Thank you for all these great homebrews, I found your videos recently and they are one compelling idea after another. The work and passion that goes into them is plain to see. The design analysis, the animations, the story hooks, the creation and calibration of new mechanics. Its all very well done and flavorful. Thanks again for sharing your passion with us.
Absolutely inspired. Of all the casters, I was the most intrigued by what you'd do with the Druid, and this video does not disappoint. Can't wait for the Artificer, Warlock, and Paladin if half-casters count.
I too really like the idea of a Druid-Lich's soul being 'Rooted' to a specific location that the Blight both wanted to protect, but now also Needs to protect. Feels very Druid-y. I am a bit Iffy about the 'Why' the Memorial needs to continuously grow and spread. I did like the cancer comparison, since that's kinda what is had become. Maybe it could be explained by some kind of natural "Balance" needing to be maintained.. like, since the memorials internal balance of life, death and renewal has been disrupted, in order to fuel the unnatural life of the memorial land, it needs to sap and leech that life of the nearby lands, imposing the "natural death" of the memorial onto its surrounding lands instead, to maintain an overall balance. Again, kinda like what a cancer tumor do. Maybe this was exactly what he was going for and I didn't quite catch that, but I felt the 'Why' was a bit too brief
One thing I particularly love about this is that it's a lich who isn't innately evil or selfish. Especially with the country idea, you can actually have a lich who's reasonable. Obviously there's no "Hey bro can you not" considering they were willing to sacrifice themselves, but they are a person who has some actual emotion and sympathy, unlike like most other liches. A lich with good intentions is something we need more of, I love this concept.
i can recommend "Eberron". a world where everything you know about D&D 'monsters' is turned upside down. as an example "you can find a Beholder being a Lawfull Good Nanny in a rich mans house.". it was fun confronting my (once uppon a time... 😉) level 3 group with a CG Medusa that is a 'Mentor' for the group or let them meet an also CG Vampire Lord that has shifts between his subjects to feed him and uses undead for manual labour in his Country. even if we never realy played in Eberron having read the book changed the way we play D&D at our table.
Definitely fits in with the more neutral angle a lot of druids go for. They've done everything they can to try and save both nature and themselves, and up to a certain something has to give. Do they value themselves or nature more? Are they clinging to hope for the problem to be fixed, for their burden to be lifted and find redemption for the wrongs they've committed, or are they teetering on the brink of madness, desperately clinging to the one thing they have left of their old life because it's all they can do? Can they even tell the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, the natural and the unnatural? So many paths for such a character, so few sessions to flesh them out.
It’s not a new concept, actually. Baelnorns pursue lichdom to serve or safeguard their families, communities, or important places, and act as keepers and protectors of elven clans and holdings far beyond the lifespan of other elves. They were introduced in 2e and reiterated again in 3rd and 4th edition. No appearance in 5e. But still part of the D&D compendium.
@@chrisperry4014 And they're probably very underutilized, under referenced, and their pattern of behavior is probably more akin to guardian spirits or undead protectors rather than the core of an entire undead biome, correct?
"Each time the scarlet flower blooms, Malenia's rot advances. It has bloomed twice already. With the third bloom, she will become a true goddess.” - Scarlet Aronia incantation description Absolutely love this idea, especially from a world building perspective. Also, I do stay for the end-video rants.
Making a Fungal themed Blight for my players to fight, and the first thing they hear as the main body forms is "can you feel your heart burning? can you feel the struggle within? the fear within me is beyond anything your soul can make. you cannot kill me in a way that matters"
The alcohol god for my homebrew PF2 setting was like such. He's an alchemist who discovered the process of fermentation, and eventually took that to himself to try to be reborn immortal. He failed, and accidentally turned himself into a lich instead. But, this impressed the gods and granted him not just immortality, but true godhood. He is mortal enemies with Mortept the Usher King.
I remember way back in the ancient times of the early 2000's (in 3.5 edition) there was an apprentice red wizard who became a lich because his familiar (secretly an imp or some such fiend hiding in the shape of a deformed canary) screwed around with the ritual of another wizard to transform his master instead. Not so much an accident but still fun.
Dude I have watched every one of your vids over the past 3 days. I’m designing a MASSIVE 5e world from the ground up complete with overhauls of a lot of mechanics I find lame or boring or just not quite right. Your videos have been INCREDIBLE. I’ve designed huge sorcerer houses headed by sorcerer litches, added racial options, designed warforged animals partially with your augmented race as inspiration, and so much more so thank you your entire channel is a masterpiece.
Tbh, I feel like a great way to wrap up this series (when you inevitably run out of spellcasting classes) would be to do an update to the concept of a wizard lich with your own flair
@@notoriousgoblin83 Not just getting kills, but by sparking wars? Or just massive battlefields of blood? Similar to old style Kratos from the God of War series?
I'd love to see some lich ideas for some of the semi-martial classes too! Like a monk that has achieved a type of lichdom from meditating within their tomb, or a barbarian who has entered a final rage that won't let them rest until their trauma is resolved or something.
A fighter lich whose undeath is sustained by "the fight" (which is very loosely defined and could include being in direct combat or causing others to fight). some might travel the world searching for opponents to challenge in one on one duels, some might create arenas, or even millitarised factions in order to keep their hunger for "the fight" sated. Their phylactery is the weapon which they fought with in life. A fighter might become a lich so that they can live long enough to find an opponent that they deem worthy, or because they're a brutal warlord who wants their faction to last forever.
I mean, the Spore Druid was made to help incorporate a more martial version of a Druid as well as being a symbol of What Lives Will Eventually Die. Now, that may seem counter to what Druids or Liches be, but they are more the Word, not the Act. .... then my brain sees you meant the martial classes, and not a martial caster lol.
@@badideagenerator2315 a great example of this is "the Corrivality" from the cultist simulator game and lore. It's a method for fighter types to achieve immortality by having a permanent, perfectly matched enemy who also achieves immortality the same way at the same time. Their continued existence is driven by their conflict and their hatred/will to oppose the other, and should either stop working towards the others end, or actually suceed in besting them, they die as well.
@@Riskofdisconnect kinda sounds like the mann brothers from team fortress 2's comics. They are both immortal and locked in a permanent state of conflict over land they inherited in New Mexico
What I like best about your liches so far is that each one also represents how we as normal humans try to achieve quasi immortality. The intoner; create a work of art so great people will remember you long after your death. The hierarch; immortality through your descendents. The blight; immortality by building an empire that will last beyond you. Can't wait for more, personally I am feeling paladin, by extension immortality through teaching.
Is no one going to talk about the fact that the toxic jungle from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind works exactly like a memorial ?! This universe could be a great setting for DnD campaigns. Amazing video, like always !
Toxic jungle from Nausicaa looks like some kind of restoration project gone wrong, because, as Nausikaa shows herself, fungi grown in clear environment are not toxic and there is cleared petrified forest beneath the fungal growth. Looks like aftermath of a war was so disastrous, the reclamation project couldn't clean huge swathes of damaged land and fungal forest grown for that became a disaster itself.
In the manga; there are people living within the forest as it expands outwards so... yeah; I'm gonna try and find the manga cause I heard it's better than the movie. Like how's that possible?!!?
I was talking with my brother about warlocks and he actually came up with a pretty good concept for the lich version of a warlock based on the idea of pacts. Basically you could make a pact with someone to keep yourself alive for an extended period of time. This could be through having someone die in your place, extending your lifespan by taking years off theirs, or just taking over their body after being killed and replacing them entirely. It’s a simple premise with a lot of potential for flavour and it’s built off a fundamental aspect of the entire class.
Imagine, for a moment, a young woman, a druid, driven to the brink of insanity by melancholy, despair and the feeling of betrayal, after discovering herself to be barren, incapable of generating new life, something that is seen as a curse according to the tenets of the druidic order she was a part of, and as such was banished from the order, and the grove in which she was born. Then one day, while searching for a new grove to call home, she discovers a thought to be extinct species of plant, known for the incredible healing properties of it's sap, and in a spark inspiration born of desperation, performs the ritual to awaken the plant, giving it the conciousness of a child, her new child. The years pass and the plant grows into a great tree, giving it's mother droplets of it's sap, greatly increasing her longevity and healing any disease that may afflic her. When one day, close to twenty knights invade their grove, coming for the tree's healing sap, as a plague has spread across the kingdom, killing dozens, threating the collapse of the kingdom. And while the druid would've normally have given them the sap, the quantity that would be needed to heal the entire kingdom, as was being requested, would kill her plant child, and so she refuses. One of the knights then revealed himself to be the king of the kingdom and demands that she hand over the sap, and when she refuses again, he orders his men to attack and the druid fights back, using her magics to defend herself and her child. The battle is long and hard, and she slays several of her attackers, but for as powerful a druid as she is, she is only one, while her attackers still number close to a dozen. Soon she is overwelmed and restrained, her magic spent, and so she can only watch in despair as her child is drained dry of it's sap, screaming at the king and his knights to stop, to spare her child. But her cries fall on deaf ears, for the king cannot afford to fail in this mission, by any means necessary, even if he knows that the cries of the druid will haunt him for eternity. Then, after the tree has been drained of it's sap, the king and the remaining knights leave, leaving behind an utterly broken mother weeping over the corpse of her child. The druid weeps for her child for three days and two nights. But at the begining of the third night, her grief turns into hatred, swearing vengance upon the king and his kingdom, for the murder of her child she will kill the king and all his descendants, wherever they may be. And as such, she performs the ritual necessary to become a Blight, so she may better fulfill her vengeance, fusing with the corpse of the tree that was her child in process.
I honestly love this idea and I think you could bend it enough to where all Druid subclasses can be used for this - A Circle of Dreams Druid who becomes a Blight to make an area more like the Feywild and the Deathbloom could be a special plant from the Feywild Or - A Circle of Spores Druid who after getting threats of a rallying mob calling their fungal obsession witchcraft or macabre decide to become a Blight and now spread Mushrooms and Fungi everywhere with the Death Bloom being a Bleeding-Tooth Fungus or a Devils Finger Fungus
Circle of Wildfire for an area of nature infused with fire (ground is warm, steam geysers, flowers have fire colors, instead of poisonous pollen or such you just get plants throwing firebolts at you), and the Deathbloom is a large amaryllis that consists of living coal and flames. Fire emelentals may appear to protect the place, not doing any damage to the flora or fauna, and new areas are absorbed into the Memorial through being 'consumed' by fire that does not destroy. This would be a particularly interesting one in my mind, considering the Circle of Wildfire is all about the phoenix's rebirth, and fire has metaphysical ties to the 'spark' or 'flame' of life - and the druid of Wildfire has a wildfire spirit tied to their soul. So we might even see the spirit trying to fight its master, or trying to aid the party that's come to destroy them.
