So, yeah, short version in the title. I want to know how to find a Lich's phylactery.
Longer version is that I'm of the opinion that anything is possible, if you put your mind to it, EXCEPT making something actually impossible. My character asked the head of a wizard's college/guild for suggestions on finding a Lich's phylactery. This was the nature of the response:
npc wrote: "you're talking about a lich..." he said, frowning. "the best course of action is to be where the lich isnt." he replied dryly. "but if you absolutely HAD to find it.. your best bet is knowing what you're looking for in the first place. and knowing where it is. so, get the lich to tell you. otherwise, you're never finding it. as i'm no doubt sure you know, it's reletively easy to prevent magical detection. anchor the object in place using a combination of anti teleportaion and physical restraint, block scrying permanently, hide it in a location that's nigh imposible to find in the first place. normally you'd have some mundane means of wild conjecture in the form of hired peasants who helped build the location, but you're talking about a master of the undead. any servants he possesses arnt telling rumors. and chances are good any lich would build it themselves, well well away from prying eyes who might catch even the smallest glimmer of their doings. so the only advice i could give you is to be wildly paranoid and jump at any hint of a clue..." So, class skills for pretty much any class are on the table. Pretty much any spell is on the table. I don't care about 'easy', though an 'easy button' would be nice. I care about getting it done.
This is going to be hard. Accept that. A lich is an immortal magic user, their ticket to immortallity is keeping that phylactery safe and hidden.
First, find out all you can about the liches capabilities, at a basic level thus is class and highest spell level available. This will give you a broad framework of what magic can be used to hide it.
Second, kill the lich and try to observe where it reforms, the phylactery must be nearby. Kill it again to keep it out of your hair while you search.
Expect things like lead boxes sealed inside boulders with stone shape, scrying blocks on the area, multiple decoys, and more.
Good luck, you will need it.
I tend to agree with Java Man. Obviously since the phylactery is typically kept far, far away from the lich's dwelling (and probably on another plane if possible), catching it while the body is reforming is likely tough (and technically the lich isn't in it until it's ready, so trying to scry him or something would have complications).
I really want to say that what the NPC told you, is probably some of the most soundly delivered (in-character) type of advice. Anything other than high-powered magical divinations and wishes is probably going to fail. You need to spend time, you need to research the lich, you need to figure out what you're even looking for (now I do tend to have my lich's phylacteries disguised as magic items and, whenever possible, the PCs end up with them somehow as rewards or treasure. And how often does a PC ever lose or destroy their magical loot? Almost never, it's safer with them than anywhere else in most cases.)
There should never be an easy way to find a lich's phylactery (not that you're asking for one), but it's like you said, it should be as close to impossible as possible (and even completely impossible at times without accomplishing other things first). The nature of their existence is to be hidden, protected, and unreachable without heroic effort. They will be protected by a genius or at least highly-cunning and intelligent creature with years of time to devote to any task it puts its mind to. It should never come down to a lucky bardic knowledge roll or Intimidate check on some minion (though that can certainly move the story and search along).
Learn who the lich was (to find clues to their past), find out what their driving goals were and why they needed eternal life to accomplish them (so you can look into places or other locations linked to such a task and possibly learn clues or track the lich's movements), and keep your task as secret as possible because if there's one thing that will make a lich take notice of you, it's looking for its phylactery.
Protip: don't kill a Lich. Just imprison/petrify/bind it. That way it won't reconstitute.
If that's not an option, then go for the game's default modus operandi: kill & apply magic. You have bodyparts, and while the Phylactery is probably well-warded, the reforming body isn't (yet). So be ready with Scry, Speak With Dead and assorted other Divinations.
I'd strongly suggest going in with something like a cleric, an oracle, and a wizard if you plan to force your way in. Three classes with access to wish/miracle and a ton of divination. Doing so can theoretically make this a battle of gold production as you circle-wish [remove a layer of magical protection from the phylactery of the Lich of Mordor] [remove the fail-safes protecting the layer of magic around the phylactery of the Lich of Mordor] [remove the...] [Show me the phylactery of the Lich of Mordor] [bring me...]
Tracking down a lich's soul receptacle seems like an object of a quest on it's own: A quest of poring through history books, talking to creatures that knew the lich when he was a living wizard, looking through the lich's home and examining the things he keeps around him, then trying to find things that were important to the lich but are missing now.
Actually, this was kind of what all the Harry Potter books were about.
I'd think the easiest (and it isn't easy) way to find a lich's phylactery would be to use the lich's own paranoia against it.
Imagine that you are an immortal magic-user, and you know that the only thing that can let you be permanently destroyed is if a certain item is found and destroyed. Of course you want it to be as protected as possible - lead-lined boxes sealed in boulders put onto a demi-plane, etc.
