A Lichs Phylactery, Questions

[Oontarg]

Lichs grant a spellcaster immortality as long as they can keep their Phylactery intact. What are the best ways to keep a Lichs Phylactery intact. I have a few ideas, which are as follows.

1. Hide the Phylactery very well.
2. Cast spells to hide the Phylactery even better.
3. Craft a contingency spell (Complete Arcane) on the Phylactery that teleports it to a safe location when "discovered".
4. Craft a contingency spell on Phylactery to teleport it to a safe location when a creature comes in 30ft of its hiding place.
5. When you craft the Phylactery make it a Dwarfcraft (Races of Stone) item. Giving it 50 hit points and hardness 22.

Any more ideas on how to protect a Lichs Phylactery would be appreciated. The more inventive the better.

[Herabec]

Step 1: Craft Phylactery.

Step 2: Hire minion.

Step 3: Take minion out to the middle of absolutely nowhere. The harder to access, the better.

Step 4: Give phylactery to minion.

Step 5: Cast Imprisonment on minion.

[Emperor Tippy]

Place it in the possession of a Rudimentary Intelligence Shadesteel Golem advanced to 21+ HD with a Third Eye Conceal along with a Blessed Book of yours and give it Permanent Emanation: Selective Antimagic Field set to its self (along with a Permanent Telepathic Bond to you). Exceptional and Infinite Deflection are also good choices.

Teleport it as far into deep space as you can and then order it to go one direction forever.

Have it hold your Blessed Book and Phylactery inside a Type 4 Bag of Holding that has had a Permanent Mage's Private Sanctum cast inside of it (Selective to exclude you, of course).

Give the golem a Ring of Invisibility (which it will activate every two minutes).

Give it a Craft Contingent Wish spell set to dump it at a random location at least ten light years from another creature on the same plane and set to go off if the golem ever detects another entity except you.

Wish is now the only real way to get to your phylactery and there is no real way to prevent that.

[Zanos]

There are quite a few older threads about this. One of the ones I liked was creating your own demiplane via Genesis and then throwing a delayed forbiddance on it, then plane shifting out. This makes it impossible for anyone to go to your demiplane except for yourself. You can get there when you regenerate if your body is destroyed because it's not a teleportation effect. Then you dispel it, cast the delayed forbiddance again, then plane shift. Only issue was that you couldn't get to your phylactery yourself without destroying yourself.

There are other tricks with Genesis as well. You are a magical lich, so use that to your advantage. Major negative energy trait, no air, no gravity. Could possibly switch that up, have air, but make it composed of something fatal to the living.

Personally I'm just a fan of anonymity. Cast gentle repose on yourself so you don't smell, load yourself up with anti-divinations, cast alter self so you aren't as pale. Don't tell anyone you're a lich. Do whatever with your phylactery.

Another idea is having simulacrums of yourself with permanent telepathic bonds to you watch over it. This requires it be on the same plane, but if you can pick up some simulacra, or anything really, with some nice travel abilities you can protect it fairly well.

[BWR]

Hordes of loyal minions.
Decoy phylacteries all over the place.
Deals with powerful outsiders or even gods to help.
Inhospitible locations (outer space is a favorite of mine, given that your setting has such a thing).
Duped idiots (e.g the Star of Solomon, the biggest most expensive most precious jewel in the land is in the possession of the LG Emperor of the LG Empire, and the symbol of his divine right to rule with 2000 years of history behind it. Good luck trying to convince anyone to be allowed to destroy it)
REsearch more powerful version of Nondetection.

[Zanos]

Depending on the power of this lich, there is also an epic spell in Champions of Ruin called Aumvor's Fragmented Phylactery that allows you to do all of these if you want.

[Yora]

Step 1: Craft Phylactery.

Step 2: Hire minion.

Step 3: Take minion out to the middle of absolutely nowhere. The harder to access, the better.

Step 4: Give phylactery to minion.

Step 5: Cast Imprisonment on minion.
And once the lichs body is destroyed, the phylactery creates a new body for him. Which is then imprisoned in a place where nobody will ever find him.

