In terms of magic-users you may find operating in the material plane, are Liches the peak? Can they go a little senile over time? Like, mistaking your party for lab assistants who died centuries ago?

>>95975682 (OP)
I don’t know but there’s a sorcerer in pic related that goes mad from Azathoth and was tricked into believing my character’s lie that a secret conduit for a ritual would reveal itself in “the darkness, in the blink of an eye” and the sorcerer followed my character into fiery ruins and apparently died.

>>95975682 (OP)
>Can they go a little senile over time? Like, mistaking your party for lab assistants who died centuries ago?
That's literally the lich from the adventure Lashan's Fall in the 1987 Forgotten Realms boxed set.

>>95975682 (OP)
Depends on what system and setting.

>>95975682 (OP)
What game?

>>95977049
Lich: the Strongest. It's a new World of Darkness title. Might get a fanbase but honestly I think it'll go the way of Mummy.

>>95975682 (OP)
Dragons are inherently magical and only grow more powerful with age instead of needing to come up with a stopgag for withering and dying. There's even subspecies like Tome Dragons specialized into magic.

What advantage in magic do liches even have besides not dying? There's intelligent races with really long or indefinite lifespans that could just as well spend centuries studying magic without becoming a rotting husk.

>>95978509
If dragons are so much better than liches why do some dragons become liches?

>>95978730
paranoia
lots of dragon slaying adventurers these days

>>95978730
most of the ones I can think of were forced to/made so by a cult post-death

>>95975682 (OP)
Talks about Lich, posts picture of Mummy...

>>95975682 (OP)
What system?

>>95981327
mummies are liches

>>95975682 (OP)
Liches are like the community college grads of immortality. Sure, it gets you there I guess but you miss out on the really good stuff because ultimately you couldn't cut it.

But hey, at least you have a potential eternity to work your way up. Foot in the grave door as it were

>>95981327
Mummies are just liches that focus more on meele instead of spells.

>>95981463
No, lichdom is the good stuff.

They're up there

>>95975682 (OP)
Artificers are better in every single way

Liches are peak. Magic + Imortality is classic villain shit.
Dragons are good too but they lack the Imortality factor and are typically treated more like a force of nature rather than a villain. In mythology that is.

>>95975682 (OP)
Since you haven't specified a setting or system, I'm just going to assume the 'general notion' of Liches is what you're referring to. Liches represent one of the logical end states of studious magical practitioners; on a long enough timescale Wizards or similar practitioners whose expertise is based largely on a progression of time become far more perilous to deal with. The more time a Wizard has to work the larger their personal library of spells, their stockpile of magical items, their personal army of apprentices and/or magical servitors and the more potential for them to have taken over a region or made a demiplane and twisted it to their purposes.

Becoming a Lich removes the messy variables of a mortal lifespan and also reduces the chances of being murdered. Becoming Undead often also makes you moreso a 'fixed entity' in narrative terms; it's a common enough trope that Undead become incapable of making meaningful changes to their personalities which can be either a boon or curse depending on your personal views. Senility isn't something I'd ever ascribe to any form of Undead as a possibility, though. Maybe if you're playing a Lich from a specific setting where Undead do suffer from the progression of time or it's a possibility to do your ritual ascension to Lichdom and fuck it up.

Lichdom is not the peak
Because it's a standardized form of immortality, it's something you can achieve if you're skilled enough at necromacy and just follow set guidelines, even if they're hard to come by
But the downside is that because it's semi-well known, it's weaknesses are also known

For a wizard who fears they won't achieve longevity in time, it's an adequate solution
However the absolute pinnacle wizards will devise their own method of staving of the reaper that is unique to them and them alone through entirely original research
Because that way, if nobody knows what you did, and how you did it, nobody knows your weaknesses

>Lich: The Strongest
damn didn't know WoD was getting new games

Why be a Lich in D&D if you can be a vampire? At least your balls won’t rot and fall off.

>>95989635
Because Vampirism still has inherent ties to mortal trappings despite being Undead. It's borrowing some of the positive traits of both and also keeping some of the negatives at the same time. If all you care about is existing perpetually and being able to study, perform magic and iterate on your own knowledge then looking pretty isn't appealing and is a distraction from your true desires. Add to that the fact that you have to go and bleed a mortal on a frequent basis and that no matter how many you drink dry you're still going to be thirsty, you've essentially kneecapped yourself for eternity.

Vampirism is the Undead option for people who are extroverted socialites. Lichdom is for introverted scholars. Whether your balls rot and fall off is irrelevant anyway since in both cases you're not going to be banging any thots anyway.

>>95989677
>since in both cases you're not going to be banging any thots anyway.
Then where are all these dhampir coming from? I'd also question total introversion being the best for research. It's when ideas are shared that the best work is done. The solitary lich takes a century to craft a new spell, the mortal magic academy churns out several each year and the vampire can get in on that action.

>>95989635
>becoming a lichcel

>>95989767
Extroversion being productive for collaborative efforts is demonstrably true but Liches aren't in it for the love of bettering society. They're in it for their own personal pursuits of satisfaction. The Lich entombed in his private lair might spend a decade creating a spell that was invented in half a year elsewhere in the world by a bunch of mortals working together but it's irrelevant to the Lich. If the Lich ever really has need of that innovation he can just walk in after everyone else has done the hard work and take it for himself and promptly return to his lair to resume living the magical NEET life. The point isn't solely innovating on magic; it's pursuing excellence on their own without regard for others.

The greatest wizard is transcendent to the point of being more alien than alien.

Magic IS the alien. It’s all exposure logic. Wonder and mystery and horror. Religion.

They may not even see themselves as a true wizard, so transcendent and alien they are.

Lich gonna have yo mana.