A moment of silence for my brave companions, the eight of us walked into darkness expecting to find a black dragon (thanks villagers) but after expending spell slots and losing hp to get to the cave, we came face to face with the dracolich. 8 went in only one returned, my friends died, I survived because of my friends sacrifice. To this day I believe that the dracolich survived the cave in, and is thirsting for my character's blood.
Not if you buff the shit out of them. Imagine every type of dragon in the world being equal in strength and constitution, and 150 feet tall and having enough mass to crush 3 mountains when they reach 45,000 years old. This is the shit my DM throws at our party due to Bahamut and Tiamet being major gods in his world.
funnily enough dracoliches are easier to put down permanently, if harder to kill in the first place, than normal liches since they need a complete dragon corpse to inhabit. if one is not available near it's gem then it's stuck. then it's a matter of destroying the gem which is just as hard if not harder than a normal phylactery but at least you wont have to deal with the thing popping out of your bag of holding every day.
then again an ancient dracolich who has vast information about the world around him might find a way around this. perhaps some magical means to create a new body in mere days. anything is possible in dnd after all :D I am currently planning on making an ancient red dracolich as my big bad villain for my new campaign, but I am still in progress of figuring out how I want my bbg to operate. I have always wanted to role play an ancient dragon, and I am thinking of going with the dracolich route to make it even more horrifying for my players.
Hey AJ, one of my favorite Dragons. Back in 90's my friends & I played Battle System by TSR. I had a 200 miniature armor of undead and one of these pieces was a Dracolich. One of my tactics was to have the Dracolich land on a unit of soldiers, crushing that unit. Than breath its undead poisonous breath weapon on to another unit. Pretty much destroying two units in one turn. My friends hated that Dragon, (lol). Thanks AJ & have a great day.
I wonder if you could have a metallic mummy dragon cult to be kind of a foil for an evil dracolich cult. Is there any reason why cultists would not mummify a metallic dragon and maybe through worship accidentally bring it to life?
old post but it was easier for me just to use the dracolich template on a silver dragon and say lore-wise that an apostate of the Cult of the Dragon corrected the translation of the prophecy to say just dragons and the created what is effectively an Archdracolich by combining his elven people's baelnorn ritual with Sammaster's dracolich process.
Here's a scary encounter one of the titanic sized red dragons in the nine hells willingly being turned into a dracolich now that would be a horror that would make even the toughest beings think twice
@@david598 or hell, it's even better of you take a dragon, lich, ulithatid and elder brain statblocks and just mash them together. It's way more work, but it gives a better result
Another great video! From all the monsters and powerful beings in D&D, i think that Dragoliches are one of the most fascinating and also one that i would fear greatly as a player. Good luck with your computer upgrades! Waiting for the next video :)
I will go farther. The dragon still keep abilities of beholder and one day was found himself in the shadowfell and than kidnapped by mind flayers and the elder brain enter him which turned him to shadow beholder elder brain dragon and than he turned to lich and became shadow elder brain death tyrant dragon.
I wonder , Dracolich and Shadowdragon being templates ....do they exclude each other ? do we even want a Shadow Dracolich? i guess it would be a bad thing to even live on the same Planet as such a thing....or make that the same Plane of existence...
Good question! By 5th edition, you would take the original dragon, add the shadow dragon template, and then add the dracolich template, so, yes, it would still retain those shadow powers.
Well that was doubly inspiring. >drow dragon called to chase down Demogorgon after thr sack of Menzoberranzan. >stalks and brawls with Demogorgon in the Darklake, gets ass kicked. >flees and seeks the cult pf the dragon for a quick powerup to get back there and recover his pride >demogorgon vs adult of ancient shadow dragon with full dracolich-powered Drow Favored Consort wizard spellcasting... Is that a closer fight? Just a fun brawl to imagine going on while the d lords roam around
Samester ? I really don't recall that character, from Forgotten Realm... I remember Elmister, of course, and Blackstaff Arunsun, and I can recall that Elminster was friend with a female Dracolich(but I forget her name).
Sammaster. He created a variety of undead dragons, including Vampiric Dragons, until he decided that Dracoliches were the best form of undead Dragon. Sammaster was killed when he attacked Alustriel due to her rejecting him. He came back as a Lich, and disappeared for awhile. He re-emerged, and began a ritual that brought about the Dracorage, a time when Dragons all over the world were going insane, rampaging across the countryside, attacking towns and destroying villages, even otherwise benevolent Dragons were affected by it. The only sure way to prevent the Dracorage from taking hold in a Dragon, was for it to become Undead. Sammaster basically caused the Dracorage to bolster the amount of Dragons that were willing to undergo lichdom. forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Rage_of_Dragons
Your content is my biggest inspiration for my D&D world, your Yuan Ti video inspired the current plot my players must unveil and because we started with the lost mines of Phandalin and the Dragon cult is in it and they went separate ways to my party i can run a dracolich story arc now and I only thought of doing this because of your video. Thanks AJ.
I wanted to create a campaign based on the old cult of Dragon. Thanks for the informations, very useful! I came from Jorphdan channel and you both are spectacular! Thank again!
