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So, you need Acid or fire to kill a troll, right? You need to stake a vampire and then cut of his head and annoit it with holy water to finally take him down, right? To deal with a lich, you need to find it's (likely well-hidden) phalactary and kill it, right?
Wrong:
Here are just some ways to kill off those 'pesky-to-kill' creatures without doing the 'normal' thing.
1) Trolls (and other creatures with regeneration.) Oh no! You've encountered a troll, but you're fresh out of alchemist's fire and acid from killing all those swarms previously. What are you to do? Well, a simple coup-de-grace actually works. See, Regeneration only heals hit-point damage. With a coup-de-grace, you can force a 'fort-save-or die' effect that kills them period. Just knock him down and have the entire party start coup-de-gracing. Chances are he'll fail one of those saves, and if he makes a few, hey, you are critting him on the ground so he'll keep under until he rolls that 1.
2) Vampires. Here's a fun fact, as we all know, vampires reduced to 0 HP get turned into mist. Then they have a few HOURS to get back to their coffin or they DIE. Stoneshape their mist form into a big dome and wait a few hours. Or destroy their coffin. Technically the coup de grace trick SHOULD work (RaW), but since part of the process to actually kill them involves cutting off their head, most GMs should rule that it doesn't. Other options include a mace of disruption (which just destroys them outright, no HP damage) and a Vorpal sword (which does the same thing.)
3) Liches. So, no surprise, 90% of liches are wizards. Here's a fun one, force-ably plane-shift them. Start by making a demiplane (create lesser demiplane) when you have some time and fill it with water. Then, in combat, you can send them to the plane. Water=no spellcasting with a verbal component. So unless he has silent spellcasting or a greater metamagic rod of silent AND a spell to get him out of there, you win. Bonus points if you can somehow make sure he doesn't have his spellbook on him when he leaves. Then he can't kill himself, he can't die (to get back to his phalactary) and he can't even memorize new spells if you made sure his spellbook didn't make the trip. Admittedly, this one take a fair bit of setup, but it's fun!
and here we go again... rules Vs. logic the eternal struggle.
ok I actually have a few "out of the box" players who like to "play" and "twist" the rules in a similar manener, and what I'm about to say is my personal way of dealing with it.
1) if you are going to coup-de-grace the poor troll you better prepare yourself to keep doing it the rest of your life, the troll might be dead, and no "hit point damage" will be done so the rule of regeneration doesn't apply right by the book, but if you manage the things by logic and not as a "by the book" situation you will think that he does heal DAMAGE, as the concept of "HIT POINTS" is a game perk not an actual thing, once he is dead, by hit point damage or by coup-de-grace, he will rise after a few rounds, because he can regenerate damage, the only way I see this would work is with a magical death effect, but since the coup-de-grace kills the creature faster it is not a magical effect, you literally cut his throat, or stab his heart and kill him and that's something you should be able to regenerate from if you are a troll.
2) I see no way to destroy a vampires coffin without killing the vampire first, they aren't known for letting those things lying around unprotected, the Stone shape thing on the other hand, is an excelent out of the box idea, and of course nothing says i want you dead and I want you to stay that way for a long long time like a vorpal sword, unless you are figthing and Hydra, then it is the worst Idea ever.
(which makes me think... how to kill a Vampire hydra?...)
3) If you have the time to create a Lesser demiplane, fill it with water, and manage to plane shift the poor bastard into it without his spellbook... you are just toying with him and you might be actually more dangerous than the lich... adventurers should be hunting you down.
2 round of exposure to direct sunlight or running water kills vampires for good. Attach one of your ring gates to the roof, then toss the other into the vampires coffin while it's trying to sleep.
A Sunstone is a clear crystal exposed to direct sunlight at least once a day for a year. It emits actual sunlight constantly. Note that gaseous form does not make them immune to sunlight, so have a potion of gaseous form handy. Continuously active items remain active.
You could just teleport a litch into a cage underwater.
For all of these flesh to stone is easier.
Drat: Only creatures made of flesh are affected by this spell.
Any other spells that don't kill but permanently disable. Not just permanent in the duration, because alot of this stuff can dispel magic.
Trolls: Just eat them (your stomach is full of acid) or have your Giant slug Animal Companion lick it to death. [Attack tongue (1d4 plus 1 acid)]
Trolls--just knock them down to negative HP, and light them on fire with a torch, hard to make a reflex save or extinguish the burning condition while unconscious.
1) Trolls (and other creatures with regeneration.) Oh no! You've encountered a troll, but you're fresh out of alchemist's fire and acid from killing all those swarms previously. What are you to do? Well, a simple coup-de-grace actually works. See, Regeneration only heals hit-point damage. With a coup-de-grace, you can force a 'fort-save-or die' effect that kills them period. Just knock him down and have the entire party start coup-de-gracing. Chances are he'll fail one of those saves, and if he makes a few, hey, you are critting him on the ground so he'll keep under until he rolls that 1.
"A creature with this ability is difficult to kill. Creatures with regeneration heal damage at a fixed rate, as with fast healing, but they cannot die as long as their regeneration is still functioning "
I'd like to think the "cannot die" bit also applies to coup de grace actions, even if it forces a save-or-die scenario. As they quite literally cannot die as long as regeneration is active, and to my knowledge, a coup de grace does not end regeneration, it would be more of a save-or-don't-save-you're-still-fine-in-the-end scenario.