Lords of the Night: Liches

Lords of the Night: Liches, is the second product from a small UK company Bottled Imp Games. It's a d20 sourcebook for Liches, and is the follow-up to last year's Lords of the Night: Vampires. Due to a variety of problems, this was massively delayed, almost 8-9 months after Vampires came out*.

Lords of the Night: Vampires is quite possibly my favorite d20 book. At least d20 sourcebook. But then I have a thing for vampires (I even liked the movie Underworld. Heck, right now, I'm listening to the Alucard mix of Robert Nickson's "Spiral", though other than the name, it has nothing to do with vampires).

But Liches, well, Liches just don't do much for me. I mean, when I think of vampires, after seeing Underworld, I now think of Kate Beckinsale in a skintight outfit (though honestly, her face is the most stunning thing about her. Her voice isn't bad, either). When I think of Liches, well, it's more like Kate Moss in a skintight outfit. Ick. I mean, they're basically skeletons, with bits of flesh on their bodies, not very attractive (unless you're Johnny Depp, I guess. I tried looking for an appropriate hyperlink for Ms. Moss, but yeesh, one picture and I had to stop).

Honestly, if LOTN: Vampires weren't so great, I probably would have passed on this. Except, I was interested in more of the Lords of the Night metaplot, and figured at the very least, it would have some info that would tie into the vampire book. I'm very glad I didn't pass on it - while it does have some tie in, it's also one brilliant book by itself. Even if you really don't like liches.

In the Lords of the Night universe (which is sort of a meta setting, that can be inserted into the background of your world), there seems to be two basic forces, that of creation or order, apparently called "The Arcane", and that of entropy, or the Void. Liches are largely servants of the Arcane. At least the ones in this book (Arcane Liches, or Liches, as opposed to liches). They turn themselves into liches because it's a way of transcending their living bodies. (Regular D&D liches are called mundane or necromatic liches, and are in this, copies of the proper Arcane Lich detailed in this book.)

Not really the "good" guys, so much as people more concerned with their own ends, which is their own power. The forces of the Void threaten them (the Void really are bad guys). While the book is a bit heavy on background material, it's pretty easy to ignore the Void vs. Arcane meta-plot, and just concentrate on the Liches themselves. Generally speaking, the rules are pretty well separated from the plot stuff. Thankfully, there is a glossary/score-card early on to help you keep track of who is what and the terminology. (I also liked how the terminology has both words that people in a D&D universe would use, and proper names used by the Liches or Arcane themselves. Very clever).

Basically, Liches belong to a different order, and each have a different age or state of decay (the more dead, the more powerful, then they finally fade away. Like with rock stars). Death Touched, Living Dead, Sunken Lich, Necrotic Lich (this is when they start looking skeletal like, as opposed to just Keith Richards like), Skeletal Lich (now complete skeletons, no fleshy bits at all), and finally, Spectral Lich, who are complete disembodied (though they can possess people under some circumstance). Both the age state and order are handled by templates. Some might have preferred monster classes, but I think templates work the best, since it's not like the Liches will be changing the age state all that often.

The order the Lich belongs to can roughly be considered a clan or class, besides their abilities, it mostly determines where their interests. There's the Frost Lich, which really like cold weather. There's the Artifex Lich, who like golems and mechanical constructs.

There's two sorts of Lich that deals with the dead. One is a necromancer sort of a Lich (the Dirge Lich), while the other is a cleric sort of a Lich (The Mors Lich). The Darke Lich is a sneaky sort, they are spies and thieves and rogues. The Umbral Lich is hard to describe, they are sort of puppeteers, they make creatures out of shadows. And there is the Prime Lich, who are

None of the Lich orders really appealed to me much, at least, if I were personally looking to become a Lich, I wouldn't want to join any of them. Stretching that to the mindset of the average player character, there are some that are somewhat appealing, but still, who would want to be a Frost Lich? Being cold sucks. There should be a Lich order that involves lying on a beach drinking some sort of fruity drink - that's what I find appealing. But then, like I said, I am not the sort that would want to become a lich.

Beyond the whole immortality thing, Liches gain several powers.

The most notable is "Arcana". Basically, they spend spell points to perform certain magical acts. The effects are basically like spells, though it can also create things (like golems) and emulate other special abilities (like turning other undead). There are 13 types of Minor Arcana, which any Lich can learn (and each of these have 6 different powers), and 1 Major Arcana for each order of Lich (though the can also learn ones of an order they aren't affiliated with, if they are granted permission and find a teacher).

