Dungeons and Dragons Lore: Demilich and Acererak
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ส.ค. 2024
- The Demilich sounds like it should be less dangerous or powerful than the lich, the truth is, they are quite a lot more dangerous and certainly more difficult to destroy.
When you want to significantly challenge a high level party of adventurers in the Dungeons and Dragons tabletop roleplaying game, these evil undead masterminds are among the most deadly threats you can throw at them as a Dungeon Master.
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It should be mentioned that each of the 8 sould gems acts as a phylactery should the lich be dedstroyed. This means if you kill the lich and destroy the phylactery but leave even one of these 120,000GP gems intact then the demilich regenerates 1d10 days later just as if the phylactery was still intact.
watch carefully what goes into the rogue's pocket at the end of the fight.
Greed is a vice. 👍
Dang, forgot to specify that, thank you Yawnos
I just found my over arching villian for my orcus cult endgame, and I have a rouge who would do just this thank you.
It would be a great plot device if the players didn't know this. The DM could use the Rogue by tricking them into pocketing the gem that appraises for 120,000 gold.
Its really the bard you want to watch out for. Those guys will lie their ass off and are just as devious as the rogue.
Perfect Demilich Disguise: Pretending to be a prop skull in Hamlet.
Alas poor Yorik. Horatio, I knew him well. He used to DM our games on Friday :)
A demilich who named itself Yorik just for kicks.
In one game, I had a lich hire the players to go collect some materials for one of his projects. In return, he crafted weapons with lifestealing which in actuality were all phylacteries that would drain the soul of what ever the weapon slew. The Lich actually had 37 different phylacteries for insurance against destruction. To this day, my players never knew why he kept popping up after they supposedly destroyed him.
I dislike the idea of a lich having more than one phylactery. The phylactery is supposed to house their soul. Why would a lich have 37 souls to house in phylacteries?
I'm imagining the party thinking they defeated "The Lich", when they defeat a lich, but then find a skull with crystals sunken in its eyes, radiating an overwhelming aura of each school of magic when Detected. Identify fails to work on it but when a player picks it up, it thrums with magic and a Finger of Death strikes a shadowy assassin the party apparently failed to notice, and the resulting zombie seems to be non hostile. Implying that this strange magic item bonded to the party and is "theirs". 10+ sessions later they eventually realize they've been in the company of a Demilich who played its way into their party, legitimately helping them here and there with or without having nefarious ulterior motives (Such as constantly being aware of their plans and intercepting them with its minions remotely)
Why... Thank you. I never thought of it that way. oooh I'm gonna have so much fun.
That is extremely devious. I like it.
Now they're really playing with the big boys... Be nice to your ancient lich skull, compliment it. Polish it. Rest it in good locations that catch the light. Yeah sure the efreet in the lamp you captured is scared of it & stoped ranting on about the 101 ways they'll boil the marrow inside the parties bones since you picked the skull up. And seems tame and skittish, and never dirrectly looks at the skull. But don't worry if you're endarring enough, maybe you'll all get to part ways without any involentary events of live magical dissection. In far more ways than haraazan the happy newly reformed singing and dancing efreet can imagine. 😺💀😱
10-year-old Acererak loathed life you say, and couldn't wait to become undead? That made me imagine Acererak and Vecna's relationship being like this:
A: "Can I be a lich yet?"
V: "No."
A: "Can I be a lich yet?"
V: "No."
A: "Can I be a lich yet?"
V: "NO."
A: "Can I be a lich yet?"
V: "NO! If you say that one more time, I'll turn you into a zombie instead!"
(awkward silence)
A: "Can I be a lich now?"
V: (groans)
Great now I'm forever going to hear Acererak and Vecna's voices as Abridged Nappa and Vegeta.
@@andyenglish4303 LMAO
Never make a threat you aren't willing to back up. It just isn't a good look for gods. Evil gods in particular.
@@thatoneguy9615 This was probably before Vecna obtained godhood.
@@JanusHoW *Facepalms* Likely, yes.
One of my characters had his soul "used" by a lich. He used to think that it was a better fate than going to the abyss or the 9 hells. In his last moments of existence, he realized that he was absolutely wrong.
Rogue: "I look around my surroundings for traps" *rolls a 20
DM: "The Demi Lich is behind your cleric and invisible."
Rogue: Guess he’ll die
The saddest thing about watching this is the fact I'm rewatching it aft realizing I've already watched every one of AJ's videos.
