D&D 5E What do you want from a lich?

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

Part of the conceit of the book is that lichs do leave their lairs, they do get up and go out for a number of reasons. If they only stayed in their tombs, then the simple answer would be to brick up the entrance to the tombs and for everyone to get on with their lives.

So these lichs do get out and about a lot.

 

[Mephista]

Personally, I'd rather see a book of undead more than just a book on liches. Liches are basically just undead necromancers when all is said and done, and they basically just do whatever wizards do. The lich's undead army tend to be far more interesting than the lich itself.

 

[Corpsetaker]

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Personally, I'd rather see a book of undead more than just a book on liches. Liches are basically just undead necromancers when all is said and done, and they basically just do whatever wizards do. The lich's undead army tend to be far more interesting than the lich itself.

One of the most fun liches I ever ran was built up to be this BBEG, with an evil army out to conquer the world.

The reality, though, was that he had gone senile, and spent his time in his vast library reasearching rare spells. Like Sleep. Mending. Prestidigitation. Etc.

The REAL baddie was the critter who ruled in his name and directed the army for his own purposes.

 

[aco175]

I would like to see more flavored feat-like abilities that can tweak each lich and make them unique. The lich from the north can be immune to cold and cast ice magic missiles. A cool sliding lair ability. A lich with cool teleporting powers or that can instantly raise dead minions each round gives good flavor. Different racial lich abilities and powers that are not just spell variants would be good as well.

 

[Ganymede81]

How does a lich's mind decay over the centuries of undeath, and what do they do to keep a grip on their sanity?

What happens to the most powerful of demiliches once they finally abandon their physical form and are able to dwell in the astral?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

What happens to the most powerful of demiliches once they finally abandon their physical form and are able to dwell in the astral?

They become a collected magical consciousness that manifests itself on the material planes as rainbows, under which ponies frolic.