Liches and their phylactery

[SonOfLilith]

Are there any rules about where a lich can store his phylactery? I mean can he just throw it into a volcano, or into some deep crvis and fill it up? And, if they can do this, whats the best way to 1) find the phylactery or 2) Kill the lich.

 

[barsoomcore]

Dunno about throwing it into a volcano unless it's heat-protected. The problem (from the lich's point of view) with storing somewhere distant is that you don't necessarily know if someone's monkeying with your phylactery. Keeping it close means that nobody's going to get ahold of it unless they come through you.

Obviously, the best way to find the phylactery is to look where the lich hid it. Um, dunno what else to say about that? I mean, what's the best way to find anything? I don't think there's a best way to find a PHYLACTERY, really. Just look for it wherever it is and you'll find it, right?

The best way to kill a lich? Find the phylactery and monkey with it.

My campaign features a god-lich who's phylactery has already featured in several elements of the campaign -- but the players are in for a big surprise when they get to it. This lich is crafty (they won't let you be a god unless you're crafty, you know) and in fact has created a whole mess of phylacteries -- only one of which is the real one. Finding the real one -- that's a job for the big boys.

 

[Umbran]

The only rule would be that the place of storage must not cause the item's destruction. One generally wouldn't want to keep it where one couldn't check on it from time to time, however. Also, one would want to keep it somplace where reforming near it would not be problematic. Even if the thing is protected from fire, the lich won't like reforming in lava, now will he?

The spells Legend Lore, Contact Other Plane, and Vision might well be starting points in looking for a phylactery. Exactly how to find it depends much on how cruel the DM wishes to be

Another way to find the phylactery would be to kill the lich, wait for him to reform, and then use the Discern Location spell to find the lich when he reforms near his phylactery...