Unlike the lich, more commonly known as the failed lich or bumpkin lich, the Arch Lich is not born from a desperate scrabble in the dark with forces ill understood and even less controlled. Instead, an Arch Lich is the result of careful and planned out methodology that has been long studied and perfected by learned minds.
Height: Any
Weight: Any
Environment: Civilization
Population: Low
Base Features (10 FP)
Immortality (20 FP): Arch Lichs can restore themselves from anything, even complete bodily destruction. They are immune to the Death Damage Condition.
Undeath (5 FP): Arch Lichs are not living creatures, and are immune to many of the weaknesses of life. They do not need to sleep, but can meditate for an hour to gain the effects of a full rest.
They are not affected by toxins, pathogens or other things that would not logically harm a corpse. Likewise, they are immune to Features that would rely on sexual arousal or similar biological reactions.
Arcane Regeneration (1 FP): After a full rest, an Arch Lich can remove one Damage Condition only affecting the physical body, not including Death. Whether a given Damage Condition can be removed or altered is at Game Master discretion.
Conceived By The Bleakest Womb (0 FP): Despite being physically dead, the antimus within an Arch Lich can replace the role of a living body’s ability to reproduce. They can sire or bear offspring as if alive. Children born from such a union are alive, but corrupted. Such an offspring ages at half the speed it otherwise would. They can be affected by effects that rely on sexual arousal. This partially negates Undeath.
Pain Immunity (0 FP): Arch Lichs cannot feel physical pain.
Timeless (0 FP): Arch Lichs do not age no matter how much time passes.
Corporeal Fragility (-6 FP): Arch Lichs have more trouble holding onto a body than most undead. They reduce the results of Bad Ass Checks to contribute to the Combat Bad Ass of their side by 2.
Koschei (-10 FP): The Arch Lich’s soul is bound to a physical object that can be destroyed. If the object is destroyed, they loose the benefits of the Immortality Feature.
Optional Features
Vampiric (4 FP): Arch Lichs who wish to harness the darker potential of antimus may give themselves the ability to absorb the vitality of others, shortening the time needed to restore their bodies.
During combat or when a creature does not or cannot resist, they can drink the blood of a creature with blood or a similar fluid. If they do, they may remove one Damage Condition from themselves and give the creature the Drained Damage Condition.
Drained reduces functional Kick Ass and functional Bad Ass by 1, reducing all dependent factors accordingly. Drained is removed after a full rest.
If a creature’s functional Bad Ass is reduced to zero by Drained, it gains the Unconscious Damage Condition (or Death, if the bleeding continues). Whether a given Damage Condition can be removed or altered is at Game Master discretion.
Devourer (2 FP): Arch Lichs who seek to obtain the most terrible blasphemies of unlife for themselves may mimic the ability of some Shades to restore themselves at the cost of another’s soul. When a non-Shade creature within 1 ft. per Smart Ass gains the Death Damage Condition, they may absorb its soul. They may remove a number of Damage Conditions from themselves equal to the creature’s Smart Ass.
A creature whose soul is consumed is cast into the Beyond, causing it to reform in the Bleak with all base Features of the Shade clan immediately. This stops its soul from being available at any point, effects that would return it to life have no affect. It may still be summoned as a Shade. Creatures with Unworldly Nature do not gain the Shade clan, but are otherwise affected by this Feature.
For 1 additional FP, they can consume souls within 10 ft. per Smart Ass.
Lich (-2 FP): Whether the result of incompetence, ignorance or desperation, the Arch Lich failed to properly attune the antimus needed for their apotheosis, becoming a lich rather than Arch Lich. As a result, they do not gain the benefits of the Arcane Regeneration and Conceived By The Bleakest Womb Features.
In addition, when they make a Check to socialize with a living creature, usually meaning Checks to convince or comfort, they reduce the result by 1d4. If the Check is intimidation based, they add 1d4 to the result. This Feature negates Arcane Regeneration.
Flawed Body (-3 FP): As a result of an imperfect unliving apotheosis, the Arch Lich’s body is weaker than normal. They reduce the results of Bad Ass Checks to contribute to the Combat Bad Ass of their side by 1. This Feature can be taken repeatedly, but not beyond a reduction of 12.
Broken (-8 FP): Whether through ignorance or happenstance, the rare Arch Lich will fail their apotheosis into unlife so severely that they do not simply die, but become a fragmented and unstable form of what they were meant to be. In such cases, their unlife cannot sustain itself, needing to be constantly bolstered lest it fade away.
Each full rest, they have their functional Bad Ass reduced by 1, reducing factors dependent on Bad Ass accordingly.
If their Bad Ass would become 0, they instead gain the Frenzy Damage Condition. Frenzy reduces the results of Smart Ass Checks by 6. Frenzy can only be removed by Features that remove Damage Conditions by consuming other creatures (such as Vampirism or Devourer).
Each time they use a Feature that removes Damage Conditions by consuming other creatures, their functional Bad Ass increases by 1, up to their normal Bad Ass. They do not need to have a Damage Condition to remove in order to increase their functional Bad Ass.