I just want to say that I have literally invented a council of liches simply to use every one of your designs. Thank you so much for creating all of these.
Lol, I kinda did this too. I created and am running an entire campaign around a celebrated group of ancient heroes that each became liches to live long enough to fight against the return of an evil they failed to defeat the first time.
I really like this. All these liches and their 'recipes' are so unique they don't even have to be tied to a class per se, but can be tailor made for a specific character or characters
POV: me explaining to the Medical Directors why they need to fund my expedition to the unexplored archipelago so i can learn the secret technique of punching cancer into gold.
I'm also thinking the monk villain can have the ideology close to Zaheer from Legend of Korra. Basically "burn everything down" type anarchist who believes Faerun to be corrupt. The only way to rid yourself of said corruption is to let go of all physical indulgences. In pursuit of this they went through the process of self-mummification and achieved having his soul escape his body and many of his followers have created a cult around him.
@@rmmorang2134 Good call! Many villains from both "Avatar" series could fill this role, as they were all exemplars of ideologies taken to their extremes. The Avatar series are great to draw inspiration from in general.
You could interpret monks as martial fanatics. Always seeking a challenge. Slap a layer of undead with lack of emotion and you got basically a form of Zodd from berserk.
I like how the ethereal lich is basically a natural consequence of the monk trying to transcend the limits of their body (etherealness is even a part of the 18th level monk feature called Empty Body, allowing them to cast Astral Projection). Really cool concept (I didn't even know the Buddhist self-mummification was a thing)!
You didn't knew about Sokushinbutsu? Then let me tell you my brother in Keith that it is specifically a Japanese thing and that there are Buddhist mummies all over the world, but actual self-mummification is only done in the land of the rising sun. Also most experts seem to believe that it is practically impossible because the steps towards the process should not be sufficient for mummification and the successful cases were just mummified by their disciples. Also also a lot of esteemed self-mummified corpses such as the body of Kukai Roshi the men who probably invented the practice (he claimed he was thought about it in China but there are no traces of this practice in China) have their bodies hidden away from the public eye so they probably merely acquired a form of decomposition resistance that made it longer for them to decompose as opposed to proper mummification. Although, take everything I say with a grain of salt. I'm not omniscient like Toaster Ringtail is. Also also also I think that Empty body or some other class feature of monk makes it so that they can live extremely long just like the druid thing so I was kinda surprised that Pointy talked about it in Druid-lich video but not this one. Oh well.
@@AleksoLaĈevalo999 You are thinking of Timeless Body which removes the need for food or water and protects from magical aging and the effects of aging but does not lengthen the monk's lifespan.
WHAT THE DUCK!?! YOUR TELL US THAT HE WAS A TOP HAT ONCE, AND THEN BECAME A WHICH HAT WITH A EYE AND GAINED THE ABILITY TO SPEAK AND THINK LIKE A HUMAN!?!?! that’s crazy.
The leader of the Githzerai is kind of already a monk lich. He went so deep into meditation that his mind surpassed his body, leaving him in a state of neither life, death, or undeath. I think of him as maybe the logical next step of an Astral Self monk
Long death being the zombie version. Relentless life much. Work great with hex and either EB, Sapping sting, or sword burst to conserve ki. Had one that was a Dreugar and grappled the phandelver dragon into a 1 round tko with Enlarge. he was my replacement for ColdStone the stun build warlock multi.. that lasted literally 1 turn of 1 module.. when a giant boar gored him and flung his body into a tree, splitting him in two with an insta kill.
Dude. You think Iroh “left his body behind” in a box in a labyrinth? The eons could erode his humanity, and his soul could task a new generation of bending adventurers with finding his body to put an end to him, before he slips and terrorizes the world as the Dracolich of the West.
This is why I like DnD so much as a community because so many people can come up with cooler and refreshing ideas that’s not from the mouths of the Hasbro and Wizards. You can have fun with these homebrew and be really creatives with the stuff you make.
I love the fact that Pointy Hat keeps adding to the PC’s he has made and keeps adding bits of lore with them and adding updates to their designs. It would be cool to see and or play all these characters in a campaign. THEY NEED A TEAM NAME!!!
I like that you took inspiration of the self mummification that real life monks have done. It also kinda makes sense that this monk doesn't need to substain itself with souls, since essentially the have reached a form of enlightenment
also, the chinese zombie is basically a monk. so you could go that route, keeping it still with flesh, that just doesnt rot. also, shang tsung from mortal kombat is technically a lich.
@@DanielMWJ Yeah, this is literally a discount bodhisattva, or if we are fantasy seeking maybe the nascent soul of an inmortal cultivator? One or the other depending if you want to go buddisht or taoist
@@DanielMWJ bodhisattva are not enlightened, they are close to it, but they are usually good. I don't know exactly how this works, but bodhisattva can abandon their path of enlightenment to help others or because they believe that helping will also helps them to reach enlightenment. But the help they bring is huge, basically, they can take you out of hell or they can even assist you to reach enlightenment (this is not D&D lore btw, this is taken from budhist myths and stories, but it would be cool if added)
I still think the sorcerer litch is my favorite. The idea of having a family of sorcerers all feeding into one powerful litch just so much story and world potential it's too good to ignore.
