Pimp my lich

[Dannyalcatraz]

Or, "He's dead guys, what does he care about fashion?"

Barbarian PC: "I charge & attempt to grapple the lich!"

Me: "Roll me some Fort saves..."

Of course, at level 18, most of them will make DC:15 Fort saves in their sleep.

While that is true, there are ways to drop their save bonuses.

But the real reason to do it is to disrupt their thought processes. Its a surprise- potentially a nasty one if someone rolls a "1"- and it will make them rethink their tactics...especially if they don't know they're rolling against DC:15 or why they're doing it. If all they know is that Brak the Barbarian had to make 3-5 Fort rolls- which he probably succeeds at doing- just grappling the Lich, they'll still have a "WHOA!" reaction.

Any ACTUAL result from the "Sweater O Doom" is just gravy.

 

[Bungus]

While that is true, there are ways to drop their save bonuses.

But the real reason to do it is to disrupt their thought processes. Its a surprise- potentially a nasty one if someone rolls a "1"- and it will make them rethink their tactics...especially if they don't know they're rolling against DC:15 or why they're doing it. If all they know is that Brak the Barbarian had to make 3-5 Fort rolls- which he probably succeeds at doing- just grappling the Lich, they'll still have a "WHOA!" reaction.

Any ACTUAL result from the "Sweater O Doom" is just gravy.

good points and a good idea.

 

[NewJeffCT]

good points and a good idea.

how did your lich session turn out, by the way?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Just to backtrack a moment...another thought about the sartorially challenged Lich.

Much like the one in armor, they may not recognize it for what it is, so they may be taken completely off-guard when it does its alpha strike.

While they're taking time figuring out what they're fighting, the Lich isn't pulling any punches...

 

[Bungus]

Just to backtrack a moment...another thought about the sartorially challenged Lich.

Much like the one in armor, they may not recognize it for what it is, so they may be taken completely off-guard when it does its alpha strike.

While they're taking time figuring out what they're fighting, the Lich isn't pulling any punches...

They'll know a bit about what to expect going in, but once they start encountering undead minions, they'll be even more likely to figure out what is coming.

 

[green slime]

They'll know a bit about what to expect going in, but once they start encountering undead minions, they'll be even more likely to figure out what is coming.

Undead minions??! Last Lich in a game I ran was a Druid conjurer specialist, summoning up demonic vegetation. Who knew spinach & broccoli with templates would freak out players

 

[Bungus]

Undead minions??! Last Lich in a game I ran was a Druid conjurer specialist, summoning up demonic vegetation. Who knew spinach & broccoli with templates would freak out players

That sounds interesting, but I do like the Time Stop & Gate in a Balor idea from above. Then, the lich moves out of view while the balor fights the party and casts all of his buffing spells.

 

[Marius Delphus]

In the module, Vecna Lives!, Timestop is one of the tactics used by a certain lich in the beginning of the module...

If you have access to it and haven't run it, you might want to mine it for ideas.

Keeping in mind of course that this encounter is (a) in a 2nd Edition module firmly cemented in Greyhawk and (b) expressly meant to result in a TPK (the module even tells the DM to cheat like crazy to ensure it) against some very special "guest star" PCs:

Spoiler

Tenser, Bigby, Otiluke, Rary, Drawmij, Otto, Nystul, and Jallarzi, the then-current Circle of Eight

. The deaths of these characters

Spoiler

and their subsequent revival via cloning

is even Greyhawk canon, AFAIK. The adventure continues with their sidekicks.

Cool module though. I bumped the "guest stars" up a few levels when I ran the thing and still managed the TPK without fudging a single die roll.

Spoiler

Tenser

managed to survive the longest, because I'd given him time stop as well and he realized he needed to use it.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Keeping in mind of course that this encounter is (a) in a 2nd Edition module firmly cemented in Greyhawk and (b) expressly meant to result in a TPK (the module even tells the DM to cheat like crazy to ensure it) against some very special "guest star" PCs:

Spoiler

Tenser, Bigby, Otiluke, Rary, Drawmij, Otto, Nystul, and Jallarzi, the then-current Circle of Eight

. The deaths of these characters

Spoiler

and their subsequent revival via cloning

is even Greyhawk canon, AFAIK. The adventure continues with their sidekicks.

Cool module though. I bumped the "guest stars" up a few levels when I ran the thing and still managed the TPK without fudging a single die roll.

Spoiler

Tenser

managed to survive the longest, because I'd given him time stop as well and he realized he needed to use it.

Exactly right- when I ran it, I had the opening sequence delivered as a kind of "psychic message," and the players used their own PCs to run the rest of the adventure.

A final aside on the "moldy" lich- properly designed, it will have a tactical advantage over the True Seeing party. If the lich is covered with enough mold to obscure its form, and it uses spells without somatic components (incl. those with still spell) or SLAs, the party will never know that the unmoving pile of detritus is kicking their butts.

 

[Bungus]

Keeping in mind of course that this encounter is (a) in a 2nd Edition module firmly cemented in Greyhawk and (b) expressly meant to result in a TPK (the module even tells the DM to cheat like crazy to ensure it) against some very special "guest star" PCs:

Spoiler

Tenser, Bigby, Otiluke, Rary, Drawmij, Otto, Nystul, and Jallarzi, the then-current Circle of Eight

. The deaths of these characters

Spoiler

and their subsequent revival via cloning

is even Greyhawk canon, AFAIK. The adventure continues with their sidekicks.

Cool module though. I bumped the "guest stars" up a few levels when I ran the thing and still managed the TPK without fudging a single die roll.

Spoiler

Tenser

managed to survive the longest, because I'd given him time stop as well and he realized he needed to use it.

Thanks for the tip - I do not really wish to have a TPK on my hands and cloned PCs running around.