Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast

This is part of a series! Go here to see the other entries.

Lichs are the original horrible undead wizards of D&D, having existed since the beginning. They’re both in the 4e Monster Manual and the Vault.

The Lore

A lich is a spellcaster, usually a wizard or warlock, who has performed an unspeakably evil ritual to become undead while retaining all of their intellect and magical power. Several liches have been successful enough that their names are known throughout existence. There’s Vlaakith, the supreme ruler of the githyanki; Acecerak, whose disembodied soul wanders the planes; and of course Vecna, who became a god.

All liches are evil. In life, they were at the very least ambitious individuals with an insatiable lust for both temporal and magical power. While someone can technically possess these traits without being evil, the stuff they have to do as part of the ritual, as well as the process itself, will inevitably warp their alignment that way.

Most such greedy wizards become liches to cheat death. They start to search the world and the planes for lore that allows them to piece together the ritual as soon as they realize they’re not going to live long enough to conquer the entire universe. Sure, death is not the end in D&D, but it usually means losing your stuff and for some wizards that’s worse than oblivion. I imagine these spellcasters make an effort to erase any knowledge of this ritual after they find it to prevent future competition, but somehow the next lich candidate always manages to find their own copy.

Liches are a lot more patient about their schemes than they were in life - they now have the whole of eternity to work them. Their goal remains to accumulate as much power and knowledge as possible, and now they have absolutely no moral qualms about the methods used for this (if they ever had any before). Lots of evil creatures serve liches willingly because they like to bask in their utter depravity.

Liches tend to be security conscious (read: paranoid), because their immortal forms can still be destroyed through violence. They’ll rarely leave their fortified lairs, sending lackeys to further their schemes when possible. A Lich’s soul is anchored in a phylactery, which is usually a tiny metal box filled with arcane writings, but can also be any other small item. The phylactery ensures a destroyed lich will re-materialize in a few days. The security arrangements around phylacteries are even more elaborate and dangerous than those around the lich itself, and can tell you a lot about the personality of the lich in question.

Destroying a lich requires destroying the philactery first, and then the lich itself. You have to be fast about it, because the lich can build itself another philactery in a few days. Sometimes, not even this is enough: a powerful entity associated with undeath such as Orcus or Vecna can call a destroyed lich back into existence as a vestige. Orcus is the original architect of lichdom, and nearly all liches are his agents in the end. I imagine this doesn’t apply to Vecna, and that the demon lord has competition in this area now.

Fifth Edition would add that liches need to regularly consume souls to keep existing, but this is absent from the text here. Their all-consuming greed and ambition is enough reason for them to keep inflicting evil upon the world.

The Numbers

First off, we get stats for the Lich Transformation ritual! It’s level 14, requires training in Arcana or Religion, takes 1 hour, and costs 100,000gp in components. A market price of 250,000gp for the formula is also listed because that’s the standard format for rituals, but this is definitely not something you can find in most markets. Maybe there’s a kiosk in Orcus’ abyssal layer or Vecna’s domain that sells it, if you want to be cute about it.

Constructing the philactery is a separate process that takes 10 days - the 1 hour ritual casting time is just the final step that kills you and makes you a lich. Phylacteries are tough, with 40hp and resist 20 to all damage. The cost for the first one is included in the ritual’s casting cost. Replacements take another 10 days to build and cost 50,000gp. Feel free to include any amount of baby-eating you require to mark this whole process (both building and casting) as irredeemably evil.

Early in 4e, “Lich” is a monster template presented in the DMG, which the Monster Manual applies to a “Human Necromancer” and an “Eladrin Wizard” stat block. By the time the Monster Vault had been written those templates had fallen out of favor, so its stat blocks are built from scratch while observing the same themes.

On to the stat blocks!

Lich (Human Necromancer) (MM)

This is a Medium Natural Humanoid (undead) and a Level 14 Elite Controller with 218 HP (MM). It has Speed 6, Darkvision, Resist 10 Necrotic, and immunity to disease and poison. It also has Regeneration 10, which can be turned off for a turn by radiant damage.

This lich surrounded by a Necromantic Aura with a radius of 5 squares, which deals 5 necrotic damage to anyone caught inside. Against civilians with 1 HP, this is a weapon of mass destruction all by itself, though few liches would be murderous enough to use it in that way.

Its active powers are weird in that it entirely lacks a melee basic attack. This is likely an editorial oversight. Instead it has a ranged basic attack named Shadow Ray (Ranged 20 vs. Reflex) which does necrotic damage.

Every once in a while the lich can use Frostburn (Area Burst 2 Within 20 vs. Fortitude; recharge 5-6), which does cold and necrotic damage and creates a zone that deals another 10 cold and necrotic damage to anyone caught inside. This lasts a turn and can be sustained as a minor action.

