Bardic Lich

Most liches choose undeath in a hunger for power. A very few have it forced on them by accident, and the singer Aurelian Thorne is one such tragedy. He is not a true lich, but his powers match theirs closely enough to count him among them.

Creatures under 5 Hit Dice or levels who see him must pass a fear check or flee for 5d4 rounds. His chill touch is weaker than a true lich's, dealing 2d4 damage, and the victim must save vs. paralysis or be held for as many rounds as the damage rolled; the paralysis can be dispelled normally.

Weapons below +1 cannot hurt him, and he is immune to death, insanity, lightning, polymorph, enfeeblement, cold, hold, charm and sleep spells. He is turned as a 9 Hit Dice undead. He has no phylactery.

As a 9th-level bard he casts three 1st-, three 2nd- and two 3rd-level spells daily, favoring sleep, phantasmal force and color spray; pyrotechnics, glitterdust and improved phantasmal force; and wraithform and fireball. He climbs walls 80%, detects noise 50%, picks pockets 50% and reads languages 45%, and can still identify the lore of magic items 45% of the time, but he can no longer sway crowds, inspire allies or counter magical songs.

His strangest trait is that magic simply feeds him. No spell affects him; instead each restores 1 lost hit point per spell level, so a magic jar heals 5. Item effects work the same way, at a level the game master sets. He never heals naturally or regenerates, so this is his only remedy. He can also touch a spellcaster (needing an attack roll in combat) to strip away their highest-level memorized spell, chosen randomly among ties, and convert it to healing. He can absorb spells even at full health but gains nothing extra.

Thorne was born a century and a half ago in an elven village beside a northern lake in a mist-shrouded realm, to a human father and an elven mother of high standing. Adored by the elves as a sweet-natured child, he loved them back and learned their songs and lore, and their passion for beauty sent him roaming the world as a bard.

In a distant elven enclave he found pieces of an ancient book recounting how the realm's ruler, a lich-king, had shed his mortality. Horrified, he burned it, but nightly visions of the lich-king's citadel drove him at last to its gates, which opened for him and slammed behind him. For a week he lived there as guest and captive, singing for his host, who in turn told the story of his own life and seemed almost glad to share it.

Sure he had not heard everything, Thorne crept into the inner sanctum. The lich-king caught him and hurled lightning; the bard raised a great book as a shield, and it proved to be one of his host's mightiest spellbooks. The blast rocked the citadel and set the room ablaze. While the lich-king fought to save his laboratory, Thorne escaped into hiding, only to learn that his heart had stopped and his breath was gone. Over the following week his flesh shriveled tight over his bones until he resembled his host and people fled at the sight of him.

He lives on magical energy and must absorb at least one spell level each day to satisfy his hunger.