I actually love this lich, the flavor of it not needing sustenance because it perfected its body and mind so much that it made its body a perpetual machine is insane, and it also makes it so rewarding both for the difficulty of the ritual(and playing monk) and for the vulnerability of the phylactery. If the monk lich wants to really interact with the world physically they would be dragging their phylactery with them everywhere they go and since the balance between mind and body is so delicate it's likely to be easier to disrupt their own unlife by damage rather than needing to outright destroy the phylactery, because the energy needed to repair a physical body will likely put a drain on the monk and either require a long time to recover or a disruption of the perpetual motion. It's lichdom as a curse in a way, I love it and it's so fitting as the only infinite lichdom by both the difficulty in the ritual, the limitations of it, and the mindset of a monk who seeks to do it. Also Bao's story is super cool and gives me the idea that Transcendant Souls might be seen as like minor deities or nature spirits, things people can seek out for wisdom and insight due to them being so detatched from the material world. It sounds like a cool concept!
I imagine Warlock liches playing with the whole “gains their power from someone else” thing, where instead of having a singular Patron, they mark random passerby to turn them into their phylacteries, and as time goes on, the phylactery-person slowly has their energy drained to fuel the Warlock, whether they know it or not. Eventually, this kills the phylactery, forcing the Warlock-Lich to continually create new ones in order to stay both powerful and undead.
I wouldn’t do random passerbies, but I love the idea of the Warlock Lich flipping things to become the Patron to other Warlocks and using those Warlocks as their phylacteries.
The body as the phylactery is SUCH a cool idea I love it. I’m thinking like whenever the ki form is defeated and it remanifests inside the body you can see the body glow a bit and attendants to it are all “Master?!?!”
I was hoping that the Lich Monk would incorporate the concept of self-mummification ever since I learned about the process. Great video! Can’t wait to use this in my campaigns.
This process is not real, the tradition that these links mummified themselves on purpose is a myth that developed LONG AFTER they were semi-mummified naturally.
I actually got that TVTropes page started! I personally haven’t made much beyond that, shoutout to those who picked up my slack, but I still feel really happy that you noticed our work.
Not for D&D but in my current Call of Cthulhu game my villain is essentially a monk. My players chose Sengoku Japan as the setting so the villain is a kyonshi (basically a vampire) priest who kinda ended up fighting like a monk. The one time they’ve gotten to fight him directly so far, I had him catch an arrow fired at him and throw it back, almost killing the player. I only decided to do that because their attack roll was so poor and the villain rolled an excellent reaction. My players’ response that was so funny as they realized he was basically a monk. The hit player even asked to get thrown back and pinned to the wall by the arrow 😂
The coolest part is that the ritual is based off an actual Buddhist Trial in Japan called "sokushinbutsu". Fun fact, it was banned in 1877 by emperor Meiji during the Meiji era and the Sheika monks from the Legend of Zelda were also inspired by that practice. And I know this because of Gaijin Goombah's video from *7* years ago.
I commented the same. But I know this because I'm a Japanese and known few example of Sokushinbutsu in real life and in anime/manga. (also, I study mythologies etc.)
This is a myth, there is NO evidence ANY monk ever actually succeeded in doing this or that any of the mummies that DO exist did it to themselves deliberately.
Was happy you brought up Wuxia, because this was exactly what i thought when i saw the title. Like, an ancient ancestor of a weaker threat that came out of seclusion to avenge their kin is precisely how a monk could be used as a villain without adding in too many other ideas.
One of the bbeg of my campaign is a monk lich. He’s one of those monks that mummified himself to achieve nirvana. He’s unlife is now linked to a great cherry tree who’s roots have taken over a temple
that sounds interesting, I can see this guy having the ability to manipulate the roots of the tree its bound too, like the one myth of the blood sucking cherry blossom tree.
@@anthonytonythegeek5561 yea that was the idea. I haven’t totally decided on how his powers are going to work but I want it to be something that represents his oneness with the world. Luckily I have a lot of time to figure it out before my players get to his zone
@@BeebleBoy well theres always the option to make them an knock-off Avatar, with water earth fire and air. there's obviously air and earth in the temple, and some way for water to get in to nourish the tree, and you could probably stretch incense into the fire element.
Yeah, as usual, your liches works ABSOLUTELY SLAPS. i just love the twist on this one. I feel that was the actual good way to portray transcendence character, while being not pure bouddistic. this is great. This is REALLY great.
i think a cleric lich will be both the easiest and hardest one to explain depending on how its done. like, the easy way is just to tie it to gods of death (and the death domain subclass) and say its a reward given to you by your dark god. another easy way would be to fit it into other lich catagories, pending on domain type. like, war domain could do the fighter, nature could do the druid, arcane and death doing standard lich, maybe tempest can do the sorcerer, forge can do artificer.. etc but the hardest one way to do it would be to have it the same regardless of domain and deity.. i think it'd be cool to have the cleric become a celestial undead mix but idk how well that'd work lorewise
This gives me an idea for a bard lich, the ritual makes them a living song or story, and their phylacteries are the people who read the story/sing the song, sort of in a ring or Bloody Mary type thing
When you mentioned HOW the monk achieves undeath, I couldn't help but remember the irl method of a monk performing self mummification, and then you revealed that it was the exact inspiration. Gotta love taking inspiration from stuff like that!
I immediately knew what the angle for lichdom would be once you started talking about the tea, good thing I watched that Wendigoon vid, very cool idea to use irl self mummification for monk liches
This leaves only 2 left! (Lich classic being Wizard and Mummy being Cleric Lich) Rogue and Warlock. I can't wait 4-5 months for this whole series to be done! (assuming it keeps up the current pace). I always knew the Self Mummification thing would be how you'd do Monk Lich, but the Ki Ghost really knocked it out of the park.
Given the statements made during the Paladin video, I suspect Cleric will be getting one, with the Mummy Lord not really fitting into the Lich formula.