@@trishapellis i would say, beofre it take over a place, it burn the place to the ground, making death and rebirth, as because i interpret the wild fire druid circle as a death that fuel life
@@wolffrdu6463 That's exaxctly why I think the wildfire spirit would fight against it. After all, undeath is undeath; the consumption through fire would be only once, after which there would be endless death without decay and without further renewal.
The Blight is basically as if a druid had a wish for immortality to protect nature granted by a Djinn. "Congrats! Your immortal and can control nature to let it fight back, but the forest is now a massive, malignant cancer"
I imagine one day a lich warlock: Turning their patron into a phylactery/ Achieving a undead state that mixes the patron’s origin/ Their soul melding with the patron creating a constant struggle between two or more powerful individuals.
The problem is that it violates the second and third rules. The patron normally is extraplanar, so your phylactery is self defended. It creates an internal struggle, but not one that must be maintained by making the lich an active player in the world.
I would honestly love to see a warlock lich. Maybe instead of their pact boon being the channel for their patron, their own body becomes twisted and consumed by their patron’s power. Old one warlock would look tentacly, a demonic warlock would look demonic, a fey warlock would look bug/plantish.
I could see a warlock lich going one of two ways; either by a warlock defying their patron and taking their power by force, or by making a new deal for immortality. The first method, taking power by force, is accomplished by creating a _Siphon,_ a magical construct to both house and imprison the warlock's soul. The siphon is designed to only let power flow one way, from the patron to the warlock, and to prevent the patron from claiming the warlock's soul. However, a patron who's betrayed in such a way would struggle against the one sided link, pulling their power back to them, and for the siphon to overcome the patron's will it requires fuel. Any magic will do, and a warlock can sacrifice magic items or a willing creature's spell slots to fuel their siphon, but the easiest fuel source is sacrificed souls. This fits the theme of temptation and corruption that warlocks already have; a good warlock might create a siphon to defy a demonic patron, thinking they can fuel it with items or with the help of their caster friends, but as they run out of items and outlive their friends they're left with no choice but to use souls, or to have their own soul claimed by a now *very* angry demon lord. The second method functions more like a pyramid scheme, with the warlock striking a new deal with their patron for immortality. This deal would allow the warlock to share in their patron's immortality, becoming a minor patron in their own right, but with the condition that all of the souls they claim would go to their patron rather than themselves. However, the deals the warlock makes would not call upon the patron's own power, rather that of the warlock themselves, as the patron would gain nothing from the warlock making the same deals they could just make on their own. Such a warlock could trade away their own spell slots or class features in exchange for a creature signing their name in the warlock's _Book of Souls,_ the phylactery equivalent that serves as the focus for the new pact, but a warlock will quickly run out of power to trade away, and most patrons impose hefty quotas. Thus, some warlocks would instead turn to making deals more like devils; "I'll cure your daughter's illness for your soul", "I'll grant you great wealth", etc, while others would go down an even darker path, using intimidation or even torture to compel mortals to sign their names in the warlock's cursed book.
I could see it going the cult route, where the church or the cultists are the phylactery, maybe that's to close to the family bond of the sorcerer but idk
I like this idea. It goes with a character I thought of a few years ago. She’s a warlock of the great old one which mentions the god not needing to know if the player even exists to get their powers. Her whole plan is to basically use the god as a battery and eventually enslave him to her will by promising him power and control over a new world, but never quite giving it to him. All while using his powers in ways he wouldn’t approve (I plan for the god to not be cthulu but a distant god of war and bloodshed (like khorne)) and she is more a of a schemer and seductress.
@@chrisb-1331 I initially thought it up for a character pun in a campaign awhile back, and never used it again. It's been floatin around in my head for years
Please do more of these unique liches. They're so creative & introduce new ideas of an undead big bad with different themes based on the class. ...Now I'm genuinely curious what a ranger-lich would be like.
i thought of a Ranger Lich once: originating from the DrakeWarden, the drakes gain the ability to think for themselfs. turning the poor ranger into a phylactery and the ranger realizing too late that the drakes are controlling his archana to try to become real dragons. Either that or the drakewarden wants his drakes to live as long as real dragons so the drakewarden tries to find a real dragon to "worship" in reality the warden feeds off of the dragons arcana or soul. Without the dragon even knowing.
@@coryjarrett2952 That's a really unique idea, to have the ranger be the phylactery & the pet be the lich. The pet being the phylactery might be the more obvious answer, but I don't like that as much because the relationship between a ranger & their pet has always been portrayed as a close friendship/bond, & turning your friend into a phylactery seems to violate that.
@@Darluk you got a good point as far as betraying the Friendship/bond is concerned. But in someway strange way if you think about it, the ranger is a "Necromancer" or the pets are already liches getting revived constantly until the ranger dies.
Bit late here, but I could see a ranger lich working by Dragonheart rules, by sharing their heart with their animal companion they become linked and you'd need to kill both
Yes, Pointy Hat, I stay until the end. And I’d say that I’m slaying, living, and killing it! Love this series and can’t wait to see what you do for the warlock (please do the warlock).
Just got to wait for Paladin and Artificer liches to start writing a hombrew where each of the nations is led by a different kind of lich and they are all wanting the others gone. “Till Lichdom come” is the working title 😂
@ikmart112 Death knights are externally made (evil deity or demon decides it wants an evil knight and proceeds to find a suitable person for death knightdom). I think that lich paladin would be a paladin that went so hard in on their oath that they decided to keep doing it eternally, add in a ritual of so me sort and an upkeep cost (perhaps they have their spirit inhabit another person with the same oath, taking their power and will with them) and you got a PH paladin lich recipe.
Oooh i thought of that too! Except i thought "hey, how about the world is secretly controlled by undeads, illuminaty like, and a sort of lich council controls the lives of mortals like gods?" Except, well, this druid lich wouldn't likely collaborate XD so liches fighting against eachother sounds more probable... or the liches conclave promised a druid their Land would thrive only to betray them, so the druid attained their own lichdom to fight back... and wholeheartedly desires to expand till they reach the very foot of the liches tower XD So the liches conclave would even have to reach out to adventurers to make them try to end this expanding threat!!
Oooh an artiticer villain would be awesome! I would hope they would be the comically Victorian entrepreneur with handlebar mustache (man or woman) and make comically gigantic machines that feed off nature and magic respectively.
Would be cool to see some biomimicry where it takes that nature and replaces it with machines as its simply ineffient to destroy without replacing and if you have this uber smart robo lich why wouldnt they find a sustainable way to preserve themselves no matter the means.
For some reason i think of a Artificer Lich in a form of "Chronolich" all equipped with steampunk machine parts and the control of time in the area next to him, it could age things, stop time, and similar things, the question is that he only could do it in the area of their domain, and he isn't actually imortal, just stopped time from ticking in himself while in their domain. The objective could be to expand their domain, but for this to happen he needs to build clock towers in shape of spires that age everything in the area to transfer the life energy to him and his structures. Sorry for bad english ;)
i had a atificer litch in one of my games years ago with a whole making their body into artfcats. for instance his arm was revolver for wond's. he also hand like a while set of machine army ribs he can use to do horible things to you
Man, that's just what I needed to complete my Spore Druid idea! I was thinking of a flavor focusing more on flowers and vines. Spores would be toxic pollen, and the symbiotic entity would be countless flowers blooming across Druid's body. And the peak of their transformations would be turning into a Blight - the one who values beauty and happiness above all. In their grove it's perpetual spring - flowers are blooming, vines are crawling and intoxicating smells and pollen fill the air. Breathing those spores in, you'd feel overwhelming happiness and content - you'd never want to leave this place, you'd want to stay here forever, drooling in pollen-induced stupor until your body rots and blooming vines cover it, hiding the ugly side of the grove. Now I have to think up a way of working that idea into my Spelljammer campaign.
Take everything you just wrote and put it on an asteroid, generating a welcoming air envelope, like an island oasis, and then just scale it to fit your needs. Do you want the air envelope to be large enough that an entire vessel can dock within, replenishing its own air envelope, or do you want it to be smaller, prompting an away team mission? If the latter, some members of the crew (whether player characters or NPC) might remain on board the ship. If the latter, everyone and everything on the ship can be subjected to the spores. The party succeeds on their saves against the spores, but they return to the ship only to find that not everyone was so fortunate. However, if you want the grove to be more mobile, make a variant of the living ship, with the druid lich and/or grove in place of, or in addition to, the usual treant. Or, for a larger mobile option, look into *Citadels* from previous editions of Spelljammer. They're essentially cities in size and scope.
Hmm... what if we also took a page from Chrono Trigger with Lavos? The living seed-meteor that flies through space before impacting a planet, digging itself deep before letting its roots slowly spread. The impact site could be a reason that the land, after its many millennia, is so corrupted, and the inhabitants of that land being Spore Druids themselves, worshiping the Great Seed. After so long, the seed has gathered enough planetary energy to "gift" its power to its mst devoted, letting it become the next host: The next Lich to help it in its final stages of growth. Regain the energy from those who live to let the Great Seed bloom, at the cost of the planet. Finally, it grows pods for the next generation to break off and fly through space, looking for the next planets to act as its soil.
I had a idea once for a druid that planted seeds into skeletons, the seeds would sprout a plant that would control the skeleton with vines acting like the muscle to move the skeleton
This is scarily timed! My party are about to run into the druid lich in our campaign that I've been planning for weeks but I've been putting off the hard work of fleshing out the big bad. And now you've done the work for me! Cheers man!
i LOVE the idea that an entire zone of the world becomes an extension of a blight's senses, power, and will. the ENTIRE area turns into a giant panopticon! you're so good at homebrew design that approaches familiar concepts in entirely unique ways :^]
Dude, you are one of the best content creators in this community. Really clever, lots of fun, excellently crafted and produced videos, humble yet cool persona, and totally professional execution. AND free content. Rispetto, amico. Dare I say it? Hat's off to you, sir.
The Fawn-adventure sounds INTENSE ... save the town, save Fawn ... save the world! I'm imagining him popping up, appearing to the adventurers to give hints, clues, and help, as he can, fighting the Memorial to help these people who want to help them all, the way Fawn once wanted to help the land.... TEARS. And yes, you are indeed slaying, living, killing it!