Demilich are up there with demon lords when it comes to antagonists in campaigns. They must compete over "resources" (souls), and occasionally have clashes. I can see a Demilich with a retinue of Masters of the Shroud, Specters and Vampire Lords just dominating entire countries, only to be met with a horde of demons and their thralls led by some Balor. That would be a good fight.
5e really did demiliches dirty. They went from total magic immunity to resistance only, from brutal damage to tickle damage, from very difficult to deal damage to to quite easy.
I was going to use a demilich as the warlock patron of a player and a key NPC, but now I have to completely change their stat block since Wizards can't do anything right anymore.
I find that most of my DM time when I run 5e is undoing mistakes in their stat blocks. If you don't, there is never a challenge to players without mobbing them with too many enemies.
I honestly think whoever was working on it knew nothing of how ths original lore and just saw the word "demi", or for some reason they wanted to change it. Because, for some reason, in 5E a demilich is an involuntary degradation of a lich, and is innately less powerful. Instead of the next stage of lichdom it has been in past editions.
But, that's why we just play 3.5.
@@LuxuriaU Amen. The same could be said for everything written in 5e to date. The lore was tossed aside to make room for whatever seemed cool or whatever the newest market would find interesting. Before long there will be Fortnite skins in 5e.
5e did the whole game dirty
@@yignoloth I cannot deny this statement
@@yignolothespecially magic. 70ish% of spells are all concentration now, which means no more creative combinations unless you have more than one caster. Concentration got absolutely fetishised in 5e.
hmm... a dwarven demi lich "piloting" / hiding in its ancient rune-scribed golem :) my players would love it I think :)
Ooh that's a great idea
A bit late how Did it go?
@@amitgabay3721 no party did get there yet 😅 you know: the problem with a 1-20th level campaign is it takes a looong time 😄
@@projectfantasy1385 I get you bro
I remember in the 3E Epic Level Handbook, there was an organization devoted to cataloging all magic...and at the heart of it all was a demilich whose chosen surviving body part was not the skull, but the forearm and hand. Why? Because she spends every moment of her endless life writing in an artifact spellbook that can contain an infinite number of spells, which she believes must contain every spell or else magic itself will die out. Of course, anyone who disturbs her work is likely to meet a swift and painful end, assuming they can even GET to her...
I think it would be really funny if a priest of Wee Jas became a demi-lich, their skull, painted red, just sitting on the alter in front of Wee Jas symbol, then a group of people barge in wanted to start a fight, the painted skull levitates up and the people who barged in only have a second to realize the mistake they just made.
Got a second idea. If Demiliches can be spines, can they be a spine and a ribcage? Then a particularly power hungry wizard could strike some sort of bargain and have the ribcage just dig into his own chest, and literally just wear a Demilich as armor. Does the Ancient Gold Dragon think it is about to smite your evil from the land? Surprise! You had a Demilich with you the whole time. Get dunked on good dragon.
That is cool!
The skull of a demilich as a helmet? With the rib cage becoming a badass chest piece. On top of litany of badassedery.
Minor issue: the negative energy radiating from undead is detrimental to life, and the negative power of a lich is strong indeed. The wearer would probably become an undead just from exposure (or perhaps something like a hag).
Another issue is that the lich would consider you a tool, and would likely dispose of you once your usefulness has ended.
@@krofgninut5984 there has to a way around that through through phylacteries and use of genees, enchantments and outright coercing the Lich you might be able to make him a decent set of armor
@@krofgninut5984 You can hedge the risk with a Protection from Evil and Good spell that you probably have a way to make permanent if you are interacting with Demilichs. Immunity to possession, fear, and charming while not actually causing harm to the Demilich should work out well enough. Just use a Greater Restoration once in a while for the radiation.
Demilichs are still evil and even more ruthless, but the wider perspective brought about by their greater age over lichs makes them more chill about things. It makes me realize that a demilich is far more likely to make a warlock pact simply because they're more patient and more likely to be amused by it.
(In other words, they're more likely to create a warlock for the lulz.)
True, generally they are busy with grand schemes and less devoted to solitude and study, just, well, solitude and security, so they tend to attack and defend themselves with extreme force when they have to, but they don't go looking for trouble on the material plane, their focus is beyond the material plane, towards godhood.
This sounds like a great idea for a Great Undying One warlock patron. I have a lich patron for one of my warlocks who's phylactery is a adamantine golem. But with a demilich I could make the adamantine golem armor instead and have him wear it, while making his soul gems huge, flawless diamonds or beljurils. and have his skull coated in adimantine. would take Orccus to kill him.
That sounds badass man🤘
I’m imagining something like the emperor from 40k
Error Oh that's a great idea.
