A serious idea, have the lich be a recurring villain that learns from fighting the party, maybe have the lich pretend to be a normal skeleton that the lich likes
Holy smokes. Just at the right moment. I started a new campaign yesterday and in the shadows there's an ancient ruler named the Invincible Emperor who is influencing things in the background. He's a lich.
Yes! Make a little series out of this!! Let this monster series go over all year big bads! Zombies swarms, hags, dragons, beholders, mind flayers, slaads, demons, devils! This will be a great series!!
Fully agreed. This is content I can use. Even if you're not DMing a game with a lich as the big bad, it's like a masterclass on how to think creatively about antagonists. More like this please! Love it.
I've had a lot of experience running liches in 5E thanks to a couple of different campaigns. One used a converted Pathfinder adventure with a crashed flying city with three insane liches lairing there. Here's some of the things I do" - First, since liches are level 18+ wizards, I give them 1 1st level and 1 2nd level spell at-will, and those are most likely going to be shield and misty step. - Second, many have the Boon of High Magic and have a second 9th level spell slot. - Time stop, counterspell, and chill touch are almost mandatory, and any lich I run is definitely going to have counterspell. - A smart lich uses demiplane to store its phylactery somewhere no one else can get to it. - Liches can't use simulacrum, but they can use a zombie or skeleton with some pre-programmed commands and minor illusion to throw their voice, making that give a monologue while they set up in position. - Liches can use project image to never have to negotiate in person. - Liches can cast gate, planar binding using a 9th level spell slot, and magic circle. They can summon and bind a fiend, elemental, or whatever for a year and a day to serve as a bodyguard in case the lich is attacked. Since a lot of these creatures can access planar travel magic, I usually have them just appear (as per the "come back and report" part of planar binding) when the lich is attacked. - Liches can place multiple symbols in their lair that trigger when a single word is spoken by the lich, or some object is disturbed or what have you. Since liches have great intelligence saving throws and resist necrotic damage, symbols of insanity and death are kind of mandatory. - Liches can use glyph of warding to place spell glyphs, some that trigger after the lich speaks a certain word AND then a condition is met. Enemy spellcaster by the door? Bam! Antimagic field right there. Oh, they stepped in? BAM! Feeblemind. Lich casts dimension door to escape the immediate threat? BAM! Meteor swarm goes off. - Shield guardian(s) are a lich's best source of damage soaking. Have more than one hidden nearby. Nothing says you can't have more than one at a time. And they store spells. Keep a few extra dispel magic or counterspell spells on hand that way. In short, NEVER play fair when running a lich. They should have complete control of their lair, have multiple levels of defense set up, and be ready to cut and run if things get bad, even knowing that they have "spare lives" on hand. That way when the PCs beat them, they will really feel like they've accomplished something.
Nice list. One nitpick is that phylacteries need to be on the same plane as the lich in order to feed souls to it using the Imprisonment spell, which creates a logistical nuisance if storing it in a demiplane (burning an 8th AND 9th level spell slot for each soul feeding and time spent traveling to the demiplane, and the security risk of opening the demiplane frequently), which increases the likelihood of neglecting maintenance and becoming a demilich. Additionally, if someone knows that the phylactery is in a demiplane then they may be able to connect to it with their own casting of demiplane.
Yeah the glyph one is especially outrageous as it's a broken ass spell. You could have 100 glyphs all triggering fireballs with the same condition (speak a phrase), insta nuking everyone. Take 800d6 fire damage thank you. Obv never do that lol but it just shows the power of glyph of warding.
Excellent addition, the second 9th lv spell slot make all these high level spells possible through Glyph of Warding. And in their lair, they basically have 12.5% to regain their 8th lv or lower spellslot, 25% chance of regain a 7th lv spelllot or lower, every 2 round. So a day in their lair is enough to set up all of Symbol or Glyph of Warding, and cast Project Image 500 miles somewhere
@@timothyperkins5838 I have one lich whose phylactery is literally on the dark side of the moon.... Technically the same plane of existence, and liches don't need to breathe
I ran a lich that was a pirate captain, and the fight was overseas. The lich's ship was built with wood and bone and was a creature also fighting. The phylactery was the anchor of the ship. It ended up being ALMOST tpk, truly epic fight, and when finished, the PCs were able to keep the lich's ship as their own. The ship is no longer a creature, but I'm thinking of letting them turn it into a creature again by lvl 15 with some powerful necromancy
I had a lich bbeg that was stark raving mad. She had taken the path of the Lich to save the world, by betraying her friends and trapping them in various types of undeath so that they could sleep down the ages to kill a demon lord that would end the world if they weren’t there to stop it. It was a fun campaign.
@@Marpaws As a dm I like to up the uncertainty as well and get the players to question whether or not the Lich knows what she’s talking about or is just completely insane.
I once purposefully planned with my DM for my Paladin to die near the end of a campaign. After the party tried to revive me, I pulled a plot twist on them by saying I wanted to stay dead, but to hide my body with a group of druids who could keep my body in pristine condition, casting gentle repose all the time. Should the world be in need of serious help, they’d revive me then. While dead, I’d spend my time learning spells and abilities outside of the normal Paladin skill set in the Celestial planes, honing my skills, etc. I was even thinking of homebrewing the Paladin into becoming a Hound Archon at some point.
My personally favorite thing to do is introduce the Litch around 11-12, have a hard fought battle with my PC’s maybe even getting 1 death. Then when he’s finally defeated he has them with the. “Oh you think I’m dead? This is just the beginning” then I have my BBEG set up for the next 8 levels, where they start learning about phylacteries, liches and whatever specific lore I have for that one
I had a similar thought, where the characters would fight the BBEG “lich”, only for it to all be an illusion by the lich, simply to study all of the tactics of the players, then surprise em later when the real one comes out to play.
@@thetowndrunk988 exactly, I had it so my lich had been around so long it didn’t even think of its body as it’s own and would just use himself for the research without the need for the illusion. Since in his mind he genuinely thinks no one will ever get his phylactery
I'm surprised a party at that level can take a lich. At that point it could probably open by dropping one of the squishier players with a Power Word: Kill
As an alternative/lower level encounter he might be a necromancer with a Clone body ready, and campaign might be about finding his clones/preventing him from respawning before he completes his goal of becoming a lich.
A wizard who foresaw a great catastrophe in the future becomes a lich in order to prevent the catastrophe only for himself to be the one who causes the catastrophe that he saw all those centuries ago
Honestly as a DM for a couple of years now, I find this to be the hardest part. Making each individual combat experience feel different and running creatures uniquely. Very excited for this!
I've been considering a campaign where the Lich is basically Ultron, where he's foreseen this world ending event and decided the best solution is to make everyone sentient undead
Missing from this is - adding some of the sorcerer metamagics. Typically, I'd give late game power casters a couple of sorcery points and a couple of meta magics. Thematically, it makes sense that truly ancient spell casters learned how to "bend" magic more than the traditional mage, and a subtle spell, or quickened spell can really improve your baddies action economy and/or surprise the party!
Quite right. Better range than ray of frost, a less-resisted damage type, no healing until the end of the lich's next turn - plus a skeletal hand clamped round the victim's throat!
I’m GMing the curse of Strahd and we’re about two sessions away from the final battle and this really helped me make Strahd have a lil extra kick! Y’all are awesome!
I just started to dm Tomb of Annihilation, and was honestly disappointed with how little Acererak actually participates in the adventure and how random the final showdown with him sees. This will help a lot, thank you very much! (Also, a warm hello from Brazil!)
Fun times--I'm running a certain 5e module that just so happens to have a Not Altogether Bad Lich in it. My party was so tense and FLOORED to have made friends (well, at least not enemies) with something that powerful. Honestly it was almost more satisfying to run than combat!! Looking forward to see how their working relationship develops. This video definitely gave me some ideas for adding flavor!
Ran a 3.5e mini campaign where the fortified village main schoolteacher of the children and teenager during winter months when field work can no longer be done due to weather, was a few centuries old lich illusion to look like an elf. Also combat was themed around six-gun revolvers and 15 bullet lever action rifles. Cowboys & sorcery. 14 year old, " Dad ! The school principle is a Lich ! " Teenager's father rolls his eyes, " Real, you should have figure that out two years ago." Then again at that time other than the old Planescape box set campaign setting, remarking that liches have to bargain with night hags for larva. No one knew liches feed on souls. So we had neutral good liches as mentors or PC in campaign.
I was wishing to find a good source on how to run a Lich and as always, you delivered it with such depth and insight! Couldn't ask for a better source! I learned a ton about the vast world of D&D and I'm eternally grateful for your work!
My favorite campaign I've ran so far was the player characters trying to stop a drow priestess from reassembling the phylactery of a previous Arch Mage. Lolth told her it was the only way to have her house ascend. It was a beautiful campaign and I'm sad we never got to finish it
2 ideas i had 1: if there have been any deaths in the party, bringing a reanimated friend to a climactic battle would be a great set piece. 2: a lich who has watched their friends and loved ones pass on might seek to create an immortal companion. If someone in or close to the party is chosen as their candidate, that's pure drama there. The lich can try to tempt them with promises of power, and if they succeed, fighting a fallen friend should make some memorable moments.
