How do allow a player character to become a Lich without being

>>52145255
> Allowing players to be undead monstrosities and creatures of pure evil
No.

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>>52145255
Put him against enemies that fuck over undead beings
>>52145281
She doesn't look evil

>>52145281
>Allowing players to be (...) creatures of pure evil

But you repeat yourself.

>>52145281
>Evil campaigns
>Running a game for two evil casters to become the BBEGs for another game

>>52145255
Being a lich doesn't necessarily make you overpowered. That's just a misconception. The real bonus is that now your powers have fewer limits, allowing you to build up to such a point while also allowing you to return as long as you have a phylactery.

In the end though, the only real bonuses you get is being undead and having the phylactery keep you up longer than you should be. Otherwise, you have to build up all the power. And lemme remind you, undead is neat and all, but now all those holy spells that don't even necessarily deal damage are going to be damaging you far more.....

>>52145255
What system? In 3.PF, the template has a CR adjust. A really quick-and-dirty solution is to have the lich player be that many levels below the rest of the party.

My stance is that if you allow them magic item crafting feats then you're already half way there.

>>52145281
> Allowing players to
NOOOOOOO REEEEEE it's MY story and you're all just props!

>>52145255
>>52145463
This. Liches are just intelligent skeletons with, depending on the system, slight to medium power ups. The real kicker is the immortality it offers.

If Elves are immortal in your campaign setting, they already start off the game with the thing that wizards turn themselves into Liches for. Time.

Then again, I like to have campaigns take upwards of 10-20 years in game and tend to stick to harsher, monster filled settings so immortality or training your successor character becomes pretty important. So I tend to think about this a lot.

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Cracked phylactery, resulting in a flawed conversion. Any bonuses you deem overpowered are either not present in your characters Lich or far less powerful. Make them come with levels/class/whatever.

>>52145255
In 3.5, the necropolitan race gives all the benefits of undeath at effectively ECL+0. (same as a human) That's a lot: immortality, no need to breathe or eat, immunity to spells that require a living target, etc. For some campaigns it is definitely gamebreaking, but in others all that stuff is mostly fluff.

As mentioned the big one is the contingent resurrection but it really isn't that OP: again in 3.5 terms, its about the same as having a lvl 9 Stasis Clone spell as a 1/week item. Really strong, but you can't be a lich before level 11 anyway. At that point a player should have about 66000gp worth of gear, and a 1/day 9th level spell item is worth 55000, for reference. Creating the phylactery already costs 120000gp, so I'd say its balanced as is.

Note that you lose your gear if you die in a bad way (lava pit, tpk) and you're out of commission for 1d10 days which is sometimes critical. A tpk is still probably game over, with everyone losing their gear and needing to be raised. If the resurrection schtick doesnt fit the campaign, you can always have the phylactery get destroyed.

You don't seem to have the balls or the brains to play above lvl10 so it's never going to be a problem.

If a player earns something through hard work and solid roleplay then you don't punish them for it, that's a typical control freak sperglord reaction. If there's a limit to what power levels you can deal with, talk to your players and come up with a solution. If the player is abusing his things, warn them. If that doesn't work, you can always drop the hammer if the form of a large group of clerics and paladins, armed to the teeth with ridiculously powerful items and spamming Sunrise every turn.

But really, if you can't deal with something simple like lichdom then you really should stick to GMing published modules only. Or go on an epic quest of self discovery and find your balls.

>>52150498
That's a lot of hostility

>>52150498
Modt groups don't advance much beyond lvl 10 because that's when the game mechanics start to unravel if the players show even slightest modicum of creativity.

>>52147571
>Wanting GM agency
NOOOOOO REEEEEE it's MY table and you'll cater to my power fantasies!

>>52150530
Being told you can't play a lich apparently gives fa/tg/uys a lot of butthurt.