A lich reduced to 0 HP will crumble to dust along with its possessions, and both will reform adjacent to its phylactery in 1d10 days. This can be stopped by destroying the phylactery.

Finally, it can use the Second Wind action to recover 54 HP and get +2 to defenses for a turn.

Lich Necromancer (MV)

The updated version of the messy lich above. This one is also a Level 14 Elite Controller, with 268 HP and no Second Wind. It has the same speed, senses, immunities, resistances and vulnerabilities but no regeneration.

The Necromantic Aura remains and works the same way, as does the phylactery. Its active abilities are a lot more interesting.

The lich attacks in melee with a Vampiric Touch (vs. Fortitude) that deals necrotic damage and heals the lich for the same amount. Its ranged attack is Freezing Claw (Ranged 5 vs. Reflex; one or two creatures) that deals cold and necrotic and immobilizes on a hit (save ends); on a miss, it does no damage and slows (save ends).

Its big attack is Enervating Tendrils (Area Burst 1 within 10 vs. Fortitude), a tentacular explosion that deals a bunch of necrotic damage and weakens on a hit (save ends). It deals half damage on a miss and recharges once the lich is first bloodied.

As a move action it can use Shadow Walk once per encounter, teleporting twice its speed.

As a minor action, it can use Lich’s Control (Close Burst 10; recharge 5-6), which targets one enemy suffering from a “save ends” effect and automatically inflicts a -5 penalty on their next save.

If you need a level 14 lich, use this one and forget the one on the MM.

Lich (Eladrin Wizard) (MM)

This is pretty much a level 24 version of the human necromancer lich. It’s a Level 24 Elite Controller with 262 HP and exactly the same passive traits, speed, immunities, resistances, and so on. Even the numbers on the resistances are the same.

Like its weaker counterpart, this lich lacks a melee attack. It attacks at range with a Shadow Ray that does necrotic damage, and occasionally upgrades it to a Necrotic Orb (recharge 5-6) that doe the same damage and also stuns for a turn. Every once in a while it will cover an area with an Entropic Pulse (Area Burst 2 vs. Reflex; recharge 5-6) that does necrotic damage.

The eladrin lich has the same phylactery mechanics and Second Wind, too.

Lich Soulreaver (MV)

This one is a Level 22 Artillery lich with 156 HP. It has all the same senses, speed, and resistances as the Lich Necromancer, though their numbers have been increased to reflect an epic tier monster. The same happened with the Aura, which now does 10 damage.

Soulreavers fight in melee with a Vampiric Touch that works like that of the Necromancer but does more damage. They fight at range with Dark Bolts (Ranged 20 vs. Reflex; 1 or 2 creatures) that do lightning and necrotic damage and allow an ally adjacent to the target to shift 2 squares.

Twice an encounter they can cast Black Flames (Area Burst 2 within 10 vs. Reflex; enemies only) which does both immediate and ongoing fire and necrotic damage while also making the target grant combat advantage (save ends all). On a miss it still does half damage and slightly less ongoing damage (save ends).

And finally, this lich can also Shadow Walk.

Lich Remnant and Lich Vestige (Both)

These wispy, fragile things are what you get when Orcus or Vecna prevent a lich from being entirely destroyed. Aside from level they’re mostly identical. Remnants (from the MV) are Level 16 Minion Artillery, and Vestiges (from the MM) are level 26.

Remnants and vestiges fight in melee with a Shadow Touch and at range with a Shadow Ray. They can also cast a Orb of Obliteration (Area Burst 1 within 10 vs. Reflex) at will, or alternatively use Obliteration Empowerment on another remnant/vestige. This causes the orbs the ally uses on their next turn to cover a larger area (+1) and do more damage (+5). Multiple uses of this stack, so you could have a bunch of minion liches empower one single ally so it can nuke the party.

The Vestige’s powers work the same, but they’re worded a bit differently.

Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

The MM has two sample encounters, both Serious Business:

  • Level 25: 1 eladrin lich, 2 great flameskulls, 2 soulspike devourers.

  • Level 26: 6 lich vestiges, friggin’ Dorensain the Ghoul King, 2 dread wraiths.

As you can see, liches surround themselves with all sorts of undead lackeys of their own making. Constructs are probably very common as well, with summoned elementals and demons being used as one-off muscle. I imagine devils wouldn’t appear very often, though. It’s probably not uncommon for a powerful evil wizard to sell their soul and renege on the deal by turning into a lich, so devils would dislike liches on principle.

I imagine you could do a whole party of undead villains too: a lich, a death knight, a vampire and so on.

Mechanically, you should ignore the liches from the Monster Manual and focus on the ones from the Vault, which are much better designed. If you want to create your own varieties, base them on the MV liches and their signature traits.