this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2023
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That guy is thinking about an Intoner, the bardic equivalent of a lich.
Anyone wanting a ton of fun ideas for variant liches should check out Pointy Hat's channel, he's doing a whole series on custom lich types for different kinds of spellcaster (and he also just did a Barbarian Lich type, the Scourge, so he's branching out to non-spellcasters too).
Great call. I very heavily based him on the Intoner, with some adjustments for him being an orator/teller of tall tales instead of a musician. And yes, if you're not watching Pointy Hat get on that ASAP!
I also endorse Pointy Hat and his content. It's on YouTube, and he's also recently been streaming multihour world building sessions on Twitch (I think on Saturdays). Lots of good stuff, presented in an entertaining way.
So you basically have to unperson him to kill him? Let's just petrify him and chuck him in a demiplane and call it good enough.
The petrification trick works on any lich to counter its phylactery. Unless the lich has prepared some way to counter it, which they might have because liches are highly intelligent generally speaking and don't just sit in a room waiting for adventurers to come and whack them.
Assuming you're knocking them out first, their best bet is Magic Missile targeted at themselves. It won't miss, and it's enough hits to kill them instantly. The players could use Dispel Magic to get rid of Contingency, but Glyph of Warding protected by Nystul's Magic Aura would be a bigger problem. Luckily, Nystul's Magic Aura only works on objects, not surfaces, so make sure to move everything not nailed down. Alternately, use an antimagic field, and then carry them out of their lair before dropping it.
The lich could also have a task force to find and destroy their petrified body. Ideally you toss it into a Demiplane, or better yet, True Polymorph them into something with a really low Wisdom, then Imprison them in a Hedged Prison and destroy the special material component. But that takes high level spells and you'll need to rest to get them back or bring the statue to someone that can cast them.
But if a lich is smart enough to set all this up, it's still easier to try to get around it than go after their phylactery. Though you may as well try casting Demiplane and look for a plane where the contents are the lich's phylactery, and the purpose is to hide the lich's phylactery. It's probably also going to contain a ton of traps, which will either go off or prevent you from going there in the first place because you didn't guess all the traps.
Huh, I saw VaranSL from dumpstat posted something similar a year or so ago. Did variant liches for all the classes. I liked it enough it based my current adventure on it.
Is that video the only lich one Pointy Hat has done? Or are his villain videos about liches in part?
Edit: oh yeah that's it. Villain videos are in the Which Lich playlist.