Blackflame Lich

A host body looks human but has rough, leathery skin and eyes lit by sinister black fire. As the lich grows stronger the skin thickens into hide and the fire spreads, until by the host's old age it is a shriveled husk with its whole head wreathed in black flame. Between bodies, the lich is a human-shaped shadow of dark, flickering energy.

It rarely seeks out battle but loves tormenting weaker foes. Its burning gaze threatens only creatures below 3 Hit Dice. Each that looks into its eyes rolls a save vs. death magic with a +3 bonus; failure means death from sheer fright, and success still leaves it frozen in terror, helpless, for 1-4 turns.

Its touch bursts into black flame, ignoring armor and dealing 1d10 damage; items it touches are harmed unless they save vs. magical fire, and a living victim must save vs. paralysis or be held until dispelled or for 24 hours.

Only weapons of +1 or better or monsters of 7+ Hit Dice can strike it. Besides its magic resistance, it shrugs off death magic, anything that affects the mind, and every priest or wizard spell of 1st or 2nd level. Thanks to its bond with the Negative Material Plane, touching someone guarded by negative plane protection costs it 5d10 damage, though its magic resistance may negate this. It casts as it did in life, without material components, and priests turn it as a special undead.

More than a thousand years ago, a vast ancient empire perished beneath a rain of invisible fire, and among its few survivors were these liches. Several fled to other worlds. Some still wander after wealth and power; others pursue endless research in hidden fortresses. All conceal what they are, and since almost no records survived the cataclysm, only a few sages know they exist.

The transformation converts the wizard's essence into negative energy that must live in a human body, aging it three times as fast and soon burning it out. The lich needs a fresh body whenever it gains a level, exhausts a host, or drops to 0 hit points.

The new host must have Hit Dice or levels of at least the lich's level minus 15, so a 19th-level lich needs a human of 4th level or more. A willing or helpless victim gets no save; one who can resist saves vs. death magic at -1. Failure obliterates the victim's life force beyond raise dead, resurrection or even wish. A lich whose host is destroyed must claim another within an hour or dissolve into nothing, and in that disembodied form dispel evil or holy word destroys it permanently.