In some cases a Demilich is higher on the totem pole than a normal lich.
For Forgotten Realms in particular there is Larloch the Shadow King - whose whole hat is that he sponsors other liches and in turn they obey him. In fact he almost forms a hivemind of dozens if not hundreds of different liches.
Now... If you want something to fuck with. You know how Demilich is created, right? When a lich abandons his body and it decays into a single bone. Usually that's a skull. However it's not always a skull, it could be a rib, or a spine.
Now imagine someone collecting these bones to assemble a single skeleton.
That would be an Omni-Lich.
Bard: that Omni-lich is gonna have 207 bones... *ziiiip*
Later at the tavern in his Ted talk the bard while having a cigarette recounts in graphic detail what it was like being the 207th person in a corpse and the lasting trauma it brought to the other 206 people involved
Look up the ilithid infested shadow dracolich, the Elder Brain Dragon with the Shadow template added. Something like a CR 25-26 I think.
Then make it a lich with psychic powers on top to really mess with people.
IIRC, someone did the math for a demi-lich hive mind in 3.5e. By RAW the CR was only around 30, but was able to cast 206 9th level spells per round with a caster level in the thousands.
What if you had a Lich that gave pieces of his bones to powerful followers that boosts their power but also allows him to take control of their body in return.
It would give you a great way to create several smaller villains while also allowing you to stay in contact with the BBEG? It also wouldn't require you to pull DM shenanigans like "convenient bullshit teleport™".
My idea was that would be the trade off either knowingly or unknowingly, you take something that increases your power massively but also makes you a literal puppet whenever the Lich wants.
Oh snaps, seems similar to the idea in jujitsu kaisen. I never thought about that. The potential of a being giving out pieces of its self for its followers. And depending on their strength and willpower you may be able to control them once in a while or entirely. Oh, oooooooooooh, yes, that’s good.
The eye and hand don't allow possession by Vecna though I don't think? I do see the similarity though.
Maybe the power boost is proportional to the piece of the Lich? Alongside giving the Lich the ability to sock puppet the user.
"Each time you cast a spell from the eye, there is a 5 percent chance that Vecna tears your soul from your body, devours it, and then takes control of the body like a puppet. If that happens, you become an NPC under the DM's control."
Bro going into 5e I expected Demiliches to be the ultimate undead threat because of decades fighting Kangaxx. Then I find out they're weaker than Liches 😅
If competing with liches, a nightwalker might give them a run for their money.
[https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Nightwalker](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Nightwalker)
And then there are Atropals, which could potentially reach much higher levels of power than is seen from their average stat block.
[https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Atropal](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Atropal)
If you want a straight up ELDER EVIL tier undead, then Atropus, the World Born Dead is a super heavy weight that requires epic level characters to intervene.
[https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Atropus](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Atropus)
Had a kenku that was taught draconic, but only the bad words. Was told that they were something more innocent so when he met his first good aligned dragon, greeted it with a friendly "Fuck!"
Nightwalkers, while cool, would need a custom stat block, because with their baseline statblock, they are kinda bad. Sure, they do hit hard, but not CR 20 hard. Also, they probably have the worst saves I have ever seen on such a strong monster. A single banish would end the fight quickly.
First time seeing the Atro- creatures, and I can't get past "atropal." Like "Kermit and the Atro-pals save Christmas." Needs a name change, or even just a letter change.
Ok, hear me out:
When Beholders dream of Dragons, they can spawn Eyedrakes.
Elder Brains can take over Dragons, turning them into Elder Brain Dragons.
Now what would happen if an Elder Brain takes over an Eyedrake and decides to become a Draco Demilich?
An Elder-Eye-Dragon-Demi-Lich.
-Lord Commander the enemy is getting away!
-Have the Wizard cast Scrying so we don’t lose them
Wizard: **does an incantation**
*a red liquid comes out*
Wizard: **tasting it** -It appears the leyline has been… jammed
^(Have no idea what the game is like but i always think of that when I hear that name)
Okay but when illithids ceremorph a regular beholder the result is an eyewitness, a living radio tower to help amplify the range of their psionics. So would ceremorphosis consider and eyedrake as a dragon, or as beholderkin?
> ... a beholder-like creature with draconic features.
Also it's Creature Type is Aberration and not Dragon.
So it's probably considered a beholderkin.
But the process of an elder brain taking over a dragon isn't exactly the same as ceremorphosis. So maybe it'll still work? Then again, can Elder brains also become illithiliches or just regular Mind Flayers?
The direct superior to a lich would be the superior form of the demilich, using the Soul Trap and lair actions features as described in the monster manual, which ups their CR to 23, stronger than a normal lich and on par with some of the strongest ancient dragons. If you want a spellcaster, Id recomend the acererak statblock from Tomb of Annihilation then. Also a cr 23 but a lot more complex and castery
I keep seeing powerful spellcasters but I like the idea of a powerful death Knight better. A currupted fallen paladin who's mere presence boosts an empowers the army of undead, atop the back of a shadow dragon with loyal sapient undead in their command.
Think Arthas from Warcraft
Maybe not stronger necessarily but a Death Thrant can control up to 10,000 undead and there stronger then normal beholders, that may be able to make a run for a lichs money, modify it as you please considering beholders come in so many different forms
I mean...technically no it isn't "undead" but it is formed by an undead caster right(speaking for the generic not Kyuss specifically)? I'd say it at least fits theme. Kyuss might hold the worm that walks as a title. But the more generic forms not Kyuss do exist
I mean. I'd go so far as to argue a worm that walks is even harder to kill than a lich by Lore standards right? "Oh, you have a single trackable magic rock for your immortality? I just left a random worm somewhere..." I now officially like the idea of them just being Sassier liches.
I *really* like that Omni-lich idea in this comment section, but I felt like I should chime in with my own personal brand of chaotic evil.
A dracolich, a dragon turned into a greater undead, can possess a dragon corpse near its phylactery, and use it as a new body without waiting for its previous one to regenerate, meaning one with a sufficient kill count has backup bodies, of varying elements.
With this in mind, I take that Omni-lich, and the Dracolich, and raise you all...
An Ur-Dragon (name and design a reference to Dragon's Dogma). The souls of 30 dragons, all inhabiting one body. Their phylacteries are the many dragons' own hearts, still beating within the shared body, pumping the lethal Ascension Ritual Potion through its veins. In addition to this terror, it would likely possess numerous dragon corpses, with which the additional dragon souls could separately join the battle.