I hope he actually tops it with the Cleric and Wizard as a redux of the two classics. Although I do confess I have been curious what a Rogue Lich looks like.
@@ThePa1riotSimple. They steal their death and follow in the footsteps of Koschei the Deathless. And then they must maintain their unlife by repeating this heist for every death they cheat.
@@maledwarfwarrior i think that you could take from the ranger and the bard lich each. The rogue lich in this case would turn themself into a legend by completing a heist so grand that the whole world talks about it. But it can't ever reuse the same heist for Immortality, always needing more eloborate and daring plans and always having to take on bigger and more dangerous targets.
2:17 Seeing the image of Uriel gave me such big flashbacks. I was really inspired with the whole story you had gave Uriel and turned it into an entire campaign, and turned the three other way of flesh monks into his siblings so that him and the party had to fight and kill his siblings to protect him before finally going for the head of the house, his grandfather. It was such a fun campaign, though my party befriended one too many npcs so it became something of an all out war at the very end but boy was it glorious! Anyway thank you for all the amazing content, everything is always so top tier
Love this whole video. The lich monk concept really plays into the self reliance of the monk as a concept. To disconnect from earthly attachments. And the story of Bao and his master is super cute/nice too
I love the little buried bell 🔔idea, I'd imagine it as a test of them being able to maintain their focus by hust ignoring the bell at some point and one of the reasons why it's so hard for them to reach perpetual enlightenment is there's some annoying little furry playing with the bell string 😆 "You're killin me here....literally"
I like the fact that every once in a while "the" adventure party gains a new character using the topic of the video and props to you for not calling out your pun with Ki being the key feature of the soul incarnate. You're doing awesome work here and remember giving your human familiar a snack or something!
I can't put into words how good your channel is, seriously. I've been lurking around the DnD community for years now, and you are the single best youtuber out there, not only are your tips great, but you show how to put them in practice every single video, as well as giving some massive inspirations along the way. I love you man.
I fucking love this lich. I felt like I was going insane "now wait a second, this box in the ground with a bell sounds oddly familiar" rqjksdvkwwnslw. I love your videos! Just the worldbuildings and the art and the humor its all just *chefs kiss*
Mano eu fiquei pasmo, tipo o cara ainda tá falando em ingles e coloca um meme em português sem legenda, ele deve ter muito seguidores brasileiro mano só pode
The plant required for this ritual grows wild in the Southern US and is known as Pokeweed. It is distinctive for its broad leaves, red stalks, and deep purple berries. It is a powerful laxative that will turn someone inside out just by eating a single berry. You try maintaining your zen composure while vacating all the liquid from your lower body!
I love all your stuff and always look forward to your videos. To answer your "question", and help with interactions, my favorite lich is the Bard lich. The song that keeps you alive just feels so amazing. Keep up the excellent work and sorry I can't make GenCon!
Idea for a lich cleric; a monaster who created a faith that was so powerful it gave them the divine power to become a lich, with the followers or maybe some divine relic becoming the philactory
Man, I'm going to be honest. All your litches were cool, but I always feel like I need to change something or add something for them to be perfect (for me) or fit in my stories. However, this is perfect. It's actually perfect. Every little detail seems so cohesive. The plot threads work so well with it, and it fully feels like a monk. I'm going to change my campaign just so I can add this. I also thought, "Wait, isn't the Tea how the monks mummify themselves," and I was right. All of this is cool. Great work, love this series.
bro Im deving out a world where Im using the idea of a lich of each class being my core set of lowish-powered gods and Ive been trying to come up with some versions of the classes you havent done yet... including the monk... and I had something I was pretty happy with but then this just blows my concept out of the water!! I love it and also am furious at you LMAO please please please keep it up with this series so I can rest and edit these as needed to fit my world without you comming in and making cooler stuff
this is probably one of the best liches pointy hat has made because of the actual super interesting buddhist lore, it’s capability to be fought multiple times in a weaker form and story wise leaves it probably the most open to really interesting characters. like i love all the other ones but this is a hat (lol) trick
Before completing the video: my guess is this will be an extreme version of the Way of the Long Death, where killing someone’s extends life. I will edit this later with my reaction to the real lich After watching: Boy was I wrong! Lol, awesome video as usual and I liked Bao, he is cute.
I will say you are an inspiration with not only your ideas of making homebrew but your general story telling and woprd brining that we see in your videos. I have been a DM for a while and your stuff always helps me to get ideas on how to improve.
I have always found the classic vision of a lich conflicting as opposed to the big ideas in this series, especially the point that lichdom cannot be something passive, I have always thought that that is the whole point of being a lich, and to tell the truth I'm glad to see that rule broken. I don't want to be a hater either, I'm still a fan of the other "Can X work as a D&D Villains" videos, the lich sorcerer is without a doubt one of my favorite fiction ideas
Did anyone else think about The Practice of Self- Mummification when he started talking about how a monk would achieve lichdom? Sometimes true is stranger than fiction 😂
I appriciate you incorporating an actual monastic ritual into this concept. Sokushinbutsu is such a wild ritual and its awesome to see it reprisented so well
“…That inhumanly tall translucent figure with a neck bent at an odd angle I see standing right behind you” There seems to have been a misunderstanding, that’s just me.
This is awesome! I can't wait to see how you tackle the rogue lich, because these have all been amazing and I'd love to see what you do with my favorite class.
i've literally spent a gap year building a dnd setting based on your videos and random characters i've made and been passionate about over the years but haven't been able to play in preparation for starting art university in september and holy SHIT is it fucking fire, i just wanted to say thanks for literally making it a reality. i'm so excited to play it
I haven’t played D&D in years and listening to actually play pods is my connection to the community now. Just had to say that the level of passion and effort and yourself that you share in these videos is incredible and breathtaking. Thank you for what you do and I’m glad you are getting the shine you deserve.
