Liches are part of TES games since Arena and have never been left out, but we were never able to become one of them.
Why?
I personally always wanted to play as a lich and think it would be great to be able to (this also mean that they should return as enemies).
There should be a quest to become a lich (of course) and it shouldn't be easy at all.
To star this quest, you should be ether member of Necromancer's Guild (in case we actually have it; would be great if we do) or Dark Brotherhood and you will be given info about the quest by one of the members when you become higher rank in the guild (something ala being able to become a vampire in Oblivion by accepting the offer of Vicente Valtieri, but only you will have to solve a quest instead) or you can gain this quest while asking about rumors some certain NPC(s).
In latter case, it will also require some detective work before you can actually start the quest.
When you finally become a lich you should get following features:

- Something to represent immortality:
A slight constant HP regeneration would do the trick.

- Become stronger spellcaster:
Gain bonuses to certain magic schools would work.
Bonuses to Destruction and fire, frost and shock perks and Conjuration and it's perk for undead and maybe to Alteration (if the system works that way; this is just a wild example).
Also, it would be good that player gains some bonuses to willpower and intelligence.

- Player should be able to improve his lichhood:
By fulfilling certain demands, bonuses gained from becoming a lich should improve (don't have idea what those demands should be though).

- Should gain a disguise ability:
You should also gain a power that will allow you to conceal your lichhood.
When you use that power, you will stop to look like a lich and will return to your normal from, but will ether have to recast this power before it's duration is over or this power will drain MP constantly while in use so you can't stay like this forever and have to watch out that your cover is not blown (you keep your lich bonuses wile under cover since this is only an illusion and not actual transformation and dispel should be able to remove it).
You will not have any bounty for crimes that you committed in your lich form while you are using this power (since people don't know that you are that lich that burned down their hose last night because of disguise) and vice versa.
If your cover is blown, both your bounties will be added to each other (not that it matters since people will try to kill you or run away from you since you are a lich).

- Other liches and undead will stop being hostile towards you:
You are one of them now after all.
You should be able to communicate with other liches and talk to them.
Liches could also have their own small community (few hideouts would be enough, nothing big) and if you kill one of them, it will be considered a crime between them and you will risk of becoming a outcast and they will become hostile towards you again.
Disguise ability shouldn't be able to trick other liches.
There also could be some quests related to them (Spread the plague!) and maybe even be able to become lich king (do not even think about saying something like 'This is not Warcraft/WoW!' since there is a lich king in TES; http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Tribunal:Barilzar).


There, that's all I got for now.
Also, liches should be NPC(humanoids) instead of monsters/creatures like they were before and when you become a lich, you shouldn't be turned into a default lich model, but will be 'lichified' if possible (something like become a vampire; you don't get new face, but your face gets vampire features).
And remember, this is my version of the liches.
Don't dislike the whole idea about being a lich only because you don't like mine idea.
This poll is about being able to become a lich and not my idea.
I just posted this as how do I think it should work and it doesn't mean that it should actually work like that.

Anyway, discuss!

immortality? NO. How will that make the game fair on any level?

...so theres no downside why would you play as anything but this. Speaking from a solely "how can i be the strongest thing" point of view, not a role playing point of view.

It needs to be balanced. You can't have an ultimate power playstyle in the game or everyone would choose it because one of the primary aims is to be as powerful as possible.

:facepalm:
Immortality doesn't mean no one can kill you!
It can mean that, but no necessarily.
It can also mean that you can't die of old age and that's what's it suppose to be here.


Well, the fact that you constantly risk being an outcast by whole Skyrim if your cover gets blown is quite the downside in my opinion.


Of course it should.
The problem is that I can't work on the details since I don't know who stuff in Skyrim work.

Remember that there are many levels of immortality. Vampires are also immortal but you can still kill them, as you can kill liches

not to mention its completely imbalanced to constantly be gaining health..you'd just have to sprint away behind a rock or something and be like...tada come at me now guard im full life again :/. also it seems like it would ruin the game, for those who like a little challenge at least

but constant hp regen would make it nearly impossible because you coudl just sprint away and reengage later, also with the boosted magic skill stats you'd have even better restoration skill which would help you heal in case of emergencies

Actually, considering a lich is a form of undead, you've already died. So not dieing of old age is sort of moot.

i think its one of the worse ideas this community ever had.

nope...thats guns :brokencomputer:
but yes still quite a bad idea

yea but guns is not realy a community idea its more like idea from 4-5 people. the lich idea has been there since morrowind people wanted to be lich and thats just stupid.

true true...yeah i dont really understand why you would want to be one. plus you'd have to be dead first to become one so that kind of defeats the purpose of wanting to be one since you wouldnt be able to change back unlike vampirism and ..."werewolf-ism"?

Not true. I deliberately set my characters strength to 18 and her agility to 23 since she's not supposed to be physically strong but powerful in magic. Hence, I'm role-playing, not powergaming. But I would agree that a lot of players power-game, and being a Lich would be another way to exploit that. But I'd still like to see the option to become one if you so choose. If we can become werecreatures and vampyres, then why not liches as well?

Absolutely in favour of this idea, i'm fed up of seeing all these Necromancers become Liches without any real way of doing it myself. I always role-play a Necromancer the first time. Using only Conjuration to summon undead and the like. It would be awesome if becoming a lich was tied to a epic long quest where you had to get all the Reagents to become one.

Aren't lichs only immortal in that they don't die of old age? I remember it being possible to kill a lich in Oblviion, I don't think there was any suggestion that immortality meant greater resistancy to dying from being attacked.

Yes, but you died and continued to live as undead.

They don't die of old age because they are already dead, or rather undead.

anyway there will never be the option to be a lich in an elder scrolls game

And you can say that with certainty how?

This.

And I honestly don't get why people seem to be getting up in arms over this, the OP seems to be overpowering the 'player lich' idea, but that doesn't mean it's a bad idea. Also all the monster forms (Vampires, Werewolves) have advantages, with the big downside usually being that almost every NPC wants to kill you. So why wouldn't someone 'wanting to be the strongest' be a 'Vampwolf'?

Here are the big things I think people are missing or I would change:
-Immortal does not mean unkillable. Like Vampires, Liches cannot be killed via old age.
-The HP regeneration should not be too powerful, but it should still be there (just balanced so as not to make you impossible to kill; remember that you can't backpedal at full speed in Skyrim).
-Restoration spells should either not work on Liches, harm them, or have diminished returns. Because, you know, undead and all.
-Player Liches should have the same weaknesses as enemy Liches/Undead.
-The camo spell should either have a very limited duration and only be able to be cast once a day, or eat up massive amounts of mana when active.
-Also unsure about the whole 'friends with other Liches/Undead' thing. Maybe just one group of them, which you join in becoming a Lich.

I'm just that good. also the fact that bethesda made fun of the idea quite a few times.

You mean with the M'aiq comment? Yeah, they did that for dragons too.

in interviews too.

they also explained that they wouldnt make dragons because they felt they could not do it right. im pretty damn sure they dont have that problem with liches

Which interviews?