Category:Lich

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Canon Information

Liches are spellcasters who have embraced undeath as a route to power. The soul of every lich resides in a specially created magic container called a phylactery, allowing the lich a form of immortality so long as the phylactery is intact. Beyond immortality, the "standard" lich has a number of common special abilities. The touch of a lich commonly causes paralysis. In addition, the lich commonly radiates an aura of fear able to frighten weaker creatures.

In any land, liches are deadly. However, liches in the Demiplane are even more fearsome. The gaming supplement Van Richten's Guide to the Lich (and reprinted in Van Richten's Monster Hunter's Compendium) introduced the concept of salient abilities, special abilities that a Dungeon Master may customize a lich NPC with. (The number of salient abilities varies based on the lich's Intelligence score.) In addition, liches in the Land of Mists commonly have two other universal abilities over and beyond their kin in other worlds. These special abilities areLich Sight and Undead Control. Ravenloft Third Edition and the Ravenloft Player's Handbook contain 3rd Edition revisions of some, but not all, of the information in VRGttL about special lich powers.

The process of becoming a lich is a voluntary one that is ultimately corrupting. Although liches of Good or Neutral alignment exist in other worlds, all those in Ravenloft are Evil in alignment. This is not to say that all potential liches partake the transformation for purely evil reasons or were evil prior to the transformation. However, "life" as a lich inevitably draws them towards corruption.

Interestingly, while every other type of undead can be found there, no liches reside in the domain of Barovia[1][2] or Keening.[3][4] Liches can, however, be encountered in Cavitius[5], Darkon[6] and Necropolis[7]. As undead, they may be encountered in Har'Akir[8][9], Mordent[10][11], Sanguinia[12], Sithicus[13][14], and Valachan[15][16],

References

In Literature

Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue

Ravenloft Third Edition
Van Richten's Guide to the Lich

Ravenloft Third Edition - p186

Ravenloft Third Edition - pp184-187
Van Richten's Guide to the Lich - throughout

Ravenloft Third Edition - pp184-187
Van Richten's Guide to the Lich - throughout