There is one story in which the phylactery is hidden in the heart of a magic immune adamantine golem. That thing was a pain to crack open for enemy wizards.

[Herabec]

And once the lichs body is destroyed, the phylactery creates a new body for him. Which is then imprisoned in a place where nobody will ever find him.

There is one story in which the phylactery is hidden in the heart of a magic immune adamantine golem. That thing was a pain to crack open for enemy wizards.

And then just teleport back to wherever you need to be and return to business as usual. Really, some people just really over think their hiding places.

Hell, no adventurer would think to look in a safety deposit box kept at a legitimate bank. *shrugs*

[Yora]

No you can't because you're in suspended animation inside an imprisonment spell. You are not conscious and can't take any actions.

Or alternatively, the minion and all his possessions are frozen in time, so the phylactery never starts creating a new body.

[Oontarg]

These are great ideas.

An 11th level caster can be Lich. Does any one have any ideas of how a Lich that is an 11th level caster can best "hide" his Phylactery?

Another question i have is a Phylactery the Lichs "soul". If it is, would it be affected by things that affect "souls".

Would it be a good idea to give the Phylactery to the god the Lich worships? Just go to the plane the god is on, give it to the god for protection, then never anger your god and serve your god well. Sure the god has utter power over the Lich, but the Lich has the best protection i can think of...

[DeusMortuusEst]

You could always use the quintessence part of the Dream of Metal (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=121334) to guard it. Every time someone pulls the phylactery out from the quintessence the wearer manifests Forced Dream, resetting everything.

[Herabec]

No you can't because you're in suspended animation inside an imprisonment spell. You are not conscious and can't take any actions.

Or alternatively, the minion and all his possessions are frozen in time, so the phylactery never starts creating a new body.

The lich wouldn't be, since he wasn't the one who was Imprisoned. He's fine.

And also, the lich merely reforms at the location of his phylactery as long as it's intact. Nothing says that the phylactery has to still be flowing with time in order for him to use it as an anchor.

[Saintheart]

Sure the god has utter power over the Lich, but the Lich has the best protection i can think of...

If you mean a god as statted out by WOTC, there are a number of optimisation strategies superior to a god. Most of them engineered by Tippy :) ;) :)

[Oontarg]

If you mean a god as statted out by WOTC, there are a number of optimisation strategies superior to a god. Most of them engineered by Tippy :) ;) :)

Tippys optimisations are great, but would not a god be able be able to use the same optimizations? On top of the that wouldn't it be nice to have a greater deity, with the very high divine rank, that watches and protects the Lichs Phylactery?

[Doxkid]

Would it be a good idea to give the Phylactery to the god the Lich worships? Just go to the plane the god is on, give it to the god for protection, then never anger your god and serve your god well. Sure the god has utter power over the Lich, but the Lich has the best protection i can think of...

Not the best idea. Lich phylacteries actually have a few uses that a powerful god (or high ranking servants of that god) could consider better than having a prissy lich on his team.

If you are becoming a Lich you are making sure nothing is left to chance while you pursue your goals; why reintroduce luck/randomness/other people into the equation?

[EyethatBinds]

In my games I require that a lich coming back have a humanoid body to possess within 100 feet of the phylactery. Tends to make it a bit less odd when they come back, and before the skin comes off due to decay the lich then looks like whomever it has possessed, which leads to all manner of fun situations.

It does mean that a lot of these described protections won't do much. Though if you're able to cast 9th level spells, I personally wouldn't bother becoming a lich. Just cast Etherealness from a timeless demiplane and then plane shift onto the material plane. You've then created a perfect double of yourself that can prepare spells while your real body rests and never needs to be concerned about death. If your double dies you just wake up in your demiplane and wait 8 hours to re-prepare spells.

[TuggyNE]

Just cast Etherealness from a timeless demiplane and then plane shift onto the material plane.

I think you mean astral projection.

[Melcar]

First of all... Make sure noone have seen or touched your phylactery other than yourself!