The idea that a good aligned paladin could go on a quest to become a lich and eventually a demi-lich to continue to destroy evil in the material plane and beyond is pretty neat.
I would see like a lawful evil oath of vengeance paladin doing that. Basically doom guy lmao
Demilich were much much more powerful than normal liches in the proper old dnd - liches so powerful, they went seeking divinity or other such things on that level
Well I guess you could say with the demi lich that he/she was willing to go to any length to get *a head* in this town.
I know where the exit is don't worry.
Badaboom tish!
After the soul trade video and hearing about the three planes that evil souls go to upon death, I can't see how soul destruction is always evil.
"I'm a good guy, so ill let you get reborn without memories, caught by a hag, then wrung out for your essence endlessly."
Eternal suffering or become a Atheist.
Imagine if one that was just a head disguised itself as the top of a staff, having a suitable undead walk around and fight for/as it. And once the proxy is dead, the party's caster gets an amazing new staff... And the demilich gets information, if it can figure out how to not radiate lethal amounts of negative energy first anyway.
"The target's possessions cease to exist." That could be an interesting little twist;
Adventurer: "uh, mighty lich... that thing was literally holding together this entire plane of existence."
Lich: "Sucks to be you, then." *teleports with a minion, grabs their phylactery & plane shifts outta there*
Lich, later bartering with a demon: "hey, so I've got an adventurer in here with the key to an entire plane of existence.. what are you paying?"
I made a demi lich encounter where it was surrounded by a swarm of bedazzled flame skulls. Lots of confusion and fun.
Oh man, I hope you played classic disco music during the encounter.
There's an interesting spell that's fairly low level where the caster can essentially possess an undead body with the consequence being that their physical body is essentially unprotected. Now, I wonder if the Lich could embed its skull inside of an undead body that's easier to maintain without having to sacrifice souls to it (thus effectively giving a body to a good lich) and otherwise making an encounter all the more difficult. Especially when you consider that a creature of any size can be made into an undead.
So what do you do when the Demi Lich is protected safe inside an undead dragon while possessing the undead dragon to directly control all of its actions?
Presumably, you would have to fight and destroy an undead dragon before even having the opportunity of fighting and destroying the Demi Lich, and if it's really smart it would be physically present in an entirely different vessel in a different room.
Better a dragon than the tarrasque...lol
@@spedwyrm7427 Good point. There are scarier hosts.
@@Elliandr I remember running an old 3.5 campaign, in it the large looming threat which was the draconic equivalent of a demi Lich. It kept the phylacteries for all of its servants and Commanders amongst its forces Within the hollow of its own skull. This game ran for over 4 years and by that point the party who had ventured into Epic Level play two years prior- finally confronted the draconic Demi Lich. They had reached an average party level of 36. The final confrontation had taken nearly three sessions to complete because they had to face all of their old Lich foes as well as the forces physically arrayed against them already. I made quite sure that they had to earn every single point of damage before it was finally completed and they emerged Victorious LOL.
@@spedwyrm7427 Now just imagine what would have happened if that Demi Lich never acted with it's own body, only possessing others from a hermetically sealed chamber, but led the players into believing that it was it's true body they killed.
@@Elliandr so it's effectively a scryborn Suel Lich...I like it
an episode on Baelnorns (positive energy lich [ebberon has these]) or the undying would be amazing as i usually have a lot of trouble really finding lore for them.
"Why have any oxygen at all" I believe you have hit the Nail on the Head. As to why you will find so many Lich in the Lowest Depths of the Underdark.
That there aren't any Demiliches piloting a well crafted "living" flesh golem seems like such a missed opportunity 😩
I now have the idea of multiple Demi-liches of separate limbs/body parts combining into a megazord Demi-lich. Which is just a bedazzled skeleton.
That would just be awesome!
Go go power liches
theory: acererak's father was a balor who had managed to avoid becoming undead or was an undead balor and the undead part was not recorded in accounts of the balor's appearance, in service to orcus, would explain the seemingly innate hatred of being one of the living
I think the demilich can be extra terrifying when they hide among their minions, I could imagine plots where the demilich is disguised as a mundane skeleton, a flameskull, a crawling claw, or maybe it's inhabiting a beholder skull masquerading as a death tyrant, the party reaches an area where they encounter a "lich" that is actually a minion, and when they are victorious and tired and make their way out of the dungeon, surprise! You met the demilich when you first walked in and it has you now
Acererack:yes Julian please send in my 3 o’clock
Julian:mr acererack will see you now mr Pickett
The Tomb of Horrors
Draw sword and wand and follow the guide,
Bring courage if the youth be wise in bloom;
The skull grins upon the mountain side,
Acererak waits in his tomb.
