D&D 5E (2024) The Price of a Soul (Lich Path problems)

[Kobold Stew]

If by completely new, you mean there from the beginning, you are correct.

The 5e MM says that liches feed mortal souls to their phylacteries.

The 5e MM says that souls that descend to the lower planes(abyss) are turned into Manes. Demon lords feed on manes, destroying them utterly. Soul consumed and destroyed.

The 5e MM says that a specter is doomed to the material plane, it's only end is the oblivion that comes with the destruction of its soul.

The 5e MM says that a yugoloth who has been permanently destroyed can be restored through a ritual requiring the expenditure of souls.

Thanks for these. None, I believe, has mechanical implications though.

The 5e DMG includes Blackrazor which has a devour soul ability with similar can only be restored by a wish language.

The 5e DMG includes the Eye of Vecna which has a chance to tear your soul from your body and devour it when you use the Eye's powers.

Unique items, such as these, do have mechanical implications.

The only real issue with the lich feat is that it happens at 4th level. It really should just consume a portion of the soul, marking it for later consumption when the jar is turned into a true phylactery.

Yes, exactly.

 

[DEFCON 1]

But do liches have to be evil? I use non-evil liches all the time. For example, when I ran my revised White Plume Mountain a few months back, I made the Big Bad the lich Kerpatis, who, like a Deravkin lich, was held together by his magical experimentations and a kind of fungus. He was mad, due to his rotted brain, but not evil.

I would argue that the evil here is very much coming from the soul mechanic and not from wanting to extend one's existence through undeath.

Fair point, and I would imagine it comes down to every DM's definition of terms.

Can a lich be good? Depends on whether the DM's world defines what a "lich" is as strictly evil, or variable. I know for me, I wouldn't call a undead spellcaster that was created by positive energy or who has a good morality a "lich". I'd use a different word to define them, because to me the term "lich" is defined as an evil undead spellcaster of certain power.

As another example, I call incorporeal undead that are neutral or good as 'ghosts' or 'spirits', whereas only evil negative energy incorporeal undead are 'spectres' and 'wraiths'. But this is just my own usage of the terms and terminology, and I don't expect others to be required to follow my definitions.

Thus in my campaigns, if a player wanted to have their PC follow the path of becoming a lich, that would be a major storyline that could potentially cause issues unless the players and I could work out how that could go without causing issues to the table and other players. Because a lich by definition would be an evil creature and thus a potential disruption to the group.

If others define the concept of lich differently? Then maybe those issues don't crop up.