Adding to the point of the lich having a school to train heroes and prepare for an upcoming threat, I like the idea of having a warlock with the undead patron and they discover that their patron is actually the lich they're fighting. You could have a beautiful story that throughout the adventure the lich has basically given the last piece of their sanity to the warlock and in defeating the lich, he can then find peace and let this new generation of heroes lead the lands against the greater evil that is coming. Instead of it being a story of defeating a great evil, it's a story of saving a fallen hero from their own corruption.
We had a very manipulative and toxic player in our group. His warlock is now a deathlock of the big bad lich and is acting as a constant annoyance and hazard for the party.
I thought it would be interesting to run a campaign where the party helps created a good lich to stop the birth of an evil lich. A kind of "lesser of two evils" story.
As you discussed the motivations of Liches, it reminded me of two characters from pop culture's who took similar paths. Doctor Strange in the What If episode where he loses his heart instead of his hands did it all to save the woman he loved. Davy Jones from the Pirates of the Caribbean films similarly has a connection to a lost love.
I ran an "epic level" adventure for two of the players in my group who wanted to go +20. The final battle was a showdown between them and Acererak and an Ancient Red Dracolich. The Lich was trying to destroy a demiplane housed by the keepers of magical secrets because if they tore apart the foundations of the demiplane they would temporarily destroy the magical artifact used to create it, and then be able to access it in an easier way. As a DM, I rolled 3 straight crits against the bladesinger with the Dracolich, but thankfully he had mirror image up and avoided most of the damage. The next round I changed my dice cause they're superstitious and rolled another crit on the bite lol.
This is my favourite episode of your channel! Not sure we will ever reach a point where we will fight something this high-level, but love the super practical tips for both the fight and the story.
I admit I've always been at a loss on how to make a Lich come across as anything but the tried and true "I'm undead lets get all the power", you both definitely had some fantastic ideas from a different perspective that I'll be considering once I actually get the courage to try and DM!
I have an idea for an actually good Lich sort of like later season's William "The Bloody" aka Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but twisted as a Lich instead of a Vampire. Another idea is my Mountain Dwarf Wizard also is determined to achieve immortality (ideally some form of Apotheosis similar to the Tribunal from Elder Scrolls) but might have them become a good Lich as well.
Excellent video, Dungeon Dudes! I’ve been brainstorming since I first listened to this episode, and pretty sure I’ll have a Ghost Dragon riding Lich as the BBE of my next campaign. Thank you!!
Great timing. I’ve been building up my campaign and we are headed into the Tier 4 level. They don’t know it but Orcus has several powerful undead that he is sending into the realm. One recurring Wizard has been a problem for my players since level 7( they are 15 now) and he has become a Lich because he serves Orcus willingly. He is helping bring about a World Necropolis for Orcus to rule. This is amazing because You have given me so much fodder to finish the story. Without realizing it, I have set the groundwork for his madness, his undead minions and his style of arrogance in knowing he will win and the players are fools not to help him or accept his gifts. the whole campaign was built around Orcus. Thanks for a great video and a lot of wonderful ideas.
I think my favorite moment in a campaign ever was playing the old Age of Worms adventure path for 3.5e converted for 5e when my Paladin managed to destroy the Dracolich Dragotha's phylactery. Awesome arc of the campaign and a great moment and plot where his phylactery was stolen centuries ago and hidden with a tribe of giants who were charged with defending it's vault. However through the years they've forgotten the contents of the vault and won't allow anyone inside. So the party has to either fight their way in or convince the giants' leaders. All the whole Dragotha's forces have arrived and are sieging the giants' fortress trying to recover the phylactery for themselves.
This is great stuff. I too am setting up a lich as a bbeg. He is the brother of the fighter who after time warping bs got them displaced in different eras in time. The fighters brother being sent farther back. He creates a warforged and leaves him dormant for a long time to look after the fighter(this being the cleric of my party) while he searches for a way to get them home. He was running out of time so he turned to The Book of Vile Darkness and became a lich.
Currently Running a game for my players with a fallen hero who became “the lich king” and now rules the land with an iron fist demanding souls as tribute for keeping the peace and order. Love the show also guys keep up the amazing work 😀
Really fantastic episode. I love all the ideas, and I’m right at the beginning of adapting a campaign where the party isn’t good at all, yet not evil. Having them enter into a chess game with a lich to determine their fate sounds like just the ticket.
This video already has me mentally outlining a Lich who saw a great evil rising in the future and taking the journey to becoming a Lich to fight the evil. Only to become that very evil they foresaw, maybe an ancestor of one of the PCs which is why they thought they saw themselves fighting the evil.
Thank you so much i was looking for a great mastermind to put in my dungeon and this is perfect. I especially like the curse that every undead(including the lich)has. Love the video.
Great tips here, re: varying up your liches. You can use a demilich or dracolich, to name just two, to keep experienced players guessing about what they're up against. Vary up their traits (legendary actions & resistances) according to the flavor of the person they were in life and "their path to becoming a lich" (as Kelly put it in the video). A lich is too awesome to be just a statblock your players might know better than you do if they've "been there, done that." The lich is a glass cannon in the hands of the wrong DM.
Really awesome vid my friends, thanks so much! I've always been a huge fan of Liches but as you've mentioned, without supportive action economy, they can fold like a wet paper bag VERY quick. You've provided some great new ideas regarding minions, especially the Fizban Dragons that I'm keen to employ. At different times I've used Archmages (keen on supporting the Lich in hopes of learning its secrets) a Death Knight, a Dracolich, lots of high-level undead as well as many different hordes but yeah, some new ideas are always appreciated. Oh, another consideration I've been meaning to try, is a troupe of Mindflayer Alhoons in service to a powerful Lich, in hopes to share secrets. That could make for a pretty deadly encounter. I suspect one of the reasons that D&D has consistently provided Liches paltry HP, is to emphasize the fact these BBEGs NEED support agents, so be generous in providing them. Also, no self respecting Lich is going into a fight unaware of every nugget of info they can acquire on their foes, so should be well prepared. Their phylactery, as you mentioned, should be a difficult quest in and of itself of course and one that should probably be c/o before even attempting the Lich face to face. Someday soon, I hope to get around to writing a campaign pitting a high level party against Larloch himself (in his Trollshaw home turf) but oohh man, that is gonna need to take some time to put together, as that Dude is the creme de la creme of Liches and could give Acererak a run for the title, heh. Well done! :)
This is great information, I'm currently playing a Hexblade Warlock who in the process of defeating our big bad agreed to sacrifice herself to become a lich and gain the aid and partnership of a former big bad. She's a dark humor, chaotic neutral Drow who as a feature of her pact has already been collecting souls and has started consuming them at first by accident. She was homebrewed to have never actually touched the floor, permanently floating with her pact weapon in the form of an umbrella when not in combat. I feel using this campaign ending will allow this to be the origin story as my character as a future big bad in a future campaign. She became a lich to try and end a big bad only to fall to madness as a result of her immortality and just perfectly fall into the lich trope.
I know of another cool lich you could use for inspiration. In this old web browser RPG called Dragonfable (which still lives on on a launcher by the devs), there is a lich named Sek-Duat who ruled a kingdom for over 1500 years without anyone knowing he was a lich. He did this by faking his own death and assuming the identity of his son, and then later doing it again, this time assuming a new identity as his son's son, and so on, and so on. An entire line of kings, was just this one lich faking his death and assuming a new identity again and again, for 1500 years. That is one deceptive lich. Could also work for a mummy lord. Sek-duat and his kingdom are heavily inspired by ancient Egypt, but they do call him a lich in-game (except for in AdventureQuest Worlds, there they suddenly call him a mummy for some reason).
Great video! Also, great timing. I'm in the early stages of crafting a "Nentir Vale" campaign that will potentially feature a cult of Orcus, a powerful lich (Magroth the Mad), and Orcus himself as threats. Even if things never take this path, the info here is so good. Great video.
You guys are Awesome! I'm running ToA for my cousin and his pc is broken. We're having fun, but it's a pain to keep up the struggle. The tactics and especially the plot devices are perfect, since we're stretching ToA to lvl 20.
I watched this at the perfect time. I JUST started a campaign where the premise is 2 neighboring kingdoms that used to be friendly are about to go to war because one prefers divine magic and the other arcane. The arcane being the aggressor. A peice of the lich's phylactery is definitely going in the arcane monarch's crown.
...so... I'm legit just watching this and two weeks ago the lich of my campaign came in with a dragonbone golem and skeleton minotaur to attack the party... love the video guys, excellent work.
I also power word killed the zealot barbarian, 6 level 11 characters geared to fight undead, made the fight very hair raising and fun, also consumed the scariest spell he had that day
the BBEG in my campaign is a Lich named Votic Death-hand who was pushed to lichdom because of his grief of losing his love. He would do anything to bring her back.
Can't wait to unleash my lich in my homebrew campaign. Party member read a book tainted by the spirit of Velsharoon (demi-god of necromancy and liches), and is mysteriously partially-possessed by that god, which allowed them to multiclass into warlock with a fiend pact, and now that demi-god helps teach dark magic to the possessed party member, in exchange for the right to claim any souls that the player takes. Once he claims enough souls, he will be able to revive his physical form at his old phylactery...and then the fun begins. They already found his phylactery in the same room as the book, and totally didn't notice. Oddly, they were suspicious about literally everything else in the room, EXCEPT clay jar that caused them incredible pain the one time they touched it (found hidden in a slot carved into a wall behind a bookcase).
