Discussion:How to became a Lich?

How to became a Lich?

Azernath (talk) 22:18, 4 November 2015 (MST)

I was wondering what does it take to become a Lich? If it is a ritual, what does it take to complete it? And if you succeed, what does happen to you? What changes that happen to your stats? This is for a specail rule about turning to a lich.

Marasmusine (talk) 00:41, 5 November 2015 (MST)

The monster manual describes the ritual (although it's largely a "secret"). Are you wanting this as a player or a DM? There are no associated mechanics, as it's not something a PC is expected to do. If it's something a player really wants to do, the DM needs to work it into the campaign, requiring significant resources, the specifics need homebrewing.

Azernath (talk) 09:58, 5 November 2015 (MST)

Well, being a DM for almost one year, I still need to know many things; however, I never found any good guide or website that helps a DM in a campaign where one of the PC's want to be a lich or a god. Now, I am running a campaign where all my PC's are demigods in search of a why to become gods or goddess, I was thinking to make one of them seek such goal by becoming a lich somewhat like Vecna, so I made this discussion because I want to find an idea of what every aspect of being a lich is.

--Kydo (talk) 19:00, 28 May 2016 (MDT)

OK, first off, traditionally a Lich was just the revenant of an evil wizard. Simply by being powerful and evil enough at death, they could refuse to leave this world and continue to haunt their remains. There was no ritual. The idea of intentionally becoming a Lich came from The Elder Scrolls way back when they released Arena. Arena was a smash, and lots of other game designers took inspiration from it, and that's why a lot of Elder Scrolls original ideas are so often conflated with D&D inspired games and D&D itself. Video games took over the public imagination, resulting in this all coming circle quite quickly, with D&D monster manuals mentioning wizards intentionally becoming a Lich very shortly after that game's release. So, since TES is the earliest documented root for this, I'll describe that ritual as best I can- remember, it has never been explained in full detail.

Basically, a person must become a Necromancer first. In TES, there was only ever one true necromancer, Mannimarco, the king of worms. He was a cosmic-level supervillain wizard who used his command of the dead for cruelty and selfishness. He was slain, but he used his own magic to preserve himself as a sort of lesser undead god. He extends his influence in the dreams of those who sleep under the light of one of the two moons, Secunda, (itself the rotting husk of a dead god, Lorkhan) on a specific night every month, which is dictated by the positions of the two moons; I believe it was while Secunda is passing in front of Masser or something? Those who answer his call are taken into his fold, and in return for their service, he grants them dreams which reveal how to use the supernatural light he casts to raise and control the dead. In effect, all necromancers in TES are basically clerics worshiping a god of undeath. Some of his most powerful agents are awarded with a sort of immortality in undeath by becoming a lich. The ceremony is shrouded in secret, but it basically involves getting a soul gem, (a crystal used to trap souls for creating enchantment effects) turning it into a black soul gem, (a corrupted crystal which can defy the law of the god of death, Arkay, allowing the souls of people to be captured) placing it with an object to act as a phylactery, (an inanimate object in which the caster's soul will be contained, preventing them from ever truly "dying") and then fasting from one lunar event to the next while paying tribute in religious ceremony to Mannimarco. If Mannimarco wants the wizard to stick around longer than his life span would allow, then his soul transfers to the phylactery, from which it haunts its corpse as a revenant. If Mannimarco doesn't want them to stick around, they typically just die of starvation and dehydration, though it is highly unlikely that they would have figured out the details of the ceremony if he didn't want them to in the first place.

Suppoko (talk) 07:00, 9 June 2016 (MDT)

Becoming a lich is pretty simple actually, it does however require some work on your part as a DM. There is a template in the 3rd ed MM that you need to adjust for your edition. OR you are the DM so get creative and tell him what you think it would require to happen.

PS- the elder scrolls didn't invent becoming a lich at all. Dragon magazine #26 from 1979 has an article on how to do it......--Suppoko (talk) 06:58, 9 June 2016 (MDT)

If you're playing with the 2e rules, it should become clear that Magic Jar is definitely a requirement for the ritual. However, Magic Jar does not allow a person to tap into the body of the undead. This is why the ritual is a "secret"--this spell (or ritual) is not available to the manuals and must be researched for this event to even be possible, much like the making of a dracolich. The phylactery, which is basically a Magic Jar receptacle, is used to take over an undead monster with an actual intelligence level. I don't believe the requirements for the Magic Jar insist on a "living" host. Once the host is overcome, it's soul is put into the receptacle which is stored away because if this receptacle is destroyed, the host is slain and the caster must return to the receptacle (which is destroyed) or he is pronounced dead also. I don't recall seeing a duration period for how long the host's body can be taken over so another receptacle (the phylactery) can be created so that the caster can store their soul inside until lich mode can officially be activated. The host's body, in other words, becomes the caster's new body for the making of the phylactery.

As a rules lawyer would put it. Once the lich is activated, the phylactery is no longer useful because the spell ends when the caster return's to their own body (which is the host's body at this point). However, if Dispel Magic were to be cast on the lich after it becomes activated, the caster would return to the receptacle, swapping the undead soul for the caster's for d4+1rnds. From there, it would be wise for the caster to maintain their own body under Feign Death so that the caster can escape after the host's body is slain.

Back to Main Page → Meta Pages → Discussions