I stay for your ramblings at the end Pointy Hat! I'm a content creator like you (You've probably never heard of me since I make videos about Paleontology) and I have been dealing with a lot of stuff in my personal life and I have been spending a lot of time watching videos by you, Ginny, Dungeon Dad and a few others and honestly these make me really happy. I may even think about getting into the D&D video space one day soon... And if that day ever comes, I think you and I would actually fit really well together! 👀
Maybe go full on ghost in the machine, with an artificer living through every single machine they build, which will eventually rust and age, forcing them to continue to build and expand Or maybe the phylactery is a main engine, constantly in need of repair and upgrades, with the overall lich taking the form of one single massive factory
Antonio my friend, you set the bar so high that I was very excited and very scared when I saw you were making my favorite class, but I gotta say, this is incredible, it really shows me what true creativity and story telling can be. Top notch👌
Staying till the last seconds for the memes :)) Thank you for the inspirational video! I'm creating a death land in my campaign and this is super helpful!
Man, these lich videos are the pinnacle of your creativity, I love them. Idea for a Fighter or Barbarian Lich: Its phylactery is a war. This can be between countries, gangs, families, races, tribes, or individual people. As long as the battle rages, through violence or espionage or propaganda, they continue to live, almost forcing them to maintain the conflict through subtle or obvious means. Only by forging peace can it finally be defeated (or by killing everyone involved, either or) This was inspired by Xivu Arath from Destiny 2 (The Hive god of war who grows stronger from any violence committed, for, against, or unrelated to her ("[She] feeds on warfare. The more violent the act, the greater the power she draws from it")), Apollyon from For Honor (Who stoked war between 3 different nations by brutality and subterfuge, to wheen out the wolves among the sheep), and the United States
@@leonmitas You're right, but there are magic based subclasses for both Fighter (Eldritch- , Echo- , and Rune Knight, and Psi Warrior) and Barbarian (Wild Magic, and Ancestral Guardians), so it's not unfeasible I'd also make the argument that non-spellcasters could maybe achieve lichdom, because: 1. By Hat's criteria, they need to conduct a ritual, which I would argue they could do, maybe, possibly, through a lot of research or old magic or something (Like using a one use magic item?) And, more honestly, 2. I think it'd be cool to see lich versions of every class, including martial ones. They all have some form of magic based subclass. They could gain weird, unique necro magic in their undeath. And, most importantly, _God damn, a super powerful undead fighter/barbarian/monk/rogue sounds fucking sick_
I just wrote a 'little' one shot for our group based on an ever expanding dangerous land. The players are a team choosen to find out why this is happening and who´s behind it all. I delayed the onshot because I dind´t had an interesting BBEG. BUT NOW I HAVE!!! Thx a lot for that! You´re the true hero of my upcoming adventure!
This is such an awesome idea. I am running an Eldritch horror campaign and my party is going to eventually make it to some kind of spooky forest in search of a relic and the whole expanding Blight idea is going to work incredibly well for that.
Since your first Which Lich video, I did the same for the other casters for my own amusement and future usage and had the same conceptual idea as you for the Druid. So glad to see your take on it :D These are such great ideas and I can't thank you enough for your hard work!
@@nikoblack1272 Not really. Death Knights feel more like Half Casters and have too much knight theming in them. However a monk with too much willpower to succumb to death does sound cool. Mind over matter taken to its logical extreme. I just wouldn't call it a death knight. More like a monk so disciplined that the body moves because they will it to move.
Would you give your noncasters magic is the question. Like I mean would they become casters through lichdom or have abilities that accomplish the same goals. For things like Barbarians this could vary with the use of totems n stuff. For Warrior/Knightly types an oath could be made, written in literal stone perhaps.. Instead of casting they call forth the souls of other warriors they killed or lead in life. One man ghost army style. The upkeep is the hard part. If you don't just make it so that they need to feed the phylactery.
I stay for every rant, and you know what video I would love to hear a rant at the end of? A monk lich video, I have such a soft spot for that class and I am infinitely curious how you would spin that.
This feels very Swamp Thingy to me. Like you could play an adventure with Swamp Thing as the villain. He protects the Green at all costs, even the lands around his swamp. Hooray magic alligators and moss!...or magic moss alligators. Edit: Swamp Thing becomes a blight BECAUSE it wants to spread throughout the land and obliterate other life not of the swamp which the blight deems too destructive (any humanoid) and impure (not swamp stuff). Kind of gives darker Nausica and the Valley of the Winds vibes.
I've decided to use the Blight for my parties amnesiac assassin. It's been so much fun tying in his backstory and revealing that uncanny familiarity with the area and the grove before it became a memorial and the blight was formed, letting him piece together his own history, until recently when he realized he and his masters were the reason the blight manifested.
This is my favourite alternate lich so far. The memorial and its expansion is such a cool idea. Thanks for all of your hard work. Looking forward to more lich videos. Maybe warlock?
I think aesthetically this is my favorite litch, and seems to have the most potential for a long campaign. Depending on the mosulium's size, enemies inside it, and settlements for encounters.
I'm so pumped to use every variant of lich to create a legion of doom for an undead themed campaign that still has some spicy variety. So much flavor. So awesome. Thank you for making something so cool!
That could actually work quite well for a later point in our campaign! Our Warlocks Patreon, a powerful archfey gave him the mission, to spread beauty everywhere he goes. What will happen if they meet a memorial and its blight guardian, that are touched by his patreons faycourt but is endangering the nearby villages?
Anything can be a villian if you put work on it Shredder from TMNT is a Monk Evil Route Corvo from Dishonored is a Gloomstalker Ranger(Basically playing a SUPER Tactical Rogue) Chaos Space Marine are basically evil Clerics and Paladins
I love this so much and you somehow blew all my expectations out of the water AGAIN somehow but also I really wanna highlight the HORROR potential of this 😭😭 because this shit would be utterly terrifying if the group didn't know what was happening and had to slowly piece it together. Just like... being in a forest that's a little too shady and makes you feel like you're being watched wherever you go, maybe investigating disappearances or something, they find victims that are basically just fertillizer at this point that clearly died in a struggle, but no sign whatsoever of whoever killed them or whoever dragged them there in the first place. Sounds of cracking twigs and branches waving in the wind that make you think someone is following, but whenever you see a bush rustling like someone's going to come out of it, nobody is there. The animals look strange and just stare at you, staying in sight but barely visible, like they're in on something you aren't. It's not "lets go defeat the lich", it's a monster hunt in the dark creepy woods with the slow realization that the creepy woods IS the monster, and you're in the middle of it. This potentially plays into so many interesting horror concepts... see In The Tall Grass (2019), The Color Out Of Space, Pet Sematary, Annihilation (2018), The Ritual (2018). And imagine running a campaign like one of them, but with a Blight behind it all 😳
Not to mention you’re being watched at all times, imagine going paranoid as the entire time your in this forest, you feel you’re never truly safe, even in the most beautiful of places, there’s something off about it all.
This sounds great for movie or horror story, but unfortunately in role-playing game it is extremely hard to maintain this suspense and players attention at the same time. When we play, we want to have some control, some basic understanding - otherwise it immediately becomes boring and exhausting. On the other hand, one good Perception roll from your Ranger can be enough to give them answers about this bodies, this animals and so on. In that case they will have information and can make decisions, but suspense almost fades away. So yeah, sounds great, but maybe not enough for horror at your table.
I just want to let you know that you are by far my favorite ttrpg producer of content on UA-cam. The amount of effort that you put in to these stories is unreal
Man this is awesome. I've had an idea for a cursed forest caused by a powerful druid in mourning for ages. This is literally perfect for it. Thank you Pointy boi, you've knocked it out the park yet again
Yes I'm really happy we get the third video of this series. Also it's funny because after seeing your video about the sorcerer lich I got to read the 13 tome of a manga which surprisingly enough revealed that the main villain was practically the same thing so now I have this example to draw inspiration from when I will make a campaign about this
As someone who's new to DND and is about to try to DM soon these videos are super great. Love the creativity and thought behind all these ideas. Thank you for all the hard work you put into these!
Perhaps one interesting idea is a sort of love story type deal. There were two people who fell in love and came to value a particular area due to it being rather hidden and quite beautiful. It was their own little hideaway from the rest of the world. However, due to sudden illness one of the lovers is brought to the brink of death and the two decide to make their hideaway be their resting place. Years later the remaining lover is watching over the place when people decide to start expanding their towns. This would cause the destruction of hideaway in the process. In a moment of pure emotion, the remaining lover goes through the ritual to become a blight, vowing to ensure noone else will overtake this place, that nobody can ever destroy their hideaway. And so when the ritual is complete, a lone deathbloom grows over the lover's grave. I'd imagine if this is contained in a setting though it would have to be a lower leveled variant of a blight that hasn't spread far but is still a threat, this way the party can manage it as I'd imagine something like this likely isn't BBEG territory, but still an overall really cool concept imo.
I love this series! I hope you make a Warlock Lich. I can imagine a warlock who doesn't want their soul to be taken by their fiendish patron at the time of their death so they decide to achieve undeath. Then their pact contract can never be fulfilled.
While interesting, it seems like a Warlock Patron would storywise take steps to deal with a Warlock using loopholes in a Pact. There was an idea for an Undying Patron I had that was essentially a proto-god, something that never fully formed, but didn't really die. It simply entered a sort of torpor, hibernating until it senses something desperately reaching out, calling someone ANYONE for help. Instinctually, the protogod seeks to bind that which touches it, to siphon life energy to finish its apotheosis. It needs more than any single creature could provide, so it forms a symbiotic bond, supping life energy slowly from the mortal (perhaps just passively, through urging the Warlock to perform rituals that offer up the energy in the form of blood or tissue, or a combination), while providing a sliver of its slowly developing powers.
Perhaps the warlock becomes a power of light or fiend over time and replaces there life force with a new source of life? It certainly would fit the adventuring life.
This kindof reminds me of the sentient forest guy from The Unexpectables podcast. He's literally a forest fey eldrich being that can always see and hear you (unless you have an anti life shell up) and his humanoid persona is really only used to talk to you. Also there's no wildlife or birds in the forest being because he'd just eat them Edit; his name is Fleur de Mort
at 1:09, and I am guessing that the Druid lich will plant a 'Soul Seed' to create their own Soul tree, and that as long as that tree lives they will as well, range limited by the range of it's roots.
It's funny that you mentioned Zuggtmoy, as I'm running an adaptation of the Classic Temple of Elemental Evil (where Zuggtmoy was the final boss). This will definitely help with my vision for the 4th floor of the Temple, acting as her High Priest.