Very timely video, as I'm currently converting the 1e AD&D H-series of "Bloodstone" modules to 5e and running them for my players. Of course, those modules feature the a lich named Zhengyi who is backed by Orcus (whom the players must also eventually face). Fun stuff!
I love how the dungeon dudes literally summed up the bbeg of the campaign I’ve been running for almost 3 years. I love fallen heroes and the tragedies that fell them.
Oh this is exciting I can’t wait for the hag video! I love the idea of a lich that is trying to end death. A utilitarian view willing to do anything in this goal justified by the countless future lives saved.
Amazing video! Thank you so much!! How about this: The Lich wants to die but his phyl. is held hostage by another party who control the lich now to do terrible things. The party looses against the lich at first. But instead of killing the heroes the lich tells his sad story and hires the party, maybe even equippes them with (cursed) items. The death wish can still be a lie in the end, so the party can have their lich-killing moment. A lot of motivation and memories come from a lost battle turning into betrayal and ending in revenge. I'd love to hear more ideas about BBEG motivations.
I would like to thank you for making a special video focused on one of the best villains of DND. I personally have always been attracted to necromancy in fiction, I suppose it's because there is nothing more human than the desire to defeat death, to learn what lies beyond the last veil, both are necromancy's specialties, to this we must add their aesthetics, the way they can generate, control and possess the undead and the almost vampiric way they feed on the lives of others for their own ends, and if that wasn't all they are also eco-friendly. A lich is a wizard who, using necromancy, has achieved immortality through a process in which he extends his life by consuming the souls of others, usually they look like skeletons. I still remember the video they made about the weakest high CR monsters where the lich was because of one of his main weaknesses, his low HP, a single high level smite can reduce him to ashes. To deal with this you can use a bit of homebrew to increase his HP, give him access to more defensive spells (shield, absorb elements, counter spell, fire shield, contingency, etc.), put him behind a spell, and so on. ), put him behind a long dungeon full of traps and minions ready to defend him and my personal favourite, give him access to the true polymorph spell, when he is about to die or at the start of combat cast this spell on himself to transform into an ancient black dragon, thus having an in-game way to extend the combat against him, either as a second phase or as a first phase before the battle against the lich itself. for the roleplay part I would say that it is something simple if you know how to do it correctly, you have to understand that the liches are patient creatures, they do not have deadlines so they can afford to wait as long as necessary, even if they are centuries, besides this they are intelligent, it is not easy to deceive them and are usually surrounded by security to ensure their survival, the liches are necromancers and are guided by the main rule of the same ¨never enter into direct combat¨, in this aspect are similar to beholders. fighting them is simple, not easy, but simple, and if you want some angst, use finger of death over an almost death PC, and extra zombie might not be a great threat, but the fact that it almost imposible to resurrect and the point that you need to kill your friend is very heartbreaking all you need is to put a paladin or rogue with sneak attack within 5 feet of them, this will allow you to finish them off quickly, the tricky part is getting that close to them, as I said before, simple but not easy. the best party to finish off a lich only needs a cleric and a paladin (grave domain and oath of vengeance if possible), other options would be a wizard (power word stun does not require saving trhow so they could not use their legendary resistances), a monk (stunning strike would quickly exhaust their legendary resistances) and a barbarian (attempts to escape from a graplle do not count as a saving throw and liches have a laughable strength score). or you can just be a necromancer wizard and have a very weird and long pokemon batlle. just make sure to deal with his minions, get to him and put the paladin/rogue in attack range. liches have tremendous story potential, they can be just simple skeletor-like villains, who want to dominate the world for the sake of it and are in their evil fortress sending minions to do their job, they can be a latent threat, like the ice walkers, preparing a large army with which to raze the lands of the living, they can be a quest in itself, stopping their followers from gathering the phylactery pieces to bring it to life, finding their phylactery and destroying it in a particular place, or they can be neutral entities that refrain from conflict and can either help or harm the party depending on how the party chooses to interact with them. here are some quick ideas: -a powerful lich is creating an army in the north, the party must prevent his invasion somehow (find a weapon or ally powerful enough to defeat him, unite the kingdoms in the area to confront him, find his phylactery to destroy him, sneak into their own terrain to finish him off in person, etc.). -long ago a lich was destroyed and his phylactery broken, but not destroyed, his followers seek to find the parts and unite them to bring him back to life, the party must avoid this by finding the pieces before them to destroy them once and for all (finding each piece is a challenge in itself, each piece could give the bearer a different power and be cursed, if the party possesses parts of it they must defend them from the enemies, if the enemies possess them the pary must recover them or avoid their union, if they unite and the lich returns the party must defeat it) and finally, my personal take: the collector this is a NPC based in a boss from darkest dungeon with the same name. the collector is a very powerfull lich, with more spells of divination (arcane eye, scriying, etc) and movement (misty step, dimension door), he dwells in a subway dungeon hidden deep in the earth, full of traps and guarded by his undead minions. as the title implies, he's dedicated to collecting a bit of everything, magical items, strange creatures, and of course, souls. he's more of a neutral entity in the sense that he poses no immediate threat to the party or the world, but that can change. what really interests me about him is the potential he has with his interactions with the party, they can become his lackeys, bringing him collectibles in exchange for gold and power, they can confront him and take his items, they can try to steal from him or help him overcome his procastination problem. as a boss is quite challenging, although his spell list is not very threatening he has access to magical artifacts of great power that make him a very threatening threat. his greatest weakness is his procrastination, he is immortal so he does not feel any rush to carry out any of his plans and justifies himself by saying that he waits for the right moment. It seems to me an original and little explored concept, that of an immortal and super powerful entity, the only thing that stands between him and the absolute destruction of the world is his own laziness.
I was a player an made my character a lich (after a long campaign and was at level 20) that had a pet phoenix and used its immortal soul to power its phylactery. Its phylactery was an amulet of ultimate good. After implanting the amulet of ultimate good, into the phoenix, the phoenix then gained angelic powers. I also eventually got the Sword of Zarial. So I was an angelic lich with a pet angel phoenix. We both ascended to demi-gods. I then made him into an npc in a future campaign. He then grew to have an army of angels and undead.. He had three generals under him. A ghost dragon, a angel phoenix, and a skull lord. I then made the ghost dragon into a ghost dracolich. Fought 6 level 20s and killed 3 of them.
I love the idea of this being a new series. The Lich is a favorite villain of mine but i have struggled how to make them challenging. This helps immensely. I can't wait for a beholder video or Mindflayer colony video if you guys decide to do those :)
I am running a dragon focused campaign (thank you Fizban's), this video gave me an idea for a Lich Arch-Villain that attains lichdom through dragon Grafting. The grafter enemies in fizbans seamed so cool and stood out to me but only have a couple stat blocks. There's so much potential there for some cool story ideas
Great video! Your presentation of this in-depth creature concept with tactics and plotline ideas is thought provoking, informative and entertaining. I'd be very interested to watch more videos like this one from this channel!
I ran a game last night and a wizard completed their ritual to become a lich right in front of the helpless players. Such a perfectly timed video release.
Great episode. My campaign's BBEG is a dracolich based on the Tome of Beasts Void Dragon. Should be plenty nasty once my players encounter it, but there's tons of meat in this video for cool ways to supplement not only the actual mechanics but also the character itself.
Great stuff guys! I plan on running a lich as a villain for a horror/gothic arc of my long running campaign and this is definitely solidifying my ideas! The campaign is something of a timey-wimey fuck about but I’ve been showing deeper lore and introducing characters through visions into the past and I’ve already introduced the necromancer tasked with making eternal life for all a reality. Eventually my characters will run into a city populated by sentient undead creatures who serve a lich that promises to keep them alive forever; even if they die, even after they die. The necromancer from the past has made certain deals and has found eternal life as a lich if he splits his personality between his true body, which acts as his phylactery suspended in a preserving solution, and his lich body which he maintains very little control over.
Damn, I am only 50+ and the way you described the Lich pretty much fits for me. I can just hear a lich singing Leonard Cohen's "Tower of Song". "My friends are gone and my hair is gray. I ache in the places that I used to play..."