Then I would cast it in solid metal, preferable adamantite or obdurium if allowed in the game. Then I would planeshift to some random plane and dig a deep hole... throw it in, and go home. Unless you have a realy anoying DM... Nobody is ever goin to find it!

It's low tech, but I think it works just as well...

[EyethatBinds]

I think you mean astral projection.

Oops. You're right. Sorry. Early and all.

[Jellyface]

First of all... Make sure noone have seen or touched your phylactery other than yourself!

Then I would cast it in solid metal, preferable adamantite or obdurium if allowed in the game. Then I would planeshift to some random plane and dig a deep hole... throw it in, and go home. Unless you have a realy anoying DM... Nobody is ever goin to find it!

It's low tech, but I think it works just as well...

(Newb here) Would it be lower tech to get a bag of devouring and have no idea where the phylactery goes?

[Cirrylius]

In my games I require that a lich coming back have a humanoid body to possess within 100 feet of the phylactery.
That's how it worked in 2nd Ed., didn't it? A lich had to be really careful about how his lair was positioned and guarded, because it required a corpse less than five months old to transfer into; someone actually had to be able to penetrate your impenetrable lair and then die, or you were left stuck in your phylactery forever.

[KillianHawkeye]

Would it be a good idea to give the Phylactery to the god the Lich worships? Just go to the plane the god is on, give it to the god for protection, then never anger your god and serve your god well. Sure the god has utter power over the Lich, but the Lich has the best protection i can think of...

That's a fine idea if you're one of those Clerical liches, but your more typical Wizardly lich can probably find better ways to protect it.

[Jack_Simth]

You could always use the quintessence part of the Dream of Metal (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=121334) to guard it. Every time someone pulls the phylactery out from the quintessence the wearer manifests Forced Dream, resetting everything.
Potential problems:
1) Invoking Forced Dream expends it. With no communication method back to the event of tossing the patsy into the quintessence, when someone pulls the phylactery, the Forced Dream is expended, time reverts, and with no change that anyone can tell, everything proceeds exactly as it did the first time round... resulting in the phylactery getting pulled again, only this time, without the Forced Dream.
2) This use of Forced Dream relies on plopping the patsy in Quintessance NOT breaking initiative. If initiative breaks (which the DM could easily rule it does), then the patsy reverting time just reverts time to the point when the patsy came out of the quintessance.
3) No specific reference frame is given for what time stream the lich reappearing is tied to. If it's tied to the phylactery's time stream, then pulling it out of time means when you get killed, you stay dead.

[papr_weezl8472]

There are quite a few older threads about this. One of the ones I liked was creating your own demiplane via Genesis and then throwing a delayed forbiddance on it, then plane shifting out. This makes it impossible for anyone to go to your demiplane except for yourself. You can get there when you regenerate if your body is destroyed because it's not a teleportation effect. Then you dispel it, cast the delayed forbiddance again, then plane shift. Only issue was that you couldn't get to your phylactery yourself without destroying yourself.

There are other tricks with Genesis as well. You are a magical lich, so use that to your advantage. Major negative energy trait, no air, no gravity. Could possibly switch that up, have air, but make it composed of something fatal to the living.

This is my personal favorite. Also, depending on how you read forbiddance, you may not need to jump through the delaying/dispelling/recasting hoops. The spell forbiddance blocks all extraplanar travel into or within the area, but not out of the area, unless you read 'within' in a particularly inclusive way.

Now, even with an (almost) unassailable phylactery, you're still vulnerable to things that permanently disable you without killing you, like imprisonment. I still don't have an answer to that one.

[Nettlekid]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned this yet. There's an Epic Spell in Champions of Ruin (and let's face it, if you're a Lich then you're likely to be dealing in low Epic at least), with a piddling Spellcraft DC of 30 (which could be easily mitigated to 0 with nothing more than a few spell slots from your slavesloyal followers. The spell is called Aumvor's Shattered Phylactery, and it...well, shatters your Phylactery. Horcrux style. You create a number of Phylacteries equal to your primary spellcasting modifier, and the spell states that you can cast it again to get more. I suggest making single grains of sand in all the world's deserts Phylacteries. One coin in every Dwarven king's vault. Or if you have enough time, every grain of sand, and every coin. Make the Material Plane your Phylactery, with enough time. You can employ every method mentioned in this thread to guard all your Phylacteries, using different methods for different ones, but once you have so many it would be basically impossible to find and destroy them all before you just regenerate near one, and cast this spell again to make dozens more.