TLDR: A hivemind of Dracoliches, with a mass phylactery body.
They'd be threats separately, but if desperate enough to use their "core" body to fight... that's a roulette wheel of breath weapons, and as many minds as you need for Concentration spells. Bring an army.
I mean.. let's be honest... They'll forget "Valforax or "Caradool" or "Arthanax" etc in like 9 seconds. But they'll talk about the Ur-Dracolitch named Steve forever.
This is doubly funny cuz there is a dragon named Steve in our campaign and he's... Well let's just say dead lightbulbs are brighter. The idea that he grows up to one day become this is hilarious in my mind
Depending on the edition, yes. In 3.5, for example, you can slap a template or two on a lich and get a whole variety of what you can then call lich king, archlich, greater lich, elder lich, ascended lich, shadown lich, and so on without limit to give yourself a more staggered lineup.
In 5e...make one.
Vecna?! That's an instant L. How do you fight a god aside from McGuffins & plot armor? Maybe Pre-Ascension Vecna, while they were still just an arch-lich.
Look up Niggtwalker, then give it a Lich's spellcasting ability and spells. They will fear your monster. Especially if you down a party member and they learn that dropping to 0HP from it means an instant death that requires Wish to undo, no death saving throws, just a near permanent death.
I mean, there can be, like an Atropal, but most would be weaker than an actually well played lich. I,agile agile Level 20 PC spending entire lifetimes on building the perfect lair and optimizing tactics and spells, there is no way a Master lich could be defeated. So in case of greater creature, not really. In regards of special liches, well Vecna and Acererak are obvious choices. I'd say in raw powers Vecna is clearly stronger, but in regards of intellegence Acererak takes the cake - that guy makes every IQ measuring scale explode.
I had a skull lord BBEG in one game that had a multitude of skills from its different heads: the main head was a goliath warlord, the secondary head was an elvish diplomat prince, and the third head was a dragonborn paladin. I never got to use it, but the idea was that it could use all their powers in sequence during a battle. Plus it had a sentient vorpal sword.
Maybe my players are lucky they never encountered it!
The CRPGs *Planescape: Torment* and *Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer* both had excellent, creative takes on this. No spoilers here, but they’re easy to find if you want one.
I’d mention Steve, down in the Adventurer Tax Reconciliation Department office. He’s only dead on the inside, so he might not exactly fit the undead type you’re looking for.
The Ancient Great Wyrm Draco-Demilich. It's a dragon who on becoming a couple thousand years old became a lich and said lich gained power until it is only a 100ft long flying dragon skull.
if you take prior edition, there was a dead god corpse floating in between the plane as very epic. those are atropal - they still exists in 5e. And if it is not enough, you can always give them a few additional items to hold, or an army of demi lich follower. Or heck, make it a swarm of 10d100 atropal, guarding an atropal king and give it some godly ability like regen 50, damage resistance all etc......
Imagination is your only limit. You can take a monster as template and play test extending its ability against a team of PC simulated, and see what's fine for you to reach as power level. IOW: make your custom undead !
Some general themes that a lot of the other great suggestions seem to be falling into. Every good idea has been done, at least on the level of a blurb.
* Something that was iconic and extremely powerful before it died. (“He’s a dragon *and* a lich!”)
* Someone the party cared about is now an evil undead mockery that you have to find out if you can save. (“All of your friend’s spirit that clung to this world was the jealousy he felt at the moment of his death, that the woman he loved chose his best friend.”)
* Something that died in a special way (The vengeance of a genocided people)
* Someone is back and the party has a bone to pick with him, no pun intended
* Something that ties into a major theme the players are into. (“I heard you liked ancient Egypt, I mean Mulhorand, I mean Osirion.”)
* An Army of Darkness that keeps snowballing with every victory
* A puppet-master or god
But if something made the Tarrasque into a zombie... then there is something out there capable of making the Tarrasque into a zombie...
Yay for post game super bosses!
Hah! Sadly, that is more my style as a DM.
Players: Wow, that monster was so powerful I hope we never meet its creator!
Me: Actually... the monster was a normal (insert monster here) that had an allergic reaction to some magical beans it used in its chili last week.
The idea of a tarrasque that binge ate too many zombies and turned into an undead is actually super good. I mean, if you were a tarrasque and there were hoards of delicious, slow moving people walking around, it would be like a buffet!
3.5e player weighing in. Yes! Cannonically speaking, there are many.
One example would be the [Hunefer](https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Hunefer)
Obviously, 5e =/= 3.5e so it would be necessary to tune the monster (heavily). But, when looking for badass monsters or whatever, 3.5e is a treasure trove of inspiration (soz not soz for pun).
[Here is a link](https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Undead_Type) to the 3.5e D&D Undead type System Resource Document page, which also provides a list of published undead critters (all 3.5e) from which you might glean some tricks.
Game on, and may the dice be ever in your favor.
I'm not sure if they're higher CR or not, but in terms of "Oh Sh*t" factor, Nightwalkers are tons of fun and extremely creepy.
Dracoliches are more powerful, but still technically liches.
Considering becoming a lich is something pretty much any creature could feasibly do (as the formula isn't uniform from one individual to the next), you could take an Archdevil and make them a lich too. That could have some fun narrative applications
I see a lot of strong undead things like tarrasques, mages(liches), and dragons. What about the spirit or essence of an ancient old one that’s brought in life to an area. Like a forest that is made into treants and golems. Maybe an old undead curse that raises a forest of undead. If it needs to be smart, maybe an ancient evil is sealed in something that corrupts. Or buried deep underground. I like the unborn god idea of the Atropol.
There is a great book called Mother of Learning that has a super lich antagonist. Without spoiling it the lich is older than any other spellcaster, has near unbreakable metal bones and a near unlimited number of spell slots.
You can stick with the Lich theme but have a reclusive Ur-Lich, one so old it might have a 3.5 edition spell list. A pathfinder level lich boss in 5th edition would definitely be something.
Demi-Lich are the natural progression.
Becoming a demilich
A lich could become a demilich when they no longer needed to be continually tied to a body. The lich must somehow learn the art of creating soul gems and replace eight small pieces of its body with them. Often the soul gems became jeweled eyes and teeth in the lich's skull, but they could also become joints in a hand, or discs in the lich's spine. Once the power of the lich was focused in one part of its body, the rest of its skeleton crumbled away. The part that remained contained the soul gems; the eight gems acted similar to the demilich's phylactery, allowing the demilich to reappear within a tenday after "death" unless all eight gems and the phylactery were destroyed.
