Lich (Archetype) The path to lichdom is long and winding, with many pitfalls that overcome all

but the most accomplished and precise spellcasters. Despite the trials you underwent and
decades spent sequestered away with magical tomes, you know with every fiber of your being
that it’s all been worth it. You devised a unique and incredibly evil ritual to tear your soul from
your body, and you painstakingly crafted a receptacle to house your freed soul. Immortality
now lies within your grasp. Becoming a lich requires much more than just magical knowledge.
It demands fierce intelligence, bold ingenuity, incredible determination, unending patience,
and a strict adherence to perfection, along with incredible skill as an artisan, for each lich must
create their own soul cage. A mispronounced word or flaw in the construction of your soul
cage would end not in immortality but ignominious death. You have all these skills in
abundance and now, with your ascension, you’ve proven your superiority beyond a shadow of
a doubt. As a lich, you understand better than any the power and potential of magic. Many
liches strive to increase their magical skills and foil the magic of any who dare oppose them.
Others delve so deeply into necromantic arts and foul rituals that their flesh can burn the
living, causing biological processes to falter and filling those who behold them with
uncontrollable fear. Regardless of what paths they pursue, nearly all liches are obsessed with
their soul cage, spending untold hours and a veritable fortune to protect it, surrounding it with
magical and mundane hazards, and guarding it with powerful, loyal defenders. Some liches
prefer to secure their soul cage through obscurity rather than force, enshrouding it in magical
abjurations or illusions to hide it from prying eyes. The most gifted crafters among liches tinker
and improve their soul cage over time, rendering it nigh indestructible. This is a dangerous
proposition, undertaken by only the most confident and arrogant magical engineers, as
physically altering one’s soul cage could have unintended consequences on its function. Many
wizard liches instead learn to tap into the soul cage’s magical energy from afar to fuel their
own spellcasting. Additional Feats: 14th Magic Sense (Core Rulebook 212) LICH DEDICATION

FEAT 12 RARE ARCHETYPE DEDICATION Prerequisites living creature, ability to cast 6th-level or
higher spells from spell slots, expert in Crafting, completed ritual to become a lich and crafted
a soul cage After years of study and careful planning, you finally completed a soul cage to
house your soul and successfully performed a ritual to transform yourself into a lich. Now,
neither death nor time can prevent you from pursuing your studies and achieving your grand
ambitions. You gain the undead trait and the basic undead benefits (page 44). Your undead
craving is for knowledge. You gain a unique soul cage—a magic item that houses your soul
(page 51). Whenever you would die, your soul flees to the soul cage to allow you to be rebuilt.
As long as your soul cage exists, you can’t truly be destroyed. Special You can’t select another
dedication feat until you have gained two other feats from the lich archetype.

DRAIN SOUL CAGE FEAT 14 ARCHETYPE

Prerequisites Lich Dedication, Drain Bonded Item, spellbook You make your soul cage into your
bonded item, allowing you to harness its abundant magical energy. Once per day, when you
use Drain Bonded Item, you can choose any spell in your spellbook that you can cast, even if
you haven’t prepared or cast it that day. Your soul cage doesn’t need to be on your person for
you to use Drain Bonded Item. If your soul cage is broken or destroyed, you can’t use Drain
Soul Cage. Even if you can Drain Bonded Item more than once per day, for instance if you are a
universalist wizard, you can still only choose a spell you haven’t prepared and cast once per
day.
ENSHROUD SOUL CAGE FEAT 14 ARCHETYPE Prerequisites Lich Dedication You wreathe your
soul cage in an ever-growing collection of obfuscating illusions and protective abjurations to
hide it from your enemies. You disguise the soul cage as any non-magical object of the same
Bulk, and it gains the effects of the magic aura and nondetection spells. The effects have
unlimited durations, are heightened to half your level rounded up, and use your spell DC
against any attempt to counteract them. The magic aura makes your soul cage appear non-
magical. You can ignore the effects of any of these spells when dealing with your own soul
cage. You are mentally alerted whenever your soul cage is damaged.

HAND OF THE LICH FEAT 14 ARCHETYPE Prerequisites Lich Dedication Negative energy
intensifies your undead form and makes your very touch the antithesis of life. You gain the
advanced undead benefits (page 44). The damage die for your fist increases to 1d6 instead of
1d4, it deals negative damage instead of bludgeoning damage, and it loses the nonlethal trait.
Your fist becomes magical. When you critically hit a living creature with your fist Strike, the
creature is slowed 1 until the end of your next turn unless it succeeds at a Fortitude save
against your spell DC. This is a critical specialization effect.

BOLSTER SOUL CAGE FEAT 16 ARCHETYPE Prerequisites Lich Dedication, legendary in Crafting
Your constant efforts to augment and perfect your soul cage have bolstered its efficiency. Your
soul cage has Hardness equal to your level and HP equal to four times your level. The time it
takes your soul cage to rebuild your body is reduced to 1d6 days rather than 1d10 days. At
20th level, the time it takes your soul cage to rebuild your body is reduced to 2d12+12 hours.

SPELL GEM FEAT 16 UNCOMMON ARCHETYPE Prerequisites Lich Dedication, legendary in

Crafting Inspired by the degenerate demiliches your kind sometimes devolves into, you’ve
embedded a gem into your brow, fusing it to your necrotic flesh. This gem has been specially
calibrated to hold one of the following spells: repulsion, scrying, or true seeing. You must
decide which spell your gem contains when you take this feat; changing the spell requires
retraining the feat. Once per day, you can drain the gem’s magical energy to Cast the Spell
without spending a spell slot. At 18th level, you can heighten whichever spell you chose to 7th
level. At 20th level, you can heighten whichever spell you chose to 8th level; regardless of
which spell you chose, you can instead drain the gem’s magical energy to cast an 8th-level
spell turning without spending a spell slot.

FRIGHTFUL AURA FEAT 18 ARCHETYPE AURA EMOTION FEAR MENTAL Prerequisites Lich
Dedication, master in Intimidation You’re surrounded by a palpable sense of menace and
power that’s terrifying to behold. The aura is a 15-foot emanation. An enemy that enters or
ends its turn in the aura must attempt a Will save against the higher of your spell DC or class
DC. Success The creature is unaffected and temporarily immune to your Frightful Aura for 1
minute. Failure The creature is frightened 1. Critical Failure The creature is frightened 2.

SOUL CAGE SOUL CAGE ITEM 12 RARE ARCANE NECROMANCY NEGATIVE Price 1,600 gp Usage
held in 1 hand; Bulk — As you Craft your soul cage, you trap your soul within it, an integral part
of the complicated process of becoming a lich. When you’re destroyed, your soul flees to the
soul cage, which rebuilds your undead body over the course of 1d10 days. Afterward, you
manifest next to the soul cage, fully healed and in a new body (lacking any equipment you had
on your old body). Only destroying your soul cage can prevent you from returning. You choose
the form of your soul cage when you Craft it. A few options include a miniature cage, a ring, an
amulet, or a crown. Work with your GM to adjust the usage and Bulk as needed, though a soul
cage is rarely more than light Bulk. The soul cage has Hardness 9 and 36 HP. If your soul cage is
destroyed but you aren’t, you can attempt to find your soul and trap it again, building a new
soul cage. This is no trivial feat and often takes an entire adventure to accomplish. If you don’t
cage your soul again, you suffer a long decline as described on page 119. Craft Requirements
You have Lich Dedication.