[Zanos]

Depending on the power of this lich, there is also an epic spell in Champions of Ruin called Aumvor's Fragmented Phylactery that allows you to do all of these if you want.


I'm surprised no one's mentioned this yet. There's an Epic Spell in Champions of Ruin (and let's face it, if you're a Lich then you're likely to be dealing in low Epic at least), with a piddling Spellcraft DC of 30 (which could be easily mitigated to 0 with nothing more than a few spell slots from your slavesloyal followers. The spell is called Aumvor's Shattered Phylactery, and it...well, shatters your Phylactery. Horcrux style. You create a number of Phylacteries equal to your primary spellcasting modifier, and the spell states that you can cast it again to get more. I suggest making single grains of sand in all the world's deserts Phylacteries. One coin in every Dwarven king's vault. Or if you have enough time, every grain of sand, and every coin. Make the Material Plane your Phylactery, with enough time. You can employ every method mentioned in this thread to guard all your Phylacteries, using different methods for different ones, but once you have so many it would be basically impossible to find and destroy them all before you just regenerate near one, and cast this spell again to make dozens more.

Ninja'd you by a couple hours. :P

[Nettlekid]

Whoops, my bad. I Ctrl+F'ed the spell name and didn't see it in the thread. Weird.

EDIT: Oh, it's because I named the spell wrong. Derp. There's Aumvor's Fragmented Phylactery, and there's Aumvor's Soulshatter, but there's no Aumvor's Shattered Phylactery. That'll do it.

[Gildedragon]

I've got an idea. Make the phylactery a gauntlet of riverine. Make it flying, so it's an animated object, make it a spellblade of -pretty much everything- (or have it wear poison rings to that effect, if an item doesn't wield itself) make it an intelligent item: special purpose stay hidden and safe until the end of time.
Item familiar (phylactery) might be good, depending if possession means on person or merely continued ownership and awareness of location

Alternatively: giving the phylactery the capacity to cast teleport and revive undead could make it good to carry around.

Awakening it is great: cast (or have it cast) mindblank on it. Can't be divinated at all

[Andezzar]

Alternatively: giving the phylactery the capacity to cast teleport and revive undead could make it good to carry around.What's the teleportation for (except general utility)? While auto rivival is a nice feature, IMHO it still wouldn't be a good idea to put those spells on the phylactery and carry it around.

[Nettlekid]

Are you the DM and you want to guard your Phylactery against your party? Because I might suggest a double bluff. Actually carry your Phylactery with you, but either disguise it as or actually make it a useful item as well, like a Ring of Wizardry. Something not too flashy, but certainly non-negligible. When the Lich fights the party and they beat it, they'll loot the body, and collect the Phylactery among its other stuff. They'll scan it, but you've made it undetectable as a Phylactery, so they only read the actual functioning aspect of the item. Then they'll either keep it with them, so that when you regenerate you'll be right nearby to exact your revenge, or they'll sell it first chance they get, in which case you can slaughter the shopkeeper and will be no worse for the wear. Keep spares of ALL your equipment, so they don't get suspicious that when the keep meeting you, you've got that same ring on every time.

[ShadowFireLance]

Is the Phylactery a valid target for Pylomorph any Object?

[Yora]

Probably. Since a phylactery can be anything, that shouldn't affects its functionality in any way.

[Zanos]

The text for PMO says that magical objects are not affected by the spell.

[Gildedragon]

Iirc: there is a way to make a cave your phylactery. Can't find the source though.

[angry_bear]

Slap a bunch of wards on it, make it undetectable, and then just have an underground lair that only you know about. It's not a super difficult process to safeguard a Lich's phylactery.

Or slap the same protective spells on it, and make it out of valuable material; and give it to the biggest, meanest dragon around. When you come back, make sure to get the heck out of the dragon's lair before it notices you.

