Okay, my group has done something insane, even by our standards, and I'm honestly stumped.
Basically, we encountered a lich, defeated him, and waited for him to respawn. We then teleported the phylactery to the Positive Energy Plane and are blackmailing the lich into helping us in exchange for getting it back. The phylactery is within a small container that protects it from the plane, but the container is too small for the lich to reform inside.
So, I need ideas on how we can keep the lich from stabbing the party in the back. It doesn't matter how insane they are; we do crazy stuff all of the time.
To give detail: There are 4 level-14 characters accompanied by a level-9 goblin commoner. One alchemist, one fighter, one admixture wizard, one oracle.
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Well what class is this Lich? If he is a wizard/cleric/druid/other prepared caster then he will be lacking spells when he reforms only having what he did not use from last time (I have no idea if he loses spell slots from being "dead") A lich with no spell casting s weaker but his touch can truly ruin your day.
If he is a spontaneous caster you might be in trouble. I suggest having the oracle (or other plane shifter) hold the phylactery and as soon as your undead friend shows up head to the positive energy plane with the phylactery and the lich stays put. Have the rest of the party explain to him that if he does not comply the plane shifter is going to open the box to the full power of healing positive energy. This should make sure he is worried but not immediately doomed once regenerating.
Is there something in particular you want from him? Money, power, information, a sandwich?
PS: Just curious but how did a goblin reach level 9 of commoner? What did he do? take on a library?
The lich is a sorcerer. And, we're trying to use him to counter some of the minions the BBEG has by unleashing undead creations of his own to aid us in taking them on.
The goblin reached level 9 by not dying :P He was made because I got a seriously crappy set of stats from rolling and decided to let him die in the first battle so I can replace him. That's also why he's five levels lower than the rest of the group.
The lich is a sorcerer. And, we're trying to use him to counter some of the minions the BBEG has by unleashing undead creations of his own to aid us in taking them on.
The goblin reached level 9 by not dying :P He was made because I got a seriously crappy set of stats from rolling and decided to let him die in the first battle so I can replace him. That's also why he's five levels lower than the rest of the group.
...if the lich is just someone you are shaking down for resources, then how bad is the BBEG?
Overall, a lich is typically defined by how much they do not want to die. They are, in many ways, a very conservative existence (well, their general philosophy is; no idea how well their patience/sanity has held up, which is kind of the whole problem of 'he might backstab people that have beat him before and threatened to leave him in undead hell'). So overall, he tends to look out for his own hide first. If you can make the real BBEG into a threat that also affects him, then he will be more sympathetic.
Is this an 'end of all life' scenario (like he would care about a nuclear winter), or 'end of the ball of dirt called a planet' scenario? You might also get him to appreciate a demonic/cosmic horror invasion, since such things often do not play well with anything.
And heck, with the 'leave the phylactery on another plane, and have a 3rd party able to get to it' suggestion might be appealing to a lich in an end of the world scenario. His save point is not anywhere near where all this is happening, and he knows that there is someone that has access to plane hopping that could get it to a more pleasant location. If all he has to do to get ahold of this escape route is to summon up a few skeletons and smash up a joint, then he should be happy.
The BBEG is leading an army intent on conquering a large portion of land, then sanctifying it to a cosmic horror so they can summon the cosmic horror. The cosmic horror in question is referred to as the "God Eater" in some texts. So, it's pretty much end-of-the-world if he succeeds.
I will suggest to the group that we try the third-party idea and try to make it appealing to the lich. Of course, we'll probably have to deal with a vengeful undead sorcerer after we deal with the BBEG. I seriously doubt he's going to forgive and forget on this.
Still, it would be best to have some kind of backup plan just in case he decides to backstab anyway. After all, we've definitely given him enough motivation.