1:52 I *NEVER* expected to see Agostinho Carrara in a non-Brazilian video. Loved the reference 😂😂😂 For those of you who are not from Brazil, this is from a series called “A Grande Família” (The Big Family) and this character is one of the funniest 😂
This lich and the Death March (Fighter Lich) have been my absolute favorites! Thank you for creating them, I have plans to add both to the campaign im running for my friends! Great work as always Pointy Hat!
Join me in my meditation circle 🙏📿😌
Do we have to go to gen Con to get your books/shirts?
Do i have to shave my hair? I just got it done.
🧘🧘🧘🧘🙏🙏🙏
Padre Marcelo and Augustinho Carrara references make the 3 Brazillians watching your videos very happy.
K, lord pointyus hatarius
I just want to say that I have literally invented a council of liches simply to use every one of your designs. Thank you so much for creating all of these.
I'm interested in the campain you're running.
Could you give me a summary?
@efestohorus2053 yes! We need to know!
Lol, I kinda did this too. I created and am running an entire campaign around a celebrated group of ancient heroes that each became liches to live long enough to fight against the return of an evil they failed to defeat the first time.
honestly, i had the same idea, just that my council is more like a hitlist a death deity gives the players in order to earn a favour
I really like this. All these liches and their 'recipes' are so unique they don't even have to be tied to a class per se, but can be tailor made for a specific character or characters
POV: me explaining to the Medical Directors why they need to fund my expedition to the unexplored archipelago so i can learn the secret technique of punching cancer into gold.
thats called chemotherapy i think
@@anishchetana7934alchemotherapy
Alchemotherapy
Acuchemo. Less horrific chemistry, way more very precise punching.
Auratherapy
The (fantasy) medical practice of turning tumourous cells into noble metals
When I saw lich monk, I hoped it was going self mummification and I was not disappointed
:D Way, historically cool and I'm digging it! 👏🏾✨
Yea I have heard of the real version of this and it is so cool Antonio dndified it
Same
Came here to comment this.
Same
So Bao is basically Kung Fu Panda, but with a warlock-esque patron. At least Pointy Hat fessed up to it, so respect.
I'm also thinking the monk villain can have the ideology close to Zaheer from Legend of Korra.
Basically "burn everything down" type anarchist who believes Faerun to be corrupt. The only way to rid yourself of said corruption is to let go of all physical indulgences. In pursuit of this they went through the process of self-mummification and achieved having his soul escape his body and many of his followers have created a cult around him.
@@rmmorang2134 Good call! Many villains from both "Avatar" series could fill this role, as they were all exemplars of ideologies taken to their extremes. The Avatar series are great to draw inspiration from in general.
You could interpret monks as martial fanatics. Always seeking a challenge. Slap a layer of undead with lack of emotion and you got basically a form of Zodd from berserk.
I like how the ethereal lich is basically a natural consequence of the monk trying to transcend the limits of their body (etherealness is even a part of the 18th level monk feature called Empty Body, allowing them to cast Astral Projection). Really cool concept (I didn't even know the Buddhist self-mummification was a thing)!
Oh yeah it's real. It's outlawed in many places, but some still attempt it.
You didn't knew about Sokushinbutsu? Then let me tell you my brother in Keith that it is specifically a Japanese thing and that there are Buddhist mummies all over the world, but actual self-mummification is only done in the land of the rising sun. Also most experts seem to believe that it is practically impossible because the steps towards the process should not be sufficient for mummification and the successful cases were just mummified by their disciples. Also also a lot of esteemed self-mummified corpses such as the body of Kukai Roshi the men who probably invented the practice (he claimed he was thought about it in China but there are no traces of this practice in China) have their bodies hidden away from the public eye so they probably merely acquired a form of decomposition resistance that made it longer for them to decompose as opposed to proper mummification.
Although, take everything I say with a grain of salt. I'm not omniscient like Toaster Ringtail is.
Also also also I think that Empty body or some other class feature of monk makes it so that they can live extremely long just like the druid thing so I was kinda surprised that Pointy talked about it in Druid-lich video but not this one. Oh well.
@@AleksoLaĈevalo999 You are thinking of Timeless Body which removes the need for food or water and protects from magical aging and the effects of aging but does not lengthen the monk's lifespan.
@@londonjedi Ah yes, this explains everything. Thank you.
Recent research has shown these monks did NOT self-mummify
Lore: pointy hat was originally the hat that borough Frosty the snowman alive
He is himself a lich, torn apart, redyed, and restitched from a top hat.
You know too much. Pointy Hat wants to know your location.
WHAT THE DUCK!?! YOUR TELL US THAT HE WAS A TOP HAT ONCE, AND THEN BECAME A WHICH HAT WITH A EYE AND GAINED THE ABILITY TO SPEAK AND THINK LIKE A HUMAN!?!?! that’s crazy.
@@orgixvi3 that funny 😆 😆😆😆😆😆
Frosty isn't simply another familiar?
The leader of the Githzerai is kind of already a monk lich. He went so deep into meditation that his mind surpassed his body, leaving him in a state of neither life, death, or undeath. I think of him as maybe the logical next step of an Astral Self monk
That's probably where he got the concept. It would take only a few small changes to make that what he is.
I think it's more common origin. There are real monks that have followed most of this process, mummifying themselves while still alive.
That's pretty cool, especially since the queen of the githyanki is a proper lich. It's a neat parallel the two leaders of the gith share.
