The party is trapped in a demi-plane mansion, think a giant Mage's Magnificent Mansion, and need to permanently destroy the resident lich in coming session, but I have trouble with inspired encounter design.
Party :
Dwarf, Barbarian 12 (invulnerable), fighter 1
Elf, Wizard 5, fighter 1, Eldritch Knight 4, Arcane Archer 3
Halfling, Magus 4, Rogue 3, Arcane Trickster 6
Dwarf, Druid 13 (storm druid)
Human, cleric 3, wizard 3, Mystic Theurge 7
Half-Elf, Summoner 13
Dwarf, Paladin 4, sorcerer 1, Dragon Disciple 8
Guest NPC :
Demilich, wizard 13 (lich's father and former tutor),
a forgetful once legendary wizard, not quite sane but mostly harmless and willing to help the party out his son. Can at most cast spells of 6th lvl stilled and can not reliably use any other powers. Floats around cracking jokes and offer more or less useful advice, as often as not after the fact.
They are not supremely optimized but got some perks that makes them slightly more powerful so that evens out.
They already destroyed the lich and it's most powerful minions once before, it is a diabolist 10 wizard 5 human. Now they seek to end him once and for all making their way through 'the cellar' to find the lich's phylactery at the end.
I was thinking to create a construct which acts as the lich's phylactery, or possibly a part of it's construction, but I am having trouble visualizing the setting and any potential mooks, traps, or whatever to prevent them from focusing on the construct. I am hoping for some creative ideas from the Paizo/Pathfinder community here to give my encounter shape.
Like said it is in a demi-plane with mostly undefined rules so you can get pretty crazy if that is what it takes.
The party enter the cellar to find a child whose heart has been replaced with the phylactery.
Possibly the child links back to an NPC the party met earlier (or even better if one of the PCs has a family).
Removing the phylactery will kill the child (and in the absence of an actual heart resurrection is not an option).
Not all encounters or climaxes need to be combat-based.....
It doesn't have to be about intense combat but it has to be challenging and climatic in some way, also I want them to defeat the lich in this encounter one way or another that is why it is a Final Encounter.
I just wanted to pop up and note that I'm a big fan of Douglas Muir's plans 2 and 3. Those sorts of things are favorites of mine.
1) How helpful is the demilich? -- I ask because, for effect, it could be fun to have him be helpful... and then suddenly take him off the board halfway through, because the lich has installed a trap or something especially for him. (Doesn't have to be a deadly trap; demiliches are damn near impossible to kill. Something incredibly shiny and distracting, say.)
2) Does the party have some way to detect and verify the phylactery? Because if not, then there are a lot of fun possibilities.
Here's one: have an early encounter with a strong but not /too/ powerful monster that just happens to have a cool treasure item. Let's say... oh, a 15th level barbarian who seems to be completely and incurably insane, and who just attacks the party relentlessly until killed. Shouldn't be a big deal for a party of 6x 13th level PCs, right? So the barb is swinging a b+$!~in' +4 greataxe that's encrusted with jewels. One of these jewels is the lich's phylactery, but the PCs have no way of telling this. Additional wrinkle: whoever holds the axe gets targeted by something like a Magic Jar or Trap the Soul once the lich comes back... and on a failed save, they start *turning into the lich*. (To make this more fun, require three saves. On the first fail, take the PC aside and explain that their alignment has now changed to NE. Let them play that way for, say, an hour of game time. On the second, the PC gains undead qualities and is effectively Dominated by the lich. On the third, the PC is gone and replaced by the lich.)
3) Do some huge-ass red herrings. For instance, let's say the party fights the barbarian. They're promptly attacked by some undead. Dispatching them, they find that (apparently) the undead and the barbarian were all members of a previous group of adventurers who got trapped on the demiplane. And in their notes, they find what seem to be clues to finding the phylactery! Of course, these clues were really planted by the lich...
Say the demiplane has three parts, each one a small dungeon in...
1) The demilich is as helpful as I want him to be, he is unreliable prone to sudden flashes of insight or outright incompetence casting a different spell than what he was supposed to or trying to cast a spell with somatic component and no limbs to do so. He has less of an impact than other characters, though the lich is both hateful towards and afraid of him. Entrapping the lich will not do much to hinder the party at this point though they will need his help after this resolves.
2) No they don't, though the demilich has True Seeing constantly. Mostly I want the encounter to be not so much a standard combat, so clever use of environment , traps or trickery are all viable and I am open for ideas or similar encounters people really liked.
