Can Artificers Work as D&D Villains? 

🤖BEEP BOOP BEEP BOOP🤖 (but spooky 💀) Which Lich is my favorite series to make 😊

So this is basically how an Artificer becomes DnD Ultron.

"That undead artificer was creepy, glad he's gone" Necromaton: You fool! I have *_70 ALTERNATIVE ACCOUNTS!!!_*

Omg the idea of a “Barbarian Lich” is absolutely wild. I can only imagine a nordic warrior king too angry to die, probably getting their soul sustenance by defeating worthy warriors in glorious battle

Dang, I just imagined a Scenario where the Nercromatron sets up shop in a village, where he offers cybernetic upgrades to villagers in exchange for service and goods the town can provide for him. So when the heroes come into town they see a bunch of folks with mechanical parts, not knowing that any of them can be taken over by the Necromatron at any point.

Bro, an artificially alive inventor has been done so well in sci-fi. An artificer lich seems like such an obvious thing yet you really don’t see it done in swords and sorcery campaigns.

I really wanna make a "Lich Council" villain group now using all the different liches you've created. Edit: I think I'll call them "The Pact Eternal." It is less a group and more a loose agreement not to fuck with each other's shit and they occasionally collaborate for something big.

Clockwork Abbatoir is so cool, so many "creepy factory that builds itself" vibes can fit into this Can imagine folk stories about those who tried to sneak in and never returned

This literally could not be more timely... My artificer JUST "died" and has started down this path. This is awesome, and I will DEFINITELY be using this as inspiration.

Hmm... modrons have biological looking eyes, but the rest of their bodies appear mechanical. They are a hive mind for the primary one, Primus. When Primus dies, he is immediately replaced by the next modron down, and a new modron is created. Lots of parallels to this.

i think the necromaton has the easiest possibility of being not evil. imagine a necromaton that just takes out peoples appendix's, or gives people stronger mechanichal limbs and organs in exchange for their flesh ones, awesome ally for the party

In 3.5e there was a type of Psionic Lich called a spectral savant. It was Incorporeal and had to drain psionic power from other creatures to be able to use its psionic abilities. It's super flavorful and it would be amazing to see a version of it for 5e, intended for the Psi Warrior, Soulknife, and Aberrant Mind!

The mechanicus line at the beginning was very fitting.

OKAY, the Lich that's actually a teleporting shop is legitimately an insane concept and *I love it.* :o

That "Barbarian... Not yet." at the beginning has made me excited for a future episode of "LOCAL MAN TOO ANGRY TO DIE."

Dude, that's sick. I love it. There's a kid in my group that plays nothing but Artificers, I'll share this with him, and I can already see his next character being a necromaton!

This fits so perfectly for Eberron I'm going to have to use it

By your own definition, Trazyn the Infinite (who made a brief cameo at the start of the video) is a Lich. Undead ✔️ Spellcaster(-ish) ✔️ Cannot die unless phylactery is destroyed (has lots of drone bodies that he can put part of his consciousness into, so killing him isn’t going to guarantee he’s dead) ✔️

One detail about the Necromaton that I absolutely love is that, somehow, you made it feel like the Necromaton is the PROPER way of achieving Wizard lichdom, meanwhile the classical "Eh, just inhabit my own corpse" is the half-assed, half-finished version of someone who rushes through the process. Or, I guess, like this is the same process as classical lichdom, but perfected.

Over the cliffs at the edge of the hammer mountains, the great eastern jungles splayed out before him, one Necromaton sears his furious gaze into the lands engulfing the horizon, daring them to resist him. He spreads his hand of iron over the land, twisting it to decay and rot, only to moments later see it defiantly flourish, eating up his emitters of darkness just as they had done countless times before. Normally, he would be dismayed at such a failure, but this time, the minions were just a prelude. He shouted out into the living biome before him, hoping his previous show of force was enough to catch the natives attention. He wanted *everyone* to witness. Everyone to hear his raspy robotic rattle.... and tremble in fear. "IF YOU WANT SOMETHING DONE RIGHT..." Sprouting from the underdark, rising from undug graves, a great army whirred to life, twisting their mechanical jaws in one cry of unison. "YOU HAVE TO DO IT YOURSELF." It was an army decades in the making, an army meticulously crafted to crush any biological force before it, armed with flamethrowers and deathfog and all sorts of artifacts from the old war. It was an army... *of one.*

This made me realize that Sasori from Naruto is essentially a perfect example of an artificer-lich.

