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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Riastlin" data-source="post: 5594721" data-attributes="member: 94022">Just some ideas off the top of my head (in no particular order). 1.  Minions.  Lots and lots of minions.  Perhaps even give the lich an aura 20 or some such that allows any undead in the aura who are below 0 HP to rise with 1 HP.  In other words, the hits just keep coming.   2.  Additional aura, power.  The lich is able to either command the undead to execute extra attacks, or increase their damage, etc.  The idea here being that even if the minions keep rising, there's still reason to not ignore them. 3.  Give the lich a really good wall power.  Allow him to essentially segregate the party for a round or two.  Solos should be pretty freakin scary if there's only a couple of PCs able to affect them.  Just be careful not to make the wall too permanent, or too much of a hindrance.  Doing that is only going to lead to more of a slog. 4.  Mini skill challenges.  Some sort of pillars or altars that power up the lich.  Perhaps each divine pillar gives him resist X or +X to defenses.  Make them stack.  If the PCs really want to weaken the lich, they need to take out his other defenses first. 5.  The freezing fog idea is just too damn cool.  Combine it with a power on the lich that allows him to immobilize so that the PCs can get trapped (though make sure they have some chance of escape).   6.  If the PCs are coming after the lich, and his piece of the artifact, put the lich's piece of the artifact behind a door that can only be opened with the other 4 pieces.  This means that the PCs have to bring those pieces to the fight, which means that the lich can recover them.   7.  You don't have a controller in your group, so you may not need to worry about it as much, but make sure that the lich can handle assorted status effects.  At the very least allow him a save when the effects are imposed, a save at start of his turn, or to simply remove certain effects at the end of its turn.   8.  Make the terrain interactive.  Whether its providing places of cover, squares of freezing fog, areas that impose necrotic vulnerabilities, or simply terrain powers (like tipping over a column), you want the PCs to be interacting with/concerned about the terrain.  You don't want everyone to just pick a spot and stand there.  Perhaps some of the terrain effects (vulnerability or fog frex) are mobile.  Maybe they are attracted to the living so that they pursue the PCs around the encounter.  Better yet, maybe they're controlled by the lich so that he can more or less force the PCs to get into the position he wants them in. 9.  Traps.  This goes along with the terrain and skill challenge ideas, but a lich fighting on its home turf is absolutely going to have some tricks up its sleeves. 10.  Most importantly, the phylactery (or at least the final one), is somewhere else.  Sure, the PCs win the fight and save the day, but that doesn't mean evil has to be defeated for all time.  Of course, I also tend to be a rat bastard DM from time to time.  <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devil.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":devil:" title="Devil    :devil:" data-shortname=":devil:" /></blockquote>

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