I just switched from a 8 year old vista myself. Loooong overdue. Also great video, you just changed my bbeg from a dragon leading an army to a dracolich!
There was also a Dracolich in the video game NWN Hordes of the Underdark. I still remember my first playthrough when I first came across it and I was like, WTF! ARE YOU KIDDING ME! That was many years ago.
I really love all of your videos, best D&D lore videos on TH-cam. Could you do a video on Psionics, the characters and their powers? Also obsidian dragons? Are there any good aligned shadow dragons, or good-aligned dragons who are not metallic?
Clicked to ask an old question that might resurface in the game. Good Metalic dragon with a Ring of Mind Shielding dies while shapechanged. What is that... like? What if you put the ring on like, a highly complex construct? When do we cross the line? When you power the mind/mech up with life energy? If you use bones or dragon bones in the build?
Heh we fought one of these as one of the final bosses in our DM's homebrew campaign.....it's stats and abilities were supped up to match our stats and homebrewed gear better, without it being impossible to kill....sadly one of our group died several sessions ago when the other half of the group first encountered it....rest in peace gunslinger....
Tldr i have a dracolich idea who has a homebrew breath weapon and uses echolocation do you like it? I have an ideah for a dracolich aka a dragon lich but he has a homebrew breath weapon instead of fire or ice or something he opens his mouth and skulls ingulfed in blue flame fly out his breath weapon is essentialy a summon that creates the flame skull enemy's and the body of fire the skulls originate from is also deadly so you dodge his blue flame only to be struck by a cackling skull on fire also the skulls are fast but can't steer well like a bull and im considering makeing the dracolich have empty eye sockets with him instead using Echo location would this guy be a possible character also hes sposed to be in a abandoned elven place eif worship full of banshee and mumys flaming skulls and puzzles set by the minnons of the dracolich he attacked the place centuries ago and has taken the place over scince liching himself with the help of a group of cultists under his wing who worship him perhaps they went to that dragon boneyard you mentioned idk im new to dnd and havnt tried writing only playing anyways he now lays apoun a pile of gold offerings to the gods left behind by the elfs all thise years ago aswell as new good by the cultist you can wake him to fight or ateno to steal his phlactory because a nearby village has been complaining about noises from the area also if i do make him blind like I mentioned ima put a chandelier near him see if anyone notices and ima give him some sorta screech effect that gives people disadvantage or debuffs cause its hard to focus when there's loud noises ringing in your ear what do you think of the idea
how would one stat a golden dracolich planing for the future as it will be the mastermind of the undead uprising not including the death tyrant my party is currently on their way to deal with (which the death tyrant is currently not in its lair but putting a major metropolis to the proverbial undead sword). nvm just going to use the anceint red dracolich template and add in the golden dragons secondary breath attack and a few different things golden dragons can do.
You just add the additional resistance and abilities from the template, to the Golden Dragon, the rest is in how you play that monster, Golden Dragons are masters of dreams, a Golden Dracolich would be a master of Nightmares!
AJ Pickett I dunno. I could see something like a baelnorn type as a gold dragon. A keeper of secrets, lore, a teacher or protector of sorts. Perhaps an eternal guardian of some fell creature, place, or item, keeping it contained until such time as it can be permanently destroyed.
Reminds me of how I was trying to make an idea for a big bad by combining multiple bad things as possible. I was thinking of a dragon that through some method was made into an Illithid, which then in turn became a Lich, that the Illithid thought they could use a dragon with its mighty brain as a base, but just turned into something that even monsters would work to keep under control. Had this idea of doing a whole Cthulhu thing. Based on that, I had the idea they specifically locked it away rather than slay it under not knowing where its phylactery is. The book is also kind of specific of the phylactery possessing a new corpse rather than the standard Lich's creating a new one. So I was also thinking along the lines of a party somewhat manipulated into at one time working for the death of an ancient dragon before "killing" the adult dragon sized sealed dracolich like monster, whereupon a cultist in possession of the phylactery (an otherwise helpful archmage) would use it on the ancient's body to upgrade the dracolich away from prying eyes.
DuskyPredator hey yeah, I never considered that a younger dragon made into a dracolich could inhabit and animate any size of reptile/dragon corpse. I wouldn't grant them the special powers of an ancient dragon though, but hit points and AC sure!
there is a subspecies of illithid that are made from the tadpoles of mindflayers implanted into dragons....braineater dragons I think, one of three types of illithid allowed to lead their society....and there are lich/ vampire mindflayers. So that is technically possible
R.A. Salvatore's book already created one of those in 2009 in "The Ghost King" a good read, I reccomend it. Through a disruption in Mystra's weave, a great red dragon has an illithid in his subconscious that fused with himself. And destroying a powerful gem that was made of the life of 7 lich lords. Fusing them all as one powerful undead being called, The Ghost King
So lich + mind flayer is an alhoon. Would we call a Dragon + alhoon a dracalhoon? The funny thing is that a dracalhoon would look a lot like C'thulhu and be almost as nasty. It would be easy for a dracalhoon to mimic C'thulhu and demand tribute from C'thulhu cultists. If I was making a NWN new game I think I would use this as a boss that even other big bad bosses were scared of.
hello there wanted to say I very much enjoy this series quite informative..secondly I was wondering if it was possible to add "Gibberlings" to the list..not much info i could find on them but i do know they are NASTY evil blights of cannon fodder and when played right they can be a party's WORST nightmare
Yep. Dracoliches are able to possess the corpses of other dragons. Alaskerbanbastos does it in the "The Spectral Blaze" novel. His original body is destroyed in battle, but he keeps the corpse of another large blue dragon near his phylactery so he can quickly possess it.
