And you could theme some of the bodies as the necromaton desperately trying to make something that they can beat the PCs with, a modok like a body, sentinels, anything.
Omg the idea of a “Barbarian Lich” is absolutely wild. I can only imagine a nordic warrior king too angry to die, probably getting their soul sustenance by defeating worthy warriors in glorious battle
Haha, it’s Darth Maul. I like the idea of them imparting their soul into their weapon - but maybe something higher concept, like the anger itself, is more unique and thematic
@@anothercrazyenglishman3494 SO, LIKE, THEN THE WAY THEY'D GET A NEW HOST IS BY DEFEATING OPPONENTS AND POSSESS THEIR BODIES BY GIVING THE CORPSE THE SWORD! NEATTTTTT
@@sebygamingyt2621This is just giving me the idea of a trans charatcer who wants to find the shop so that they can get surgery. "You're telling me I can get corrective surgery AND get paid for it? Sign me the fuck up!"
Bro, an artificially alive inventor has been done so well in sci-fi. An artificer lich seems like such an obvious thing yet you really don’t see it done in swords and sorcery campaigns.
I think this is because we have a preconception against mixing sci-fi elements into our games. We have this notion that D&D, and other sword&sorcery settings are strictly fantasy, when the early D&D explicitly had players interact with advanced technology disguised as magic, and that Conan stories frequently featured beings from other planets and their magical technology, owing to the author's friendship with Lovecraft.
I mean probably because of a lot of sword & sorcery campaigns shy away from sci-fi inspiration, I mean even now that artificers are technically a core class they’re kind of considered a bonus newcomer thing, a stepchild of sorts. & spelljammer has always run & marketed as a separate setting despite being directly connected to the lore of several others
@@hya2in8 I think a great inspiration for such a setting are some of the steampunk stories, in particular the Girl Genius webcomic, which liberally mixes magic with super science and wraps everything in a big blanket of technobabble.
Dang, I just imagined a Scenario where the Nercromatron sets up shop in a village, where he offers cybernetic upgrades to villagers in exchange for service and goods the town can provide for him. So when the heroes come into town they see a bunch of folks with mechanical parts, not knowing that any of them can be taken over by the Necromatron at any point.
I'll trade you my reently deceased Grampa for several necromatrons that can be used as menial labour, which also increases the number of bodies you could inhabit if required. That is a scary form of recycling if you start down that way.
@@ManiaeTheArchivist Not to mention what constitutes a body part. Could toe and fingernail clippings be traded? Locks of hair? What about patches of skin? Baby teeth?
@@SH-qs7ee plus I don’t see why the artificer could not clone their living body over and over then farm their own body and make more so they would have a near infinite amount of bodies to harvest without killing anyone
Barbarian Lich would be pretty dope with a lot of concepts. Badass weapons, army of enslaved zombie warriors, maybe a pelt-cloak made from the hide of a magical beast. The soul-vessel would inspire a few ideas too.
@@anthonymorales9869 I ran a one-shot where two of the players came up with a concept like this. The zealot barbarian was accompanied into battle by his own reanimated former bodies. His accomplice was an evil cleric with whom he would leave a severed finger before he would head out to battle.
@@leyrua These are actually pretty cool concepts. What if they took it a step further and made it so that his former bodies still have fragments of his soul and have evolved to be his lieutenants? The cleric could even have a personal connection to the Lich as the head priest of the village they once protected together.
@@anthonymorales9869 I believe they were supposed to be brothers. The cleric originally entered the service of an evil god so that he could gain the powers to bring his dead elder brother back to life.
In 3.5e there was a type of Psionic Lich called a spectral savant. It was Incorporeal and had to drain psionic power from other creatures to be able to use its psionic abilities. It's super flavorful and it would be amazing to see a version of it for 5e, intended for the Psi Warrior, Soulknife, and Aberrant Mind!
Hmm... modrons have biological looking eyes, but the rest of their bodies appear mechanical. They are a hive mind for the primary one, Primus. When Primus dies, he is immediately replaced by the next modron down, and a new modron is created. Lots of parallels to this.
wait what- Primus dies? How does a greater god die? I didn't think that was really possible unless some universe-shaking event happened? Especially one as powerful as Primus...
@@calebleach7988 Primus is basically the biggest and most powerful Modron, and like all the rest, he will get replaced by one of his inferiors who turns into a new Primus, no different from how a Duodrone was once a Monodrone.
I would argue that this is different because primus is a god and therefore immortal. The fact there even are parallels just make it feel more lore friendly to me, kinda like a perversion of the magic or power primus uses. Who knows maybe the first ever artificer lich learned this ability from studying primus and modrans directly or even in person as only a very powerful magic user (like a prospective lich) could.
Love the Adeptus Mechanicus and Necron vibes. Can't wait to make a final boss to be a Warlord Titan reinforced by Imperial Knights and Necron Overlords.
I don't know what it was that you had to endure with your child, but as a father of a stillborn son, my heart goes out to you. Stay strong and be well.
One detail about the Necromaton that I absolutely love is that, somehow, you made it feel like the Necromaton is the PROPER way of achieving Wizard lichdom, meanwhile the classical "Eh, just inhabit my own corpse" is the half-assed, half-finished version of someone who rushes through the process. Or, I guess, like this is the same process as classical lichdom, but perfected.
No, there is a cruciql difference: a lich inhabits his own body but the body does not count anymore, because the philactery is an indipendent object who can be hidden and protected. If the lich body is destroied, it will regenerate in few times. The artificer new body is the philactery itself, so once destroied bye bye artificer soul
@@erdoombog6963 Only if there are no copies of the body, which if you have an eternity to produce them and the magical ability to achieve lichdom seems very unlikely.
You've officially inspired me to make a Black Mage Lich in my D&D with FF14 classes and species campaign, where his backstory is that he uses knowledge of the Void to inhabit the bodies of his firstborn children throughout time. A lich that instead of discarding their flesh instead takes on the flesh of their own children to feel young again is uniquely unsettling to me and I love it.
Technically, FFXIV already has this in the form of the Ascians. When destroyed, their souls retreat into the Void rather than returning to the LIfestream. Based on what we've learned about the Void (formerly the 13th reflection), being a realm of absolute Darkness and no Light means there is no where for souls to be laid to rest; thus, anything slain in the Void will simply return. The Ascian soul simply needs to find its way back to the Source, possess a new body (provided there isn't one prepared for them), and continue work. Ironically, the tried and true way to destroy an Ascian is to bind their soul into an Auracite, sort of an all-purpose philactery, and then purge it with overwhelming amounts of Light aether.
@@abadidea5984 Alternatively, starve them of anywhere for their soul to go, such as with the Sahagin right before Leviathan was summoned. That tends to work on less experienced or less powerful ones though. I think what PyroJack is thinking of is how that one voidsent possesses Cocobusi in the thaumaturge quests after being locked away in a jar, which I'd argue isn't lichdom technically. Regardless, there's a precedent for Eorzean liches, and I think that's pretty neat.
william afton is basically a necromaton you can't change my mind. also I loooove your videos, and have been binging your entire which lich and dnd with a twist series, you do such an incredible job not just of coming up with cool stuff, but also of inspiring my own ideas. I feel like I'm going to accidentally reference this lore one day like it's canon haha
I was actually rewatching this vid because I just got back into FNAF and thought "man, Afton would be a great lich. Is there an artificer lich somewhere?" and yep, and I'd watched it already apparently! But in his case, his way of linking his soul to the metallic body was, and you guessed it, SPRINGLOCK FAILURE! Makes it harder to inhabit other vessels because he's uh. Sorta stuck there? But that only means he gets to work on himself instead. It works really well. Even more so when you consider his whole Remnant obsession. That could probably become something in a campaign.
The main villian in my world is an Artificier Lich - he found an artificial Demiplane back during the prosperous years and managed to wrest control of it from the person who created it, essentially uploaded himself to the core so he cannot die so long as the plane survives. It was locked away but early on in the campaign one of my players accidentally unsealed it and I now make rolls as time passes to see if he notices. Every now and then an unsuspecting inhabitant happens to pop through and my players get a cool artifice-and-oil themed battle which increases his interest in them.
that gave me an idea: what if the plane of Mechanus was actually a giant necromaton (maybe even the first) and the Great Modron March happens every 289 years to harvest new flesh for Mechanus
By your own definition, Trazyn the Infinite (who made a brief cameo at the start of the video) is a Lich. Undead ✔️ Spellcaster(-ish) ✔️ Cannot die unless phylactery is destroyed (has lots of drone bodies that he can put part of his consciousness into, so killing him isn’t going to guarantee he’s dead) ✔️
Dude, that's sick. I love it. There's a kid in my group that plays nothing but Artificers, I'll share this with him, and I can already see his next character being a necromaton!
That kid shouldn't start as a necromaton however when you show him the video allow him to do that if he wants to at a higher level (I assume you start at low levels if you play at higher levels ignore my comment). The storyline could play out as the artificer knows about necromatons but doesn't feel quite skilled enough to convert himself into one yet but that is his eventual goal.
i think the necromaton has the easiest possibility of being not evil. imagine a necromaton that just takes out peoples appendix's, or gives people stronger mechanichal limbs and organs in exchange for their flesh ones, awesome ally for the party
So, like a darker twist on Discworld's "Igors"? That would certainly be neat. As I recall it Discworld lore on Igors/Ignorinas: ( A subspecies/sect of humans(-probably) who specialize in surgery and are able to take limbs/organs, even from the recently deceased, store them, then graft them onto people needing them, with the stipulation that when that person dies, their body is to be donated to the Igors. They tend to be in prime physical shape because they can literally upgrade themselves, despite looking misshapen and covered in scars and stitching. This is in part since they also practice on themselves but mostly that the scars/stitching are a sort of clan/family history thing and can be removed/reapplied in minutes. )
@@voicetest6019 They often carried their families in them quite literally, having bodyparts donated from ancestors. In one of the books an Igor is even claimed to be capable of genetic engineering of sorts (which according to the text requires really tiny stitches).
My mind jumped straight to stealing kidneys. It could do it several ways, maybe by building a cult following in several towns and at a certain age every child undergoes a "coming of age ritual" where one of their kidneys is stolen. (Depending on how "good" the nectomaton is could define its relationship to these towns, is it purely exploitative or does it act like a divine protector who treats their illnesses and fights off other monsters and nations) I could also see a surprisingly advanced hospital system that involves organ donations where the necromaton pinches some organs from the system, possibly by putting out fake requests for them. So far this Lich has the most potential to not be evil.
A thought: Necromatons as Cybermen. The bodies acting as low-capability armour constructs until they are able to encase and assimilate a living humanoid.
