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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2010637" data-attributes="member: 172">The Complete Guite to LichesThe Complete Guide to Liches is a supplementary rulebook devoted to the subject of Liches, the infamous undead mages who terrorize player of d20 System fantasy games. The Complete Guide to Liches is written by Michael Ferguson and published by Goodman Games (who has a flourishing line of “Complete Guide” books devoted to a variety of creatures.)A First LookThe The Complete Guide to Liches is a 48-page sadle-stitched softcover book prices at $13.00. The small format leads to a relatively high price-per-page for a black-and-white d20 System product.The cover of the book is illustrated by Jim Pavelec. It depicts a somewhat macabre looking lich dressed up in makeup and finery seemingly undue to an undead sorcerer.The interior is black and white, with illustrations by Brad McDevitt. The sketches are of passable to good quality, though the variety in the various pictures of rotting undead creatures is not very wide overall.A Deeper LookThe Complete Guide to Liches is divided into six chapters and three appendices, providing a variety of additional rules, ideas, and guidelines for using liches in the campaign.The first chapter, Origins and Physiology, and provides some speculation and details on the process of lichdom and the nature of those who undertake it and the effects this horrid transformation has on them.The second chapter, Social Structure, is a bit of a misnomer, and the chapter quickly points out that liches due to their very nature tend to be isolated for society in general. The chapter ends up being something of a miscellany that would have probably, for clarity of organization purposes, would have been better split up into smaller sections. What the chapter does do is derive three types of liches based on their intended relations with others that can be used as archetypes by the GM: power-mad liches, creator liches, and revenge liches. The brief chapter also provides some ideas for servants of the lich.The Social Structures chapter also discusses lich creation, and like Mongoose Publication’s Necromancy: Beyond the Grave, it redefines the creation process for liches as described in the core books, and adds details to it.One section of this chapter is Lich Artifacts, which sort of generalizes the infamous artifacts such as the Hand and Eye of Vecna. The general concept is that a sufficiently ancient and powerful lich tends to create body parts that are imbued with potent evil power and become artifacts in their own right.A final entry in this chapter is the redeemed lich, a concept very much like that of the Spelljammer Archlich (later co-opted by FR, as all things seem to be...) The text assumes that all liches are ineffably evil, but if a lich becomes good, this will invariably change its state of being. At worst it would be destroyed, but it might acheive a miraculous transformation into a positive engergy being.The brief fourth chapter is entitled Combat Strategies and discusses some tactics and tricks a lich might use. This includes some ideas for poisons and puzzle traps, including a chess-chamber trap.The fifth chapter, Lich Magic, is simply a selection of new spells primarily of concern for liches or would-be-liches. This includes Join the Mind and Join the Soul, two spells which make the books variant of lich transformation possible.The brief sixth chapter, Campaigns, provides a few adventure/character ideas for liches in a variety of setting circumstances, from cities to jungles to deserts.The first appendix is New Templates and Monsters, which provides 6 variant lich templates and two new lich related monsters (the lichwarg and the lichling.) Lich variant templated include draco-liches, the powered-up drow lich, the warlich, the novalich, the semi-lich, and the philo-lich. The novalich is a lich that only exists for a year after it acheives its transformation to a state of undeath. The semi-lich is a the remnant of the body of a wizard that failed to bind its soul to its lich body, leaving an undead monstrosity in it’s wake. The philo lich is a creature created by a lich only as a means of maintaining the lich’s emotional attachment to the once-living being. Each template has one sample version of the creature.The second and third appendices detail some sample liches. The second appendix provides a number of detailed liches, complete with backgrounds and statistics. The third appendix is entitled Lich Template Applications, and simply provides a number of applications of the lich template to various humanoid creatures.ConclusionOne of my favorite AD&D 2e books of all time was Van Richten’s Guide to the Lich, which took the lowly lich as described in the Monster Manual and spun it into the singular most frightful villain archetype in the game. Those are some big shoes to fill; can the Complete Guide to the Liches fill them?Well, not quite.The Complete Guide to Liches has some neat ideas and variants, but it’s scope seems to be more of a convenience than an innovation. It is not a terribly expensive book, and is a nice addition to d20 System liches, but there is little here that is as groundbreaking or exciting as it’s well heeled virtual predescessor.Overall Grade: C+-Alan D. Kohler</blockquote>

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