Are you using Liches correctly?

I mean, yeah, probably. This bit doesn't actually address ways of using Liches in game.

Liches

We all know the basic description of a Lich: "Undead wizard skeleton who does big evil magic and keeps returning from destruction unless you break their soul jar." Yes, yes, straight forward stuff. We've all heard it. 

BUT: Consider the source. Who told you this? Was it the murder hobos who swept through town, destabilized the local economy, entranced the impressionable youths with wild stories of action and adventure, thought they could get free drinks from the tavern through some magic ability they called 'nat twenty', and started a fight with the sheriff because they wanted his hat, before stumbling off towards the suspected tomb of the lich?

Those assholes? You believed THEM?

Look, sweetie, they were lying to you. They probably broke into some fancy looking mausoleum, found a corpse ceremoniously displayed on a throne, stabbed the hell out of it, and called it done. And when the lich returns in a week from his beach vacation to continue his evil plans? "Oh no! I guess we didn't destroy the soul jar, or whatever." Lies. Lies told by cowards and confidence folk who quickly skip town after. 

Absolute nonsense. 

While they were correct in that liches are magical, most often wizards, they are certainly not "undead" or have any sort of soul jar trapping their soul within. They are a living creature, though they lack souls to be bound. Yeesssss, "lich" does mean "corpse," but it's a name given based on the stories of the murder hobos mentioned above. The correct name for them would be "mageiaphage" but I'll be damned if I'm going to remember how to spell that. 

It all starts when some dumb bastard (wizard, it's always a wizard) tries to do something stupid like "live forever." Really all they end up doing is separating themselves from Fate. A task that's harder, but not as dramatic, as it sounds. Once unhitched from this wagon, Reality doesn't know what to do with them. 

This, as you might guess, causes a few side effects. 

They stop aging. "When were they supposed to die? Fuck if I know." says Reality, washing it's hands clean of having to deal with any sort of physiological process related to the matter. "I'm not paid enough for this."

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Or maybe they do age, they just don't die from aging. Some sort of janked ass hobbit "oh I feel thin" bullshit. I alternate on which I think is cooler. You do the one you like most.

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They stop breathing and eating. Natural food anyway. Metabolic processes of all sorts refuse to function, trapping the body in a stasis. 

They're fueled by magic. While they've been rejected by the Order of Reality and Fate, Chaotic Magic has no qualms about working with such rule breakers. 

They're hard to hurt. Again, what the fuck is Reality suppose to do with them? How do they get hurt? How bad? No one knows. The Fate chart is fucking EMPTY. 

Alright, but what does this mean? It means, mechanically, that any attack on them does exactly one (1) damage. BUT it also means that they must spend hit points to get magic dice at a 1:1 ratio. Any that don't return effectively damages them. Any repeated numbers are ignored, for the purposes of Dooms. 

Additionally, any magic applied to them, in which they are the target, is automatically absorbed by the lich and used to heal instantly, absorbing at the same 1:1 ratio as before. A mere touch from them is enough to drain magic (mechanically magic dice) from a magic user or item. Liches are literally out here chomping on scrolls as one would a handful of trail mix. There is no upper limit, however at zero (0) "health", they're out of sustaining Magic and Reality comes crashing in at the suddenly void space where the abomination used to be. 

"If they don't breathe, eat, or die, how are they not undead?"

Because, jackass, one of the defining features of a corpse is that it doesn't learn. Can't teach them shit. Dumb as hell. Now, living bodies with their electric powered neural networks? Them things are good at learning. Still dumb as hell, but good at learning. Liches are able to continuously learn and study magic as they could before they were changed, being able to gain a deeper connection to Magic to the point of generating bespoke spells for their own devices. 

"What if they enter an anti-magic field?"

Using magic to make an anti-magic space? Makes as much sense as the bullshit the ysalamiri do. Get the fuck outta here. 

Stats

HD 5 (20 HP) 

Def As Leather  Att Arcane Blast (1d6) 

Int 18  Morale 12

Disposition Disinterested

Spell List Any 12 + 2 Bespoke

Bespoke Spells

These should be weird and powerful, suited to the personality of the lich that created them. Really give a reason for the players to want to preserve the skull of the lich. (To suck the spell markings out of the skull.) I had intended to make a few, but now I'm just going to steal some from His Majesty the Worm for examples. 

