Lich (lɪtʃ / litch)

A lich is a powerful creature who has been preserved as an undead through a powerful ritual that trapped its soul in a vessel called a phylactery. A lich who fails to regularly feed souls to its phylactery fades into a demilich. Unlike many other forms of undead, a lich's soul is not imperfectly attached to its body; instead, liches bind their souls to special containers known as phylacteries, which then allows them to generate a physical form. This is why lich bodies look nothing like their former mortal selves, and also why one has to destroy a lich's phylactery to truly kill them; as long as a lich's phylactery and soul are allowed to remain intact, the being can never truly die and will always be able to regenerate their corporeal body.

Culture

Because liches had eternal longevity, they often used this time to form schemes that took decades to develop, sometimes preferring to outlive a foe instead of confronting it, and as such most liches lived in secluded areas of Toriel, where they were content with furthering whatever research or plots they had in motion.

The Lich's Phylactery

The process of achieving lichdom required that the spellcaster construct a powerful magical artifact, a phylactery, in which the lich stored its life essence. As long as this phylactery is unharmed, the lich is immortal and will attempt to reassemble if it is ever vanquished. It does not, however, grant any of the normal benefits of a phylactery until it is fully completed. For these reasons, liches take great care in protecting their phylactery from harm, employing decoys, traps, and other defenses. The most common physical form for a phylactery is a sealed metal box containing strips of parchment on which magical phrases have been transcribed. Other forms of phylacteries exist, often small or tiny trinkets such as rings, amulets, or similar items. It can also take other shapes if the lich expends more gold and experience to make such alterations. With its phylactery prepared, the future lich drinks a potion of transformation — a vile concoction of poison mixed with the blood of a sentient creature whose soul is sacrificed to the phylactery. The wizard falls dead, then rises as a lich as its soul is drawn into the phylactery, where it forever remains. While crafting the phylactery tax the physical strength of the caster, the materials and components can easily exceed 120,000 gp. Overall, creating a phylactery is a very daunting task for anyone of arcane power. A lich must periodically feed souls to its phylactery to sustain the magic preserving its body and consciousness. It does this using the imprisonment spell. Instead of choosing one of the normal options of the spell, the lich uses the spell to magically trap the target’s body and soul inside its phylactery. The phylactery must be on the same plane as the lich for the spell to work. A lich’s phylactery can hold only one creature at a time, and a dispel magic cast as a 9th-level spell upon the phylactery releases any creature imprisoned within it. A creature imprisoned in the phylactery for 24 hours is consumed and destroyed utterly, whereupon nothing short of divine intervention can restore it to life.

Grim Hollow Bestiary: Lich by Ringasure

Characteristics

Physical features

Liches typically appearing as large, floating, skeletal figures wrapped in long robes. If a lich degrades into a demilich, what remains of its body disintegrates and only its skull remains. When a Dragon becomes a dracolich, its flesh draws taut against its skeletal frame or is shredded, and its eyes are replaced with floating points of light. Lich are undead, and as such, they do not age, nor do they need to breathe, eat, drink or sleep to survive.

Subraces

Baelnorn

An Elf who enters lichdom becomes a Baelnorn.

Demilich

The immortality granted to a lich lasts only as long as it feeds mortal souls to its phylactery. If it falters or fails in that task, its bones turn to dust until only its skull remains. This “demilich” contains only a fragment of the lich’s malevolent life force — just enough so that if it is disturbed, these remains rise into the air and assume a wraithlike form. The skull then emits a terrifying howl that can slay the weak-hearted and leave others trembling with fear. Left alone, it sinks back down and returns to the empty peace of its existence. Few liches seek to become demiliches, for it means an end to the existence they hoped to preserve by becoming undead. However, time can erode the lich’s reason and memory, causing it to retreat into its ancient tomb and forget to feed on souls. The spells it once knew fade from its mind, and it no longer channels the arcane energy it wielded as a lich. However, even as a mere skull it remains a deadly and vexing enemy.

Dracolich

Dragon are immortal, and passing time is not an issue for those creatures, yet some can be fatally wounded, or seek to be liberated from the constraint of a living body. Rare are the foul choosing the path of lichdom, but a true dragon who enters lichdom becomes a dracolich. The process requires to do this is a secret that the Cult of Dragon keeps to itself.

Eldritch Lich

From beyond the stars, a Great Old One whispers promises of reality-defying knowledge and world-bending power. When a wizard or a warlock hears that whisper and listens too intently, they might set foot on the twisting path toward becoming an eldritch lich. Like other liches, eldritch liches are spellcasters who have cheated death, but an eldritch lich does so by allowing a Great Old One to implant a Far Realm parasite in the lich. That parasite bestows undeath upon the spellcaster and causes strange tentacles to sprout from the body. The parasite’s mouth is visible on the lich’s torso, and the parasite guards the lich against destruction, reviving the lich a few days after death. Canny foes can sabotage an eldritch lich’s revival by slaying the lich in a magic circle, thereby forcing the lich to return in a distorted form, robbed of most of its power. An eldritch lich constantly hears bizarre whispers from the Far Realm, to which the lich nods and mutters. Occasionally, the lich uses its telepathy to share those whispers with the minds around it.

Lichen Lich

Lichen liches are undead remnants of powerful druids. A lichen lich looks like a skeleton covered with fungi and bark-like lichen. A lichen lich has vines within its chest cavity. These vines exude viscid and poisonous black fluid.

History

Lich are powerful undead creature, their origin, magical in nature take roots in the Book of Vile Darkness, an ancient artifact holding the secret to many dark rituals. Through the extensive study of Necromancy, rare spellcasters have managed to unlock the secret to lichdom without the possession of the book. Vecna is said to be the first lich, the legends whispering of him possessing the vile book and hiding it.