Pull down the walls, bring sword and light
That there be no foot silent in the room
Nor mouth from screaming , nor from blood unspent;
Acererak waits in his tomb.
In vain, in vain; the grinning skull still lies
The everlasting flicker lights the gloom;
All wisdom shut into his jeweled eyes
Acererak sleeps in his tomb.
I have an idea for a benevolent litch. Basically he’s a human head not a skull an immortal human head who happens to be king of a significant kingdom. He is carried around by various servants and constructs. He looks like the Burger King
Hail to the king baby!
*cocks arcane shotgun* 😂
Demiliches: When Sans isnt fucking around anymore.
A villain i threw at a high-level party was a cult of liches and demiliches founded by a "Blackthorne" or Neutral Evil Druid who worships death and entropy as aspects of nature. Twisted firest full of undead trees and undead faerie-folk. There was even a vampire unicorn!
It really freaked them out. They said fantasy films would never look the same again
I once designed a vampire dryad that consumes maple syrup. Would be a great setting for it.
I'm giving two thumbs up and a huge thank you to AJ before I even watch this AJ you're the best man
Thanks Charles!
I wonder what is worse, going to say, the bottom three after lives, abyss hell ect... or having your soul taken into a lichs phylactery? If hell is worse than a phylactery, might someone who wants to avoid hell willing let a lich take them?
For those who might be interested the 3rd party sourcebook Immortals Hanbook - Epic Bestiary from Eternity Publishing for 3rd edition provides a creature called an Akalich which is a lich so old that they're just a Shadow. As you would expect they are ridiculously powerful
Personally i would adorn the entrance hall to my Lair with many Cast iron "Skull inset" Chandaliers. The 1st one would house the Demilich on the opposite side of the entrance facing inward. So it would get to enjoy watching as the mortals chose which hallway they take and ultimately which gruesome death they chose for themselves.
Considering the attrition rate of Vicna's employees you'd think it would be hard to get future applicants.
Mounting a demi lich skull in the centre of an undead ogre torso is awesome. Kind of like a D&D krang from the original teenage mutant ninja turtles cartoons! Ha ha ha ha.
Exactly what I thought of😂😂🤘
A Demilich I began to run with my players recently is a ruined, fallen King who was unwilling and unable to let go of his power in life, he had his people search far and wide for every reagent needed to become a Lich and performed the ritual. He eventually, like any other Lich and Demilich, became a monster, and his people struck him down, but the problem was, the Lich had his ENTIRE skeleton imbued with soul gems between each and every joint. It was utterly EXHAUSTING to the kingdom's coffers, leaving the entire nation poor from their king's choices, and with the king coming back every time he is struck down, becoming less and less himself each time, they scattered his remains, for his power was bound within his bones. While his skull is always coming back, for some reason, the rest of his skeleton, while he can still feel those bones, and knows their general location, he does not have the rest of his Skeleton, and thus, his power, except for one hand and his skull.
The players began to notice powerful Undead seeking and claiming these skeletal remains, kept as heirlooms by the descendants of those who scattered their King's remains around the world, and finally had their first encounter with the king of the damned. They were utterly annihilated.
Had to go back to say I used some ideas from this to make a final campaign encounter that punished players for taking too long in the campaign. It was a coven of liches led by a neutral Demilich who sought to make more similar beings to aid in research. What was originally a hard dungeon with dozens of acolytes, 3 liches and the Demilich boss eventually became a nightmare fight with 4 new liches from acolytes who completed the ritual in the meantime and a new lesser Demilich from one of the liches who ascended.
Van Richten's guide to the lich goes into detail on these nightmares
Acererak does have a potential ally against Orcus. Kiransalee while she trusts no one. She hates Orcus almost as much as she hates Lolth. (Orcus did pull one of the biggest hacks in the multiverse on her after she had won) Except now the Last Word has been taken off the table.
Lichs technically don't have to be evil. They can start a religion. Just convert people into a form of Buddhism and help them reach Nirvana.
Technically, but...
One of my DM had a neutral lich that was actually his former character from 2nd edition, he would always use him as a plot point to find a list of his lost items from his life. However he was neutral and was quite paranoid, making him unpredictable, we lost a party because out rogue failed a persuade check.
Demi Lich is not skipped in 3.5e it is in the epic level handbook and is depicted as much stronger than a normal lich as a CR 29
When is wizards gonna sponsor this guys vids?
A note to people as well,
The epic level handbook isnt the only official wizards material for demi-liches in 3.5.