I don't know what it was that you had to endure with your child, but as a father of a stillborn son, my heart goes out to you. Stay strong and be well.

This could be a fun Warforged, where the character is a phylactery that escaped his/her artificer lich.

This has to be the coolest and most necessary addition. It just makes total sense, much more even then the standard necromancer lich. Also, twist to the first story, a parent is the artificer seeking to save their dying child. But although at first they can have them retain most of their body, they eventually need to replace more and more parts, and they soon figure out that there own death will also be the death of their child. The parent then becomes a necromaton themself and eventually start committing darker and darker deeds to keep the two of them operational. The child (maybe now an adult, or even an adult subconscious trapped in a child persona) has no idea of what the parent has to do for them to stay alive, maybe they don’t even know that they are a machine because all their sensory inputs are manipulated.

william afton is basically a necromaton you can't change my mind. also I loooove your videos, and have been binging your entire which lich and dnd with a twist series, you do such an incredible job not just of coming up with cool stuff, but also of inspiring my own ideas. I feel like I'm going to accidentally reference this lore one day like it's canon haha

Love the Adeptus Mechanicus and Necron vibes. Can't wait to make a final boss to be a Warlord Titan reinforced by Imperial Knights and Necron Overlords.

Decided to put the Clockwork Abattoir into my most recent session on a whim. Was not expecting my players to try to use resurrection to get free magic items, nor to discuss the logistics of harvesting organs from enemies. Still a fun time to be sure. Edit: some people want details but its fairly straightforward. I dropped the clockwork abattoir in on my players, hoping to offer some temptation to a morally simplistic group of adventurers (aka a bunch of edgy weirdos). i improvised a system where more vital organs such as the heart and stomach yielded more powerful items. players quickly debated whether to kill their horses and got a rod of resurrection at the price of one of the paladin's heart and used that to res him, also getting a few other powerful items from his other vital organs. The players were pretty suspicious so they arent going back probably and i have balanced around the high level items. Moral of the story is dont offer powerful items to players unless you have a foolproof plan. or do im not your parent.

Imagine a BBEG being a secret group that is truly a large party of every class that turned to their darker abilities for undeath.

Each and every one of your episodes is absolute GOLD. Thank you for all the hard work you do. The goodies at the end of each episode are just icing on the cake.

This could work in a murder mystery campaign where the friendly helpful rusting "warforged" actual necromaton is the villain trying to fix up/ replace his body.

For a paladin lich, i think of the knight on indiana jones the last crusade. With an eternal oath to protect something that cannot be moved. The thing becoming its phylactery.

To make this even darker, imagine an artificer making an organic factory with one person and greater restoration.

I had a side mission with automatons and almost a skynet feel to it now it is changed to this. LOVE the videos man. My players are going to stoked for this small side quest to turn into a huge lich hunt.

I watched most of the dnd with a twist and loved Pointy hat, but this series is something ON ANOTHER LEVEL. I REALLY enjoy Which Lich

Here’s an idea for a Paladin Lich: The Medjai. Because Mummy Lords are a lower CR than Liches, they might try to make up for this by having some undead Paladins that have sworn an oath to them either during the Mummy Lord’s time alive or more recently converted believers. Because a Paladin’s whole gimmick is their Oath, in order for a Medjai to prolong their undeath, they must uphold it by serving the Mummy Lord. Meaning that a Medjai can’t prolong their life themselfs. Auras: the Medjai can switch between two auras using an action to preform a short prayer. Aura or the Sands: if an enemy is within their aura, they take 1d4 piercing damage per turn (if the enemy fails a constitution saving throw). If another Medjai has the same aura active, if at any point the edges of the two auras connect, they merge. Dealing both d4s if an enemy is within either of their auras. The increased damage effect ends if the two auras no longer touch. This effect can stack up to Xd4s (DMs choice, it really depends on how powerful the individual Medjai are.) Aura of the Sun: the Medjai and any other Undead creature within the aura heals 1d4. Like Aura of the Sands, the healing effects can stack if another Medjai with Aura of the Sun active touches the aura of another. The idea is the leadership of the Mummy Lord advises them to march in formation to maximize their aruas. If the Mummy lord dies (permanently) then the Medjai have failed their Oath. They will start to decompose if they cannot resurrect the Mummy somehow or fail to find a new one. The idea behind these guys is that in ancient Egyptian mythology, high priests and pharaohs had body guards called, well, Medjai. They were often buried along with who ever they served on death. Now imagine if that loyalty lasted beyond the grave?