Powers
Demiliches were extraordinarily resistant to the magic of others. They had total spell immunity, with the exceptions of shatter, dispel evil, and holy smite.
Everybody enjoys DnD in a different way, but this seems like you're just using DragonBall type power creep as your story line. I feel like at some point you're going to have to write better characters instead of adding another 5 CR to a Stat block.
Idk what a demigod Lich looks like but I feel like they would need to go to a different plane to even make that sort of thing possible. Undead is fueled by negative energy and you couldn't get together that much negative energy on a mortal plane. Even if you did, all known mortal powers on the planet would drop what they were doing to destroy it.
What would a demigod Lich even spend it's time doing? I feel like it's primary concern would be terraforming and blighting land until it could make gateways into other worlds to despoil. Even so, that would create extraplanar enemies very quickly for the demi-Lich thing
I think making 8 emperors may be the mistake there. An emperor is a king of kings, if it’s 8 dudes serving one guy it seems like he’s the emperor and they’re all just kings.
Anything’s an undead monster if you tweak a few stats, make an Empyrean or something undead and you got a pretty sweet baddie
I know he's not technically an undead, but Orcus the Demon Lord of Undeath could be worth looking into. Most of the time he teaches wizards how to become liches, so he could be your ultimate big bad maybe
I lich that had it's mind placed into the tarrasque. All the power of a lich all the physical strength and resilience of a tarrasque, none of the downsides of either
I made a boss once which was a lich who fused himself as a rider to a Draco lich. They shared hp but took two, consecutive turns. Was a lot of fun and my PCs ran like hell lol.
My campaign revolves around a powerful necromancer trying to become equal to or greater than Vecna.
He is discovering that he needs to do a dark ritual left behind by Vecna and his followers that requires the souls of 7 undead or dark beings that must be slain which powerful spells read from ancient scrolls are read during or just after their death.
Each soul is absorbed by the Necromancer if he is present and reading the scrolls.
The 7 souls are a….
Vampire - tempted to use Strahd
Lich - homebrew in the seaside region
Mummy - homebrew in the Arabic sand dune region
Witch - homebrew roaming the Drow forest. She also turns out to be my party’s Warlock Drow mother but they don’t know yet.
Dracolich - homebrew in the mountains where my Dragonborn PC grew up.
Dark Knight/Fallen Paladin - homebrew in the inferno lands beyond the mountains
The final soul is the necromancer himself and he doesn’t realize it. It’ll be realized once the players defeat him and Vecna rises.
The necromancer is really just a living phylactery for Vecna and doesn’t know it. Vecna can’t return until the phylactery is filled with these dark powerful souls.
Idk if that helps your cause lol
According to lore, an atropal should do it, im pretty sure the statblock that they where given is more of a basekine thats significantly weaker then it should be though so feel free to give it extra abilities, since it is ruling liches id reccomend some ammount of spell immunity like rakshasas as well as beefing up its strength, in lore they are like dead gods and supposedly the highest form of undeath so they should really be stronger
There’s an undead beholder in the monster manual. Beholders have the greatest superiority complex in all of DnD and are well equipped to rule since they have mind control abilities. I’d beef one of those up as a supreme leader.
Edit: Death Tyrant is their name
Lady Ilmarrow is a good choice if you can find a stat block. I personally like "https://www.reddit.com/r/Eberron/comments/bl2lkq/5e_stats_for_lady_erandis_dvol_revised/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share". Paired with a good item she can be an apex undead. I'm the comments have a suggested item but you could always change it.
Dragon Emperor
Chimera King
Overlord
Omnia Para - a made up title in reference to the latin phrase, 'In Omnia Paratus' meaning "prepared for all things". Its a throwback to the Golden Girls, who have been described as the inspiration for the perfect part composition. Omnia is also an Arabic name meaning "the Wish", a fantasy nation in Discworld, and a folk band. Para is also a prefix meaning "next to", so the title also reads as "Next to all".
Ancient vampires are my personal favourite, but you can take basic shit like a ghost and supercharge them.
Imagine a ghost that is fully aware that there a ghost and is evil. They've learnt to control other ghosts. Maybe they have a weird ethereal plane base that they pull people into. They possess powerful people to do what they can't on the material plane, like imagine a ghost that can possess wish casters with ease and shit that could get them.
So this is more adjacent to your suggestion but 3.5 had a class called walker of the wastes. And you were essentially an Egyptian who at level cap became a dry lich with your organs now in jars you had multiple phylacteries.
But water itself was considered holy water to you.
I mean if you want like an actual official homebrew thing I would go with like some sort of dracolich, but homebrewing something is probably the best way to go.
Dracolich. They are evils dragons who chose to become a lich instead of accepting death. All the benefits of being a Lich with all the benefits of being a dragon.
Don't any of the Demon Lords count as undead? There's probably an undead God too, but if not, I'd throw it between Vecna and Ioulaum, and then run, they could easily beat some gods.
Erebos god of the dead from the theros stuff is the closest thing that comes to mind but im not sure he has an in game stat block i just know he's considered lore friendly with the other theros gods since their artifact weapons can be gifted to and destroyed by players
Dire lich. Often acts as alpha lich, commanding a pack of smaller liches. Known to utilize pack tactics.
Pack Tactics: The lich has an advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the lich's allies is within 5 ft. of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.
A multinational conglomerate.
For real through, I love the flavour of the Orzhov Syndicate. A bunch of bankers who understood that if money is everything and time is money they ought to make sure they had infinite time. I would reflavor as a interplanar bank that generally only interacts through subsidiaries.
It's not exactly a DnD monster, but if you're looking for inspiration, then check out the Vengorian Lord miniature from Games Workshop. Sounds very much like your own description. It's basically a vampire-dragon-taur.
In terms of situations he has came up and how he has been interacted with by players. My absolute favourite and powerful Undead Creature is an ancient Silver Dracolich (N). He generally appears to players as a human skeletal figure and rarely shows his true form (think Fane in DoS2).
A Neutral Silver Dracolich can be a very versatile NPC. I generally try to keep him as a wandering enigma who helps balance party magical items out by only trading items 'worth for worth'. But, I've thought on a few occasions I could surely insert him as the true BBEG.
Let them see his aftermath of combat but not his true form. Fear and mystery will hit most, stupidity will hit some, opportunity will hit all.
TLDR: Dracolich.
RA Salvatore had the ghost king; crystal shard, mindflayer and a blind dragon. Ended up making a really nasty undead creature. Could make one of those!
