The Lich: Undead Mages in 5e Dungeons & Dragons - Web DM

hey there web DM fans I'm Pruitt this is Jim Davis and today on web DM we're sending it out to those Adventure Time fans those that want a bone Skeletor or just loves them some Voldemort it's Lich's we're going to show you how to give them some stitches and find that file actory and make them your let's get a little eternal with it let's get a little evil look about Lich's are we ready to sell our souls for eternity for an eternity of epic spell-casting would you I you know it's hard not to when you look at what the Lich is and like just what they are and the fact that spellcasters being what they are I'm really kind of surprised there aren't more Lich's because there's got to be enough wizards out there we're like yeah the whole like soul thing not a problem mm-hmm I'd consider it in records of immortality you know I think maybe vampires a better deal over the long run right but I don't know which is got a lot going for them they are traditional bad guys I love Lich's because they are one of the perfect bad guys for an overall campaign right well like full argued there they are they're from first level to whenever the players decide to directly confront them there's the fact that they are arcane spell casters gives them a wider range of options for messing with the PCs directing events reacting to what pcs do they're probably got a ton of followers and minions and then sort of agents that they can use to send after the PCs so you get a lot of longevity by having a lich be the primary antagonist of your campaign my two favourite Lich's just in fantasy out in the fantasy pool of ideas are Nageshwara more sort of the father of necromancy yeah first of one of these leeches and the Lich from adventure time yeah because I mean Adventure Time is probably one of the greatest D&D cartoons ever made and if you haven't watched it you should just watch it it's awesome the Lich there is like this cosmic force that whenever it arrives or shows up just causes all of this evil and malignancy and it's just sort of a a threat to existence itself yeah it's what the Lich's before gets turned into a giant baby well you know that but that is what it is the life has a cycle and it's got to start over at something it's got to start over at some point well and we would be remiss you got to mention Voldemort Voldemort I think it's a good example of a little it's young he literally has file actor he has more than one right he's got several notes back from the dead he comes back from the dead so that's a first off that's just another way you can present the Lich yeah and so you can have the skeletal red pinprick sort of soul eating Lich that's presented in the Monster Manual or you can take the idea of an immortal spellcaster who removes a piece of themselves and puts it in a physical object there's a lot of different things you can do with that template using the stats for lich out of the marshmallow so it doesn't always have to be this skeletal figure with the decayed robes and everything it can be a living breathing you know maybe they removed their heart and put it in a you know canopic jar or something like that I don't know that's what happened in Baltimore to knows Jackson he took it all then he put it in a file actory right I mean the knows what are you going to do it you don't need a nose if you're on dead boy it's also we wanted to be all slithering sneaking so it's written whatever but still you can have them as the overall big bad guy but do they have to be the bad guys they don't have to be the bag I'm glad that you brought that up they can be sort of a neutral third party that exists as a wildcard in the campaigns so you've got a organization B organization the players have allied themselves with one of those or going after one of them and then we've got the literacy who's just sort of like what are they doing the other organizations might try to rope the Lich in the lid you might be curious about the developments that are going on the point is that you don't know and there's a there are right set of circumstances where the party can approach that Lich and maybe make a temporary alliance with right try to find a way to appeal to their sort of selfish rational side in your best interest to ally with us to you know form some kind of temporary Accord while this other other events in the campaign play out so if you're looking for sort of a character or a force that you want to add to your game that's like well I don't know what to do with them yet having a lich just be there ready around can sort of serve as that because there's so many different options that they have primarily because of the fact they're full spellcasters yeah and if you're a full spell caster and you're immortal functionally immortal yeah what are you going to want to do with your time I mean you've got to configure that they've got plots that take centuries to brew that they've got all these little irons in the fire they're over here well they're you know working on magically bred monsters that they're going to do with something and then they've followed this one family of halflings for like 300 years subtly influencing events in those halflings lives to do something you know those are the kind of plots that a lich might come up with there's an HP Lovecraft story that Curious Case of Charles Dexter Ward about a sorcerer who is somehow manipulating events in the future by a cousin or a descendant of his and forever since I've read it I don't know it's one of those stories where if you're it first of it's creepy as hell right and it shows you yet again here's what an immortal utterly remorseless and vindictive vengeful sort of sorcerer will do if allowed to do so is transferring his lifeforce across centuries that way maybe that's what your Lidge is doing of it your Lich is really eight hundred years ago trying to take over a body right now right you're dealing with sort of a temporal Lich so that means that Lich 800 years ago is probably not going to be doing anything to