My group has reached book 3 of the kingmaker series and I had a few questions about the boss fight. WARNING! SPOILERS BELOW!!!
Varnhold Vanishing Boss:
The final boss of the book is an atrophied lich cyclops. To me, one of the most unique things about a lich is their ability to come back from the dead once defeated. The lich in KM:VV however, carries his phylactery in his pocket. Meaning that when the PCs defeat him he will not be reborn. Doesn't this seem like a bad idea for the story? I mean he is a level 20 lich that has been imprisoned for 10,000+ years. You would think he would place his phylactery in a more strategic place. His familiar flies all over the place, so he has access to different areas in the stolen lands. Should the phylactery remain with him in his tomb? The book says that he is cocky and over-confident. Does this account for his poor strategy?
Secondly, I had some general rules questions about this particular lich. His weakness is that he is atrophied, meaning that while he is a level 20 wizard he has devolved into a level 9 wizard. If he dies and is reborn, does he come back as a level 20 wizard? Atrophy is a physical condition and if he sheds his previously atrophied body, would he gain a new body?
Also, as far as XP is concerned with a lich, do you gain XP every time you defeat him or when you destroy his phylactery and then destroy him?
I'll keep my answers spoilered too so as not to reveal too much to those who wish not to know:
1:
I think the idea of him being cocky is, in fact, to explain why he hasn't moved his phylactery yet. I believe the idea of him having his phylactery with him initially was that if he was being imprisoned, he didn't want his phylactery where he couldn't protect. Of course, the flip side to that argument is, if somebody was powerful enough to imprison him for all this time, why couldn't they also remove the phylactery and destroy him? Perhaps he has closer ties to something more powerful than the books let on? That said, I really don't see a problem with altering the published material to move his phylactery elsewhere to at least keep open the possibility that he will return.
2:
I don't believe that there are specific rules pertaining to this. However, if he were to be reborn in a non-atrophied state, wouldn't you think he would have already offed himself so as to be able to be reborn with full power?
3:
I have always awarded XP for "defeating an encounter/obstacle". As such, I would certainly give them XP for defeating a lich, even if they were unable to destroy the phylactery. That said, there really isn't anything wrong with holding back some of the XP since the lich is still around until the phylactery is destroyed. Arguably, this is already taken into account by the fact that he is a much lower level wizard in the book than he "should" be.
Remember, the Big V is classes as an atrophied lich. IIRC, this specifically means that if he dies, that's it. He's not coming back because the phylactery is useless.
Making the Big Bad Interesting:
There are a number of ways to make Vordakai more interesting as an opponent for your players. In vanilla VV, he keeps an eye on the PCs through his raven, sends one or two monsters after them, but is otherwise pretty static. A few ways to make things interesting:
* Give the Big V a timetable. By vanilla VV, there's not a lot of time pressure. I'd ramp him up a little bit from the moment Willas discovers his bones. Vordakai ought to be on the move this whole time. If your players wait a whole year after Varnhold vanishes, then Vordakai's Haunting Beckon ability will recharge.
* If you bump the big V up a couple levels, he gets 5th level spells and the ability to TP. Between that and his necromancy spells, he can wreak merry havoc on your players by teleporting to one of theirs settlements, killing some of the populace, and bringing them back as undead.
* The six-player conversion gives Vordakai a champion -- a graveknight. I think this is an excellent idea. Even better, it works to have this graveknight as a recurring foe that your players encounter -- sort of Vordakai's consigliere.
* Nobody says he has to be an atrophied lich. For my mythic campaign, I found the Dread Vampire template (combined with some Archmage tiers) is a pretty darn effective combo.
I didn't think he had levels in atrophied lich. How does that make his phylactery useless? I thought atrophied was his weakness. I do like what you did to spice up the encounter though. Well thought out.
Atrophied Lich (Ex) A lich that remains immobile and insensible for extended periods of time (as Vordakai did after he was imprisoned in his tomb just prior to Earthfall 10,000 years ago) can grow atrophied. The exact effects of atrophy vary from lich to lich. In Vordakai's case, his effective wizard level has declined from 20th to 9th. Note that these are not negative levels–Vordakai must earn back the lost XP normally. More troubling to the lich is the fact that until he achieves at least 11th level as a lich, his phylactery is unusable–if he is destroyed, he crumbles to dust, forever dead.
By the way, here's my version of Vordakai's champion.
My group has reached book 3 of the kingmaker series and I had a few questions about the boss fight. WARNING! SPOILERS BELOW!!!
** spoiler omitted **
Answer to questions:
In my campaign, since V is atrophied and his phylactery is not working, I reasoned that he was carrying it with him because he was working on restoring it to working condition.
