D&D 5E "The" Lich?

[Dausuul]

Vecna Lives is one of the things that made him an iconic D&D villain. He had never shown up in person before. So he was a Demigod since his first appearance in the flesh.

No, the Hand and Eye were what made Vecna iconic. Vecna has been the lich since 1E; if he weren't, "Vecna Lives!" would never have been made.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

As for THE Lich, for me there can be only one:

View attachment 75427

That game is on the short-list of reasons why I ever started playing D&D.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

No, the Hand and Eye were what made Vecna iconic. Vecna has been the lich since 1E; if he weren't, "Vecna Lives!" would never have been made.

I said Iconic D&D villain. He was just a background character for two items at that point. The items were cool and iconic but not much was said about Vecna. He was not "the" Lich because he had never shown up. They eventually decided to bring him to the front lines due to the popularity of the magic items related to him. When that happened he became an Iconic villain, instead of the namesake of an iconic pair of items.

 

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

Who?

Lich Queen of the Qithyanki.

Not knowing a single one of these characters sadly, I give my vote to Ron Pearlman. Whoever gets the reference gets XP.

Fall...

 

[ruleslawyer]

That's EXACTLY why he is so dangerous.

Adventurer Soon-Dead : "Hey guys we're pretty tired. Lets check out this little secluded side cave and try to get some rest."

Adventurer Gonnabiteit: " I don't know. We haven't really checked it out yet."

Adventurer Soon-Dead : " So what? I mean, how bad could it be? Its not like there is mega-powerful lich in there just chillin and waiting eat our souls the moment we walk in or anything."

Adventurer Gonnabiteit: " Heh. Yeah I guess you're right. Lets do this."

To be fair, Asberdies just wants to be left alone. According to the DM notes, it should be REALLY unlikely that the PCs fight him.

When my guys went into the cave, they heard the "warning" issued by the lich via ventriloquism, used detect magic and detect invisibility to look around, decided it was a dead end and left. I think that's probably the typical expected response to that encounter.

 

[TwoSix]

Raistlin.

Seriously, what's the difference between a power-hungry, reclusive living archmage and a lich except a phylactery and some time?

 

[Curmudjinn]

How about Ioulaum? To Realms arcane historians, he'd be pretty iconic. The first archwizard of Netheril as well as possibly a lich even before Larloch.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Raistlin.

Seriously, what's the difference between a power-hungry, reclusive living archmage and a lich except a phylactery and some time?

This is exactly the problem: the fact that TSR and WotC have portrayed liches in such a way that this is a legitimate question to ask.

A well-written lich should absolutely not be all that similar to a living mage, however power-hungry and reclusive. Liches are not human. They are not living. They don't feel as humans do, don't want as humans do, don't--after a brief adjustment period--think as humans do. They are dead, obsessive things, and their personalities and behaviors should reflect that. Any human behaviors/attitudes a lich displays should be, at best, a mask they deliberately put on. They should, in many ways, be nearly as alien in their thinking as creatures out of Lovecraft, their only humanity a half-forgotten memory.

This is, in part, why there's never been an iconic lich, AFAIAC.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

That is a fantastic point, [MENTION=1288]Mouseferatu[/MENTION], and I am dumb-struck that I had not had it occur to me prior to you posting it.

I knew there was some reason why I can't even remember the name of any D&D lich that isn't typically presented as nothing more than a name on a list of deities or as being noteworthy through attachment to relatively omnipresent "bad guy" faction.

 

[ExploderWizard]

To be fair, Asberdies just wants to be left alone. According to the DM notes, it should be REALLY unlikely that the PCs fight him.

When my guys went into the cave, they heard the "warning" issued by the lich via ventriloquism, used detect magic and detect invisibility to look around, decided it was a dead end and left. I think that's probably the typical expected response to that encounter.

The cave is riddled with over 600 magic mouth spells. Detect magic will go off like a siren. Its a honeypot.