But you also know "This thing is my only weakness." And adventurers know that, and will be looking for that. And they are devilishly clever. Heck, you may have been an adventurer yourself once. Finding their way past impossible traps and discovering well-hidden treasure is what they do.
How much do you trust your preparations? Do you trust them enough to not ever want to go back and check and make sure that the phylactery is there? Never? You're just going to trust that it's safe?
So, if you want to find a lich's phylactery? Let the lich discover that someone has already found it. The lich will almost certainly want to go check on the phylactery to make sure that it hasn't been discovered. Just follow the lich back to it.
Make him beg you to destroy it after you bind him to this plane and start leeching his power for your own purposes. Use his power for something he hates, and force him to accept an immortal life of slavery feeding his power to something he despises, or face true death. The choice is his to make, all you have to do is catch him.
In the myths and stories that liches are descended from, usually it is fate and chance that result in their undoing, as someone unexpected finds the object seeming randomly and destroys them (Bilbo then Frodo in Lord of the Rings, Taran in Lloyd Alexander's Taran Wanderer are well known examples.) In game terms, this really means that if the GM wants the lich destroyed, then a way will appear. If not, perhaps your quest can be fulfilled by just defeating the lich, setting back its plans and saving the world, for now at least, and leaving the final destruction to some other hero.
In concept, a lich really has two ways to try and protect its lich, either hide it or defend it. Of course their will be aspects of both in most implementations, but to an extend they are mutually exclusive. Staying near and concentrating your power works great for defense, but is hard to hide, and keeping it secret and obscure makes it hard to have a great defense around it. Studying who the lich was in life, and how he as acted since may give a clue as to which strategy your lich will imploy, and perhaps other clues as well.
While in theory the magic available to a lich means they should be pretty close to unbeatable, they were once human with all of the psychological foibles that implies and arguably they will have become less sane since (and to want eternal undeath, and to do the things that that requires, means they were never playing with full deck to begin with).
So basically, learn and search as well as you can, but in the end you will have to rely on faith that the powers that be (the GM) will reward your diligence and allow the quest to succeed.
It can't be hidden in an Antimagic Field, because it would suppress the magic. Even if it wouldn't ruin the magic completely, when the lich 'died', he'd be stuck in limbo until someone randomly stumbled upon his phylactery.
He could have a permanent Dimensional Lock or Forbiddance around it, but that only goes out so far. Non-detection could be applied as a permanent effect. Thanks to its hour-per-level, it's even fairly cheap. Are there any spells that do the same thing, but as an AoE? Something that would protect him while he's reforming?
Aaron...That's effing brilliant. I actually might even HAVE the resources for that. And the party's make up includes an oracle (me), a druid (not really sure how much benefit that is for divination), and an Arcanist
Zarius wrote: It can't be hidden in an Antimagic Field, because it would suppress the magic. Even if it wouldn't ruin the magic completely, when the lich 'died', he'd be stuck in limbo until someone randomly stumbled upon his phylactery. Unless the lich knew mythic antimagic field and could allow necromancy.
The Sideromancer wrote: Zarius wrote: It can't be hidden in an Antimagic Field, because it would suppress the magic. Even if it wouldn't ruin the magic completely, when the lich 'died', he'd be stuck in limbo until someone randomly stumbled upon his phylactery. Unless the lich knew mythic antimagic field and could allow necromancy. Yes, but if the lich has mythic ANYTHING then you're just going to have to ask the DM where the loophole is, because you aren't touching a mythic lich's phylactery.
We aren't using mythic anything in the campaign. I already brought the topic up to him, he said nope. He nope'd right out of there.
Assuming it's possible to find out who the Lich was whilst alive, you have a chance to at least start asking the right questions.
If you don't know who it was, when it lived, and where it lived... then you aren't going to be able to find much in the way of clues as to some sentimental location it might hide its phylactery.
How well is the history of your location documented? Does your party even have access to the archives even if the history is well recorded? Do they keep records of local Lich sightings, time, date, location, etc.
The thing is, unless your GM wants you to actually find it, it won't be found. Just bombard him with questions, if he wants you to find it, the GM will start answering the questions you ask.
I would start by tracking every known location that Lich has been seen. Map it out, see if there is a common or central focal point for all the known sightings.
Ask if the Lich has a known living history, who was it, what did they do, who were they involved with, how did it die, when did it die, where did it die, etc.
Cross reference the map of known sightings with any personal information you receive about it. See if there are any similarities, or glaring omissions.
Out of 7 known sightings in the last 20 years, he has never returned to the rock quarry in which he used to work, hmm.
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