The armour only assimilate the dead or dying to make it less of a you are killed by putting on the armor and the armor heals wounds by filling them with living metal or constructing replacements for lost limbs and organs then when you die the armor then constructs a copy of itself and leaves after completing your unfinished business and disappears this happens all over and people use the armor to save thier doomed village or complete a near impossible quest and most often will be known for the armor that makes them near invincible but for the people close to them they know the armor will one day not com off and only the mission they set out to complete will keep them thier and when they leave the will build another armour for someone else to use and be consumed by
Decided to put the Clockwork Abattoir into my most recent session on a whim. Was not expecting my players to try to use resurrection to get free magic items, nor to discuss the logistics of harvesting organs from enemies. Still a fun time to be sure. Edit: some people want details but its fairly straightforward. I dropped the clockwork abattoir in on my players, hoping to offer some temptation to a morally simplistic group of adventurers (aka a bunch of edgy weirdos). i improvised a system where more vital organs such as the heart and stomach yielded more powerful items. players quickly debated whether to kill their horses and got a rod of resurrection at the price of one of the paladin's heart and used that to res him, also getting a few other powerful items from his other vital organs. The players were pretty suspicious so they arent going back probably and i have balanced around the high level items. Moral of the story is dont offer powerful items to players unless you have a foolproof plan. or do im not your parent.
@@dandereninja4750 Oooh, could parts from different creatures have different effects; like what would happen if they used dragon flesh, or a mindflayer brain.
i would make it so that the things taken are unhealable even by resurrection, an "it was always supposed to be this way" situation harvesting enemies would still give a steady supply of trinkets
I really wanna make a "Lich Council" villain group now using all the different liches you've created. Edit: I think I'll call them "The Pact Eternal." It is less a group and more a loose agreement not to fuck with each other's shit and they occasionally collaborate for something big.
And when the heroes start whittling them down one by one, they each take notice and start collaborating more and more to take down these upstarts that dare violate their eternal pact.
Equally as much as I love the joke references in your cutaways, I also love the subtle references in your art. The inspiration is clear, but not obnoxiously obvious. The first Necromaton sharing the beaten-up, hanging wires look of Ultron; Mencia's Necromaton having the same Art Deco headpiece from Metropolis; just *mwah* chef's kiss. And your ideas are always thought-provoking. Keep up the good work! Glad to see your channel grow so quickly, you deserve it!
Clockwork Abbatoir is so cool, so many "creepy factory that builds itself" vibes can fit into this Can imagine folk stories about those who tried to sneak in and never returned
If you need it and are meaning to pay the price, you get what you want. But if you want it and are meaning to take what's not yours, you become a part of the workshop.
I had a side mission with automatons and almost a skynet feel to it now it is changed to this. LOVE the videos man. My players are going to stoked for this small side quest to turn into a huge lich hunt.
@@InternationalAwesomeFoundation I'd argue that Mr House wasn't a villian. And i like to think that he had good intentions despite his douche mustache. But i think it might be up to interpretation. NV; in my opinion, doesn't paint Mr House as either good nor evil. But i like to think he'd be a twist hero, with his douche high society appearance, his ownership of a casino, his rapid militarism over the Mojave, and his want to be; by definition, a dictator. But with all that, i truely think he would do actual good for the Mojave, against what people would think of him on paper, a twist hero.
This could work in a murder mystery campaign where the friendly helpful rusting "warforged" actual necromaton is the villain trying to fix up/ replace his body.
No he is a necramaton harvesting the dead for parts to replace his current container and hunting the real killer in an attempt to do right by the people he has harvested from the real killer is a cultists of the machine god religion he created 4 centuries ago during a dark age regression to maintain the city infrastructure after the 1 man war against a invasion of mind flayers he won at the cost of most of his phylactery and not enough infrastructure to build new ones at the time so he had stasis cast on his most intact phylactery and did what he could to restore society to as close as possible to what it was before the war he has need active for the last 30 years preparing the construction of a new phylactery close in ability to his current container when new he just needed to grow the organic crystal core which needs blood the cultists misinterpreted this as bathe the machines in blood and ran of to do just that now he hunts down the cultists trying to stop them in the body available if not capable of the work well trying to build an interm body to take up work for that is necessary to maintain city functions and finish thier true body replacement
In my upcoming dnd campaign, the bbeg is a Vengeful God who leads a group of Liches (each inspired by this series). My way of introducing the Artificer Lich is similar to the workshop idea, The Artificer sets up near war torn areas and places where grave injuries are common and takes advantage of that. At first, She offers to heal the injured in exchange for a kidney (Enough to sustain the soul anchor but not to kill the donor). Throughout the first act of the campaign, her Soul anchor grows demanding of more sustenance, where she then resorts to attacking people to get what she needs to sustain her soul anchor.
Another inspiration for the necromiton's personality and goals could be Nox from Wakfu. A clearly high CR individual with a simple desire, get enough magic to go back in time, and because he'll undo everything anyways he can justify anything. He is strategic but cold, thinks himself totally logical yet is insane, perfectly in line with the artificer's schtick.
@@pablooregon592 like zarhakkar said, the mc didnt manage to stop nox or ruin his plans. What defeated nox was the realisation that everything he had sacrificed, all the suffering he had caused, only amounted to 20 minutes. That meant that he would never be able to get enough to save his family and had done it all for nothing.
Here’s an idea for a Paladin Lich: The Medjai. Because Mummy Lords are a lower CR than Liches, they might try to make up for this by having some undead Paladins that have sworn an oath to them either during the Mummy Lord’s time alive or more recently converted believers. Because a Paladin’s whole gimmick is their Oath, in order for a Medjai to prolong their undeath, they must uphold it by serving the Mummy Lord. Meaning that a Medjai can’t prolong their life themselfs. Auras: the Medjai can switch between two auras using an action to preform a short prayer. Aura or the Sands: if an enemy is within their aura, they take 1d4 piercing damage per turn (if the enemy fails a constitution saving throw). If another Medjai has the same aura active, if at any point the edges of the two auras connect, they merge. Dealing both d4s if an enemy is within either of their auras. The increased damage effect ends if the two auras no longer touch. This effect can stack up to Xd4s (DMs choice, it really depends on how powerful the individual Medjai are.) Aura of the Sun: the Medjai and any other Undead creature within the aura heals 1d4. Like Aura of the Sands, the healing effects can stack if another Medjai with Aura of the Sun active touches the aura of another. The idea is the leadership of the Mummy Lord advises them to march in formation to maximize their aruas. If the Mummy lord dies (permanently) then the Medjai have failed their Oath. They will start to decompose if they cannot resurrect the Mummy somehow or fail to find a new one. The idea behind these guys is that in ancient Egyptian mythology, high priests and pharaohs had body guards called, well, Medjai. They were often buried along with who ever they served on death. Now imagine if that loyalty lasted beyond the grave?
This is a really cool idea! Although I don't think it makes sense for Mummy Lords to have minions stronger than themselves, so I would probably make the Medjai weaker than the Mummy Lords, or create a stronger version of a Mummy Lord for those to serve.
Additional Aura, especially if you are playing an Aarakocra or Kenku, or a Medjai that is bird/wind themed : Aura of the Winds: The Medjai creates a rippling vortex of wind, spanning up to a 20 foot radius, that will send back any foe caught within it* back 1d12 feet if they fail a Strength check. *at the start of their turn
I mean, technically, that's what the Mummies without "Lord" in their name are supposed to do; those are the bodyguards. Could just have servant mummies that are Paladins, instead of them being "Paladin Liches" as such. So more of a customized statblock of an existing monster, than a separate method of Lichdom. Although, this is a pretty good way to make use of the Paladin Oath in a way that isn't just your typical undead with a vendetta like a wraith or revenant. Well, maybe not quite different enough, but it's a tough call, since revenants are seeking death by completing their goal while this is a Lich carrying out the goal to stay alive. ...Doesn't work for more selfish or individualistically idealistic Paladins, though, and being out for yourself or you own pet interests is an iconic part of what Lichdom is about, why they'd want to live in undeath forever in the first place.
That's actually the tightest shit I've ever heard. And it'd work by the rules of Pointy Hat's Intoners, too. You'd just have to assume that your Magnum Opus phylactery can be any art form, rather than just music - but I think that tracks just fine. (Just think about it. If Da Vinci was an Intoner, then you could say the Mona Lisa was his Magnum Opus and he'd still be alive today.) With that in mind, this character would be the pinnacle of heroic storytelling: The man who worked his story so deeply into the halls of legend that it will never end.
@@CrownofMischief that’s an amazing Idea and that could be a way to make him less passive! He slowly changes personality and looses parts of his memory and the Bard-Lich somehow has to sustain their legend as accurate as possible because when everything in the legend changes he disappears forever
Not the pinnacle, the origin. Think about it. What better way to become an undying lich god than by making your magnum opus an epic poem about your life deeds. There's a line in the Poetic Edda i believe, havamal 77 it reads as such: Deyr fé, deyja frændr, deyr sjalfr it sama, ek veit einn, at aldrei deyr: dómr um dauðan hvern. Cattle/wealth die, kinsmen die, and all men too shall die (alt, even the self must die). I know one thing that never dies: the renown of a dead man/but reputation never dies to whom gets a good one. It'd be awesome if intoned bard liches created the tradition of epic heroes to keep themselves alive and inspire others to go out and do heroic shit to get their names passed down through the generations.
"an arm? A leg? Literally?!" I don't know why that tickled me so much but it did! I love your work bro it's no wonder why your channel grew as much as it has and in such a short time
I'm imagining them getting the magic item they need incorporated into a prosthetic replacement for the flesh limb that they gave up in payment. Like, that bag of holding you asked for? It's inside your new clockwork arm. Which is great... until someone wants to steal it from you badly enough to chop off your prosthetic. And unfortunately the metal is woven into your flesh; it wasn't meant to be removable. And now the only way to get it fixed is to pay even MORE flesh to the Clockwork Abattoir.
You said, "not yet," when it came to barbarian and my heart skipped a beat. I thought it was just spellcasters, but the MARTIALS TOO? *Hyperventilating increases* I can't wait
See i picture the barbarian ritual to become a lich, involving brutalizing a lich several times until it asks "what do you want from me?" In a soul shattered manner, and the barbarian declares it wants to be a lich too.... then proceeds to make the now humbled lich help it become a new lich-barian
PC idea. A self-aware automaton/warforged warlock with a necromaton as it’s patron. It has to provide it’s patron with soul anchors constantly to delay the inevitability of it’s patron taking it over when they run out of other phylacteries. And in return, it gets access to magic to make it’s task easier. I can see another PC dying and the automaton instantly going for a body part before the cleric (or other healer) can revive them.
Ok i just fucking LOVE the idea of the clockwork abattoir. Aside from the impossibly cool name, the whole concept... look, I've been a fan of SCPs for a while and that feels like an incredible one. About the Necromatons having to house living parts as a soul anchor, i dig how it brings to mind the idea of catholic reliquaries. Just very cool.
Damn, I hope you manage to make Artificier with a twist one day. Your ideas are always so awesome and I can't even imagine how cool your artificier would've been
Right? Like, the existing subclasses are... decent, but even the Artillerist, which sounds like it should be ridiculously fun, actually looks fairly lame on paper. Your whole thing is artillery, but you get ONE magical cannon (until higher levels) that doesn't even operate like a badass cannon? I'd LOVE to see what kind of new flavour Antonio could bring to the table. Honestly, I bet whatever it is, it would quickly become the new go-to choice for a subclass.
@@NoahOMorainRushnot only that, but also the fact that our current subclasses are too specific to let you make any artificier you want. It's as if the only druid circles were wildfire, spores and stars.
@@darienb1127how does copyright even apply to someone's imagination? Like for a game or movie, I get it. But how would you enforce copyright for a tabletop game session? Mind reading? Unless it refers to distribution of things like merchandise and products.