I am currently running my 1st campaign as DM. It's based on John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China. The BBEG, Lopan, is going to be a lich. Should get to the final battle next week. Thanks for this video! Slanté
I was struggling to commit to a BBEG idea for my seafaring game and you've really helped me feel inspired, thank you! The crown jewel phylactery idea in particular is so fun! Suddenly there's heist potential where there wasn't any before. Also, I think I'm gonna put the lich on a ghost ship and have it act like a submarine? That seems appropriately terrifying for the players
I love glyphing phylactery rooms to high hell. Here’s my current lich’s setup: The lich has an intermediary demiplane that he keeps. This is the plane he will Plane shift to using the tuning fork he keeps on him. The tuning fork is enchanted with an instant summon spell and the respective gem to summon it is located in his prime demiplane, which he connects through a series of glyphs and such in order to find the portal connecting the two. He specifically plane shifts to the first demiplane rather than using the plane shift spell to get to the main plane so that those spying on him can’t actually see the main demiplane and thus get access to it by casting their own demiplane spell. Before entering the intermediary demiplane, he would cast nondetection on himself to avoid any scrying that anyone spying on him could be doing. Obviously glyph the main demiplane to high hell as well. The intermediary demiplane has the following properties: The room is 30 square feet, as per the rules of the demiplane spell. There’s a glyph of Dispel Magic that is set to go off whenever a portal of a non Damask color appears within 30ft of the glyph. This makes it so nobody’s Plane Shift portal besides one created by the Lich can enter because the color of the portal needed is extremely specific. There are 10 glyphs of cloudkill on each side. All glyphs are triggered by anyone other than the lich walking on them. On the inner sides of the cloudkill, there are 2 glyphs on either side containing walls of force. In the middle path sits 3 glyphs halfway through containing a wall of fire each. There’s also two glyphs on either end (entrance and portal to main demiplane) containing the Sending spell to alert the lich and a Marut of intruders, allowing the lich to know as the Marut minion uses Plane Shift to go in and defend the phylactery. In front of the phylactery are two glyphs of a Lv. 9 Banishment spell, targeting one of each individual in range other than the lich (assuming a 4 player party). If you player(s) manage to get to the phylactery, have the phylactery be enchanted with 7 glyphs: Lv. 9 Counterspell (Triggered by a spell cast in range NOT cast via Glyph of Warding) Invulnerability (Targeting the phylactery after being touched) Lv. 7 Thunderwave x2 (Triggering immediately after someone casts Invulnerability nearby) Lv. 9 Mass Suggestion (Telling the target and any creature within range to put down the phylactery and walk away, triggering directly after Thunderwave is cast within 30ft) With this setup on the phylactery itself, it guarantees that anyone who tries to steal it will have heavy repercussions. If they tank the circle of death AND save against the mass suggestion, they can’t even damage the phylactery for 10 minutes, giving the lich time to get in there and get them the heck out. 5th level Blindness (Triggered immediately after Mass Suggestion is cast within 30ft, targeting each party member once to conceal the simulacrum. Simulacrum (Triggering 1 second after blindness is cast, creating 2 phylacteries). Sending: (Targeting the lich, triggering as soon as the phylactery is touched, letting the lich know about the whole thing). Can anyone recommend other glyphs to add/replace?
Nice work, in my story my lich is not the BBEG, but is working with the BBEG. I have the lich's phylactery is split into 3 people apart of lich's blood line they will have to kill. The longer the person lives the more they are driven mad because of this. The first 2 will be older criminals that they will be praised for getting rid of. The third will be a young adult paladin that is good but has this inner hatred. The lich will show up around then and the paladin will make the ultimate sacrifice during the fight unless the group actually takes care of him before that.
One of my favorite games was a level 20 Illithid Lich. I played it that they were a ancient illithid from the days of the old Mindflayer Empire. They had started practicing the art of the Arcane in secret and through it discovered that the Empire was destined to fall and was inevitable, so they fled and began hatching a plan to rebuild it (with them as it's SupremeMind of course). I had a lot of fun with it. Increased their AC and HP significantly, flavoring it that they had boosted their psychic ability to the point that they had a almost perfect passive defense (rolls that missed were described as being deflected by the field, and damage to their HP to a point (around the 100 HP mark) was described as not getting deflected but were stopped just short of hitting them (I made sure the players knew it was affecting the HP, I was just flavoring it that as the field was getting worn down) Also took a ton of Psyonic based spells and retooled and homebrewed a few other favorite spells as being more Force and Psychic damage (goodbye Fireball, Hello Telekinetic Bomb lol). Was very proud of it, but have already thought up ways to change It and adjust it for the next time I run them 😄 I had the one shot be that this Mind Lich had completed a long planned out ritual to cut off the Gods from the material plane (no divine magic, at least derived from the gods) while at the same time invading the dreams of every mortal being on the Material Plane, killing many or driving them insane. Their plan ultimately was to drive all mortals away from the Gods and, through fear and/or insanity), drive the masses into worshiping them. Both becoming a God and enthralling the Material Plane in one stroke
This is perfect timing. I'm doing Baldur's Gate Descent into Avernus, and I was planning to have the cleric from our previous campaign come back as a surprise boss battle, possibly as a lich or at least a demi lynch. He was a life domain cleric who have more of a penchant for burning things than for curing people. Is justification was at the fire purified those whose lives have been tainted. It's not a far reach to think that he got corrupted along the way and afterward, so I'm going to have him show up in Elturel since he's an elf.
I ran a lich who used polymorph potions to male her look like a beautiful woman. She met the heroes early in the campaign and puppeted them to dinner bidding. She gave one hero her filactory as a present and he treasured that and protected it with his life! It was an amazing arc
I always like the "bubble of space in the middle of a mountain of stone," containing the phylactery and the lich reforms, then teleports out to face the world again. Not like anything short of a random purple worm or earthquake endangering the phylactery. :-)
I had a Lich as a minor bbeg and used the "became a lich to stop X even more horrible future" story, It was the best arc of the game and an actual challenge to my players after they killed the dragon in 2 rounds (Im not the best at tactics) Also I did not run them as a wizard but a warlock homebrew thing cause I noticed both have access to imprisonment for the soul sacrifices thing. legendary action eldritch blast with the movement modifiers and a 5th level shadow blade in a dark dungeon was super fun.
I actually had an idea for an Artificer Lich after watching Pointy Hat’s video on that same subject. The cost of her immortality is ultimately not that she’s become insane or unstable, but that she’s become almost entirely disconnected from her former humanity, and she looks down on “pitiable mortal meatbags” as being insignificant specks who serve little purpose other than being useful to her and similar entities who have transcended them. I like to think she gets along decently well with Elder Brains.
I did something like this with the Magic Academy thing-the Class Rings for the Student Council, passed down from alumni to the next, served at the Headmaster’s Phylacteries!
making a one shot where the party starts in a treasure room, the rouge nabbing a skull with a fancy contraption in it that would have lead down to its neck, but when they fight after leaving the treasure room, the first body to drop end up funneling into the contraption as the soul powers up the phalactory which ended up being directly attached to the liches skull
Hey I would love to see a series around playing different monsters. My favorite monster in DND is Remorhaz. I am excited to see whatever content you are able to make but I would love to see some talk about these classic dnd, but a little less known monsters.
Joke idea, a lich so old it's survived multiple editions of DND and uses the rules from a previous edition of the dm's choice
A serious idea, have the lich be a recurring villain that learns from fighting the party, maybe have the lich pretend to be a normal skeleton that the lich likes
That’s basically old DM’s like me. I feel like a lich sometimes
Did this it was fun
@@Blandy8521 using that, thanks for the idea
Or u could have a lich that breaks down through the fight, the first 5th is 2nd edition then so on
Holy smokes. Just at the right moment. I started a new campaign yesterday and in the shadows there's an ancient ruler named the Invincible Emperor who is influencing things in the background. He's a lich.
I hope the people in your campaign don’t follow you on TH-cam! 😆
@@LordBrittish i don't think so. But now i'm scaaaaared. Haha.
You think that’s a coincidence? You know Monty’s watching you, right?
@@Marpaws Why does that sound familiar to me...?
@@darklordmathias9405 have you read mistborn from brandon sanderson ? the emperor is inspired from the lord ruler in mistborn the final empire.
Yes! Make a little series out of this!! Let this monster series go over all year big bads! Zombies swarms, hags, dragons, beholders, mind flayers, slaads, demons, devils! This will be a great series!!
Stay tuned ;)
@@DungeonDudes Yes, yes, yes! New DM here, who will be avidly watching these!!! :D
Good idea
Slaads are terrifying. Would rather deal with an entire army of brainwashed adventurers from an Elder Brain than a Slaad infestation.
Fully agreed. This is content I can use. Even if you're not DMing a game with a lich as the big bad, it's like a masterclass on how to think creatively about antagonists. More like this please! Love it.
I've had a lot of experience running liches in 5E thanks to a couple of different campaigns. One used a converted Pathfinder adventure with a crashed flying city with three insane liches lairing there. Here's some of the things I do"
- First, since liches are level 18+ wizards, I give them 1 1st level and 1 2nd level spell at-will, and those are most likely going to be shield and misty step.
- Second, many have the Boon of High Magic and have a second 9th level spell slot.
- Time stop, counterspell, and chill touch are almost mandatory, and any lich I run is definitely going to have counterspell.
- A smart lich uses demiplane to store its phylactery somewhere no one else can get to it.
- Liches can't use simulacrum, but they can use a zombie or skeleton with some pre-programmed commands and minor illusion to throw their voice, making that give a monologue while they set up in position.
- Liches can use project image to never have to negotiate in person.
- Liches can cast gate, planar binding using a 9th level spell slot, and magic circle. They can summon and bind a fiend, elemental, or whatever for a year and a day to serve as a bodyguard in case the lich is attacked. Since a lot of these creatures can access planar travel magic, I usually have them just appear (as per the "come back and report" part of planar binding) when the lich is attacked.