upset the order run presently presently he's worried about six eight hundred years in the future yes so your party could go up hey we found this rare spell book and we want to maybe form an alliance with you one of the lines give us access to you know your your lair because it passes underneath this thing we need to get tuned to be over here yeah those are sort of ways to introduce them it's sort of a neutral force they could be a source of spells in the campaign you know the wizard needs to go to the Lich because the Lich is the only one that has a spell book collection old enough yeah to get certain versions of spells that they otherwise can't get through their own research yeah and then that just sort of leads me to think all right I'm in a mortal spell caster they're going to be certain needs that I have that I need to form a cult of mortals around me so we're talking death clerics necromancer's etc soul it should probably never be encountered loan when you do finally get to the lair chances are they've got a cadre of spellcasters around them perform sort of minor duties help out with rituals summoning magic as we kind of discussed in the genies episode it's really kind of difficult for one spell caster to do all this summoning so you would want three or four other spell casters who can concentrate on magic circles can concentrate on four stages can concentrate on walls of force can be ready with counter spells multiple counter spells to try to keep a summoned creature bound long enough for a plainer binding spell to take place so that's why the Lich has all of these mortals and so I might include an Archmage Winslet's or their second-in-command some other mages a lich who's insinuated themselves into magical society created this cult maybe they're one step removed maybe the they always appear in a mask with elaborate robes and no one really knows what they're dealing with until they're finally unmasked oh it's literal and depending on how vain the Lich is maybe they have a cleric who's kidding general repose every 10 days keep oppose to keep him from just really decaying now I would say that as soon as they miss them all not eleventh day all of those years catch up with 600 years the solutions I looked immaculate just like the day he became undead right and then finally he you know whatever happened some adventures come in ranking shah's gets to the eleventh day and just yeah the genes-- like swaps off of him Last Crusade drinking from the wrong cup just like starts with when you the desiccated skeleton those sort of campaign uses for Lich's there are good aligns witches Bale nornes sort of elves who have undergone a similar transformation because they want to be with their family and I guess a thousand years isn't good enough for elves they gotta be a mortal for something nothing you know they're functionally immortal and mostly actually immortal there's the undying court of Eberron which is sort of a similar take on on elves as and I really like that cultures is presented in every one so there are good Lich's they don't always have to be evil but not to me for my book just like I like my paladin's lawful good like my Lich's eat yeah I'm a classic D in dere yeah none of this newfangled anyway and I would also allow players to become witches if they want even had that amber temple and Ravenloft right oh yeah if I was playing a wizard in that in that game and not necessarily a not a paladin yeah there'd be a strong temptation to go wait I can touch mines with this dark entity trapped in amber and I don't know what the cost was for the Lich one because in our game we smashed all those up but I really didn't hesitate we're really to meditate but I can see if I was playing a different character in there then I would be like wait a second I can I can touch this thing and connect with this dark entity and I learned the lich tomb ritual like I might just want that in my back pocket well I know I never know you have to look weird or have some kind of weird curse associated with it while I have that knowledge that might be a worthwhile trade-off I would allow players to become witches I would not make it easy so the one Lich that I've allowed in my games ever as was a death cleric who traveled to the domain of the death God in the outer realms and allowed the death God to kill him merged with the death God's consciousness in three days later becomes a lich I also don't like Razer is a it also created black Razer you know and as a token of that so yes that's the one instance where I've allowed it I didn't allow that player legendary actions or lair actions but I did allowed the immunities and I did allow paralysis touch attack before for the most part and also I mean we wonder what level when the 617 Club I mean that was a very high tier play right there was already a full vampire there's a full vampire that can be turned into a psychic vampire right and and and the king of grackles tongue you know so by that point the the duero our Paladin had become king of this entire dwarf city so letting the death cleric be a lich was no big deal but i wouldn't make it easy otherwise you know in a more conventional sense it would it would take a lot and including the chance that if that you might drink that poison and that you're dead like it didn't work and now you're just dead that can happen with glitches as well so that's those are kind of campaign uses for Lich's and things that I would think about moving on to the mechanics of the Lich because you want your which fight to be memorable right this is where you're going to want to do a lot of prep work for it this is probably the capstone of a big long campaign you probably got characters that are in upper tier three maybe even tier four although you could probably take on a lich about 10th or 11th level depending on how many of the party there was and what kind of magic items they were bringing if it were me and I were taking on a lich you know I would come with come loaded to bear to deal with a lot of spell casting they pretty much just like