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Liches are one of the most iconic antagonists ofDungeons & Dragons, excluding the titular dragons. Undead necromancers that consume souls to achieve eternal life are just about the peak a spellcaster can reach before searching for divinity. This can make DMing one, both in combat and roleplay, a challenge.
What aspirations can you give to someone who has functional immortality? What personality and character traits can you give someone who eats souls? What reason can you give them to actually interact with the world and oppose the protagonists when they could just as easily wait for them to die of age?
Use Lichdom As A Means To An End
Every villain is best characterized when they have a meaningful goal. Immortality and epic magic arepowerful means that deserve powerful ends. This can also provide players with apersonal motivation to oppose the lich. Here are a few common examples:
Considerreasons a spellcaster might pursue lichdominstead of other forms of immortality, such as cloning and reincarnation spells.
Player Conflicts
Infinite Time
The classicmad scientist has more research projects than time. Immortality by undeath gives an eternity to dedicate towards any and every task the lich chooses.
By the point they’re eating souls to skip needing to sleep,you can expect a lich to have thrown all other ethics out the window.
Conquest
Liches might use conquest as a means ofpre-emptive self-defenseor an extension of their ego. A lich with theirphylactery held hostagemight even lead armies on behalf of a king or country.
Player Characters are normally thefirst responders when an evil wizard tries to take over the land.
Protecting Their Soul
A Warlock might achieve lichdom as aloophole to having sold their soul or afterlife. Binding their soul to an object could be a way of getting out of a previous deal about their fate after death.
Collecting debts on behalf of a devilor fey is a seemingly simple quest. Serving papers to a lich adds some spice.
Archlich
The archlich is a holdover from previous editions with some fun options.These good liches embody virtuesheld in life and ignore most negative consequences of undeath.
An archlich is liable to be inflexible in ways that players will contest their methods.
The lore aroundarchliches not needing to consume soulssomewhat implies that other liches do it either as a shortcut or for entertainment value. You might choose to amend this lore andrequire archliches to sacrifice something of meaninginstead of getting better immortality than other liches at half the price.
Phylacteries Should Represent The Lich’s Character
The phylactery iswhat distinguishes a lich from other undead. The elaborate cage that traps andprotects their soul. Therespawn pointif their skeleton gets pulverized. The maw to which they feed the souls of the innocent.
Each phylactery should hold meaning to the lich creating it: In some versions, it is actively a rule that itmust be crafted from an item of great personal value. Since there are limitations on how phylacteries are used, the way the lich operates within or works around those limitations is a good way of characterizing them.
Characterisation
The phylactery is expensive
No making a phylactery out of a single coin in a vault, but itcan be made from an existing magic item or piece of jewelry.
Adventurers who loot the lichwill either be carrying or have sold off the concealed phylactery when the lich rejuvenates.
“If I’m going to be stuck in it forever,it should look good and feel comfortable.”
The phylactery is visibly magical
A phylactery is easily detectable as a magic item butcan be disguised using Magic Aura.
A lich can use magic aura to create a decoy phylactery andconceal their true one in a different location.
This lich thinks they are smarter than all the other wizards for remembering a second-level spell.
The phylactery must be corporeal
The phylactery must be both solid and corporeal. Your lich can’t bind their soul to ariver of liquid mercury, vapor cloud, or ocean drop.
The lich can instead use theseinaccessible places as hiding spots for physical phylacteries.Undead don’t need to fear suffocation, poison, or crushing pressure.
This lich is willing to put up with a lot ofdiscomfort and inconvenience in exchange for security.
The phylactery must be accessible
The lich must have a way of accessing it to deliver souls and escape back to if slain.This typically means portablebut doesn’t have to.
The lich can enchant a building, monument, or entire demi-plane to contain their soul.These come with a built-in final dungeon!
This lich is confident in their indestructibility, to the point thatthey can openly display their phylactery.
One phylactery per soul
The standard rule is a lich can only have one phylactery. There is aNetherese version of the spell that allows a lich to create several.
Aumvor’s Fragmented Phylactery is named after the lich who crafted the spell. They ended up with atotal of 206 phylacteries scattered across their realm.
Any caster capable of breaking the one phylactery rule is going towield other pre-spellplague magics.
Have Fun With Undeath
Liches are the masters of undeath, but it takes some creativity to use that beyond a giant army of CR 1/4 skeletons. Necromancers with an eternity to hone their craft should wield unique approaches to tasks that keep them interested to DM andcreate enough body horror that the players have an extra motivation to destroy them.
Application
Bone Armour
A humanoid lich might wear the animated skeleton of a larger creature as a suit of armor. Weaponizethe preconception that spellcasters are weak in close quartersor that wearing skulls is purely an aesthetic choice.
Diverse Bodytypes
A lich might start experimenting on makingcreatures that would be impractical or impossible if still living. Terrify the Soulsbourne veterans in your group by havingwheel skeletons in the lich’s army.
Soul Jars
Older editions had some flexibleoverlap between the magic jar spell and the phylactery of a lich.Soul trapping and body-swapping shenanigansare a good way a lich can keep adventurers on their toes.
Unlife Is A Resource
A lich with a grudge against the party should have no reservations aboutthrowing themselves into a suicidal attack.Their death is much more temporarythan anyone else’s, letting them trade it favorably.
Kick The Undead Dog
There are few ways to make your players hate a villain faster thanhaving them resurrect a beloved NPC (or possibly even a former PC)as an undead mockery.
Epic Magic
If your lich is old enough to have experienced it, give them some homebrew versions of tenth-level and higher spells found in previous editions. This is also a way tocatch off-guard any players who have memorized the fifth edition spell list.
