Whats best caster build for Lich?

[cire87]

I want it to fit with the lich flavor but whatever works i guess

[Rex is back, baby!]

Any bloodline class with undead?

Magus is popular.

[DarkFenix]

Sorcerer of any kind that sticks with charisma as casting stat is probably mechanically best. Ultimately the lich runs hp off charisma too, also since you get a fixed pool of extra spells from lich, a spontaneous caster takes best advantage of them.

So as far as flavour goes, undead bloodline sorcerer.

[ExcaliburV]

Mine was an undead bloodline sorcerer that specialized in necromancy. Obviously it fit the motif well, and it was pretty fun.

The advice given above is pretty good. Since once you become a full-blown lich Charisma is effectively your Constitution, being a Charisma caster in general gives you a huge advantage.

[Rex is back, baby!]

Originally posted by DarkFenix:

Sorcerer of any kind that sticks with charisma as casting stat is probably mechanically best. Ultimately the lich runs hp off charisma too, also since you get a fixed pool of extra spells from lich, a spontaneous caster takes best advantage of them.

So as far as flavour goes, undead bloodline sorcerer.

Magus would be the melee version of this if you want to go more a "death knight" build

[DrHappyAngry]

I haven't tried it yet, but think it would be cool so I'm going to be weird and say an Ecclisiatheurge Cleric. Clerics actually make great necromancers in these games and get a lot of the same necromancy spells as mages, especially the ones for summoning undead. You'll have tons of channel negative energies for healing your undead allies (and self if you go Dhampir or complete the Lich path) and take selective channel at level one and you can use your channels offensively against non-undead. If you pick Urgathoa and the death domain you get some cool high level spells that are normally mage only, plus have another domain to choose from. If you don't want to give up the armor and shields, you can do a regular cleric, but only get to use domain specific slots for non-cleric spells from your domain. By being an evil cleric you also get spontaneous conversion to switch any memorized spell to the inflict wounds spell of the same level, so great for a mob of undead. You will want a lot of Charisma (For channeling) in addition to Wisdom and then dex for rays, but an ecclisiatheurge can ignore strength.

[Akira_R]

The lich is a prepared spell arcane caster and so can merge it's spell book with other arcane spell books. So a wizard or one of it's derivatives will probably synergize the best.

That being said I'm having a lot of fun with my current RP heavy build. I wanted a death-knight-ish type build, something in heavy armor with a scythe that could also sling some spells about, I ended up with a female Nosferatu-Born dhampir warpriest of Urgathoa with death and magic blessings. Running about in heavy armor wielding a big ol scythe building piles of corpses for the Pallid Princess, it's certainly far from the most optimum build with a lich but it's working out ok so far and their is some nice little bits of flavor text in the lich path you get for being a worshiper of the first undead.

[Akira_R]

Originally posted by ExcaliburV:

once you become a full-blown lich Charisma is effectively your Constitution, being a Charisma caster in general gives you a huge advantage.

Well shoot.... I wasn't aware of this, should have done a little more research I guess. My Warpriest of Urgathoa with an 8 charisma score is gonna be in for a bad time then I guess.....

[ExcaliburV]

Originally posted by Akira_R:

The lich is a prepared spell arcane caster and so can merge it's spell book with other arcane spell books. So a wizard or one of it's derivatives will probably synergize the best.

That being said I'm having a lot of fun with my current RP heavy build. I wanted a death-knight-ish type build, something in heavy armor with a scythe that could also sling some spells about, I ended up with a female Nosferatu-Born dhampir warpriest of Urgathoa with death and magic blessings. Running about in heavy armor wielding a big ol scythe building piles of corpses for the Pallid Princess, it's certainly far from the most optimum build with a lich but it's working out ok so far and their is some nice little bits of flavor text in the lich path you get for being a worshiper of the first undead.

Man, I gotta try a death knight build some time, it sounds like a blast.

[ExcaliburV]

Originally posted by Akira_R:

Originally posted by ExcaliburV:

once you become a full-blown lich Charisma is effectively your Constitution, being a Charisma caster in general gives you a huge advantage.

Well shoot.... I wasn't aware of this, should have done a little more research I guess. My Warpriest of Urgathoa with an 8 charisma score is gonna be in for a bad time then I guess.....

Headbands, people, headbands!

If it makes you feel any better, my Sorcerer Lich had a great time once she became a Lich with her 20+ CHA, but before that her CON was... 7.

I spent most of the game so fragile that a lucky crit or a particularly strong gust of wind could kill me. XD

[There is no Mango]

Only arcane casters can merge their spebooks with lich, so sorcerer and wizard types.

Clerics don't.

Playing a sorcerer myself (sage) lich at the moment, the combination is very much overpowered on hard difficulty so it's not like you need to do it but still, that is the main attraction here with very high caster levels etc.

Also, respec in game allows you to do whatever really. You turn full lich at some point, it's a good excuse to change your build and points at that moment if you want to roleplay your respec then.

[Raistlin]

What do you mean by best? Do you mean what's strongest? Pre patch 1.1.0 you could use the saucerer build on neoseeker. 17 sage sorcerer / 3 loremaster. Post patch 1.1.0, loremaster has been made mostly useless. Especially since they are never adding spell secrets. Pure sorcerer, wizard, witch, or arcanist with merged spellbook will be the way to go.

Sage sorcerer is still a good option if you take second bloodline arcana for extra spells plus the flexibility of spontaneous caster spellbook. You might be able to make a winter witch build, but since spell secret is never getting added to loremaster, it probably won't be very strong. Fingers crossed spell secret gets added with a mod.

Regardless of which class you pick, you're going to want to focus on necromancy. If you want to play on the harder difficulties, I recommend taking spell focus feats into necromancy and grabbing the expanded arsenal mythic feat for conjuration because you'll mostly be using conjuration at the beginning of the game.

Edit: Forgot to mention arcane bloodline also adds +2 to DCs. Second bloodline on sage sorcerer means +4 to DCs at 15th level. That's pretty good.

[Hailspork]

Currently trying this[www.neoseeker.com]. (Sorcerer 4, Monk (Scaled Fist) 1, Loremaster 1, Dragon Disciple 4, Eldritch Knight 10).
Someone noted that clerics and warpriests don't get the merged spellbook, but it's worth noting that neither do maguses. If you want to merge spellbooks, you need to play Arcanist, Sorcerer, Witch, or Wizard (I don't think I forgot one, but it requires a class capable of level 9 arcane spells). IIRC, there's special spells if you get to level 28 (which the build I linked barely fails maybe).

[There is no Mango]

Last time i checked witches didn't get the merged spell book, a winter witch lich could be good, alas there is definitely not enough cold spells and no merge so sad panda it is.

[djinnxy]

Originally posted by So many mangoes !:

Last time i checked witches didn't get the merged spell book, a winter witch lich could be good, alas there is definitely not enough cold spells and no merge so sad panda it is.

Take sorcerer crossblooded x/witch 1/winter witch 10. With bloodlines you can turn any energy to cold and +1 per die damage. There's enough evocation spell items in game to give you far more spells than you can even use at later levels.

[Twinstar]

Originally posted by So many mangoes !:

Only arcane casters can merge their spebooks with lich, so sorcerer and wizard types.

Clerics don't.

Playing a sorcerer myself (sage) lich at the moment, the combination is very much overpowered on hard difficulty so it's not like you need to do it but still, that is the main attraction here with very high caster levels etc.

Also, respec in game allows you to do whatever really. You turn full lich at some point, it's a good excuse to change your build and points at that moment if you want to roleplay your respec then.

but I heard respec for the lich is broken at the moment.