Smart way for Dracolich to use his phylactery

[Balor01]

So ... Dracolich (http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Dracolich). Undead dragon that, when his body is destroyed, returns to phylactery and can posess a reptilian corpse to keep on rocking.

I'm wondering how a smart dracolich would make good use of this. So far I have an idea:
His minions are constantly towing around a bunch of reptilian corpses (Gentle repose constantly re-cast on them) along with his phylactery, implanted in a small human child.

That's what I have ... Got any better ideas, playground?

thanks

[SoraWolf7]

If you're running a proper cult, the leader/second-in-command of the Dracolich's minions (who should be either carrying the phylactory or be caring for the likely human child that carries it in his body) would have a large mass of lizardfolk or kobold followers who are thralled to immediately suicide themselves to provide a new body for the Dracolich when called to do so. This would be considered a high honor among the lizardfolk followers to be the new vessel for their lord and master. This provides less spell-casting to use and gaining new followers is still easy.

Bonus points if you've brought the kid up to kill the followers himself with magic powers or a ritual weapon, because as the Carrier of their Dracolich Leader's power, he is the closest to their Lord.

[singera]

make the child a reptilian creature in some way and in worst case you can possess its body and remove the phylactery to repeat on some other poor child

[MrBright01]

SMART way? Place the phylactery as far away as possible, hidden, in the midst of the second most successful lizardman tribe they can find.

1) Unless the players are slinging some excellent divination magic, they are not likely to look a full continent away.

2) How fast can they get there if they do find it?

3) For hiding, I recommend either hiding in plain sight (say, in the center of a monolith made of tough but fairly valueless stone, in a primitive manner, perhaps as an object of worship), or buried a fair distance below the village grounds.

4) The second most successful tribe? Yes. The most successful is both too obvious, and too big a target for their foes. The second most powerful, allied with the most successful, or possibly even allied with the other lesser tribes and using that alliance to remain essentially untouchable, is a less obvious target.

For bonus points, give the Phylactery a guardian... a subtle one that aids the tribe through quiet assassinations rather then sheer power, one that is made immortal through some means, and one that is not a reptile. This way, if a foe ever DOES manage to track down the phylactery, they will face not only the possibility of the dracolich reborn, but his shadowy ally as well.


See all that? That's why my players <CENSORED> a brick when I place a dragon on the table. That said, the small human child thing is hilarious, but... what happens when the party sees the obviously out of place human child in the midst of the tribe? One that is apparently cared for? One they cast detect magic on?

[WhamBamSam]

If you want to use the whole phylactery possession thing in combat, here's a setup I like.

Layer the floor with corpses you intend to use for combat. Beneath them, as low as possible while still being within possession range of the phylactery, which is buried beneath you around the neck of a Young White Dragon corpse. If you decide to cut and run, possess the white dragon corpse and burrow your way to an underground escape tunnel, which you fly along at top speed to a freezing underground lake and swim to open air far enough away that you can take wing to somewhere safe to recover.

If your possession corpses are lizardfolk, give them ranged weapons (paralyzing touch triggers off any physical attack, including ranged ones) and scythes to CDG paralyzed PCs if you really feel like making the fight nasty for your players.

That's still very risky for the Dracolich though. Hiding it far, far away as others have suggested is safer. Though it does give you a way to make use of the difference between a dracolich phylactery and a regular lich phylactery.

EDIT:
make the child a reptilian creature in some way and in worst case you can possess its body and remove the phylactery to repeat on some other poor childYou can only possess a corpse of medium size or larger. Amusingly, this results in Dragonwrought Dracoliches being unable to possess their own corpse and needing to massacre some lizardfolk if they want to go down that road.

That's why I used a Young White Dragon in my plan. It's the minimum age where such a thing will work.

[Balor01]

@MrBright01&all the others in fact

Hmmm. Well child is there so (presumably good) adventurers do not just destroy the phylactery. Now idea with another continent (Lest say Secondary Continent) is intersting but ... Say this dragon has some urgent business going on on Primary Continent and he wants to be there as strongest caster available. If phylactery is 2.000 miles away, it takes him a very long time to get back if he is destroyed and his plot is foiled.

[HockeyPokeyBard]

It all depends on your players. If they're something-N or even CG, they may just decide to kill the child anyway, which is bad. Even a good character, with a cleric or paladin nearby will just knock the kid out, cut it from the child and heal 'em up without the kiddie being any the wiser.

