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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Necropolis" data-source="post: 2011039" data-attributes="member: 6618">The Lords of the Night: Liches is the second book from Bottled Imp Games that also gave us The Lords of the Night: Vampires. This book is 128 packed pages filled with information on Arcane Liches, the mysterious guardians of the powers of Creation.I?d like to say off the bat that I?m not a reviewer. I?m writing this review simply because this book is very special to me. Hopefully my review will give this book the recognition it deserves.One of the best things about this book is the art; it?s just awesome, really stands out from other d20 books out there. From the great looking lich types to the City of Lost Souls:  every picture seems to have a little spark of life in it that make her to stand out.The book contains 16 chapters. I won?t detail them all, only my favorite:Chapter One: A History of the Arcane. In this chapter you will understand more about the history of the Arcane, the ancient race of beings that created the Arcane Liches. Chapter Four: The Rituals of Arcane Transference. This chapter gives you information on the rituals like what you need to do to acquire them and what is the minimum abilities and requirements that you need to have before trying to cast those rituals, you will also find information about what happens if you fail a ritual and about getting help to cast them.Chapter Five: Character Creation. Here you will read about the rituals of the Arcane Liches. You have 6 templates of arcane liches (that are the six states of lichdom) including: Death Touched, Living Dead, Sunken Lich, Necrotic Lich, Skeletal Lich and Spectral Lich. Each one of those states drives you deeper into the powers or the arcane.There are seven 7 types of Arcane Liches (called States). Every Lich type gets unique powers that only members of his Type can use (and also some quite severe restrictions).Artifex Liches: the artificers of the arcane liches, they can project a golem from their very thoughts that grows more powerful as they gain levels.Darke Liches: the assassins and spies of the Arcane Liches. They have a better understanding of their enemy, the void.Dirge Liches: Dirge Liches are good at controlling and creating undead creatures. Frost Liches: Elementalists of ice and frost.Mors Liches: Mors Liches are more like guardians against other undead, they have powers to damage the undead and to even destroy them.Prime Liches: Are the sages and masters of mundane magic, they guard the arcane. They glow in sliver because of all the arcane energy they master.Umbral Liches: Those Liches are the hardest to create. They control (warrior) puppets made from shadow.Chapter Six: The Arcana. This chapter details the unique magical powers of the Arcane Liches. There are two types:Minor Arcana: the weakest Arcana can be used by any type of lich, these powers range from the Servitor Arcana that gives you the ability to create different kinds of undead to Mastery of the Mundane - a power that allows you to enhance mundane spells.Major Arcana: Major Arcana can only be used if you are from one of the lich Orders. Each Order gains one Major Arcana (so only Dirge Liches can use the Death Mastery Major Arcana (a power that lets you to empower your undead minions with incredible powers). Mors Liches gain the Undeath's Reigns Major Arcana that focuses on destroying the undead.Chapter Nine: Insanities. This is the best part of the book for me. Arcane energy was not supposed to be used by mortal creatures and when a Lich overuses their Arcane powers, the strain causes them to risk gaining insanities. Insanities range from delusions to schizophrenia, each one made up of five ranks. As you gain insanities, it gives you so many role-playing possibilities, really awesome.   Chapter Sixteen: The Void. Here you will find information on the enemies of the Arcane Liches, the terrible bringers of madness. While this chapter doesn?t give any hard and fast information away, it does give some juicy insights into their terrible enemy. There is a section on Corruption that details how Arcane Liches can be corrupted by the Void (and become Void Liches).Negativity: My one gripe about this book is that it doesn?t reach the highest levels of play (only up to about 12th level), but I?m hoping they?ll release another book for higher level Liches in the future. This book is purely designed for characters that begin play at 1st level and it?s very heavy on role playing. There?s not much battle magic here (but lots of very cool powers and mysterious abilities).In Summary: There?s so much about this book that I didn?t mention, from Kethak: the City of Lost Souls that is filled with creepy atmosphere and brimming with cool locations like the River Mnemos and the Bridge of Restless Dreams. Every location is special in its own way.This book is really something special and every player or GM that wants something unique to add to their world should buy this book. It's even a good read for people that won't use Liches in their campaign because the ideas are so fresh and new. I heartily recommend this book to anyone that plays D&D.</blockquote>

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