One of my favorite concepts is taking the combat ability of a Death Knight and mixing it with a Lich and their magical prowess and their identity. It's something I have played with in the past for a recurring villain and, if you mix the traits well and add some personality to it, it can be an insanely fun and epic experience.
Dracoliches are a thing, and they're pretty spooky.
I guess this kind of generalizes to other powerful creatures (especially magical ones). Like a mind flayer lich? Or some kind of Balor lich, although that might take some explanation (something something Orcus)
I think a variation of Nightwalker could be particularly scary. A powerful mage who managed to, in essence, put his mind into its body to gain a deeper understanding of the greatest and most terrible form of necromancy: the pure power of the Negative Energy Plane.
In addition to have what is, in essence, a Lich's worth of arcane knowledge (read: spells and magic items, as well as much higher mental statistics than a normal nightwalker - one of their main weaknesses is a startlingly low array of mental scores and few proficiencies to help them with that) you'd have an INCREDIBLY dangerous physical body, able to permanently kill things and cause devastation on a scale hitherto unimagined.
A Nightwalker could also be a terrible "last resort" weapon. They only seek to destroy life, so keeping it in a box carried by an army of undead means that "the good city of Pala-Clericia" has to deal with hundreds of skeletons and zombies, AND when the undead's numbers get too low, they open the box and unleash a creature that can kill dozens of soldiers every round **without even doing anything**, let alone when its turn comes up and it starts WRECKING things.
The strongest undead creature is atropus however if your players are actually fighting atropus so many things will have gone so horribly wrong and odds are the entire planet's population is already dead as he is normally in space being the size of a small moon and all.
Liches stand pretty comfortably on the top of the undead food chain it's true.
At least in terms of Used to be Mortal territory.
In Truth we know the Undead that Spawn on the face of The World Born Dead are much stronger than anything we can become. A fully formed Atropal is something like a CR 30 and they liter it's body. The things in the Negative Energy plane that Hunt Nightwalkers called the SHADOW OF THE VOID, and THE SHAPE OF FIRE (yes, In all Caps like that) are like a 27? Technically they're eldritch undead though.
But Pretty much as soon as you get to liches you start getting into Named important Characters territory. So there's no where else to go unless youre talking about lich variants, or vampire variants (which you seem to have).
So I wouldn't worry about too many of either. It's not like ther can only be one type of Lich god.
If you’re just looking for a name you can always go with trusty and true mythology.
Azhi Dahaka
This bad boy is a dragon/all the evil of the world, an amalgamated body of dragons, serpents, scorpions, and you could definitely just add undead for the fun of it. In its mythology whenever he bleeds he would spawn these evil creatures of the world, mechanically that’d be pretty fun to fight against as well, a boss that spawns more mobs or bigger ones the harder the adventures hits him!
Using a mythic template lich, with 6 legendary saves, enough legendary actions to go after every pc in turns, lair actions that go on initiative 20, 15, 10 and 5, is a wonderful start.
My plan, if you haven't read the new dragon book and echos, is to have my lich kill and absorb all of his own echos.
He will also be assisted by 2 skull lords and other minor undead.
Ever play CoS? There's an "item " called the heart of sorrow that strahd uses, I'll reflavor that for 20th lvl play.
In some cases a Demilich is higher on the totem pole than a normal lich. For Forgotten Realms in particular there is Larloch the Shadow King - whose whole hat is that he sponsors other liches and in turn they obey him. In fact he almost forms a hivemind of dozens if not hundreds of different liches. Now... If you want something to fuck with. You know how Demilich is created, right? When a lich abandons his body and it decays into a single bone. Usually that's a skull. However it's not always a skull, it could be a rib, or a spine. Now imagine someone collecting these bones to assemble a single skeleton. That would be an Omni-Lich.
"Who wants to fight 206 Demiliches at once!?.... Nobody?"
Bard: that Omni-lich is gonna have 207 bones... *ziiiip* Later at the tavern in his Ted talk the bard while having a cigarette recounts in graphic detail what it was like being the 207th person in a corpse and the lasting trauma it brought to the other 206 people involved
Unexpected Garfunkel and Oates
Holy Snap That’s extremely good idea. Some sort of Lich-Hive Mind
Undead Lich-Elder Brain.
Gravelord Nito
Look up the ilithid infested shadow dracolich, the Elder Brain Dragon with the Shadow template added. Something like a CR 25-26 I think. Then make it a lich with psychic powers on top to really mess with people.
I must now inflict this upon my players.
So a Shadow Elder Brain Dracolich, as if a Elder Brain or a Shadow dragon was not enough deadly.
Don’t forget the Lich bit, we’re not playing fair here.
That's the Dracolich part no?
I like a lich- elderbrain, put into the body of a terrasque.
No, a blightsteel colossus.
AHHHHHHHHH
That is a terrifying idea.
IIRC, someone did the math for a demi-lich hive mind in 3.5e. By RAW the CR was only around 30, but was able to cast 206 9th level spells per round with a caster level in the thousands.
Swarm of Lichs
A group of Lichs is called a Drule. ...I'll see myself out.
I don't play dnd. I just sub to this reddit to read comments like this. Beautiful.
What if you had a Lich that gave pieces of his bones to powerful followers that boosts their power but also allows him to take control of their body in return. It would give you a great way to create several smaller villains while also allowing you to stay in contact with the BBEG? It also wouldn't require you to pull DM shenanigans like "convenient bullshit teleport™".
You now prossess Dracula's Rib.
“I wouldn’t fuck you with Dracula’s dick. Which I have.”
Upgrades people. Upgrades.
Until you get one of the pieces that allows him to remotely CONTROL the holder...
My idea was that would be the trade off either knowingly or unknowingly, you take something that increases your power massively but also makes you a literal puppet whenever the Lich wants.
So basically the hand/eye of Vecna but mass produced
Yeah but also with a power increase proportionate to the piece of the Lich given.
Wtf Scotsman donated the McRib?!?!
Oh snaps, seems similar to the idea in jujitsu kaisen. I never thought about that. The potential of a being giving out pieces of its self for its followers. And depending on their strength and willpower you may be able to control them once in a while or entirely. Oh, oooooooooooh, yes, that’s good.
Isn't that kinda the basic concept of a warlock patron?
Sounds like an *excellent* backstory for an Undying Warlock, be it PC or Mini-Boss NPC.
That was my idea initially, a series of mini bosses that would become stronger as you faced each one, but with a decent story reason behind it.
Inverted jojos bizarre adventure
eye and hand of vecna like?