3) I already used something similar once, though it was another campaign and not a lich specifically I rather not repeat it (same players though). The first time turned out great though, so it's not that I don't like the idea in itself.
I just want to create a satisfying encounter for my players, for other reasons than a pile of loot.
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Perhaps the demilich is the phylactery. This could account for his forgetfulness as well as any animosity between he and the big bad.
I remember a pretty cool final encounter in one of the Desert of Desolation modules where we found a secret chamber with a dias and a heart in a bowl. Following a brutal combat with the lich we strode triumphantly up to the bowl and put a sword through the heart. It wasn't a big combat but it was still a very satisfying and poetic ending.
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I like the axe. It's a really powerful magic weapon, too; with a phylactery as power source it's gotta be. In fact, it's most powerful when the lich is in residence.
Whenever the axe kills someone, that person's corpse immediately withers away to a skeleton which is animated with some fierce templates; if the lich is in residence the skeleton animates as the lich.
And holding the axe causes nearly uncontrollable urges to kill living peop
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If the PCs don't know what they are looking for, you could pull an Indiana Jones holy grail on them, with a twist. Have the phylactery room be filled with items radiating magical auras. Also have the room contain numerous statues ... When the lich returns to the phylactery, a statue reverts to flesh and the lich's soul occupies it.
All statues are treated as being affected by the repulsion spell, as is the phylactery (along with non- detection). The pcs will most likely fight the lich a few times at a weaker level as it keeps re animating to protect its phylactery.
Anyone ever watch Return to Oz? There is the scene with the Gnome King?
Essentially, a giant hall filled with all manner of objects. I mean, like, floor to ceiling with furniture and all manner of knick-knacks.
One of them is the phylactery. The rest are all cursed, anyone striking one transforms into a new item themselves.
Or! Have a room filled with items.. and a number of mimics (advanced as you see fit to make it challenging). Then it can be a high tension game of cat and mouse with the PCs.
I don't much like the ideas with innocents as the phylactery and such, if I was to do something like that I'd have to put in more background into the story, just tossing that in seems a bit cheesy. Also it is something I want to wrap up next session not a difficult situation to drag on for a bit which it will likely do. In other circumstances it can be a great twist, not so much now.
The idea of the demilich as phylactery does not fit with the lich desperately trying to destroy it last encounter, neither does it fit with the future plot in which the players will need the demilich.
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If the PCs don't know what they are looking for, you could pull an Indiana Jones holy grail on them, with a twist. Have the phylactery room be filled with items radiating magical auras.
This might get sticky for my group as they would collect the items and expect them to have game impact later. First they'd try to sell them. Then some other creative use. And so on...
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If the PCs don't know what they are looking for, you could pull an Indiana Jones holy grail on them, with a twist. Have the phylactery room be filled with items radiating magical auras.This might get sticky for my group as they would collect the items and expect them to have game impact later. First they'd try to sell them. Then some other creative use. And so on...
All the items could be enchanted to only function within the demi-plane. If it's taken back to the prime material, it dissolves into ectoplasm. Problem Solved.
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A little too many press this button to make the paladin fall type suggestions for my taste ... the game doesn't sound like a grim derp game to me. If I were to houserule it I'd say only an evil creature could be made into a phylactery ... so the demi lich is fine, an innocent (or necessary body part thereof) is not.
My suggestion had nothing to do with paladins.
What price are you willing to pay for immortality?
A dying man who loves his daughter more than anything, except his own life. After years of research he discovers that the only vessel suitable for holding his soul is a living person of direct blood relation.
Not wanting his daughter to ever know the price he was willing to pay, he placed her in eternal slumber. Innocence preserved forever. He still visits her every night, contemplating his decision and what she would have been like had she grown up. Perhaps one day, if he decides the price was too high, he'll set her free and accept his own eternal rest.
You could win this encounter, destroy the lich and set the child free with a social encounter, high social skills and some really good roleplay.
You wanted environment-type stuff.
Four elemental themed sub-dungeons. Underwater, clouds, fire, deep earth. Each of them has plenty of elemental-typed monsters, including a powerful genie cursed to obey the lich's will. One of them knows where the phylactery is, and can use a wish to summon it, if the PCs can free him from the geas. But which one? The other three are just traps.
I do love the idea of the nigh-indestructible demilich being the phylactery.