[Jett Midknight]

Slap a bunch of wards on it, make it undetectable, and then just have an underground lair that only you know about. It's not a super difficult process to safeguard a Lich's phylactery.

Or slap the same protective spells on it, and make it out of valuable material; and give it to the biggest, meanest dragon around. When you come back, make sure to get the heck out of the dragon's lair before it notices you.

This is fine for lower levels, but if you are a 20th level wizard and you are trying to hide this from your enemies, no one at that level is gonna be worried about a dragon. The will disintegrate it, and then step over it's ashes to get to your phylactery.

[Lord Vukodlak]

Remember just because you can't find the Lich's phylactery doesn't mean you can't permanently trap the lich's physical body.

Say your a Lich and someone after stripping your magical defenses, binds your hands, seals your mouth shut throws you into a mud pit which is then turned into solid stone. Your now imprisoned in rock, unable to move, unable to speak. Oh and for good measure they ward the area against teleportation so even if you have a still/silent travel spell prepared your still stuck. I would argue that your not in a "relatively peaceful environment" when bound gagged and locked in stone so preparing spells is out of the question.



The lich wouldn't be, since he wasn't the one who was Imprisoned. He's fine.

And also, the lich merely reforms at the location of his phylactery as long as it's intact. Nothing says that the phylactery has to still be flowing with time in order for him to use it as an anchor.
Everything carried by the Imprisoned subject is in temporal status that would include the phylactery. If a phylactery if frozen in time I fail to see how it could rejuvenate a Lich. Time ceases to flow so from the phylactery's perspective 1d10 days would never come to pass.


Slap a bunch of wards on it, make it undetectable, and then just have an underground lair that only you know about. It's not a super difficult process to safeguard a Lich's phylactery.
Divination.
"Where will the Lich rejuvenate himself?" Doesn't really matter that the phylactery is undetectable. The divination isn't targeting the phylactery its targeting an event which is MUCH harder to ward against.


This is fine for lower levels, but if you are a 20th level wizard and you are trying to hide this from your enemies, no one at that level is gonna be worried about a dragon. The will disintegrate it, and then step over it's ashes to get to your phylactery.
Not to mention the dragon will figure out its your phylactery and make you his bitch.
———————————————————————————————————————
But here's the rub... the PC's are suppose to find the phylactery, it shouldn't be easy but they should be able to find it. Otherwise its alike a huge middle finger to your players. Ideally you might want to send them after the phylactery before the final confrontation with the Lich so the climactic battle is with the undead spell caster rather then the guardians of the phylactery.

[Ezberron]

Are you the DM and you want to guard your Phylactery against your party? Because I might suggest a double bluff. Actually carry your Phylactery with you, but either disguise it as or actually make it a useful item as well, like a Ring of Wizardry. Something not too flashy, but certainly non-negligible. When the Lich fights the party and they beat it, they'll loot the body, and collect the Phylactery among its other stuff. They'll scan it, but you've made it undetectable as a Phylactery, so they only read the actual functioning aspect of the item. Then they'll either keep it with them, so that when you regenerate you'll be right nearby to exact your revenge, or they'll sell it first chance they get, in which case you can slaughter the shopkeeper and will be no worse for the wear. Keep spares of ALL your equipment, so they don't get suspicious that when the keep meeting you, you've got that same ring on every time.

This actually happened to me when our campaign involved taking on a lich. We managed to kill him but my share of the treasure (a customized rod/wand with lots of powers) turned out to be the lich's Phylactery.

While the party was all resting up and mopping up the rest of the lich's tower, my character got possessed. (for the record, never ever say "bah, I have a saving throw vs spells of 4+, I'll be fine!" out loud. the dice love a challenge.)

As I was the wizard of the party, that made things really ugly for the rest of the party. After several player deaths involving time stop shenanigans, the entire campaign hinged on a single initiative roll. party cleric casting dispel evil vs lich casting power word kill...