Do You Doubt Me, Traitor?

R: - T: Self  D: [Sum] rounds

Any successful attack against the lich causes the attacking character to make a Save vs Magic. Failure means an item of the GMs choosing is removed from the attacking character's sheet. The item can't be used in anyway until the next long rest. Valid targets include: Name, Class, Spells, Attributes, etc. 

Faithful Servant, Tender Companion

R: 100'  T: Area  D: Permanent

The lich calls forth a clone of any dead person from the party's past. This clone knows everything the actual person would have known in life.  The clone has [Dice] HP and permanently loses 1 HP per day. For [Burn] dice, the lich may experience a sense of the clone at a 1:1 ration. 

 

May Failure Be Your Noose

R: -  T: Self  D: [Dice] rounds 

If a PC fails an attack against the "lich" it may automatically make an attack against the same PC. 

 

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Umbra

 "You're late" 
Settle down, no one is playing this mess anyway. 

Boy, howdy, have I run out of steam on this.

Umbra

Humans fear the dark. Many assume it's due to the unknown and what lies within. Wrong. It is fear of the dark itself that led to the survival of the human race. The Umbra, in case you couldn't tell from the very clever name, hold power over the dark itself. Using this power they become that which goes bump in the night. 

A     Empower Shadows, Shadow Tendril
B     Shadow Master, Tendril Augment
C      Shadow Step, Tendril Augment
D     Shadow Meld, Tendril Augment

Empower Shadows
By invoking this power the Umbra reaches out, empowering the shadows (hence the name). The darkness becomes darker, the shadows grow longer. For the rest of the scene all darkness based stealth checks succeed. Should the vampire be attempting to intimidate using shadows, the attempt is made with favor. 

Shadow Tendril
You're able to call forth a wispy, shadowy tentacle from the darkness, and send it to do your bidding. By spending the blood points, A 10 foot long tendril of solid darkness appears at a point you determine within 20 feet.  

Shadow Master
You are able to listen through the very shadows themselves. For any shadow within line of sight, you may listen for 2 blood per minute. 

Tendril Augment
The lazy answer to writing. When ever you can this power, Select an new Augment to apply to your Shadow Tendril.

• Aggressive: Your tentacle now does damage as a medium melee weapon.

• Dual: You have double the amount of tendrils, but they're half as long.

• Hungry: You're able to feed through your tendril, albeit at a reduced 1:3 rate.

• Lengthy: The tendrils are twice as long. 

• Move-able: The base of the tentacles can now move at your Movement

Shadow Step
Write this down: You step, through shadows. Any place you've been before, as long as it has a shadow present, 3 blood per block will get you there. 

Shadow Meld

You're able to sink down into your own shadow and become one with it. Essentially this makes you a weightless, 2D creature made of pure darkness, and all that that entails. While artificial light doesn't harm you, or even pass through you, sunlight will fuck you up. Big time. 

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Necrodom

 Necrodom

Masters and summoners of both the dead and undead, who use their powers to raise minions and pose questions to souls who have passed beyond the veil. Also, they tend to hang around in grave yards and look like the Cure rejects in face paint. IS it face paint, or do they 'naturally' look like that? Who's the say. 

A moment should be taken, perhaps, to review terms:

• Living: Most mortals in your day to day, ghouls, souls. 
• Sentient Undead: That's you.
• Mindless Undead: Zombies, skeletons.
• Dead: Ghosts, Wraiths. 

I know at least at my table, my typical players are trapped in the "Wraiths are undead, wraith means ghost, therefore ghosts are undead" pipeline from soaking in too much 3.5. They are not. Not here. Both of these creatures are dead.  Should it come up.

A     Raise Zombie, Speak with Dead

B     Bind Ghost, Part the Veil

C     Call Skeleton, Remove Soul

D     Create Wraith, Consume Ghost

Raise Zombie - 3 blood

A target corpse returns to animation as a zombie with 4 hit points and 1 HD. They can carry out simple commands, but are dumb and mindless. Unable to wield weapons, they can slam their bodies into things/people for 1d6 damage. They last until destroyed, but do degrade at 1 HP per day. Also they go last in initiative. 