I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS Also I think the template for the paladin lich would be the Revenant, a (un)holy warrior whose very oath makes him come back from death until it's fullfiled
you are honestly such an incredible creator. Honestly one of the reasons i got into dnd in the first place! i greatly appreciate you're genuine creativity and passion :)
Amazing video, can't wait to see what you do with the other classes! I had an idea for what a lich Barbarian could be like called The Reaver. These Barbarians perform an ancient rite that binds their soul to their weapon and a suit of armour (optional). The weapon acts like a Lich's phylactery, as it stores the souls of anyone it slays. But to spice it up, the Reaver doesn't just feed on souls, but on the pain and loss it inflicts on the loved ones of its victims. So if a Reaver killed an old man with no friends or living relatives, they would barely get any "soul energy" to extend their life, but if they killed a child in front of their parents, the Reaver would get a lot more "soul energy" from it. Really gruesome but fitting of an undead savage warrior who just wants to live and fight forever!
Im currently running a game where the Blight is only using this form of lichdom to live long enough to make sure he can achieve his objective to fix a broken world. His view is.... flawed and has a bit of a "The ends justify the means" method, but if he can persuade the party to help him complete his goal once its done, he'll pick his own deathbloom and die.
If you want to see something like this executed, Fleur de Mort both as an episode villain and in the arc dedicated to them in The Unexpectables are close enough to get an idea.
Again, great Lichidification video (Is that actually a thing?). This goes perfectly with the druid theme and I cannot wait to play this in an actual campaign and just seems so fun to play. Hell, if all classes get a lich version I can even imagine some of them living in the same plane, interacting with one another and dividing the realm between the undead lords. Please, continue with this type of videos, they are just too amazing to stop!
Man this is incredible, the absolute depth of character you can feel from this is astonishing. I hope warlock lich rolls around at some point soon-- I think that would be pretty awesome, and one of the characters I have upcoming would be pretty cool to develop that into.
I'm happy you chose this as your next lich concept. After your first video that was my immediate choice for my own to design. I ended up creating a druid that created a garden eden that also vampires magic from the people inhabiting it to keep them alive, but anyone that eats from the garden doesn't notice because the fruits give them a minor amount of magical power back so long as they keep eating. Their phylactery was an extremely hardy plant based off the welwitschia which is incredibly resilient and grows two permanent primordial leaves that constantly break and spiral around and are nearly as hard as stone (I thematically decided this could be used as a capstone or sanctum structure itself). Their choice of undeath was that by forgoing their own life and tying it directly to the eden they created would allow them to fully embrace their nature magic and truly create the paradise the world needed. There would be rituals for every season but the ritual for winter is the actual ritual to sustain their lichdom during which they sap the lifeforce out of the plants in eden and eventually any living magical being still within the bounds of the territory until spring.
See, the problem with this series is that I want to play all of these liches right now but I already have a homebrew game going with its own flavor! Guess I'm going to have to start building up a new world to have them in there. Can't wait for the next one! Also, I wait until the end. Your kiss goodbye is very sweet and it brings me joy to hear you go "mwuah!"
Got to say, this one really resonated with me. I loved the other Lich videos, but this really struck home. I'll definitely be taking this to my table. Oh, and I always watch to the end of the ramblings.
I love this! It also give off horror vibes along the lines of Annihilation and the Southern Reach trilogy, where everything in the Memorial is twisted and off.
I actually JUST did a Druid “villain” arc with my group. The Druid Council came together to vote on a path that would return the modernizing world to one more at balance with nature. The one druid who wanted to oust the ruling class responsible by any means necessary was open to being challenged (he was not evil but was definitely more radical in his beliefs, willing to take them to any conclusion).
I kinda expected a mushroom spore spreading druid lich that "gives" other immortality and it's like if Papa Nurgle was in The Last of Us Lich Artificer aka Mecha Lich
I like the idea of a Demi-Blight which has stopped the expanse of the memorial at much expense causing both them and the grove they sacrificed everything to save wither away infront of their eyes as the last thing to rot is their very soul, but idk sounds cool to me.
Nice, a new flavour of sealed evil in a can. Just waiting for someone to come along and try to fix or exploit the memorial and unleash the blight again.
@@llamatronian101 I actually love this idea. The Blight overcame its original compulsion and went into a state of dormancy. Lands the Blight assimilated even got reclaimed somewhat! But as the reclamation got closer and closer to the Deathbloom itself, it reawakens with vengeful intent.
Well i *was* going to have to figure out the origin for the mysterious plant-based infection spread across the island. Now I just have to figure out the origin of my lich edit: I looked at the stat block and its amazing how perfectly this fits what I've already made. A central plant that is the source of the infection, it extends its reach by infecting creatures and other plants, its considered undead etc just everything is perfect.
I love the direction you took with these liches, especially this one. Their undead nature causing the core nature of their class to be corrupted and making them essentially parasitise on others. I could definitely see the party being recruited by a different druid circle to destroy the blight as it's an affront to everything they stand for.
This almost made me want to become a DM and run a short campaign where they find mysterious events happening in the forest's edge and eventually after interacting with various characters, bandits, lumberjacks but also some who are aware of what the source of the grove's corruption is eventually would come to face this force of nature and then have it's memories somehow beam into the player character's sorcerer/wizard/warlock/druid/cleric team members, revealing the backstory of the person becoming a druid to protect a place they cherished with a loved one and never letting go of it to the point of becoming a high level druid, living a 1000 years of pain, before turning to lichdom, their mind twisted from the centuries long before that became a choice. Maybe even with a self realization and a moment of tears as the players knock it down.
Y'all asked for this one! A LOT! so I hope you dig it!
i love your videos you always come up with such creative concepts idk how you do it
I always love these Which Lich videos! I really hope you make an Artificer Lich at some point!
You introduced me to dnd. Thank you 😊
Thank you for all these great homebrews, I found your videos recently and they are one compelling idea after another. The work and passion that goes into them is plain to see. The design analysis, the animations, the story hooks, the creation and calibration of new mechanics. Its all very well done and flavorful. Thanks again for sharing your passion with us.
Absolutely inspired. Of all the casters, I was the most intrigued by what you'd do with the Druid, and this video does not disappoint. Can't wait for the Artificer, Warlock, and Paladin if half-casters count.
Artificer Lich: The moment I discovered the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me
Praise the Omnissiah!
Glorious evolution
Artificer Lich = Phyrexia?
Necron?
@Russell Humphrey, I was about to say; that's Yawgmoth and the New Phyrexian praetors more or less!
I will NEVER get bored of the little final sharade of pointy hat pretending he didn't already wrote the stories he tells
I cannot wait for his april fools where the only difference is that he actually states he wrote it ahead of time
I think a Wildfire Druid wouldn't just be another growing blight on the land, but a constant, sentient wildfire expanding ever outward.
Spore can work great as well, melding quite fondly with hjs examples of weaponizing the land
An eternal blaze that’s ever spreading
oh great would you mind telling me why you are trying to make a portal to the elemental plane of fire?
@@MagusDoukenoh I'm definitely making that for a last of us esque city in my homebrew setting, maybe some spooky name, like the blightlands, I dunno
This is just the plot of Humblewood
Tying the Blight to an environment, rather than an object, was an inspired choice. I like it!
First thought with the expansion idea was Kudzu overgrowth
I smell Favored Terrains
I too really like the idea of a Druid-Lich's soul being 'Rooted' to a specific location that the Blight both wanted to protect, but now also Needs to protect. Feels very Druid-y.
I am a bit Iffy about the 'Why' the Memorial needs to continuously grow and spread. I did like the cancer comparison, since that's kinda what is had become.
Maybe it could be explained by some kind of natural "Balance" needing to be maintained.. like, since the memorials internal balance of life, death and renewal has been disrupted, in order to fuel the unnatural life of the memorial land, it needs to sap and leech that life of the nearby lands, imposing the "natural death" of the memorial onto its surrounding lands instead, to maintain an overall balance. Again, kinda like what a cancer tumor do.
Maybe this was exactly what he was going for and I didn't quite catch that, but I felt the 'Why' was a bit too brief
Yes I stay for the ramblings😂 it's funny
I'm a simple man. I see folks making Swamp Things, I upvote.
I'm imagining an ocean-themed Blight and how their Deathbloom would be coral
That sounds bad ass!
@@reddiz2182 and deadly imagining trying to fight the sea
Ohhhh the land expanding would actually just be like tsunamis and flodings, maybe even super heavy rains
Coral are animals tecnically
@@malakarvonstroheim5372 true I was thinking more for the look
One thing I particularly love about this is that it's a lich who isn't innately evil or selfish. Especially with the country idea, you can actually have a lich who's reasonable. Obviously there's no "Hey bro can you not" considering they were willing to sacrifice themselves, but they are a person who has some actual emotion and sympathy, unlike like most other liches. A lich with good intentions is something we need more of, I love this concept.
i can recommend "Eberron". a world where everything you know about D&D 'monsters' is turned upside down. as an example "you can find a Beholder being a Lawfull Good Nanny in a rich mans house.".
it was fun confronting my (once uppon a time... 😉) level 3 group with a CG Medusa that is a 'Mentor' for the group or let them meet an also CG Vampire Lord that has shifts between his subjects to feed him and uses undead for manual labour in his Country.
even if we never realy played in Eberron having read the book changed the way we play D&D at our table.
Definitely fits in with the more neutral angle a lot of druids go for. They've done everything they can to try and save both nature and themselves, and up to a certain something has to give. Do they value themselves or nature more? Are they clinging to hope for the problem to be fixed, for their burden to be lifted and find redemption for the wrongs they've committed, or are they teetering on the brink of madness, desperately clinging to the one thing they have left of their old life because it's all they can do? Can they even tell the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, the natural and the unnatural?
So many paths for such a character, so few sessions to flesh them out.
It’s not a new concept, actually.
Baelnorns pursue lichdom to serve or safeguard their families, communities, or important places, and act as keepers and protectors of elven clans and holdings far beyond the lifespan of other elves.
They were introduced in 2e and reiterated again in 3rd and 4th edition. No appearance in 5e. But still part of the D&D compendium.
@@chrisperry4014 And they're probably very underutilized, under referenced, and their pattern of behavior is probably more akin to guardian spirits or undead protectors rather than the core of an entire undead biome, correct?
@@Brutalyte616 nearly everything interesting about the forgotten realms is unrepresented or underutilized in 5e.