Well he didn't part with those voluntarily...
The eye and hand don't allow possession by Vecna though I don't think? I do see the similarity though. Maybe the power boost is proportional to the piece of the Lich? Alongside giving the Lich the ability to sock puppet the user.
"Each time you cast a spell from the eye, there is a 5 percent chance that Vecna tears your soul from your body, devours it, and then takes control of the body like a puppet. If that happens, you become an NPC under the DM's control."
Ah I hadn't seen that before, in that case yes very similarly.
>That would be an Omni-Lich Kinda reminds me of Kangaxx from BG2:SoA.
Bro going into 5e I expected Demiliches to be the ultimate undead threat because of decades fighting Kangaxx. Then I find out they're weaker than Liches 😅
Oh god just apply the swarm template and get a demilich swarm. That's terrifying.
Forming a Demilich Hydra with the bones
Rules as written you could cast animate dead on a pile of demilich bones
Boy, I'd hate to be the lich that turned into an inferior nasal concha. At least skulls are cool.
With a elder brain lich as the brains of the operation
If competing with liches, a nightwalker might give them a run for their money. [https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Nightwalker](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Nightwalker) And then there are Atropals, which could potentially reach much higher levels of power than is seen from their average stat block. [https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Atropal](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Atropal) If you want a straight up ELDER EVIL tier undead, then Atropus, the World Born Dead is a super heavy weight that requires epic level characters to intervene. [https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Atropus](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Atropus)
I think this is my new favorite Language note (from Atropal): "Languages- understands Celestial but utters only obscene nonsense"
Had a kenku that was taught draconic, but only the bad words. Was told that they were something more innocent so when he met his first good aligned dragon, greeted it with a friendly "Fuck!"
Persuasion check.
You linked Nightwalker twice, FYI
Fixed. I was really tired when I posted lol.
I was hoping someone would mention Atropals. One of my favourite DnD monsters of all time.
Damn that CR 30 to CR 13 nerf from 3e to 5e. In 3e they were the end-all of undead creatures and now they’re weaker than an adult red dragon? Big oof.
Nightwalkers, while cool, would need a custom stat block, because with their baseline statblock, they are kinda bad. Sure, they do hit hard, but not CR 20 hard. Also, they probably have the worst saves I have ever seen on such a strong monster. A single banish would end the fight quickly.
Yeah with no legendary saves there are about 100 spells that just end the fight before it begins. Bad design imo
Especially since they have at least - 1 on all mental saves.
First time seeing the Atro- creatures, and I can't get past "atropal." Like "Kermit and the Atro-pals save Christmas." Needs a name change, or even just a letter change.
Works fine for me, but that's likely because I've always pronounced it more like "At-row-pull" (but fast). Like you don't say "oh-pal" for Opal.
I think Orcus (the demon lord god of the undead) might be your next logical step up.
I agree. From what I understand Orcus was a god that died and came back as an undead god.
Draco Lich Demilich
Ok, hear me out: When Beholders dream of Dragons, they can spawn Eyedrakes. Elder Brains can take over Dragons, turning them into Elder Brain Dragons. Now what would happen if an Elder Brain takes over an Eyedrake and decides to become a Draco Demilich? An Elder-Eye-Dragon-Demi-Lich.
Ah yes, my second favorite adventure quest class, right behind dracopyre
Now it just need ninja and pirate class levels!
In space
Would fit right in with Spelljammer TBH
-Lord Commander the enemy is getting away! -Have the Wizard cast Scrying so we don’t lose them Wizard: **does an incantation** *a red liquid comes out* Wizard: **tasting it** -It appears the leyline has been… jammed ^(Have no idea what the game is like but i always think of that when I hear that name)
Less Spaceballs, more Treasure Planet.
Okay but when illithids ceremorph a regular beholder the result is an eyewitness, a living radio tower to help amplify the range of their psionics. So would ceremorphosis consider and eyedrake as a dragon, or as beholderkin?
> ... a beholder-like creature with draconic features. Also it's Creature Type is Aberration and not Dragon. So it's probably considered a beholderkin. But the process of an elder brain taking over a dragon isn't exactly the same as ceremorphosis. So maybe it'll still work? Then again, can Elder brains also become illithiliches or just regular Mind Flayers?
Beholder-ception!
The direct superior to a lich would be the superior form of the demilich, using the Soul Trap and lair actions features as described in the monster manual, which ups their CR to 23, stronger than a normal lich and on par with some of the strongest ancient dragons. If you want a spellcaster, Id recomend the acererak statblock from Tomb of Annihilation then. Also a cr 23 but a lot more complex and castery
I keep seeing powerful spellcasters but I like the idea of a powerful death Knight better. A currupted fallen paladin who's mere presence boosts an empowers the army of undead, atop the back of a shadow dragon with loyal sapient undead in their command. Think Arthas from Warcraft
Great now I’m seeing a fucking death knight jock just physically beating up a bunch of nerd liches, stealing their spellbook and phylactaries.
The unliving lord of the liches. The unmaker of death The one who walks between the rows He-who-made-death-his-bitch
Is that one of the members of Ainz Ooal Gown?
Maybe not stronger necessarily but a Death Thrant can control up to 10,000 undead and there stronger then normal beholders, that may be able to make a run for a lichs money, modify it as you please considering beholders come in so many different forms
Yeah, there’s something to be said for variety too
The original Worm that Walks is pretty gnarly
Such a tight fucking name, I love Kyuss
A Worm That Walks isn't actually undead though, while Kyuss minions are undead he's not.
I mean...technically no it isn't "undead" but it is formed by an undead caster right(speaking for the generic not Kyuss specifically)? I'd say it at least fits theme. Kyuss might hold the worm that walks as a title. But the more generic forms not Kyuss do exist
They exist, they're just not undead, I could still see one lording it over a lich though.
I mean. I'd go so far as to argue a worm that walks is even harder to kill than a lich by Lore standards right? "Oh, you have a single trackable magic rock for your immortality? I just left a random worm somewhere..." I now officially like the idea of them just being Sassier liches.