@@micahlindley7515 The issue is on the publishing side. Since the Artificer is part of the OGL, trying to publish material using it can risk getting hit with copyright. So the issue is trying to get that information out to people to use at thier table is the hard part.
Darth Sion from Knights of the Old Republic could be a good base idea to work on. Basically he was so attuned with his Rage that no matter the damage to his body, he would not die. The protagonist had to break their will, convince them yo let gobof their rage, to finally get them to succumb.
I had an artificer that was “the pioneer” of lichdom. The story behind it was he was a artificer from a previous civilization that was un petrified and there was no liches yet. He made a puzzle box that had the ability to house a soul or a portion of a soul and him not having any Guinea pigs he tested it on himself. When the process was completed, nothing happened. PCs got to witness nothing happen. But when he died during the last session and was swept away by one of the players casting gate to the deepest part of the ocean, he reanimated as a lich and has survived 6000+ years since his “accident”
Love the concept Pointy Hat, I love the idea of a Necromaton being a Undead warlock patron. A warlock who is slowly becoming more mechanical as their pact with their patron grows until they become a new piece of soul Tupperware for them.
I am really impressed by the quality and effort you put into your videos, not only that but also going the extra mile with the plot hooks and stat blocks; genuinely impressed.
This is literally perfect. The BBEG for my current campaign is an artificer who uses biological components as the 'software' in his machines, so he essentially turns random animals into Necromatons! Eventually he'll turn himself into one, and now I have a stat block and some meat & potatoes to make Kace Aeges immortal.
This helped my finishing writing my current campaign. A artificer lich with an army of Modrons and the traveling world’s fairs. With decades and decades of touring the world!
I love how liches are meant for a villainous role, but all I can think is "Well, if a player became a lich and needed to collect souls to keep their lichdom going, then they could just 'borrow' the souls of enemies they fight and hope the other party members understand".
I like that all these liches aren't forced to be pure evil, but can CHOOSE to take a darker path to achieve more. The Hierarch could choose to be satisfied with a century of extra life, the intoner could let their song die naturally, and the Necometron could let its body rot or stick with weaker bodies made from bones people don't need - but once you've lived 200 or 300 years, what is one more life compared to your goals? (Interestingly, the Blight, while having the most sympathetic motivations, is also under the greatest pressure to expand and destroy.)
I feel like the necrotomaton would have the easiest time living a 'good' lifestyle. All you need for an anchor is some living body parts, theoretically they don't even need to be human/human-adjacent since they just need to be soul bindable. Even if the organic component MUST be of a human or human adjacent creature then there's no shortage of criminals being executed throughout most medieval settings. One human, properly separated as part of their execution into lots of little parts could anchor tonnes of bodies, each anchor lasting at least decades with the appropriate magcal preservation and healing. Depending on how much flesh/organ is necessary a necrotomaton could collect blood to act as the anchor, drain some blood and your subject will recover in a couple days, no death necessary. If blood is insufficient by itself you could always take a spare kidney, a small piece of the liver or even the appendix, maybe even some bone marrow. There's a lot of flesh that people genuinely can live without that could be taken in exchange for an artificers services. This is all without even considering the possibility of taking a more substantial part, say an arm or an eye and using magic to regenerate so the donor is no worse off than if you had never taken it in the first place.
theres also the option of a offering magical prosthetics, but unbeknown to their patients, the replaced body parts are squirreled away to make new bodies with
@@captainslender12 There's actually a magic item that could theoretically let an anchor last indefinitely. The chest of preserving How the item works is that, if you put something in the chest, like, say, meat or produce. It will never spoil, as long as it stays in the chest I'm not sure if its able to work on bones but it should be able to work on internal organs. So I'm fairly confident that That anybody who wants to become a necronomicon would want to learn how to create the chest of preserving. Because if they do, they would not need to acquire more soul anchors as maintenance. They would only need to acquire more of them if they wish to expand. The only real problem i can think of with this sort of setup. is that they would have to figure out how to modify the chest preserving to be more compact.
I'll bet it's Necromatons who create most of those magitek-cyborgs from your Warforged video. Customer gets a cool new robot arm, undead artificer gets a whole organic arm to break down and outfit three or four worn-out phylacteries.
Imagine a futuristic magitek-cyberpunk setting for DnD, like from the Technomancer’s Textbook, where an ancient necromaton from the old fantasy era of the setting awakens in this new age, and swiftly goes about upgrading itself with the new technology around it. At the same time, the denizens of this new setting may be unprepared for a powerful artificer-lich like this one who wields magic of a forgotten era and yet is so adaptable to their new surroundings.
I had an idea where the necron is a world-renowned doctor who does the best (semi-magical) medical work in about anywhere for the price of using any amputations to prolong its existence
The ritual would be to commit suicide on top of a mountain of corpses you've slain yourself, essentially claiming you are unbeatable. The weapon becomes your phylactery, and you must continue to kill with it in order to sustain a body.
I would love if you made an adventure module. One where throughout the world you have all 13 liches each controlling their own areas. The hierarch leading their own country, the intoner owning the largest inn franchise in the world, the enchanted forests controlled by the blight, a chrome city where robots and humans live together ruled by the necromaton, a mountain infested with dead controlled by a lich, and a holy city buried in sand with the high priest the mummy lord. Plus all the others. That would be so cool to either experience all of them and decide which ones are too evil to leave and which ones do not pose enough of a threat.
This literally could not be more timely... My artificer JUST "died" and has started down this path. This is awesome, and I will DEFINITELY be using this as inspiration.
I had made something like this years ago. We called it a sarcophabot. The liches/monks that made a practice of trapping soul energy in the remains of a body then using pieces of bodies to make powerful magic items or relics or robotic/cyborg/living doll slaves were known as Reliquarians. I borrowed heavily from catholic/eastern Orthodox and Buddhist spiritual reliquaries to influence the design of the items.
This lich is really strange in that it feels like the least inherently evil one, since its method of upkeep doesn't require murder, or enslavement. The idea of a person wanting to put their soul inside of a machine could be interpreted in a lot of ways compared to the other ones where the goal is entirely the immortality.
Yeah, I mean, he could just make a living by exanging defective biological limbs for mechanical ones that function, making it neutral good, it sells proesthetics to ppl with invalid limbs in exange for the limbs that they would have to get rid off either way, no morality dilemma, it just gives a free charitable service and recycles.
I love how each character you present could support it's own series. The dynamic between the parents and their now lich child alone would be fascinating to see.
I think a heart wrenching idea for a Nechomaton would be someone who doesn’t kill for soul anchors, but uses amputations. The people who work in their factories in poor working conditions become their fuel. They’re evil, but in a way that makes them hard to attack without facing social consequences
If they are an artificer of that level, they would obviously have some amount of money. More likely, it would be easier for them to pay people for their parts, offering to replace someone's limb with a mechanical one, for example a construction worker may be paid to have their spine removed and replaced with a metallic, stronger one, and the old organic spine could be used as an anchor.
I would reskin one of them being a living computer that creates psionics troll reskins it uses huuman bodies and must graft an mind control device (lightning damage) stops its regen it must expand its collection ensure its eternal existence and mantiance
I actually made an npc like this: his name was Dr. Cornelius, he was a normal lich who didn’t care about filling his philactery and was obsessive with conducting experiments for fun, so he made a mechanical body so when he became a demilich, he could plug his skull into it and keep going
@@jordanhunter3375 They do have phylacteries, but they almost always have their phylacteries embedded in their skulls in the form of jewels. Which... defeats the whole point of a phylactery.
Hey Pointy Hat! Don't know if you'll see this so I'll probably post it under every lich video :P Are you planning on going in more detail/creating an alternative for the OG Wizard lich? Every lich you created so far is amazing, but one really crucial difference between them and the wizard lich is the phylactery. The ones you created have phylacteries that are usually more than one and can be manufactured/created more during the unlife of the lich, and they are way harder to deal with and more fun compared to the wizard's "you get one soul tupperware, bury it somewhere safe and feed it once a week" kinda deal. So I'd LOVE to see your take on a different wizard lich.
Unknown to the great City, the local guardian golems are actually the Necromoton creations from this lich. Even the people of this City are willing to fight for these golems. The lich is the head of the crafting guilds, but for some reason, hasn't been seen in a few years, shortly after the golems join the City. But noone asks questions, because the unparalleled protection of these golems. Most assume the Guildmaster is either dead, or traveling abroad for more resources. What the citizens don't realize is that every criminal is jailed in cells that slowly drain the life essence, providing the power to keep these golems running.
I love the necromaton concept. And the tragic story of the sick rich girl was great. Might borrow the statbock for one of my games. I've always wanted to make a BBEG inspired by Nox from the Wakfu cartoon and this might be the closest I've seen without home-brewing something from scratch myself. 🙂
I've been working on a Blood Hunter Lich. I call it The Harbinger. It's phylactery is the weapon it used to take its own life with. Once reborn into it's lichdom. It must begin spilling blood. For every person killed with blood spilled a notch is made on the weapon allowing it to live another lifetime. If their weapon is ever destroyed all the lives it's collected are released and the Harbinger must start over with it's collection. Which means if you can destroy the weapon you can put the Harbinger to sleep permanently.
I kind of wish the whole 'they have to make the robot' thing. Imagine playing with a warforged, but the necromaton turns them into a phylactery and possesses them halfway through the campaign
This couldn't have come at a better time - I am writing a campaign with the bbeg being almost exactly the same as the necromoton mixed with your mind's eye, replacing their body with metal and striving for perfection to rival the gods. It's also got eldritch horror and religious themes with the nature of authority thrown in, your videos have been instumental for ideas. Thank you so much!
Ok the concept is just pure gold, I love it ! (and the illustrations just bring it to a whole new level !) I feel like there is potential for a Psion Lich. I just don't have THE cool idea yet but... Thanks for the quality content ! :D
my original thought while i was watching the video, while you were explaining the soul anchors, was a necromaton keeping their original body somewhere safe and preserved so they could use more of it for new necromatons. i was imagining the more powerful necromatons using major organs, but as time went on they had to use things like individual bones or kidneys, which might make them a weaker than the ones with hearts or lungs. using the bodies of victims is obviously much better for making an active villain, but i think my idea is interesting enough to share in the comments section lol
Binged the whole lich series from this one video and there's a lot of cool potential with all of these. I know there was a set of art a while back of what all the classes would be like as undead that this reminds me of and the idea in general is so cool. Interesting thing about the lich requirements is that even though the series is only doing casters and half casters, there technically isn't anything in the recipe PREVENTING fighters, rogues, or barbarians from qualifying. Like sure there's a ritual but someone else could do it or it could be based on a magic item. Very curious about the possibility of a rogue lich... (or if the series remains caster only then probably ranger or warlock. Those have a lot of possibilities!)
I don't even play DnD but watched the whole thing and loved it. I was just looking into the Artificer concept as a whole. Are you a professional writer or something? Way better than any recent movies for sure
It is so deeply ironic that all of these liches in trying to run from death are actually doing the opposite: They know they can never escape, and all their methods bind them in more shackles than they had before.
The line "They know they can never escape, and all their methods bind them in more shackles than they had before" actually goes hard. Took a picture of it so I could yoink it as a line.
