Can Fighters Work as D&D Villains?

Okay people, from the top: Bard Lich - Anyways, here's Wonderwall~ +consumes your soul+ Sorcerer Lich - We keep it in the family. Druid Lich - KILL, CONSUME, MULTIPLY, CONQUER. Artificier Lich - The Flesh is Weak. Barbarian Lich - Muscle Man Too Angry to Die. Ranger Lich - Mr. Pet Sementary's Wild Ride (The Ride Never Ends) And now, Fighter Lich... YOU SHOULD ENLIST ON THE ARMY, NOW +cracks of thunder+

You make me want to see an evil campaign where everyone is a totally different class, and each person is trying to become their version of litch.

"What even are you?" "I am War." This has to be my favorite lich so far. I recently came up with a very similar monster, but this is so much more fleshed out!

This is an active Valkyrie. Recollecting dead Warriors, giving the option to fight again. This dead march can use the idea to create and legion of Honor bound, passion bound warriors.

“Draft do not upload” Proceeds to upload

Ah yes. Another Lich for my collection

One thing I like about this lich is that since the body the lich is possessing doesn't decompose it can be passive if necessary. So imagine the last survivor of a battle, waiting in a abandoned fort awaiting a defeated enemy from a war years ago standing there in his full armor. If the players spoke to him, asking why he was there, he replied "I'm waiting for them" and if they said that the enemy was defeated years ago he answer "No, he wasn't", now imagine if he was right and the old enemy is the BBG? I love the troupe of 'My duty is not done yet for me to die' and this lich is perfect to it

Next campaign I run I'm going for "oops all liches," where I manipulate each of my players into "trying this neat backstory concept I found on YouTube" and seeing how long it takes before the party realizes everyone is trying to become a lich.

"Only in death does service end"... "Well you see..."

I love how killing this lich meaningful changes its character. With other phylacteries it feels like the lich just respawns, but here they have a new body with different combat powers, which seems like a defining trait of the fighter-lich

Pointy Hat: Let me introduce... the Death March, that constantly builds a standing army that literally marches in death to prolong its undead life. Griffith: Heavy Breathing

I also had an idea for a Lich Fighter. Inspired by the Jar Warriors from Elden Ring, the Iron Flesh. A warrior can only achieve a maximum amount of strength. Even undeath does not break the borders of the flesh that eventually reaches its limit. Not a problem, as the flesh and bones of warriors and monsters across time and space are his to conquer. They are sets of armor that instead of a body, have a mass of meat and bones of countless strong living beings that were defeated and eventually assimilated to become part of the Iron Flesh. Their phylactery is a cauldron that has all the accumulated remains the Iron Flesh collected and uses to fill his especially made armor that can place part of every single creature in the cauldron onto it, making it learn all skills and abilities from them. Naturally, you must destroy the cauldron to defeat it, because even if all the remains run out, their soul still lingers in the cauldron.

-the Litche’s phylactery-minions decay over time. -intense cold preserves things. (Why do you think we keep raw meat in freezers?) -cold = increased minion lifespan. Well, guess who’s gonna make a Draugr / White Walker themed Death March~~~ 😈

Inigo Montoya: My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die Death March: Not much of a threat boy

You could get an insanely powerful army with this, I would use wights for his soldiers. Which means each kill they get can raise up to 10 zombies, you get almost like a structured army of general, commanders, soldiers. Although instead of making them rot away I would have it that the commanders retain some of their original personality, and if one of them managers to slay the Dearh March they become the new lich. What this does is it forces the lich to keep pushing to be the best fighter, while also giving the players more roleplay opportunity with the army itself. Hell they could even be an undead character on a mission to train to kill the Death March.

this is figuratively the best thing ever. a warlord who partakes in necromancy is just so obviously powerful and present on the world scale. having even a single death march in a DND world would shift the balance of power, because as you said they dont always need a incentive to help a ruler win as they NEED the corpses of others to stay alive. and them being a master fighter warlord gives them some fun flavor, as they could theoretically be honorable/merciful as they can only raise true warriors (fighters) so they would have no reason to kill, say a wizard or rogue.

"War... I am war." -Apollyon

I like how you came up with a compleatly different idea then what I got. After like a first few seconds an idea instantly came to my mind "soul blade" as in a fighter that made his soul into his own weapon, now I have TWO cool ideas to think about

Idea for a Death March (that I’m using for my campaign): A pirate Commodore travels the seas seeking out strong pirates to challenge in combat. After nearly exterminating pirates of his level, he becomes a Death March. The exterminated pirates and their related crews become his undead army of phylacteries. They are an undead Grand Fleet, traveling the seas and constantly seeking out strong pirate crews to take out and add to the Grand Fleet. I’ll be using this idea as a mini boss and a combat challenge for my level 17 party and he might pop up a few times before he’s finished for good!

NGL, death march gives me some solo leveling vibes Also, could see a kingdom hiding a death march in a frozen cave to preserve the rotting ones, only freeing them at times of war.