Can Fighters Work as D&D Villains? 

You make me want to see an evil campaign where everyone is a totally different class, and each person is trying to become their version of litch.

“Draft do not upload” *Proceeds to upload*

Okay people, from the top: Bard Lich - Anyways, here's Wonderwall~ +consumes your soul+ Sorcerer Lich - We keep it in the family. Druid Lich - KILL, CONSUME, MULTIPLY, CONQUER. Artificier Lich - The Flesh is Weak. Barbarian Lich - Muscle Man Too Angry to Die. Ranger Lich - Mr. Pet Sementary's Wild Ride (The Ride Never Ends) And now, Fighter Lich... YOU SHOULD ENLIST ON THE ARMY, NOW +cracks of thunder+

"What even are you?" "I am War." This has to be my favorite lich so far. I recently came up with a very similar monster, but this is so much more fleshed out!

This is an active Valkyrie. Recollecting dead Warriors, giving the option to fight again. This dead march can use the idea to create and legion of Honor bound, passion bound warriors.

Ah yes. Another Lich for my collection

"Only in death does service end"... "Well you see..."

I love how killing this lich meaningful changes its character. With other phylacteries it feels like the lich just respawns, but here they have a new body with different combat powers, which seems like a defining trait of the fighter-lich

Next campaign I run I'm going for "oops all liches," where I manipulate each of my players into "trying this neat backstory concept I found on RU-vid" and seeing how long it takes before the party realizes everyone is trying to become a lich.

One thing I like about this lich is that since the body the lich is possessing doesn't decompose it can be passive if necessary. So imagine the last survivor of a battle, waiting in a abandoned fort awaiting a defeated enemy from a war years ago standing there in his full armor. If the players spoke to him, asking why he was there, he replied "I'm waiting for them" and if they said that the enemy was defeated years ago he answer "No, he wasn't", now imagine if he was right and the old enemy is the BBG? I love the troupe of 'My duty is not done yet for me to die' and this lich is perfect to it

-the Litche’s phylactery-minions decay over time. -intense cold preserves things. (Why do you think we keep raw meat in freezers?) -cold = increased minion lifespan. Well, guess who’s gonna make a Draugr / White Walker themed Death March~~~ 😈

"War... I am war." -Apollyon

I like how you came up with a compleatly different idea than what I got. After like a first few seconds an idea instantly came to my mind "soul blade" as in a fighter that made his soul into his own weapon, now I have TWO cool ideas to think about

Pointy Hat: Let me introduce... the Death March, that constantly builds a standing army that literally marches in death to prolong its undead life. Griffith: *Heavy Breathing*

Idea for a Death March (that I’m using for my campaign): A pirate Commodore travels the seas seeking out strong pirates to challenge in combat. After nearly exterminating pirates of his level, he becomes a Death March. The exterminated pirates and their related crews become his undead army of phylacteries. They are an undead Grand Fleet, traveling the seas and constantly seeking out strong pirate crews to take out and add to the Grand Fleet. I’ll be using this idea as a mini boss and a combat challenge for my level 17 party and he might pop up a few times before he’s finished for good!

Inigo Montoya: My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die Death March: Not much of a threat boy

Coolest one yet, I imagine a wounded soldier, waiting to die, when a death march makes him an offering

04:23 PHTCARRDNSLR is my favorite new way of referring to Pointy Hat’s D&D ideas in passing conversation

You could get an insanely powerful army with this, I would use wights for his soldiers. Which means each kill they get can raise up to 10 zombies, you get almost like a structured army of general, commanders, soldiers. Although instead of making them rot away I would have it that the commanders retain some of their original personality, and if one of them managers to slay the Dearh March they become the new lich. What this does is it forces the lich to keep pushing to be the best fighter, while also giving the players more roleplay opportunity with the army itself. Hell they could even be an undead character on a mission to train to kill the Death March.