A Necromaton attacks the memorial of a Blight, cause its the only way to get to the ressources to renew/rebuild its body, but would in process kill the blight and the party has to side with one of the liches to destroy the other 😱❤️✨
Make monk next please!! It would be so cool if a Monk Lich relied on others learning their techniques and stuff to keep living kinda like an Intoner but even more active as the Lich needs to actively seek new students or maybe once they make their "Tome of Combat" they can no longer use any techniques or abilities not included in it meanwhile having to make sure that all the things in it are things that they have made. Going in a similar direction as the Intoner but opposite at the same time
I have been looking for a great boss monster for the electric volcano island dungeon I’ve been building. Lightning erupts from the “arc-cano” into a floating island, keeping it afloat. Shrines/temples are spread throughout the island that have coils that can be raised. Once all are raised the lightning redirects and the floating island lowers. I am going to make a few more models, one for each shrine. 🔥🔥 The Necromaton discovered the energy the island produces and has used it to fuel is arcane machinery.
Over the cliffs at the edge of the hammer mountains, the great eastern jungles splayed out before him, one Necromaton sears his furious gaze into the lands engulfing the horizon, daring them to resist him. He spreads his hand of iron over the land, twisting it to decay and rot, only to moments later see it defiantly flourish, eating up his emitters of darkness just as they had done countless times before. Normally, he would be dismayed at such a failure, but this time, the minions were just a prelude. He shouted out into the living biome before him, hoping his previous show of force was enough to catch the natives attention. He wanted *everyone* to witness. Everyone to hear his raspy robotic rattle.... and tremble in fear. "IF YOU WANT SOMETHING DONE RIGHT..." Sprouting from the underdark, rising from undug graves, a great army whirred to life, twisting their mechanical jaws in one cry of unison. "YOU HAVE TO DO IT YOURSELF." It was an army decades in the making, an army meticulously crafted to crush any biological force before it, armed with flamethrowers and deathfog and all sorts of artifacts from the old war. It was an army... *of one.*
I absolutely love this series!!! The editing is top-notch and humorous, the content is CRAZY high quality, and the artist behind it all is a genius. Thank you for this!!!
Holy shit, when you started talking about Speedrunning the Multiverse that threw me for a fucking loop because litRPG is pretty fucking niche and never expected to see a RUclipsr ad for a litRPG book.
I actually used a concept like this for my dnd campaign where the Livy was a computerized Livy with the mind uploaded from a child but corrupted thinking the world must’ve been their personal playground and they used an ancient piece of technology known as a tamagotchi as their phylactery
My favorite game I have ever played was an alternate tech future. The villain was Gorm, the head researcher for the Dwarven civilization. 500 years ago, Gorm discovered a strange and highly energetic substance that had come from a meteor, embedded in a mountain side. He built a laboratory there, and harvested the material. He compressed and enchanted it into the Artificer’s Stone, an infinite energy device that could provide magical electricity at a given rate indefinitely, and could be infused with the essence of a living creature. This allowed the user to create self-sufficient machines that could carry monstrous abilities or even player levels. Over time, Gorm refined these stones further, eventually merging his skill as an artificer with the stone, and cybernetically enhancing both his mind and body, becoming the first cybernetic Lich. He went on to create weapons of mass destruction, military grade defense systems, and propel the Dwarven kingdom to an untold level of technological enhancement. I would love to see the use of this concept again, where an infinite energy device is created and used in a high-fantasy future similar to Eberron and this setting.
a cool lich for the series would be, ranger, imagine a ranger with the stereotypical "my forest is in danger, and I must save it" story. but saves it by binding the forest and all spirits of the animals that live there to their soul. Not turning the forest into their phalactery, but the other way around, acting as a living philactory for the spirits of the animals that once lived there. And any place the rangerlich visits, slowly becomes terrain just like that of their original forest, but in turn saps the life of the sorounding land and anyone living there. Feeding on it using it as fuel to keep the spirits alive. moving on when there's nothing left to take. It's kinda like your druid one and would be super cool :)
I imagine Ranger actually becoming something similar to a Wild Hunt, a group of souls that fly the night sky on a eternal hunt. So a Ranger would bind their soul to a conclave or hunting party and each individual would be their phylactry, and to mainting lichdom the hunt is a necessary event. I think this way since it would distinguise the Ranger from the Druid
@@caiomaida3630 I mean it's similar a blight I'd attatched to a forest and that forest spreads from where it is, , vs this would have the ra.gers forest lost or destroyed and they now embody the forest and what left of it. Maybe having to kill the what's left of it so like a lich the forest itself must die and rise again, and the ranger is trying to regrow it wherever they could get the souls. Atleast that's how I thought about it lol, idk I didn't really think to much into it past that lol
@@caiomaida3630 Not if you link this ability to the ranger's favored terrain. This could create interesting scenario. Urban Ranger Lich - After traveling a few miles in this desert of dust the group arrives in strange ruins, looking like a small town built without rimes or reason and abandoned a long time ago. The only thing breaking the deafening silence is the slow rhythmic sound of a broom. The old lady glance at the group for a moment before going back to her task. She fades as the party approach and as they explore they see ghostly figure like these everywhere, maybe a few cats here and there and they heard the sound of wild hounds at least once.
Now I'm wanting to make a campaign where the Cadre of the Immortals (a group consisting of a Lich, Intoner, Necromiton, Blight, Hierarch, Mummy Lord, and Liches of the other classes) are the big bads and the adventurers must band together to stop them.
My character is trying to become a wizard lich with the caveat of trying to maintain the original personality and avoiding the soul eating requirement, and this is giving me some ideas about what my end game could be.
Just had a pretty good story idea for the necromaton. Someone who gave up their flesh for the machine, but realized after that it was a mistake and is forever trying to return to a living body lest their soul never be able to move on, so they are forced to stay alive out of fear for whatcomes after death outside of their body. Idk sounds cool as a compeling villan or someone the party can help.
Here's an idea, depending on what body part was used, each Necromaton can have a specific magical ability. For example, using the lungs can let them use stronger Air based abilities, while the heart lets them use Blood Magic. I'm not too familiar with Artificers since I've never played one but you get the idea.
I found you through watching Trekiros - Game Changer who I found through Power Word Spill and I’m so glad I did. This content is gold. The RUclips DnD ecosystem is thriving and I love it
I really like this concept and it reminds me of the Cybermen from Doctor Who in some ways Sidenote: Based on how you said “Not Yet” with a picture of a barbarian, does that mean you’ll make Lich like undeads for non spellcasters?
🤖BEEP BOOP BEEP BOOP🤖 (but spooky 💀)
Which Lich is my favorite series to make 😊
It's my favorite to watch.
@@auramaster2068same
Are ALL classes subject to Which Lich? Cuz I am HERE for it, dude!
It's also my favorite to watch
When the warlock
So this is basically how an Artificer becomes DnD Ultron.
I love it
.
this was exactly my thought
And you could theme some of the bodies as the necromaton desperately trying to make something that they can beat the PCs with, a modok like a body, sentinels, anything.
My thoughts exactly
"That undead artificer was creepy, glad he's gone"
Necromaton: You fool! I have *_70 ALTERNATIVE ACCOUNTS!!!_*
70? More like producing 70 new each second, thanks to my fully automated human farm and fully automated automaton factory.
You thought the game you were playing was Dungeons and Dragons BUT IT WAS I, KONO FACTORIO-DAAAA!
@@diablo.the.cheater oh i love that
@@diablo.the.cheater we gotta call the helldivers and shut that shit down
@@diablo.the.cheater it's a reference but your joke is funny
Omg the idea of a “Barbarian Lich” is absolutely wild. I can only imagine a nordic warrior king too angry to die, probably getting their soul sustenance by defeating worthy warriors in glorious battle
But what would be its phylactery?
Haha, it’s Darth Maul. I like the idea of them imparting their soul into their weapon - but maybe something higher concept, like the anger itself, is more unique and thematic
I'm thinking of Beowulf
@@anothercrazyenglishman3494 SO, LIKE, THEN THE WAY THEY'D GET A NEW HOST IS BY DEFEATING OPPONENTS AND POSSESS THEIR BODIES BY GIVING THE CORPSE THE SWORD! NEATTTTTT
The scorpion king….
OKAY, the Lich that's actually a teleporting shop is legitimately an insane concept and *I love it.* :o
Dose it have to be my body parts because I can offer you a lot of parts don’t ask
@@cyanide7270 yes yes yes that is what I’m talking about i have lots of spars from the fails flesh golem
@@cyanide7270its all fun and games till the Clock tower Lich only wants "VERY FRESH" parts...
@@cyanide7270 Fresh as in "Just Cut off from a body or probably not too stale" (around a day or so if the parts a preserved well...)
@@sebygamingyt2621This is just giving me the idea of a trans charatcer who wants to find the shop so that they can get surgery. "You're telling me I can get corrective surgery AND get paid for it? Sign me the fuck up!"
Bro, an artificially alive inventor has been done so well in sci-fi. An artificer lich seems like such an obvious thing yet you really don’t see it done in swords and sorcery campaigns.
I think this is because we have a preconception against mixing sci-fi elements into our games. We have this notion that D&D, and other sword&sorcery settings are strictly fantasy, when the early D&D explicitly had players interact with advanced technology disguised as magic, and that Conan stories frequently featured beings from other planets and their magical technology, owing to the author's friendship with Lovecraft.
@@krinkrin5982sci-fi elements should be more common in fantasy.
I mean probably because of a lot of sword & sorcery campaigns shy away from sci-fi inspiration, I mean even now that artificers are technically a core class they’re kind of considered a bonus newcomer thing, a stepchild of sorts. & spelljammer has always run & marketed as a separate setting despite being directly connected to the lore of several others
@@hya2in8 I think a great inspiration for such a setting are some of the steampunk stories, in particular the Girl Genius webcomic, which liberally mixes magic with super science and wraps everything in a big blanket of technobabble.
They did it in Pathfinder with the Clockwork Reliquary of Xin, founder of Thassilon.
Dang, I just imagined a Scenario where the Nercromatron sets up shop in a village, where he offers cybernetic upgrades to villagers in exchange for service and goods the town can provide for him. So when the heroes come into town they see a bunch of folks with mechanical parts, not knowing that any of them can be taken over by the Necromatron at any point.
Basically I’ll trade you your arm for a better arm
I'll trade you my reently deceased Grampa for several necromatrons that can be used as menial labour, which also increases the number of bodies you could inhabit if required. That is a scary form of recycling if you start down that way.
@@SH-qs7ee1 dead body = 284 extra bodies if each bone and organ is used for one mechanical body
@@ManiaeTheArchivist Not to mention what constitutes a body part. Could toe and fingernail clippings be traded? Locks of hair? What about patches of skin? Baby teeth?
@@SH-qs7ee plus I don’t see why the artificer could not clone their living body over and over then farm their own body and make more so they would have a near infinite amount of bodies to harvest without killing anyone
That "Barbarian... Not yet." at the beginning has made me excited for a future episode of "LOCAL MAN TOO ANGRY TO DIE."
Heh heh Draugr goes grrr!
Barbarian Lich would be pretty dope with a lot of concepts. Badass weapons, army of enslaved zombie warriors, maybe a pelt-cloak made from the hide of a magical beast. The soul-vessel would inspire a few ideas too.
@@anthonymorales9869 I ran a one-shot where two of the players came up with a concept like this. The zealot barbarian was accompanied into battle by his own reanimated former bodies.
