Making a Sorcerer Lich in D&D

What if Mob Boss meets Noble Family meets Arthas

So in my campaign setting, Velesina (Vel-Lee-See-Nah) one of the empires is ruled by an hierarch emperor and his male descendants constantly fight for the honor of being his next vessel (if he needs one) while many of his female descendants act as his special Imperial Guard (think Dora Milaje) called the Andarta.
Glad I came across this.
Plan on using some of the other liches in my campaigns at some point (the Barbarian and Druid one are the most interesting to me… so far).

OĞLUM NAH BEKLEMİYODUM

oh wow, that's a PC I want to play!

The hierarch could also simply use incest to create inbred freaks who will always remain closely related to them

Look up the Barrowe family from Old Gods of Appalachia. Hundred percent these vibes.
Love your videos, MWAH!

Im glad I found this and I will be using this in my short run game

...my gods... I admit it. It IS pretty cool...

another Idea for the Heir-Based PC is that the Ritual to take over the body failed, or that for one reason or another the hierarch decided to give up their unlife instead of continuing it. Similar trust issue, probably no family hunting the PC down if that doesn't work at the table, but you gain the potential for a single family member, enraged and blaming PC for not perpetuating the cycle, decides to become the new hierarch for a bbeg later down in the campaign, with PC and their party having to return to their family home to put down their family member before they can carry on their bloodline and start the cycle anew.

"ACERERAK THE ETERNAL TORMENTOR"🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Natural ability listen your elders be like

Sick! Amazing concept. I'm spooked to the bones.

Sorry to tell you this, but this idea has already been done. Mercedes Lackey, a fantasy author, did a 9 novel series where a Sorcerer, Mornelith Falconsbane, did just this, and insured his own immortality by being able to possess his descendants to insure his immortality. But it's a cool idea, nonetheless.

Did anybody else think of the quincy from bleach here or am I just a weeb? Just me? Ok...

All of this feels a lot like vampires bloodlines

Love how he used Fluke Husky when he said dog!! Flukes awesome

Oh my Gods! I totally played in a two-shot based on this without knowing! In hindsight, my DM surely mentioned his source but I wasn't aware it was this YT channel. We went the Patriarch-heir route, where all PCs were decendants and they were ALL sorcerers. That restriction came with some fantastic consequences playstyle wise! We could all pick a sorcerer subclass and that were the different bloodlines/branches of the family tree.

I played Octavièn Sebastièn Berevin, the second son of the main family, and a bit of a useless layabout enjoying arts, poetry and beautiful men. No particular talents himself but content to just be a rich Maecenas. That was, until his older brother Hercule, the heir, died in a horse riding accident. Right around the time that the old patriarch was dying. So Octavièn was dragged under loud protest from his beach-side villa to be prepped to be the back-up heir. Me and the other PCs were on a race against the clock to prevent the ritual from taking place while Octavien was slowly losing his sense of self and we had to navigate political intrigue and the other PCs own personal backstories. It was amazing!

Thank you for making this!

I was toying with an idea on parallel tracks to this and thank you for letting me know it is cool and my taste and DM instinct is still killer.

Obligatory comment

I love how other liches need to consume souls and shit but the hierarch just needs to fuck

Ok quick question how does the new heir pass their blood to family members is it just a simple blood tranfusion or are direct kids needed, because if a blood tranfusion is all that's needed why not just do the process with every generation and not have to take an heir.

This is just the Final Antagonist in Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood.

THIS IS AWESOME

I love this series!

that would work SO well for a genghis-khan inspired lich

Id be excited to revive this PS5 cause I'd actually get to play games with me brothers and kid lol lLeo97G oh and the new dragon ball Z game

I’ve been working on an Arabian Nights campaign setting and a Hierarch would be a perfect villain

I read a book. I will never remember the name of the author or the series, it was young adult fiction though, the premise being the protagonist a super spy kid thing to who? Who was the clone of a vaguely South American drug Lord. When the two finally cross paths as bitter rival enemies, whatever, it's revealed that the reason this villain has an army of clones on standby is to replace his organs with theirs as a match that could never fail and he's lived way too long somehow with this moral depravity. Like a lich in modern settings.

Orochimaru ah process

Imagine trying to become a hierarch so you just take 1 level in bard and you got 70 new heirs

Imagine if 2 heirachs accidentally crossbred 1 generation (thinking the other family was just a strong magical family), so the heir would be the rope in a tug of war lol

Interesting concept. Of course, since I just saw it I can't use it, but I've been thinking about different ways magical mafia could work. This might get the mind-gears turning.