At the time, wizards was trying to get people to its website. It had made character generators, DM tools, and a podcast. Alongside these, it hosted 15 or so adventures. One of them was an official 3.5 conversion of tomb of horrors (as a full adventure, not as a conversion chart).
Good video, I remember the Tomb of Horrors as one of the greatest dungeons to experience in my opinion.
Ah the first time you ran into the demilich in baldurs gate 2, the joys of getting spammed with imprison. :D
Seems to me that a sufficiently enterprising demi-lich could create a "lair" the size of a country that makes Thay look like a walk in the park.
The underdark, what's the underdark? All we have are the crypts that run under the country. None who went in ever return...that Dwarven mining town broke into them on accident a number of years ago and we're killed to a dwarf. So what I'm hiring you to do is go into the town and kill the undead milling about so the reclamation team can build defenses. Try not to get to close to the old mine though, don't want to kick the undead Hornets nest like when we tried to go in ourselves last time... But, it shouldn't be to much of a problem for you, we just want some basic walls around the town. The wandering zombies have been a real pain for the farmers about the township.
In my game there was a demilich that was a skull & bone dust. It could raise an army of skeletons then disperse it's dust among the army, giving them all the full powers of a lich
Demi lich is a deadly, badass entity. He's so above this pitiful prime material plane bullshit that he spends all his time injecting his consciousness into different planes of existence reading beyond ancient runes off a cave wall on the first layer of hell or some shit. Just imagine if the sick bastard manages to send himself to the negative energy plane!
Death Priest: Room temperature iq
Lich: average brain size
Demi-Lich: *A P E X I N T E L E C T*
My DM once took this idea from 3.5 and made what he called an Omni-Lich. Multiple lichs that combined to create one being. We were far into the Epic handbook at this point. My character was a modified Favored Soul on a path to become a god with 4 party members of equal stature.
"If you're part is the typical group of murder hobos"
Anyone who doesn't play D&D would probably be surprised at how common that is.
Soul gems eh?
Thanos:*breathes deeply*
The infinity gauntlet is a demilich!!
I live to hear these videos you make! They are so amazing they bring whatever is the subject of your video to life for me in such vibrant detail inside my mind's eye.
There is a tomb of horrors on 3 worlds actually, Greyhawk, the Forgotten Realms, and Nerath which is the 4e setting
The Dresden files have a demi lich as a character
Yup, quite liked that character.
Isn't he just a spirit of intellect?
Query....Back in the day, we came upon a demilich while I had a bag o holding out. I got initiative and bagged it. DM felt since it was on another plane and not destroyed that it was SOL. Your thoughts?
The DM was right.
I remember stumbling on the demilich in the Baldur's Gate 2 expansion, to say I was not prepared for that encounter would be an understatement 🤣🤣
I’m planning a patient and tricky demilich in my campaign. It will present as a sentient stone hand (it will be covered in stone) and help the party for many sessions before revealing itself and attacking them
If the Demilich creates magic items maybe have another spell added so the Demilich can use these items as a sensor network. Just a way to keep track of any potential problems in the realm.
Can't be a "Good" lich because devouring souls is inherently evil?
*Laughs in Punisher*
CONSUME THE SOULS OF THE DAMNED
Take that up with 4.0 D&D. Good lich was an epic class.
I would love a good lich that feasts on souls, but only of inarguably evil people in my campaign. And their souls being eaten means they don't get a chance to reincarnate as a fiend and continue to wreak havoc. Would really create an pressing moral question.
Here is how a "good" Liche could still maintain its physical body. Whenever there are criminals who would be given the death sentence for murder or rape, they could step in and consume that soul to maintain its physical body. In this way the "Good" liche is aiding "Justice" much the same as any other executioner would be for the state.
Two wrongs don't make a right, it is not "less evil" to horribly murder and destroy the soul of a convicted criminal, murder is murder.
@@AJPickett so I take it you do not believe in the death penalty
@@ramsesv5339 we are talking about Dungeons & Dragons.
