I knew I could fit it into the title.
I looked Demi up in the dictionary and among other things it means half, which fits for Demigod. (half-god) But it doesn't fit for Demilich since the monster is more powerful than a normal lich.
Is there another meaning for Demi which means twice as powerful?
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I knew I could fit it into the title.
I looked Demi up in the dictionary and among other things it means half, which fits for Demigod. (half-god) But it doesn't fit for Demilich since the monster is more powerful than a normal lich.Is there another meaning for Demi which means twice as powerful?
Demi can also mean part of, or partly belonging to. A demilich is therefor only part of a lich. From its original description back in 1st edition AD&D:
Demilich is a misleading term in that one might assume the "demi" refers to status. However, it refers to the state of the lich. Only a small part of the body of the lich remains - dust, the skull, and possibly a few bones.
A demilich is called that because it is only partly a lich, not because it has half the power of a lich.
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If you think it's bad in English, be happy that you don't have to bring up the demilich on a German table.
It sounds like someone mispronounced the German word "dämlich" - "stupid".
"You fight the half-lich" may sound weird. But at least it's not "You fight the stupid"
I had always thought the prefix of demi- was for partial (not half), BUT I was surprised to learn the official definition has both half and partial, but in the context of lesser... Meaning, "partial & lesser," so the OP still makes a valid point.
I'm thinking the originators of the demilich as a viable monster went for cool name without actually being pedantic about the context.
And yes, it IS completely possible to make a lich more powerful than a by-the-book demilich, but in lich evolution (if it can be called that) demilich is the final more powerful stage.
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I had always thought the prefix of demi- was for partial (not half), BUT I was surprised to learn the official definition has both half and partial, but in the context of lesser... Meaning, "partial & lesser," so the OP still makes a valid point.
I'm thinking the originators of the demilich as a viable monster went for cool name without actually being pedantic about the context.
And yes, it IS completely possible to make a lich more powerful than a by-the-book demilich, but in lich evolution (if it can be called that) demilich is the final more powerful stage.
No, he doesn't really have a point. I posted the original reasoning behind the name from the original monster back in AD&D. It never had anything to do with power. It had everything to do with form. He just assumed (incorrectly) they were referring to power. And rightfully so - to most people, it does mean half-power. But that is only part of its definition.
It is the same for the original name for non-human player races. Demihumans (like elves and dwarves). Something that is partly human, but ultimately isn't.
Note that the powers of a lich have a wide range (CL 11-CL20 M10+racial HD) but those of a demilich do not. It's possible, though not particularly likely, to have a lich with twice as much power as a demilich.
Unless it is a demilich that has woken up. Then you have all the lich + all the demilich. :D
I have no source to back this up, but I vaguely remember reading (in 1st Edition D&D material) that the name implied a lich who had ascended to demigod status -- thus "demi[god] + lich."
But I also remember thinking, even as a kid, that it didn't make sense to use the prefix that way. The "half-lich" explanation is better.
I always read "demigod" as "partly a god" not "half as powerful a god" since outside the game that term is most often used to describe beings that had a divine ancestor or parent (e.g. Achilles, Heracles, Cú Chulainn, Gilgamesh) or who were people that achieved divine status, possibly posthumously (e.g. Hanuman, Nandi).
Whole "half as powerful as a god" isn't really well-defined anyway, since it's not like there's a consistent power level of "God" across any given pantheon- compare Zeus to Hestia or Frigg to Bragi, say.
The reason it connotes differently for the demilich is that stories about the undead are invariably about decline, decay, ossification, and rot, whereas stories about people who are or become more than human are about becoming and triumph. If we had a mythological history of heroic liches, it might be different but the world where that's true is probably a strange one.
...Unless it is a demilich that has woken up. Then you have all the lich + all the demilich. :D
Giving you a sesquilich. Not to be confused with a sasquatch lich.
...Unless it is a demilich that has woken up. Then you have all the lich + all the demilich. :DGiving you a sesquilich. Not to be confused with a sasquatch lich.
Yeah, let's keep sasquatch liches out of this. Last one I met didn't even bother destroying us with awesome spells, it tried to rip our arms off like a Wookie *shudders*
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Note that the powers of a lich have a wide range (CL 11-CL20 M10+racial HD) but those of a demilich do not. It's possible, though not particularly likely, to have a lich with twice as much power as a demilich.
I don't know what the original demilich was like power wise, but the 3rd ed demilich was something like CR 29. The PF demilich is a big step down. In fact, they kinda changed the nature of the demilich when they made Pathfinder. In D&D is was the next step in lich advancement, basically, requiring the lich to learn to make soul gems and incorporate them into its body. In PF it's what happens when a lich's phylactery decays. I always kinda wondered why they went in that direction, I guess to differentiate between the two properties.
Back in the day we had demihumans too, which were not necessarily more or less powerful than humans.
I believe a Sasquatch lich, with a divine parent that decayed would be a demihuman demigod demilich.
Thanks for the information. Unfortunately, my experience with Lichs is not with Pathfinder it is with the game Neverwinter Nights. It gives a rough representation of the power level of Lich and demilich. The latter comes out much more powerful.
When I searched the Pfsrd for the Lich and Demilich one came out CR12 and the other CR14. And from what I read above, this is the bottom statistics.
I forgot about demihumans. If I did, I probably wouldn't have posted. Elves are not half humans. Then there are half elves. They would end up being half-half human-elves and that's just silly.
And then there is Demi Moore. She would be Half Moore? Or like Jeraa said Partly Moore? :D
Thanks
A demiurge is apparently not a half-hearted inclination. It may in fact be Apsu.
And make no mistake: while Demogorgon may be formidable, it has nothing on the final Releasegorgon version.