have items right I mean the monster you'll suggest that they've been collecting magic items for a long time so if I wanted a really memorable witch encounter they're going to have robe and staff of the Magi they're probably have a rod of absorption or a rod of cancellation and know how to use it well enough that they're not nervous blowing themselves up with it they might have things like rings of wishes and a whole mess of wands this is on top of the spell casting that they have and it probably distributed several other powerful magic items to their followers so that you're not just dealing with one magic item you know using Lich it's sort of like six of them and maybe they all look like the Lich they've all been magically transformed or something those are those are ways that I would kind of set that up the biggest hurdle for the Lich and I guess now's a good time to say that sly flourish and lazy diem has a an amazing article on running a lich fight and he mostly approaches it from the mechanical sort of tactical side of things whereas we like to talk about campaign uses and stuff we'll try to post a link I would recommend anyone who's going to use a lich if they want to make the fight memorable and they have experienced players to read slight flourishes article if they're not if you're not dealing with experienced players but at the same time even if it's someone's first campaign and they made it to sixteenth level guess what they're experienced player well yeah right like they've made it that far even if it's their first campaign but it will be memorable and it might lead to a TPK and so it doesn't mean that has to be the end of the game one of the things he mentions is one of the things anyone that just sort of looks at the lich sees is that their hip points are going to be a real problem and so that's the biggest hurdle you want to find a way to make those hip points go as far as you can you know there are several options potions of invulnerability the simple blade wart contra which it can use as a legendary action shield Guardian or shield Guardian like affects warding bond cast by a cultist yeah those are all interesting way interesting good ways to extend the life on the online be unlocked thank you a village and or you can just simply raise the tip points and I think there's merits for doing both if you're going to do just raise its hip points then the party has no way of overcoming that other than to whittle those hip points down right whereas if you're using magic and spells and items to boost their their hip points that's something the party can do about they can have a dispel magic ready they can you know engage in multiple attacks to sort of like okay well let's just drink a bunch of potions clearly let's book it out of here see if we can't delay for an hour so when to let those potions wear off and then try to take them again so those are things you can do or you notice uh you know you hit a Lich one of its cultists over here looks like he gets hurt right oh my god let's either dispel or sure to kill that guy right now yes that way you can get rid of that warning bond that way you can get rid of that warding bond is there a you know a shield guardian in the mix something that you can do about that are you going to try to take out that your shield guardian are you going to try to find that amulet in the middle of the fight and sort of take that amulet out those are things you can do and I prefer those solutions as opposed to just giving them more hit points well yeah because then it forces your players to be more tactical instead of just hitting more and harder you actually have to think about it you have to think about the distribution of the resources of the party focuses all here take this guy go dispel here like you said you're trying to make a memorable encounter yeah something that lasts more than just three rounds and at the end of it the Lich is a pile of bones right you want something where they're they're really are having to use all their resources at their disposal and to think in ways that maybe they haven't thought about before I've been considered before in order to succeed in this encounter and even then I got to find the file actory well okay thank you you where is the file actory where would you put the file actory so it's gotta be honest wondering it's gotta be on the safe asking for a friend just asking for a friend so it's gotta be on the same plane or at the very least it has to be on the same plane that the which is feeding Souls into it so if they want it on a different plane and that means the Lich has to constantly go to that plane where their file a tree is and sort of like feed souls into it there you could also for convenience's sake say like the Lich's put it in a cavity that's like 600 feet down from where they are you know and there's 600 feet of solid rock it's got a lead-lined box so even though it's on the same plane good luck finding out where that little cyst in the earth is where it's kept this file actually good luck finding it good luck getting there yeah and then chances are it's a lift to hell and there's just like symbols of death and fear and traps lay for it but that's where the backup spell book is going to be it's going to reform there yeah maybe we'll just have like a lead coffin with a spell book in it right any cup of tea and a biscuit there's a little bit back and Gus oh my god go ahead and cast that teleport and get out of it and then get out of there that's sort of what I would do and that's a difficult thing to find I'm a big fan of using some of the older editions tier of components sort of like mixing Gorgons blood and it will prevent teleportation right mixing in copper certain things will give it magically resistance so obviously that much rock combined with lead-lined box so there are other things you can do with lich you I think the best way to run them in an encounter is to find ways for the Lich to isolate party members and take them out one by one yeah that's using walls of force to kind of create zones