THE LICH

The Lich is one of the most powerful of the Undead, a person who willingly tasted of the dark waters of death, killing their bodies, but allowing their spirits to live, acclimatizing those spirits to the dark energies that are the source of pure evil.   The spirit returns to the shriveled body and the corpse rises from its grave, eyes lit with its lust for knowledge and power.  The mage is dead, but the lich lives now and forever as a corpse. 

The Twilight Gathering boasts some of the greatest lich hunters on Inzeladun.  Hunting liches is difficult because you not only have to destroy the physical body, but you have to destroy the lich's phylactery before it is truly dead.

Common powers include "lich sight" ( A lich can see with normal vision in all lighting situations, from total darkness to total brightness), the black aura (projecting fear, cold, and darkness), the Chilling Touch (Its touch can freeze the skin of anything as would the coldest arctic ice), weapon immunities (typically +1 or better enchantment to hit), immunity to biological spells (including resurrection),  spells and spellcasting powers (note:  liches cast necromantic spells in half the time and at twice normal effectiveness), control over the undead, plus retained abilities left over from life.

Some of the more famous liches of Inzeladun are or were Endrath, Azanar, Merandius, Nepathoth, Kherit, Tzareth, and Xanthor.

Note:  Xanthor was  PC lich!

Liches also have some unique abilities.  Liches commonly have 1d3+1 of these "salient" powers.  Salient powers include Bone Command, Chilling Wind, Coldfire, Improved Defense, Animate Dead by touch, Dream Manipulation, Doom gaze, Fool's feast, Grasp of Death, Grasp of Enfeeblement, Control undead legion, Painwrack, Imitation, Polymorph, Regeneration, Skull scry, vortex of evil, voice of maleficence, Ignore metal, Improved spellcasting.

In addition to mage liches (above), there are also Mentalist Liches (psionicists) and priestly liches.

I highly recommend TSR's "Van Richten's Guide to the Lich" for any interested in battling liches or running a lich campaign.  It is possible for a group of adventurers to build their entire careers around defeating the plans of a single lich.  Usually, when a lich is discovered as being active in Inzeladun, various groups of players strive to combat the lich.  The destruction of Endrath, Azanar, and Tzareth were campaign wide events, utilizing multiple groups of characters.

Liches represent the most powerful of the Undead, greater than even the formidable vampire.  If your characters are not up to research and thought, then those characters had better run when faced with the terrible lich or they will be destroyed.  A brave heart with a stake and a hammer will not help when combating the Lich.

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