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Our gestalt group is going to tackle a BBEG tonight. I am a gestalt paladin/cleric, with access to 5 level cleric spells.
I am most definitely going to be buffed up with Death Ward before the battle. However, in the description of the spell it states that
"The subject gains a +4 morale bonus on saves against all death spells and magical death effects."
Does that then mean that you get a +4 bonus to any spell/SLA from the Necromancy school?
Also, any tips/tricks you want to share? I am quivering in my boots of haste I am so excited to take this guy.
- Fid.
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Not all necromancy spells are death spells or death effects. Just from the top of my head:
Well for the Lich it depends what kind of lich you are fighting, classic wizard or sorcerer lich might be annoying, cleric liches are very tough and any lich worth their salt would have at least prepared the appropriate spells to fight your party, so just be careful of your usual tactics.
The hard part really of dealing with liches is to find and destroy the phylactry, which depending how much your DM wants to mess with you could be nearly impossible to find.
Just as a point, while ray of enfeeblement isn't a death spell or death effect and does fall under necromancy, undead such as a lich are immune to the spell.
If someone can manage to throw a dazing fireball (or any dazing spell that targets reflex saves) it is likely to be a weakpoint of the lich and render him quickly regularl dead instead of undead.
Note, Undead have good will saves (as do spell casters that become liches) and undead are immune to things that require a fort save unless it also affects object.
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Just as a point, while ray of enfeeblement isn't a death spell or death effect and does fall under necromancy, undead such as a lich are immune to the spell.
It was an example of something the lich would use on the party, not the other way around.
Lichs are always powerful spellcasters, and always evil. Protection from evil is a must.
+1 to Eltacolibre.
Make sure everybody can fly, and try to get freedom of movement on as many people as possible. A good lich will fly, use control/summon spells to lock down big threats, then start picking people off. Being able to outmaneuver him is key.
And then, don't kill it. Assuming you don't know where it's phylactery is, it's kind of pointless unless you're just buying time. Capture it, rip it's jaw off, cut off it's hands, then tote it around unable to cast spells until you find its phylactery.
Just as a point, while ray of enfeeblement isn't a death spell or death effect and does fall under necromancy, undead such as a lich are immune to the spell.It was an example of something the lich would use on the party, not the other way around.
Lichs are always powerful spellcasters, and always evil. Protection from evil is a must.
Whoops, yep. Misread that.
The best trick would be knowing what your GM is capable of and what tricks he likes best. A lich is not that much about specific monstrous abilities. What does it have? A few stat bonuses, some DR and that rebirth from phylactery.
However it does usually take quite a mind to make a lich and that mind is what you're really going to be fighting against. That mind will in reality be only as tricky as the person playing it though, but you should expect your GM to pull off some nasty evil masterminding he might have been not had a good excuse for before.
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The best trick would be knowing what your GM is capable of and what tricks he likes best. A lich is not that much about specific monstrous abilities. What does it have? A few stat bonuses, some DR and that rebirth from phylactery.
However it does usually take quite a mind to make a lich and that mind is what you're really going to be fighting against. That mind will in reality be only as tricky as the person playing it though, but you should expect your GM to pull off some nasty evil masterminding he might have been not had a good excuse for before.
Or they do what I do for stupendously intelligent foes: For each point of int bonus above +3, they get one "I totally prepared for that" card to counter something I didn't think of when quickly writing down the basics. Assuming they had prep time, of course. And that they *can* prepare for it.
There's no way I'm higher than 16 int, maybe 18 if I've had lots of coffee and just got out of a study session of "how to be a dick with a Lich". It's just not possible to properly protray their preparation capability without giving them get-out-of-jail free cards.
That said, I might charge 2+ cards for the foe to counter stuff that is truly out there. Need to counter a foe that grapples? Sure, that's reasonable to prepare for. Need to counter the effects of having a set of invisible shrunken objects falling on you from the sky? Might have to charge ya extra for that one. That's a weird one.
And of course your basic premise is spot-on: You're not fighting the Lich so much as the DM. Spells can do literally anything, given moderate time and effort, and most of that with practically no time or effort. And no two Lich will be alike. This puts the entirety of their worth in the mind of the DM. Think like your DM thinks; think of all the spells the enemy casters typically like to use against you when they DM, then assume the Lich will have ALL of those. Because they will. Then have a counter for each of the ones you can't just soak.