Speak with Dead - 2 blood per question

By pouring 2 blood per intended question into the mouth of a corpse, you may cause it to speak, specifically to answer questions posed to it. At the end of the scene, the corpse crumbles to dust.

Bind Ghost - 10 blood per task

Ghosts are all around. Since being dead is boring as fuck, they have literally nothing else to do but watch the living. Well, reincarnate, I suppose, but then you're stuck back in this hell. By spending the blood, you can imbue your words with power, essentially fascinating them into serving you. Be it spying on someone or guarding a location ( a la poltergeist), the ghost is compelled to carry out one single task for you.

Part the Veil - 5 blood per scene

Using this power you're able to view the Land of the Dead, a grey twilight that overlaps our own world. Things there reflect, in metaphor, the past, present, and potential futures of our own world. This is why only the dead may speak true prophesy. Have I mentioned that before? Surely I have. 

Call Skeleton - 6 blood

By spending the needed blood, you may call forth the skeleton out of any one corpse or a living ghoul with your blood in them, within 50'. Ghouls get no save in this. Skeletons are intelligent, but not sentient, have 8 HP with 2HD, and can use weapons. They last until destroyed, but degrade at 1 HP per day. They operate on your turn.

Remove Soul - X blood

Any mortals touched must save vs Cha (with penalty equal to [blood]) or have their soul shunted from their body. This forces their body into a catatonic state, while their soul is stuck in a force astral projection. They're stuck in this situation until the next time the sun crosses the horizon, at which point they are shunted back into their own body or, should it not be available due to reasons, the closest suitable one. 

Create Wraith - 10 blood

First off, this is not a good thing. The dead might watch, but they were never meant to interact with the world of the living. Secondly, you'll note this power isn't called "Command Wraith." You might create the wraith, but you have no control over them. By spending the blood, you're able to drive a ghost insane enough to interact with the world, usually to violent results.

Consume Ghost

A weird power, truly. With it, you're able to feed on ghosts, using them to sustain your miserable undead existence. Ghost contain...let's say 5 'blood points' and if you ever contain more ghost 'blood' than real blood, you begin to become ethereal and able to see and interact with the Land of the Dead. 

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Ferox

Ferox

"There's two things we don't take to here in this holler: 1) IPA drinking outsiders and 2) Sasquatch. You don't look like one of them God damn wood boogers, so just who the hell are you?"

The Ferox prefer to live on the fringes of civilization. Out where the old world has been left alone and the Wilds still remain unconquered. Such places fit them fine and feels like an old hat, or leather jacket, worn so long it's taken to the shape of your body. Just fits.

Trouble is, way out in such a place, you often run afoul of the Old Men of the Mountain ("bigfoots" to you city folk) who, by their nature, are strictly secretive and territorial. This has caused some conflicts to erupt between the two, namely in the form of a secret war. 

A     Whispers of the Wild; Beasts of Burden

B     Claws of the Beast; Beast Mode

C     Beckon; Fortitude

D     Call of the Wild; Mist Form

Whispers of the Wild - 1 blood

Communicate telepathically with any animal you make eye contact with for the rest of the scene. It'll run you 1 blood.

Beasts of Burden - 1 blood

You may blood bond animals to serve you. Typically vampire blood in animals sends them into a frenzy, but

with this power they fall completely under your control.

Claws of the Beast - X blood

Grow claws that allow for melee attack and do 1d8 Supernatural damage. Lasts for [blood] rounds.

Beast Mode - 5 blood

For five blood, you take the form of a wild animal that you have previously drained dry, or rather an unusually

large version of that animal. Anything that animal can do, you can do. Your other Abilities can still be used

while in this shape.

Beckon - X blood

You call out in the voice of a specific type of animal (wolf howl, raven caw, dolphin click) and [blood]

animals of that type are drawn towards you, should any be within range. Animals will arrive non-hostile and

at least willing to listen to you.