Long death being the zombie version. Relentless life much. Work great with hex and either EB, Sapping sting, or sword burst to conserve ki. Had one that was a Dreugar and grappled the phandelver dragon into a 1 round tko with Enlarge. he was my replacement for ColdStone the stun build warlock multi.. that lasted literally 1 turn of 1 module.. when a giant boar gored him and flung his body into a tree, splitting him in two with an insta kill.
Immortality through the power of tea? Hmm…
*Uncle Iroh has entered the chat.*
Dude. You think Iroh “left his body behind” in a box in a labyrinth? The eons could erode his humanity, and his soul could task a new generation of bending adventurers with finding his body to put an end to him, before he slips and terrorizes the world as the Dracolich of the West.
@@pwnorbepwned ngl I would watch that storyline.
Deadly tea? or delectable poison?
Sensei Wu:
Immortalitea
This is why I like DnD so much as a community because so many people can come up with cooler and refreshing ideas that’s not from the mouths of the Hasbro and Wizards. You can have fun with these homebrew and be really creatives with the stuff you make.
But it’s still based off of the material from WOTC and using them as a jumping off point.
@@ThePa1riotI mean it's based off Gygax's work. WoTC came in into the game way later
I love the fact that Pointy Hat keeps adding to the PC’s he has made and keeps adding bits of lore with them and adding updates to their designs. It would be cool to see and or play all these characters in a campaign. THEY NEED A TEAM NAME!!!
Spear hats
I like that you took inspiration of the self mummification that real life monks have done.
It also kinda makes sense that this monk doesn't need to substain itself with souls, since essentially the have reached a form of enlightenment
That's a bodhisattva, yeah?
also, the chinese zombie is basically a monk. so you could go that route, keeping it still with flesh, that just doesnt rot.
also, shang tsung from mortal kombat is technically a lich.
@@DanielMWJ Yeah, this is literally a discount bodhisattva, or if we are fantasy seeking maybe the nascent soul of an inmortal cultivator? One or the other depending if you want to go buddisht or taoist
@@DanielMWJ bodhisattva are not enlightened, they are close to it, but they are usually good. I don't know exactly how this works, but bodhisattva can abandon their path of enlightenment to help others or because they believe that helping will also helps them to reach enlightenment. But the help they bring is huge, basically, they can take you out of hell or they can even assist you to reach enlightenment (this is not D&D lore btw, this is taken from budhist myths and stories, but it would be cool if added)
This is a myth, there is no evidence ANY of these monks mummified themselves deliberately
18:50 Wealth, fame, power.
You want my treasure? You can have it! I left everything I gathered together in one place. Now you just have to find it
The Gold Touch! The Gold Touch is REEAAAALLL!!!
Dropping the “soul Tupperware” bit verbally, just to keep it visually, was excellent
Dang I just noticed that. It's hilarious 😂
7:50 “it’s at this stage of the ritual that the monk’s control of ki will play a key role in whether the monk survives the ritual or doesn’t” 🔥🔥🔥✍️
I still think the sorcerer litch is my favorite. The idea of having a family of sorcerers all feeding into one powerful litch just so much story and world potential it's too good to ignore.
I love the idea of Pointy Hat making his human familiar wear the merch in the same manner that people dress up their pets
I actually love this lich, the flavor of it not needing sustenance because it perfected its body and mind so much that it made its body a perpetual machine is insane, and it also makes it so rewarding both for the difficulty of the ritual(and playing monk) and for the vulnerability of the phylactery. If the monk lich wants to really interact with the world physically they would be dragging their phylactery with them everywhere they go and since the balance between mind and body is so delicate it's likely to be easier to disrupt their own unlife by damage rather than needing to outright destroy the phylactery, because the energy needed to repair a physical body will likely put a drain on the monk and either require a long time to recover or a disruption of the perpetual motion. It's lichdom as a curse in a way, I love it and it's so fitting as the only infinite lichdom by both the difficulty in the ritual, the limitations of it, and the mindset of a monk who seeks to do it.
Also Bao's story is super cool and gives me the idea that Transcendant Souls might be seen as like minor deities or nature spirits, things people can seek out for wisdom and insight due to them being so detatched from the material world. It sounds like a cool concept!
You can tell from the Thumbnail it's gonna be a good video
Yeah it's monk Mas koga
Can bro even make mid vids?
@@knil727I knew what was going to happen in botw when I first fought him and it still surprised me
@@MoButt-qu2bhYes. The dragon one ( Everyone makes mistakes ).
Seeing Maz Koshia has me even more hyped than usual for a Pointy Hat video
I imagine Warlock liches playing with the whole “gains their power from someone else” thing, where instead of having a singular Patron, they mark random passerby to turn them into their phylacteries, and as time goes on, the phylactery-person slowly has their energy drained to fuel the Warlock, whether they know it or not. Eventually, this kills the phylactery, forcing the Warlock-Lich to continually create new ones in order to stay both powerful and undead.
I wouldn’t do random passerbies, but I love the idea of the Warlock Lich flipping things to become the Patron to other Warlocks and using those Warlocks as their phylacteries.
The body as the phylactery is SUCH a cool idea I love it. I’m thinking like whenever the ki form is defeated and it remanifests inside the body you can see the body glow a bit and attendants to it are all “Master?!?!”
Did I just saw a Agostinho Carrara reference at 1:52 AND a Padre Marcelo at 2:02??
Already love this vídeo!
