JoeGKushner
Adventurer
The Complete Guide to Liches delivers the gaming goods but not the roleplaying ones. In gaming goods, we have several new templates, spells, and new monsters that can be added to the brew.
Want a lich that's short lived and only in the pursuit of one thing? Apply the Novalich template. These liches only stay around long enough to finish the work that they started on. Wonder what the dark radiation of the underground does to the drow? Wonder not more as we now have the drowlich. What about Dragons? Yup, you guessed it, the Dragolich. Not as powerful as a true lich but an ally of them, the philolich is created by a lich, usually from a loved one or loyal servant.
Those looking for something a bit more physical will enjoy the semi-lich, an entity that didn't quite make the transition to undeath smoothly or the warlich, a powerful warrior whose combat abilities are augmented with razor skeletal fingers and bone spurs that emerge from the joins of the creature.
In terms of new monsters, we get the lichling, undead servants that do everything from handling nosy intruders to cleaning the manor. The lichwarg is an undead wolf that's used to stalk the foes of the lich.
Overall these creatures present an interesting addition to any d20 monster manual. Each template also includes a sample character with full stats listed. Some may wonder at the stats. Standard undead get 1d12 hit die, but the philolich gets d10, and the drowlich d20 but since these seem deliberate attempts to showcase the weakness of one and the strength of the other, it fits in well with the theme.
The book fails a bit when it comes to providing the role playing meat of the liches. I think that part of this is that the lich is a template. Instead of just going with typical human lich patterns and some of the things that might happen with them, we get some very broad strokes dealing with liches. For example, while it talks about the benefit of near immortality, it actually uses that as a springboard to dovetail into lich parts that contain magic and the devolution of the lich into something else like a demi-lich instead of talking about what goals long lived races might have had in the first place when they became liches.
One of the most useful parts, how liches like to showcase their superiority not only in pure power, but in terms of intelligence, provides some riddles and puzzles, but not any means of generating your own. It's also a short section. It's a pattern that the non-mechanical material is limited while the mechanical, like spells, example liches of different races and other goods are listed. While there are lich NPCs, there are no detailed suggestions on how best to use them or sample lairs mapped out.
It never talks about becoming a lich through any means other than a deliberate manner and while it does have a redeemed lich, it doesn't have any naturally good liches, like the old Arch Lich from Spelljammer origin in the old 2nd edition era. This isn't to say that a lich can only be evil, but the redeemed lich isn't quite the same thing as the Arch Lich.
Layout in the first twelve pages, seems done on a different font that is a little blurred. Interior covers are not used. Price at 48 pages is competitive with other books on the market. Brad McDevitt handles all of the interior art. He does a good job and this insures a constant feel throughout the book. The problem is that there isn't really enough of it. For example, not all of the monsters are illustrated. What exactly does a Lichling or Warlich look like? It may be in here, but it's not under the section Warlich, for example. Fiction is used for one of the characters but doesn't really add anything to the flow of the book.
In terms of gaming crunch, the book might've went further if it went beyond the template. Why not specialized prestige classes that only the undead or only a lich can take? Why not specialized feats and magic items to go along with those new spells?
Because there is a lot of useful game mechanics in the book, it sneaks in at a four but if you're looking for how best to use the lich in terms of roleplaying, in terms of the near limitless possibilities that potentially exist outside of the standard human role model, then perhaps you're looking for another book.
Want a lich that's short lived and only in the pursuit of one thing? Apply the Novalich template. These liches only stay around long enough to finish the work that they started on. Wonder what the dark radiation of the underground does to the drow? Wonder not more as we now have the drowlich. What about Dragons? Yup, you guessed it, the Dragolich. Not as powerful as a true lich but an ally of them, the philolich is created by a lich, usually from a loved one or loyal servant.
Those looking for something a bit more physical will enjoy the semi-lich, an entity that didn't quite make the transition to undeath smoothly or the warlich, a powerful warrior whose combat abilities are augmented with razor skeletal fingers and bone spurs that emerge from the joins of the creature.
In terms of new monsters, we get the lichling, undead servants that do everything from handling nosy intruders to cleaning the manor. The lichwarg is an undead wolf that's used to stalk the foes of the lich.
Overall these creatures present an interesting addition to any d20 monster manual. Each template also includes a sample character with full stats listed. Some may wonder at the stats. Standard undead get 1d12 hit die, but the philolich gets d10, and the drowlich d20 but since these seem deliberate attempts to showcase the weakness of one and the strength of the other, it fits in well with the theme.
The book fails a bit when it comes to providing the role playing meat of the liches. I think that part of this is that the lich is a template. Instead of just going with typical human lich patterns and some of the things that might happen with them, we get some very broad strokes dealing with liches. For example, while it talks about the benefit of near immortality, it actually uses that as a springboard to dovetail into lich parts that contain magic and the devolution of the lich into something else like a demi-lich instead of talking about what goals long lived races might have had in the first place when they became liches.
One of the most useful parts, how liches like to showcase their superiority not only in pure power, but in terms of intelligence, provides some riddles and puzzles, but not any means of generating your own. It's also a short section. It's a pattern that the non-mechanical material is limited while the mechanical, like spells, example liches of different races and other goods are listed. While there are lich NPCs, there are no detailed suggestions on how best to use them or sample lairs mapped out.
It never talks about becoming a lich through any means other than a deliberate manner and while it does have a redeemed lich, it doesn't have any naturally good liches, like the old Arch Lich from Spelljammer origin in the old 2nd edition era. This isn't to say that a lich can only be evil, but the redeemed lich isn't quite the same thing as the Arch Lich.
Layout in the first twelve pages, seems done on a different font that is a little blurred. Interior covers are not used. Price at 48 pages is competitive with other books on the market. Brad McDevitt handles all of the interior art. He does a good job and this insures a constant feel throughout the book. The problem is that there isn't really enough of it. For example, not all of the monsters are illustrated. What exactly does a Lichling or Warlich look like? It may be in here, but it's not under the section Warlich, for example. Fiction is used for one of the characters but doesn't really add anything to the flow of the book.
In terms of gaming crunch, the book might've went further if it went beyond the template. Why not specialized prestige classes that only the undead or only a lich can take? Why not specialized feats and magic items to go along with those new spells?
Because there is a lot of useful game mechanics in the book, it sneaks in at a four but if you're looking for how best to use the lich in terms of roleplaying, in terms of the near limitless possibilities that potentially exist outside of the standard human role model, then perhaps you're looking for another book.