Fortitude - 3 blood per reduction

Through supernatural strength, you reduce the type of damage done to you down a level for every 3 blood

you spend.

Supernatural (the worst) > Lethal (most weapons) > Non-lethal (fists) > Nominal (doesn't affect HP)

Call of the Wild - X blood

A single animal target within hearing range saves vs Cha (with penalty equal to [blood]) or it, and it's offspring, must obey a one reasonably worded sentence command (either until completion or until [blood] rounds have passed). Same warning as last time applies, Thom. I swear to God.

Mist Form - 5 blood

Dissolve into a mist form, making yourself completely indistinguishable from actual mist. You’re immune to physical attacks, however fire does twice the damage and sunlight burns you away instantly.  Lasts for a scene.

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Exalted

Exalted

Imagine the most perfect person you know. Flawless hair. Flawless skin. Perfect looks. Now, make them a vampire. Now, make them a vampire with supernatural powers that shows off their perfection to trick prey into coming closer. To eat. Yeah, you're getting it.

They're not actually exalted in any form or fashion. They're not empowered by gods to fight a mystical war or anything. They're just pretentious assholes. If they could, they'd probably be part of ski patrol. Fucking ski patrol.* 

A     Allure; Celerity

B     Charm; Fear

C     Command; Potence

D     Dominate; Majesty

Allure - X blood

Any one person that can see you saves vs Cha (with penalty equal to [blood]) or is compelled to approach you. If they are hostile, they’ll continue to be so. Lasts for [blood] rounds.

Celerity - 3/X blood

Spend 3 blood points to automatically succeed on an initiative test or you add [blood]*5 to your movement for the round. Chosen when activated.

Charm - X blood

The touched target saves vs Cha (with penalty equal to [blood]) or regards you as a trusted friend. Their feelings return to normal after the [blood] hours duration, but they are otherwise unaware of any unusual affect.

Fear - X blood

Any one target that you can see saves vs Cha (with penalty equal to [blood]) or becomes Afraid of you. Lasts for [blood] rounds.

Command - X blood

A target within hearing range saves vs Cha (with penalty equal to [blood]) or must obey a one reasonably worded sentence command (either until completion or until [blood] rounds have passed). No run on sentences with an exhaustive amount of “ands” careening across multiple actions, Thom. Don't get cute.

Potence - 4 blood

Spend 4 blood point to automatically succeed on a strength test

Dominate - X blood

A target you can see saves or is subjugated utterly to your will for the duration of [blood] hours. Creatures with higher HD are immune, everyone else has to save vs Cha (with penalty equal to [blood]) in order to avoid this fate.

Majesty - 4 blood

Spend 4 blood points to automatically succeed on a charisma test

*Editor's Note: A member of the local ski patrol stole his fiance years back. He never got over it.

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Discordant

Discordant 

You ever have a nightmare you can't wake up from? Trapped in an endless void, trying to scream, but only able to get out a helpless meep? Or having no mouth at all, needing to scream as your tormented by amorphous beasts ever just out of sight. Or having to be in the presence of a libertarian for any amount of time. Truly gruesome stuff. 

The Discordant love to torment their victims, forcing them to live out nightmares just before feeding. Gives them that good adrenaline flavor. 

The basic premise is "What if Mysterio, but a vampire." You'll figure it out.

A     Detect Fear; Illusion

B     Flight; Illusion Augment

C     Illusion Augment, Nightmare Terrain

D Isolate

Detect Fear - 2 blood/target HD

By locking eyes with the target and spending 2 blood per target HD, you're able to discern their worst fear.

Illusion - 4 blood

You create an illusion of whatever object or creature you desire, within 50' of you. It can move however you dictate, but only exists visually (having neither smell, touch, nor sound). This illusion can only add, not subtract - meaning you can cover a hole, but not create the illusion of a hole. Lasts for a scene. Target has a chance to avoid dealing with this, if they succeed on a save vs Cha.

Flight - 5 blood

By spending 5 blood you gain a flight speed equal to your movement, for the duration of the scene. For an additional 3 blood, you may take an extra person merely by holding their hand. It's a real bad-CGI magical time. Should you let go of their hand, they drop like a brick.