I did this the other way around for a one shot once. A cult couldnt find an adult dragon for their ancient dracolich, so they brought it a small little dragon which the dracolich possessed. He was a bit pissed off being so tiny :'D
If I was to introduce a Dracolich, I would have it Swoop out of the Sky and attack a city decimating it, before being driven off. The Player Characters are among those that survive the onslaught of that attck.
So how long exactly do dragons live? i can imagine a red dying of old age, then being lichified by a bunch of cultists who worshipped it inlife, then basically resulting in it creating an undead version of tolkiens mordor. but if the dracolich is supposed to be what a lich aspires to be, durnehviir from the video game skyrim being an example, where you have a self respawner, what kills the thing, at its full potential? a party of celestials? you'd have to time killing it to get at its phalactory. maybe a bad guy that you don't foil dirrectly, but you kill its head minion and magically trap it under a collapsed mountain for centuries, if not millenia, untill a bunch of power hungry foolhardy folks release the thing. it would be more ancient evil geography, than just fighting a dragon.
Draconomicon p14: Charisma score x 50 + 1200 for chromatic and Cha x 100 + 1200 for metallic. After that they can make DC 20 con check each year. If they succeed they lose 1 con otherwise they die. Of course, after that long, they may adopt the methods of wizardry or druidic nature magic to greatly expand their life. Many would choose to release their magical essence into the natural world at this point, or become a dracolich, some just get killed by something else. Time Dragons are the only truly dragons who suffer no ill effects from old age, and barring getting killed by foes or disasters, they live forever.
I wonder if you'll end up rolling DC constitution checks before you finish this, to finish this. or you just become a lich and feed your flactory with: ... "... the soulz..."👻😆. honestly though, there is so much lore to cover, and its a good thing. creativity inspires creativity, one artist is annother artists muse. but it seems to me that the chromatics got the shorter end of the stick.
There is certainly Dragon Cultists infiltrated into the Purple Dragon military forces, since the army is formidably large. Cormyr's standing army is called the Purple Dragons, but this is not to be confused with the recently deceased king Azoun IV who was also called that, nor with the Purple Dragon Throne that all kings of Cormyr sit on, nor with the original purple dragon that gave the kingdom that name, Thauglorimorgorus
I know that this is not from 5e, but could you do a video on the death giants? I don't know how much lore there are but I saw them in the 4e monster Manuel and they seem pretty cool
What happens when an Ancient Red Dracolich's body is destroyed and it inhabits the body of a dead Adult Blue Dragon? Does the Red Dragon keep it's fire breath, immunities, and resistances or does it get the Blue Dragons, or do they get both? Does the body of the Blue Dragon transform to that of the original Red Dracolich body, or is it the mind of the Red Dracolich in a Blue Droclich body? And when a there isn't a dragon body, and they have to use a kobold or something, does the kobold turn into the original Red Dracolich body or the Blue Dracolich body?
It retains all its non-biological traits.. its biology consists of dead bones. Therefore, aside from structural changes to it's skeleton, it's still a red dragon.
@@northerner3340 yep, blue or green lurid flames that rot materials so fast it seems like combustion, but leaves filth and muck more so than ash and such.
It's weird that dracoliches have existed for so long; I remember seeing them in 2e, at least, yet they seem to have no connection to Falazure, THE Dragon God of Undeath, at least to the degree dragons have God's. You'd think those of a priestly skill set, among g the Cult, would worship that deity, who would seek more undead dragons because their existence would strengthen His own, but they seem to remain totally unrelated. I do appreciate, though, that 5e had Tiamat, Herself, basically seize control of some of the misguided Cult, and got it to serve Her ambitions of reentering Toril. Probably didn't last, based on Her actions at the end, and likely being defeated, after that, but a cool moment, all the same.
And of course one of the most powerful dracolich was created by an illithid using the crystal shard Crenshinibon(an artifact created by with the souls of 7 arch necromancers) to fuse its self and the crystal with a dying blinded red dragon
something occured to me while watching this. we have dragons who aren't evil. we also have liches who aren't evil. so why don't we have dracoliches who aren't evil?