In one of my campaigns, I had one lich plant rumors there was a mighty undead-slaying anti-evil sword that was the only thing he was vulnerable to... Naturally the sword was his phylactery. You might pull something similar here.
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A lot of the stuff in here seems to be confusing phylacteries with horcruxes. A lich can’t take a preexisting object or creature and make it a phylactery.
Is a father or daughter similar to a box, ring, or amulet? Can a father or daughter be created with the Craft Wonderous Item feat? I know we all want to roleplay He Who Must Not Be Named, but c’mon, folks.
No, but the Lich could have taken his fathers skull and used it as the basis for Craft Wondrous Item. Such an evil act could have caused the dad to spontaneously re-animate as a Demilich.
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Have the Lich's Phylactory be...their childhood memories.
Have the Lich's Phylactory be...their childhood memories.“My phylactery is...the concept of otherness!”
“Mine is the god Groteus!”
“Mine is the color blue!”
Hell yeah. Pull a Grant Morrison on your players.
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All the items could be enchanted to only function within the demi-plane. If it's taken back to the prime material, it dissolves into ectoplasm. Problem Solved.If the PCs don't know what they are looking for, you could pull an Indiana Jones holy grail on them, with a twist. Have the phylactery room be filled with items radiating magical auras.This might get sticky for my group as they would collect the items and expect them to have game impact later. First they'd try to sell them. Then some other creative use. And so on...
Sure, sure, but now you have forced yourself into a game world change for a 'because I said so' reason. Some groups deal with that better than others.
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A lot of the stuff in here seems to be confusing phylacteries with horcruxes. A lich can’t take a preexisting object or creature and make it a phylactery.
If we were talking strict RAW in a PFS setting you would be correct.
In a home game: plot > strict RAW. The phylactery belonging to a lich that has been a major campaign thread certainly qualifies as a plot device if so desired.
I like the idea of multiple constructs it can transfer its consciousness into. They defeat the lich occupying the first one and it brings another out of storage. Rinse and repeat until the party is defeated, they discover the secret construct holding area, or they destroy all the constructs one at a time. I did a variant of this once with a red dragon using Magic Jar to occupy a succession of Cloned human fighter bodies. It was back in 2nd Ed and the party was going crazy trying to figure out what was going on and how humans could cast spells just by pointing with minimal casting time. Of course, once they finished off the Clones they got to face Big Red, who was fresh and topped off on hp while they were battered and nearly out of spells.
That exact scenario wouldn't work for you, but perhaps your lich could save the biggest and best construct for last, realizing that if it ever gets to the point it would need to use it it would also be low on spells and brute force would be the order of the day.
Back to the OP:
Have the guardian of the phylactery be a greatly advanced ice (or flesh) golem. It keeps the phylactery, a deceptively fragile-seeming jeweled egg, in its mouth, which it never opens without a command from its master. (Clever PCs might think it odd the thing breathes out its frigid breath weapon through its nostrils).
Liches are immune to cold (and lightning). Populate the plane with monsters that use magical cold (or lightning) area attacks, which will heal the golem as they damage the party. The golem does not stand and fight; instead, it darts from area to area when threatened, making use of the crazy gravity and bent space of the plane, pulling the party into conflict with more and more monsters. Have a bunch of
I suggest an ice golem because your lich is a diabolist, and certain devils are perfect for such an encounter. Most notably, ice devils get cone of cold at will. A few of these teleporting around the plane, cutting the players off from the golem with wall of ice, using telepathy to coordinate attacks and retreating to regenerate when wounded, will make the whole experience a memorable nightmare.
Eryines aren’t cold-immune, but they’re the mooks I’d recommend. A flock of them will be a serious threat to lightly armored targets with their bows, ignoring a lot of common caster defenses like mirror image and invisibility thanks to true seeing.
Have the plane’s theme include icy surfaces covered in mystic runes. Have many of these be Maximized Explosive Runes. Have the detonation of said runes start avalanches that behave unpredictably in the bizarre gravity.
Have the lich prepped with a serious helping of greater dispels and similar spells to break down the party's defenses.
Have fun. Let us know what you went with.