Well we differ in our opinion then. To me I am old Testament eye for an eye
@@ramsesv5339 we differ in our alignment. 😉
This makes me think of that time when thanos had the reality stone in infinity war. And he was just opening up/disassembling everyone like objects, but he was being nice, and it was all demi ilusions save it wouldn't be "nice". If a ancient demi litch is only intrested in the persuit of magical knowledge in order to achieve a virtueless apotheosis. Then... Why would it even engage the party as combatants? Wouldn't unruelly test subjects make more sense? Magical live disections based on what the ancient litch itself finds intresting about the party. Organ systems, internal magic, or just dropping them into specimen containment jars as extra research material, why not? Have them litterally running around like lab rats in a maze? Is the barbarians catharic bellowing intresting, or is their larinx? Is the roges dagger skills intresting, or are their dexsterous finely tuned fingures? Why must combat stop the experiments? Why wouldn't it all just be blended into un wavering continueum? Infact, adventures might be welcome, such a weird and wonderously facinating aray of samples? All the better to further the research of something truely marvelous. *pictures a catatonic vampire rocking in a corner covered in an adventures fat, slowly steeling the resolve to continue the holy work lest they find themselves in greater usefullness on the next table of divine revelations*
If I ever run a Lich against the party, I’m using this. Many Lich’s become immortal so that their quest for knowledge may continue unhindered.
Matthew Turner emphasis on "UNHINDERED" 😷🤓🤪📖🤔😵🧪💉🧬🔬💀🐱🏍⚡😱🤢😰
Just discovered your channel. Binging the heck out of it. Thanks AJ!
Welcome and enjoy!
this may be one of the most evil and deeply disturbing creatures in all of Dungeons & Dragons
You can legit make Acererak your slave if you are a necromancer. You can reduce his int so low that he is permanently under your control.
QorinHalfhand. I feel that liches would be immune to that effect. Even if not, in the latest edition he has something like 27 int. That combined with legendary resistances means that you’ll have to get through a lot of tough defenses before you could even try casting something like feeble mind. By then if he picks up on what you’re doing you’ll probably die very quickly.
@@sanddry738 theres a reddit post about it and it explains just how you can do it. It requires A LOT of prepwork but if done right you can make him your bitch.
But he would be kinda useless by this point. More like an undead dog then a powerful caster.
There is a demilich within the dungeon of Rappan Athuk. The party I was running opened a chest, they discovered the demilich’s skull, and the entire party was promptly captured and imprisoned inside her soul gems.
Good aligned Lich, that’s what I’m here for.
I thought that could be a wet dream of would be necromancers but here we are, such a thing is possible it seems.
HellGod67 now I seem to remember in another video of his he made mention that liches are fueled by their connection to the negative energy plane so try as they might to do good, they are still evil and twisted and corrupt at the core.
Though a baelnorn, a good aligned elf lich, is possible.
@@Eric-kb2xt Ed Greenwood confirmed that there were good liches in Forgotten Realms. Basically, a good character’s god has some mission that requires them to remain in play for some time after their normal lifespan would allow so the god puts them in a lichdom that does not change their good alignment. Once the mission is accomplished they expire as normal.
In my setting the nation of Uhrat has developed a way of creating non-evil undead. It's fostered a culture of ancestor worship, where they will raise significant figures from their history so they can aide and give counsel. They bolster their forces with undead that are the bones of great warriors. The way this works is that they have a special kind of phylactery called a qa'sesh, a long scarf/ribbon that is made throughout your life. Loved ones add to it to commemorate important moments in your life and when you die, you are wrapped in this qa'sesh for a special funeral rite. They carry you out to the desert and a mag'yet (priest) will cause the body to burn within the qa'sesh. The body becomes ash and bones, and the bones are gathered into an urn which is taken back to a necropolis. The family take home the qa'sesh and place it in a family shrine. That qa'sesh holds the soul of that person and it keeps it from becoming corrupted. If the country has need for your ancestor, they have to request the family's permission for the qa'sesh of that person. Families can't just raise their loved ones because the necropolis has their bones. But they can pray at the shrine of their ancestors where they keep all their family's qa'sesh' and hopefully gain guidance from them. When they go to war, they'll often wear the qa'sesh of their ancestors into battle to give them strength. If a Uhratian falls in battle, that fallen person and the ancestor who's qa'sesh they were wearing, will both be brought back from the dead. In this way killing one Uhratian only increases their forces.
Lore dumped lol sorry, love good-aligned undead stuff.
I know is even possible for a good aligned mummy lord,but can a death knight be a good aligned?
Death is only the beginning...
Even for the dead.
@@thedarkmaster4747 Mors certa. Hora incerta.
would be a bitch to deal with a demilich that's only a tooth
Imagine if you had a character with like an Afro or something and it just chilled out in the pc’s hair 😂
12:34 Tenth level spells are insane!
Are you a good lich or a bad lich? :)
I'm on the bone fence,
order of difficulty Demi Witch, Demi Lich, then Demi Moore.
The Moore Demi the Moore problems?