I also had an idea for a Lich Fighter. Inspired by the Jar Warriors from Elden Ring, the Iron Flesh. A warrior can only achieve a maximum amount of strength. Even undeath does not break the borders of the flesh that eventually reaches its limit. Not a problem, as the flesh and bones of warriors and monsters across time and space are his to conquer. They are sets of armor that instead of a body, have a mass of meat and bones of countless strong living beings that were defeated and eventually assimilated to become part of the Iron Flesh. Their phylactery is a cauldron that has all the accumulated remains the Iron Flesh collected and uses to fill his especially made armor that can place part of every single creature in the cauldron onto it, making it learn all skills and abilities from them. Naturally, you must destroy the cauldron to defeat it, because even if all the remains run out, their soul still lingers in the cauldron.

this is figuratively the best thing ever. a warlord who partakes in necromancy is just so obviously powerful and present on the world scale. having even a single death march in a DND world would shift the balance of power, because as you said they dont always need a incentive to help a ruler win as they NEED the corpses of others to stay alive. and them being a master fighter warlord gives them some fun flavor, as they could theoretically be honorable/merciful as they can only raise true warriors (fighters) so they would have no reason to kill, say a wizard or rogue.

Something to add because I loves all this and love this series and I love Pointy Hat. A trope you can use for the Death March is the "Exchange of name". You see it all the time where opponents who've earn each other respect via combat will exchange names the winner vows to hold them tightly in their memories in glorius battle. For the Death March, those memories are the reason that the phelactory grows. However, memory fades just like the decaying warriors to the point they are forgotten, and breaking that vow to the fallen. (cough cough oathbreaker cough) sorry had to clear my throat. Just a thought... Love you Pointy Hat!!

When you click on the title hoping it's a little secret and you can peek before RU-vid takes it down... Also, that intro... RIP Akira Toriyama.😢

Another absolutely legendary lich variant with such great flavor and fantastic ties to the class. This entire series is one of my favorite series on RU-vid. Amazing job as always.

I would absolutely love to see you do a gnoll video! They could be such interesting characters but instead they are just always described to be evil with little culture and interesting traits

The Death March being obsessed with martial perfection is certainly a valid way to go, but when I think 'Fighter Lich', I'm always reminded of the Hero's Shade from the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. For those unfamiliar with Zelda, the Hero's Shade is the undead spirit of the Hero of Time, the version of Link that is the protagonist of LoZ: Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. He became the Hero's Shade after saving Hyrule from Ganondorf and restoring the timeline to its proper course, but in the process removed the threat of Ganondorf from history and thus the Hero of Time was not only forgotten, but effectively erased from history, leaving Link to live a life as a hero that nobody knew about, with no great evil to vanquish in his lifetime and no worthy student to teach the skills and techniques he had honed all his life for the day when some new evil would inevitably rise. While the exact circumstances behind the Hero of Time's death are left out, what is known is that aftet his resentment at being unable to build a lasting legacy for himself caused him to become the Hero's Shade, awaiting the day when his successor, the next incarnation of Link as the Hero of Twilight, would appear and claim his skills and knowledge. For me, that's the essence of what a Fighter Lich should be; someone that refuses to allow death to take them because they still have one last mission to accomplish, and they must paradoxically cling to that one goal so vigorously that even the natural order of the universe cannot claim them, while having the overriding compulsion to succeed in it and end their own existence. I'd almost compare it to the Chosen Undead from Dark Souls, able to simply refuse to die permanently so long as their willpower and sanity holds out, but without a cause to cling to, the rigors of time and death slowly drain their will to live and their minds erode until they become madmen. Eventually, they go beyond madness and degrade into mindless undead called Hollows, until eventually even the most primal urge to survive is not enough to sustain them and they simply cease to function. To alleviate this degradation, the undead obsess over their goals to drive themselves forward and use whatever means they can to try and maintain their sanity, including absorbing the souls of those they slay in combat or coveting such things as 'Humanity' and finding ways to quantify and hoard it, all the while trying not to betray their ideals and undermine their sanity. That's the sort of thing that could give something like the Death March more character beyond simply being a warmongering army of the dead. It means that all manner of Fighters could become a lich, their reasons for pursuing and attaining undeath can be varied, and killing them permanently isn't as simple as just destroying all of their backup bodies.

Awesome video. Love the idea of an eternal undead army, constantly fighting, constantly growing. I think there was a DotA character with that lore, Dirge the Undying? For another interesting version of a "fighter lich," theres the Graveknight from Pathfinder. Where the lich and phylactery is sort of combined into their haunted armor. The body within is just a corpse it hijacks. Anyone who wears the armor (even a small piece) will eventually transform into the Graveknight. They can preserve themselves by giving a small piece of their armor (such as a pauldron or gauntlet) to a minion to wear, then when the Graveknight's armor is destroyed it will possess the minion, regrow the rest of the armor, and revive itself.