- Liches can place multiple symbols in their lair that trigger when a single word is spoken by the lich, or some object is disturbed or what have you. Since liches have great intelligence saving throws and resist necrotic damage, symbols of insanity and death are kind of mandatory.
- Liches can use glyph of warding to place spell glyphs, some that trigger after the lich speaks a certain word AND then a condition is met. Enemy spellcaster by the door? Bam! Antimagic field right there. Oh, they stepped in? BAM! Feeblemind. Lich casts dimension door to escape the immediate threat? BAM! Meteor swarm goes off.
- Shield guardian(s) are a lich's best source of damage soaking. Have more than one hidden nearby. Nothing says you can't have more than one at a time. And they store spells. Keep a few extra dispel magic or counterspell spells on hand that way.
In short, NEVER play fair when running a lich. They should have complete control of their lair, have multiple levels of defense set up, and be ready to cut and run if things get bad, even knowing that they have "spare lives" on hand. That way when the PCs beat them, they will really feel like they've accomplished something.
Nice list. One nitpick is that phylacteries need to be on the same plane as the lich in order to feed souls to it using the Imprisonment spell, which creates a logistical nuisance if storing it in a demiplane (burning an 8th AND 9th level spell slot for each soul feeding and time spent traveling to the demiplane, and the security risk of opening the demiplane frequently), which increases the likelihood of neglecting maintenance and becoming a demilich. Additionally, if someone knows that the phylactery is in a demiplane then they may be able to connect to it with their own casting of demiplane.
Yeah the glyph one is especially outrageous as it's a broken ass spell. You could have 100 glyphs all triggering fireballs with the same condition (speak a phrase), insta nuking everyone. Take 800d6 fire damage thank you. Obv never do that lol but it just shows the power of glyph of warding.
Excellent addition, the second 9th lv spell slot make all these high level spells possible through Glyph of Warding. And in their lair, they basically have 12.5% to regain their 8th lv or lower spellslot, 25% chance of regain a 7th lv spelllot or lower, every 2 round. So a day in their lair is enough to set up all of Symbol or Glyph of Warding, and cast Project Image 500 miles somewhere
@@timothyperkins5838 I have one lich whose phylactery is literally on the dark side of the moon.... Technically the same plane of existence, and liches don't need to breathe
I ran a lich that was a pirate captain, and the fight was overseas. The lich's ship was built with wood and bone and was a creature also fighting. The phylactery was the anchor of the ship.
It ended up being ALMOST tpk, truly epic fight, and when finished, the PCs were able to keep the lich's ship as their own. The ship is no longer a creature, but I'm thinking of letting them turn it into a creature again by lvl 15 with some powerful necromancy
I had a lich bbeg that was stark raving mad. She had taken the path of the Lich to save the world, by betraying her friends and trapping them in various types of undeath so that they could sleep down the ages to kill a demon lord that would end the world if they weren’t there to stop it.
It was a fun campaign.
Classic "you don't know what i do for this world".
Dun dun dun.
@@Marpaws As a dm I like to up the uncertainty as well and get the players to question whether or not the Lich knows what she’s talking about or is just completely insane.
@@JoeFlamenco it's great ^^
I once purposefully planned with my DM for my Paladin to die near the end of a campaign. After the party tried to revive me, I pulled a plot twist on them by saying I wanted to stay dead, but to hide my body with a group of druids who could keep my body in pristine condition, casting gentle repose all the time. Should the world be in need of serious help, they’d revive me then. While dead, I’d spend my time learning spells and abilities outside of the normal Paladin skill set in the Celestial planes, honing my skills, etc. I was even thinking of homebrewing the Paladin into becoming a Hound Archon at some point.
My personally favorite thing to do is introduce the Litch around 11-12, have a hard fought battle with my PC’s maybe even getting 1 death. Then when he’s finally defeated he has them with the. “Oh you think I’m dead? This is just the beginning” then I have my BBEG set up for the next 8 levels, where they start learning about phylacteries, liches and whatever specific lore I have for that one
I had a similar thought, where the characters would fight the BBEG “lich”, only for it to all be an illusion by the lich, simply to study all of the tactics of the players, then surprise em later when the real one comes out to play.
@@thetowndrunk988 exactly, I had it so my lich had been around so long it didn’t even think of its body as it’s own and would just use himself for the research without the need for the illusion. Since in his mind he genuinely thinks no one will ever get his phylactery
@@dolphinthunder2714 that’s brilliant
I'm surprised a party at that level can take a lich. At that point it could probably open by dropping one of the squishier players with a Power Word: Kill
As an alternative/lower level encounter he might be a necromancer with a Clone body ready, and campaign might be about finding his clones/preventing him from respawning before he completes his goal of becoming a lich.
A wizard who foresaw a great catastrophe in the future becomes a lich in order to prevent the catastrophe only for himself to be the one who causes the catastrophe that he saw all those centuries ago
Honestly as a DM for a couple of years now, I find this to be the hardest part. Making each individual combat experience feel different and running creatures uniquely. Very excited for this!
Check out the book "The Monsters Know What They're Doing"
I've got to say, Monty's melodramatic monologue detailing the base motivations for the lich, as a character, was pretty epic.
I love this, "how to run" is an amazing idea for a series that will greatly help new dungeon masters and those just looking to step up their games.
I've been considering a campaign where the Lich is basically Ultron, where he's foreseen this world ending event and decided the best solution is to make everyone sentient undead
that sounds somewhat similar to what im considering too lol
Bit problematic since undead require the living to sustain their existence.
@@Valdonkis what, as food?
@@jeepersmcgee3466 Yes. Liches in particular need a regular infusion of souls to keep from fading away. Vampires need blood. Ghouls need flesh. Etc.
@@Valdonkis Your idea for something isn't the objective truth, especially when the game literally encourages homebrew and independent ideas.
Missing from this is - adding some of the sorcerer metamagics. Typically, I'd give late game power casters a couple of sorcery points and a couple of meta magics. Thematically, it makes sense that truly ancient spell casters learned how to "bend" magic more than the traditional mage, and a subtle spell, or quickened spell can really improve your baddies action economy and/or surprise the party!
great advice, as always! oh yeah ... adding "chill touch" for a lich is perfectly thematic, plus it can be super powerful for a lich
Quite right. Better range than ray of frost, a less-resisted damage type, no healing until the end of the lich's next turn - plus a skeletal hand clamped round the victim's throat!
I’m GMing the curse of Strahd and we’re about two sessions away from the final battle and this really helped me make Strahd have a lil extra kick! Y’all are awesome!
I just started to dm Tomb of Annihilation, and was honestly disappointed with how little Acererak actually participates in the adventure and how random the final showdown with him sees. This will help a lot, thank you very much!
(Also, a warm hello from Brazil!)
Fun times--I'm running a certain 5e module that just so happens to have a Not Altogether Bad Lich in it. My party was so tense and FLOORED to have made friends (well, at least not enemies) with something that powerful. Honestly it was almost more satisfying to run than combat!! Looking forward to see how their working relationship develops. This video definitely gave me some ideas for adding flavor!
Ran a 3.5e mini campaign where the fortified village main schoolteacher of the children and teenager during winter months when field work can no longer be done due to weather, was a few centuries old lich illusion to look like an elf. Also combat was themed around six-gun revolvers and 15 bullet lever action rifles. Cowboys & sorcery.
14 year old, " Dad ! The school principle is a Lich ! "
Teenager's father rolls his eyes, " Real, you should have figure that out two years ago."
Then again at that time other than the old Planescape box set campaign setting, remarking that liches have to bargain with night hags for larva. No one knew liches feed on souls.
So we had neutral good liches as mentors or PC in campaign.
Curse of Strahd perhaps? ;)
@@jeffagain7516 Princes of the Apocalypse, actually!
Did that in Tomb of Annihilation
(Any/all)
I was wishing to find a good source on how to run a Lich and as always, you delivered it with such depth and insight! Couldn't ask for a better source! I learned a ton about the vast world of D&D and I'm eternally grateful for your work!
My favorite campaign I've ran so far was the player characters trying to stop a drow priestess from reassembling the phylactery of a previous Arch Mage. Lolth told her it was the only way to have her house ascend. It was a beautiful campaign and I'm sad we never got to finish it
2 ideas i had
1: if there have been any deaths in the party, bringing a reanimated friend to a climactic battle would be a great set piece.
2: a lich who has watched their friends and loved ones pass on might seek to create an immortal companion. If someone in or close to the party is chosen as their candidate, that's pure drama there. The lich can try to tempt them with promises of power, and if they succeed, fighting a fallen friend should make some memorable moments.
Adding to the point of the lich having a school to train heroes and prepare for an upcoming threat, I like the idea of having a warlock with the undead patron and they discover that their patron is actually the lich they're fighting. You could have a beautiful story that throughout the adventure the lich has basically given the last piece of their sanity to the warlock and in defeating the lich, he can then find peace and let this new generation of heroes lead the lands against the greater evil that is coming. Instead of it being a story of defeating a great evil, it's a story of saving a fallen hero from their own corruption.
We had a very manipulative and toxic player in our group. His warlock is now a deathlock of the big bad lich and is acting as a constant annoyance and hazard for the party.
I thought it would be interesting to run a campaign where the party helps created a good lich to stop the birth of an evil lich. A kind of "lesser of two evils" story.
