Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Staple 03-02-07, 11:16 AM	I've become a Lich for the first time, and I have some questions on the finer points of the rules. It's also worth noting that I became a Lich by virtue of Dread Necromancer's 20th level class feature, Lich Transformation (please refrain from commenting on whether Dread Necro is a good/bad class as it is not the issue here): -If my phylactery is destroyed, I die. That much I understand. Does this mean that I can't actually die until my phylactery is destroyed, or that phylactery destruction is an additional way to die? -If phylactery destruction is the only way to die, and my body is destroyed (but not my phylactery), how do I reconstitute it? -If Resurrect is cast on me, will I immediately die and become lichified again, since I've become a Lich via a class feature? -Can my body or my phylactery be affected by any form of antimagic (i.e. dispel magic, an antimagic field, extradimensional spaces where magic doesn't work, etc.)? -Is there a spell I can place on my phylactery so that I can bring it to me if I so desire? If so, what does it require? Thanks for anyone who can help. Life's a Lich sometimes.
Balthanon 03-02-07, 12:39 PM	You cannot actually die until your phylactery is destroyed. You reform in 1d10 days close to your phylactery. You can choose not to come back when ressurect is cast upon you. If you're speaking of after having your phylactery destroyed then I would imagine that is the case. This is up to your DM though. Being a lich isn't a magic spell, your phylactery would be suppressed by dispel magic or antimagic field, but it doesn't really say what would happen as a result. I would just try not to die when that happens. :) This is another question for your DM though. Drawmji's (?) Instant Summons (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/instantSummons.htm) in the PHB: a 7th level spell that requires a 1,000 gp sapphire and an arcane mark. It is conjuration (summoning).
Ebonyte 03-02-07, 12:45 PM	Lessee... it's been a while since I hung out with any liches... ever since Vecna vs. Kas and Strahd vs Azalin, vampires and liches have been notorious rivals... Okay, there are a few interpretations of the rules, but here is the one I go with... A lich is not instantly destroyed by the destruction of their phylactery. Their phylactery is a place where they store their soul seperate from their body. Some liches choose to keep it close at hand. I can think of liches who have incorporated their phylactery into their familiar, their familiar's collar, a piece of worm jewelery, even an adamantium heart they kept in their own chest. Azalin had a gold-plated dragon skull in his palace, nigh-impossible to destroy, but also impossible to move... But I digress... Once those pesky adventurers or paladins or other misguided fools have destroyed your phylactery, your soul returns to your body, meaning if your corporeal form is destroyed, you are dead-dead. If too much time has passed, expect your remains to go to a pile of expensive dust that they will try to fence to an alchemist. With your phylactery still active, if your body is destroyed, your soul projects it's power into another corpse, usually one you have prepared ahead of time just in case of this unfortunate eventuality. Again, going with Azalin, when his soul was tossed into the ether, he managed to make it back. With some help, he was restred ito his dead son's bones. I imagine using a familiar relation's remains or other linked corpse would work just fine... I would have a clone made and kept ready for eventualities like this. The ammount of time it takes to inhabit a new body varies, depending on what world, the DM, and the rules you're using. Some say that vanquishing a lich without destroying their phylactery can buy you months of respite while you look for it to strike the final blow. Others have reported cutting down a lich only to find it inhabiting a nearby zombie imediately, meaning every nearby zombie became a potential lich. Ask your DM on their interpretation of the rules, because that's where the gold piece stops. As for Reincarnation? If it were my game, I would say that if that IS cast on you, you come back as a normal, non-undead character, even if it IS a class feature. See, normally an undead character can't come back at all, and if they are brought back, barring the restore undead spell of Libris Mortis, I would say they are restored as a mortal. Of course, being a 20'th level Dread Necromancer means you could easily pay the usual costs and go through all the motions to become a lich again. Libris Mortis can be a real help with playing a lich, giving advice about how to defend your phylactery. Some DMs say it's okay to have your phylactery hidden in another plane of existence, while others say that will cut the connection between you and force you to try and inhabit a new body in that dimention. I would rule that the connection remains even over planar boundaries, meaning that a belt of many pockets, a bag of holding, even a famialiar pocket spell, can keep your phylactery safe. Of course, nothing is safe in a pocket dimention when the enemy can make use of an ethereal filcher. Also, if you happen to bring that bag f holding into another pocket dimention, you'll lose that phylactery. In general, I think it's best to keep the phylactery with you, and have as many enchantments and protective measures, magical and non, placed on it as possble. If it's something small and light, coat it in adamantium, then again in mythril, and once with lead for good measure and hopefully to protect against scrying. Get all kinds of protections cast over it to make it invulnerable to the elements, to scrying, to magical detection, to spells, to anything. Also have contingencies placed on it, so that if it is possessed by someone meaning to do you harm, it is teleported to a placed prepared ahead of time that is safe. If there is a buff that can go on an object to make it safer, do it. And carry or place decoys to make those hunting for your soul THINK they've go the right one. Depending on the alignment you adhere to, you might simply place a false magical aura on false phylacteries, all the way to placing soulsmolded to resemble yours in them to give it that extra-realistic touch. Your phylactery is, quite simply, your most prized possesion. Protect it more than yourself, because it can spell your slavery, death, or perhaps worse. Anti-magic fields and the like will not nullify a phylactery or your animated body, but will work on breaking the enchantments you've placed on them, including extra-dimentional storage spells. Remember, also, that that anti-magic area can nullify your innate spell-like abilities. Well, hope that helps. Now you can probably see why liches tend to have fortresses and minions. For all their strengths, they have one glaring vulnerability. The mobile lich is probably the best off, in my opinion, valuing knowlede over riches, spending what they make on more lore and additional fail-safes against their own destruction. But always remember, you could have it much, much harder. You could be a vampire.