No one can touch the legend AJ Pickett
Hey AJ could you do a video of the god of tyranny Bane and his clergy
Remember kids, Psychic Amplification Crystals are not to be used flagrantly. Unless you're scared. Then go ahead.
Don't remember. What did the kids do with the Crystals?
They kill something like 30 juvenile Aboleth, whose collective psychic death knell gives a portion of the river Styx sentience.
@@axepoison255 On Sigil we call that "Tuesday"
@@AJPickett Twas a Tuesday to aspire to. The metric for which other Tuesdays might be judged.
So that explains "WishBones" from that one episode of the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.
Green Ronin has a very cool splat book called The Secret College of Necromancers which detailed not just lichdom, but other contingencies that allowed the necromancer to cheat death.
I came up with a weird little creature called the hydraken. It's a land-kraken, but instead of tentacles, it has the heads of a hydra.
Sounds like the colossal land squid needs to sit on the sidelines. Lol
@@NanoMayTry The colossal land squid is a panzy.
12 questions, answer what you want:
1.) Can a soul that has been destroyed ( or has been sucked out of the multiverse through an Ether Gap or [insert geometric term] of annihilation, etc.) be revived/retrieved/etc.? Maybe by a greater deity of time, or an overgod?
2.) Are you planing on making a video on vestiges, dead gods, reviving gods, etc.?
3.) How dose a demilitch reform its body?
5.) Can a dragon become a demilitch
6.) How can you project on to the ethereal plain, or any other plain besides the astral? Is that a previous edition thing?
7.) If undead are animated by the same spirits as sorrowsworn, who want to be near life because they want to return to the land of the living (and presumably the same with ghosts, why are they attracted to negative energy?
8.) Can a litch have multiple phylacterys, one on each plane, so it always has magic items
9.) Is there a way for a litch to posses a living body (maybe by abusing the clone and magic jar spells)?
10.) Have you covered the various things you brought up in discussing Aseraks plans already, or are those going to be future videos, or should we just look them up ourselves when time is available?
11.) Is their any limit on what corporal, living creature can become a litch?
12.) Is it possible for a living being to feed on souls like a litch dose, sacrificing the regeneration for life?
13.) You never mentioned what type of litch is your spirit animal (or what it was pre-undeath).
Sorry for the question spam. Great video though.
A. A soul can be retrieved, reconstituted or simply having the soul crafted anew by any divine being of sufficient power. (theoritcally a soul could be retrieved, reconstituted or crafted anew. Meaning its possible that there could be at least three versions of the same being all with souls who are technically the same being but just so happened to have enough divine favor from separate deities to aid them. The Hijinks alone could fil multiple campaigns. To say nothing of what happens when your PCs meet themselves several sessions after divine intervention saves their souls from oblivion.
@@zacharyhawley1693 But you could have an identical soul and a completely different body (ie. the reincarnation spell) so they might never know until a divination spell or proficy that uses their soul for identification sends someone across the multiverse looking for them. So before that you might get some stranger exiting a portal, staring right at you and asking "who the hell are you".
But I thought that all souls were made in the soul forge (or whatever it is called) which divine law prevents anyone from messing with (except somehow that dragon slipped in). He mentioned it in the blight video. Is that just the place where they are mass produced and distributed, and sufficiently powerful dietys can do it themselves (on a smaller scale) if they wish?
@@dragonturtle7645 Deities can generally get away with alot. When it comes to souls their follower's souls first and foremost is theirs allowing them to retrieve them(think of it like Dibs),reconstruct them if destroyed or even in extreme cases craft anew ( Think of it like the god telling reality that so and so is supposed to exist and they have the receipt to prove it and reality can't do anything but say OK) Reincarnation exacerbates the issue even further and don't even think about soul splitting or souls shards in which case it becomes possible for a single being to fully crew an entire guild with themselves. At least until the inevitables or reality just nopes them all out of existence.)
@@zacharyhawley1693 Interesting. Thank you, this has really helped.
1.) Souls that have been utterly destroyed cannot be retrieved, and there are strict rules on all major powers of the multiverse from attempting to interfere with or create new souls. An Overgod would not intervene to revive a destroyed soul either.
2.) Sure, once I have completed the Monster Manual I will be back to a more varied menu of the requested content.
3.) By absorbing sufficient soul energy and preparing a new host corpse.
5.) It has not happened yet, but it is possible, and it would be extremely powerful.
6.) Because Liches are dead, they can technically cross over into the ethereal plane as spirits, despite being anchored to a body via the phylactery. They are just a ghost trapped in a corpse really.