A fighter lich would fit the archetype of an immortal general obsessed with expanding his empire.

NGL, death march gives me some solo leveling vibes Also, could see a kingdom hiding a death march in a frozen cave to preserve the rotting ones, only freeing them at times of war.

I think it’d be awesome to see a Bloodhunter Lich next. And while yeah it is a homebrew class its pretty popular. Also I think there’s supremely good drama in a monster hunter becoming a horrifying undead beast to continue slaying monsters. It plays on that idea of not becoming a beast by using their powers to kill beasts, but youve gone way over that deep end and are now a monster hating monster

I think an awesome additional moral spin on death march would be to make them a professional force with the highest standards, unreachable for most mortal armies, even technically 'good' ones. Not only do they not ask for gold or food from their client, they also wage exclusively conventional warfare, no poisoned wells, no burnt farms, never hurt noncombatants and try their best to minimise the collateral damage. But whenever a soldier falls, thay are taken by the death march, friend and foe alike.

"The Death March" omg what a sick name. Damnnn pointy ur getting really good at this

Not gonna lie this is very useful for me. In my setting some desperate cities when fighting in a war against an abyssal incursion that lasted 20 years turned to necromancy in an attempt to fight off the demons without losing any more of their strength. The war is now 30 years in the past and a 100 mile scare where the abyss itself bled into the material plan still exists and so do the “burial mounds” of these undead legions waiting to serve the people again. I now have a stat block for this army “for absolutely free!!!!!”

Just WOW!! YOU SOLVED A BIG ISSUE! I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO MAKE A AWESOME LEADER FOR MY DEAD HALF DRAGON QUEEN LEASHES ARMY!!! He will be a bone night turned death March!!! I can't wait to see my players encounter this character. One of them is his adopted granddaughter. It will be so amazing and probably scarred them for life. Thank you so much for making this !!! I use a lot of your stuff in my campaign and it just floors my players watching their faces just makes my day.😊❤ My campaign is set in eberron they have already met the artificer lich whom they have become good friends with 😮. And the sorcerer lich 's next host is also an ex to somebody in the group.... (Evil laugh) 😈 One of my players got a regeneration ring and has been chopping off his own limbs to get awesome items from the artificer lich, this last time he removed his eyes and everyone in the party freaked out.😅.

Just found your channel the other day and have ravenously consumed all the lich class videos, imagine my surprise when you upload one the very next day! I love this series to death, thanks for all your hard work! Can't wait to comment with my experience using them in a future campaign!

Oh boy the directors cut

"DRAFT DO NOT UPLOAD" Hmmm

Here’s an idea for Paladin + Lich: The Undead Oath is an oath taken by a Paladin who knows death is upon him, but cannot complete his oath. So, the paladin must take a journey through undeath, abandoning the radiance, and turning to necrotic means, to defeat necrotic enemies. Whenever the paladin “dies”, he returns, with more information on his death, as long as his oath remains unbroken, it will return, and as you can guess, the oath is the phylactery. The Undead Knight will come back, again and again, until the oath is fulfilled, and the Paladin can rest. They are known as the Hallowed Ones. However, the danger of this oath is when the necromancy takes over, the Paladin will become, less human, feel less lively, forgetting morals, and subjecting to mindless violence, until their figure is almost unrecognizable. Becoming the thing that they were meant to beat. From the Hallowed One, to the Hollow One. This was inspired by some homebrew I was making for a Soulslike campaign, if you could guess.

Now I want to see a scourge and a death march go at it. A undead Army vs a undead calamity.

You are officially my favorite D&D RU-vid channel and one of my favorite channels overall. You just come up with so many fucking awesome ideas and give that stuff out for free. I love it. You’ve tickled my DM brain so many times

You did upload

You know what I'm just going to watch this in case the title was not a mistake

When you upload the draft

How in the world every video in this series just keeps getting better? I'm so excited Which Lich comes out, I'm hoping I'll be able to use at least some of these concepts in the game!