"Each time the scarlet flower blooms, Malenia's rot advances. It has bloomed twice already. With the third bloom, she will become a true goddess.” - Scarlet Aronia incantation description
Absolutely love this idea, especially from a world building perspective. Also, I do stay for the end-video rants.
Nice😊
I too like the idea-and stay for the rantertainment.
I like the rants.
ranty hat is best hat
(spoiler: all hats are best hat)
Making a Fungal themed Blight for my players to fight, and the first thing they hear as the main body forms is "can you feel your heart burning? can you feel the struggle within? the fear within me is beyond anything your soul can make. you cannot kill me in a way that matters"
Gotta have a gunslinger or artificer though
Thats basicly a nurgle
deamon
But does he know the name of god
I'M NOT FUCKING SCARED OF YOU
I thought you were making a "can you feel my heart" reference with this first to lines. Then disappointment.
I love the idea of a Warlock litch who overpowers their patron, making them a filactory
The paladin could be like the hollow dragon from the fizbans book
I mean, one of the Warlock patrons literally is a Lich.
@@firelordeliteast6750 wait, seriously? What book is that in?? Not what I was meaning with this comment, but still sounds awesome!
@@Matt_Wildcard_Webster just search hollow dragon they were in fizban treasury of dragons i believe
It's spelled 'philactery'
ARTIFICER CONFIRMED? WILL THE HAT BLESS US?
All Hail the Pointy Hat! With enough subscription and like sacrifices, he will surely bless us with the Lich Artificer!
Mecha Lich
A Bag of Holding Phalactery
@@brianmoyachiuz905wouldn’t that be like turning yourself into a war-forged
I just hope there's no mystic. The mystic is NOT a caster
1:53 Agreed but the idea of someone becoming a lich by accident is fucking hilarious to me
The alcohol god for my homebrew PF2 setting was like such. He's an alchemist who discovered the process of fermentation, and eventually took that to himself to try to be reborn immortal.
He failed, and accidentally turned himself into a lich instead. But, this impressed the gods and granted him not just immortality, but true godhood.
He is mortal enemies with Mortept the Usher King.
@@JustJaimi Usher? very cool character origin - and kudos for succeeding with fermentings
I remember way back in the ancient times of the early 2000's (in 3.5 edition) there was an apprentice red wizard who became a lich because his familiar (secretly an imp or some such fiend hiding in the shape of a deformed canary) screwed around with the ritual of another wizard to transform his master instead. Not so much an accident but still fun.
Dude I have watched every one of your vids over the past 3 days. I’m designing a MASSIVE 5e world from the ground up complete with overhauls of a lot of mechanics I find lame or boring or just not quite right. Your videos have been INCREDIBLE. I’ve designed huge sorcerer houses headed by sorcerer litches, added racial options, designed warforged animals partially with your augmented race as inspiration, and so much more so thank you your entire channel is a masterpiece.
Tbh, I feel like a great way to wrap up this series (when you inevitably run out of spellcasting classes) would be to do an update to the concept of a wizard lich with your own flair
DOUBLE LICH
Barbarian lich.
@@LuckySketches Man too angry to die properly.
@@HuxtableKactually could work. Fuels itself by war and combat.
@@notoriousgoblin83 Not just getting kills, but by sparking wars? Or just massive battlefields of blood? Similar to old style Kratos from the God of War series?
Imagine the Barbarian who needs to be the literal definition of "Too angry to die"
That's literally the Zealot subclass
So... funny you said that
Huh, look at that. Something that aged WELL
We should call Barbarian liches as.... "The Doom Slayers"
I'd love to see some lich ideas for some of the semi-martial classes too! Like a monk that has achieved a type of lichdom from meditating within their tomb, or a barbarian who has entered a final rage that won't let them rest until their trauma is resolved or something.
A fighter lich whose undeath is sustained by "the fight" (which is very loosely defined and could include being in direct combat or causing others to fight).
some might travel the world searching for opponents to challenge in one on one duels, some might create arenas, or even millitarised factions in order to keep their hunger for "the fight" sated.
Their phylactery is the weapon which they fought with in life.
A fighter might become a lich so that they can live long enough to find an opponent that they deem worthy, or because they're a brutal warlord who wants their faction to last forever.
I mean, the Spore Druid was made to help incorporate a more martial version of a Druid as well as being a symbol of What Lives Will Eventually Die. Now, that may seem counter to what Druids or Liches be, but they are more the Word, not the Act.
.... then my brain sees you meant the martial classes, and not a martial caster lol.
@@badideagenerator2315 a great example of this is "the Corrivality" from the cultist simulator game and lore. It's a method for fighter types to achieve immortality by having a permanent, perfectly matched enemy who also achieves immortality the same way at the same time. Their continued existence is driven by their conflict and their hatred/will to oppose the other, and should either stop working towards the others end, or actually suceed in besting them, they die as well.
@@Riskofdisconnect kinda sounds like the mann brothers from team fortress 2's comics.
They are both immortal and locked in a permanent state of conflict over land they inherited in New Mexico
@@badideagenerator2315 exactly!
What I like best about your liches so far is that each one also represents how we as normal humans try to achieve quasi immortality.
The intoner; create a work of art so great people will remember you long after your death.
The hierarch; immortality through your descendents.
The blight; immortality by building an empire that will last beyond you.
Can't wait for more, personally I am feeling paladin, by extension immortality through teaching.
You could say the original is a scientist who’s discoveries and formulas land them a permanent place in the history books
Barbarian lich should be like "people tell your saga long after your death."
Monk Lich: I can live forever by adding bonus years with good health!
Is no one going to talk about the fact that the toxic jungle from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind works exactly like a memorial ?! This universe could be a great setting for DnD campaigns.
Amazing video, like always !
Toxic jungle from Nausicaa looks like some kind of restoration project gone wrong, because, as Nausikaa shows herself, fungi grown in clear environment are not toxic and there is cleared petrified forest beneath the fungal growth. Looks like aftermath of a war was so disastrous, the reclamation project couldn't clean huge swathes of damaged land and fungal forest grown for that became a disaster itself.
Great point! I was reminded of the Blight in the Wheel of Time books.
In the manga; there are people living within the forest as it expands outwards so... yeah; I'm gonna try and find the manga cause I heard it's better than the movie. Like how's that possible?!!?
I'll never watch Nausicaa the same way ever again xD
I was talking with my brother about warlocks and he actually came up with a pretty good concept for the lich version of a warlock based on the idea of pacts.
Basically you could make a pact with someone to keep yourself alive for an extended period of time. This could be through having someone die in your place, extending your lifespan by taking years off theirs, or just taking over their body after being killed and replacing them entirely.
It’s a simple premise with a lot of potential for flavour and it’s built off a fundamental aspect of the entire class.
Imagine, for a moment, a young woman, a druid, driven to the brink of insanity by melancholy, despair and the feeling of betrayal, after discovering herself to be barren, incapable of generating new life, something that is seen as a curse according to the tenets of the druidic order she was a part of, and as such was banished from the order, and the grove in which she was born.
Then one day, while searching for a new grove to call home, she discovers a thought to be extinct species of plant, known for the incredible healing properties of it's sap, and in a spark inspiration born of desperation, performs the ritual to awaken the plant, giving it the conciousness of a child, her new child.
The years pass and the plant grows into a great tree, giving it's mother droplets of it's sap, greatly increasing her longevity and healing any disease that may afflic her.
When one day, close to twenty knights invade their grove, coming for the tree's healing sap, as a plague has spread across the kingdom, killing dozens, threating the collapse of the kingdom.
And while the druid would've normally have given them the sap, the quantity that would be needed to heal the entire kingdom, as was being requested, would kill her plant child, and so she refuses.
One of the knights then revealed himself to be the king of the kingdom and demands that she hand over the sap, and when she refuses again, he orders his men to attack and the druid fights back, using her magics to defend herself and her child.
The battle is long and hard, and she slays several of her attackers, but for as powerful a druid as she is, she is only one, while her attackers still number close to a dozen.
Soon she is overwelmed and restrained, her magic spent, and so she can only watch in despair as her child is drained dry of it's sap, screaming at the king and his knights to stop, to spare her child.
But her cries fall on deaf ears, for the king cannot afford to fail in this mission, by any means necessary, even if he knows that the cries of the druid will haunt him for eternity.
Then, after the tree has been drained of it's sap, the king and the remaining knights leave, leaving behind an utterly broken mother weeping over the corpse of her child.
The druid weeps for her child for three days and two nights.
But at the begining of the third night, her grief turns into hatred, swearing vengance upon the king and his kingdom, for the murder of her child she will kill the king and all his descendants, wherever they may be.
And as such, she performs the ritual necessary to become a Blight, so she may better fulfill her vengeance, fusing with the corpse of the tree that was her child in process.
This is an awesome idea!!!
@@tangorex2618Thanks! it thought of it during the ending of the video.
This is so cool
That is so deeply troubling and tragic, it's a very compelling motivation
@@Cosmo_noBonesI agree, it made me tear up; beautifully worded.
I honestly love this idea and I think you could bend it enough to where all Druid subclasses can be used for this
- A Circle of Dreams Druid who becomes a Blight to make an area more like the Feywild and the Deathbloom could be a special plant from the Feywild
Or
- A Circle of Spores Druid who after getting threats of a rallying mob calling their fungal obsession witchcraft or macabre decide to become a Blight and now spread Mushrooms and Fungi everywhere with the Death Bloom being a Bleeding-Tooth Fungus or a Devils Finger Fungus
Circle of Wildfire for an area of nature infused with fire (ground is warm, steam geysers, flowers have fire colors, instead of poisonous pollen or such you just get plants throwing firebolts at you), and the Deathbloom is a large amaryllis that consists of living coal and flames. Fire emelentals may appear to protect the place, not doing any damage to the flora or fauna, and new areas are absorbed into the Memorial through being 'consumed' by fire that does not destroy.
This would be a particularly interesting one in my mind, considering the Circle of Wildfire is all about the phoenix's rebirth, and fire has metaphysical ties to the 'spark' or 'flame' of life - and the druid of Wildfire has a wildfire spirit tied to their soul. So we might even see the spirit trying to fight its master, or trying to aid the party that's come to destroy them.
Whoa makes me wonder what a Circle of The Stars would look like?
@@trishapellis i would say, beofre it take over a place, it burn the place to the ground, making death and rebirth, as because i interpret the wild fire druid circle as a death that fuel life
@@wolffrdu6463 That's exaxctly why I think the wildfire spirit would fight against it. After all, undeath is undeath; the consumption through fire would be only once, after which there would be endless death without decay and without further renewal.