Yes
Arrumem um CPF para esse homem...digo... chapéu
Brasil reference
Brazil mentioned!!!! WTF is a stable currency!!!!!!! 🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷
Ele é espanhol, roubaram nossas terras e roubam nossos memes hj
I was hoping that the Lich Monk would incorporate the concept of self-mummification ever since I learned about the process. Great video! Can’t wait to use this in my campaigns.
I just commented almost the exact same thing. It's perfect.
I literally just did the same lol. Great minds think alike I guess.
This process is not real, the tradition that these links mummified themselves on purpose is a myth that developed LONG AFTER they were semi-mummified naturally.
"And blast all goblins within a three mile radius with the power of - "
-Oh hey it's Rand al'Thor
Cool
Didn't expect this
@@ZyvenZ I've been rereading wheel of time a bit to recently
The Wheel weaves my friend.
Absolutely. I have not watched the video but will comment with two words that 100% prove that monks can be villains, compelling ones at that: Za-heer.
1:52 brazilian jumpscare
I actually got that TVTropes page started! I personally haven’t made much beyond that, shoutout to those who picked up my slack, but I still feel really happy that you noticed our work.
Not for D&D but in my current Call of Cthulhu game my villain is essentially a monk. My players chose Sengoku Japan as the setting so the villain is a kyonshi (basically a vampire) priest who kinda ended up fighting like a monk. The one time they’ve gotten to fight him directly so far, I had him catch an arrow fired at him and throw it back, almost killing the player. I only decided to do that because their attack roll was so poor and the villain rolled an excellent reaction. My players’ response that was so funny as they realized he was basically a monk. The hit player even asked to get thrown back and pinned to the wall by the arrow 😂
Absolutely awesome! XD
The coolest part is that the ritual is based off an actual Buddhist Trial in Japan called "sokushinbutsu". Fun fact, it was banned in 1877 by emperor Meiji during the Meiji era and the Sheika monks from the Legend of Zelda were also inspired by that practice.
And I know this because of Gaijin Goombah's video from *7* years ago.
Welp, time to go watch it, thanks for the recc
Link to the vid?
I commented the same. But I know this because I'm a Japanese and known few example of Sokushinbutsu in real life and in anime/manga. (also, I study mythologies etc.)
This is a myth, there is NO evidence ANY monk ever actually succeeded in doing this or that any of the mummies that DO exist did it to themselves deliberately.
@@yocean14the myth that these monks did this to themselves (in the real world ofc) developed AFTER these men were accidentally mummified.
This, Pointy, this one is way favorite Lich, because it is so special and I advocate for more chonky cats in your videos
Was happy you brought up Wuxia, because this was exactly what i thought when i saw the title.
Like, an ancient ancestor of a weaker threat that came out of seclusion to avenge their kin is precisely how a monk could be used as a villain without adding in too many other ideas.
I once had a cyborg monk as the BBEG's most loyal follower, mostly because he wanted the partys artificer dead
One of the bbeg of my campaign is a monk lich. He’s one of those monks that mummified himself to achieve nirvana. He’s unlife is now linked to a great cherry tree who’s roots have taken over a temple
Man, that is awesome
that sounds interesting, I can see this guy having the ability to manipulate the roots of the tree its bound too, like the one myth of the blood sucking cherry blossom tree.
@@anthonytonythegeek5561 yea that was the idea. I haven’t totally decided on how his powers are going to work but I want it to be something that represents his oneness with the world. Luckily I have a lot of time to figure it out before my players get to his zone
@@BeebleBoy well theres always the option to make them an knock-off Avatar, with water earth fire and air. there's obviously air and earth in the temple, and some way for water to get in to nourish the tree, and you could probably stretch incense into the fire element.
@@genericuser984 that’s fun but not quite the vibe I’m looking for
Dear pointy hat, i would like to say thank you for what you do and that everyone of your ideas has been an inspiration to us all.
Yeah, as usual, your liches works ABSOLUTELY SLAPS. i just love the twist on this one. I feel that was the actual good way to portray transcendence character, while being not pure bouddistic.
this is great. This is REALLY great.
The lich videos were my first introduction to your videos and now I am here to stay. Currently using The Necromaton in my campaign.
OMG AGOSTINHO CARRARA AND PRIEST MARCELO ROSSI IN THE SAME VIDEO OF THE POINTY HAT. AS A BRAZILIAN THAT LOVES ITS OWN MEMES I FEEL REPRESENTED 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳
🎉🎉yesss❤
Dude his pointy had or his editor Brazilian? No way😂
@@ottobrendonschoenaucardoso5564 I want to know as well sdkk achei hilario os meme br do nada
Eu não acreditei quando eu vi, mas é top demais
"Ascendant" seems more accurate than "Incarnate" but that's just me. Really cool concept!
Way of the Soul Ascendant?
A Cleric lich would be awesome. Maybe they make a deal with their god or ideology to live as long as they maintain or work towards a certain goal.
That’s just a mummy lord
I think he already talked about those
@BeebleBoy he did paladin lich, I don't think he did cleric lich
i think a cleric lich will be both the easiest and hardest one to explain depending on how its done. like, the easy way is just to tie it to gods of death (and the death domain subclass) and say its a reward given to you by your dark god.
another easy way would be to fit it into other lich catagories, pending on domain type. like, war domain could do the fighter, nature could do the druid, arcane and death doing standard lich, maybe tempest can do the sorcerer, forge can do artificer.. etc
but the hardest one way to do it would be to have it the same regardless of domain and deity..
i think it'd be cool to have the cleric become a celestial undead mix but idk how well that'd work lorewise
Cleric liches are just mummy lords
POV: frieza 0:03
This gives me an idea for a bard lich, the ritual makes them a living song or story, and their phylacteries are the people who read the story/sing the song, sort of in a ring or Bloody Mary type thing
When you mentioned HOW the monk achieves undeath, I couldn't help but remember the irl method of a monk performing self mummification, and then you revealed that it was the exact inspiration. Gotta love taking inspiration from stuff like that!