I'm DM'ing today and after a small little debacle in the last session I had to improvise. You saved my life. Great work as always!

Really cool idea and I liked how it feels like arthas menithill. I would try to add something from arthas where either by using the weapon that slayed them or by keeping something of great importance of the fighter they can be raised once the fighter becomes a lich. The risen early foes can either basically be skeletons who are advising or being generals to them making a body for them. Not them being a lich because they basically only had the one body and the real lich would have to sacrifice it's own soul resources to keep them around but would be nice to have a second in command that is important. Back to arthas can be like how he brought back kelthuzad, how he kept the soul of uther stuck with him, or how he probably would have raised Muradin if he had killed him when he got frost Mourne. I mean arthas brought back his childhood horse, I imagine he would have brought back the man who trained him to fight and have him stay close to him.

Bro uploaded the draft

i saw the title and immidetly got excited. i love dark souls

I can also see the Death March needing to reenact the creation ritual after it hops bodies to a subordinate in order to reverse the rotting that has occurred & "heal up" back to what it's original form was. This makes a good plot hook if he's looking for a Fighter in YOUR party as one of the masters he needs to reenact the ritual.

These Lich videos are fantastic, and I'm working on an undead war arc centered around the Death March as I rewatch this. Love your stuff man. Also your disclaimer put my sides into space

Maaan... can't wait for your HUGE Setting/lore/character options/monster book.

Cool concept again, has nice ideas for mini bosses you have to destroy before the Death March Leader. Thank you again for your videos I love the ideas and they’ve helped me with two characters inspiration

Something tells me this is a draft not to upload

I worked out a Modern Magic equivalent (before I even found this video), based on an old Thirty Years' War myth and the WW2 background of my setting. Major Tatsuya Yuji was a proud officer of the Imperial Japanese Army. He fought for the glory of the Emperor, and for the prosperity of all of East Asia, no matter what it took. Of course, the pressures of the war had forced... compromises. Lack of supply and the need for discipline made the local civilian populations more an obstacle (and occasional outlet of frustration) than anything else, but that was all right. Nonetheless, when the Americans came calling, his entire division was destroyed, and he was forced to flee into the jungles with the few soldiers he had left. He survived there for years on a combination of what little food he could acquire from the jungle, and on his own devotion to Japan. Eventually, Yuji emerged from the jungle into the solitary town on that forgotten island on the outskirts of what he knew as the Dutch Indies, gaunt from starvation and suffering from severe malnutrition. With his first contact with human civilization in years, he learned something that drove him to utter fury: Japan had not fought on as he had believed this whole time. They had not even fallen under the guns of invasion and fought in a glorious last stand to defend their Emperor. No, Japan had _surrendered._ Something so utterly dishonorable he could not comprehend it. And right there, in the middle of a town, in front of an array of terrified onlookers, Yuji died. His body fell back a step -- and then he stopped. As his heart stopped and his blood ran cold, he found in himself a new determination. He'd make them _pay._ The Americans, of course, but also the ungrateful peoples of Asia who had so resisted the benevolent rule of the Rising Sun, and especially the _cowards_ who had dared to surrender. As he drew his katana and his officer's pistol, he felt the depths of starvation leave him. Despite being dead, he never felt as alive as he did when he slaughtered that town. (The newly-made Indonesian government, going through the Bersiap, had bigger problems, and never learned of what happened on that island.) Yuji had become a Fext, a dead leader of men, untouched by the ravages of both time and warfare. Instinctively raising a new army, led by his former lieutenants. Since then, he's bidden his time, spreading his soldiers in secret across Southeast Asia, acquiring equipment and readying an army for his revenge. The players, of course, won't find out about this right away. What they'll find out is that shipping in the region has started disappearing. The American government, in collaboration with Indonesia and Japan, would call in the players, accomplished occult specialists and monster hunters, to investigate once grainy footage of one of the attacks is recovered -- of dead men bearing the flag of the Rising Sun attacking sailors and raising them as undead foot soldiers. I have yet to work out the campaign from there.

Well done! I was about to skip the ad but it was great! This has to be the most fanciest product I have ever seen on the RU-vid video!

Wait, could the folk lore tale of “The Wild Hunt” be a ranger lich?

Uh oh, is the title wrong or was this not supposed to be up?