I've killed a player character many times. It does not have to be the end, it can be a plot point that starts something new. Obviously it is a good idea to discuss this with the players tho
I decided to never use a dracolich after the first time I used one as the to bad guy... to my veteran players. I really use the high intelligence of monsters and think on that level how each monster (or even bad guy) would think. I then ponder the entire world environment relative to how such issues would surface and be dealt with. I then think of the behind-the-scenes people that would allow it and why. When my players finally faced the dracolich, he was speaking to them like they were playthings. This enraged the party and rallied their hired army into action. The dracolich laughed, flew away, and the players suddenly had to fight their hired army and the undead that came in to back them. I was accused of being a killer DM with that encounter. I apologized for that by making a hero-worshiping sect recover their gear and restore them all to life with a great support group with a mere cost of losing a month of existing in the world. They continued playing, but the campaign ended without them ever getting interested in killing the dracolich... a dracolich I thought of as a half-baked, stupid version who would have been easy to defeat relative to how the monster's existence.
Destroying soul is evil and chaotic act of the ruinous sort, even if the soul was evil itself. It is usually both instant Moral Event Horizon crossing and Spiritual Anti-Matter touching in one, in which these characters who cause destruction of souls with non-stop are almost always Eternal Defiance. Also, Eternal Defiance's wanton and needless acts of violence are done by combining heinous crimes with mutinous kill counts.
A moment of silence for my brave companions, the eight of us walked into darkness expecting to find a black dragon (thanks villagers) but after expending spell slots and losing hp to get to the cave, we came face to face with the dracolich. 8 went in only one returned, my friends died, I survived because of my friends sacrifice. To this day I believe that the dracolich survived the cave in, and is thirsting for my character's blood.
If you didn’t destroy its phylactery it’s 100% still “alive” and plotting its revenge.
Brutal >:D
Dracolich, because Lichs and Dragons are too easy :)
Not if you buff the shit out of them. Imagine every type of dragon in the world being equal in strength and constitution, and 150 feet tall and having enough mass to crush 3 mountains when they reach 45,000 years old. This is the shit my DM throws at our party due to Bahamut and Tiamet being major gods in his world.
@@williethenerfherder2193 he's being sarcastic
Your dm is awesome
"born at the age of 17"... the D&D world is a crazy place
lol, it does sound that way... my bad. "Born, and then at the age of 17"
I'm just joking around being a picky prick, and its not like I'm out there taking the effort to put up videos
"at age 6 i was born without a face"
funnily enough dracoliches are easier to put down permanently, if harder to kill in the first place, than normal liches since they need a complete dragon corpse to inhabit. if one is not available near it's gem then it's stuck. then it's a matter of destroying the gem which is just as hard if not harder than a normal phylactery but at least you wont have to deal with the thing popping out of your bag of holding every day.
then again an ancient dracolich who has vast information about the world around him might find a way around this. perhaps some magical means to create a new body in mere days. anything is possible in dnd after all :D I am currently planning on making an ancient red dracolich as my big bad villain for my new campaign, but I am still in progress of figuring out how I want my bbg to operate. I have always wanted to role play an ancient dragon, and I am thinking of going with the dracolich route to make it even more horrifying for my players.
Hey AJ, one of my favorite Dragons. Back in 90's my friends & I played Battle System by TSR. I had a 200 miniature armor of undead and one of these pieces was a Dracolich. One of my tactics was to have the Dracolich land on a unit of soldiers, crushing that unit. Than breath its undead poisonous breath weapon on to another unit. Pretty much destroying two units in one turn. My friends hated that Dragon, (lol).
Thanks AJ & have a great day.
Bane : you merely adopted the dark
My favorite channel! Thanks for being great A.J.!
I wonder if you could have a metallic mummy dragon cult to be kind of a foil for an evil dracolich cult. Is there any reason why cultists would not mummify a metallic dragon and maybe through worship accidentally bring it to life?
Such musings are how awesome game plots happen :)
sounds like the sort of thing that zargon cultists might get up to
old post but it was easier for me just to use the dracolich template on a silver dragon and say lore-wise that an apostate of the Cult of the Dragon corrected the translation of the prophecy to say just dragons and the created what is effectively an Archdracolich by combining his elven people's baelnorn ritual with Sammaster's dracolich process.
On that note, wood woad dragon
Here's a scary encounter one of the titanic sized red dragons in the nine hells willingly being turned into a dracolich now that would be a horror that would make even the toughest beings think twice
I'm back here from the pyroclastic dragon vid.
Imagine an elder brain dracolich! Should send shivers down everyone's spine
Is that possible????
@@david598 yeah, just get an elder brain dragon and give it the dracolich template ^^
@@david598 or hell, it's even better of you take a dragon, lich, ulithatid and elder brain statblocks and just mash them together. It's way more work, but it gives a better result
Another great video! From all the monsters and powerful beings in D&D, i think that Dragoliches are one of the most fascinating and also one that i would fear greatly as a player. Good luck with your computer upgrades! Waiting for the next video :)
Thanks again AJ, love your channel and yeah... Dracoliches. Thats fucking scary.
What would happen if a beholder dreamed of becoming a dragon could said being become a lich
Heh.. hmmm, yes I guess so.
Yes
I will go farther. The dragon still keep abilities of beholder and one day was found himself in the shadowfell and than kidnapped by mind flayers and the elder brain enter him which turned him to shadow beholder elder brain dragon and than he turned to lich and became shadow elder brain death tyrant dragon.
I haven't played in or run a D&D or other tabletop game in years but I love your vids when I'm trying to avoid stress from news. Thanks!
