168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons has many types of enemies, from the chaotic Demons of the Abyss, to the ever-plotting Drow of the Underdark. Yet the most common type of enemy you’ll encounter are the different variants of undead, and a♔mong them,🌳 the mightiest is the Lich.

These masters of m💫agic might seem like simple villains at first, but dealing with them is never a simple affair. Even if you slay them in combat, it is never as simple as that to 🐭kill a Lich, making them the ideal bad guy for mystery and social-centric campaigns.

What Is A Lich?

Strictly speaking, a Lich is any form of powerful caster (usually a Wizard or a Cleric) that, either due to extensive research or a pact with some powerful entity, gained immortality through being undead. A Lich retains all the knowledge it had from its previous life, as well as its aspirations and free will (a💙lthough if it made a pact with a deity, it is s🐻till bound to that pact).

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Not every undead caster is a Lich, since there is more to it than rising from the dead and being able to cast magic. What sets a Lich apart from other undead is its ability to retain its sentience, and how difficult to kill it can be thanks to the Phylactery.

The Phylactery

The Phylactery is a small box, item, or container that holds part of the Lich’s soul. If a Lich were to die, but its Phylactery is still intact, the soul of the Lich goes back to the Phylactery and, in around ten days, the Lich is resurrected next to the Phylactery.

The Phylactery is usually a very expensive item, but dependiꦛng on the Lich, it could be of sentiment🔯al value as well.

This is what makes a Lich nearly impossible to kill, since beating it in combat is not enough. Destroyi🐲ng the Phylactery can also be a challenge on its own, but that depends o🌄n each individual Lich and the traps and curses placed around the item.

A Lich rarely, if ever, has more than one Phylactery, since each needs a fragment of the creature’s soul, so more than one would make it far too weak. It would also be inconv𒁃enient to tell a story about a Lich with many Phylacteries, since it makes the creature annoying rather than menacing🐼.

The Soul

Unlike most undead creatures, a Lich retains the mortal soul it had in life, and keeping that soul tethered to the material plane is how the creature becomes immortal. By keeping its soul, a Lich is able to think and act as it did in life, while also capable of exerting its will on lesser undead creatures.

The soul is often all that is left from the original creatur🌞e the Lich was, since each time its soul returns to the Phylactery, a new body is formed (or the Lich had one prepared already). In some editions, the Lich even had to eat its original living body, leaving no trace of who it once was.

Using A Lich In A Campaign

A Lich can be as simple and as complicated as you want it to be, but it realizes its full potential when 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:plotting from the shadows. With its Phylactery intact, a Lich can always go all out against any party of players, since it will just come back to life if def🅺eated.

You can always turn nearly any creature into a Lich, since most recent editions show tools to do so. With a clever di🌄sguise, a creature could hide the fact that it is a Lich, surprising the party a few sessions later when it shows up again unalive and well.

You can also look🌱 at the most famous characters kno🅺wn to be a Lich for inspiration:

• Vecna and Vlaakith are two characters with vastly different backstories but similar goals. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:They wish to attain godhood by any means necessary, which for them involves sacrificing countless souls throughout the centuries, increasing their power to near divinity.
• Acererak works more like a setting than a villain, since he is most known for his perilous dungeons rather than his nefarious schemes. A Lich is a great way to have the deadliest traps, since, like Acererak, a Lich might be using the dungeon to farm souls rather than to keep something hidden.

Lich Variants

There are different individuals that are considered a Lich, and you can even make your own, but there are certain variants that warrant mention. Most of these creatures work like a Lich, either because they also have a Phylactery, or because they have a way to stay alive even after death.