Illusion Augment

Each time you gain this, choose one of the following. Your illusions now have that aspect:

• Smell: Your illusions now generate a smell, if you wish.
• Sound: Your illusions now generate sounds of your choosing.
• Taste: Your illusions now have flavor. Yum.
• Touch: Your illusions now have the ability to affect the environment around them. Nominally, of course. While an illusion can, say, wave a knife around, it cannot do so enough to inflict damage.

Nightmare Terrain - X blood

You have complete visual control over a space of [blood]*10 cubic feet. Turn a broom closet into a raging sea. Turn an empty warehouse into a coffin. Turn a blank wall into a tunnel and let people Wile E Coyote right into it. Lasts for a scene. Anyone encountering the illusion for the first time as a chance for a save vs Cha to be immune to it.

Isolate - 6 blood

By combining and warping your illusion powers, you are able to isolate the target from their allies for the scene. It is about this time the Discordant move in to feed. Save vs Cha allows for the target to avoid all this together.

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Vampyr: the Edge Lording

Sometime ago I started working on a Vampire the Masquerade GLoG hack for a joke someone made. Like most things in my life, I soon lost interest in it and abandoned it. Recently however, I found my copy of the VtM core book in a box and recalled it's existence out of the shadowy depths of my memory.  And if I gotta suffer it, now so do you. Some fluff details have been changed, simply because. 

(My knowledge of the game starts and ends at first edition.)

It also just so happens to be vampire weekend, so there's a bonus. 

Vampyr: The Edge Lording

. 

You died, probably horrifically, and probably with some asshole biting your neck, and now you're trapped in a world of terror and nightmares. A world of shadows and the politics that fester within. You're confused, angry, probably scared, and ultimately a pawn of a higher power. Or at least one that has more authority than you. 

If you're lucky, the person who killed you (your sire) stuck around to explain things. In short, you're now a vampire and part of what conspiracy theorists call the Illuminati: Thirteen bloodlines that control the world in secret.  You're not part of it in a "cool" way, however - you're bottom rung and expendable. You also crave and require fresh blood to "live." On the upside, though, said blood allows you to perform some supernatural abilities. 

You're still a monster, no matter what you tell yourself.

Basic Points to being a Vampire

1. Blood - Or Vitae if you're feeling fancy. You need it to function and you constantly crave it. You get it from delicious humans. Animals are technically drinkable, but too much animal blood turns one dumb and violent. "You are what you eat." You require about a pint of blood every time the sun crosses the horizon. 

2. The Hunger - Did I mention you're a monster? Inside of you is an insatiable longing for blood, to the point where any particular gruesome scene carries the risk of berserking until you've bloated yourself on blood. 

3. Powers - You get some neat powers based on your bloodline, along with the ability to heal wounds that would kill mortals. But, you also get one or two weaknesses.

4. The Sun - It doesn't actually harm you, as some think. Or make you sparkle (you're welcome). What it does do is significantly dampen your blood power, to the point most of your effort is spent staying animated. You are a corpse after all. Mechanically, you've no access to your powers during the day (including healing), and appear as a VERY sick mortal, near the edge of death. 

5. You're a Pawn - Probably to the vampire that sired you. Or that sired them. Or that sired them. And so on. You were created for a purpose. Do you play into it? Or do you admit you don't know how to play chess (a game for madmen and fools) and start moving how you see fit? Anyway, the people controlling you are part of the Illuminati. 

Advanced Points of being a Vampire

1. Blood Pool - You, yourself, hold 15 “points” (roughly a pint each) of blood on average. A point is spent every time the sun crosses the horizon, and variable points are spent when using a Blood Power. You can hold up to a total of 20 points at any one time, but points above 15 cause some…social issues. Your body is engorged with blood and leaking everywhere. Bloody eyes, gums, genitals, ears. You resist frenzy better (see below), but auto fail social interactions

2. Frenzy - Sometimes the Hunger grows too much and you lose your shit. When presented with a  particularly bloody scene, make a check against your Blood Pool current value. On a failure you Frenzy and attempt to consume as much blood as possible. 

