I was looking at the Barbarian's Sunder Enchantment Rage Power, when an odd thought struck me.
Suppose a Barbarian is in combat with a Lich, and hits its Phylactery with a Sunder check high enough to suppress all the phylactery's magic properties for a few rounds, as per his awesome Sunder Enchantment rage power. The very next turn, the Barbarian's Sorcerer ally hits the Lich with a disintegrate spell and ashes it.
What happens to the Lich? Since the phylactery wasn't a magical soul storage area because of the Barbarian's sunder attack, is it gone for good? Or does the temporary nature of Sunder Enchantment mean that ol' boneypants is going to come back unless the phylactery is, say, thrown into a volcano?
I like the idea. But the entry for the lich states that the only way to truly end the thing is to destroy the phylactery. Suppressing it would not seem to do the trick.
I like the idea. But the entry for the lich states that the only way to truly end the thing is to destroy the phylactery. Suppressing it would not seem to do the trick.
Two things:
1. He would start reforming in front of the characters eyes.2. Why, in Urgathoa's name, does he have his phylactery with him? Any much worth his salt should have it hidden by powerful magic, or a reason why this isn't true.
But could a phylactery be considered to be a phylactery if it's not a magic soul repository? After the Barbarian's supernaturally-powered greatsword hit that magic soul-storing box, it became just a box. For a few moments of course, but in those moments, when the Lich needed that box to have his soul in it the most, it didn't.
Also, the Lich in this situation suffers from excessive hubris, of course. That or the party managed to track the phylactery down using magic, guile, and good old detective work, and this is the Lich's attempt to get those do-gooders away from his magic box.
Yeah, but it didn't destroy the phylactery. Which is the key. It just suppressed it. It still exists, and I think so long as it does, the lich exists as well. Maybe in some kind of limbo for a few moments, but there you have it.
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All you accomplish by suppressing the phylactery is the suppression of the lich's rejuvenation ability.
Of course, you now have the phylactery and no lich guarding it. Have the barbarian hit it a few more times.
*very few liches will carry their phylactery. Most will have it in a very well hidden/guarded location.
Like a demiplane only the lich knows exist and can access.
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Just about that: is a lich forced to create a little object as phylactery? Couldn't be something of really big, like... a mountain? Maybe something small, like a castle. It would be a great way to joke the adventurers. And surely an epic quest. I mean, destroy a philactery is just hit until destroyed, is like a small annoyance, once you find it and you defeated the lich. But imagine, a mountain as phylactery. Destroying that could be a quest itself.
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I tend to use Rule of Cool a lot for lich's phylacteries (like the one who had as his phylactery a Really Nifty undead-slaying sword, which all the songs said was the one weapon he was vulnerable to -- of course, he'd written all those songs way back when...). Naturally he had several fake phylacteries hidden around, including one on his person with a magic mouth that screamed most despairingly when the object was destroyed.
From a GM's point of view, the important thing is that it make sense story-wise where the lich hides his soul, and that the players have some way to figure out where it is, preferably not too easily.
I agree that temporarily suppressing the phylactery will not destroy the lich.
Temporal stasis is another good long-term lich storage method. Just make sure to put the body somewhere where accidental dispelling of the temporal stasis is ... unlikely.
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Some liches will keep the phylactery with them: It's the box they keep their soul in, and they aren't expecting to be destroyed. They made it so they can become immortal, not because they expect some paladin to kick in the door and go all smite-happy. Or they feel safer knowing where it is, rather than assuming their safe deposit box (or whatever) hasn't been raided in their absence. (See Xykon and Redcloak - It's protected and non-obvious, but it is within arm's reach most of the time.)