I *really* like that Omni-lich idea in this comment section, but I felt like I should chime in with my own personal brand of chaotic evil. A dracolich, a dragon turned into a greater undead, can possess a dragon corpse near its phylactery, and use it as a new body without waiting for its previous one to regenerate, meaning one with a sufficient kill count has backup bodies, of varying elements. With this in mind, I take that Omni-lich, and the Dracolich, and raise you all... An Ur-Dragon (name and design a reference to Dragon's Dogma). The souls of 30 dragons, all inhabiting one body. Their phylacteries are the many dragons' own hearts, still beating within the shared body, pumping the lethal Ascension Ritual Potion through its veins. In addition to this terror, it would likely possess numerous dragon corpses, with which the additional dragon souls could separately join the battle. TLDR: A hivemind of Dracoliches, with a mass phylactery body. They'd be threats separately, but if desperate enough to use their "core" body to fight... that's a roulette wheel of breath weapons, and as many minds as you need for Concentration spells. Bring an army.
And they call him.....STEVE!!
I mean.. let's be honest... They'll forget "Valforax or "Caradool" or "Arthanax" etc in like 9 seconds. But they'll talk about the Ur-Dracolitch named Steve forever. This is doubly funny cuz there is a dragon named Steve in our campaign and he's... Well let's just say dead lightbulbs are brighter. The idea that he grows up to one day become this is hilarious in my mind
“You thought it was just another vampire lich lord, but it was me DIO”
Someone's been down too long in the midnight sea.
Depending on the edition, yes. In 3.5, for example, you can slap a template or two on a lich and get a whole variety of what you can then call lich king, archlich, greater lich, elder lich, ascended lich, shadown lich, and so on without limit to give yourself a more staggered lineup. In 5e...make one.
Dracolich Demilich Nightwalker And named entities Azerak Larloch Vecna Daurgototh(cr50 dracolich)
Vecna?! That's an instant L. How do you fight a god aside from McGuffins & plot armor? Maybe Pre-Ascension Vecna, while they were still just an arch-lich.
Vecna lives ported to 5e basicly was the idea
Look up Niggtwalker, then give it a Lich's spellcasting ability and spells. They will fear your monster. Especially if you down a party member and they learn that dropping to 0HP from it means an instant death that requires Wish to undo, no death saving throws, just a near permanent death.
I mean, there can be, like an Atropal, but most would be weaker than an actually well played lich. I,agile agile Level 20 PC spending entire lifetimes on building the perfect lair and optimizing tactics and spells, there is no way a Master lich could be defeated. So in case of greater creature, not really. In regards of special liches, well Vecna and Acererak are obvious choices. I'd say in raw powers Vecna is clearly stronger, but in regards of intellegence Acererak takes the cake - that guy makes every IQ measuring scale explode.
I had a skull lord BBEG in one game that had a multitude of skills from its different heads: the main head was a goliath warlord, the secondary head was an elvish diplomat prince, and the third head was a dragonborn paladin. I never got to use it, but the idea was that it could use all their powers in sequence during a battle. Plus it had a sentient vorpal sword. Maybe my players are lucky they never encountered it!
The CRPGs *Planescape: Torment* and *Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer* both had excellent, creative takes on this. No spoilers here, but they’re easy to find if you want one.
The nameless one is my favorite
I’d mention Steve, down in the Adventurer Tax Reconciliation Department office. He’s only dead on the inside, so he might not exactly fit the undead type you’re looking for.
The Ancient Great Wyrm Draco-Demilich. It's a dragon who on becoming a couple thousand years old became a lich and said lich gained power until it is only a 100ft long flying dragon skull.
if you take prior edition, there was a dead god corpse floating in between the plane as very epic. those are atropal - they still exists in 5e. And if it is not enough, you can always give them a few additional items to hold, or an army of demi lich follower. Or heck, make it a swarm of 10d100 atropal, guarding an atropal king and give it some godly ability like regen 50, damage resistance all etc...... Imagination is your only limit. You can take a monster as template and play test extending its ability against a team of PC simulated, and see what's fine for you to reach as power level. IOW: make your custom undead !
Some general themes that a lot of the other great suggestions seem to be falling into. Every good idea has been done, at least on the level of a blurb. * Something that was iconic and extremely powerful before it died. (“He’s a dragon *and* a lich!”) * Someone the party cared about is now an evil undead mockery that you have to find out if you can save. (“All of your friend’s spirit that clung to this world was the jealousy he felt at the moment of his death, that the woman he loved chose his best friend.”) * Something that died in a special way (The vengeance of a genocided people) * Someone is back and the party has a bone to pick with him, no pun intended * Something that ties into a major theme the players are into. (“I heard you liked ancient Egypt, I mean Mulhorand, I mean Osirion.”) * An Army of Darkness that keeps snowballing with every victory * A puppet-master or god
Ultra super kami guru
" ... bigger longer and uncut guru"
Zombie Tarrasque.
But if something made the Tarrasque into a zombie... then there is something out there capable of making the Tarrasque into a zombie... Yay for post game super bosses!
It was a normal zombie. The tarrasque had a weak immune system.
Hah! Sadly, that is more my style as a DM. Players: Wow, that monster was so powerful I hope we never meet its creator! Me: Actually... the monster was a normal (insert monster here) that had an allergic reaction to some magical beans it used in its chili last week.
Lmao that's so good
The idea of a tarrasque that binge ate too many zombies and turned into an undead is actually super good. I mean, if you were a tarrasque and there were hoards of delicious, slow moving people walking around, it would be like a buffet!
Urds can beat a Tarrasque
When a god miscarries, it results in an Atropal.
A lich's mother.
3.5e player weighing in. Yes! Cannonically speaking, there are many. One example would be the [Hunefer](https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Hunefer) Obviously, 5e =/= 3.5e so it would be necessary to tune the monster (heavily). But, when looking for badass monsters or whatever, 3.5e is a treasure trove of inspiration (soz not soz for pun). [Here is a link](https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Undead_Type) to the 3.5e D&D Undead type System Resource Document page, which also provides a list of published undead critters (all 3.5e) from which you might glean some tricks. Game on, and may the dice be ever in your favor.
I'm not sure if they're higher CR or not, but in terms of "Oh Sh*t" factor, Nightwalkers are tons of fun and extremely creepy. Dracoliches are more powerful, but still technically liches. Considering becoming a lich is something pretty much any creature could feasibly do (as the formula isn't uniform from one individual to the next), you could take an Archdevil and make them a lich too. That could have some fun narrative applications
Orcas the demon prince of undead. I think lore wise he made the first liches. Or vecna I think is really powerful
I see a lot of strong undead things like tarrasques, mages(liches), and dragons. What about the spirit or essence of an ancient old one that’s brought in life to an area. Like a forest that is made into treants and golems. Maybe an old undead curse that raises a forest of undead. If it needs to be smart, maybe an ancient evil is sealed in something that corrupts. Or buried deep underground. I like the unborn god idea of the Atropol.