where got one person within the dome of a wall of force right there particularly if it's combined with say a cloud kill glyph I know we mentioned that with the golems I would use that for witches as well anything pretty much anything that's Mewtwo poison right it's you can throw in a cloud kill it and make it a bit more interesting and put a forced hemisphere over it we have player inside with the player inside so maybe you use fear to send it running village teleports there and there's a lot of there's a lot of things going on this is why they might want five or six other spell casters to sort of concentrate on some of these yeah other spells and sort of divide the party up using using crane effects the Lich is going to want to save its reaction for probably for counter spells and so you want it to have defenses that are good enough that it doesn't that you don't feel the need to use shield with it however other spellcasters that the Lich is facing is going to want to force them to use their reaction on shields so you need credible threats to those spell casters so that when say a iron golem goes after that spell caster that smoke eyes like a shield I don't want to be smeared on the wall now the Lich can cast spells without worrying about them being counterspell right but it's got its reaction saved for a counter spell to that counter spell yeah and then you get into just a big counter spell orgy right and whether anything comes out of it and that's what it starts to look like a Harry Potter fight yeah and so so I think that the movies at least terms of the spell selection I probably would change up the can trips a bit so that there's blade ward there if all else fails you can use a legendary action to cast blade ward then a mantra oh I've got prestidigitation and fire bolt maybe mage hand I would probably think maybe chill touch or something else would be good something that messes with healing magic yeah or the party set now just make sure you're using your layer actions and your your legendary actions to full effect this is a good time to kind of talk about does the lich know or does any enemy spell caster know what the saving throws of the party are there's two ways to go with this you can say no they don't that's meta game knowledge yeah the saving throw is a meta game mechanic it doesn't represent anything in game other than maybe determination and IR will something like that and so this is where the Lich doing reconnaissance on the party you've got a long term you know the Lich is the long term enemy Knight how long has it been scrying so it might know something about these players oh yeah definitely because you know if he's had his machinations going from the beginning yeah but they only they only get white they only really get wise to it and starts warding him at like second or third level well now they've got his attention right right and so now he's watching them you might even throw some just random at him just for them to feed you so he can see how they fight how they fight together what they use yeah you know what are they weak to and he's just and that's the whole thing is he's just he's just lining them up every enemy you're like well now we'll test the result they're their willful resolve now I'll try to charm the pants off of them now try to poison them see where they're weakest and could be that the Lich by the time party gets to them at you know 16 17 20th or even earlier levels that village knows them very well yes you can give the monologue I know you made yourself oh yes you know and and now it knows okay well the you know the barbarian has a crappy will save or print save or that rogue over there it's really susceptible to illusions you know I don't see that as metagaming because there are things the players can do to prevent that exactly distel is magical or a non detection discussing your plans inside a private sanctuary those are things that sort of mid to higher level characters have available to them right and you know so you could just be that the low levels is like when you realize you're potentially facing a lich which you might not at first here right then you just have to become more circumspect in how you work that lidge's plan okay so now you know you're fighting a lich how would you fight a Lich man I would wear a mask everywhere I go there are so many spells that seem like they may key off of you know knowing who you are you know knowing who you are what's going to like a scribe for instance yeah if my hair you're seen some of you have seen before someone you have can't you know made contact with before maybe the Lich's cassock speak with dead on the minions that you have slaughtered and just left there because that's what most of the time players of them kill them loot him then get out of there yeah so the Lich follows up speaking what's dead even though it's clerics well I'd let my lips pee with dead and so I were masked that would be the first line of defense I did it in permanent NIST allure on me so that I don't radiate magic the magic effects don't radiate off of me if I knew I was fighting a Lich for that period that I was fighting them a tower non detection just it's got to be yeah you can't have that up all the time but there are amulets of proof against detection and location rings of mine shielding those are all things that I would want mine blanks fell into that high-level are all things that you would want to to have ready and available to help sort the information gathering spell casting that the Lich's yeah and verily going to do yeah because that can work both before the big fight and for you afterwards because let's say you roll up in there you kick the Lich's ass right you tear sanctum apart no I know pile a creek now you got a pissed-off lich who's got mortals all over the place that it can use to make your life very miserable and who you are if he knows who you are so why didn't you go in there both magically and mundane ly disguised with a non detection teleporting in get what you need find find out rummage through his papers