Glad to help!
I wonder , Dracolich and Shadowdragon being templates ....do they exclude each other ? do we even want a Shadow Dracolich? i guess it would be a bad thing to even live on the same Planet as such a thing....or make that the same Plane of existence...
Good question! By 5th edition, you would take the original dragon, add the shadow dragon template, and then add the dracolich template, so, yes, it would still retain those shadow powers.
one talking walking nightmare...
But... The MM says "No."
The Shadow Dragon doesn't have enough DRAGON left for it, and the Dracolich is dead.
depend on the DM i guess
@@firetarrasque4667 There is some really obscure lore where there were some shadow dracoliches.
Thank you, I always wanted a video on the Cult of the Dragon.
Me to :D
Well that was doubly inspiring.
>drow dragon called to chase down Demogorgon after thr sack of Menzoberranzan.
>stalks and brawls with Demogorgon in the Darklake, gets ass kicked.
>flees and seeks the cult pf the dragon for a quick powerup to get back there and recover his pride
>demogorgon vs adult of ancient shadow dragon with full dracolich-powered Drow Favored Consort wizard spellcasting...
Is that a closer fight? Just a fun brawl to imagine going on while the d lords roam around
13:17 the alternative title to dungeons and dragons has been said
Monsters and Problems, ha ha, so true.
Samester ? I really don't recall that character, from Forgotten Realm...
I remember Elmister, of course, and Blackstaff Arunsun, and I can recall that Elminster was friend with a female Dracolich(but I forget her name).
Sammaster. He created a variety of undead dragons, including Vampiric Dragons, until he decided that Dracoliches were the best form of undead Dragon. Sammaster was killed when he attacked Alustriel due to her rejecting him. He came back as a Lich, and disappeared for awhile. He re-emerged, and began a ritual that brought about the Dracorage, a time when Dragons all over the world were going insane, rampaging across the countryside, attacking towns and destroying villages, even otherwise benevolent Dragons were affected by it.
The only sure way to prevent the Dracorage from taking hold in a Dragon, was for it to become Undead. Sammaster basically caused the Dracorage to bolster the amount of Dragons that were willing to undergo lichdom.
forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Rage_of_Dragons
Your content is my biggest inspiration for my D&D world, your Yuan Ti video inspired the current plot my players must unveil and because we started with the lost mines of Phandalin and the Dragon cult is in it and they went separate ways to my party i can run a dracolich story arc now and I only thought of doing this because of your video. Thanks AJ.
Tell your players I look forward to their hate mail :)
Can't wait to see a video on the Druid!!! Superb channel AJ!
I wanted to create a campaign based on the old cult of Dragon. Thanks for the informations, very useful! I came from Jorphdan channel and you both are spectacular! Thank again!
that's badass dude keep putting stuff like that!
I have no intention of stopping! :)
Ahhh, the *perfect* patron of an Undying Warlock
Or orcus
I just switched from a 8 year old vista myself. Loooong overdue. Also great video, you just changed my bbeg from a dragon leading an army to a dracolich!
Join the army, they said, see the world, they said... nobody mentioned any Undead Dragons! *whip crack*
YAY! I was so looking forward to this one thank you thank you thank you
I am really enjoying these videos
matt jeffries thanks Matt :)
There was also a Dracolich in the video game NWN Hordes of the Underdark. I still remember my first playthrough when I first came across it and I was like, WTF! ARE YOU KIDDING ME! That was many years ago.
Neverwinter nights is a great intro to Dungeons and Dragons for the gamers, and yes, Dracolich shows up, game over man, game over :)
Play dragons dogma ull get to fight a few undead dragons it's pretty rough
I really love all of your videos, best D&D lore videos on TH-cam. Could you do a video on Psionics, the characters and their powers? Also obsidian dragons? Are there any good aligned shadow dragons, or good-aligned dragons who are not metallic?
Yep, there are also evil metallic dragons
Clicked to ask an old question that might resurface in the game.
Good Metalic dragon with a Ring of Mind Shielding dies while shapechanged. What is that... like? What if you put the ring on like, a highly complex construct?
When do we cross the line? When you power the mind/mech up with life energy? If you use bones or dragon bones in the build?
That was very very cool !! and best of luck with the computer upgrade
going from windows Vista to Windows 10 is going to be an odd experience lol
AJ Pickett AJ Pickett it will be easier than going from vista to windows 8
Think I need to craft one of these. So cool.
Doooo eeet! :)
Best comprehensive monster video ever!
What was the music when that first dracolich picture showed up? It gave me the chills.
I think that is a snippet of music from a monster hunter promo video? Not sure.
Heh we fought one of these as one of the final bosses in our DM's homebrew campaign.....it's stats and abilities were supped up to match our stats and homebrewed gear better, without it being impossible to kill....sadly one of our group died several sessions ago when the other half of the group first encountered it....rest in peace gunslinger....
Tldr i have a dracolich idea who has a homebrew breath weapon and uses echolocation do you like it?
