Contemplating schemes that might take decades or even centuries to come to fruition, the lich sits in its lair inside of a pocket dimension removed from the rest of the universe. The secrets of the cosmos lie waiting for the lich to discover them, if only it can devise a cunning enough plot. Liches are one of the most common and widely known BBEG's (Big Bad Evil Guys) in all of Dungeons & Dragons due to their unequaled intellect, powers of undeath, and stubborn resistance to staying dead.

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Any player who encounters a lich knows to proceed with caution, but, for all their fame, players don't necessarily know much about liches besides the obvious: they are powerful undead wizards who cannot be killed without the destruction of their hidden phylactery. Let's take a closer look at these masters of magic and maybe even unlock some of the monster's hidden weaknesses. As a lich would tell you itself, knowledge is the truest form of power.

10 Liches Are Resistant To Many Damage Types

Despite their seemingly frail skeletal bodies, liches carry more damage resistances and immunities than some of the most terrifying creatures found in the Monster Manual. They are immune to poison damage as well as bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks, so players had better make sure their martial characters are equipped with magical weapons before ever going toe to toe with a lich. Furthermore, they are resistant to cold, necrotic, and lightning damage, meaning spellcasters ought to take care of their spell selection.

9 Liches Retain All Of Their Memories

Unlike most other types of undead, liches remember everything about their mortal lives: from lost elven loves, to professional triumphs, to the dark path that led them to lichdom. The memory of the emotions they felt is forever burned into their minds, but their new, unfeeling forms don't allow for those emotions to ever mature.

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While time heals all wounds for most, it preserves a lich's wounds forever. A lich never forgets those people or perspectives that harmed it in life, and it certainly never forgives.

8 Liches Can Be Any Alignment

Contrary to popular belief, liches aren't all bad. It's just that 99% of them are indisputably evil. A lich retains whatever alignment it was when it achieved lichdom. Seeing as the process by which one becomes a lich usually consists of horrible acts like cavorting with demons and killing infant children, almost all liches are evil when they undergo the transformation. However, there are a few times where this is not the case.

7 Liches Are Typically Created By A Ritual

dungeon master guide lich

The means by which a spellcaster achieves lichdom is a closely guarded secret. According to the Monster Manual, many liches cut a deal with Orcus, the demon prince of undeath, to unlock the secrets to everlasting unlife.

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However a spellcaster comes by the knowledge of this Ritual of Becoming, it has been said to require the creation and consumption of a potion known as the Elixir of Defilement. By drinking this elixir during a full moon, an audacious mage kills him or herself so that they may rise as an undead lich some amount of time later.

6 Liches Can Happen Accidentally

The Ritual of Becoming isn't the only way for someone to become a lich though. It's said that those who are overexposed to life-prolonging magic may also unwittingly undergo the transformation. These are the kinds of liches that are more likely to be of a good alignment. Even though a lich like this might have the best of intentions, all liches are forced to feed on the souls of other humanoids in order to preserve themselves.

5 Liches Usually Serve Greater Evils

As mentioned previously, the secrets to achieving lichdom are kept very close by those who know them. As a result, most liches do not acquire their undead form without the help of a greater and more powerful evil. These evils would never give away the secret without a price, and what could be a better deal than the eternal servitude of a newly empowered lich. Liches are often portrayed as the masterminds behind their operations, and they almost always are. But in the grand scheme of things on a cosmic scale, liches are usually one more cog in the great machines of the gods.

4 Liches Hoard Magic Items

Liches are like walking magical item libraries. Collecting magic items is like a hobby to them: something they do for fun in between their diabolical schemes. What makes this really scary though is that liches aren't afraid to use the items they discover.

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While a dragon's hoard of magic items sit in its treasure trove collecting dust, a lich wields the magic items it finds in battle with terrible glee.

3 A Liches Greatest Ally Is Time

Perhaps the most annoying thing about liches is that they can simply wait out whatever obstructions mortals throw into their plans. After all, why risk another body-crushing defeat at the hands of high-level adventurers when you can take a vacation for a couple of hundred years instead? If a lich can't win, it will simply hide until time does the work for him. Then, the lich can get back at you by terrorizing whatever ancestors you leave behind. Now that's cruel.

2 Liches Use The Imprisonment Spell To Sustain Themselves

Phylactery usage might seem like one of those things that there aren't any hard and fast mechanics for in the game, but this actually isn't the case. It's stated in the Monster Manual that liches use the 9th level imprisonment spell to trap the body and soul of humanoids inside of their phylactery, where both are consumed and destroyed within 24 hours. Furthermore, a soul destroyed in such a manner is impossibly lost save for the intervention of a god (hint hint dungeon masters).

1 Liches Can Become Gods

One of the most famous gods in all of DnD lore was actually once a lich. Of course, we're talking about Vecna, a villain originally created for the Greyhawk setting and who was popularized by his inclusion as the final villain of Critical Role's first season. Becoming a god is perhaps the most ambitious of goals for a lich to accomplish, but it's nonetheless possible. The power of a god in DnD is usually directly tied to the number of worshippers he or she has, which can prove a problem for most liches. Despite their mastery of undeath and the arcane, liches aren't very well known for their social skills.

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