[RPG] Can a PC be a lich

dnd-5eplayer-charactersundead

The heading says it all, can a PC be a lich? If so, how? The DMG hints that the Book of Vile Darkness contains the secrets of how; there is nothing official otherwise.

Best Answer

Outside materials for particular campaigns, there is only one official way for a PC to become a lich. The Book of Vile Darkness is detailed in the 5th edition Dungeon Master's Guide (p222). It doesn't describe the ritual to any great extent, leaving it largely in the GM's domain to determine what steps a character aspiring for lichhood ought to take. Some guidance can be garnered from the Monster Manual, though, on creating plotlines for your characters to become liches without the book.

Under the normal monster lore, a wizard can become a lich only through a pact with various evil planar entities, as described in the 5th edition Monster Manual:

Wizards that seek lichdom must make bargains with fiends, evil gods or other foul entities. Many turn to Orcus, Demon Prince of Undeath, whose power has created countless liches. However, those that control the power of lichdom always demand fealty and service for their knowledge. (Monster Manual p203, under Lich)

The process to become a lich involves the sacrifice of the soul of a sentient creature:

...the future lich drinks a potion of transformation - a vile concotion of poison mixed with the blood of a sentient creature whose soul is sacrificed to the phylactery. (Monster Manual p203, under Lich)

The phylactery requires regular soul sacrifices to prevent the lich from devolving into a demilich. The heavy measures needed to sustain lichhood are so extreme and repulsive that it takes a truly evil character to embark upon this road...

...unless...

Blast from the past: Archliches

Assuming you're ok with adapting material for earlier editions, at least in the third and fourth editions there is a good-aligned variant of the lich: the Archlich. No official 5th edition material exists for Archliches as far as I know. The 4th edition source materials for Archliches describe them as choosing lichhood as a means to a noble end, not as an end in itself, and diligently learning the rituals involved as opposed to taking the easy path of acquiring the secrets of lichhood from Orcus or other fiendly creatures. Archliches retain their personalities and memories, and are not mentioned to need soul sacrifices to avoid becoming demiliches.

While Archliches offer a way for non-villainous characters to reach lichhood, lore-wise the ritual to reach this state has to be hard enough to discourage even most talented spellcasters from choosing this route instead of Orcus's support.

Campaign-specific methods

According to the user blade, a method for becoming a lich is detailed in the Curse of Strahd campaign materials. I do not know this method personally, because I am going to participate in a CoS campaign myself and don't want to spoil anything about the module to myself. If you have a copy of the CoS materials, you can look it up yourself.