I have an ideah for a dracolich aka a dragon lich but he has a homebrew breath weapon instead of fire or ice or something he opens his mouth and skulls ingulfed in blue flame fly out his breath weapon is essentialy a summon that creates the flame skull enemy's and the body of fire the skulls originate from is also deadly so you dodge his blue flame only to be struck by a cackling skull on fire also the skulls are fast but can't steer well like a bull and im considering makeing the dracolich have empty eye sockets with him instead using Echo location would this guy be a possible character also hes sposed to be in a abandoned elven place eif worship full of banshee and mumys flaming skulls and puzzles set by the minnons of the dracolich he attacked the place centuries ago and has taken the place over scince liching himself with the help of a group of cultists under his wing who worship him perhaps they went to that dragon boneyard you mentioned idk im new to dnd and havnt tried writing only playing anyways he now lays apoun a pile of gold offerings to the gods left behind by the elfs all thise years ago aswell as new good by the cultist you can wake him to fight or ateno to steal his phlactory because a nearby village has been complaining about noises from the area also if i do make him blind like I mentioned ima put a chandelier near him see if anyone notices and ima give him some sorta screech effect that gives people disadvantage or debuffs cause its hard to focus when there's loud noises ringing in your ear what do you think of the idea
1:20 Born in 800 DR at the age of 17...
Wizzard kids, they grow up so fast ;)
how would one stat a golden dracolich
planing for the future as it will be the mastermind of the undead uprising not including the death tyrant my party is currently on their way to deal with (which the death tyrant is currently not in its lair but putting a major metropolis to the proverbial undead sword). nvm just going to use the anceint red dracolich template and add in the golden dragons secondary breath attack and a few different things golden dragons can do.
You just add the additional resistance and abilities from the template, to the Golden Dragon, the rest is in how you play that monster, Golden Dragons are masters of dreams, a Golden Dracolich would be a master of Nightmares!
As the dragon would have to accept the pact what would the chance be a Golden would consider this?
As always, your game, your rules, for me, it would be unlikely that a Gold Dragon takes on the mantle of lichdom.
none a golden dragon true to their nature would never agree to it.
AJ Pickett I dunno. I could see something like a baelnorn type as a gold dragon. A keeper of secrets, lore, a teacher or protector of sorts. Perhaps an eternal guardian of some fell creature, place, or item, keeping it contained until such time as it can be permanently destroyed.
Reminds me of how I was trying to make an idea for a big bad by combining multiple bad things as possible. I was thinking of a dragon that through some method was made into an Illithid, which then in turn became a Lich, that the Illithid thought they could use a dragon with its mighty brain as a base, but just turned into something that even monsters would work to keep under control. Had this idea of doing a whole Cthulhu thing. Based on that, I had the idea they specifically locked it away rather than slay it under not knowing where its phylactery is.
The book is also kind of specific of the phylactery possessing a new corpse rather than the standard Lich's creating a new one. So I was also thinking along the lines of a party somewhat manipulated into at one time working for the death of an ancient dragon before "killing" the adult dragon sized sealed dracolich like monster, whereupon a cultist in possession of the phylactery (an otherwise helpful archmage) would use it on the ancient's body to upgrade the dracolich away from prying eyes.
DuskyPredator hey yeah, I never considered that a younger dragon made into a dracolich could inhabit and animate any size of reptile/dragon corpse. I wouldn't grant them the special powers of an ancient dragon though, but hit points and AC sure!
there is a subspecies of illithid that are made from the tadpoles of mindflayers implanted into dragons....braineater dragons I think, one of three types of illithid allowed to lead their society....and there are lich/ vampire mindflayers. So that is technically possible
R.A. Salvatore's book already created one of those in 2009 in "The Ghost King" a good read, I reccomend it. Through a disruption in Mystra's weave, a great red dragon has an illithid in his subconscious that fused with himself. And destroying a powerful gem that was made of the life of 7 lich lords. Fusing them all as one powerful undead being called, The Ghost King
So lich + mind flayer is an alhoon. Would we call a Dragon + alhoon a dracalhoon? The funny thing is that a dracalhoon would look a lot like C'thulhu and be almost as nasty. It would be easy for a dracalhoon to mimic C'thulhu and demand tribute from C'thulhu cultists. If I was making a NWN new game I think I would use this as a boss that even other big bad bosses were scared of.
I know the last comment was 9 months ago... But Cthulhu is clearly an illithid Tarrasque.
:)
I'd love to see a video on the Sphinx Variants. Androsphinx, Gynosphinx and the others.
that one's already been done
TheSilversepiroth Link it, I have looked for it.
I have not made a video on the Sphinx yet (I have done one on the Lamia, which looks like a sphinx, but is not the same)
But... The MM says "No."
The Shadow Dragon doesn't have enough DRAGON left for it, and the Dracolich is dead.
hello there wanted to say I very much enjoy this series quite informative..secondly I was wondering if it was possible to add "Gibberlings" to the list..not much info i could find on them but i do know they are NASTY evil blights of cannon fodder and when played right they can be a party's WORST nightmare
moonman 169 thanks and I will add Gibberlings to the list.
wow thank you ^^!