Liches can also impose their will on the fabric of reality itself (this is called "Sorcerae"). And so, do just about anything they want. However, this is not as easy as it sounds. In fact, it's quite difficult. And it also poses some risks, from attracting followers of the void, to insanity.

In fact, insanity is one of the main hazards of Lichdom. There are several categories they can pick up, with differing levels in each category. Some insanities are temporary, some are permanent. The latter case happens when a Lich jumps to a higher (or deader) state using a ritual, rather than evolving naturally, or when they really stretch their powers and it backfires.

All in all, the rules for Liches is quite extensive, and seem to work pretty good. I haven't playtested them extensively (not enough to mark this is as playtest review), but I have played with them some, and they seem solid. They also seem to be pretty flexible in terms of power. The younger types of Lich aren't terribly powerful, and seem to be okay for lower level characters, while the older ones are fearsome indeed.

The last third of the book or so details the city the Liches live in, Kethak, the City of Lost Souls. Frankly, it's an overwhelming place. Reading about it gives me a feeling similar to what the Greeks must have felt when picturing Olympus.

It's located on the Plane of Ash (adjacent to the Plane of Cigarette Butts), a very inhospitable place to the living. I can't really do justice to the sights in the city, so I'll just give some of the names of places mentioned: The Bridge of Restless Dreams, The Gardens of Jaded Memory, Senetar Glacius, Aedes Singularis, the Ancora Cursus.

In D&D power terms, it makes Elinster, Drizzt and the Forgotten Realms look like wind-up monkeys playing in a cat's litterbox. Besides the high level Liches themselves, there is the Council of Wizards. Despite the name (which was apparently conferred on it by mortals), they are not wizards, but closer to gods. Except they're more powerful than gods. They were the first inhabitants of the universe, born moments after creation. Wisely, they are not statted.

Of course, they are not without their equals. In this case, the Dark Vertex. Who are actually the same sort of beings of the Council of Wizards (the Arcane), only devoted to the void.

The backstory is actually somewhat reminiscent of Michael Moorcock's stuff, in that there are 3 major forces fighting for the fate of the universe. In his work, it was the forces of Law vs. Chaos. vs. the Balance (or Neutrality), which is where the standard D&D alignment comes from. In this, it's the forces of Creation (the Arcane) vs. Destruction (the Void) vs. Good (the Powers of Light, which will apparently be detailed in the 4th book from Bottled Imp, the next being a book on zombies).

It's a very beautiful book. Almost a bit too beautiful in the case of the font used. While it's easy to read, the capital letter used is much larger than the regular letters. This becomes a problem at times because there are a lot of proper names in the book. "Arcane", "Spectral", "Lich", etc.

The art is absolutely fantastic. Admittedly, I never thought of liches wearing top hats. But it really really works. Now I can't imagine a lich wearing anything else (I do like that lich wearing lots and lots of gold chains on the Lost City of Barakus cover, from Necromancer Games, but clearly it's a Mr. T reference, and not a dress code something most liches follow).

This is really a wonderful book. Much like Lords of the Night: Vampires, it has a certain magic to it. The sheer imagination of it is astounding, especially the part on Kethak, the City of Lost Souls - every page drips with marvels and amazements. In a way, it returns to the game the awe and majesty that was in D&D in the very early days - the sort of thing you'd feel when you'd look at the cover of the DMG, and see the City of Brass and the giant Efreet.

For some, there might be too much background material. I'm not sure how much of the background I'll actually use, other than for sight-seeing purposes (so to speak). But it's a joy to read, the meta-plot can be ignored easily, and the book is chock full of crunchy stuff. And indeed, the book has little to no padding or white space, so it's a very good value.

So, if you want a book on liches, this is quite a novel take on them, and suitable for both players and DMs alike. If you want an RPG book to just read and wonder over, this is also great. If you're looking for a more standard D&D take on the lich, this might not be for you. But even then, you could probably ignore the meta-plot, and still just use crunchy bits. I still like Lords of the Night: Vampires better, but this is a very solid follow up (and better style-wise). A+














* Which to a degree actually mirrored my problems getting this book - I ordered one back in January from a dealer I never tried before, and after months of waiting, it never showed up. So I had to order one from FRPGames, a much more reliable dealer (and it was sent to me promptly). Stupid me for trying to save a $1. Though I imagine I had much less trouble than Bottled Imp, so I can't feel too bad. But this is one of those cases where the anticipation wasn't better than the result, and I was quite happy and impressed when I finally got it.

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