The Circle of the Blighted Druid from the Tal'Dorei Campaign book is what I am thinking to use as the basis for my Blight Druid Lich.
The Blight is basically as if a druid had a wish for immortality to protect nature granted by a Djinn.
"Congrats! Your immortal and can control nature to let it fight back, but the forest is now a massive, malignant cancer"
I imagine one day a lich warlock: Turning their patron into a phylactery/ Achieving a undead state that mixes the patron’s origin/ Their soul melding with the patron creating a constant struggle between two or more powerful individuals.
The problem is that it violates the second and third rules. The patron normally is extraplanar, so your phylactery is self defended. It creates an internal struggle, but not one that must be maintained by making the lich an active player in the world.
I would honestly love to see a warlock lich.
Maybe instead of their pact boon being the channel for their patron, their own body becomes twisted and consumed by their patron’s power.
Old one warlock would look tentacly, a demonic warlock would look demonic, a fey warlock would look bug/plantish.
I could see a warlock lich going one of two ways; either by a warlock defying their patron and taking their power by force, or by making a new deal for immortality.
The first method, taking power by force, is accomplished by creating a _Siphon,_ a magical construct to both house and imprison the warlock's soul. The siphon is designed to only let power flow one way, from the patron to the warlock, and to prevent the patron from claiming the warlock's soul. However, a patron who's betrayed in such a way would struggle against the one sided link, pulling their power back to them, and for the siphon to overcome the patron's will it requires fuel. Any magic will do, and a warlock can sacrifice magic items or a willing creature's spell slots to fuel their siphon, but the easiest fuel source is sacrificed souls. This fits the theme of temptation and corruption that warlocks already have; a good warlock might create a siphon to defy a demonic patron, thinking they can fuel it with items or with the help of their caster friends, but as they run out of items and outlive their friends they're left with no choice but to use souls, or to have their own soul claimed by a now *very* angry demon lord.
The second method functions more like a pyramid scheme, with the warlock striking a new deal with their patron for immortality. This deal would allow the warlock to share in their patron's immortality, becoming a minor patron in their own right, but with the condition that all of the souls they claim would go to their patron rather than themselves. However, the deals the warlock makes would not call upon the patron's own power, rather that of the warlock themselves, as the patron would gain nothing from the warlock making the same deals they could just make on their own. Such a warlock could trade away their own spell slots or class features in exchange for a creature signing their name in the warlock's _Book of Souls,_ the phylactery equivalent that serves as the focus for the new pact, but a warlock will quickly run out of power to trade away, and most patrons impose hefty quotas. Thus, some warlocks would instead turn to making deals more like devils; "I'll cure your daughter's illness for your soul", "I'll grant you great wealth", etc, while others would go down an even darker path, using intimidation or even torture to compel mortals to sign their names in the warlock's cursed book.
I could see it going the cult route, where the church or the cultists are the phylactery, maybe that's to close to the family bond of the sorcerer but idk
I like this idea. It goes with a character I thought of a few years ago. She’s a warlock of the great old one which mentions the god not needing to know if the player even exists to get their powers. Her whole plan is to basically use the god as a battery and eventually enslave him to her will by promising him power and control over a new world, but never quite giving it to him. All while using his powers in ways he wouldn’t approve (I plan for the god to not be cthulu but a distant god of war and bloodshed (like khorne)) and she is more a of a schemer and seductress.
I like how you’ve balanced this Lich to be the hardest to reach, but also the easiest to kill compared to the other Liches you’ve made.
Technically you could make him stronger and stronger how close to the death bloom he is
Or make the death bloom be embedded throughout an entire forest, a massive Chlorophylactery, if you will
@@interconnectedchronicler Ok you had me at chlorophylactery. That’s a rad new word!
@@chrisb-1331 I initially thought it up for a character pun in a campaign awhile back, and never used it again. It's been floatin around in my head for years
They could even be ready and willing to die, much like the second Blight Antonio makes.
You know a Rouge Litch who lives as long as his crime spree lasts could be real intristing.
Please do more of these unique liches. They're so creative & introduce new ideas of an undead big bad with different themes based on the class.
...Now I'm genuinely curious what a ranger-lich would be like.
Phylactery is their pet animal.
i thought of a Ranger Lich once: originating from the DrakeWarden, the drakes gain the ability to think for themselfs. turning the poor ranger into a phylactery and the ranger realizing too late that the drakes are controlling his archana to try to become real dragons.
Either that or the drakewarden wants his drakes to live as long as real dragons so the drakewarden tries to find a real dragon to "worship" in reality the warden feeds off of the dragons arcana or soul. Without the dragon even knowing.
@@coryjarrett2952 That's a really unique idea, to have the ranger be the phylactery & the pet be the lich. The pet being the phylactery might be the more obvious answer, but I don't like that as much because the relationship between a ranger & their pet has always been portrayed as a close friendship/bond, & turning your friend into a phylactery seems to violate that.
@@Darluk you got a good point as far as betraying the Friendship/bond is concerned. But in someway strange way if you think about it, the ranger is a "Necromancer" or the pets are already liches getting revived constantly until the ranger dies.
Bit late here, but I could see a ranger lich working by Dragonheart rules, by sharing their heart with their animal companion they become linked and you'd need to kill both
A little teaser of a Paladin lich has me extremely excited as an idea. I can't wait to see your eventual twist to it.
The Oath Breaker is the most obvious one, becoming a Death Knight.
Yes, Pointy Hat, I stay until the end. And I’d say that I’m slaying, living, and killing it! Love this series and can’t wait to see what you do for the warlock (please do the warlock).
13:57 this section gave me huge nostalgia for guild wars 2 Sylvari race. Your character is born from a tree city and sent out into the world to learn.
I love its name because it's so literal. It is literally a blight (a disease/scourge)
Just got to wait for Paladin and Artificer liches to start writing a hombrew where each of the nations is led by a different kind of lich and they are all wanting the others gone. “Till Lichdom come” is the working title 😂
I can't imagine a paladin lich being much different from a revenant. I'm excited to see what he comes up with.
Long ago the four Liches lived in peace but everything changed when the Fire Lich attacked.
So a death knight?
@ikmart112 Death knights are externally made (evil deity or demon decides it wants an evil knight and proceeds to find a suitable person for death knightdom). I think that lich paladin would be a paladin that went so hard in on their oath that they decided to keep doing it eternally, add in a ritual of so me sort and an upkeep cost (perhaps they have their spirit inhabit another person with the same oath, taking their power and will with them) and you got a PH paladin lich recipe.
Oooh i thought of that too! Except i thought "hey, how about the world is secretly controlled by undeads, illuminaty like, and a sort of lich council controls the lives of mortals like gods?"
Except, well, this druid lich wouldn't likely collaborate XD so liches fighting against eachother sounds more probable... or the liches conclave promised a druid their Land would thrive only to betray them, so the druid attained their own lichdom to fight back... and wholeheartedly desires to expand till they reach the very foot of the liches tower XD
So the liches conclave would even have to reach out to adventurers to make them try to end this expanding threat!!
Oh! Imagine a campaign where the players are stuck in a war between two blights that began to border each other!
Oooh an artiticer villain would be awesome! I would hope they would be the comically Victorian entrepreneur with handlebar mustache (man or woman) and make comically gigantic machines that feed off nature and magic respectively.
Or they become the devil that sells cursed objects, gaining souls for each purchase making them live forever
Would be cool to see some biomimicry where it takes that nature and replaces it with machines as its simply ineffient to destroy without replacing and if you have this uber smart robo lich why wouldnt they find a sustainable way to preserve themselves no matter the means.
For some reason i think of a Artificer Lich in a form of "Chronolich" all equipped with steampunk machine parts and the control of time in the area next to him, it could age things, stop time, and similar things, the question is that he only could do it in the area of their domain, and he isn't actually imortal, just stopped time from ticking in himself while in their domain.
The objective could be to expand their domain, but for this to happen he needs to build clock towers in shape of spires that age everything in the area to transfer the life energy to him and his structures.
Sorry for bad english ;)
Inevitably an Artificer Lich will run up against some, you know, "FROM THE MOMENT I REALISED THE WEAKNESS OF MY FLESH, IT DISGUSTED ME"
i had a atificer litch in one of my games years ago with a whole making their body into artfcats. for instance his arm was revolver for wond's. he also hand like a while set of machine army ribs he can use to do horible things to you
Man, that's just what I needed to complete my Spore Druid idea!
I was thinking of a flavor focusing more on flowers and vines. Spores would be toxic pollen, and the symbiotic entity would be countless flowers blooming across Druid's body. And the peak of their transformations would be turning into a Blight - the one who values beauty and happiness above all. In their grove it's perpetual spring - flowers are blooming, vines are crawling and intoxicating smells and pollen fill the air. Breathing those spores in, you'd feel overwhelming happiness and content - you'd never want to leave this place, you'd want to stay here forever, drooling in pollen-induced stupor until your body rots and blooming vines cover it, hiding the ugly side of the grove.
Now I have to think up a way of working that idea into my Spelljammer campaign.
Take everything you just wrote and put it on an asteroid, generating a welcoming air envelope, like an island oasis, and then just scale it to fit your needs.
Do you want the air envelope to be large enough that an entire vessel can dock within, replenishing its own air envelope, or do you want it to be smaller, prompting an away team mission?
If the latter, some members of the crew (whether player characters or NPC) might remain on board the ship.
If the latter, everyone and everything on the ship can be subjected to the spores. The party succeeds on their saves against the spores, but they return to the ship only to find that not everyone was so fortunate.
However, if you want the grove to be more mobile, make a variant of the living ship, with the druid lich and/or grove in place of, or in addition to, the usual treant.
Or, for a larger mobile option, look into *Citadels* from previous editions of Spelljammer. They're essentially cities in size and scope.
Hmm... what if we also took a page from Chrono Trigger with Lavos? The living seed-meteor that flies through space before impacting a planet, digging itself deep before letting its roots slowly spread. The impact site could be a reason that the land, after its many millennia, is so corrupted, and the inhabitants of that land being Spore Druids themselves, worshiping the Great Seed. After so long, the seed has gathered enough planetary energy to "gift" its power to its mst devoted, letting it become the next host: The next Lich to help it in its final stages of growth. Regain the energy from those who live to let the Great Seed bloom, at the cost of the planet. Finally, it grows pods for the next generation to break off and fly through space, looking for the next planets to act as its soil.