I am really impressed by the quality and effort you put into your videos, not only that but also going the extra mile with the plot hooks and stat blocks; genuinely impressed.

I am making a homebrew spelljammer campaign (set at a smaller scale) and this is PERFECT for the BBEG/Evil empire I am creating. This works especially well because spelljammers are inventions. Having the BBEG literally take the form of the ships the party is fighting as well as playing the roll of enforcers on the ground is absolutely what I needed! Thanks again for another great lich video!

If an artificer was a villain, I'd imagine they'd be more like Handsome Jack from Borderlands 2.

You said, "not yet," when it came to barbarian and my heart skipped a beat. I thought it was just spellcasters, but the MARTIALS TOO? *Hyperventilating increases* I can't wait

These two concepts go so smoothly together, it is so satisfying to watch you design this creature. I absolutely adore this! You have inspired me big time to start trying to get my own ideas down into video form ❤️‍🔥🙏 thank you uwu

Mencia is such a cool OC! I’m definitely stealing her for a campaign. Nothing gets me more excited than a sympathetic villain.

I just remembered a Bard Lich whose phylactory was his own legend. Effectively making him unkillable as long as enough people know of him

PC idea. A self-aware automaton/warforged warlock with a necromaton as it’s patron. It has to provide it’s patron with soul anchors constantly to delay the inevitability of it’s patron taking it over when they run out of other phylacteries. And in return, it gets access to magic to make it’s task easier. I can see another PC dying and the automaton instantly going for a body part before the cleric (or other healer) can revive them.

One of the BBEGs I made for my campaign actually was an artificer lich, and he was pretty close to this. His phylactery was his army of cyborg zombies. He did not possess a single body as his phylactery at a time, he simultaneously possessed the entire army at once as a hivemind.

A minute in and you hit us with the Mechanicus intro 😩 love that intro

A thought: Necromatons as Cybermen. The bodies acting as low-capability armour constructs until they are able to encase and assimilate a living humanoid.

Equally as much as I love the joke references in your cutaways, I also love the subtle references in your art. The inspiration is clear, but not obnoxiously obvious. The first Necromaton sharing the beaten-up, hanging wires look of Ultron; Mencia's Necromaton having the same Art Deco headpiece from Metropolis; just *mwah* chef's kiss. And your ideas are always thought-provoking. Keep up the good work! Glad to see your channel grow so quickly, you deserve it!

Found this channel from the gothyanki video and slowly chewing my way threw it. I really love the content of the video and the fact you also provide them for free is mind blowing. I love it and hope to see much more. Including more liche stuff!!

This is the coolest DnD concept I've yet encountered. Well done 🎉

The main villian in my world is an Artificier Lich - he found an artificial Demiplane back during the prosperous years and managed to wrest control of it from the person who created it, essentially uploaded himself to the core so he cannot die so long as the plane survives. It was locked away but early on in the campaign one of my players accidentally unsealed it and I now make rolls as time passes to see if he notices. Every now and then an unsuspecting inhabitant happens to pop through and my players get a cool artifice-and-oil themed battle which increases his interest in them.