"My phylactery is my CK3 eugenics run save file."

I made a sorcerer that was a drug smuggler. She snorted something made from the ground crystal brains of a living rock race, and, in her own words "got so high I never came all the way back down".

why would they possess a new body wouldn't they just keep having kids? Couldn't two of these liches just start getting it on all the time and just never need to worry cause they can just make more

Dio from Jojo sounds like a hierarch

Hierarch Blood Sorcerer Subclass when

This gives me very villainous hapsburg ideas.
Something something keeping it in the family. Something

Funnily enough, each one of the classes has their own unique undead monster such as the death Knight, the bone singer I think. And a few others that I can't immediately remember off the top of my head.

What if I bind my soul to someone else's blood? What then?

imagine a campain whare the big bad guy is a hierarch and the party is a part of the blood line.

I think it is more compelling if the heir ritual has a restriction on it that the heir must take part in the ritual purely of their own will, without magical manipulation. This makes it not a sure thing, risky, and gives the heirarch even more reason to pamper and conjole thwir potential heir at every turn. All leading up to the one fateful decision.
As has been said, liches are not made by accident, intent is required. I think the heir must know what they are doing and do it of their own free will. If the heirarch magically manipulates their heir into completeing the ritual, they might transform into a lesser form of the heirarch, their transition was imperfect, and its less that they settled completely into their new body and more like they possesed it, the heir's soul still there too fighting to be free. The body would be constantly trying to regect the heirarch's soul, leading them to become desperate to find a new heir to quickly take this new one's place before they are cast out.

omg I love this one sooooo much
the story potential is astounding. Im using this one.

so a lot of sorcerers are descended from bards?

Hierarch can just make an Habsburg cosplay 🗿

Isn’t that Dracula though

"But Dad! I don't want to be a spellcaster! I want to be a stone mason."

"My darling daughter, you must use your magical gifts for the betterment of your family. How else can you ensure the family line lives on?"

"Lives on? I'm not having kids dad, I'm a lesbian."

"... FINE!!! WHAT'S 17 MORE YEARS?!?!?! I CAN ALWAYS START AGAIN!!! MAKE ANOTHER KID!!!"

So...Heirarchs, especially the periodic transferrance, reminds this one of Orochimaru from Naruto. The only difference is instead of picking an heir from among his decendants, he instead applys a curse seal that slowly acclimates potential heirs to his chakra, equivilent to a magical essence, so that in the end he could take their body for his own, gaining access to their natural(including bloodline) in the process. Adapt the curse seal, or even swap it for blood transfusions, and it'd map to Heirarchs pretty perfectly. An interesting element that could be brought into a DnD PC, is that in the story, his would-be heir was able to suppress his consciousness during the transference ritual. That kind of concept could work pretty well too; a heirarch tries to transfer themselves into their successor but they made a mistake; the heir's will/sense of self/charisma is just too strong and they're suppressed instead, leaving the Heir in control of their own body, but with some of the advantages of the Heirarch. Perhaps they're more resistant to death, perhaps they have greater abilities or have the Heirarch's consciousness around to still provide advice. And of course, the Heirarch would be constantly trying to gain control of the body. Perhaps on the host's physical death they could take control and revive as a Heirarch again. Maybe tapping into the Heirarch's power slowly attunes the body or corrodes the mind, getting them one step closer to having their new body. Maybe the character's looking for a way to purge the heirarch from their body and be free. It could make for an interesting plot element.

Also, since the Heirarch's whole gimmick is blood as a phylactery, what if instead of trying to create an extensive bloodline to act as their servants as much as their phylacteries, what if they instead become a frequent blood donor? What if every bloodbank in a city has a healthy supply of their blood? Then in order to eliminate them, you'd need to both find and eliminate every bag of his blood, but also every single person who ever got a transfusion from that blood. Maybe they're not even an evil Heirarch? Maybe they're fairly benevolent in their immortality, just wanting to keep to themselves while doing genuine good by ensuring a healthy blood supply. Maybe their blood even has healing properties for others due to some substantial amount of magic in it or ensorcelment of it.

Maybe this one just invented something that could lead to a bloodborne-themed campaign

what if a higharch dose incest?

i found your channel through the Kraken Week homebrew, and i loved how that video's Google Doc mentioned the intentional natural disaster allegory because it added an extra layer to the narrative, which i feel here as well - the ideas surrounding familial control, golden children, and grooming are really effective but tactful, and i could see dealing with that subtext being really compelling and cathartic for certain tables. excellent work!

All for one called, he wants this