The lich had an Ice Devil cohort which was instrumental in betraying his father (the demilich, aka Archmage Jobe). The party defeated the lich, the Ice Devil, a summoned horde of Erinyes, Two Bone Devils, a Horned Devil called with greater Planar Binding and an Imp companion with a fondness for Rhino shape in a very intense battle. In the end the Horned Devil barely escaped after the lich was defeated and the Ice Devil got to be 'accidentally' Soul Trapped by Archmage Jobe before she could flee, though the Ice Devil is likely to play a major role in the next chapter of the adventure since they need her to cough up some crucial information, she is far from done with the party even though they managed to defeat her. As such I prefer to have the Ice Devil be 'special', and the characters have a healthy respect for the creature.
I am looking for an encounter to throw at them to destroy the phylactery without encountering the lich in that form as such, the lich even if encountered now has used up most of it's spells but if they take their time wasting resources and making their way to the phylactery they will make things very hard by allowing the lich to regain his form and spells and be better prepared to battle them next time.
I would like more info On the Lich...
But I see the Mansion itself as a Maze... Runes marking Doors going to different areas of the Mansion if you are not carrying a certain magical Compass that bypasses the enchantments.
I am taken back to PS Game of CastleVania where you are alacard running around the mansion running into different created Monsters and imprisoned Demons and Devils that the Lich has been making Deals with or just Draining power from using different rituals...
The mansion is a maze of sorts, Archmage Jobe (demilich) is their appointed guide though his memory is unreliable at best and sometimes simply forgets to communicate facts that are obvious to him, many things have changed in his absence. He respects the party and their skills, which in this case, means he is less likely to help them out and actually quite enjoys seeing things play out as a grand play for his entertainment, he does however give assistance if asked for respectfully.
The lich is Archmage Jobe's bastard son and quite frankly always has been a bit of a disappointment, though he reluctantly has come to respect his son for his magical prowess and for managing to betray and 'kill' him to gain power. The Ice Devil has been guiding his actions and allowed the lich to become quite powerful over time and through pacts made with infernal powers, the lich idolizes the Ice Devil and is quite obsessed with her. While quite powerful he still stands in the shadow of his father and still hasn't managed to steal complete control of the plane or managed to unlock all it's secrets which frustrates him to no end.
statistically it is a LE, 'human' (lich), conjurer 5/diabolist 10 with illusion and enchantment as opposition schools and an interest in necromancy.
str 10 dex 12 con - int 26 wis 18 cha 23, currently access only to minor items since he lost his main possessions in the last battle, but it doesn't matter if the party hurries to get to the phylactery. He used to be quite devout and good person before he fell in with the Ice Devil which used his anger and bitterness towards his father to gradually corrupt him and draw her into her fold to use as a tool to oust Archmage Jobe.
I like the idea of multiple constructs it can transfer its consciousness into. They defeat the lich occupying the first one and it brings another out of storage. Rinse and repeat until the party is defeated, they discover the secret construct holding area, or they destroy all the constructs one at a time. I did a variant of this once with a red dragon using Magic Jar to occupy a succession of Cloned human fighter bodies. It was back in 2nd Ed and the party was going crazy trying to figure out what was going on and how humans could cast spells just by pointing with minimal casting time. Of course, once they finished off the Clones they got to face Big Red, who was fresh and topped off on hp while they were battered and nearly out of spells.
That exact scenario wouldn't work for you, but perhaps your lich could save the biggest and best construct for last, realizing that if it ever gets to the point it would need to use it it would also be low on spells and brute force would be the order of the day.
I did consider using magic jar to control creatures held in stasis to challenge the party but I thought it lacked something to make it come alive for me, a succession of constructs that the lich animates with it's life force is probably a better idea.
I can't come up with anything to make it into a Great Encounter though, I do not want it to be anti-climatic after their last battle or make it simply an encounter with tough creatures to crush. I would love some suggestions to make this into a 'clever' challenge with a fair deal of combat and evocative environment.
May I suggest the lich had bonded his soul to the Demi-Plane itself, hoping to not only make itself impossible to kill (destroying the Demi-Plane is only possible on it) but, in due time, planning to 'ram' other, larger realities and merge with them. He would essentially have the entirety of a reality as his phylactery, then, making a fairly sinister end goal for a bad guy.
He would also be the ultimate load bearing boss.
The end could be something like the party setting off a series of events destroying the Demi-Plane while the lich tries to hold it (and his very soul) together, buying the party enough time to escape.
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Is the demi-plane difficult to escape from?
I ask this because...it can be made to be...and it would be possible for the phylactery to be hidden inside of a construct with the ability to open a portal that leads out of the demi-plane...do they fight the construct, and destroy the phylactery...or go home? What if fighting the construct might even send them somewhere worse?