Iron Lich
Image by Brian Snoddy, © Privateer Press
[The last Iron Kingdoms monster for now: I have two themes I'm planning on running through December. But I will return to the setting in 2026, because it's got a lot of fun monsters, and plays with a lot of the tropes that I love: body horror, industrial horror, things that used to be people. The iron lich is perhaps the flagship monster of Iron Kingdoms. One of them appears bursting out of the cover of the original Monsternomicon, and there are plenty of minis in Warmachine/Hordes to represent them.
As usual, these stats represent a blending of the 3e and 5e versions of the iron lich, but I have simplified it a bit. The original is fueled using necrotite ore, a material that isn't actually described until the 5e Iron Kingdom setting book in 2024 (!). Since they collect souls anyway, I just made its soul collection its fuel source as well as powering its spellcasting. This is another monster where I think the stark inks of the original artwork work better than full color.
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Iron Lich CR 14 LE Undead This enormous humanoid figure is made out of mechanical parts, save for the bone skull that sits mounted upon its shoulders. An elaborate network of pumps and pistons sprouts from its back and shoulders, and its hands are great clawed gauntlets.
An offshoot of lichdom, iron liches trade greater durability and physical strength for a reliance on an external fuel source to function. That fuel is souls—the secrets of making an iron lich were developed by Charon, Horseman of Death, and seeded on mortal worlds in order to lead to the destruction of souls. An iron lich must kill regularly and trap the souls of its victims inside its soul cages or it falls dormant. An iron lich does still have a soul reliquary and can escape death, but upon its rejuvenation has only a short time to refuel before running down. Many iron liches keep living prisoners and minions near their reliquaries in order to have an easily accessible supply of souls.
Compared to the average lich, iron liches are much more likely to wade into the thick of combat. They are remarkably durable, and their claws strike with the force of swords. An iron lich must also be close to their victims in order to siphon their soul energy. An iron lich can draw on the soul energy trapped inside them to fuel their spells as well as their bodies. Most iron liches are relatively cautious with this ability, as reckless usage can render the lich out of fuel at an inopportune moment.
In addition to the reliquary that all liches must build in order to become liches, an iron lich must build itself a body. This body requires an additional 5,000 gp in materials, including iron, onyx gems and rare necromantic oils. Rumors exist of variations of the iron lich incorporating mithril, adamantine or even rarer starmetals into their construction.
Creating an Iron Lich “Iron lich” is a template that can be added to any living creature, provided it can make itself a reliquary. An iron lich retains all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here:
CR: Same as the base creature +3
Alignment: Any evil
Type: The creature’s type changes to undead. Do not recalculate BAB, saves or skill ranks
Size: The creature’s size increases by one size category to a maximum of Colossal
Senses: The iron lich gains darkvision 60 ft.
Armor Class: An iron lich has a +15 natural armor bonus or the original creature’s natural armor bonus, whichever is better.
Hit Dice: Change all of the creature’s racial Hit Dice to d8s. All Hit Dice derived from class levels remain unchanged. As undead, iron liches use their Charisma modifiers to determine bonus hit points instead of Constitution
Defensive Abilities: An iron lich gains channel resistance +4, hardness 10 and resistance 20 to electricity and fire. The iron lich also gains the following defensive qualities. Constructed Toughness (Ex) An iron lich gains bonus hit points as a construct of its size category. Rejuvenation (Su): When an iron lich is destroyed, its reliquary (which is generally hidden by the lich in a safe place far from where it chooses to dwell) immediately begins to rebuild the undead spellcaster's body nearby. This process takes 1d10 days—if the body is destroyed before that time passes, the reliquary merely starts the process anew. After this time passes, the lich wakens fully healed, but out of souls for fuel.
Weakness: An iron lich gains the following weaknesses Ferrous (Ex) An iron lich’s metallic body causes it to be treated as if it were wearing metal armor for the purposes of spells such as shocking grasp and heat metal. It is also counted as being a metallic creature for the purposes of rusting grasp and similar spells. Fuel Dependent (Ex) An iron lich requires 1 level to be burnt in its soul cage for every hour of operation. If an iron lich runs out of soul energy, it is treated as fatigued for one hour, then exhausted for 1 hour, then paralyzed until it can absorb a soul.
Melee Attacks: An iron lich gains one claw attack per hand, which deals damage as if it were one size larger than the iron lich’s size.
Special Attacks: An iron lich gains the two special attacks described below. The save DC is 10 + ½ iron lich’s HD + Cha modifier. Cage Soul (Su) As a swift action, an iron lich can attempt to absorb the soul of a dying creature, or one freshly dead (no more than 1 minute), within 30 feet. If the creature fails its save DC, its soul is absorbed into the iron lich’s soul cage. A creature that succeeds this save is immune to the cage soul ability of that iron lich for 24 hours. An iron lich can have Hit Dice of souls in its soul cage equal to 6 x its Hit Dice. Souls trapped in the soul cage cannot be returned to life unless the iron lich is destroyed, and once their Hit Dice have been expended, their souls are destroyed. Using this ability is a purely mental action, allowing an iron lich to use it when paralyzed. Magic from Death (Su) As a move action, an iron lich can burn Hit Dice of souls in its soul cage to not expend the spell slot or prepared spell the next time it casts a spell. The number of Hit Dice consumed by this ability equal the level of the spell. When an iron lich casts a spell using magic from death, its caster level and save DC (if any) increase by +1
Abilities: Str +10, Dex -2, Int +2, Wis +2, Cha +2. As an undead creature, an iron lich has no Constitution score.
Skills: An iron lich gains a +8 racial bonus to Intimidate, Perception and Sense Motive checks. A lich always treats Climb, Disguise, Fly, Intimidate, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (religion), Perception, Sense Motive, Spellcraft and Stealth as class skills. Otherwise, skills are the same as the base creature.