His accomplice was an evil cleric with whom he would leave a severed finger before he would head out to battle.
@@leyrua These are actually pretty cool concepts. What if they took it a step further and made it so that his former bodies still have fragments of his soul and have evolved to be his lieutenants? The cleric could even have a personal connection to the Lich as the head priest of the village they once protected together.
@@anthonymorales9869 I believe they were supposed to be brothers. The cleric originally entered the service of an evil god so that he could gain the powers to bring his dead elder brother back to life.
This could be a fun Warforged, where the character is a phylactery that escaped his/her artificer lich.
D&D has a monster with this idea, a golem of magic itens that the core is a Philacteria
literally a character I've played XD accidentally got his master's soul but none of his memories/personality - constant existential crisis guaranteed
Yeah, the border between artificer lich and warforged becomes blurry.
@@kinderoovobarbaroelegante2854yeah the grisgul
@@ruansasa289
Yes Sim
In 3.5e there was a type of Psionic Lich called a spectral savant. It was Incorporeal and had to drain psionic power from other creatures to be able to use its psionic abilities. It's super flavorful and it would be amazing to see a version of it for 5e, intended for the Psi Warrior, Soulknife, and Aberrant Mind!
Oh dude, that's wild. Psionics get no respect in 5e, so I'm all over the idea of a psy-lich!
Hmm... modrons have biological looking eyes, but the rest of their bodies appear mechanical. They are a hive mind for the primary one, Primus. When Primus dies, he is immediately replaced by the next modron down, and a new modron is created. Lots of parallels to this.
wait what- Primus dies? How does a greater god die? I didn't think that was really possible unless some universe-shaking event happened? Especially one as powerful as Primus...
@@calebleach7988orcus once killed primus, and orcus didn't even have his divinity at the time
@@calebleach7988Primus ran out of flesh again
@@calebleach7988 Primus is basically the biggest and most powerful Modron, and like all the rest, he will get replaced by one of his inferiors who turns into a new Primus, no different from how a Duodrone was once a Monodrone.
I would argue that this is different because primus is a god and therefore immortal. The fact there even are parallels just make it feel more lore friendly to me, kinda like a perversion of the magic or power primus uses. Who knows maybe the first ever artificer lich learned this ability from studying primus and modrans directly or even in person as only a very powerful magic user (like a prospective lich) could.
Love the Adeptus Mechanicus and Necron vibes. Can't wait to make a final boss to be a Warlord Titan reinforced by Imperial Knights and Necron Overlords.
Why do I want to run that now..
hmmm time for my cawl and knights mini's to hit the dnd table.
@@luukpaans346 Oh fuck yeah Cawl would make a fantastic villain mini!
@@dredgenauryx3382 Because its stupid, over the top, and exactly what 40k is.
@@redspyke8227 but... (Confusion in Prosperine) but the lord of change tho?
The mechanicus line at the beginning was very fitting.
I don't know what it was that you had to endure with your child, but as a father of a stillborn son, my heart goes out to you. Stay strong and be well.
My condolences to you
I'm so sorry for your loss.
I’m sorry for your loss, also, who exactly are you talking to?
I watched most of the dnd with a twist and loved Pointy hat, but this series is something ON ANOTHER LEVEL. I REALLY enjoy Which Lich
This made me realize that Sasori from Naruto is essentially a perfect example of an artificer-lich.
yes true
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought this
One detail about the Necromaton that I absolutely love is that, somehow, you made it feel like the Necromaton is the PROPER way of achieving Wizard lichdom, meanwhile the classical "Eh, just inhabit my own corpse" is the half-assed, half-finished version of someone who rushes through the process. Or, I guess, like this is the same process as classical lichdom, but perfected.
:D True, I didn't notice, but when you point it out, it instantly clicked.
Yeah artificers are just smarter wizards i guess lol
No, there is a cruciql difference: a lich inhabits his own body but the body does not count anymore, because the philactery is an indipendent object who can be hidden and protected. If the lich body is destroied, it will regenerate in few times.
The artificer new body is the philactery itself, so once destroied bye bye artificer soul
@@erdoombog6963 Only if there are no copies of the body, which if you have an eternity to produce them and the magical ability to achieve lichdom seems very unlikely.
Or you could say "compleat"
You've officially inspired me to make a Black Mage Lich in my D&D with FF14 classes and species campaign, where his backstory is that he uses knowledge of the Void to inhabit the bodies of his firstborn children throughout time. A lich that instead of discarding their flesh instead takes on the flesh of their own children to feel young again is uniquely unsettling to me and I love it.
That was in his sorcerer vid
Technically, FFXIV already has this in the form of the Ascians. When destroyed, their souls retreat into the Void rather than returning to the LIfestream. Based on what we've learned about the Void (formerly the 13th reflection), being a realm of absolute Darkness and no Light means there is no where for souls to be laid to rest; thus, anything slain in the Void will simply return. The Ascian soul simply needs to find its way back to the Source, possess a new body (provided there isn't one prepared for them), and continue work. Ironically, the tried and true way to destroy an Ascian is to bind their soul into an Auracite, sort of an all-purpose philactery, and then purge it with overwhelming amounts of Light aether.
Black Mage in FF14 was inspired by the Order of the Black Robe in Dragonlance.
@@abadidea5984 Alternatively, starve them of anywhere for their soul to go, such as with the Sahagin right before Leviathan was summoned. That tends to work on less experienced or less powerful ones though. I think what PyroJack is thinking of is how that one voidsent possesses Cocobusi in the thaumaturge quests after being locked away in a jar, which I'd argue isn't lichdom technically. Regardless, there's a precedent for Eorzean liches, and I think that's pretty neat.
william afton is basically a necromaton you can't change my mind. also I loooove your videos, and have been binging your entire which lich and dnd with a twist series, you do such an incredible job not just of coming up with cool stuff, but also of inspiring my own ideas. I feel like I'm going to accidentally reference this lore one day like it's canon haha
I was actually rewatching this vid because I just got back into FNAF and thought "man, Afton would be a great lich. Is there an artificer lich somewhere?" and yep, and I'd watched it already apparently!
But in his case, his way of linking his soul to the metallic body was, and you guessed it, SPRINGLOCK FAILURE! Makes it harder to inhabit other vessels because he's uh. Sorta stuck there? But that only means he gets to work on himself instead. It works really well. Even more so when you consider his whole Remnant obsession. That could probably become something in a campaign.
The main villian in my world is an Artificier Lich - he found an artificial Demiplane back during the prosperous years and managed to wrest control of it from the person who created it, essentially uploaded himself to the core so he cannot die so long as the plane survives.
It was locked away but early on in the campaign one of my players accidentally unsealed it and I now make rolls as time passes to see if he notices. Every now and then an unsuspecting inhabitant happens to pop through and my players get a cool artifice-and-oil themed battle which increases his interest in them.
Phyrexia?
Are you there, Yawgmoth? It's me me, KRH.
that gave me an idea: what if the plane of Mechanus was actually a giant necromaton (maybe even the first) and the Great Modron March happens every 289 years to harvest new flesh for Mechanus
By your own definition, Trazyn the Infinite (who made a brief cameo at the start of the video) is a Lich.
Undead ✔️
Spellcaster(-ish) ✔️
Cannot die unless phylactery is destroyed (has lots of drone bodies that he can put part of his consciousness into, so killing him isn’t going to guarantee he’s dead) ✔️
However, Trazyn's immortality does not require any actions to preserve, so no.
Extend that to every other Necron Overlord. And/or the Crypteks as well.
@@moonbro5381 I mean Necrons kinda need tune ups every now and then.
@@moonbro5381I mean, constructing new Drone bodies would count, yea?
Anyone know the name of the song that played during that little segment at 0:42 that shows all the robot Lich dudes?
Dude, that's sick. I love it. There's a kid in my group that plays nothing but Artificers, I'll share this with him, and I can already see his next character being a necromaton!
That kid shouldn't start as a necromaton however when you show him the video allow him to do that if he wants to at a higher level (I assume you start at low levels if you play at higher levels ignore my comment).
The storyline could play out as the artificer knows about necromatons but doesn't feel quite skilled enough to convert himself into one yet but that is his eventual goal.
Going out in search of information and materials for his necromaton would really push the story forward
i think the necromaton has the easiest possibility of being not evil. imagine a necromaton that just takes out peoples appendix's, or gives people stronger mechanichal limbs and organs in exchange for their flesh ones, awesome ally for the party
So, like a darker twist on Discworld's "Igors"? That would certainly be neat.
As I recall it Discworld lore on Igors/Ignorinas: ( A subspecies/sect of humans(-probably) who specialize in surgery and are able to take limbs/organs, even from the recently deceased, store them, then graft them onto people needing them, with the stipulation that when that person dies, their body is to be donated to the Igors. They tend to be in prime physical shape because they can literally upgrade themselves, despite looking misshapen and covered in scars and stitching. This is in part since they also practice on themselves but mostly that the scars/stitching are a sort of clan/family history thing and can be removed/reapplied in minutes. )
Basically the world's best prothestician who just needs the patient to still posses the detatched limb?
@@voicetest6019 They often carried their families in them quite literally, having bodyparts donated from ancestors. In one of the books an Igor is even claimed to be capable of genetic engineering of sorts (which according to the text requires really tiny stitches).
My mind jumped straight to stealing kidneys.
It could do it several ways, maybe by building a cult following in several towns and at a certain age every child undergoes a "coming of age ritual" where one of their kidneys is stolen. (Depending on how "good" the nectomaton is could define its relationship to these towns, is it purely exploitative or does it act like a divine protector who treats their illnesses and fights off other monsters and nations)
I could also see a surprisingly advanced hospital system that involves organ donations where the necromaton pinches some organs from the system, possibly by putting out fake requests for them.
So far this Lich has the most potential to not be evil.
Like an automail engineer who offers prosthetic augmentations to people and just keeps the old body parts they replace. Pretty efficient.
A thought: Necromatons as Cybermen. The bodies acting as low-capability armour constructs until they are able to encase and assimilate a living humanoid.
YES PLS
Oh gosh that’s scary
Stealing that for a campaign
That actually fits surprisingly well with actual cybermen lore
That would be good minions for a Nercromaton
The armour only assimilate the dead or dying to make it less of a you are killed by putting on the armor and the armor heals wounds by filling them with living metal or constructing replacements for lost limbs and organs then when you die the armor then constructs a copy of itself and leaves after completing your unfinished business and disappears this happens all over and people use the armor to save thier doomed village or complete a near impossible quest and most often will be known for the armor that makes them near invincible but for the people close to them they know the armor will one day not com off and only the mission they set out to complete will keep them thier and when they leave the will build another armour for someone else to use and be consumed by
This fits so perfectly for Eberron I'm going to have to use it
Decided to put the Clockwork Abattoir into my most recent session on a whim. Was not expecting my players to try to use resurrection to get free magic items, nor to discuss the logistics of harvesting organs from enemies. Still a fun time to be sure.