I had a idea once for a druid that planted seeds into skeletons, the seeds would sprout a plant that would control the skeleton with vines acting like the muscle to move the skeleton
This is scarily timed! My party are about to run into the druid lich in our campaign that I've been planning for weeks but I've been putting off the hard work of fleshing out the big bad. And now you've done the work for me! Cheers man!
Ayo man tell me how it goes! Sounds awesome.
@@-MariotAndVoid- I'll second this, it sounds very interesting and want an update 😅
Thirded. Plz let us know how this went.
i LOVE the idea that an entire zone of the world becomes an extension of a blight's senses, power, and will. the ENTIRE area turns into a giant panopticon! you're so good at homebrew design that approaches familiar concepts in entirely unique ways :^]
Druid Lich that uses a mycelial network as a phylactery would be crazy.
Dude, you are one of the best content creators in this community. Really clever, lots of fun, excellently crafted and produced videos, humble yet cool persona, and totally professional execution. AND free content. Rispetto, amico.
Dare I say it? Hat's off to you, sir.
😂💗🌺
The Fawn-adventure sounds INTENSE ... save the town, save Fawn ... save the world! I'm imagining him popping up, appearing to the adventurers to give hints, clues, and help, as he can, fighting the Memorial to help these people who want to help them all, the way Fawn once wanted to help the land....
TEARS.
And yes, you are indeed slaying, living, killing it!
I stay for your ramblings at the end Pointy Hat!
I'm a content creator like you (You've probably never heard of me since I make videos about Paleontology) and I have been dealing with a lot of stuff in my personal life and I have been spending a lot of time watching videos by you, Ginny, Dungeon Dad and a few others and honestly these make me really happy. I may even think about getting into the D&D video space one day soon...
And if that day ever comes, I think you and I would actually fit really well together! 👀
Been so excited for this one. Ok but like Artificer with a mechanical phylactery sounds so cool I want that so badly
Hold up, hear me out on this. Artificer Lich, whose phylactery is a warforged PC.
How about a bunch of robots being piloting by a brain in a jar.
It just becomes the terminator with real skin.
Maybe go full on ghost in the machine, with an artificer living through every single machine they build, which will eventually rust and age, forcing them to continue to build and expand
Or maybe the phylactery is a main engine, constantly in need of repair and upgrades, with the overall lich taking the form of one single massive factory
Artificer lich is basically just a mind-upload.
Antonio my friend, you set the bar so high that I was very excited and very scared when I saw you were making my favorite class, but I gotta say, this is incredible, it really shows me what true creativity and story telling can be. Top notch👌
excited*, not exited
Staying till the last seconds for the memes :))
Thank you for the inspirational video!
I'm creating a death land in my campaign and this is super helpful!
Man, these lich videos are the pinnacle of your creativity, I love them.
Idea for a Fighter or Barbarian Lich: Its phylactery is a war. This can be between countries, gangs, families, races, tribes, or individual people. As long as the battle rages, through violence or espionage or propaganda, they continue to live, almost forcing them to maintain the conflict through subtle or obvious means. Only by forging peace can it finally be defeated (or by killing everyone involved, either or)
This was inspired by Xivu Arath from Destiny 2 (The Hive god of war who grows stronger from any violence committed, for, against, or unrelated to her ("[She] feeds on warfare. The more violent the act, the greater the power she draws from it")), Apollyon from For Honor (Who stoked war between 3 different nations by brutality and subterfuge, to wheen out the wolves among the sheep), and the United States
Clan feuds going back generations are actually uncle Hrogar fucking with your family. I love it.
Its cool idea, but I think to become a lich you have to be a strong spellcaster
@@leonmitas You're right, but there are magic based subclasses for both Fighter (Eldritch- , Echo- , and Rune Knight, and Psi Warrior) and Barbarian (Wild Magic, and Ancestral Guardians), so it's not unfeasible
I'd also make the argument that non-spellcasters could maybe achieve lichdom, because:
1. By Hat's criteria, they need to conduct a ritual, which I would argue they could do, maybe, possibly, through a lot of research or old magic or something (Like using a one use magic item?)
And, more honestly, 2. I think it'd be cool to see lich versions of every class, including martial ones. They all have some form of magic based subclass. They could gain weird, unique necro magic in their undeath. And, most importantly, _God damn, a super powerful undead fighter/barbarian/monk/rogue sounds fucking sick_
@@chancecomic1595 it DOES! 🙄😂
@@leonmitas RIGHT!! XD I want it so bad!
I just wrote a 'little' one shot for our group based on an ever expanding dangerous land. The players are a team choosen to find out why this is happening and who´s behind it all. I delayed the onshot because I dind´t had an interesting BBEG. BUT NOW I HAVE!!!
Thx a lot for that! You´re the true hero of my upcoming adventure!
Artificer Lich: My phylactery is a hard drive, I need to upgrade my RAM if I want to keep existing
This is such an awesome idea. I am running an Eldritch horror campaign and my party is going to eventually make it to some kind of spooky forest in search of a relic and the whole expanding Blight idea is going to work incredibly well for that.
Since your first Which Lich video, I did the same for the other casters for my own amusement and future usage and had the same conceptual idea as you for the Druid. So glad to see your take on it :D These are such great ideas and I can't thank you enough for your hard work!
There is actually an official druid lich in the books. It’s called a lichenlich.
@@commentary4298 He literally says this is in the video.
I stay until the end of your videos and think your ramblings are hilarious!
For the Artificer Lich, Nox from Wakfu seems like good inspiration.
YEEEESSS! Nox is such a fascinating character in both his story and his concept.
Im so excited for more of this series, especially if you come up with non-Caster litches, too. I could see a Monk or Barbarian litch being really neat
Barbarian lich:
BREAKING NEWS: Local Man Too Angry to Die, more at 6.
i think death knights are to martial characters as liches are to casters ; a monk death knight is an exciting idea for sure
@@nikoblack1272 Not really. Death Knights feel more like Half Casters and have too much knight theming in them. However a monk with too much willpower to succumb to death does sound cool. Mind over matter taken to its logical extreme. I just wouldn't call it a death knight. More like a monk so disciplined that the body moves because they will it to move.
@@nikoblack1272
I like that, lich being the spellcaster variation and death knight being the martial half.
Would you give your noncasters magic is the question. Like I mean would they become casters through lichdom or have abilities that accomplish the same goals.
For things like Barbarians this could vary with the use of totems n stuff.
For Warrior/Knightly types an oath could be made, written in literal stone perhaps.. Instead of casting they call forth the souls of other warriors they killed or lead in life. One man ghost army style.
The upkeep is the hard part. If you don't just make it so that they need to feed the phylactery.
I stay for every rant, and you know what video I would love to hear a rant at the end of? A monk lich video, I have such a soft spot for that class and I am infinitely curious how you would spin that.
This feels very Swamp Thingy to me. Like you could play an adventure with Swamp Thing as the villain. He protects the Green at all costs, even the lands around his swamp. Hooray magic alligators and moss!...or magic moss alligators.
Edit: Swamp Thing becomes a blight BECAUSE it wants to spread throughout the land and obliterate other life not of the swamp which the blight deems too destructive (any humanoid) and impure (not swamp stuff). Kind of gives darker Nausica and the Valley of the Winds vibes.
Ive been waiting for this all week!! Excited to see another which lich, and I like the acknowledgement of evil druids.
I've decided to use the Blight for my parties amnesiac assassin. It's been so much fun tying in his backstory and revealing that uncanny familiarity with the area and the grove before it became a memorial and the blight was formed, letting him piece together his own history, until recently when he realized he and his masters were the reason the blight manifested.
I missed my chance to say this pun on the last lich video.
“You son of a lich
This is my favourite alternate lich so far. The memorial and its expansion is such a cool idea.
Thanks for all of your hard work. Looking forward to more lich videos. Maybe warlock?
I think aesthetically this is my favorite litch, and seems to have the most potential for a long campaign. Depending on the mosulium's size, enemies inside it, and settlements for encounters.
A druid lich? I can't wait. I did love the bard lich! It was my favorite so far.
@@Scalesthelizardwizard I know - and I loved it.
@@Scalesthelizardwizard Reading is hard, isnt it?
I'm so pumped to use every variant of lich to create a legion of doom for an undead themed campaign that still has some spicy variety. So much flavor. So awesome. Thank you for making something so cool!
That could actually work quite well for a later point in our campaign! Our Warlocks Patreon, a powerful archfey gave him the mission, to spread beauty everywhere he goes. What will happen if they meet a memorial and its blight guardian, that are touched by his patreons faycourt but is endangering the nearby villages?
Anything can be a villian if you put work on it
Shredder from TMNT is a Monk
Evil Route Corvo from Dishonored is a Gloomstalker Ranger(Basically playing a SUPER Tactical Rogue)
Chaos Space Marine are basically evil Clerics and Paladins
I think Corvo is an assassin gloomstalker battlemaster with a few custom magic items for his powers.
Imperial Space Marines are also evil clerics and paladins, just lawful ones
@@KaiserAfini Hes deffinitly a High Level Gloomstalker first since the man has Conjure Animals
With you know, the Rat thing
And then there's World Eaters, who are basically Barbarians.
@@shadiafifi54 zealot barbarian
I love this so much and you somehow blew all my expectations out of the water AGAIN somehow but also I really wanna highlight the HORROR potential of this 😭😭 because this shit would be utterly terrifying if the group didn't know what was happening and had to slowly piece it together. Just like... being in a forest that's a little too shady and makes you feel like you're being watched wherever you go, maybe investigating disappearances or something, they find victims that are basically just fertillizer at this point that clearly died in a struggle, but no sign whatsoever of whoever killed them or whoever dragged them there in the first place. Sounds of cracking twigs and branches waving in the wind that make you think someone is following, but whenever you see a bush rustling like someone's going to come out of it, nobody is there. The animals look strange and just stare at you, staying in sight but barely visible, like they're in on something you aren't. It's not "lets go defeat the lich", it's a monster hunt in the dark creepy woods with the slow realization that the creepy woods IS the monster, and you're in the middle of it.
This potentially plays into so many interesting horror concepts... see In The Tall Grass (2019), The Color Out Of Space, Pet Sematary, Annihilation (2018), The Ritual (2018). And imagine running a campaign like one of them, but with a Blight behind it all 😳
Not to mention you’re being watched at all times, imagine going paranoid as the entire time your in this forest, you feel you’re never truly safe, even in the most beautiful of places, there’s something off about it all.