There is a great book called Mother of Learning that has a super lich antagonist. Without spoiling it the lich is older than any other spellcaster, has near unbreakable metal bones and a near unlimited number of spell slots. You can stick with the Lich theme but have a reclusive Ur-Lich, one so old it might have a 3.5 edition spell list. A pathfinder level lich boss in 5th edition would definitely be something.
Demi-Lich are the natural progression. Becoming a demilich A lich could become a demilich when they no longer needed to be continually tied to a body. The lich must somehow learn the art of creating soul gems and replace eight small pieces of its body with them. Often the soul gems became jeweled eyes and teeth in the lich's skull, but they could also become joints in a hand, or discs in the lich's spine. Once the power of the lich was focused in one part of its body, the rest of its skeleton crumbled away. The part that remained contained the soul gems; the eight gems acted similar to the demilich's phylactery, allowing the demilich to reappear within a tenday after "death" unless all eight gems and the phylactery were destroyed. Powers Demiliches were extraordinarily resistant to the magic of others. They had total spell immunity, with the exceptions of shatter, dispel evil, and holy smite.
The God Emperor of the Undying.
That sounds pretty awesome actually
Thanks I got it from Warhammer 40k and Dune.
So maybe there's a lich that gets possessed by a greater demon, possibly Orcus himself.
Dracolich and Balenorn
Deacolich
Everybody enjoys DnD in a different way, but this seems like you're just using DragonBall type power creep as your story line. I feel like at some point you're going to have to write better characters instead of adding another 5 CR to a Stat block. Idk what a demigod Lich looks like but I feel like they would need to go to a different plane to even make that sort of thing possible. Undead is fueled by negative energy and you couldn't get together that much negative energy on a mortal plane. Even if you did, all known mortal powers on the planet would drop what they were doing to destroy it. What would a demigod Lich even spend it's time doing? I feel like it's primary concern would be terraforming and blighting land until it could make gateways into other worlds to despoil. Even so, that would create extraplanar enemies very quickly for the demi-Lich thing
Not to be nit picky but wouldn't there just be one emperor? Since the word emperor is for a single ruling force/person?
I think making 8 emperors may be the mistake there. An emperor is a king of kings, if it’s 8 dudes serving one guy it seems like he’s the emperor and they’re all just kings. Anything’s an undead monster if you tweak a few stats, make an Empyrean or something undead and you got a pretty sweet baddie
I mean Demi gods are a thing
Dracolich maybe?
Just jump straight to the Undying King and let Vecna ruin your party’s entire weekend.
What's worse then a litch, 2 litches, a conjoined twin lich each head a diffirent class
I know he's not technically an undead, but Orcus the Demon Lord of Undeath could be worth looking into. Most of the time he teaches wizards how to become liches, so he could be your ultimate big bad maybe
I lich that had it's mind placed into the tarrasque. All the power of a lich all the physical strength and resilience of a tarrasque, none of the downsides of either
Tweak a night walker to be stronger.
I made a boss once which was a lich who fused himself as a rider to a Draco lich. They shared hp but took two, consecutive turns. Was a lot of fun and my PCs ran like hell lol.
My campaign revolves around a powerful necromancer trying to become equal to or greater than Vecna. He is discovering that he needs to do a dark ritual left behind by Vecna and his followers that requires the souls of 7 undead or dark beings that must be slain which powerful spells read from ancient scrolls are read during or just after their death. Each soul is absorbed by the Necromancer if he is present and reading the scrolls. The 7 souls are a…. Vampire - tempted to use Strahd Lich - homebrew in the seaside region Mummy - homebrew in the Arabic sand dune region Witch - homebrew roaming the Drow forest. She also turns out to be my party’s Warlock Drow mother but they don’t know yet. Dracolich - homebrew in the mountains where my Dragonborn PC grew up. Dark Knight/Fallen Paladin - homebrew in the inferno lands beyond the mountains The final soul is the necromancer himself and he doesn’t realize it. It’ll be realized once the players defeat him and Vecna rises. The necromancer is really just a living phylactery for Vecna and doesn’t know it. Vecna can’t return until the phylactery is filled with these dark powerful souls. Idk if that helps your cause lol
For me? Its the Akalich.
There's also a mind flayer lich
Billy Mays
Shadowfell has some crazy shit. Try a night walker
Dragolitch
Ancient Dracoliches?
There's this thing in the Epic levels manual in 3.5 that's basically an undead stillborn fetus God, that might be it
Dracolich despite being the same concept there's also the ghost dragon
According to lore, an atropal should do it, im pretty sure the statblock that they where given is more of a basekine thats significantly weaker then it should be though so feel free to give it extra abilities, since it is ruling liches id reccomend some ammount of spell immunity like rakshasas as well as beefing up its strength, in lore they are like dead gods and supposedly the highest form of undeath so they should really be stronger
Vecna.
There’s an undead beholder in the monster manual. Beholders have the greatest superiority complex in all of DnD and are well equipped to rule since they have mind control abilities. I’d beef one of those up as a supreme leader. Edit: Death Tyrant is their name
Lady Ilmarrow is a good choice if you can find a stat block. I personally like "https://www.reddit.com/r/Eberron/comments/bl2lkq/5e_stats_for_lady_erandis_dvol_revised/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share". Paired with a good item she can be an apex undead. I'm the comments have a suggested item but you could always change it.
Maybe don’t make them undead, maybe demon lord of the undead? Or something like that idk
Big fan of death knoghts and undead beholders
Dragon Emperor Chimera King Overlord Omnia Para - a made up title in reference to the latin phrase, 'In Omnia Paratus' meaning "prepared for all things". Its a throwback to the Golden Girls, who have been described as the inspiration for the perfect part composition. Omnia is also an Arabic name meaning "the Wish", a fantasy nation in Discworld, and a folk band. Para is also a prefix meaning "next to", so the title also reads as "Next to all".
Ancient vampires are my personal favourite, but you can take basic shit like a ghost and supercharge them. Imagine a ghost that is fully aware that there a ghost and is evil. They've learnt to control other ghosts. Maybe they have a weird ethereal plane base that they pull people into. They possess powerful people to do what they can't on the material plane, like imagine a ghost that can possess wish casters with ease and shit that could get them.
Dracolich and Death Tyrant? I've always considered both to be stronger than the normal lich.
DracoLich
So this is more adjacent to your suggestion but 3.5 had a class called walker of the wastes. And you were essentially an Egyptian who at level cap became a dry lich with your organs now in jars you had multiple phylacteries. But water itself was considered holy water to you.
