Care and feeding of liches

[jonexmachina]

If a lich wanted to look like something other than a rotting corpse, could it use Gentle Repose to preserve itself?

GR's target is "corpse touched" so I would say no... Could you use magic jar to aboandon the body for long enough to GR it, or would the GR go away as soon as it stopped being a corpse?

Even if you can, combat damage will soon make you look pretty rough, and I can't see inflict spells really helping in the appearance department. The spell that seems most appropriate is Make Whole - it doesn't affect creatures, but using the Magic Jar trick could make ones body an object temporarily.

Could a living caster do this?

Alter Self takes away lich immunity to cold, electricity and mind effects, and disguise self doesnt help with the smell.

 

[Christopher Lambert]

I don't see why gentle repose wouldn't work. The other solutions are rather complicated, BTW. Alter self doesn't last long (last time I checked) and magic jar is hard to arrange.

Of course, having a phylactery makes that a bit easier to use.

 

[Sejs]

He's a lich - he's got all the time in the world in which to research magical ho-hah.


Have him research a spell that makes him look alive, only works on undead, requires a willing target, and is either duration permanant or instantaneous. Sure, it's of extremely limited usefulness, but it's not like he's got a limit on the ammount of time he can spend researching new magics for every occasion.

 

[azmodean]

In reply to the "corpse touched" question about Gentle Repose. Is the Lich a corpse? (answer will vary depending on the DM) and can the Lich touch themselves (Yes, you can cast spells with a range of "touch" on yourself). If you rule that GR only works on a dead body as opposed to an UNdead body, then there you go. Personally I'd lean toward not letting a lich use GR, but as someone else said, the lich should have little to no problem researching a spell that preserves them in a semblance of life. (though the "battle damage" issue still applies, in which case they might prefer change self on top of something that keeps them from rotting)

In short, a dedicated Lich should be able to find a way to pass as living, just depends on how much resources they want to devote to it.

 

[Lasher Dragon]

Disguise Undead, I believe it is in T&B. I don't see why it couldn't be used with the permanency spell. It's a very handy spell for Pale Masters... can be a pain in the neck trying to do some shopping, get a meal and a room at the inn when you have undead shambling behind you all the time.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

There are a couple of spells in Lords of the Night: Liches that do this. One is somewhat of a disguise self thing, the other is actually wearing a layer of flesh that can be damaged - kind of like Terminator, with living flesh over an unliving interior skeleton...

 

[Lasher Dragon]

Wow Charlemagne that sounds pretty tight... is that a 3.5 book? I've never heard of it. I'm gonna have to check that one out.

 

[MerakSpielman]

Flavor-wise, I like the thought of a Ring of Gentle Repose.

 

[Xael]

There's also a Lich with a Robe of Gentle Repose in CoTSQ. It has a market price of 10 000 gold pieces.