The liches that do hide it are being somewhat genre aware, or they have an immediate reason to need a backup plan: like they're trying to conquer the next kingdom over, or end the world, or something like that. They're still unlikely to leave their super-secret backup bunker unattended for too long: no one wants to re-materialize just to find their bunker was discovered by orcs three hundred years ago, and the phylactery now resides in a pawnshop, and the backup spellbooks are long gone.
a lich would want to wear their phylactery on their person or keep it in arm's reach to keep a close watch upon it.
many people, assume the Phylactery is going to be some form of jewelry
but really, most liches use the following candidates
a chastity device such as a chastity belt or some kind of undergarment, they aren't able to reproduce, and wear safer, than an a bodypart associated with romantic dominance, control, or just plain disturbing place to search. on a female lich, her corset phylactery is a way of saying she is the one in control.
the clothes they wear, many liches, make a particular outfit of their choice their phylactery, usually something symbolic of their former life such as the vest they recieved as an anniversary gift from their former spouse or something
a valuable item that many seek to loot for their own use, maybe the spellbook is the Phylactery and the wizard is greedy.
Well if you disrupt the enchantment on the phylactery it can't exactly hold its soul then can it?
I'd have the soul bounce back to the Lich until he had time to put it back in the box.
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My Phylactery is a perfectly innocent 5 year old girl, held in stasis.
Quite the quandary for the last paladin that kicked in my door.
Or a gem that's trapping the tarrasque.
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They're undead - the phylactery can be implanted in their chests without causing them any harm. Who looks on the back of the sternum? I've had characters who cut open non-humanoids looking for swallowed treasure, but never anyone who made a practice of carefully checking for pieces embedded under the flesh of humanoids, even undead.
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Another question. What happens when Break Enchantment is successfully cast on a phylactery?
And what happens when either Sunder Enchantment or Break Enchantment succeeds against a Grave Knight?
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If the phylactery is made non-magic, then that's the same as destroying it.
If it is just suppressed (dispel magic, inside an antimagic field, whatever), the lich will just start reforming when it gets its magic back.
For some reason I want to see a giant pile of treasure in one of the magic dead areas of the Mana Wastes with liches just waiting to come back when someone moves their phylactery...;)
For some reason I want to see a giant pile of treasure in one of the magic dead areas of the Mana Wastes with liches just waiting to come back when someone moves their phylactery...;)Dunno. I can see a bunch of high level pc's turning this into a treasure mine. Remove Phylactery, and carefully observe Lich reformation. Chain the "body" up as it forms, and then jump Lich as soon as it regains "consciousness". Disable the lich with Trap the Soul/Temporal Statis/etc and sell the piece of treasure. Repeat...
That requires them knowing what they've found.
Another question. What happens when Break Enchantment is successfully cast on a phylactery?
Break enchantment frees victims of curses and enchantments or affects cursed magic items. If the item it is cast upon is a permanent magic item, it does not remove the curse from the item but it does free the victim from it.
Thing is, a phylactery is not a cursed item. It only affects the lich, who is not a victim of it or under its enchantment or curse. He made his phylactery and he likes it.
So no effect. None at all.
Just about that: is a lich forced to create a little object as phylactery?
Yes they are.
Couldn't be something of really big, like... a mountain? Maybe something small, like a castle.
Nope. You just made mountains out of literal mole hills.
It would be a great way to joke the adventurers. And surely an epic quest. I mean, destroy a philactery is just hit until destroyed, is like a small annoyance, once you find it and you defeated the lich. But imagine, a mountain as phylactery. Destroying that could be a quest itself.
But it can't because it has to be tiny and not part of another magic item it says.
Hurling it into a magic-dead zone (or dimension) will presumably prevent it from functioning until it's brought back out. (Why do I suddenly picture a lonely valley in the Mana Wastes chock-full of random objects - statuettes, gems, brooches, cups, rings... Woe to the first guy who drags them all out to hold a yard sale with.)
I got 99 problems... and a lich ain't one?
Or a lich is all 99, in the case of the yard sale of doom.
[QUOTE-"Volkard Abendroth"] My Phylactery is a perfectly innocent 5 year old girl, held in stasis.
Quite the quandary for the last paladin that kicked in my door.
That's when your resident rogue says "Hey Paladin, over there!! ORC!!!" then ... - coup de gras -. Then celebrates that he actually finally hit something.
It's funny, I tried that in a really old Ultima game for NES, walking around and fighting townspeople. More TPKs to a random little girl than to any other monster in that game besides the King (who nintendo power told us had 9999999999 hp or something that would take us all day to kill)