Living Lich?

[Child of Hypnos]

the talk of desecrate and corpsecrafter on the 'lichfiend CR' thread made me wonder,
when turning oneself into a lich, does the individual make his Phylactery and then kill himself, instantly becoming an undead creature, or does he make his phylactery and then wait to die of natural causes/be killed, and then continue as an undead thereafter?

only reason i ask is itd be a great way of having a villain who is obviously alive return as a lich some time after the party killed him?

views?

 

[Alzrius]

In 2E, the process is a little more specific, in that in addition to creating a phylactery, you then had to (IIRC) brew a special potion, which you drank under the light of the full moon. Doing so killed you, and if it worked correctly, you became a lich.

3E doesn't seem to specify any such requirement though, so I suppose that means it can work however you'd like.

 

[lukelightning]

does he make his phylactery and then wait to die of natural causes/be killed, and then continue as an undead thereafter?

That's how I interpret it.

 

[Bad Paper]

when turning oneself into a lich, does the individual make his Phylactery and then kill himself, instantly becoming an undead creature, or does he make his phylactery and then wait to die of natural causes/be killed, and then continue as an undead thereafter?

Typically, he creates his phylactery and a magical poison. Drink poison. Die. Rise as lich.

 

[lukelightning]

Typically, he creates his phylactery and a magical poison. Drink poison. Die. Rise as lich.

That's for the impatient ones. The more funner way is to confront a rag-tag bunch of do-gooders in a big public area and have a big nasty fight with them and get killed. All the townsfolk sing "ding dong the evil mage is dead" and 1d10 days later you're a lich but everyone thinks you're dead.

 

[jontherev]

the talk of desecrate and corpsecrafter on the 'lichfiend CR' thread made me wonder,
when turning oneself into a lich, does the individual make his Phylactery and then kill himself, instantly becoming an undead creature, or does he make his phylactery and then wait to die of natural causes/be killed, and then continue as an undead thereafter?

only reason i ask is itd be a great way of having a villain who is obviously alive return as a lich some time after the party killed him?

views?

Another suggestion is to write him up without the Lich template, but with maybe a clone and/or simply a contingency teleport spell. Sure, they know the villain's probably still alive, but they DON'T know it will be a lich the next time they see him. Under RAW, I'm pretty sure you die immediately after the ritual process. I think it describes it some in Libris Mortis, but I'm not certain. In either case, it shouldn't matter much. I would play it whichever way you like because it shouldn't affect the players much either way and really only serves to further your plot.

 

[TYPO5478]

The lich entry says that a lich's phylactery stores its life force. If its life force is in the phylactery, it isn't in the body. I'd assume that the completion of the ritual to create the phylactery kills the original creature.

That said, run it which ever way works best in your campaign.