Sourcebook [D&D5e]: Acererak’s Guide to Lichdom – English Version

I start by saying that I got the material for free from the author in order to write this review. If you are interested, Acererak’s Guide to Lichdom is available for purchase on Dungeon Masters Guild.

I read the name Acererak for the first time when I was preparing, years ago, one of the deadliest dungeon of Dungeons & Dragons history, Tomb of Horrors. How evil must Acererak be to have built such a bastard dungeon? Therefore there’s not a better creature to contact to obtain knowledges about evil and tips to become a lich or to manage one (in order to survive or not making survive your players)!

Do you need this sourcebook? In my opinion yes (if you are a dungeon master) because in your life sooner or later that moment will arrive. The moment in which you decide to drop the “big bomb” to resize cocky players making them discover again the meaning of fear and caution. Or to create a memorable villaing for a campaign. Will this handbook be enough to give proper tools to reach that goal? Let’s find out!

The material is varied…

Acererak’s Guide to Lichdom is a sourcebook for D&D 5e written by Marco Bertini and Marco Fossati (and Acererak, I don’t want to get him angry) for the brand Sign of the Dragon, at their second project after Vault of Magic. As the title states, it’s about liches and its goal is giving enough elements to create unique ones, manage them and give them proper surround. In the specific, this 32 pages handbook offers:

• 40 new traits and actions
• 4 new (although ancient) liches ready to smash adventurers
• 2 new monsters and 1 new NPC
• The Baelorn (a particular good aligned elf lich)
• 2 new magic items
• 5 new traps
• 2 detailed maps of liches’ lairs

More than this, you will obtain a 8 page preview, useful to be sent to friends and brag about your purchase, and the HQ version of the maps in the handbook, to be printed or used online.

… presented in the right way…

I have already reviewed a product by Marco Bertini, the adventure La Seconda Alba Nera (available in Italian only), that stroke me for the great quality of art and layout. Acererak’s Guide to Lichdom is nothing less, on the contrary! Maybe the topic helps finding good illustrations, but the result is remarkable. Beautiful, evoking pics, perfectly blended with a clear text, perfectly set among titles, text boxes, quotes and hypertextual links. In this review you’ll see some previews of the art, but there are a lot of great illustrations.

In this sourcelist (as I call a sourcebook that is a list of entries to be chosen and used) in my opinion there are two main elements to consider about content: the novelty of ideas and the ease to access infos. I’m not interested in paying to read something I could think about by myself neither to go forward and backward among pages just to find the entry I was searching.

Speaking of this the handbook is properly divided and easy to consult. It’s not very long so it’s hard to get lost and illustrations help recognizing quickly the pages. Hypertextual links are useful, but chapter bookmarks are missing.

… and qualitatively good.

Chapter I gives a bold list of actions and reactions and of traits to personalize your own lich. Chapter II speaks about tactics of liches, evaluating strong and weak sides and giving opinions and tips on how a lich should be built. Good cues for everyone, in particular for newbie dungeon master in search of help creating a lich, diversifying it from the one in the monster manual and going against the adventurers with him. Chapter III is a great menu with four liches prêt-à-porter: two pages each, one about description and flavour (very nice the textboxes that helps painting the monster beyond stats) and one with the complete sheet. Appendixes close the handbook. There we find magic items, monsters, NPC, traps and maps (beautiful ones). The concents in my opinion are quite good, they help personalizing quickly and with variety the lich that we want to build. With some fantasy and effort from the dungeon master, the material is enough to give nightmares to countless group of adventurers. In every part, Acererak’s Guide to Lichdom reveals a simple and applicable use of the system mechanics, making it easily blended with official releases.

Conclusions

Nice and useful. The handbook’s tone is professional when needed and funny where possible. Graphically is very beautiful and the layout is perfect. Contents aren’t many, because they are commensurate to the 32 pages. But if you are interested in the topic and you are willing to pay the price, Acererak’s Guide to Lichdom won’t disappoint you: a brief read, a pleasure for the eyes and everyone will find cues and useful informations, especially for dungeon master new in the world of liches.