Barry the Lich (3.5e NPC)

''Ahead you see a shadowy figure appear from the shadows. A menacing skeletal visage, surrounded by hideous zombies and skeletons, intones dread incantations and points a bony finger at you, unleashing a bolt of lightning! You dodge the attack with minimal harm, and as you spin around to defend yourself, to your surprise, the figure yelps, "Get to the Chopper!" and flees!''

An adept of no real talent who managed to uncover the rituals of lichdom. He seeks power, but until recently lacked the skill and means to get it. Now that he has become a lich, he has realized to his dismay that adept training lacks the punch of other (i.e. real) casters, like clerics.

Combat
For all his pretensions to the contrary, Barry the Lich is woefully aware that he lacks the magic power and physical endurance to withstand powerful opponents. He generally relies more on his lich abilities, especially paralyzing touch, to render enemies helpless or unwilling to fight him. He uses his spells sparingly and strategically, usually using bestow curse to cripple more powerful foes, web to keep enemies away from him, and lightning bolt to finish off as many weakened enemies as possible. He usually maintains a small force of undead minions to aid him (up to 44 HD worth, usually an assortment of weaker skeletons and a few powerful zombies), most of which are more formidable in melee than he is! He also tries to use Bluff to convince his enemies he is more intimidating than is in fact the case, and he uses invisibility to help him to sneak away undetected, at least from fighters or wizards who have no ranks in Listen.

Background
Barry has desired great power for his entire life, but his understanding of power has been rather simplistic; his very decision to become a lich is based on the fact that liches are powerful spellcasters, rather than that powerful spellcasters may become liches. Never a particularly good student, he is now having to learn tactics at a rapid pace, as his nascent lichdom has started to attract powerful rivals and adventuring bands, none of whom he is even remotely equipped to fight.

His phylactory is a small ring he collected on his travels; unbeknownst to him, it is an inactive ring of elemental command (fire), which has weakened over time to provide only fire resistance 10. If it ever got reactivated, Barry might well get his wish for more power, although whether he would know what to do with it is anyone's guess. Luckily for Barry, normal means to identify a lich's phylactory have only a 5% chance to succeed on his ring, because his rather slipshod attempt to replicate the lichdom rituals resembles nothing any other lich has ever tried before.

If Barry does get the ring activated, he will receive the following (+1 effective CR):
 * Resist energy (fire) (as a major ring of energy resistance [fire])
 * Burning hands (unlimited use)
 * Flaming sphere (twice per day)
 * Pyrotechnics (twice per day)
 * Wall of fire (once per day)
 * Flame strike (twice per week)
 * -2 saves against water or cold-based effects (Note that his immunity to cold means this is not as crippling as it might seem).
 * Ability to charm elementals of the Elemental Plane of Fire (Barry might well acquire one or two fire elemental guardians in this way).

Campaign
For characters of 5th-7th level, Barry makes an interesting, if slightly comedic, villain, who is nominally much higher level, yet is not much stronger than the party wizard or cleric. His ability to control more powerful skeletons and zombies is mitigated by his love of quantity over quality, and his desire to be stronger than his own minions (thus favoring skeletal warriors over ogre zombies, for instance). Against enemies of his level, Barry is much more vulnerable and will generally seek to divide and then destroy the party, one member at a time. Evil though he is, if sufficiently cowed, Barry could prove an interesting, if unreliable, asset, since his pride does not override his desire for survival.