[Jack_Simth]

This is fine for lower levels, but if you are a 20th level wizard and you are trying to hide this from your enemies, no one at that level is gonna be worried about a dragon. The will disintegrate it, and then step over it's ashes to get to your phylactery.
You're making a big assumption, here - namely, that the Dragon is just a dragon (no class levels), and that the Wizard uses much better optimization than the Dragon does. If the Dragon is also a 20th level caster (or better!) with 9th level Arcane spells, this is not a given.

[Lord Vukodlak]

You're making a big assumption, here - namely, that the Dragon is just a dragon (no class levels), and that the Wizard uses much better optimization than the Dragon does. If the Dragon is also a 20th level caster (or better!) with 9th level Arcane spells, this is not a given.
Of course you could just offer the dragon some jeweled treasure in exchange for letting you cast disjunction on the phylactery destroying its magical properties. A Lich should never turn over his phylactery to a being more powerful then himself.

[Nettlekid]

Ooh, make the Lich's Phylactery a Bag of Holding, like an extra-big one. Everyone loves Bags of Holding. Then the Lich can regenerate inside it, hidden from the rest of the party, and have the added bonus of access to all the weapons and other items that the party stuck in there in the last 1d10 days. Not to mention the added bonus of the party Rogue sticking their head in their bag to grab their crossbow, just to have the Lich sitting there yoga-style, going "Hey."

[Arkhosia]

1.Make the phylactery a large diamond
2.dominate a well-known miner in the kingdom of a very powerful and honest ruler.
3.give him stone, order him to deliver it to said ruler and demand it set to a greedy, lying dwarven ruler as a trade for an alliance, citing mining tunnel takeovers (made by you via dominated dwarves), claiming such wealth could sate his lust for wealth.
Dwarven king will keep it, maybe even embed it in his crown.
4.if all goes as planned, when you regenerate, kill most of his royalty, leaving him alive. He will blame the other ruler for an assassination attempt, war caused, chaos to hinder the people who killed you from doing so.

[Herabec]

Everything carried by the Imprisoned subject is in temporal status that would include the phylactery. If a phylactery if frozen in time I fail to see how it could rejuvenate a Lich. Time ceases to flow so from the phylactery's perspective 1d10 days would never come to pass.


A strict reading of the Imprisonment and Temporal Stasis spells mentions that it only affects creatures, so the phylactery would be fine by RAW. Still no problem.

[Arkhosia]

Ooh, make the Lich's Phylactery a Bag of Holding, like an extra-big one. Everyone loves Bags of Holding. Then the Lich can regenerate inside it, hidden from the rest of the party, and have the added bonus of access to all the weapons and other items that the party stuck in there in the last 1d10 days. Not to mention the added bonus of the party Rogue sticking their head in their bag to grab their crossbow, just to have the Lich sitting there yoga-style, going "Hey."

While holding said crossbow, fully loaded and enchanted to shoot poison bolts.
Other party member looks in to see why the rogue's dead, and you just killed about a 3rd of the party.

[Gwaednerth]

In my current campaign (under construction) the antagonist is a lich who protects his phylactery multiple ways:

1) he put it in his fortress in the plane of dreams which, in my universe, is incredibly dangerous (akin to the one described in Heroes of Horror)

2) it's protected by a creature that is simultaneously a construct and an undead in addition to having been, in life, a seriously powerful dragon.

3) in the dragon's obligatory horde are a ring and a small box. The box radiates powerful necromantic magic and, when opened, unleashes all manner of nasty critters. This is not the phylactery which leads to...

4) The phylactery is a one ring style mind conquering magic ring which lures in the party striker, grants them greater invisibility, turns them psychotic, and laughs as they stab everyone to death. Then it haunts them with illusions of their dead party until they go extra crazy or commit suicide. (really hoping it doesn't reach the "to death..." part.

