Assuming equal CR.
I'm putting together the last bits of an adventure and I'm looking for input on the final BBEG. It will be either a devourer or a lich at the bottom of a crypt complex.
If backstory helps, it's an undead hunters campaign with books 2 and 4 of Council of Thieves worked in for some setting. The characters are only going to level ~10.
I think in most cases, the Lich would seem more malevolent, thus more scary. However, if you introduced the devourer by it using its Slay Living ability on a random NPC, that'd show it to have the power to instantly kill the players, meaning that the devourer would be far more scary.
The Lich would be certainly more logical if this was a big plan, of course.
[I]f you introduced the devourer by it using its Slay Living ability on a random NPC, that'd show it to have the power to instantly kill the players, meaning that the devourer would be far more scary.
The Lich would be certainly more logical if this was a big plan, of course.
Ooh, that is a good introduction for a devourer.
The overall adventure has some references to Geb, Urgathoa and a homebrew necropolis, so I suppose it does make more sense that a Lich is the big boss.
Thank you both for the help.
The lich is far scarier.
No matter what the players do, they cannot destroy it if its phylactary is elsewhere.
Now they have a lich with a grudge out there somewhere.
This is sooooooo true. I have a group of adventurers about to take on Temerlyth the Undying. I am waiting to see if they will do the research necessary to try and find his phylactery before they enter his lair to fight him. If they don't they just opened themselves up to a rampagingly angry and powerful NPC with a nasty grudge. Those types of things don't usually end well.
However! I do want to say that I completely agree with LazarX also. "Which is scarier" is completely subjective, and depends on the group, the setting, the circumstances of the encounter, etc. ad nauseum.