Paladin and Warrior Against Lich

[Yuukale]

So... long story short, in tonight's session, the city's captain of the guard (paladin 20) teamed up with a tavern owner (retired fighter 20), both npcs, and crashed into a Lich's hall (wizard ranging from 15 to 20) and pounded him to dust. Our pcs were taking care of the lich's minions.

Now, my question: is that somehow possible? paladin 20 + fighter 20 to crush a Wizard 15 ? Apparently the Lich didn't lack his spells and was quite confident he could crush anything while sitting on his throne (before the npcs crashed in)

[Waker]

The general consensus will be no. Paladin and Fighters tend to be one-trick ponies who lack the means to overcome the many, many defenses, contingencies and traps that a lich could and would have set up in his lair. Even without considering the possibility of minions in service to the lich, the wizard himself would have an expansive list of spells to choose from, allowing him to become invisible, fly, teleport, manipulate the battlefield, debuff the NPCs and so on. The Fighter and Paladin would have practically no answers to this, shy of using magic items.
For a Fighter and Paladin to defeat a level 15 wizard lich, the lich would have to be played well below his intelligence.

[JeminiZero]

Is it POSSIBLE? Definitely, if the Lich spent all his spell slots on heightened detect poison. Confidence is not a definitive measure of ability.

Even if he really was losing, he could have simply teleported away to replan.

[Waker]

Yes, what I should have said is that it is possible, just very unlikely.
Honestly I see the outcome as having happened for one of two reasons. I spoilered the second in case it might be the DM's plot.
1. The DM is setting up these guys as the big super heroes who lead the party on all the adventures. While they save the day, the party is helping by dealing with the minions. Go team!
2. The whole fight was a set-up and the lich is still alive. The lich that was defeated was just a decoy and if a phylactery was smashed it was a fake.

[HeadlessMermaid]

1) Predetermined result via DM fiat, nothing to fret about.

2) Misdirection. The PCs are busy with minions, while the Warrior and the Paladin are in another room. Then they claim they destroyed the Lich, but who knows what happened there. Are the NPCs really who they claim they are? Maybe they are impostors. Maybe they are lying, or maybe they are dominated. Maybe they are actually dead, animated and disguised. Or maybe it's the lich and his lieutenant, disguised as a captain of the guard and a tavern owner. :smalltongue: The possibilities are endless.

...It really depends on your DM's style.

[Namfuak]

Assuming a. They got a surprise round and b. They could move into melee range with at least their standard action left, grappling and then pinning him could be an effective strategy, if he hadn't prepared for it. Alternatively, they could have sundered his spell component pouch. This is all assuming they weren't both uberchargers and the lich forgot to put up any regular damage resistance that morning.

If they came in and didn't immediately kill/disable him though, I'm pretty sure that they would have not had a chance, at least without taking a very optimized set of magic items into account.

[Almaseti]

Well, what's recommended wealth for a level 20 character? I could easily buy them (especially the paladin) having some awesome undead-vanquishing gear. Maybe the paladin specializes in destroying undead and some magic items that let them sneak up to unholy abominations undetected until it's time to smite. Maybe the fighter has tons of magic items that help him win initiative. Maybe the DM just wants to have it happen that way.