Just started binging your videos and you EASILY make some of the best D&D content. I just love your thought process and how it makes me think too. I made like 5 characters because of your videos (that I will never play), and you helped me out with backstories, the thing I struggle with the most. I had some ideas for the sorcerer video (thanks to you), and am wondering if I should just splurge them out here Alexia was always a bookworm, and as she grew older she became an aspiring wizard. She studied and trained hard pouring over scrolls and books for countless hours. However, she could never retain the information due to a constantly failing memory, but she never gave up. And though the explicit memories of spells, and wizardry faded, the implicit memories of how to do it subconsciously stuck. Seemingly surging with wild magic at random, each surge is actually a forgotten spell, it’s memory seemingly taking on a mind of its own High charisma to power through failures, high con to stay up all night studying, high int but disadvantage on any memory-based check, because she’s very smart but can’t remember things I personally prefer Sorcerers that got their powers later in life, when something happen to trigger it. I feel it makes far more interesting characters than "I was born with powers because my mom liked dragons a bit too much" This character also showcases why sorcerers use Charisma. it's not their ability to talk to others, but rather it's their sheer force of will. Alexia is a smart character, but that's not where her powers come from. She got magic through the mental equivalent of that one Doctor Who scene where the doctor punched a wall for billions of years. I also like how it makes the power seem more "earned" for lack of a better word. She wasn't just born with it, she didn't just happen to get it, she worked for wizardry, but ended up getting sorcery. I think that's a cool twist.

Nice. I ran an undead party we made just for laughs back when Ravenloft had just been released. It was wonderful, dark, and humorous. Anyway, we had a Mage Lich, Cleric Lich, Vampire Cleric, Ghost Thief (talk about trope), Vampire Fighter, and a Fighter Lich. How did the Fighter become a lich? The same way a dracolich is, with a little help. A reskinned and modded deathknight, he was as much a lich as any other, only instead of gaining magic power his undead form gained in martial power. And as a lich, he gained salient abilities, the death knights 2e abilities, and abilities specific to his specialization. And yes, they all earned these undead powers gaining levels. Later, we tried an undead Paladin. It's kind of the same thing, only his was with his god's help. Food for thought... food for thought.

Editing and humor on point, as usual! Love your videos. Thanks for uploading even with the channel problems.

Another campaign idea, the Death March and The Scourge are in a never-ending cycle of violence and conflict. It may have started due to a village or territory in the outskirts being raized, but due to it, two factions, and they're laying waste to nigh everything. It's either "Conscript, die, & arise." or become Rage &Death

One of your best videos, actually. This concept is so much more usable and deep than most you create... I am astonished. I had similar ideaz but yours brings it all together better.

YES ITS HERE SOON I WILL HAVE THE WHOLE SET

After watching this video, I had my friend watch it too. Both of us were so fascinated by the concept of the Death March as a BBEG in a campaign that we hashed out the skeleton of a full campaign with that very idea as the center. We’re very excited to introduce it to our table!

This series is absolutely awesome! Each episode is stunning and makes me want to play the game even more

DRAFT DO NOT UPLOAD hmm

Love this! Hell yeah! Reminds me of that woman in barovia who must keep retaking the throne as her eternal punishment due to her being a warden of a plane of dread. This would work perfectly.

babe wake up, new which lich just dropped!

Amazing video, missed the while you didn't upload and I'm super happy to have you back. This was incredible and has so many options!

Knocked this one out of the park, Pointy Hat. I love all your liches but this one feels like it could so smoothly become the foundation for any campaign.

Bard-Barian lich Spends eternity ripping foes limb from limb while singing about epically ripping foes limb from limb.

"DRAFT DO NOT UPLOAD"

Another incredible lich, though I think the name could use some work. The term "death march" applies better to the phylactery army than the undying leader them self. Perhaps something like "Grim Captain?"

I think this is my favorite Lich you've created yet

I love remixing your ideas into new things. It really give me inspiration on continuing my 2 year long campaign and breathe new life into it

DRAFT DO NOT UPLOAD

This was super interesting and well thought out. I really hope we get a monk lich next, the real life act of self mummyfication is so perfect for it.

This guy has one of the best video structures on RU-vid. Just wow!

i love your content. the death march is awesome thank you so much.