5) finally, the lich is a seriously powerful wizard with seriously powerful magic items on a plane that generates the nightmares of people traveling there (however, he has attuned himself to it over the years and can stop it from doing this to him)

[magwaaf]

we didnt get to do it but my idea for my buddy when he was gonna be our dread necro/lich ovelord was to make a coin his phylactery and then spend the coin and let it flow thru circulation

[Marnath]

Ooh, make the Lich's Phylactery a Bag of Holding, like an extra-big one. Everyone loves Bags of Holding. Then the Lich can regenerate inside it, hidden from the rest of the party, and have the added bonus of access to all the weapons and other items that the party stuck in there in the last 1d10 days. Not to mention the added bonus of the party Rogue sticking their head in their bag to grab their crossbow, just to have the Lich sitting there yoga-style, going "Hey."



4) The phylactery is a one ring style mind conquering magic ring which lures in the party striker, grants them greater invisibility, turns them psychotic, and laughs as they stab everyone to death. Then it haunts them with illusions of their dead party until they go extra crazy or commit suicide. (really hoping it doesn't reach the "to death..." part.



You can't do that.


A phylactery cannot be part of another magic item, nor may additional magical properties be built into it.

Additionally, it must either contain or bear arcane inscriptions. So no riverine gauntlet, as you cannot engrave an indestructible substance, and it's not a closed container. Not that it would benefit from being riverine anyway, since a phylactery always has 40hp, 20 hardness, and a break DC of 40 whether it is made of paper or adamantine. You could put the phylactery inside a riverine box though.


The lich wouldn't be, since he wasn't the one who was Imprisoned. He's fine.

And also, the lich merely reforms at the location of his phylactery as long as it's intact. Nothing says that the phylactery has to still be flowing with time in order for him to use it as an anchor.

Strictly speaking the SRD says only that the lich reappears, not that he reappears near his phylactery. So arguably it doesn't matter where you hid it.

[CRtwenty]

I had my party encounter a Lich who had given his Phylactery over to an entity from the Far Realm.

Needless to say he had a few interesting powers. They eventually managed to toss his body into the Far Realm since nobody was even going to attempt trying to go to the Far Realm itself to grab his Phylactery. He'll probably come back again in another campaign even more messed up.

[Herabec]

Strictly speaking the SRD says only that the lich reappears, not that he reappears near his phylactery. So arguably it doesn't matter where you hid it.

Hrm.. Good point. So, really, the only benefit of hiding it somewhere no one could get to.. Is simply to keep anyone from getting to it to endanger it. Still, I wish they had elaborated on where they reappear.

At their phylactery?

At the location of their previous demise?

At Chuck's house? Who knows, it doesn't say!!

Details, Wizards!! DETAILS! :smallfurious:

[TuggyNE]

Hrm.. Good point. So, really, the only benefit of hiding it somewhere no one could get to.. Is simply to keep anyone from getting to it to endanger it. Still, I wish they had elaborated on where they reappear.

In the fruit of the nearest lichee tree. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please don't hurt me!

[CRtwenty]

In the fruit of the nearest lichee tree. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please don't hurt me!

http://www.treepicturesonline.com/litchi-tree-94.jpg
:durkon: : "I told ye to watch out for the trees! But didye listen? Nay!"

It's like the evil big brother of the Yellow Musk Creeper.

[Arkhosia]

Hrm.. Good point. So, really, the only benefit of hiding it somewhere no one could get to.. Is simply to keep anyone from getting to it to endanger it. Still, I wish they had elaborated on where they reappear.

At their phylactery?

At the location of their previous demise?

At Chuck's house? Who knows, it doesn't say!!

Details, Wizards!! DETAILS! :smallfurious:

The wizards would have details if all of the phylacteries they try to observe are warded against magic, hidden in a deadly or dangerous place.:smallbiggrin:

On topic: If he's a Cleric of Orcus, Lolth, Demogorgon, or any other gods who have stats, maybe he struck a deal that his phylactery is the god's clothes, jewelry, weapon, etc, basically an item on the god that isn't magic. Anyone who wants to destroy your phylactery has to pretty much kill a god to kill you, and a epic level(?), extremely devoted cleric like you would be perfect for extra aid if you regenerate while the god's in battle. This also works if the lich is very devout to said god.
Another idea is to do a Jam story with your phylactery, and add a bag of holding filled to the brim with teleport scrolls.