Destroying a Lich's Phylactery while the Lich is Still Alive (er, un-alive?)

[Mac Callum]

Using a suggestion from Monte Cook, I have a lich in my home campaign that used a 50,000 gp gem to create his phylactery, and then used it as the focus for a "Trap The Soul" spell on a Tarrasque. The players aren't aware of this, although there is a cryptic prophesy that hints at it.

Now, if you destroy the phylactery you unleash the tarrasque.

Sweet lordy, that's just Rat-Bastardly.

On topic, I always assumed that the Lich only needed the phylactery to reform after being destroyed. The Phylactery's destruction has no effect on him other than that though.

Come to think of it though, if his life force is in the Phylactery, and after its destruction it re-vests in the Lich, what would that do to him? Eh, I'd say nothing - otherwise it would just be too easy to circumvent the Lich. Evil, Undead Immortal Arch-mages who can be defeated by crushing a little box are no fun at all.

 

[Darklone]

This is a house rule, since it isn't really addressed in the rules, but...

I think the "soul" should be returned to the physical lich. So you destroy the phylactery, making the lich somewhat mortal. He retains his lich powers, but if you kill him, he is gone for good.

It then becomes another quest to hunt down the lich before he can create a new phylactery. And come back for some serious revenge.

I really love that idea... fits in style to the fairy tales about evil wizards who put their soul into the bone of a detached finger and bury it somewhere and stay immortal till someone finds and breaks the bone...

I'll think about making the lich "alive" again.

BTW: The last lich I used hid his phylactery in the head of a vampire...

 

[Li Shenron]

I like these idea very much too, both wolff96's and Caliban's.

Incidentally, how is it possible to identify that an object is a Lich's phylactery?

 

[the Jester]

BTW: The last lich I used hid his phylactery in the head of a vampire...

In our last session the pcs fought a composite undead composed of the stitched-together bits of many bodies with a lich's phylactery sewn into its chest. Same idea, methinks.

 

[Nightingale 7]

The closest thing to cannon I could find about what happens to a lich when destroying it's phylactery was in the Pool of Radiance:Ruins of Myth Drannor module

SPOILERS FOLLOWING:

The adventure requires destroying a dracolich's phylactery,while it is away,and the module states that the dracolich remains alive(and very pissed) after it's destruction,but if the dracolich is destroyed before he makes a new phylactery,then it's death is permanent.