This sounds great for movie or horror story, but unfortunately in role-playing game it is extremely hard to maintain this suspense and players attention at the same time. When we play, we want to have some control, some basic understanding - otherwise it immediately becomes boring and exhausting.
On the other hand, one good Perception roll from your Ranger can be enough to give them answers about this bodies, this animals and so on. In that case they will have information and can make decisions, but suspense almost fades away.
So yeah, sounds great, but maybe not enough for horror at your table.
@@nicolegraves9145 It's all up to the way you DM 🥰
I just want to let you know that you are by far my favorite ttrpg producer of content on UA-cam. The amount of effort that you put in to these stories is unreal
Man this is awesome. I've had an idea for a cursed forest caused by a powerful druid in mourning for ages. This is literally perfect for it. Thank you Pointy boi, you've knocked it out the park yet again
Yes I'm really happy we get the third video of this series.
Also it's funny because after seeing your video about the sorcerer lich I got to read the 13 tome of a manga which surprisingly enough revealed that the main villain was practically the same thing so now I have this example to draw inspiration from when I will make a campaign about this
may i ask which manga?
@@keenirr5332 mission yozakura family
@@victorvictor_dead_kro_nov_jail thank you
I know that there’s ALWAYS something free at the end of the video but I still get so excited when you say “free”
I love staying til the end of the ramblings ❤️ so wholesome and slightly awkward as you give ten different goodbyes back to back
As someone who's new to DND and is about to try to DM soon these videos are super great. Love the creativity and thought behind all these ideas. Thank you for all the hard work you put into these!
Perhaps one interesting idea is a sort of love story type deal.
There were two people who fell in love and came to value a particular area due to it being rather hidden and quite beautiful. It was their own little hideaway from the rest of the world. However, due to sudden illness one of the lovers is brought to the brink of death and the two decide to make their hideaway be their resting place. Years later the remaining lover is watching over the place when people decide to start expanding their towns. This would cause the destruction of hideaway in the process. In a moment of pure emotion, the remaining lover goes through the ritual to become a blight, vowing to ensure noone else will overtake this place, that nobody can ever destroy their hideaway. And so when the ritual is complete, a lone deathbloom grows over the lover's grave. I'd imagine if this is contained in a setting though it would have to be a lower leveled variant of a blight that hasn't spread far but is still a threat, this way the party can manage it as I'd imagine something like this likely isn't BBEG territory, but still an overall really cool concept imo.
This is my favorite Lich so far, because it’s a good-natured Lich and that’s very cool!
I love this series! I hope you make a Warlock Lich. I can imagine a warlock who doesn't want their soul to be taken by their fiendish patron at the time of their death so they decide to achieve undeath. Then their pact contract can never be fulfilled.
While interesting, it seems like a Warlock Patron would storywise take steps to deal with a Warlock using loopholes in a Pact.
There was an idea for an Undying Patron I had that was essentially a proto-god, something that never fully formed, but didn't really die. It simply entered a sort of torpor, hibernating until it senses something desperately reaching out, calling someone ANYONE for help. Instinctually, the protogod seeks to bind that which touches it, to siphon life energy to finish its apotheosis. It needs more than any single creature could provide, so it forms a symbiotic bond, supping life energy slowly from the mortal (perhaps just passively, through urging the Warlock to perform rituals that offer up the energy in the form of blood or tissue, or a combination), while providing a sliver of its slowly developing powers.
Perhaps the warlock becomes a power of light or fiend over time and replaces there life force with a new source of life? It certainly would fit the adventuring life.
The first adventure idea could work as a domain of dread
This kindof reminds me of the sentient forest guy from The Unexpectables podcast. He's literally a forest fey eldrich being that can always see and hear you (unless you have an anti life shell up) and his humanoid persona is really only used to talk to you. Also there's no wildlife or birds in the forest being because he'd just eat them
Edit; his name is Fleur de Mort
His name is Fleur Du Mort, and he's exactly what I thought of when I saw this video.
@@bennusmagnus5277 yeah I forgot his name lol
I love druids, and this is honestly incredible. Your dedication to creating things for the community is inspiring
at 1:09, and I am guessing that the Druid lich will plant a 'Soul Seed' to create their own Soul tree, and that as long as that tree lives they will as well, range limited by the range of it's roots.
It's funny that you mentioned Zuggtmoy, as I'm running an adaptation of the Classic Temple of Elemental Evil (where Zuggtmoy was the final boss). This will definitely help with my vision for the 4th floor of the Temple, acting as her High Priest.
I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS
Also I think the template for the paladin lich would be the Revenant, a (un)holy warrior whose very oath makes him come back from death until it's fullfiled
I love that you named the Druid Lich a Blight. 10/10 no notes.
you are honestly such an incredible creator. Honestly one of the reasons i got into dnd in the first place! i greatly appreciate you're genuine creativity and passion :)
Amazing video, can't wait to see what you do with the other classes! I had an idea for what a lich Barbarian could be like called The Reaver. These Barbarians perform an ancient rite that binds their soul to their weapon and a suit of armour (optional). The weapon acts like a Lich's phylactery, as it stores the souls of anyone it slays. But to spice it up, the Reaver doesn't just feed on souls, but on the pain and loss it inflicts on the loved ones of its victims. So if a Reaver killed an old man with no friends or living relatives, they would barely get any "soul energy" to extend their life, but if they killed a child in front of their parents, the Reaver would get a lot more "soul energy" from it. Really gruesome but fitting of an undead savage warrior who just wants to live and fight forever!
Im currently running a game where the Blight is only using this form of lichdom to live long enough to make sure he can achieve his objective to fix a broken world. His view is.... flawed and has a bit of a "The ends justify the means" method, but if he can persuade the party to help him complete his goal once its done, he'll pick his own deathbloom and die.
If you want to see something like this executed, Fleur de Mort both as an episode villain and in the arc dedicated to them in The Unexpectables are close enough to get an idea.
Again, great Lichidification video (Is that actually a thing?). This goes perfectly with the druid theme and I cannot wait to play this in an actual campaign and just seems so fun to play. Hell, if all classes get a lich version I can even imagine some of them living in the same plane, interacting with one another and dividing the realm between the undead lords. Please, continue with this type of videos, they are just too amazing to stop!
Man this is incredible, the absolute depth of character you can feel from this is astonishing. I hope warlock lich rolls around at some point soon-- I think that would be pretty awesome, and one of the characters I have upcoming would be pretty cool to develop that into.
I'm happy you chose this as your next lich concept. After your first video that was my immediate choice for my own to design. I ended up creating a druid that created a garden eden that also vampires magic from the people inhabiting it to keep them alive, but anyone that eats from the garden doesn't notice because the fruits give them a minor amount of magical power back so long as they keep eating. Their phylactery was an extremely hardy plant based off the welwitschia which is incredibly resilient and grows two permanent primordial leaves that constantly break and spiral around and are nearly as hard as stone (I thematically decided this could be used as a capstone or sanctum structure itself). Their choice of undeath was that by forgoing their own life and tying it directly to the eden they created would allow them to fully embrace their nature magic and truly create the paradise the world needed. There would be rituals for every season but the ritual for winter is the actual ritual to sustain their lichdom during which they sap the lifeforce out of the plants in eden and eventually any living magical being still within the bounds of the territory until spring.
See, the problem with this series is that I want to play all of these liches right now but I already have a homebrew game going with its own flavor! Guess I'm going to have to start building up a new world to have them in there. Can't wait for the next one! Also, I wait until the end. Your kiss goodbye is very sweet and it brings me joy to hear you go "mwuah!"
I’ve quite literally needed something like this for my own version of Mine of Phandelvar, thanks for coming in clutch Pointy Hat.
Got to say, this one really resonated with me. I loved the other Lich videos, but this really struck home. I'll definitely be taking this to my table. Oh, and I always watch to the end of the ramblings.
I love this! It also give off horror vibes along the lines of Annihilation and the Southern Reach trilogy, where everything in the Memorial is twisted and off.
I actually JUST did a Druid “villain” arc with my group. The Druid Council came together to vote on a path that would return the modernizing world to one more at balance with nature. The one druid who wanted to oust the ruling class responsible by any means necessary was open to being challenged (he was not evil but was definitely more radical in his beliefs, willing to take them to any conclusion).
One of the very few channels where I cannot stop watching any video until it reaches the very end.
The content and video editing are incredible!
I kinda expected a mushroom spore spreading druid lich that "gives" other immortality and it's like if Papa Nurgle was in The Last of Us
Lich Artificer aka Mecha Lich
You asked if we stayed until the end of the videos to hear the ramblings. My answer is yes
I like the idea of a Demi-Blight which has stopped the expanse of the memorial at much expense causing both them and the grove they sacrificed everything to save wither away infront of their eyes as the last thing to rot is their very soul, but idk sounds cool to me.
Nice, a new flavour of sealed evil in a can. Just waiting for someone to come along and try to fix or exploit the memorial and unleash the blight again.
@@llamatronian101 I actually love this idea. The Blight overcame its original compulsion and went into a state of dormancy. Lands the Blight assimilated even got reclaimed somewhat! But as the reclamation got closer and closer to the Deathbloom itself, it reawakens with vengeful intent.
Well i *was* going to have to figure out the origin for the mysterious plant-based infection spread across the island. Now I just have to figure out the origin of my lich
edit: I looked at the stat block and its amazing how perfectly this fits what I've already made. A central plant that is the source of the infection, it extends its reach by infecting creatures and other plants, its considered undead etc just everything is perfect.
This is literally perfect for a campaign I'm about to run. Thank you so very much. You're truly a cackling DM
I love the direction you took with these liches, especially this one. Their undead nature causing the core nature of their class to be corrupted and making them essentially parasitise on others. I could definitely see the party being recruited by a different druid circle to destroy the blight as it's an affront to everything they stand for.
This almost made me want to become a DM and run a short campaign where they find mysterious events happening in the forest's edge and eventually after interacting with various characters, bandits, lumberjacks but also some who are aware of what the source of the grove's corruption is eventually would come to face this force of nature and then have it's memories somehow beam into the player character's sorcerer/wizard/warlock/druid/cleric team members, revealing the backstory of the person becoming a druid to protect a place they cherished with a loved one and never letting go of it to the point of becoming a high level druid, living a 1000 years of pain, before turning to lichdom, their mind twisted from the centuries long before that became a choice. Maybe even with a self realization and a moment of tears as the players knock it down.
You’ve inspired me to make the BBEG of my campaign a warlock lich. I’m excited to see what you come up with for that class!