They created the lich to swallow the fly... I don't know they swallowed the fly.
Another great video guys. Really appreciate this one. It has great ties to what I'm trying to create in my large scale campaign.
As you discussed the motivations of Liches, it reminded me of two characters from pop culture's who took similar paths. Doctor Strange in the What If episode where he loses his heart instead of his hands did it all to save the woman he loved. Davy Jones from the Pirates of the Caribbean films similarly has a connection to a lost love.
I ran an "epic level" adventure for two of the players in my group who wanted to go +20. The final battle was a showdown between them and Acererak and an Ancient Red Dracolich. The Lich was trying to destroy a demiplane housed by the keepers of magical secrets because if they tore apart the foundations of the demiplane they would temporarily destroy the magical artifact used to create it, and then be able to access it in an easier way. As a DM, I rolled 3 straight crits against the bladesinger with the Dracolich, but thankfully he had mirror image up and avoided most of the damage. The next round I changed my dice cause they're superstitious and rolled another crit on the bite lol.
The Dracolich has blindsight, he is going to ignore those mirror images :)
@@Miggy19779 oh my god, how did I miss that. Well shit. Thanks for letting me know :)
If I run a Lich he will be a person who just wants to be left alone with his books.
Then someone broke his glasses…
This is my favourite episode of your channel! Not sure we will ever reach a point where we will fight something this high-level, but love the super practical tips for both the fight and the story.
I admit I've always been at a loss on how to make a Lich come across as anything but the tried and true "I'm undead lets get all the power", you both definitely had some fantastic ideas from a different perspective that I'll be considering once I actually get the courage to try and DM!
I have an idea for an actually good Lich sort of like later season's William "The Bloody" aka Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but twisted as a Lich instead of a Vampire.
Another idea is my Mountain Dwarf Wizard also is determined to achieve immortality (ideally some form of Apotheosis similar to the Tribunal from Elder Scrolls) but might have them become a good Lich as well.
Excellent video, Dungeon Dudes! I’ve been brainstorming since I first listened to this episode, and pretty sure I’ll have a Ghost Dragon riding Lich as the BBE of my next campaign. Thank you!!
Great timing. I’ve been building up my campaign and we are headed into the Tier 4 level. They don’t know it but Orcus has several powerful undead that he is sending into the realm. One recurring Wizard has been a problem for my players since level 7( they are 15 now) and he has become a Lich because he serves Orcus willingly. He is helping bring about a World Necropolis for Orcus to rule. This is amazing because You have given me so much fodder to finish the story.
Without realizing it, I have set the groundwork for his madness, his undead minions and his style of arrogance in knowing he will win and the players are fools not to help him or accept his gifts. the whole campaign was built around Orcus. Thanks for a great video and a lot of wonderful ideas.
I think my favorite moment in a campaign ever was playing the old Age of Worms adventure path for 3.5e converted for 5e when my Paladin managed to destroy the Dracolich Dragotha's phylactery. Awesome arc of the campaign and a great moment and plot where his phylactery was stolen centuries ago and hidden with a tribe of giants who were charged with defending it's vault. However through the years they've forgotten the contents of the vault and won't allow anyone inside. So the party has to either fight their way in or convince the giants' leaders. All the whole Dragotha's forces have arrived and are sieging the giants' fortress trying to recover the phylactery for themselves.
This is great stuff. I too am setting up a lich as a bbeg. He is the brother of the fighter who after time warping bs got them displaced in different eras in time. The fighters brother being sent farther back. He creates a warforged and leaves him dormant for a long time to look after the fighter(this being the cleric of my party) while he searches for a way to get them home. He was running out of time so he turned to The Book of Vile Darkness and became a lich.
I'd love to see the next episode be about running a dracolich. I really want my party to fight one and I'd love extra tips beforehand
"Nyahhhhh everything I do is for the cause of eeeevil!"
"Ya did this to yaself, Jerry"
Currently Running a game for my players with a fallen hero who became “the lich king” and now rules the land with an iron fist demanding souls as tribute for keeping the peace and order. Love the show also guys keep up the amazing work 😀
Really fantastic episode. I love all the ideas, and I’m right at the beginning of adapting a campaign where the party isn’t good at all, yet not evil. Having them enter into a chess game with a lich to determine their fate sounds like just the ticket.
This video already has me mentally outlining a Lich who saw a great evil rising in the future and taking the journey to becoming a Lich to fight the evil. Only to become that very evil they foresaw, maybe an ancestor of one of the PCs which is why they thought they saw themselves fighting the evil.
Thank you so much i was looking for a great mastermind to put in my dungeon and this is perfect. I especially like the curse that every undead(including the lich)has. Love the video.
Really excited to see your takes on this!! The BBEG of the current arc of my campaign is a Lich so I can’t wait to see what you guys mention :)
Wow, I couldn't stop thinking of a certain Drakkenheim character during your description of the lich forseeing a catastrophe. Really enjoyable.
We need this type of video for more Monsters, like Aboleths or Mind Flayers
They've got a an "old" video called "Monster Tactics: Mind Flayers". Maaaaybe it will give you some ideas till you wait for a "How to run" one
@@redolmon6909 oh didnt know It, thank you!
Great tips here, re: varying up your liches. You can use a demilich or dracolich, to name just two, to keep experienced players guessing about what they're up against. Vary up their traits (legendary actions & resistances) according to the flavor of the person they were in life and "their path to becoming a lich" (as Kelly put it in the video). A lich is too awesome to be just a statblock your players might know better than you do if they've "been there, done that." The lich is a glass cannon in the hands of the wrong DM.
Really awesome vid my friends, thanks so much!
I've always been a huge fan of Liches but as you've mentioned, without supportive action economy, they can fold like a wet paper bag VERY quick.
You've provided some great new ideas regarding minions, especially the Fizban Dragons that I'm keen to employ. At different times I've used Archmages (keen on supporting the Lich in hopes of learning its secrets) a Death Knight, a Dracolich, lots of high-level undead as well as many different hordes but yeah, some new ideas are always appreciated.
Oh, another consideration I've been meaning to try, is a troupe of Mindflayer Alhoons in service to a powerful Lich, in hopes to share secrets. That could make for a pretty deadly encounter.
I suspect one of the reasons that D&D has consistently provided Liches paltry HP, is to emphasize the fact these BBEGs NEED support agents, so be generous in providing them.
Also, no self respecting Lich is going into a fight unaware of every nugget of info they can acquire on their foes, so should be well prepared.
Their phylactery, as you mentioned, should be a difficult quest in and of itself of course and one that should probably be c/o before even attempting the Lich face to face.
Someday soon, I hope to get around to writing a campaign pitting a high level party against Larloch himself (in his Trollshaw home turf) but oohh man, that is gonna need to take some time to put together, as that Dude is the creme de la creme of Liches and could give Acererak a run for the title, heh.
Well done! :)
This is great information, I'm currently playing a Hexblade Warlock who in the process of defeating our big bad agreed to sacrifice herself to become a lich and gain the aid and partnership of a former big bad.
She's a dark humor, chaotic neutral Drow who as a feature of her pact has already been collecting souls and has started consuming them at first by accident. She was homebrewed to have never actually touched the floor, permanently floating with her pact weapon in the form of an umbrella when not in combat.
I feel using this campaign ending will allow this to be the origin story as my character as a future big bad in a future campaign. She became a lich to try and end a big bad only to fall to madness as a result of her immortality and just perfectly fall into the lich trope.
Thanks for this guide, I’m running a slightly horror themed campaign so have this guide around will be great!
I know of another cool lich you could use for inspiration.
In this old web browser RPG called Dragonfable (which still lives on on a launcher by the devs), there is a lich named Sek-Duat who ruled a kingdom for over 1500 years without anyone knowing he was a lich. He did this by faking his own death and assuming the identity of his son, and then later doing it again, this time assuming a new identity as his son's son, and so on, and so on. An entire line of kings, was just this one lich faking his death and assuming a new identity again and again, for 1500 years. That is one deceptive lich.
Could also work for a mummy lord. Sek-duat and his kingdom are heavily inspired by ancient Egypt, but they do call him a lich in-game (except for in AdventureQuest Worlds, there they suddenly call him a mummy for some reason).
That trick has also been used by Eberron (King Kaius in Karnnath) and Golarion (Count Tiriac in Ustalav)
@@JohnSmith-ro2sc Neat. I only knew of Sek-Duat doing it.
Great video!
Also, great timing. I'm in the early stages of crafting a "Nentir Vale" campaign that will potentially feature a cult of Orcus, a powerful lich (Magroth the Mad), and Orcus himself as threats. Even if things never take this path, the info here is so good. Great video.
THANK YOU FOR THE BOOKMARKS IN THE VIDEO. love you guys
great video guys, added this vid to bookmarks couple months ago to watch when i will finally start writing my campaign. really helps now
Jajajajajajaja, I've just started DM Vecna Lives! For 5e and planning to continue with Vecna Reborn, the right moment for this video!
I am planning on using a lich in my next campaign. This helped so much. Love you guys!
You guys are Awesome! I'm running ToA for my cousin and his pc is broken. We're having fun, but it's a pain to keep up the struggle. The tactics and especially the plot devices are perfect, since we're stretching ToA to lvl 20.
