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[mission0]

*Just a preface, I'm going to assume this is the right section to place this. Could fit in the other games section, but I figured going broader would be safer*

I recently came upon a chance to play a Lich and as an Artificer no less. So in celebration of this, research was needed to see what I could do as such a character. The rules given to me were simple, I can have a maximum effective character level of eight, I can be any race I wanted to be, any class I want to be. Fairly straight forward isn't it?

While yes it is a bit odd to have a fairly low level character being played as a lich, I couldn't pass up the opportunity when my Dm gave the go ahead and basically gave me a green light to min-max the character as much as I could. *To pre-face this, he basically told us flat out one of us would die in the first session so this is geared to be a fairly difficult campaign*

The basic character concept that I decided on then was to make a Lich (possibly Archlich if I can find out its LA) buff based Artificer. The concept is simple, instead of crafting constructs to fight in a battle for me I would summon up zombies and undead to help my allies while I buffed them all as well. There are a few undead feats for that, but the party I'm with won't all be undead so I doubt I will end up taking feats for it.

But what I did see that I liked was the "Fell Animate" feat which would allow me to summon undead whenever I killed something with my spells, which in this case would be a metamagic feat I apply to a wand through one of the Artificer abilities I gain at level six. So basically I would be able to finish off any opponent that my allies leave on the ground and then gain an ally to help in the fight which is same same opponent we were just fighting, just undead and under my control ((Although I wouldn't be able to control more than double my hit dice worth of creatures)).

As for a race I'm not really able to decide between, Human, Half-Elf, and Strong-Heart Halfling. The human would allow me to enter House Cannith which has some perks as well as the Mark of Making Ability.
Half-elf would be good for House Lyandar and better if I decided to become a windwright captain and gain an airship.
While Strong-heart Halfling would give the same extra feat that a human would get while giving me the abilities of a Halfling.

Also as it stands this is how the feats are looking ((This is if I was a Human/Halfling))
1.           Extraordinary Artisan
1/flaw.    Wand Surge
1/flaw.    Magical Artisan
1/Human. Heroic Spirit
3.           Extend Spell
4/class.   Legendary Artisan
Future Feats:
6.           Fell Animate
8.           Wand Mastery
9.           Persistant Spell

Half-Elf feats:

1.           Extraordinary Artisan
1/flaw.    Heroic Spirit
1/flaw.    Magical Artisan
3.           Extend Spell
4/class.   Legendary Artisan
Future Feats:
6.           Fell Animate
8.           Wand Surge
9.           Persistant Spell

Class Feats:
Scribe scroll
Brew Potion
Craft Wondrous Item
Craft Homunculus
Future:
7. Craft Wand
9. Craft Rod

As a level four Artificer I wouldn't be to powerful until I reached level six where an Artificer gains the ability to burn charges to apply metamagic feats to its spells. Also with heroic Spirit I should be able to use action points to a good degree to help ease the cost per spell. This is of course after I get Wand Surge...

I wouldn't really hit my full capabilities until about level 10 where I can then craft objects with the mass spells on them and with the persistent spell metamagic added on it would only be needed once per day.


That's the gist of this spew of thoughts, suggestions, ideas, comments, etc?

Edit: Just a side thought here that I forgot to mention up above. The build works much better if I am able to become an Archlich without taking any more Level adjustments.


Update:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Attributes:
Strength: 14
Dexterity: 12
Constitution: -
Intelligence: 18
Wisdom: 16
Charisma: 20

Fast Healing: 3
Damage Reduction: 15/Bludgeoning and Magic
Spell resistance: 20
Ac: 17 = +1 Dex + 6 Natural
Saves:
Fort:3
Reflex: 4
Will: 9
+6 Turning resistance

Also thanks to the spellstitched template he has the following spell-like abilities

Grease 2/day
Inflict Light Wounds 2/day
Inflict Moderate Wounds 4/day
Caustic Smoke 2/day
Orb of Force 1/day
Dimension Door 1/day

[Criptfeind]

I am sorry to be the one who has to say this, but unless you are talking some serious house rules that I do not see in your post

min-max

And

play a Lich

Do not belong anywhere near each other.

That +4 LA is a killer for any class, especially a casteresk like a artificer.

[mission0]

Tis true, I'm mostly trying to play the lich as an artificer and see how well I can work it out.