A smart Dracolich in general though, would take no chances at all. It's best chance for a good body, would be to bury the phylactery under a Guardian Site (Draconomicon) of an appropriate colour. Stillborns for Gold Dragons would be medium sized for example. Only a DC 10 Cha check, bodies around remarkably often, great security, wonderful views. Not a whole lot of downsides, besides having to bugger off darn quick after taking the body.

[Telonius]

I used this one on my players a while back.

At some point, they pick up a very nice sword - +3 Dragonbane - complete with a jeweled Belt of Giant Strength that houses its scabbard.

The phylactery was a small jewel on the inside of the (lead-lined) scabbard.

EDIT: For the longest time, they thought it was the sword, but were stumped when it wasn't showing up as Evil. And of course (being adventurers) they would rather sever a limb than destroy a nice piece of loot. Used every detection magic they could think of. They Legend Lore'd it and saw it being used to kill dozens of evil dragons. The sword itself was actually made by a good-aligned dragon to combat evil dragons. They got the clue when they saw that the scabbard didn't originally come with it.

[Segev]

The lizardfolk cult doesn't just have one cult-centered human(oid) child. They run a roving orphanage. They worship a benevolent but obscure reptilian deity (possibly implied to be Bahamut under a pseudonym) and are constantly looking for chances to help the victims of more traditional and evil barbarian tribes.

Show battles between their brave warriors and those of "other" tribes occur with relative frequency to bolster this claim. They value life so much that they promise to take care of any orphans left by other marauders, or even to take in unwanted children of other races. (There are always peoples who wish to get rid of some of the extra mouths they have to feed.) They will raise them in their noble savage ways to be brave warriors of virtue, you see.

The lizardfolk then raise these orphans to worship their dracolich lord and master. The tribe is actually the home of the most loyal of his followers, and receive a lion's share of the bounty from the other tribes' pillaging and plunder. Those orphans who take well to the warrior lifestyle are allowed to prove themselves by joining the raider tribes, but only after a few years have passed and only under heavy headdress. Preferably far from wherever they were picked up, so there's minimal chance of running into familial remnants. Those with sorcerous gifts are encouraged to take the path of the Dragon Disciple, developing into half-dragons (and thus harder to recognize/becoming more lizardfolk-like).

The most devout of the young children are taught to be bards and rogues with high skills in bluff, diplomacy, and sense motive, and are made the core not of the priesthood, but icons of the cult's worship. One of them is chosen to be the keeper of the phylactery. They're all given Magic Aura'd implants. Alternatively, magic aura the phylactery itself so it doesn't radiate.

Heck, implant the icons with gems suitable to act as Magic Jars. The dracolich can possess any of the icons, or anybody nearby them, that way, as long as he can get within range of one of the icons.

Those least able to maintain a convincing facade are sent to the raiding tribes as icons. Those able to maintain it are to fake whatever it takes to make themselves out to be innocents who attacking raiders wish to protect. Trappings of the icons' living conditions are deliberately designed to also match "well-kept sacrificial lambs," so adventurers will be (un)subtly encouraged to believe the children are unwilling prisoners (or foolishly don't realize the danger they're in).

Now, it's possible that any of the icons - even with one of the raider tribes - bears the phylactery. When the "good" tribe is found, they initially seem to be victims of misunderstanding, since they care for orphans and try to undo the harm done by evil lizardfolk. If that facade fails, the truth of them being "masterminds" behind multiple tribes of evil lizardfolk may come out, but now the icons appear to be sacrifices rather than loyal cultists.

It would take some pretty evil or savvy adventurers to peel back all the misdirection (or murder their way through the icons). And even if they do, they still have to find the RIGHT icon to get at the phylactery. By the time they've really started making headway, the dracolich should be well informed and ready to handle this personally.