I enjoyed this content. Those brutal Lich tactics felt like the D&D we played when I was young.
I watched this at the perfect time. I JUST started a campaign where the premise is 2 neighboring kingdoms that used to be friendly are about to go to war because one prefers divine magic and the other arcane. The arcane being the aggressor.
A peice of the lich's phylactery is definitely going in the arcane monarch's crown.
Great timing- my table hits one of these next week!
...so... I'm legit just watching this and two weeks ago the lich of my campaign came in with a dragonbone golem and skeleton minotaur to attack the party... love the video guys, excellent work.
I also power word killed the zealot barbarian, 6 level 11 characters geared to fight undead, made the fight very hair raising and fun, also consumed the scariest spell he had that day
lawful good lich. "darn kids, get out of my layer!" shakes staff at party.
the BBEG in my campaign is a Lich named Votic Death-hand who was pushed to lichdom because of his grief of losing his love. He would do anything to bring her back.
Can't wait to unleash my lich in my homebrew campaign. Party member read a book tainted by the spirit of Velsharoon (demi-god of necromancy and liches), and is mysteriously partially-possessed by that god, which allowed them to multiclass into warlock with a fiend pact, and now that demi-god helps teach dark magic to the possessed party member, in exchange for the right to claim any souls that the player takes. Once he claims enough souls, he will be able to revive his physical form at his old phylactery...and then the fun begins.
They already found his phylactery in the same room as the book, and totally didn't notice. Oddly, they were suspicious about literally everything else in the room, EXCEPT clay jar that caused them incredible pain the one time they touched it (found hidden in a slot carved into a wall behind a bookcase).
Very timely video, as I'm currently converting the 1e AD&D H-series of "Bloodstone" modules to 5e and running them for my players. Of course, those modules feature the a lich named Zhengyi who is backed by Orcus (whom the players must also eventually face). Fun stuff!
I love how the dungeon dudes literally summed up the bbeg of the campaign I’ve been running for almost 3 years. I love fallen heroes and the tragedies that fell them.
Oh this is exciting I can’t wait for the hag video! I love the idea of a lich that is trying to end death. A utilitarian view willing to do anything in this goal justified by the countless future lives saved.
I love this. I'm now thinking of how to start a brand new campaign with a lich at the lead.
You guys are the best dnd channel on YT!
Thanks so much!!
I am INCREDIBLY excited about this series! I hope to see Mind Flayers and Elder Brains sooner rather than later.
YESSSS! Ugh, I found them such compelling monsters when i first learned of them and a bit of their lore. Super cool monsters 👍
This is super helpful since the bbeg of my 3 year long campaign is a Lich. Players are coming up on level 20 and the final battle
Amazing video! Thank you so much!!
How about this: The Lich wants to die but his phyl. is held hostage by another party who control the lich now to do terrible things.
The party looses against the lich at first. But instead of killing the heroes the lich tells his sad story and hires the party, maybe even equippes them with (cursed) items.
The death wish can still be a lie in the end, so the party can have their lich-killing moment.
A lot of motivation and memories come from a lost battle turning into betrayal and ending in revenge.
I'd love to hear more ideas about BBEG motivations.
I would like to thank you for making a special video focused on one of the best villains of DND.
I personally have always been attracted to necromancy in fiction, I suppose it's because there is nothing more human than the desire to defeat death, to learn what lies beyond the last veil, both are necromancy's specialties, to this we must add their aesthetics, the way they can generate, control and possess the undead and the almost vampiric way they feed on the lives of others for their own ends, and if that wasn't all they are also eco-friendly.
A lich is a wizard who, using necromancy, has achieved immortality through a process in which he extends his life by consuming the souls of others, usually they look like skeletons.
I still remember the video they made about the weakest high CR monsters where the lich was because of one of his main weaknesses, his low HP, a single high level smite can reduce him to ashes.
To deal with this you can use a bit of homebrew to increase his HP, give him access to more defensive spells (shield, absorb elements, counter spell, fire shield, contingency, etc.), put him behind a spell, and so on. ), put him behind a long dungeon full of traps and minions ready to defend him and my personal favourite, give him access to the true polymorph spell, when he is about to die or at the start of combat cast this spell on himself to transform into an ancient black dragon, thus having an in-game way to extend the combat against him, either as a second phase or as a first phase before the battle against the lich itself.
for the roleplay part I would say that it is something simple if you know how to do it correctly, you have to understand that the liches are patient creatures, they do not have deadlines so they can afford to wait as long as necessary, even if they are centuries, besides this they are intelligent, it is not easy to deceive them and are usually surrounded by security to ensure their survival, the liches are necromancers and are guided by the main rule of the same ¨never enter into direct combat¨, in this aspect are similar to beholders.
fighting them is simple, not easy, but simple, and if you want some angst, use finger of death over an almost death PC, and extra zombie might not be a great threat, but the fact that it almost imposible to resurrect and the point that you need to kill your friend is very heartbreaking
all you need is to put a paladin or rogue with sneak attack within 5 feet of them, this will allow you to finish them off quickly, the tricky part is getting that close to them, as I said before, simple but not easy.
the best party to finish off a lich only needs a cleric and a paladin (grave domain and oath of vengeance if possible), other options would be a wizard (power word stun does not require saving trhow so they could not use their legendary resistances), a monk (stunning strike would quickly exhaust their legendary resistances) and a barbarian (attempts to escape from a graplle do not count as a saving throw and liches have a laughable strength score). or you can just be a necromancer wizard and have a very weird and long pokemon batlle.
just make sure to deal with his minions, get to him and put the paladin/rogue in attack range.
liches have tremendous story potential, they can be just simple skeletor-like villains, who want to dominate the world for the sake of it and are in their evil fortress sending minions to do their job, they can be a latent threat, like the ice walkers, preparing a large army with which to raze the lands of the living, they can be a quest in itself, stopping their followers from gathering the phylactery pieces to bring it to life, finding their phylactery and destroying it in a particular place, or they can be neutral entities that refrain from conflict and can either help or harm the party depending on how the party chooses to interact with them.
here are some quick ideas:
-a powerful lich is creating an army in the north, the party must prevent his invasion somehow (find a weapon or ally powerful enough to defeat him, unite the kingdoms in the area to confront him, find his phylactery to destroy him, sneak into their own terrain to finish him off in person, etc.).
-long ago a lich was destroyed and his phylactery broken, but not destroyed, his followers seek to find the parts and unite them to bring him back to life, the party must avoid this by finding the pieces before them to destroy them once and for all (finding each piece is a challenge in itself, each piece could give the bearer a different power and be cursed, if the party possesses parts of it they must defend them from the enemies, if the enemies possess them the pary must recover them or avoid their union, if they unite and the lich returns the party must defeat it)
and finally, my personal take:
the collector
this is a NPC based in a boss from darkest dungeon with the same name.
the collector is a very powerfull lich, with more spells of divination (arcane eye, scriying, etc) and movement (misty step, dimension door), he dwells in a subway dungeon hidden deep in the earth, full of traps and guarded by his undead minions. as the title implies, he's dedicated to collecting a bit of everything, magical items, strange creatures, and of course, souls. he's more of a neutral entity in the sense that he poses no immediate threat to the party or the world, but that can change. what really interests me about him is the potential he has with his interactions with the party, they can become his lackeys, bringing him collectibles in exchange for gold and power, they can confront him and take his items, they can try to steal from him or help him overcome his procastination problem.
as a boss is quite challenging, although his spell list is not very threatening he has access to magical artifacts of great power that make him a very threatening threat.
his greatest weakness is his procrastination, he is immortal so he does not feel any rush to carry out any of his plans and justifies himself by saying that he waits for the right moment. It seems to me an original and little explored concept, that of an immortal and super powerful entity, the only thing that stands between him and the absolute destruction of the world is his own laziness.
I was a player an made my character a lich (after a long campaign and was at level 20) that had a pet phoenix and used its immortal soul to power its phylactery. Its phylactery was an amulet of ultimate good. After implanting the amulet of ultimate good, into the phoenix, the phoenix then gained angelic powers. I also eventually got the Sword of Zarial. So I was an angelic lich with a pet angel phoenix. We both ascended to demi-gods. I then made him into an npc in a future campaign. He then grew to have an army of angels and undead.. He had three generals under him. A ghost dragon, a angel phoenix, and a skull lord. I then made the ghost dragon into a ghost dracolich. Fought 6 level 20s and killed 3 of them.
Couldn't have come at a better time there is one at the end of my game. Great video
All great tips and suggestions, guys! I'd love it if you made this a series!
I love the idea of this being a new series. The Lich is a favorite villain of mine but i have struggled how to make them challenging. This helps immensely. I can't wait for a beholder video or Mindflayer colony video if you guys decide to do those :)
I am running a dragon focused campaign (thank you Fizban's), this video gave me an idea for a Lich Arch-Villain that attains lichdom through dragon Grafting. The grafter enemies in fizbans seamed so cool and stood out to me but only have a couple stat blocks. There's so much potential there for some cool story ideas
Great video! Your presentation of this in-depth creature concept with tactics and plotline ideas is thought provoking, informative and entertaining. I'd be very interested to watch more videos like this one from this channel!