[Bauglir]

Step 1: Paint your phylactery black.
Step 2: Drop it somewhere on the Negative Energy Plane, where, per Manual of the Planes page 81 (unupdated 3.0, which is technically legal; but if it was updated anywhere that would be great), visibility is limited to 5 feet. The plane is also infinite in size and all but lacking landmarks, so finding the bastard should be literally impossible without magical aid.
Step 3: Cast a bunch of anti-divinations on it. I am not good with this, so you'll need someone else to figure it out.
Step 4: Profit.

If you want to be a bit more creative, paint it white and drop it on the Positive Energy Plane. It will be an indistinct blobby shadow at a greater distance than 5 feet, but that should be a minor detail. And nobody should ever look for it there.

Also, orb spells are your friends for wands, because they're touch attacks (almost always hit) that ignore SR and can be metamagic'd to huge damage using your metamagic trigger ability, or whatever it is. Also, at later levels, a sack full of scraps of paper covered in Explosive Runes, tossed at your enemies, and then you cast Dispel Magic off a scroll at minimum caster level to set them all off (can't cast it yourself, you automatically dispel your own spells, which doesn't set the runes off).

[Darvi]

Three words: Locate

City

Bomb

[mission0]

Such destructive ideas.

@Bauglir I'm rather tempted to try either of those planes, and as to the orbs that is beneficial. I keep hearing hints from my Dm about some very very old dragons in the future and being able to overcome their SR would be beneficial

@Darvi ... Tempting

[Eagleon]

Rule #1 for gamey characters: Don't piss off your DM, for the love of god. I already suspect that he's allowing you to play this because undead have a low survival chance in the game. If you make him like the character and give him a chance to work creatively with it, it becomes less likely that he'll throw in convenient rocks above your phylactery. It might be clever to throw it into the bottomless chasm of Vargul inside a sack with a repelling enchantment (no bouncing off walls thank you), but in this case keeping it on you might actually be the safest course of action

[mission0]

Rule #1 for gamey characters: Don't piss off your DM, for the love of god. I already suspect that he's allowing you to play this because undead have a low survival chance in the game. If you make him like the character and give him a chance to work creatively with it, it becomes less likely that he'll throw in convenient rocks above your phylactery. It might be clever to throw it into the bottomless chasm of Vargul inside a sack with a repelling enchantment (no bouncing off walls thank you), but in this case keeping it on you might actually be the safest course of action

Yeah he was talking to me about it earlier, and he was already trying to think up some good ways to kill me off. Which is why I'm trying to get this character to a point of where that becomes difficult to get close to him.

I'm still open to suggestions from people on feats, race, etc, and etc.

[Eagleon]

You should be a baleen whale lich. http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/whale.htm#baleenWhale Look, no level adjustment!

 "The dragon is approaching, his sinuous serpentine body arching up into the great cavern. His injured wing-" "I cast levitate." "No. Not f*cking again, Tom. No." "*trollface*"

[mission0]

@Eagleon It has 12 hit dice however, which means that there would be a +12 to my level.

[Criptfeind]

— does not equal zero.

Also yes, a level 16 char with a effective CR of like eight is not a good idea.

[mission0]

A bit of an update on how this character's development is coming. Since my Dungeon Master did pretty much give me the go ahead to do whatever I wanted with this character as long as I backed it up this is what my character is as it stands...

He is a Incarnated NimbleWright Evolved Spellstiched Lich

The templates that he has currently are Incarnated Construct, Evolved undead, Spellstitched, and Lich which gives me an LA of +3 unless I am missing something with spellstitched which I don't believe I am. He is a level five artificer with the following stats.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Attributes:
Strength: 14
Dexterity: 12
Constitution: -
Intelligence: 18
Wisdom: 16
Charisma: 20

Fast Healing: 3
Damage Reduction: 15/Bludgeoning and Magic
Spell resistance: 20
Ac: 17 = +1 Dex + 6 Natural
Saves:
Fort:3
Reflex: 4
Will: 9
+6 Turning resistance

Also thanks to the spellstitched template he has the following spell-like abilities

Grease 2/day
Inflict Light Wounds 2/day
Inflict Moderate Wounds 4/day
Caustic Smoke 2/day
Orb of Force 2/day

Thoughts, comments, randomness?

[Neonivek]

Here we go

A Demilich's level adjustment is 6 (plus whatever it was to be a lich)

[Darvi]

Hmmm, if I were a Demilich, what body part would I keep...


Hand. Definitely.

[Neonivek]

Hmmm, if I were a Demilich, what body part would I keep...


Hand. Definitely.

Not that you need your hand.

You can create servants out of thin air as much as you want all day.