[WhamBamSam]

@MrBright01&all the others in fact

Hmmm. Well child is there so (presumably good) adventurers do not just destroy the phylactery. Now idea with another continent (Lest say Secondary Continent) is intersting but ... Say this dragon has some urgent business going on on Primary Continent and he wants to be there as strongest caster available. If phylactery is 2.000 miles away, it takes him a very long time to get back if he is destroyed and his plot is foiled.A casting-focused dracolich is going to be pretty well screwed no matter how close his possession body is, as he can't cast as a proto-dracolich. Starting from a psionic dragon, (maybe a topaz, since their breath might just mummify a potential possession corpse rather than ruin it) might get around this, as transparency rules might not be enough to make the inability to cast extend to psionics, and manifesting doesn't require it to speak (which proto-dracoliches also can't do).

I honestly don't think dracolichdom is a very good idea for caster dragons except maybe great wyrms who need to not die of old age. The book says it is, but its abilities are mostly physical combat oriented. It increases LA/CR for something that isn't directly improving your magic and actually prevents gaining more caster levels by aging.

[Snowbluff]

Destroy your phylactery, and use your incredible bluff check to sent any opposing adventurers on a wild goose chase.

[A Tad Insane]

1)Put your phylactery in a balor
2)Replace your heart with said balor
3)Proceed to be awesome

[Balor01]

A casting-focused dracolich is going to be pretty well screwed no matter how close his possession body is, as he can't cast as a proto-dracolich.

Hold on, what? As his original body is destroyed and he pops up in another, his stats should remain the same. Or am i wrong?

[Hazrond]

So ... Dracolich (http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Dracolich). Undead dragon that, when his body is destroyed, returns to phylactery and can posess a reptilian corpse to keep on rocking.

I'm wondering how a smart dracolich would make good use of this. So far I have an idea:
His minions are constantly towing around a bunch of reptilian corpses (Gentle repose constantly re-cast on them) along with his phylactery, implanted in a small human child.

That's what I have ... Got any better ideas, playground?

thanks

Heres an idea, Lizardfolk knock one of the PCs out somehow (Poison, nonlethal ambush, etc) then while he is unconscious they cut him open and stick the phylactery in his body, then the lizardfolk cleric cures him (which gets rid of the nonlethal damage so this is where he wakes up and starts learning things) now the Dracolich BBEG is hidden inside the PC and every time they go through the motions killing lizardfolk, kobolds, etc they give him a corpse and a few days later he attacks :smallamused:

[Telonius]

Hold on, what? As his original body is destroyed and he pops up in another, his stats should remain the same. Or am i wrong?

Wrong, unfortunately. There's a brief period of being a Proto-Dracolich, in which he can't cast. (Details are on p. 149 of the Draconomicon).

[WhamBamSam]

Hold on, what? As his original body is destroyed and he pops up in another, his stats should remain the same. Or am i wrong?


Wrong, unfortunately. There's a brief period of being a Proto-Dracolich, in which he can't cast. (Details are on p. 149 of the Draconomicon).He will also use the physical stats of the possessed body during the proto-dracolich period, though he does keep the paralyzing gaze and the dope dracolich version of paralyzing touch.

So if the PCs smash his body and he possesses a nearby lizardfolk corpse (which has a nontrivial chance of failure, incidentally) he can use his gaze attack, a crossbow, or whatever to force a few more saves against paralysis and do a piddling amount of damage, which might be enough to win, but I'd really advise keeping a corpse of a Young or Juvenile White or Mercury Dragon to possess and fly your phylactery away with if things go south. If the party is protected against paralysis and smashes your regular body, no number of lizardfolk possessions will beat them. Possess your escape body and fly away.

[MrBright01]

If phylactery is 2.000 miles away, it takes him a very long time to get back if he is destroyed and his plot is foiled.

You forget the whole scary idea of an anythinglich, which is they have forever. A smart anylich will shrug and make a new nefarious plan (possibly affecting the descendants of the first adventurers who defeated himmmmmmmm....? Wink wink.

[Khedrac]

There is, perhaps, a much bigger risk to having your phylactery on a different continent. While you are busy fighting adventurers on this continent, a group who don't know anything about you may find your phylactery on the other continent, work out what it is, assume it belongs to the dracolich they are trying to kill and destroy it. One could arrange a swap with a dracolich from that continent, but I don't see either one really trusting the other enough.

[Tvtyrant]

Ice Assassin Aleax of the Dracolich and then make the Aleax the Phylactery? You need a lot of counterspells and damage resistance, but the Dracolich will become the only thing that can kill it.

[With a box]

Do the same thing that any forum +17th wizard dose: park it at your private demiplane with a body of someone