you know get the Lich's you know kidnap Alicia's servant see what you can find there yeah there's breach briefcase finest papers the business papers right find out where the Lich keeps the vile act ring and you've done so sort of covering your own tracks right don't have to worry about it so much so that's the kind of interplay between information gathering spells and things that players can do the forth and then I really like some diems can't stand it and they're just they pull their they pull their hair out because it's like why do I have to do all of this counter divination divination magic kind of thing well it's just another aspect of the game I mean the spells are in there it's just and how you use them it's just in how you use them I would imagine the Lich's Lair is riddled with glyphs of warding and symbol spells looking at this place with a detect magic on it's going to be a must gaining put on your sunglasses first right and that even like so that even the battlefield so if it has like a throne room or an audience chamber or something there's going to be a ton of glyphs there that mean that that fight is going to be to be a lot of magic it's going to get tossed around quite a bit and you know maybe people don't make it out maybe people don't make it out and at the end of the day that list could just drop fireballs on you all let's talk a little bit about our own recent experience we got in Christmas Drive yes at the amber temple and we enter which it will go back there there's a lich any spells I guess see Nile or so yeah and even without spells that lich was a tough fight yeah because we were only eight level eighth or ninth level nice level when we got to that so it's kind of a tough fight just because they have that sort of the sort of beam of energy that tethers their life for your I forced them paralyzing touch you know so there's still something can trips in this case the things the Lich could still do and I don't know I um first of all I like the idea of a senile witch gonna live so long so long that he's forgotten most of everything he writes absolutely forgot about so I Lich's that that have that kind of senility are or just something different or off about them all right can we fun it was fun it was fun talking to him though right sorry but it goes to show you that even without the spells glitch can be a credible threat to sort of a lower level routing so it's all about that spell selection if you're if you're looking to include a lich and you want the party to face them around tenth level or so then alter up the spell the spell selection that they have throw them out there without any minions or anything else right there to back them up but for real like a top notch this is the Lich yes this is the guy they're you know this is the evil source Skeletor whatever you know you really owe it to them to have a full network of minions and a tricked-out lair my ideal which is an illusionist that has a hallucinatory terrain and a mirage Arcana going the entire time because like how long the who's eating last an hour yeah well or less depending on how you're casting and your lipstick it's only a minute yeah so it's like yeah the Mirage mark on elapsed what 10 days so yeah you know if you know that you have enemies in there and then then you can change up the effects I mean this is one of the ways in which I would always alter which I would almost always give them I pick a wizard spell school that they're specialized in and give them those abilities it's promote illusionist is where it's at to really creative yeah I mean they were you know a spell caster before spell gas reform yeah so wouldn't they be of some school of some school you know it's fun to throw those things out just to present different challenges for your players particularly if you have players who are all sodium just even come on come I'll tell you totally [Music] well yeah there's another 30 minutes yeah so this is why I'm glad that we start that's what I want to start we want to start with the monsters good seas to talk about we know we're doing I think here any of funds going to be a not as long to show we'll see we'll see they're probably a fun system it's no dungeons I'm we're going to need to take a break and get some lozenges in Anika's already like I can tell I was trying not to scream too much last night but halfway through the show it the rock took over so I'm you know trying to save the fishes the sword show school just Lord show oh my god it was so much rock kids if you're out there and you have a chance to go watch the sword and you think that a bard is let's go watch the sword and they'll show you exactly the kind of songs you need to be writing for your DD campaign I even nodded my head once I saw Jim nod his head I was like wow that's what I tapped my leg yeah that's right I let the rock flow through me

Channel: Web DM

Views: 325,312

Rating: 4.9359312 out of 5

Keywords: Dungeons, Dragons, Role, Playing, Tabletop, Game, 5th, Edition, webdm, web dm, dungeons and dragons, dnd, d&d, 5e, dungeon master, tips, nerdarchy, matt colville, dm, critical role, lich, monsters, enemy

Id: VhHkATbec_Q

Length: 27min 36sec (1656 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 02 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/Haokah226]

Really enjoy their monster breakdowns. This is going to come in handy as I begin work on a Infinity Stone style Campaign that will involve a Lich.

I am also looking forward to their Save or Dice tonight.

[u/TheWeredude]

Far and away my favorite DnD related source of content.

[u/TheBoraxKid]

Really wish they had a podcast. Haven't found one in this style that I enjoy as much.

[u/distilledwill]

My hobgoblin necromancer PC has a dream of becoming a Lich someday. Everything he does is in pursuit of this goal, theres some interesting "prestige" classes to that end.

[u/EarthAllAlong]

I wish someone would do a supercut of all the times Jim Davis immediately repeats something Johnathan Pruitt just said to confirm it. But the supercut would be 8 hours long.