7.) Negative energy sustains them, the best way to describe this, is imagine negative energy is a funnel and positive, vitality, is marbles, as the marbles roll down the funnel, they provide energy to the undead, so, being near more negative energy, the funnel is at a steeper angle and the marbles can be pulled out of things a lot easier. Negative energy is parasitic, it needs to be fed positive energy in order to sustain any semblance of a physical process. other than disintegration.
8.) Yes, but when the lich is on another plane, it has no benefit or connection to the other phylacteries.
9.) It seems to be a possibility, there is a precedent for a powerful mage going from being a Baelnorn and being resurrected from a state of undeath
10.) Oh, I would have a look at some of the other famous demiliches, such as Shoon VII, former emperor of the Shoon Empire, and the sorry fate of Wulgreth, the Netherese wizard who was transformed into a lich by accidental exposure to extremely high levels of magic.
11.) Typically they have to be high-level wizards, sorcerers or Clerics in order to complete the required rituals, as well as accomplished in alchemy to brew the proper potions and such.
12.) Anything is possible where magic is concerned.
13.) An Elven Baelnorn
I think these guys would be great living canon balls if they some how managed to gild their skull in adamantine. I mean really Imagine a hard to hit flying object with semi similar weight of a canon ball that can HEAD-BUTT you repeatedly
As hilarious as that would be (flaming skulls in a cannon on a lich’s tower comes to mind instead), I think the spellcasting power and howl is far greater than a mere hunk of metal.
Although it’d be one of the nastier surprises a party could face...
Soul Machine sounds like a kickass music album name
So, as someone who just went through a bad break up, your voice is surprisingly therapeutic.
Sorry to hear that Dr Bright, but also thanks.
@@AJPickett I appreciate both the thanks and apology. Though, I don't particularly require either. I still greatly appreciate it.
So if a lich's(or demilich) phylactory is stored inside, say a Warforged, could they, through whatever proper channo, have a new mechanical body, while still being a Lich/demilich?
My idea is demi lich that creates an iron golem for it's body
I love your stuff! Keep it up! Me and my players are all thankful :)
Demilich didn't skip 3/3.5, it's in the Epic Level Handbook, and they kinda beefed it
You would think that, as I was directly referring to the ELH, I would have noticed that, but nooooo.
@@AJPickett Lol no worries, I had to think about it myself like wait... I've read this somewhere, oh right!! Honestly though I loved hearing your take on it, plus hearing your lores are quite nice, can listen to them while playing other games, thanks for the uploads!
@@AJPickett Magic Immunity (Ex): Demiliches are immune to all
magical and supernatural effects, except as follows. A
shatter spell affects a demilich as if it were a crys-talline
creature, but deals half the damage normally indicated.
A dispel evil spell deals 3d6 points of damage (Fort save
for half damage). Holy smite spells affect demiliches
normally. page 174 of the epic lvl handbook ... the rule lawyer in me wants to argue while it's probaly intended as they are immune to secondary effects like slow... etc the name of that ability and the wording makes a pretty good argument that they are immune to magic ie a fireball to the face would do nothing
Does it mention if there is a specific kind of gem needed for their soul gems? I was wondering if they used King's Tears or Beljuril would make more sense. Since those gems are nigh indestructible anyway they would be great, and you are already spending so much on them. But they do have a magic nature, is it possible that might interact or even interfere with the Soul Stone? Seems reasonable, but I am curious what you all think.
AJ man, I have heard so many people pronounce Acererak and I have to say, the way you pronounce it is the latest lol. I will never actually know how to pronounce that dudes name! BUT good video as usual!
levimorne I think according to Perkins (you can find it on the Stream of Anihilation plot overview) pronounced it as, (Acer-err-ack). Funny enough, I think the pronunciation in the TOA book is actually wrong.
ə-SERR-ə-rak
Ha ha! Got here within the first hour. Great work as always, keep it up, and I promise this is the last time I will request the silthilar (page 168 of 3.5s The Lords of Madness)...
...at least for a while
Seriously though, great work. I look forward to all of your videos and wish you well in your future endevers. I can’t wait to see this channel grow even more!
Share and enjoy, and share some more :)
Finally someone points out that undead don't need to breathe
Dang that was fast! Awesome content my dude!
Watch overlord for a “unwilling to be a Demi-lich” lol.
Could a demilich make an entire skeleton of soul gems given enough time?
I suppose so? Throw is some Ioun stones to round it off.
@@AJPickett So out there somewhere is a very expensive lich.
Cool.
Or an entire dungeon of emeralds and diamonds.
I figure it'd be easier and take less time if he just become a god of his own physical plain of existence