Edit: some people want details but its fairly straightforward. I dropped the clockwork abattoir in on my players, hoping to offer some temptation to a morally simplistic group of adventurers (aka a bunch of edgy weirdos). i improvised a system where more vital organs such as the heart and stomach yielded more powerful items. players quickly debated whether to kill their horses and got a rod of resurrection at the price of one of the paladin's heart and used that to res him, also getting a few other powerful items from his other vital organs. The players were pretty suspicious so they arent going back probably and i have balanced around the high level items. Moral of the story is dont offer powerful items to players unless you have a foolproof plan. or do im not your parent.
Tell us more lmao
My first thought as a player would be if monster parts work or if the flesh has to come from people.
@@dandereninja4750 Oooh, could parts from different creatures have different effects; like what would happen if they used dragon flesh, or a mindflayer brain.
i would make it so that the things taken are unhealable even by resurrection, an "it was always supposed to be this way" situation
harvesting enemies would still give a steady supply of trinkets
Mfw the group inadvertantly become evil flesh dealers...
I really wanna make a "Lich Council" villain group now using all the different liches you've created.
Edit:
I think I'll call them "The Pact Eternal." It is less a group and more a loose agreement not to fuck with each other's shit and they occasionally collaborate for something big.
that's a really fun idea
Stealing that, sorry
And when the heroes start whittling them down one by one, they each take notice and start collaborating more and more to take down these upstarts that dare violate their eternal pact.
@@Revenante_of_Asylumyou can choose which ones to defeat first and the others power up when you do
FR has one of those. Rude and /really/ evil
Paladin Lich - "I have sworn this oath for eternity and will do what I must to follow it"
Equally as much as I love the joke references in your cutaways, I also love the subtle references in your art. The inspiration is clear, but not obnoxiously obvious. The first Necromaton sharing the beaten-up, hanging wires look of Ultron; Mencia's Necromaton having the same Art Deco headpiece from Metropolis; just *mwah* chef's kiss. And your ideas are always thought-provoking. Keep up the good work! Glad to see your channel grow so quickly, you deserve it!
Between that and the log horizon joke it's clear he has immaculate taste.
It also gives me Cybermen vibes from Doctor Who, which is another point in the "impeccable taste" column 😁
The necromintron operating in a very similar fashion to the characters in 9 both the stitchpunks and the main antagonist
@@embroideredragdoll I thought I was reading into it too much, glad I'm not the only one who thought of that movie. One of my favourites.
Clockwork Abbatoir is so cool, so many "creepy factory that builds itself" vibes can fit into this
Can imagine folk stories about those who tried to sneak in and never returned
Or returned as clockwork abominations to drag their own family into the building.
If you need it and are meaning to pay the price, you get what you want. But if you want it and are meaning to take what's not yours, you become a part of the workshop.
@@SH-qs7ee Doctor Who cybermen are very similar to that
@@alanherlan3429 That is partly where the inspiration comes from
Ah yes, DnD: becoming factorio
I had a side mission with automatons and almost a skynet feel to it now it is changed to this. LOVE the videos man. My players are going to stoked for this small side quest to turn into a huge lich hunt.
If an artificer was a villain, I'd imagine they'd be more like Handsome Jack from Borderlands 2.
or possibly Mr. House from FNV.
@@InternationalAwesomeFoundation I'd argue that Mr House wasn't a villian. And i like to think that he had good intentions despite his douche mustache.
But i think it might be up to interpretation. NV; in my opinion, doesn't paint Mr House as either good nor evil. But i like to think he'd be a twist hero, with his douche high society appearance, his ownership of a casino, his rapid militarism over the Mojave, and his want to be; by definition, a dictator. But with all that, i truely think he would do actual good for the Mojave, against what people would think of him on paper, a twist hero.
Bondrewd.
More like Nox, from Wakfu
@@nananamamana3591 the fuck is wakfu?
This could work in a murder mystery campaign where the friendly helpful rusting "warforged" actual necromaton is the villain trying to fix up/ replace his body.
And he's a butlerbot.
No he is a necramaton harvesting the dead for parts to replace his current container and hunting the real killer in an attempt to do right by the people he has harvested from the real killer is a cultists of the machine god religion he created 4 centuries ago during a dark age regression to maintain the city infrastructure after the 1 man war against a invasion of mind flayers he won at the cost of most of his phylactery and not enough infrastructure to build new ones at the time so he had stasis cast on his most intact phylactery and did what he could to restore society to as close as possible to what it was before the war he has need active for the last 30 years preparing the construction of a new phylactery close in ability to his current container when new he just needed to grow the organic crystal core which needs blood the cultists misinterpreted this as bathe the machines in blood and ran of to do just that now he hunts down the cultists trying to stop them in the body available if not capable of the work well trying to build an interm body to take up work for that is necessary to maintain city functions and finish thier true body replacement
In my upcoming dnd campaign, the bbeg is a Vengeful God who leads a group of Liches (each inspired by this series). My way of introducing the Artificer Lich is similar to the workshop idea, The Artificer sets up near war torn areas and places where grave injuries are common and takes advantage of that. At first, She offers to heal the injured in exchange for a kidney (Enough to sustain the soul anchor but not to kill the donor). Throughout the first act of the campaign, her Soul anchor grows demanding of more sustenance, where she then resorts to attacking people to get what she needs to sustain her soul anchor.
Another inspiration for the necromiton's personality and goals could be Nox from Wakfu. A clearly high CR individual with a simple desire, get enough magic to go back in time, and because he'll undo everything anyways he can justify anything. He is strategic but cold, thinks himself totally logical yet is insane, perfectly in line with the artificer's schtick.
He makes a perfect big bad. He even has a really sad backstory. There is a theory that he actually was able to turn back time but the Mc ruined it
@@pablooregon592I was under the understanding that he actually succeeded in turning back time... For 9 minutes.
@@pablooregon592 like zarhakkar said, the mc didnt manage to stop nox or ruin his plans. What defeated nox was the realisation that everything he had sacrificed, all the suffering he had caused, only amounted to 20 minutes. That meant that he would never be able to get enough to save his family and had done it all for nothing.
Here’s an idea for a Paladin Lich: The Medjai.
Because Mummy Lords are a lower CR than Liches, they might try to make up for this by having some undead Paladins that have sworn an oath to them either during the Mummy Lord’s time alive or more recently converted believers.
Because a Paladin’s whole gimmick is their Oath, in order for a Medjai to prolong their undeath, they must uphold it by serving the Mummy Lord. Meaning that a Medjai can’t prolong their life themselfs.
Auras: the Medjai can switch between two auras using an action to preform a short prayer.
Aura or the Sands: if an enemy is within their aura, they take 1d4 piercing damage per turn (if the enemy fails a constitution saving throw). If another Medjai has the same aura active, if at any point the edges of the two auras connect, they merge. Dealing both d4s if an enemy is within either of their auras. The increased damage effect ends if the two auras no longer touch. This effect can stack up to Xd4s (DMs choice, it really depends on how powerful the individual Medjai are.)
Aura of the Sun: the Medjai and any other Undead creature within the aura heals 1d4.
Like Aura of the Sands, the healing effects can stack if another Medjai with Aura of the Sun active touches the aura of another.
The idea is the leadership of the Mummy Lord advises them to march in formation to maximize their aruas.
If the Mummy lord dies (permanently) then the Medjai have failed their Oath. They will start to decompose if they cannot resurrect the Mummy somehow or fail to find a new one.
The idea behind these guys is that in ancient Egyptian mythology, high priests and pharaohs had body guards called, well, Medjai. They were often buried along with who ever they served on death. Now imagine if that loyalty lasted beyond the grave?
This is a really cool idea! Although I don't think it makes sense for Mummy Lords to have minions stronger than themselves, so I would probably make the Medjai weaker than the Mummy Lords, or create a stronger version of a Mummy Lord for those to serve.
Additional Aura, especially if you are playing an Aarakocra or Kenku, or a Medjai that is bird/wind themed : Aura of the Winds: The Medjai creates a rippling vortex of wind, spanning up to a 20 foot radius, that will send back any foe caught within it* back 1d12 feet if they fail a Strength check.
*at the start of their turn
@@platinumdragon3007 they’re not. That’s why they fight in formations. And even if they were stronger, they still need the mummy lord to survive.
@@ethanemerson4862What about Death Knights?
I mean, technically, that's what the Mummies without "Lord" in their name are supposed to do; those are the bodyguards. Could just have servant mummies that are Paladins, instead of them being "Paladin Liches" as such. So more of a customized statblock of an existing monster, than a separate method of Lichdom.
Although, this is a pretty good way to make use of the Paladin Oath in a way that isn't just your typical undead with a vendetta like a wraith or revenant. Well, maybe not quite different enough, but it's a tough call, since revenants are seeking death by completing their goal while this is a Lich carrying out the goal to stay alive. ...Doesn't work for more selfish or individualistically idealistic Paladins, though, and being out for yourself or you own pet interests is an iconic part of what Lichdom is about, why they'd want to live in undeath forever in the first place.
Valdas Spire of Secrets Book has a rly interesting doll race w whole different subraces
The Omnisiah is pleased with your efforts. I can't wait for the next installment. This will definatively be in my next game.
I just remembered a Bard Lich whose phylactory was his own legend. Effectively making him unkillable as long as enough people know of him
That's actually the tightest shit I've ever heard. And it'd work by the rules of Pointy Hat's Intoners, too. You'd just have to assume that your Magnum Opus phylactery can be any art form, rather than just music - but I think that tracks just fine. (Just think about it. If Da Vinci was an Intoner, then you could say the Mona Lisa was his Magnum Opus and he'd still be alive today.)
With that in mind, this character would be the pinnacle of heroic storytelling: The man who worked his story so deeply into the halls of legend that it will never end.
infohazard type of stuff
But would the bard change when his legend changes over time?
@@CrownofMischief that’s an amazing Idea and that could be a way to make him less passive! He slowly changes personality and looses parts of his memory and the Bard-Lich somehow has to sustain their legend as accurate as possible because when everything in the legend changes he disappears forever
Not the pinnacle, the origin. Think about it. What better way to become an undying lich god than by making your magnum opus an epic poem about your life deeds. There's a line in the Poetic Edda i believe, havamal 77 it reads as such:
Deyr fé, deyja frændr, deyr sjalfr it sama, ek veit einn, at aldrei deyr: dómr um dauðan hvern.
Cattle/wealth die, kinsmen die, and all men too shall die (alt, even the self must die). I know one thing that never dies: the renown of a dead man/but reputation never dies to whom gets a good one.
It'd be awesome if intoned bard liches created the tradition of epic heroes to keep themselves alive and inspire others to go out and do heroic shit to get their names passed down through the generations.
Mencia is such a cool OC! I’m definitely stealing her for a campaign. Nothing gets me more excited than a sympathetic villain.
Ah yes the necrons a true classic.
someone beat me to the punch already it seems
Yeah, Trazyn the Infinite!!
Yeah, this idea with the possessing different automatons when your body is destroyed is just a thing that Trazyn does
@@padd1099 I am speed.
"an arm? A leg? Literally?!" I don't know why that tickled me so much but it did! I love your work bro it's no wonder why your channel grew as much as it has and in such a short time
I'm imagining them getting the magic item they need incorporated into a prosthetic replacement for the flesh limb that they gave up in payment.
Like, that bag of holding you asked for? It's inside your new clockwork arm.
Which is great... until someone wants to steal it from you badly enough to chop off your prosthetic. And unfortunately the metal is woven into your flesh; it wasn't meant to be removable. And now the only way to get it fixed is to pay even MORE flesh to the Clockwork Abattoir.
