Prerequisites
10+ Con
Feats: Craft Construct, Craft Wondrous Item, Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Heavy Armor Proficiency
Spells: Must be able to cast arcane spells or infusions and have a caster level of 11 or higher
Special: Must create a set of Clockwork armor paying the full gold cost to create it but not the XP cost
http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cw/20070212a the armor essentially becomes the Iron Lich’s new body with only his original skull preserved.
HD: D12
| Level | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special |
| 1st | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | Iron Lich Body, Armor Weakness, Iron Defense +1 Str | |
| 2nd | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | Iron Lich Phylactery, Iron Lich Skills +1 Str | |
| 3rd | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | Fortified Construction, Iron Casting, Soul Cage, Soul Fuel+1 Str +2 Int, Cha, Or Wis | |
Skills: 2+int modifier No Class Skills
Proficiencies: An Iron Lich gains proficiency with its claw attacks
Iron Lich Body: An Iron Lich’s Type Changes to undead and it gains most of the qualities of a normal undead creature with a few exceptions
An Iron Lich does not heal hit point damage naturally over time(damaged mental abilities return at the normal rate), and only receives half the amount normally healed by inflict spells, and half the amount damaged by cure spells, but gains the ability to be healed by repair spells as if it were a construct.
The Clockwork armor used to create its body is treated similarly to warforged plating, it can no longer be attacked directly as described, but continues to provide a +8 Armor bonus, +4 Circumstance Bonus to Dex and Str, and a +5 bonus to land speed. The armor normally has no ACP, ASF, or any negative effect on the Iron Lich’s Speed however see Armor Weakness. It is considered masterwork and can be enchanted like a normal suit of armor, in an anti-magic field it loses any added magical bonus’s as normal but the armor continues to function and grant its base bonuses.
It gains two claw attacks doing 1d8+Str modifier points of damage and gains a natural armor bonus equal to its strength modifier. Its Strength increases by 1 each level, as well as its caster level, but it receives no new spells known or spells per day.
Iron Defense: An Iron Lich gains DR/Adamantine and resistance to fire and electricity equal to half its HD and is immune to cold, however see armor vulnerability below.
Armor Vulnerability: While an Iron Lich takes no damage from cold his clockwork armor is still susceptible to cold based attacks. Whenever the Iron Lich is struck by a cold based ability such as a breath weapon, or a spell such as cone of cold and he fails his reflex save his armor freezes over for 1 round for each 10 points of damage the Iron Lich would have taken. (If the spell or ability requires a different saving throw such as fort or will the Iron Lich could still be subject to a reflex save at the same DC of the fort or will save to avoid the effects of freezing subject to the DM’s Opinion) Attacks doing less than 10 points of damage, as well as additional frost damage added on from a melee attack such as a winter wolf’s bite are usually not enough to cause an armor freeze.
While the armor is frozen the Lich loses several benefits from the armor and also take additional penalties:
The Armor no longer grants the +4 bonus to Dex, the lich gains a -8 ACP and a 90% of spell failure for all spells with somatic components, he is additionally treated as if being effected by the slow spell.
If the Lich is subject to a fire based spell or ability (which he could potentially take damage from) for every 10 points of damage the spell or ability does armor freeze duration is reduced by 1 round.
An Iron Lich that enchants his armor with abilities such as Cold Resistance may apply the cold resistance he would normally receive from the armor, to the cold damage the armor itself would take.
Iron Lich Phylactery: At 2nd level a Iron Lich may craft a Phylactery similar to a normal lich’s costing 12,000 gp to create. If a lich is destroyed 1d10 days later it will reform near its phylactery. However, unlike a normal lich an Iron Lich’s construct body is not reformed by this magic. A new set of Clockwork armor must be ready to accept the Iron Lich’s undead skull. Joining to a set of Clockwork armor takes approximately 1 minute if it was previously prepared. Creating a set of clockwork armor for this method costs the same amount of GP for materials, but has no XP cost however it grants none of its bonus and is essentially a heavy set of armor with a +8 bonus, -8 acp, and 90% spell failure if used by anyone else, unless the adequate amount of XP is used to power the suit by someone with the appropriate item creation feats.
If an Iron Lich is unable to join with a premade set of Clockwork armor it is treated as a two sizes smaller than it was, loses its claw attacks, natural armor, damage reduction, fire and electricity resistances, the fortified construction ability, is treated as having a strength score of 1, as well as losing the ability to be healed by repair spells. It loses fine manipulation and the ability to cast any spells with somatic components. However it regains the ability to heal naturally, is affected normally by inflict and cure spells, retains its cold immunity, can speak, see, and listen normally, and gains a fly speed of 10 with perfect maneuverability. It is simply a flying skull and should be treated as such for any mechanical purposes.
Iron Lich Skills: Iron Lichs gain a bonus on all craft checks equal to their HD, and a bonus to Use Magic Device checks equal to 1/2 their HD
Fortified Construction: At 3rd level an Iron Lich may use his strength modifier in place of his constitution modifier when determining bonus hit points and for fort saving throws.
Iron Casting: At 3rd level an Iron Lich may use his strength modifier to determine the save DCs of his spells or infusions if he so chooses.
Soul Cage: At 3rd level an Iron Lich may craft a soul cage at a cost of 5000 gp. As a standard action nearby any recently slain living creatures an Iron Lich may open his soul cage to draw in the still lingering souls of nearby creatures. (the lich may see the souls while touching the soul cage but may not communicate with them in anyway, except for hearing their screams of anguish and torment) each soul is worth a number of levels equal to the hit die of the deceased creature. (1/2 HD creatures are rounded up to 1, anything less is worthless in most cases) the cage may store up to 100 levels worth of souls. The souls remain trapped indefinitely until used, they are released, or the cage is destroyed. An Iron Lich may release all the souls if it so chooses but may not specifically select any specific one. A person unfamiliar with a specific soul cage can set the souls free with a DC 25 use magic device or spell-craft check as a full round action that provokes attacks of opportunity. Only Creatures with an int of 3 or higher can have their souls drawn in by the soul cage.
Soul Fuel: The Iron Lich may use any or all of the levels of souls with its cage (if it has it in its possession) to aid in the casting of spells or the creation of magical items. The lich may use each soul level to provide 10xp worth of cost for a spell or in the creation cost of a magical item. This does not destroy the soul, but damages it greatly and causes an unbearable amount of pain, after which the soul is freed and may journey to its afterlife destination. However, any creature that is latter resurrected suffers extra penalties upon its resurrection due to the strain placed upon it by this horrible act. If the creature would be subject to level loss it instead loses 2 levels instead of 1, if it cannot lose both levels it permanently loses 2 points of constitution for each level it could not lose. Additionally the creature is so traumatized its wisdom and charisma and drained to 1 and they can only be restored by a restoration spell followed by a heal spell.
At 3rd Level the Lich gains a +2 to one mental stat of its choice.
Came Across the old warmachine d20 books recently and really liked (most) of what I read about the Iron Lichs they have in the setting, changed a few things up and tried to work them into something that could be more setting neutral as well, they get some powerful abilities but also lose 3 levels of spell-casting and maybe more to get the heavy armor prof they need to qualify so hopefully that balances it out a bit. The Prices on the items it can create could potentially be adjusted as well, especially the Soul Cage. I'm not really sure how much something like that should cost.