I think a heart wrenching idea for a Nechomaton would be someone who doesn’t kill for soul anchors, but uses amputations. The people who work in their factories in poor working conditions become their fuel. They’re evil, but in a way that makes them hard to attack without facing social consequences

Been chain watching your videos for a couple of days now a thought that keeps coming back when watching the Lich videos, is making the orfactory a magic sword and then keeping it with some treasure in the vault... that way when an adventuring party finally kills you and loots your stuff, 10 days later you will spawn again, and if it is a magic sword it is highly likely that at least one of the party has kept it. At which point you know your respawn is close enough to one of your killers to kill them and have revenge. have a couple of fake tuperwears around to they think they have destroyed it and bing bang boom 10 days later, ideally at night while they are sleeping you respawn in the midst of the party that killed you.

Very cool, you found the BEST art to go with these concepts. Definetly looking into that stateblock you linked.

You've officially inspired me to make a Black Mage Lich in my D&D with FF14 classes and species campaign, where his backstory is that he uses knowledge of the Void to inhabit the bodies of his firstborn children throughout time. A lich that instead of discarding their flesh instead takes on the flesh of their own children to feel young again is uniquely unsettling to me and I love it.

I like that all these liches aren't forced to be pure evil, but can CHOOSE to take a darker path to achieve more. The Hierarch could choose to be satisfied with a century of extra life, the intoner could let their song die naturally, and the Necometron could let its body rot or stick with weaker bodies made from bones people don't need - but once you've lived 200 or 300 years, what is one more life compared to your goals? (Interestingly, the Blight, while having the most sympathetic motivations, is also under the greatest pressure to expand and destroy.)

I found you through watching Trekiros - Game Changer who I found through Power Word Spill and I’m so glad I did. This content is gold. The RU-vid DnD ecosystem is thriving and I love it

This is the coolest concept I’ve heard in a while! Well done 👏

I love how liches are meant for a villainous role, but all I can think is "Well, if a player became a lich and needed to collect souls to keep their lichdom going, then they could just 'borrow' the souls of enemies they fight and hope the other party members understand".

Barbarian Lich next!!!! They can put their souls into their weapons, and slowly turn people who wield the soul-weapon into the lich.

'Soul Tupperware' is hilarious!

This series is absolutely fantastic, I love the ideas of this series and I am hoping to see this for even martial classes as well.

Ah yes the necrons a true classic.

The Omnisiah is pleased with your efforts. I can't wait for the next installment. This will definatively be in my next game.

Love your Lich series. Please keep them coming.

This is so awesome! I can't wait to use this! Thank you so much

Another inspiration for the necromiton's personality and goals could be Nox from Wakfu. A clearly high CR individual with a simple desire, get enough magic to go back in time, and because he'll undo everything anyways he can justify anything. He is strategic but cold, thinks himself totally logical yet is insane, perfectly in line with the artificer's schtick.

Love the concept Pointy Hat, I love the idea of a Necromaton being a Undead warlock patron. A warlock who is slowly becoming more mechanical as their pact with their patron grows until they become a new piece of soul Tupperware for them.

This was a really good video! Thanks for the inspiration!

I love that you used footage from the undeath mod in Skyrim.

This lich is really strange in that it feels like the least inherently evil one, since its method of upkeep doesn't require murder, or enslavement. The idea of a person wanting to put their soul inside of a machine could be interpreted in a lot of ways compared to the other ones where the goal is entirely the immortality.

Finally our prayers have been answered

This is probably my favorite of the Lich variants you made besides the hierarh.

So awesome! A perfect fit! I’m stoked to see what you have in mind for the Warlock, Cleric, Paladin, and Monk. Seriously one of the best series.

Damn, I hope you manage to make Artificier with a twist one day. Your ideas are always so awesome and I can't even imagine how cool your artificier would've been

"an arm? A leg? Literally?!" I don't know why that tickled me so much but it did! I love your work bro it's no wonder why your channel grew as much as it has and in such a short time

THIS is how you get a hyped subscriber. This looks dope as hell

I heard the FEH Book 5 theme in the intro and I did the Leo Pointing meme irl All of these lich videos (and your content in general TBH) have been absolutely fueling me lately. Keep it up, you silly hat!

I’d love to see you do a - wait for it- Barbarian Lich! Perhaps they feed on the anger of those nearby to perpetuate their rage literally forever.