I ran a game last night and a wizard completed their ritual to become a lich right in front of the helpless players. Such a perfectly timed video release.
Great episode. My campaign's BBEG is a dracolich based on the Tome of Beasts Void Dragon. Should be plenty nasty once my players encounter it, but there's tons of meat in this video for cool ways to supplement not only the actual mechanics but also the character itself.
MONTY. That Lich/adventure acadamy idea is _amazing_
Great stuff guys! I plan on running a lich as a villain for a horror/gothic arc of my long running campaign and this is definitely solidifying my ideas!
The campaign is something of a timey-wimey fuck about but I’ve been showing deeper lore and introducing characters through visions into the past and I’ve already introduced the necromancer tasked with making eternal life for all a reality. Eventually my characters will run into a city populated by sentient undead creatures who serve a lich that promises to keep them alive forever; even if they die, even after they die. The necromancer from the past has made certain deals and has found eternal life as a lich if he splits his personality between his true body, which acts as his phylactery suspended in a preserving solution, and his lich body which he maintains very little control over.
Damn, I am only 50+ and the way you described the Lich pretty much fits for me. I can just hear a lich singing Leonard Cohen's "Tower of Song".
"My friends are gone and my hair is gray. I ache in the places that I used to play..."
I am currently running my 1st campaign as DM. It's based on John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China. The BBEG, Lopan, is going to be a lich. Should get to the final battle next week. Thanks for this video! Slanté
I was struggling to commit to a BBEG idea for my seafaring game and you've really helped me feel inspired, thank you! The crown jewel phylactery idea in particular is so fun! Suddenly there's heist potential where there wasn't any before. Also, I think I'm gonna put the lich on a ghost ship and have it act like a submarine? That seems appropriately terrifying for the players
I love glyphing phylactery rooms to high hell. Here’s my current lich’s setup:
The lich has an intermediary demiplane that he keeps. This is the plane he will Plane shift to using the tuning fork he keeps on him. The tuning fork is enchanted with an instant summon spell and the respective gem to summon it is located in his prime demiplane, which he connects through a series of glyphs and such in order to find the portal connecting the two. He specifically plane shifts to the first demiplane rather than using the plane shift spell to get to the main plane so that those spying on him can’t actually see the main demiplane and thus get access to it by casting their own demiplane spell. Before entering the intermediary demiplane, he would cast nondetection on himself to avoid any scrying that anyone spying on him could be doing. Obviously glyph the main demiplane to high hell as well. The intermediary demiplane has the following properties:
The room is 30 square feet, as per the rules of the demiplane spell.
There’s a glyph of Dispel Magic that is set to go off whenever a portal of a non Damask color appears within 30ft of the glyph. This makes it so nobody’s Plane Shift portal besides one created by the Lich can enter because the color of the portal needed is extremely specific.
There are 10 glyphs of cloudkill on each side.
All glyphs are triggered by anyone other than the lich walking on them.
On the inner sides of the cloudkill, there are 2 glyphs on either side containing walls of force.
In the middle path sits 3 glyphs halfway through containing a wall of fire each.
There’s also two glyphs on either end (entrance and portal to main demiplane) containing the Sending spell to alert the lich and a Marut of intruders, allowing the lich to know as the Marut minion uses Plane Shift to go in and defend the phylactery.
In front of the phylactery are two glyphs of a
Lv. 9 Banishment spell, targeting one of each individual in range other than the lich (assuming a 4 player party).
If you player(s) manage to get to the phylactery, have the phylactery be enchanted with 7 glyphs:
Lv. 9 Counterspell (Triggered by a spell cast in range NOT cast via Glyph of Warding)
Invulnerability (Targeting the phylactery after being touched)
Lv. 7 Thunderwave x2 (Triggering immediately after someone casts Invulnerability nearby)
Lv. 9 Mass Suggestion (Telling the target and any creature within range to put down the phylactery and walk away, triggering directly after Thunderwave is cast within 30ft)
With this setup on the phylactery itself, it guarantees that anyone who tries to steal it will have heavy repercussions. If they tank the circle of death AND save against the mass suggestion, they can’t even damage the phylactery for 10 minutes, giving the lich time to get in there and get them the heck out.
5th level Blindness (Triggered immediately after Mass Suggestion is cast within 30ft, targeting each party member once to conceal the simulacrum.
Simulacrum (Triggering 1 second after blindness is cast, creating 2 phylacteries).
Sending: (Targeting the lich, triggering as soon as the phylactery is touched, letting the lich know about the whole thing).
Can anyone recommend other glyphs to add/replace?
Nice work, in my story my lich is not the BBEG, but is working with the BBEG. I have the lich's phylactery is split into 3 people apart of lich's blood line they will have to kill. The longer the person lives the more they are driven mad because of this. The first 2 will be older criminals that they will be praised for getting rid of. The third will be a young adult paladin that is good but has this inner hatred. The lich will show up around then and the paladin will make the ultimate sacrifice during the fight unless the group actually takes care of him before that.
One of my favorite games was a level 20 Illithid Lich. I played it that they were a ancient illithid from the days of the old Mindflayer Empire. They had started practicing the art of the Arcane in secret and through it discovered that the Empire was destined to fall and was inevitable, so they fled and began hatching a plan to rebuild it (with them as it's SupremeMind of course).
I had a lot of fun with it. Increased their AC and HP significantly, flavoring it that they had boosted their psychic ability to the point that they had a almost perfect passive defense (rolls that missed were described as being deflected by the field, and damage to their HP to a point (around the 100 HP mark) was described as not getting deflected but were stopped just short of hitting them (I made sure the players knew it was affecting the HP, I was just flavoring it that as the field was getting worn down)
Also took a ton of Psyonic based spells and retooled and homebrewed a few other favorite spells as being more Force and Psychic damage (goodbye Fireball, Hello Telekinetic Bomb lol). Was very proud of it, but have already thought up ways to change It and adjust it for the next time I run them 😄
I had the one shot be that this Mind Lich had completed a long planned out ritual to cut off the Gods from the material plane (no divine magic, at least derived from the gods) while at the same time invading the dreams of every mortal being on the Material Plane, killing many or driving them insane. Their plan ultimately was to drive all mortals away from the Gods and, through fear and/or insanity), drive the masses into worshiping them. Both becoming a God and enthralling the Material Plane in one stroke
I just started to run "tomb of the annihilation". Perfect timing!
Oh, The Dungeon Dudes got ruthless with this one. I love it!
This is perfect timing. I'm doing Baldur's Gate Descent into Avernus, and I was planning to have the cleric from our previous campaign come back as a surprise boss battle, possibly as a lich or at least a demi lynch. He was a life domain cleric who have more of a penchant for burning things than for curing people. Is justification was at the fire purified those whose lives have been tainted. It's not a far reach to think that he got corrupted along the way and afterward, so I'm going to have him show up in Elturel since he's an elf.
I literally was just saying how I wish yall would make this video this is crazyyy
I ran a lich who used polymorph potions to male her look like a beautiful woman. She met the heroes early in the campaign and puppeted them to dinner bidding. She gave one hero her filactory as a present and he treasured that and protected it with his life! It was an amazing arc
I was planning to have a lich villain In my next story arc. and he's giving me some really good ideas as far as goals, motivations and minions.
Thank you. I like the idea of a Lich as the number 2 to a Dracolich. Very different in my mind.
I always like the "bubble of space in the middle of a mountain of stone," containing the phylactery and the lich reforms, then teleports out to face the world again. Not like anything short of a random purple worm or earthquake endangering the phylactery. :-)
I had a Lich as a minor bbeg and used the "became a lich to stop X even more horrible future" story, It was the best arc of the game and an actual challenge to my players after they killed the dragon in 2 rounds (Im not the best at tactics) Also I did not run them as a wizard but a warlock homebrew thing cause I noticed both have access to imprisonment for the soul sacrifices thing. legendary action eldritch blast with the movement modifiers and a 5th level shadow blade in a dark dungeon was super fun.
I actually had an idea for an Artificer Lich after watching Pointy Hat’s video on that same subject.
The cost of her immortality is ultimately not that she’s become insane or unstable, but that she’s become almost entirely disconnected from her former humanity, and she looks down on “pitiable mortal meatbags” as being insignificant specks who serve little purpose other than being useful to her and similar entities who have transcended them. I like to think she gets along decently well with Elder Brains.
I did something like this with the Magic Academy thing-the Class Rings for the Student Council, passed down from alumni to the next, served at the Headmaster’s Phylacteries!
making a one shot where the party starts in a treasure room, the rouge nabbing a skull with a fancy contraption in it that would have lead down to its neck, but when they fight after leaving the treasure room, the first body to drop end up funneling into the contraption as the soul powers up the phalactory which ended up being directly attached to the liches skull
An awesome video, and a great way to look at the lich with a fresh mind to give it no pun intended a breath of life.
Hey I would love to see a series around playing different monsters. My favorite monster in DND is Remorhaz. I am excited to see whatever content you are able to make but I would love to see some talk about these classic dnd, but a little less known monsters.
This was great content! Thanks so much for sharing and I hope there's more like this in the future!
A lot of great ideas in this video! Thanks, guys!