I've started a campaign for my husband and several of his friends, one of which has seemed less than enthusiastic about playing. He waited until just before we started playing to flesh out the Wizard character I pre-created for him after he told me he was thinking a necromancer wizard character would be fun. About 20 minutes before the first session (everyone else playing had characters ready a couple weeks ago including detailed backstories) he tells me he wants to play as a lich that was dropped into the plane of existence our game is starting on about 5 years ago with amnesia....

This is my first time being a DM and our first game went really well, according to my players. I was sweating up a storm and had more paper references out that I did studying for my nursing boards 6 years ago. I didn't have a chance to look into the details of a lich until after our first game and it seems really unrealistic for a level 1 player.

My question is, can a level 1 wizard also be a lich? I saw there is an undying wizard option and plan to suggest that to this player in place of starting level 1 as a lich. Has anyone had a player start as a lich? Pros? Cons?

It doesn't seem to be a reasonable request - as Lichs are really powerful - until you get to the "with amnesia" clause.

However, you can turn a problem into an opportunity; work with the player.

How about this:

• The Player used to have the soul of the Lich, from another plane.
• The Lich was banished to the Prime Material plane, and was so damaged, has no access to his/her memories and powers. This is important: the Player gets no mechanic or game benefit for being a former Lich, who can't even remember they are a Lich.

That leaves you - the DM - with not a liability, but a great source of role-playing and story elements.

As the player adventures, they can start to remember snippets of a former life that they didn't even know they had! The DM can use this to shape the story, plant all sorts of adventure hooks, and work with the Player to create a really interesting and details story arc for that Character.

If you like - as the DM - you can customize some of their level-up abilities, withholding some abilities, and substituting more former-Lich'y abilities.

This could be really interesting, especially if the Lich was a horrible being ( pretty much guaranteed ... you know .... Lich ), and the character is actually a good person. They can try and resolve their horrible past and their current situation.

You even could - at some story climax down the road, many many levels away - have the former evil essence of the Lich, and the current personality of the character struggle for control.

As a DM, you'll need to know how to roll with Player punches, come up with compromises, but - at the same time - not let the Players get away with murder ( unlike the Characters ... ).

It's kind of like being a parent.

Since you're a new DM, welcome to the Dark Side ( we have cookies ), and best of luck! Feel free to lean on us here in the forums. We'll give you all sorts of conflicting advice you can then ignore, but use to spark your own ideas ;)

the most ridiculously broken concept i've ever heard of, someone wants to play something which is subject to turn undead, subject to banishment and can't be healed, 
let em, then hit them with all 3 problems one after another, though i'd save the banishment for last, as they will then be on their home  plane unless they get dusted from the turning

Awesome, thank you so much Vexdexent! I was wracking my brain on how to try to make this work for him and just could not get anything to make sense.

So mechanically the player is still a level 1 wizard and use the Lich aspect as a backstory primarily and to work into the future. Rather than be a Lich acting as a level 1 with the benefits of a Lich, change how the wizard levels up to reflect his un-remembered history and Lich aspects? I think I can work with that.

I was prepared for gentle pushes from my level 1 players and this guy managed to sucker punch me from out of no where! I must admit, I feel like it was an initiation by fire for sure. Thanks for the welcome to the dark side! I love cookies. :)

You're welcome :)

Captain Carrot does raise some points though - not only should the Character not gain any benefit from their former Lichdom, but they should not be subject to the penalties, either - yet.

I would dangle former Lich abilities in front of the character ( as possible replacements for more normal Wizard level upgrades ) but couple them with Lich vulnerabilities, and let the character choose how much, if any, of their former nature they wish to embrace. If they reject them, and embrace their new Human nature, give them normal level-up benefits.

Personally, I'd be mean, and dangle that power in front of them when they might not absolutely need it to overcome an obstacle, but it would make overcoming the obstacle easy. Make them choose between integrity and the convenience of power. This only really works if the Player is playing the character as a generally good person, however. You could make the Lich nature of the character want to destroy something ( or someone ) that the human nature of the character prizes, or has become attached to, as well. Essentially make two disparate natures in the character at odds, and let the Player's choices decide which side is winning, and what the character is becoming.

It's an interesting concept - and if your Player has the interest and ability to make it so - it could be a very interesting character development arc.

Captaincarrot, that's what my initial reaction was, but as this is one of his first experiences with D and D I'd like him to enjoy it for at least a hot minute before I let him bring his own ruin down on his head.

I like the idea of letting him choose throughout the game of how much ruin to actively pick!

When he originally told me he was interested in a wizard using necromancy I thought that was pretty cool (not what I would have picked to play for myself so feels more wild to me) and had some cool twists thought out to throw his way but starting as a Lich brought me to a complete standstill, I had no idea how to work with that!

If you want to be really cruel, I already have a mechanism for creating liches from unwilling victims in my homebrew, as it's a concept I have in my current campaign, an evil emperor had a habit of kidnapping archmages, and transforming them into subservient liches which he used as part of his bodyguard, prior to becoming a demigod, check my homebrew for the book of the dead, you might find something in there which gives you a spark of an idea for somewhere to go with it in the long term, 

I've had characters become liches in my games in the past, it's the first lvl part where things get seriously broken, if someone has a necromancer high enough level I have no problems with them becoming a lich in game, I even reworked them for one campaign so they got rid of the being evil part, though that campaign needed people who could live for 8000 years and had the odd century down time here and there

Thanks, Captaincarrot, I'll have to take a look at that!

Something that can be done is that you state that this player has amnesia because a banishing ritual took place that sent them into this plane of existence. This banishment ritual has stripped them of their powers and their memories, with this backstory you can now scale their powers and memories based on the effects of the ritual wearing off and weakening due to being on a separate plane.  You can then award the player with slightly different spells of the same level as the character such as turn undead for low levels and Raise dead for higher levels. This can give you some wiggle room for keeping the player character balanced to the rest of the team and give you some variety in story elements that you can use. I hope this helps and wish you luck. 

Thanks everyone for the input! I felt ready to tackle this crazy thing!

While I was busy scrambling and trying to make this work and consulting with you all, my husband mentioned to this player that his character seemed awful moody and reminded him in RPG video games he usually likes more happy go lucky characters... so I texted the player last night and he mentioned he likes the idea of amnesia a lot and was just trying to think up a way to make that work. So we've scratched the Lich idea entirely and he agreed to be a Neutral player with amnesia (whose personality will develop as he plays and/or has memories) and wants his past to come to light as we play and is leaving it entirely in my hands.

Conflict resolved, I feel like this is a lot of power in my court. I'm already having fun with ideas, depending on what they do as a party the next couple sessions. I'm thinking flashback snippets, but not enough to make sense of anything, in dreams or when he awakens from unconsciousness (assuming he'll reach no hit points at some time). We will see, I'm feeling more confident having other DMs to consult!

Don't worry, I'll be back with the next thing I can't figure out! :D

When characters come up with something creative, but then don't use it -don't hestitate! Pounce on that idea and file it under "Things I can use later writing a storyline" ;)

Nothing to say they can't run into a major NPC or ally somewhere down the road that turns out to have been a Lich in a former life ;)