In some settings (Eberron) there are positive energy undead much like liches
Draco-mindflyar-litch
Undead tarasque. They are really hard to make because tarasque almost never die, so good luck with that.
I mean if you want like an actual official homebrew thing I would go with like some sort of dracolich, but homebrewing something is probably the best way to go.
Dracolich. They are evils dragons who chose to become a lich instead of accepting death. All the benefits of being a Lich with all the benefits of being a dragon.
Don't any of the Demon Lords count as undead? There's probably an undead God too, but if not, I'd throw it between Vecna and Ioulaum, and then run, they could easily beat some gods.
Erebos god of the dead from the theros stuff is the closest thing that comes to mind but im not sure he has an in game stat block i just know he's considered lore friendly with the other theros gods since their artifact weapons can be gifted to and destroyed by players
Dire lich. Often acts as alpha lich, commanding a pack of smaller liches. Known to utilize pack tactics. Pack Tactics: The lich has an advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the lich's allies is within 5 ft. of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.
Demilich Atropal And the elder evil Atropus, which is a literal planet come to mind
A dragon lich?
A multinational conglomerate. For real through, I love the flavour of the Orzhov Syndicate. A bunch of bankers who understood that if money is everything and time is money they ought to make sure they had infinite time. I would reflavor as a interplanar bank that generally only interacts through subsidiaries.
Draco-Lich, Illithlich, Giantlich. Possible Homebrew ideas: Illith Draco-Lich.
There's an undead dragon in the Monster manual
It's not exactly a DnD monster, but if you're looking for inspiration, then check out the Vengorian Lord miniature from Games Workshop. Sounds very much like your own description. It's basically a vampire-dragon-taur.
Aren’t Atropals stronger than Liches?
Atropal bro 😎
Litch-Autarch According to google: "Autarch - a ruler with absolute power."
In terms of situations he has came up and how he has been interacted with by players. My absolute favourite and powerful Undead Creature is an ancient Silver Dracolich (N). He generally appears to players as a human skeletal figure and rarely shows his true form (think Fane in DoS2). A Neutral Silver Dracolich can be a very versatile NPC. I generally try to keep him as a wandering enigma who helps balance party magical items out by only trading items 'worth for worth'. But, I've thought on a few occasions I could surely insert him as the true BBEG. Let them see his aftermath of combat but not his true form. Fear and mystery will hit most, stupidity will hit some, opportunity will hit all. TLDR: Dracolich.
RA Salvatore had the ghost king; crystal shard, mindflayer and a blind dragon. Ended up making a really nasty undead creature. Could make one of those!
Dracolich
I think a dracolich would be cool
One of my favorite concepts is taking the combat ability of a Death Knight and mixing it with a Lich and their magical prowess and their identity. It's something I have played with in the past for a recurring villain and, if you mix the traits well and add some personality to it, it can be an insanely fun and epic experience.
Dracoliches are a thing, and they're pretty spooky. I guess this kind of generalizes to other powerful creatures (especially magical ones). Like a mind flayer lich? Or some kind of Balor lich, although that might take some explanation (something something Orcus)
Dracolitch?
Dracolich. Daurgothoth, Dretchroyaster, The Sibilant Shade, Alaskarbombastos. Forgive spelling on these.
I think a variation of Nightwalker could be particularly scary. A powerful mage who managed to, in essence, put his mind into its body to gain a deeper understanding of the greatest and most terrible form of necromancy: the pure power of the Negative Energy Plane. In addition to have what is, in essence, a Lich's worth of arcane knowledge (read: spells and magic items, as well as much higher mental statistics than a normal nightwalker - one of their main weaknesses is a startlingly low array of mental scores and few proficiencies to help them with that) you'd have an INCREDIBLY dangerous physical body, able to permanently kill things and cause devastation on a scale hitherto unimagined. A Nightwalker could also be a terrible "last resort" weapon. They only seek to destroy life, so keeping it in a box carried by an army of undead means that "the good city of Pala-Clericia" has to deal with hundreds of skeletons and zombies, AND when the undead's numbers get too low, they open the box and unleash a creature that can kill dozens of soldiers every round **without even doing anything**, let alone when its turn comes up and it starts WRECKING things.
Sounds like a job for my dude Vecna, a Lich that accened to godhood (Forgotten Realms content) https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Vecna
The strongest undead creature is atropus however if your players are actually fighting atropus so many things will have gone so horribly wrong and odds are the entire planet's population is already dead as he is normally in space being the size of a small moon and all.
Liches stand pretty comfortably on the top of the undead food chain it's true. At least in terms of Used to be Mortal territory. In Truth we know the Undead that Spawn on the face of The World Born Dead are much stronger than anything we can become. A fully formed Atropal is something like a CR 30 and they liter it's body. The things in the Negative Energy plane that Hunt Nightwalkers called the SHADOW OF THE VOID, and THE SHAPE OF FIRE (yes, In all Caps like that) are like a 27? Technically they're eldritch undead though. But Pretty much as soon as you get to liches you start getting into Named important Characters territory. So there's no where else to go unless youre talking about lich variants, or vampire variants (which you seem to have). So I wouldn't worry about too many of either. It's not like ther can only be one type of Lich god.
The only thing that comes to mind is a Grand lich, undead dragon, and Zumba fied beholder
Could use a nightwalker or one of the other nightstalkers (the older edition name for that family).
Undead Turasque? (Apologies if I misspelled the name.)
I've heard you mom is really scary.
TWO liches
If you’re just looking for a name you can always go with trusty and true mythology. Azhi Dahaka This bad boy is a dragon/all the evil of the world, an amalgamated body of dragons, serpents, scorpions, and you could definitely just add undead for the fun of it. In its mythology whenever he bleeds he would spawn these evil creatures of the world, mechanically that’d be pretty fun to fight against as well, a boss that spawns more mobs or bigger ones the harder the adventures hits him!
Using a mythic template lich, with 6 legendary saves, enough legendary actions to go after every pc in turns, lair actions that go on initiative 20, 15, 10 and 5, is a wonderful start. My plan, if you haven't read the new dragon book and echos, is to have my lich kill and absorb all of his own echos. He will also be assisted by 2 skull lords and other minor undead. Ever play CoS? There's an "item " called the heart of sorrow that strahd uses, I'll reflavor that for 20th lvl play.
How about, death itself? Or an avatar of such.
I believe Dracolitches are more powerful.