I love that you used footage from the undeath mod in Skyrim.
You said, "not yet," when it came to barbarian and my heart skipped a beat. I thought it was just spellcasters, but the MARTIALS TOO? *Hyperventilating increases* I can't wait
I wonder what his plan is with paladins. Death knights exist as a npc in 5e, but it seems underwhelming
Barbarian that is too angry to die? Why does this sound familiar? 🤔
Clerics becoming undead biblically accurate angels controlled by their god to continue servitude while staving off death
@@tenshi88swissLICH SMASH!!!
See i picture the barbarian ritual to become a lich, involving brutalizing a lich several times until it asks "what do you want from me?" In a soul shattered manner, and the barbarian declares it wants to be a lich too.... then proceeds to make the now humbled lich help it become a new lich-barian
PC idea. A self-aware automaton/warforged warlock with a necromaton as it’s patron. It has to provide it’s patron with soul anchors constantly to delay the inevitability of it’s patron taking it over when they run out of other phylacteries.
And in return, it gets access to magic to make it’s task easier.
I can see another PC dying and the automaton instantly going for a body part before the cleric (or other healer) can revive them.
"RIP Jerry"
"Carl you are not aloud to take his organs, he needs those"
"Can I at least have a kidney? Pleeeease?"
"*sigh* fine"
Ok i just fucking LOVE the idea of the clockwork abattoir. Aside from the impossibly cool name, the whole concept... look, I've been a fan of SCPs for a while and that feels like an incredible one.
About the Necromatons having to house living parts as a soul anchor, i dig how it brings to mind the idea of catholic reliquaries. Just very cool.
Damn, I hope you manage to make Artificier with a twist one day. Your ideas are always so awesome and I can't even imagine how cool your artificier would've been
Right? Like, the existing subclasses are... decent, but even the Artillerist, which sounds like it should be ridiculously fun, actually looks fairly lame on paper. Your whole thing is artillery, but you get ONE magical cannon (until higher levels) that doesn't even operate like a badass cannon? I'd LOVE to see what kind of new flavour Antonio could bring to the table. Honestly, I bet whatever it is, it would quickly become the new go-to choice for a subclass.
@@NoahOMorainRushnot only that, but also the fact that our current subclasses are too specific to let you make any artificier you want. It's as if the only druid circles were wildfire, spores and stars.
As he said, the copyright around Artificer is weird. I want it as mych as you, but I don't blame him for playing it safe.
@@darienb1127how does copyright even apply to someone's imagination? Like for a game or movie, I get it.
But how would you enforce copyright for a tabletop game session? Mind reading? Unless it refers to distribution of things like merchandise and products.
@@micahlindley7515 The issue is on the publishing side. Since the Artificer is part of the OGL, trying to publish material using it can risk getting hit with copyright. So the issue is trying to get that information out to people to use at thier table is the hard part.
I’d love to see you do a - wait for it- Barbarian Lich! Perhaps they feed on the anger of those nearby to perpetuate their rage literally forever.
Darth Sion from Knights of the Old Republic could be a good base idea to work on. Basically he was so attuned with his Rage that no matter the damage to his body, he would not die. The protagonist had to break their will, convince them yo let gobof their rage, to finally get them to succumb.
This feels like one step off from revenants.
I had an artificer that was “the pioneer” of lichdom. The story behind it was he was a artificer from a previous civilization that was un petrified and there was no liches yet. He made a puzzle box that had the ability to house a soul or a portion of a soul and him not having any Guinea pigs he tested it on himself. When the process was completed, nothing happened. PCs got to witness nothing happen. But when he died during the last session and was swept away by one of the players casting gate to the deepest part of the ocean, he reanimated as a lich and has survived 6000+ years since his “accident”
Love the concept Pointy Hat, I love the idea of a Necromaton being a Undead warlock patron. A warlock who is slowly becoming more mechanical as their pact with their patron grows until they become a new piece of soul Tupperware for them.
Oooh. I hadn't considered the patron end of things, but that's really flavorful. Thanks for sharing!
Warlock patron inspired
Finally our prayers have been answered
I am really impressed by the quality and effort you put into your videos, not only that but also going the extra mile with the plot hooks and stat blocks; genuinely impressed.
This is my favorite series you make. Please keep making them!!!
This is literally perfect. The BBEG for my current campaign is an artificer who uses biological components as the 'software' in his machines, so he essentially turns random animals into Necromatons! Eventually he'll turn himself into one, and now I have a stat block and some meat & potatoes to make Kace Aeges immortal.
Eggman!
This helped my finishing writing my current campaign. A artificer lich with an army of Modrons and the traveling world’s fairs. With decades and decades of touring the world!
I love how liches are meant for a villainous role, but all I can think is "Well, if a player became a lich and needed to collect souls to keep their lichdom going, then they could just 'borrow' the souls of enemies they fight and hope the other party members understand".
I like that all these liches aren't forced to be pure evil, but can CHOOSE to take a darker path to achieve more. The Hierarch could choose to be satisfied with a century of extra life, the intoner could let their song die naturally, and the Necometron could let its body rot or stick with weaker bodies made from bones people don't need - but once you've lived 200 or 300 years, what is one more life compared to your goals? (Interestingly, the Blight, while having the most sympathetic motivations, is also under the greatest pressure to expand and destroy.)
I feel like the necrotomaton would have the easiest time living a 'good' lifestyle. All you need for an anchor is some living body parts, theoretically they don't even need to be human/human-adjacent since they just need to be soul bindable. Even if the organic component MUST be of a human or human adjacent creature then there's no shortage of criminals being executed throughout most medieval settings. One human, properly separated as part of their execution into lots of little parts could anchor tonnes of bodies, each anchor lasting at least decades with the appropriate magcal preservation and healing.
Depending on how much flesh/organ is necessary a necrotomaton could collect blood to act as the anchor, drain some blood and your subject will recover in a couple days, no death necessary. If blood is insufficient by itself you could always take a spare kidney, a small piece of the liver or even the appendix, maybe even some bone marrow. There's a lot of flesh that people genuinely can live without that could be taken in exchange for an artificers services. This is all without even considering the possibility of taking a more substantial part, say an arm or an eye and using magic to regenerate so the donor is no worse off than if you had never taken it in the first place.
theres also the option of a offering magical prosthetics, but unbeknown to their patients, the replaced body parts are squirreled away to make new bodies with
@@captainslender12 There's actually a magic item that could theoretically let an anchor last indefinitely. The chest of preserving How the item works is that, if you put something in the chest, like, say, meat or produce. It will never spoil, as long as it stays in the chest I'm not sure if its able to work on bones but it should be able to work on internal organs. So I'm fairly confident that That anybody who wants to become a necronomicon would want to learn how to create the chest of preserving. Because if they do, they would not need to acquire more soul anchors as maintenance. They would only need to acquire more of them if they wish to expand. The only real problem i can think of with this sort of setup. is that they would have to figure out how to modify the chest preserving to be more compact.
I'll bet it's Necromatons who create most of those magitek-cyborgs from your Warforged video. Customer gets a cool new robot arm, undead artificer gets a whole organic arm to break down and outfit three or four worn-out phylacteries.
Imagine a futuristic magitek-cyberpunk setting for DnD, like from the Technomancer’s Textbook, where an ancient necromaton from the old fantasy era of the setting awakens in this new age, and swiftly goes about upgrading itself with the new technology around it. At the same time, the denizens of this new setting may be unprepared for a powerful artificer-lich like this one who wields magic of a forgotten era and yet is so adaptable to their new surroundings.
I had an idea where the necron is a world-renowned doctor who does the best (semi-magical) medical work in about anywhere for the price of using any amputations to prolong its existence
Barbarian Lich next!!!! They can put their souls into their weapons, and slowly turn people who wield the soul-weapon into the lich.
or they get so angry they defey death
You mean Nightmare from Soul Caliber?
The ritual would be to commit suicide on top of a mountain of corpses you've slain yourself, essentially claiming you are unbeatable. The weapon becomes your phylactery, and you must continue to kill with it in order to sustain a body.
Darkin?
@@arandomthingintheabyss2062 that's literally the zealot barbarian
I would love if you made an adventure module. One where throughout the world you have all 13 liches each controlling their own areas. The hierarch leading their own country, the intoner owning the largest inn franchise in the world, the enchanted forests controlled by the blight, a chrome city where robots and humans live together ruled by the necromaton, a mountain infested with dead controlled by a lich, and a holy city buried in sand with the high priest the mummy lord. Plus all the others. That would be so cool to either experience all of them and decide which ones are too evil to leave and which ones do not pose enough of a threat.
This literally could not be more timely...
My artificer JUST "died" and has started down this path.
This is awesome, and I will DEFINITELY be using this as inspiration.
I had made something like this years ago. We called it a sarcophabot. The liches/monks that made a practice of trapping soul energy in the remains of a body then using pieces of bodies to make powerful magic items or relics or robotic/cyborg/living doll slaves were known as Reliquarians. I borrowed heavily from catholic/eastern Orthodox and Buddhist spiritual reliquaries to influence the design of the items.
This lich is really strange in that it feels like the least inherently evil one, since its method of upkeep doesn't require murder, or enslavement. The idea of a person wanting to put their soul inside of a machine could be interpreted in a lot of ways compared to the other ones where the goal is entirely the immortality.
Yeah, I mean, he could just make a living by exanging defective biological limbs for mechanical ones that function, making it neutral good, it sells proesthetics to ppl with invalid limbs in exange for the limbs that they would have to get rid off either way, no morality dilemma, it just gives a free charitable service and recycles.
I love how each character you present could support it's own series. The dynamic between the parents and their now lich child alone would be fascinating to see.
I'mma save this to watch later, but just off the top looking at the thumbnail, I'm getting Necron vibes from this one!
I think a heart wrenching idea for a Nechomaton would be someone who doesn’t kill for soul anchors, but uses amputations. The people who work in their factories in poor working conditions become their fuel. They’re evil, but in a way that makes them hard to attack without facing social consequences
If they are an artificer of that level, they would obviously have some amount of money. More likely, it would be easier for them to pay people for their parts, offering to replace someone's limb with a mechanical one, for example a construction worker may be paid to have their spine removed and replaced with a metallic, stronger one, and the old organic spine could be used as an anchor.
The workers are legally obligated to give me any amputations
I REALLY like how unlike the previous liches this one has the potential to be either antagonist or protagonists it’s pretty nice
I would reskin one of them being a living computer that creates psionics troll reskins it uses huuman bodies and must graft an mind control device (lightning damage) stops its regen it must expand its collection ensure its eternal existence and mantiance
Love how picture depictions of a artificer Lich at the beginning are literally 40k mechanicum
I actually made an npc like this: his name was Dr. Cornelius, he was a normal lich who didn’t care about filling his philactery and was obsessive with conducting experiments for fun, so he made a mechanical body so when he became a demilich, he could plug his skull into it and keep going
demilich don't have cognitive intelligence they're stark raving mad that couldn't coherently strong two words together
How more powerful is a demilich?
@@jordanhunter3375 they're not they're much weaker than a real lich
@@chaddavid2106 So they're undead, but lack a soul Tupperware?
@@jordanhunter3375 They do have phylacteries, but they almost always have their phylacteries embedded in their skulls in the form of jewels.
