling positive energy, he can corrupt that energy and use it to propel himself into the undeath of lichdom. (Complete Guide to Liches)
The Diary of Riddles: Many loremasters, feeling their pursuit of knowledge is yet incomplete, craft textual phylacteries, recording in extreme detail the events of their lives, typically in a well-bound tome. The mage seeking to become immortal must include at least one mystery he seeks to solve in his undeath, though additional mysteries may later be added to the book. He then writes an account of his own death into the tome, at which point he dies, his soul binding with the pages. (Complete Guide to Liches)
the sorcerer or wizard with an unnatural lifespan has been the subject of tales and fables throughout the ages; a thousand, thousand stories hint at their dark beginnings. One of the best known tales tells the story of the Cabal of Unsleep – a cabal of wizards who worked towards the single goal of immortality. (Kobold Quarterly 3)
The Cabal ruled kingdoms eons ago, and all its members were tyrants of renowned cruelty. While they waged war with each other on the surface – they secretly held true as a brotherhood, using their squabbles to gain influence in other lands until, at last, no part of the world was untouched by their icy fingers. This cabal, it is rumored, were among the first to discover the Dreadful Pact and thus were the first liches. (Kobold Quarterly 3)
Liches are created, not born, and their only method of reproduction is the creation of a new lich. (Kobold Quarterly 3)
The lich monster description casually mentions that the process of becoming a lich is unspeakably evil, and that it can only be undertaken by a willing character. In his great work Arcanum, Manse Hoff describes three methods through which a lich can be created, although he hints that some three dozen methods were once catalogued in the great Monstorum Sorcerus. The three known to most are the Dreadful Pact, the Hideous Sacrifice, and the Ripping. (Kobold Quarterly 3)
The Dreadful Pact – in this method, the would-be-lich’s soul is ripped from the body and placed into the phylactery by the self-destruction of the spell caster. The caster creates the phylactery and takes his own life, hoping that the magic that he has used to make the phylactery is strong enough to draw the soul into it. (Kobold Quarterly 3)
This method is quick but has the drawback that unless the phylactery has been prepared perfectly, the soul of the caster is simply drawn away. Some surmise that souls drawn in this way do not simply pass onwards, but move to some unspeakable nether place where they spend eternity wandering in madness.
The Hideous Sacrifice – this method draws the soul into the phylactery through a variant of the magic jar spell. However, the lich-initiate must cast the spell at the precise moment of his death, and this requires extraordinary timing on behalf of the spellcaster. (Kobold Quarterly 3)
As a consequence, this method is the one most fraught with the chance for mishap - the soul can be drawn before death, trapping the caster in his own spell; the caster can fail to complete the spell and die prematurely, or (in the worst case) the caster’s soul is drawn into entirely the wrong place. In this last case, the lich might end up trapped within a nearby creature or object, such as an accomplice, building, or item. (Kobold Quarterly 3)
The Ripping – the most dreadful method requires a trustworthy and willing volunteer. The ripping is spiritual warfare; the soul is driven from the body into the phylactery through force of pain inflicted on the spellcaster. (Kobold Quarterly 3)
This method is the most sure of success, but it is also the longest and most painful, and requires extraordinary determination on the part of the spellcaster. (Kobold Quarterly 3)
Once the transformation from lich-initiate has been withstood, three further stages remain in the life cycle of a lich: the Journey, the Fading, and the Corruption. (Kobold Quarterly 3)
The Journey (Kobold Quarterly 3)
Only some lich-initiates complete the Beginning and become liches. Those that are lost are variously referred to in arcane works as NetherLiches, the Lost or simply Fallen. Those who do survive acquire the lich template and can look forward to eternal life – and eternal waking. (Kobold Quarterly 3)
It's entirely possible that the crypts could house one or more undead, like the ghouls in location H7. A wight, a ghost, or even a lich could have been entombed here, either rising after its mortal body was laid to rest or sealed in by whatever cult or sinister family created it. (World's Largest City)