This practice in the real world is entirely mythical, I explained this in detail in another comment if you care to learn about it.
Thanks pointy hat for including brazilian memes in the video, we appreciate it
jumpscare do augustinho
*pauses video* *inhales* BRAZIL MENTIONED (also this is my fave lich so far good job Cloth Beholder)
2ice
Pera, foi? Quando?
@@igorferreira8454 1:52
Dude, you nailed this class concept, and the character origin story is sooo good. I love how everything makes perfect sense!
I immediately knew what the angle for lichdom would be once you started talking about the tea, good thing I watched that Wendigoon vid, very cool idea to use irl self mummification for monk liches
Wendigoon is the shit!
15:44 the “that’s right boa gets a stand” meme he did was hilarious.
One of my players actually is named Bao and plays a monk 😂 so i was greatly surprised when the hat spoke his name 😂
This leaves only 2 left! (Lich classic being Wizard and Mummy being Cleric Lich) Rogue and Warlock. I can't wait 4-5 months for this whole series to be done! (assuming it keeps up the current pace). I always knew the Self Mummification thing would be how you'd do Monk Lich, but the Ki Ghost really knocked it out of the park.
Given the statements made during the Paladin video, I suspect Cleric will be getting one, with the Mummy Lord not really fitting into the Lich formula.
I hope he actually tops it with the Cleric and Wizard as a redux of the two classics.
Although I do confess I have been curious what a Rogue Lich looks like.
@@ThePa1riotSimple. They steal their death and follow in the footsteps of Koschei the Deathless. And then they must maintain their unlife by repeating this heist for every death they cheat.
@@maledwarfwarrior i think that you could take from the ranger and the bard lich each. The rogue lich in this case would turn themself into a legend by completing a heist so grand that the whole world talks about it. But it can't ever reuse the same heist for Immortality, always needing more eloborate and daring plans and always having to take on bigger and more dangerous targets.
2:17
Seeing the image of Uriel gave me such big flashbacks. I was really inspired with the whole story you had gave Uriel and turned it into an entire campaign, and turned the three other way of flesh monks into his siblings so that him and the party had to fight and kill his siblings to protect him before finally going for the head of the house, his grandfather. It was such a fun campaign, though my party befriended one too many npcs so it became something of an all out war at the very end but boy was it glorious!
Anyway thank you for all the amazing content, everything is always so top tier
You never, ever disappoint. Such an amazing concept! Huge fan of your hard work, all your videos are solid gold
Pointy Hat you are so creative and I love the enthusiasm you protrude. Every video is so fun to watch. P.s. Can’t wait for the merch online to drop
Is this man capable of cooking up something bad?? I loved all of the ideas in this one. Can't wait to use them!
Love this whole video. The lich monk concept really plays into the self reliance of the monk as a concept. To disconnect from earthly attachments. And the story of Bao and his master is super cute/nice too
I was NOT expecting an Agostinho Carrara AND a padre Marcelo Rossi references but I'm glad they're here
Where are they?
@@igorferreira84541:52 pro Agostinho, ainda vou ver o vídeo pro bodybuilder Rossi
2:04, logo em seguida
The father Marcelo HORSE. Beat depression and now he want to beat the shit of the wicked.forces.
Jumpscare brasileiro kkkk
I love the little buried bell 🔔idea, I'd imagine it as a test of them being able to maintain their focus by hust ignoring the bell at some point and one of the reasons why it's so hard for them to reach perpetual enlightenment is there's some annoying little furry playing with the bell string 😆
"You're killin me here....literally"
1:52 and 2:02 did you just invoked my kind? Brazilian assemble!
I like the fact that every once in a while "the" adventure party gains a new character using the topic of the video and props to you for not calling out your pun with Ki being the key feature of the soul incarnate. You're doing awesome work here and remember giving your human familiar a snack or something!
Damn, this is cool. And another Litch for the ever-growing counsel of Litches.
I can't put into words how good your channel is, seriously. I've been lurking around the DnD community for years now, and you are the single best youtuber out there, not only are your tips great, but you show how to put them in practice every single video, as well as giving some massive inspirations along the way. I love you man.
I fucking love this lich. I felt like I was going insane "now wait a second, this box in the ground with a bell sounds oddly familiar" rqjksdvkwwnslw. I love your videos! Just the worldbuildings and the art and the humor its all just *chefs kiss*
1:53 AGOSTINHO CARRARA OUT OF LEFT FIELD LESGOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Mano eu fiquei pasmo, tipo o cara ainda tá falando em ingles e coloca um meme em português sem legenda, ele deve ter muito seguidores brasileiro mano só pode
The plant required for this ritual grows wild in the Southern US and is known as Pokeweed. It is distinctive for its broad leaves, red stalks, and deep purple berries. It is a powerful laxative that will turn someone inside out just by eating a single berry.
You try maintaining your zen composure while vacating all the liquid from your lower body!
I've got a huge poke weed plant in my backyard. They look so delicious lol
@@therationallionthey are 😋
@@oldylad hmmm... roll Persuasion
That doesn't really make sense given that this is a practice exclusive to Japan..
Me, a weirdo, pointing and clapping at the self-mummification ritual. Cause that's a real thing! It's really cool!