With this video, I was imagining a Death March who possesses the bodies of his soldiers with this armor and weapons of ice. The Armor is tied to the Death March's soul, and if the Death March so chooses, it can leave the soul of its current host, and bring its soul, armor, weapons etc. to a phylactery it chooses to inhabit.

This is the best one so far, I love the compelling story and how MASSIVE this enemy could be in a campaign. I'm getting very "seeing white walkers for the first time on GoT" vibes and I love it! That said, it gives me an idea for a campaign where I use the Death March to as the BBEG and then get my players to choose between becoming a lich themselves (for whatever class) or finding another way to save their homes.

Would be interesting to see different fighter subclasses as Death Marches Like a Rune Knight that almost exclusively has giants and other large creatures in their conscript as a sort of siege army, or a Cavalier with a huge cavalry force ready to ride like the four horsemen

In an upcoming campaign, I will be playing an heir to a Hierarch, that you created. Thank you so much for making that. I'm really excited.

Every single one of these Lich classes have been phenomenal. I personally can't wait for your take on a warlock lich.

I can already imagine a really cool moment where the bbeg is some kind of death march creating an undead army, and one of the party with a military or similar background recognizes one of the living corpses.

I love it so much I'm imagining a cross between the mythological wild hunt and Davy Jones where everyone who he kills has a chance to become part of the crew and as you know "part of the crew part of the ship" which fits exactly into the whole his army decays while he alone has eternal life

I always seem to forget about the fighter class, but the Death March gives me inspiration and makes me want to make a Fighter character.

I absolutely ADORE this series. I’d LOVE to see how you’d make a monk lich!

I can’t wait for you to finish this series cause I had a campaign idea where the party has to track down and kill members of an ancient party who all went into lichdom.

I can not wait for this series to be done and then make an organization with every type of lich

1:44 Don't worry, I won't ever leave you

Pointy Hat is single handedly my favorite dnd channel! keep it up!

Let's go Antonio!!!!! Love this series so much! Really hope this video does well for you :3

Great as always. My idea for a Fighter Lich was one who went around defeating famed warriors and using their weapons as phylacteries. The Lich would have to use this weapon in battle, but it would degrade and couldn’t be repaired or renewed so they’d have to seek out a new worthy foe, defeat them and take their weapon. If they failed to find a new weapon before their old one crumbled to dust, then they’d cease to be.

A mix of Abyss Watchers, Highlander and a few other things... nice :D

This reminds me of the villain in some old D&D novel I read ages ago: A dark knight leading an army of monsters with this weird black ball hovering over his head that absorbed the souls of the dead. I can't recall if he was undead or possessed by a demon or simply a mortal who made a deal, but he had a magic keeps-owner-going-gadget that needs souls to power it so close enough to a lich for most purposes.

I cant wait for the Council of Liches, or the Lich Superfriends video. All the different types of liches joining forces and using their various strengths and quirks with deathly efficiency

I have just had an excellent idea for using this Lich concept; The world is starting to be drawn into a massive conflict, a magical World War of sorts. One of the smaller nations finds that their greatest hero, a fighter of legendary renown was buried nearby, and they go to collect that fighter's equipment to set up their champion - and awaken the Deathmarch that had sealed himself inside, expecting to be left alone for eternity. He's now been awoken and stoked to fury over seeing the nation he'd once safeguarded assaulted from all sides, and proceeds to go on the warpath, rebuilding his Deathmarch Army initially using the few members he had left who had been carefully preserved via mummification all those centuries ago. The Deathmarch is back, and everyone else is on the menu... will he be able to be put back to rest, or is this world fated to undeath?

Death March Subclass Subclass of the Fighter Class. Uses Oathbreaker as the template. Make the Oathbreaker spells cost a number of points equal to their spell level. You have a number of points equal to your Fighter level. All points are restored on a long rest. Each tier on the Oathbreaker spell tiers correlate to the same level as the subclass features are unlocked. 3rd level : 1st level spells 7th level : 2nd level spells 10th level: 3rd level spells 15th level: 4th level spells 18th level: 5th level spells Treat the Channel Divinity choices as variant Action Surge options.

Been working on a 4 Horsemen campaign, and I think I just found Death's general. Thank you, oh wise, powerful, and most Pointy of Hats.