30' tall? At 120' plus long, I thought it would be 40' or 45' for that size category
What if you made a pseudodragon a dracolich if you killed a real dragon could the pseudodragon possess its corpse?
Technically, yes.
Yep. Dracoliches are able to possess the corpses of other dragons. Alaskerbanbastos does it in the "The Spectral Blaze" novel. His original body is destroyed in battle, but he keeps the corpse of another large blue dragon near his phylactery so he can quickly possess it.
I did this the other way around for a one shot once. A cult couldnt find an adult dragon for their ancient dracolich, so they brought it a small little dragon which the dracolich possessed. He was a bit pissed off being so tiny :'D
If I was to introduce a Dracolich, I would have it Swoop out of the Sky and attack a city decimating it, before being driven off. The Player Characters are among those that survive the onslaught of that attck.
So how long exactly do dragons live? i can imagine a red dying of old age, then being lichified by a bunch of cultists who worshipped it inlife, then basically resulting in it creating an undead version of tolkiens mordor. but if the dracolich is supposed to be what a lich aspires to be, durnehviir from the video game skyrim being an example, where you have a self respawner, what kills the thing, at its full potential? a party of celestials? you'd have to time killing it to get at its phalactory. maybe a bad guy that you don't foil dirrectly, but you kill its head minion and magically trap it under a collapsed mountain for centuries, if not millenia, untill a bunch of power hungry foolhardy folks release the thing. it would be more ancient evil geography, than just fighting a dragon.
Draconomicon p14: Charisma score x 50 + 1200 for chromatic and Cha x 100 + 1200 for metallic. After that they can make DC 20 con check each year. If they succeed they lose 1 con otherwise they die. Of course, after that long, they may adopt the methods of wizardry or druidic nature magic to greatly expand their life. Many would choose to release their magical essence into the natural world at this point, or become a dracolich, some just get killed by something else. Time Dragons are the only truly dragons who suffer no ill effects from old age, and barring getting killed by foes or disasters, they live forever.
cool. you've got so much more lore to cover... i'd love to hear about how and why the dragons split down the chromatic and metalic lines.
The Dark master good! That is exactly what I talk about in the very next video :D
I wonder if you'll end up rolling DC constitution checks before you finish this, to finish this. or you just become a lich and feed your flactory with: ... "... the soulz..."👻😆. honestly though, there is so much lore to cover, and its a good thing. creativity inspires creativity, one artist is annother artists muse. but it seems to me that the chromatics got the shorter end of the stick.
How would you do life for Gem/Ferrous?
Maybe in the future if you want maybe you could cover Demi lichs and the lichs who become gods
I do plan on making a video on Vecna, he is on the list.
*Creeping doom intensifies*
Are the Purple Dragon Knights of Cormyr connected to Dragons in any way? If so, you think any of them would be secret cultists?
There is certainly Dragon Cultists infiltrated into the Purple Dragon military forces, since the army is formidably large.
Cormyr's standing army is called the Purple Dragons, but this is not to be confused with the recently deceased king Azoun IV who was also called that, nor with the Purple Dragon Throne that all kings of Cormyr sit on, nor with the original purple dragon that gave the kingdom that name, Thauglorimorgorus
I know that this is not from 5e, but could you do a video on the death giants? I don't know how much lore there are but I saw them in the 4e monster Manuel and they seem pretty cool
I just had a fun idea....Draco-mummes!
Hi, I like your videos! But can you please do a video about Dragonborns? If you already did, can you please link me to it?
They are coming up soon :)
🌋😁🐉 "lava" back here a second time, these things are going to be such a resource. a pyroclastic ancient lawfull evil dracolich called appocalypse.
could you do an ecology on gargoyles if you haven't yet
Added to the list!
Upgrading from Vista :-) I often listen to you stuff while upgrading servers - cut and assigned 16TiB of disk during this episode alone.
Also, will you do a video on Shades?
Please do bahamut and tiamat
i agree, i'd love to hear about their lore.
9:18 what map is that ?
Ok so would a dracolich with the ability to absorb the life out of its surroundings to restore health be too strong?
I truly wonder about a Dragonborn becoming a lich what do you think would happen
Can you do the Skum (Ulat-Kini) next?
Added to the list, it won't be for a while, but I will get to them :)
Wasn’t expecting the dragon cry at the beginning and almost pissed myself cuz it was super loud and terrifying
That's gonna be awesome AJ I look forward to it
hey AJ! I have finished the purple worm! any contact I can send the picture to?
I'm on facebook, and my email address is on the youtube channel 'About' page I believe.
The history of Mystra's chosen was awesome.
What happens when an Ancient Red Dracolich's body is destroyed and it inhabits the body of a dead Adult Blue Dragon? Does the Red Dragon keep it's fire breath, immunities, and resistances or does it get the Blue Dragons, or do they get both? Does the body of the Blue Dragon transform to that of the original Red Dracolich body, or is it the mind of the Red Dracolich in a Blue Droclich body? And when a there isn't a dragon body, and they have to use a kobold or something, does the kobold turn into the original Red Dracolich body or the Blue Dracolich body?
It retains all its non-biological traits.. its biology consists of dead bones. Therefore, aside from structural changes to it's skeleton, it's still a red dragon.
