Discussion:Lichdom, how does one do it?

Lichdom, how does one do it?

Eiji 04:20, 4 September 2007 (MDT)

I have a character whose eventual goal is lichdom. I already have a means but as I understand, the rules are vague as to what sort of 'unspeakable evil acts' are involved beyond making your phylactery. I made up a good one which I'll share, but I am curious what sort of ritual other members of this place would devise.

Here is mine, half based on another lichification process I saw.

To become a lich you need the Herbs of Unlife, the Distilled Water of the Undead, the Torch of Burning Souls, your phylactery, the Heart of Darkness, and a place to do it cursed by bloodshed.

• The Herbs of Unlife are grown in the coffin/body of a royal/important person slain by your hand. They grow in 4d10 days and may be plucked and perserved. When growing they must not touch light.

• The Distilled Water of Unlife is water gained from a source which a corpse has been rotting in it for 7 days. This is the corpse of a young innocent half your age or less, and at the end of 7 days it must be animated under Desecration or Unhallow. The fate of the undead after that is irrelevent, just gather the water and mix with the Herbs and blood over the burning souls.

• The Torch of Souls is powered by burning and eventually cracking a soul gem with the soul of a Good person inside. With the flames now burning blue, you use this to heat the mixture of water and herbs and blood of the innocents to make the Elixar. Don't forget the heart. The death of the corpse must be from having the heart removed while living. The potion brews in 6 hours.

• The Heart of Darkness must come from the drowned body. No light from the sun must shine when removed and must be stored fresh inside of a magic box until the time of the ritual. A magic box of repose death will work. The Heart is added to the potion at the ceremony.

• It must be done on cursed land. With Unhallow cast upon it, if must have been the site of some massacre, and even better if it was your doing. With a cupful of fresh human blood of any sacrifical victim of good alignment, add to the potion and drink. If the murders were of your doing the good alignment is not required, anyone will do.

Sam Kay  04:43, 4 September 2007 (MDT)

The character must make a Phylactery in which to store it's life force. It requires the craft wonderous item feat. The character must be able to cast spells and have a caster level of at least 11th level. The phylactery costs 120,000 Gp and 4,800 Xp to create. It has a caster level equal to that of its creator when it created the phylactery.

See lich for details.

Eiji 71.238.9.206 05:48, 4 September 2007 (MDT)

I already know how to make the lich, I only am curious on how others go about with the other parts of it. Becoming a lich is more than merely building a magic soul storing item, it's a ritual to bind yourself to that item, something which is only described as some horribly evil act. What do you suppose it may be/how would you go about with this ritual?

Sam Kay 06:13, 4 September 2007 (MDT)

Oh. I assume you build the phylactery and then perform some kind of ritual in order to remove a portion of your soul and imprison it in the Phylactery. Perhaps you could use a magic pentacle. Or perhaps you could use the Harry Potter method: You make your Phylactery (called a Horcrux in Harry Potter), and then kill someone magically with the soul intent of creating a phylactery. At this point a portion of your soul departs from your body and enters the Phylactery, and you become a Lich. Multiple Phylacteries can be made, each one requireing a murder (as above), but once so many are made, portions of your soul just split off randomly when you kill someone...

Wackymynd 16:00, 23 March 2008 (MDT)

The Harry Potter method does work very well in this case. I wonder if J.K.Rowling ever played DnD or if it was just a coincidence.

Sir Milo Teabag 20:26, 23 March 2008 (MDT)

I don't think she'd need to stoop to something like that. It may just be her own imagination. Still, Voldemort's a good example to use to demonstrate the lich concept to new players.

To become a lich you need as mentioned before make a Phylactery. This Process is discribed under Lich. But just crafting a wondrous item is not enough. You also have to cast the Magic Jar spell to make your soul travel over to a crystal(must be worth at least 100gp). After this you must cast a Trap the Soul spell on the crystal, remember to have a gem worth 1000gp/hit dice that is to be stored. This gem is i part of the Phylactery.

To complete the act of lichdom you must drink a potion that in turn will kill tou. This is a level draining process and therefore you will lose one level of experience. There is also a possibility to fail, and the result is death.

And to the point where you mention the "unspeakable evil acts". This is in the process when you make the potion. There are different types of recipies but here is one:

2 pinches of pure arsenic 1 pinch of belladonna 1 measure of fresh phase spider venom(less than 30 days old) 1 measure of fresh wyvern venom (less than 60 days old ) The blood of a human killed by a phase spider The blood of a human killed by a mixture of arsenic and belladonna, The heart of a human killed by wyvern venom 1 quart of blood from a vampire or a human infected with vampirism Mixed and boiled in a clay pot with grave dirt and brackish water

And as you can see, you need to kill some people to obtain these ingridients. This is considered as the evil acts.

And remember, if you succeeds in becoming a Lich you will not gain any more levels. But you will gain other abilities. You are immortal as long as your Phylactery are intact. If you are killed in combat or your body has been burned to ashes, you have the the ability to possess a dead humanoid body(must be within 90 feet from your Phylactery). In this possessed body you can go and collect every pieces of your body back to your Phylactery. You will know what are your body parts as if there where cast a permenently locate object upon them.

If you want to become a demilich you must create 8 soul gems in addition to the Phylactery. This is discribed under Demilich.

WOTC's Answer

It says how in WOTC's "A Practical Guide to Monsters". It says:

1. Create a phylactery. Which must take the form of an object.

2. Craft a life-force potion. The recipe for this potion is kept under lock and key at the Wee Jass library.

2. A the next full moon, imbibe the potion. The drinker's life-force drains into the enchanted phylactery.

3. The transformation begins.

Two things wrong with this though. One two 2's, and unless Wee Jass is a deity in your setting you have to make your own way to do it. Plus did you take that Lich ritual from the Oblivion Mod "Lich" because that is the same items for its lich transformation.

--Milo High-Hill 07:51, 10 August 2010 (UTC)

I will boldly say that a Lich does NOT need to be evil to become one. While there are probably very few ways for a good person to become a lich. One way I could think is one is a Shepard of the Dead, helping lost spirits move on and such, or a powerful mage, or other sort of magic user who is eternally bound to guard something or complete a task, that is noble. The key part is that you take part of your soul and put in a phylactery. The most predictable way to become one is to use the blood of innocents, and other dark relics. Although a nexus of magic, or something of that nature could probably be used to turn one into a lich. Then there are some characters, like Dread Necromancers, who are able to become liches with just a phylactery at the peak of their power. I could also take a leap of faith and say someone who is simple an undead spell caster, could 'grow' and 'transform' into a lich. How that could happen is up to the person. In short in varies in many, many ways. I hope you enjoyed my thoughts on it. ~mentalkitty789

you seem to be focusing only on the person who chooses to become a lich for the sake of immortality. there are several different types of lich that i have found info on in the past. i forget the names now. there are only one or two that are done for good. one is done by elves normally by the oldest member of a family of high elves, the reason they choose lichdom is to protect and guide the family line for all time, this is done for the good of others and not for the immortality of the one so it is considered good and the elf does not change alignment. there is another that is done normally by someone who hates the thought of immortality but wants revenge,etc. they become a lich for a duration of one year. the process gives them a lot of power,etc. but they have only one year to live after completing the process to complete their final act, revenge, glory,etc. once they finish whatever they wanted to do they lie down and die, if after a year they haven't successfully completed the mission they die.

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