Que bonito ha sido ver mi tierra Canaria en el mundo. Gracias PointyHat/Antonio Demico Human Familiar
This lich concept has a little of the Way of the Astral Self and the Way of the Long Death. I like it.
About a month ago, I watched a short documentary on self mummifcation and it blew my mind. Love that you incorporated the real world tradition here
This practice is a myth, ascetic practices of ANY kind COULD NOT contribute significantly to the preservation of a corpse.
@@kMegalonyx that's just not true
It's a crime that pointy hat hats aren't any more pointy than normal hats.
i literally pumped my arms up when i saw this
Nothing warms my heart like seeing a new Pointy Hat video available
I love all your stuff and always look forward to your videos. To answer your "question", and help with interactions, my favorite lich is the Bard lich. The song that keeps you alive just feels so amazing. Keep up the excellent work and sorry I can't make GenCon!
Idea for a lich cleric; a monaster who created a faith that was so powerful it gave them the divine power to become a lich, with the followers or maybe some divine relic becoming the philactory
I'm sure this is how Gods are made in dnd
Mummies are already cleric liches specifically "Mummy lords"
Although their Phylactery is organ jars 😅 and holy symbols. make them regenerate like crazy.
The south of that archipelago looks like the Canary Islands and the north like the Balearic islands, the Azores and Sicily.🤣🤣🤣
I wa literally thinking of what monster I could make a litch for my next D&D camping
Mimic lich
@@IamHattman ooooo thanks good idea
Man, I'm going to be honest. All your litches were cool, but I always feel like I need to change something or add something for them to be perfect (for me) or fit in my stories. However, this is perfect. It's actually perfect. Every little detail seems so cohesive. The plot threads work so well with it, and it fully feels like a monk. I'm going to change my campaign just so I can add this. I also thought, "Wait, isn't the Tea how the monks mummify themselves," and I was right. All of this is cool. Great work, love this series.
bro Im deving out a world where Im using the idea of a lich of each class being my core set of lowish-powered gods and Ive been trying to come up with some versions of the classes you havent done yet... including the monk... and I had something I was pretty happy with but then this just blows my concept out of the water!! I love it and also am furious at you LMAO please please please keep it up with this series so I can rest and edit these as needed to fit my world without you comming in and making cooler stuff
this is probably one of the best liches pointy hat has made because of the actual super interesting buddhist lore, it’s capability to be fought multiple times in a weaker form and story wise leaves it probably the most open to really interesting characters. like i love all the other ones but this is a hat (lol) trick
Before completing the video: my guess is this will be an extreme version of the Way of the Long Death, where killing someone’s extends life.
I will edit this later with my reaction to the real lich
After watching: Boy was I wrong! Lol, awesome video as usual and I liked Bao, he is cute.
07:54 ‘ki’ role lmao
8:26 Ohhh "self mummification" I've heard of it before.
I will say you are an inspiration with not only your ideas of making homebrew but your general story telling and woprd brining that we see in your videos. I have been a DM for a while and your stuff always helps me to get ideas on how to improve.
I have always found the classic vision of a lich conflicting as opposed to the big ideas in this series, especially the point that lichdom cannot be something passive, I have always thought that that is the whole point of being a lich, and to tell the truth I'm glad to see that rule broken.
I don't want to be a hater either, I'm still a fan of the other "Can X work as a D&D Villains" videos, the lich sorcerer is without a doubt one of my favorite fiction ideas
Did anyone else think about The Practice of Self- Mummification when he started talking about how a monk would achieve lichdom? Sometimes true is stranger than fiction 😂
Fantastic intro
Bro this is the dopest thing I’ve ever seen well done! Love all the backstory and process you put into it
I appriciate you incorporating an actual monastic ritual into this concept. Sokushinbutsu is such a wild ritual and its awesome to see it reprisented so well
Pointy Hat calling me a monkey wasn’t on my list of things that I thought could happen today but hey
Sounding like Geto from JJK in that intro
Or Frieza
“…That inhumanly tall translucent figure with a neck bent at an odd angle I see standing right behind you”
There seems to have been a misunderstanding, that’s just me.
17:34 Bao is so cute, I approve
the merch is really well designed. I love how obvious the effort is and how you clearly went the extra mile to add print on sleeves and the back.
Calling it now that the monk lich is a ki ghost with the body as the phylactery.
Agreed. Still cool
Monk-ey
I haven't watched the video yet, but I'm calling it now: the phylactery is people again.
Edit: well I have egg on my face.
This is awesome! I can't wait to see how you tackle the rogue lich, because these have all been amazing and I'd love to see what you do with my favorite class.
i've literally spent a gap year building a dnd setting based on your videos and random characters i've made and been passionate about over the years but haven't been able to play in preparation for starting art university in september and holy SHIT is it fucking fire, i just wanted to say thanks for literally making it a reality. i'm so excited to play it
I haven’t played D&D in years and listening to actually play pods is my connection to the community now. Just had to say that the level of passion and effort and yourself that you share in these videos is incredible and breathtaking. Thank you for what you do and I’m glad you are getting the shine you deserve.
1:52 I *NEVER* expected to see Agostinho Carrara in a non-Brazilian video. Loved the reference 😂😂😂
For those of you who are not from Brazil, this is from a series called “A Grande Família” (The Big Family) and this character is one of the funniest 😂
Out of all the Liches you've done so far, this one is absolutely brilliant.
An a-moral or rather good alignment lich WITH monk?!?! AMAZING🎉
As always the work you put in is astonishing. Good luck with the panel
This lich and the Death March (Fighter Lich) have been my absolute favorites! Thank you for creating them, I have plans to add both to the campaign im running for my friends! Great work as always Pointy Hat!