The teleporting necromaton shop is insane! (Imma go ahead and just, *takes*) Thanks for all this incredible content!

first of all your lich ideas are absolutely Platinum rated imo, but secondly im planning on using your druid and artificer liches for campaigns and your lycanthropy rules. I'm excited to try em out with my group and see how they like it, because for me I'm in love with these man. Keep up the amazing videos and work! I hope to find more stuff to add to my games 😁🤘🤘

It is so deeply ironic that all of these liches in trying to run from death are actually doing the opposite: They know they can never escape, and all their methods bind them in more shackles than they had before.

This is my favorite series you make. Please keep making them!!!

Watched this at ten PM after five hours of training jiu-jitsu, loved it, keep up the good work. Your videos feel refreshing to watch and have the lenguage for people unfamiliar to DnD or for apes like me to understand

Dope stuff as always! Keep it up for as long as you can and want, friend!

This is literally perfect. The BBEG for my current campaign is an artificer who uses biological components as the 'software' in his machines, so he essentially turns random animals into Necromatons! Eventually he'll turn himself into one, and now I have a stat block and some meat & potatoes to make Kace Aeges immortal.

a cool lich for the series would be, ranger, imagine a ranger with the stereotypical "my forest is in danger, and I must save it" story. but saves it by binding the forest and all spirits of the animals that live there to their soul. Not turning the forest into their phalactery, but the other way around, acting as a living philactory for the spirits of the animals that once lived there. And any place the rangerlich visits, slowly becomes terrain just like that of their original forest, but in turn saps the life of the sorounding land and anyone living there. Feeding on it using it as fuel to keep the spirits alive. moving on when there's nothing left to take. It's kinda like your druid one and would be super cool :)

Fantastic stuff as always. Absolute genius at work.

Absolutely one of the coolest concepts I've seen in a long time, really liked this

Here's an idea, depending on what body part was used, each Necromaton can have a specific magical ability. For example, using the lungs can let them use stronger Air based abilities, while the heart lets them use Blood Magic. I'm not too familiar with Artificers since I've never played one but you get the idea.

This couldn't have come at a better time - I am writing a campaign with the bbeg being almost exactly the same as the necromoton mixed with your mind's eye, replacing their body with metal and striving for perfection to rival the gods. It's also got eldritch horror and religious themes with the nature of authority thrown in, your videos have been instumental for ideas. Thank you so much!

This is such an Amazing idea! A whole campaign could be made from this! So cool, thank you for this!

Oh this is totally going in my next campaign. Thanks for the great work

Hey Pointy Hat! Don't know if you'll see this so I'll probably post it under every lich video :P Are you planning on going in more detail/creating an alternative for the OG Wizard lich? Every lich you created so far is amazing, but one really crucial difference between them and the wizard lich is the phylactery. The ones you created have phylacteries that are usually more than one and can be manufactured/created more during the unlife of the lich, and they are way harder to deal with and more fun compared to the wizard's "you get one soul tupperware, bury it somewhere safe and feed it once a week" kinda deal. So I'd LOVE to see your take on a different wizard lich.

Artificers are my absolute favorite class, I'm glad I can finally learn to make them an undead affront to nature!

So cool! Keep ‘em coming!

God this is so incredibly cool. Dude this fucks, the quality of stuff you put out for free is insane

A Necromaton attacks the memorial of a Blight, cause its the only way to get to the ressources to renew/rebuild its body, but would in process kill the blight and the party has to side with one of the liches to destroy the other 😱❤️✨

I've been working on a Blood Hunter Lich. I call it The Harbinger. It's phylactery is the weapon it used to take its own life with. Once reborn into it's lichdom. It must begin spilling blood. For every person killed with blood spilled a notch is made on the weapon allowing it to live another lifetime. If their weapon is ever destroyed all the lives it's collected are released and the Harbinger must start over with it's collection. Which means if you can destroy the weapon you can put the Harbinger to sleep permanently.

Dude this is awesome! I would 100% play in a game you ran!

God you have to be one of the best content creators out there! As a forever artificer making my own campaign this creature calls to me (and maybe for the next campaign I play in as well >:) ) Thank you very much pointy hat. May the next scalp you grace with your presence be as appreciative!