@@AJPickett can it still breath fire then?
@@northerner3340 yep, blue or green lurid flames that rot materials so fast it seems like combustion, but leaves filth and muck more so than ash and such.
Here doing research. So you know I'll have to ask for videos on dudes like Kalzareinad and Null now, right?
Ha ha, clearly, since we went to all that effort.
My interest and curiosity has been sparked!
Have you any homebrew monsters you would like to share with us?
I'm new to dnd as you may Remer but weekday dr mean you said 902 Dr. What's that mean
DR stands for Dale Reconning, the current date keeping standard on the continent of Faerun.
LOL bonafide? BONE a fide!?!?! Ouch
No pun (that bad) intended... lol
What about shadow dracolich?
It's weird that dracoliches have existed for so long; I remember seeing them in 2e, at least, yet they seem to have no connection to Falazure, THE Dragon God of Undeath, at least to the degree dragons have God's. You'd think those of a priestly skill set, among g the Cult, would worship that deity, who would seek more undead dragons because their existence would strengthen His own, but they seem to remain totally unrelated. I do appreciate, though, that 5e had Tiamat, Herself, basically seize control of some of the misguided Cult, and got it to serve Her ambitions of reentering Toril. Probably didn't last, based on Her actions at the end, and likely being defeated, after that, but a cool moment, all the same.
And of course one of the most powerful dracolich was created by an illithid using the crystal shard Crenshinibon(an artifact created by with the souls of 7 arch necromancers) to fuse its self and the crystal with a dying blinded red dragon
I think there is a Dracolich in Finland
Like the artwork and the lore.
What was the song on your original lich video
I forgot.
@@AJPickett darn maybe sometime you'll remember it lol
How do they measure up to an adimatium dragon
Sorry about the spelling
Adamantium.
Just edit it in (:
Or it might be Adamantine. I'm not sure.
Could one make a adamantium/adamantine dracolich?
So what happens if the dragon fails to become a dracolich? Like how a failed lich is a boneclaw.
Wouldnt they lose a hell of alot of HP though???
Going from a Con of 20 something, to a Con of --
is a big negative.
Is a dracolych subject to the dracorage
No.
Sir, you're a well of knowledge.
Would a cult be able to control it with the gem?
Fascinating!
something occured to me while watching this. we have dragons who aren't evil. we also have liches who aren't evil. so why don't we have dracoliches who aren't evil?
Dracolich killed our healer, thus ending our nearly two-year long campaign ☹️
I've killed a player character many times. It does not have to be the end, it can be a plot point that starts something new. Obviously it is a good idea to discuss this with the players tho
this tiamat energy so beautiful
What would you Tiamat’s opinion of a Dracolitch would be? Is it an insult to her creation?
A baby dracolitch and a gnome lich.
Why can't dracolich cast spells to ? Like they should at least be able to summon undead or something
They can cast spells
I decided to never use a dracolich after the first time I used one as the to bad guy... to my veteran players. I really use the high intelligence of monsters and think on that level how each monster (or even bad guy) would think. I then ponder the entire world environment relative to how such issues would surface and be dealt with. I then think of the behind-the-scenes people that would allow it and why. When my players finally faced the dracolich, he was speaking to them like they were playthings. This enraged the party and rallied their hired army into action. The dracolich laughed, flew away, and the players suddenly had to fight their hired army and the undead that came in to back them. I was accused of being a killer DM with that encounter. I apologized for that by making a hero-worshiping sect recover their gear and restore them all to life with a great support group with a mere cost of losing a month of existing in the world. They continued playing, but the campaign ended without them ever getting interested in killing the dracolich... a dracolich I thought of as a half-baked, stupid version who would have been easy to defeat relative to how the monster's existence.
Where was Daurgothoth?
Up to no good.
@@AJPickett That damn Daurgothoth, always up to no good.
Destroying soul is evil and chaotic act of the ruinous sort, even if the soul was evil itself. It is usually both instant Moral Event Horizon crossing and Spiritual Anti-Matter touching in one, in which these characters who cause destruction of souls with non-stop are almost always Eternal Defiance.
Also, Eternal Defiance's wanton and needless acts of violence are done by combining heinous crimes with mutinous kill counts.
Not to be confused with bone dragons..... unless you prefer to die over a mistaken identity
So fire emblem finale boss ever.
Could you imagine having your heart broken by the Silver Lady
You forgot the Dread Dracolich. Or the Dread Lich.
OMG 7 years old computer with Vista... its an undead computer, lets call it Computerolich
4:48 hahaha, The word "negative" would be dangerous in America for someone with a New Zealand accent:3
I had nothing but good interactions with Americans when I was visiting there in the early 90's.. who knows what they thought I was saying :D
Yes yes, I got it the first time.
Fun fact, I was in LA during the Riot, so, yeah, sensitive topic over there.
LMAO, I'm sorry to hear that. I was 4 at the time:P
AJ Pickett Did you participate in any anarchy?
WJEFOIA FJALFKJADFJK He incited it.
The Force Dracolich; the ultimate bad guy.
There u go
Thats op!