3. Advancing - One of the notable characteristics of corpses is that they neither learn nor improve themselves. You’re no different. You have four templates taken strictly from your bloodline and that’s it. No more. No advancing. 

4. Diablerie - Unless, of course, you’re prepared to get your fangs bloody. While you can’t “learn” new abilities, you can sure as hell steal them. In order to advance past fourth level, you’ll need to start feeding on other vampires, stealing their strengths, skills, weaknesses, and abilities in the process. 

The Illuminati 

An organization of five bloodlines - or "clans" in old world parlance - that control and synchronize world operations, forming what is often referred to as a New World Order. This is no different than farmers tending to a herd of beef cattle. 

It also serves to keep any one bloodline from getting too much power over the others. 

Though many assume groups like the Bilderburg Group, Skull and Bones, Club of Rome, and others, are part of (or in fact the whole of) the Illuminati, these groups are merely unknowing servants of the Illuminati (be it through blood or cash) and serve to muddy any investigations by mortal kind, while unknowingly carrying out their master’s plots.

Imperare Veli

"The Rule of the Veil" is one of the oldest traditions of the Illuminati, dating back to the Inquisitions, that has served to create stability within the organization and keep the presence of vampires largely hidden from human societies.  Simply put, from translation of the long winded Latin that served as the lingua franca of the time, one must never reveal their true nature to feral humans. It also forbids completely draining a feed human, as it removes a portion of the food supply. This is less important today, what with so damn many of us being around, but improvements in forensics continue to make the rule a necessity. 

Sanguine Furto

Another important rule, that of forbidding "stolen blood," stating a vampire must never feed from a vampire with intent to fully drain - an act known as "diablerie." This act is seen along the same lines humans view cannibalism: delicious, but damning.  

The Bloodlines

No one knows how or when the whole "vampirism" thing began. Some say a curse from God, some say a gift from Jesus, some say interference from the Anunnaki, still more make accusations towards ancient Rome, Babylon, Atlantis, Aztecs, and many more. What is known is that there are at least five major bloodlines currently, each with their own abilities. 

1. Discordant - Twisters of reality that take pleasure in tormenting their prey. Real bastards.

2. Exalted - Bound by their Pride, they hold themselves in high regard due to their inhuman strength, speed, and presence. Real annoying.

3. Ferox - Live on the fringes of civilization, away from the prying eyes of the others. They’re also in a secret war with the Sasquatches. 

4. Necrodom - Summoners and masters of the undead, they call forth restless spirits to do their bidding. Real edgelords. 

5. Umbra - Call forth living shadows to carry out their will. Different and legally distinct to any nominally similar licensed property you might be thinking of. 

Mechanics of Being a Vampire

Base Rules: As the GLoG unless contraindicated here. 

Hit Dice: Like all monsters, your HD is d8. You gain 1d8 health points per level, unbound by the “Max 20 hp” rule that mortals are. This score is unaffected by your Constitution. 

Healing: You don’t do that so much. Not naturally, at least. The corpse thing? Yeah. Luckily you’re full of all that blood you can use to restore hit points at a 1:1 ratio. 

Skills: You start with one from your failed career as a mortal, and one of your choosing. You want more? Your friends have more. Drink them dry. 

Ghouls: A fun thing about vampire blood (for you at least) is that mortals can get addicted to it. Like any drug addict, this gives the dealer some form of control over them. More than just force them to listen to your shitty mixtape, or play mario kart when they would clearly just rather leave, you can enthrall them to your will. While your blood is in their system they will freely carry out your commands. Additionally, when they are in your presence, you can spend 2 blood each to send them into a frenzy, giving them +4 to all saving throws and attack rolls, as well as +2 to damage. Mortals hold 10 blood points, and need at least 4 of their own before they get…weird. Your blood burns out of their system at one per sun crossing the horizon.

Animals, strangely, automatically frenzy and are uncontrollable, unless ghouled by the Ferox.

Blood Powers: Each clan has a set of abilities they can power using their own blood. It's not magic, but it sure as hell ain't normal. Powers are listed with the individual clans.

So where are the clans? In another post coming up. This has gotten too long.

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