Which... defeats the whole point of a phylactery.
Hey Pointy Hat! Don't know if you'll see this so I'll probably post it under every lich video :P
Are you planning on going in more detail/creating an alternative for the OG Wizard lich? Every lich you created so far is amazing, but one really crucial difference between them and the wizard lich is the phylactery. The ones you created have phylacteries that are usually more than one and can be manufactured/created more during the unlife of the lich, and they are way harder to deal with and more fun compared to the wizard's "you get one soul tupperware, bury it somewhere safe and feed it once a week" kinda deal. So I'd LOVE to see your take on a different wizard lich.
I'm here for this
Unknown to the great City, the local guardian golems are actually the Necromoton creations from this lich. Even the people of this City are willing to fight for these golems. The lich is the head of the crafting guilds, but for some reason, hasn't been seen in a few years, shortly after the golems join the City. But noone asks questions, because the unparalleled protection of these golems. Most assume the Guildmaster is either dead, or traveling abroad for more resources. What the citizens don't realize is that every criminal is jailed in cells that slowly drain the life essence, providing the power to keep these golems running.
I love the necromaton concept. And the tragic story of the sick rich girl was great.
Might borrow the statbock for one of my games. I've always wanted to make a BBEG inspired by Nox from the Wakfu cartoon and this might be the closest I've seen without home-brewing something from scratch myself. 🙂
I've been working on a Blood Hunter Lich. I call it The Harbinger. It's phylactery is the weapon it used to take its own life with. Once reborn into it's lichdom. It must begin spilling blood. For every person killed with blood spilled a notch is made on the weapon allowing it to live another lifetime. If their weapon is ever destroyed all the lives it's collected are released and the Harbinger must start over with it's collection. Which means if you can destroy the weapon you can put the Harbinger to sleep permanently.
I love that idea!
I kind of wish the whole 'they have to make the robot' thing. Imagine playing with a warforged, but the necromaton turns them into a phylactery and possesses them halfway through the campaign
This couldn't have come at a better time - I am writing a campaign with the bbeg being almost exactly the same as the necromoton mixed with your mind's eye, replacing their body with metal and striving for perfection to rival the gods. It's also got eldritch horror and religious themes with the nature of authority thrown in, your videos have been instumental for ideas. Thank you so much!
Ok the concept is just pure gold, I love it ! (and the illustrations just bring it to a whole new level !)
I feel like there is potential for a Psion Lich. I just don't have THE cool idea yet but...
Thanks for the quality content ! :D
my original thought while i was watching the video, while you were explaining the soul anchors, was a necromaton keeping their original body somewhere safe and preserved so they could use more of it for new necromatons. i was imagining the more powerful necromatons using major organs, but as time went on they had to use things like individual bones or kidneys, which might make them a weaker than the ones with hearts or lungs.
using the bodies of victims is obviously much better for making an active villain, but i think my idea is interesting enough to share in the comments section lol
I made a character where my father was an artificer trying to become immortal so I’ve been waiting for you to cover this one!
Binged the whole lich series from this one video and there's a lot of cool potential with all of these. I know there was a set of art a while back of what all the classes would be like as undead that this reminds me of and the idea in general is so cool. Interesting thing about the lich requirements is that even though the series is only doing casters and half casters, there technically isn't anything in the recipe PREVENTING fighters, rogues, or barbarians from qualifying. Like sure there's a ritual but someone else could do it or it could be based on a magic item. Very curious about the possibility of a rogue lich... (or if the series remains caster only then probably ranger or warlock. Those have a lot of possibilities!)
I don't even play DnD but watched the whole thing and loved it. I was just looking into the Artificer concept as a whole. Are you a professional writer or something? Way better than any recent movies for sure
It is so deeply ironic that all of these liches in trying to run from death are actually doing the opposite: They know they can never escape, and all their methods bind them in more shackles than they had before.
The line "They know they can never escape, and all their methods bind them in more shackles than they had before" actually goes hard. Took a picture of it so I could yoink it as a line.
Clone spell’s better.
@@drvurruct2274 That's quite the compliment. Thank you :D
Artificers are my absolute favorite class, I'm glad I can finally learn to make them an undead affront to nature!
"Beef jerky magical man over there." Got me
A Necromaton attacks the memorial of a Blight, cause its the only way to get to the ressources to renew/rebuild its body, but would in process kill the blight and the party has to side with one of the liches to destroy the other 😱❤️✨
Make monk next please!! It would be so cool if a Monk Lich relied on others learning their techniques and stuff to keep living kinda like an Intoner but even more active as the Lich needs to actively seek new students or maybe once they make their "Tome of Combat" they can no longer use any techniques or abilities not included in it meanwhile having to make sure that all the things in it are things that they have made. Going in a similar direction as the Intoner but opposite at the same time
I have been looking for a great boss monster for the electric volcano island dungeon I’ve been building. Lightning erupts from the “arc-cano” into a floating island, keeping it afloat. Shrines/temples are spread throughout the island that have coils that can be raised. Once all are raised the lightning redirects and the floating island lowers. I am going to make a few more models, one for each shrine. 🔥🔥 The Necromaton discovered the energy the island produces and has used it to fuel is arcane machinery.
Over the cliffs at the edge of the hammer mountains, the great eastern jungles splayed out before him, one Necromaton sears his furious gaze into the lands engulfing the horizon, daring them to resist him. He spreads his hand of iron over the land, twisting it to decay and rot, only to moments later see it defiantly flourish, eating up his emitters of darkness just as they had done countless times before. Normally, he would be dismayed at such a failure, but this time, the minions were just a prelude. He shouted out into the living biome before him, hoping his previous show of force was enough to catch the natives attention. He wanted *everyone* to witness. Everyone to hear his raspy robotic rattle.... and tremble in fear. "IF YOU WANT SOMETHING DONE RIGHT..." Sprouting from the underdark, rising from undug graves, a great army whirred to life, twisting their mechanical jaws in one cry of unison. "YOU HAVE TO DO IT YOURSELF." It was an army decades in the making, an army meticulously crafted to crush any biological force before it, armed with flamethrowers and deathfog and all sorts of artifacts from the old war. It was an army... *of one.*
I absolutely love this series!!! The editing is top-notch and humorous, the content is CRAZY high quality, and the artist behind it all is a genius. Thank you for this!!!
Holy shit, when you started talking about Speedrunning the Multiverse that threw me for a fucking loop because litRPG is pretty fucking niche and never expected to see a RUclipsr ad for a litRPG book.
Artificer + lich is just Mr House from Fallout. But instead of zombies he has robots
I actually used a concept like this for my dnd campaign where the Livy was a computerized Livy with the mind uploaded from a child but corrupted thinking the world must’ve been their personal playground and they used an ancient piece of technology known as a tamagotchi as their phylactery
TOMAGOCHI LICH REAL
My favorite game I have ever played was an alternate tech future. The villain was Gorm, the head researcher for the Dwarven civilization. 500 years ago, Gorm discovered a strange and highly energetic substance that had come from a meteor, embedded in a mountain side. He built a laboratory there, and harvested the material. He compressed and enchanted it into the Artificer’s Stone, an infinite energy device that could provide magical electricity at a given rate indefinitely, and could be infused with the essence of a living creature. This allowed the user to create self-sufficient machines that could carry monstrous abilities or even player levels. Over time, Gorm refined these stones further, eventually merging his skill as an artificer with the stone, and cybernetically enhancing both his mind and body, becoming the first cybernetic Lich. He went on to create weapons of mass destruction, military grade defense systems, and propel the Dwarven kingdom to an untold level of technological enhancement.
I would love to see the use of this concept again, where an infinite energy device is created and used in a high-fantasy future similar to Eberron and this setting.
a cool lich for the series would be, ranger, imagine a ranger with the stereotypical "my forest is in danger, and I must save it" story. but saves it by binding the forest and all spirits of the animals that live there to their soul. Not turning the forest into their phalactery, but the other way around, acting as a living philactory for the spirits of the animals that once lived there. And any place the rangerlich visits, slowly becomes terrain just like that of their original forest, but in turn saps the life of the sorounding land and anyone living there. Feeding on it using it as fuel to keep the spirits alive. moving on when there's nothing left to take. It's kinda like your druid one and would be super cool :)
I imagine Ranger actually becoming something similar to a Wild Hunt, a group of souls that fly the night sky on a eternal hunt. So a Ranger would bind their soul to a conclave or hunting party and each individual would be their phylactry, and to mainting lichdom the hunt is a necessary event.
I think this way since it would distinguise the Ranger from the Druid
... Isn't that just the Blight though?
@@caiomaida3630 I mean it's similar a blight I'd attatched to a forest and that forest spreads from where it is, , vs this would have the ra.gers forest lost or destroyed and they now embody the forest and what left of it. Maybe having to kill the what's left of it so like a lich the forest itself must die and rise again, and the ranger is trying to regrow it wherever they could get the souls. Atleast that's how I thought about it lol, idk I didn't really think to much into it past that lol
@@caiomaida3630 Not if you link this ability to the ranger's favored terrain. This could create interesting scenario.
Urban Ranger Lich - After traveling a few miles in this desert of dust the group arrives in strange ruins, looking like a small town built without rimes or reason and abandoned a long time ago. The only thing breaking the deafening silence is the slow rhythmic sound of a broom. The old lady glance at the group for a moment before going back to her task. She fades as the party approach and as they explore they see ghostly figure like these everywhere, maybe a few cats here and there and they heard the sound of wild hounds at least once.
Now I'm wanting to make a campaign where the Cadre of the Immortals (a group consisting of a Lich, Intoner, Necromiton, Blight, Hierarch, Mummy Lord, and Liches of the other classes) are the big bads and the adventurers must band together to stop them.
My character is trying to become a wizard lich with the caveat of trying to maintain the original personality and avoiding the soul eating requirement, and this is giving me some ideas about what my end game could be.
@@aclassicguardsman946 Ooo, cool. Hope ya don't get any nat 1s when ya try and become one.
@@andrewdowns3673 I'm hoping to get somebody to use the aid action, so one can hope.
Just had a pretty good story idea for the necromaton. Someone who gave up their flesh for the machine, but realized after that it was a mistake and is forever trying to return to a living body lest their soul never be able to move on, so they are forced to stay alive out of fear for whatcomes after death outside of their body. Idk sounds cool as a compeling villan or someone the party can help.
Here's an idea, depending on what body part was used, each Necromaton can have a specific magical ability. For example, using the lungs can let them use stronger Air based abilities, while the heart lets them use Blood Magic.
I'm not too familiar with Artificers since I've never played one but you get the idea.
Oooh that’s cool
Lungs could give you a breath weapon as a legendary ability. An arm might mean the design has a larger arm on one side.
@@knightghaleon Mecha-choo
Loving the fact that you literally made the Necrons and now the Mechanicus’s worst nightmare in 5e. And I am so here for all of that.
I found you through watching Trekiros - Game Changer who I found through Power Word Spill and I’m so glad I did. This content is gold. The RUclips DnD ecosystem is thriving and I love it
I really like this concept and it reminds me of the Cybermen from Doctor Who in some ways
Sidenote: Based on how you said “Not Yet” with a picture of a barbarian, does that mean you’ll make Lich like undeads for non spellcasters?