Trel 03-02-07, 03:13 PM	I'm no Lich-master but I got opinions! for like... some of your things... -If Resurrect is cast on me, will I immediately die and become lichified again, since I've become a Lich via a class feature? I'd say that Resurrection magic of any kind could speed up the process of waiting to reform, but only with a phylactery, if it were to be destroied, aswell as your body, then it would probably require the normal Wish/Miracle and maybe a True resurrection spells to bring you back -Can my body or my phylactery be affected by any form of antimagic (i.e. dispel magic, an antimagic field, extradimensional spaces where magic doesn't work, etc.)? Undead and Golems dont have to worry about antimagic last I checked, the magic is assumed to have 'been and gone', only summoned things get affected, if you were slain however and the phylactery was in an anti magic field, I'd say that reforming is delayed (but not stopped, if you had 5 days left and it entered a field for even a milenium, you would not reform, but after that times up and you leave it again, it counts down the 5 days wait as normal again. -Is there a spell I can place on my phylactery so that I can bring it to me if I so desire? If so, what does it require? I think theres ruels for putting a phylactery in a pocket plane or bag of holding, but cant find my books to check, but my gut tells me that it isnt possible, but there are lots of places a phylactery can be just as safe, sealed inside a single brick deep in a castles walls, at the bottem of the sea or quicksand, remember that you dont need to breath or worry about food or water and your a high level caster and probably have friends, teleportation, hiring protection or just surrounding it by captured monsters can work!
Selgard 03-02-07, 03:26 PM	There is a 2nd edition book called "Van Richten's Guide to the Lich". .I don't remember if it ever made the 3.0/3.5 conversion, but it's full of answers for nearly all of your questions as well as alot of other useful "fluff-type" stuff that you probably wanna read through. It was also compiled into several "Van Richten" type set books, but danged if I can remember the names of 'em off hand. As to some of your questions: as per Raw, all "raise from the dead" type magics allow the target to choose whether or not to come back to life. So if the goody-two-shoes Cleric cast Resurrection on you, you could simply decline to come back to life. (or accept, if battle was going badly, and you wanted to pretend to "repent".. but that's another story) As for general advice: Anyone who can kill You probably can destroy your Phylactery. I would personally advise keeping it in a very safe, very far away place: like a small 10foot room deep in a mountain, with no ready way out and a skeletal corpse for you to inhabit as well as some clothes, magic items, and a spare set of spell books. This lets you come back to life in relative isolation while you reassess what happened and then return to the scene to kick some rump. (this method works best if you create a fake phylactery for the do-gooders to find and destroy).
Ebonyte 03-02-07, 04:50 PM	There is a 2nd edition book called "Van Richten's Guide to the Lich". .I don't remember if it ever made the 3.0/3.5 conversion, but it's full of answers for nearly all of your questions as well as alot of other useful "fluff-type" stuff that you probably wanna read through. It was also compiled into several "Van Richten" type set books, but danged if I can remember the names of 'em off hand. Those are the 2nd ed Ravenloft books. Van Richten Guides are available in second ed ranging from gypsies (Vistani), to lycanthropes, all the way to ghosts and vampires. 3rd edition covered all of these in some detail (not nearly as much), but also focused on the shadow fey or Arak, and the ancient dead (mummies, though Liches might be in there, I don't have that one). They are a good read even if they don't translate well.