What happened to the Demilich?

[supergoji18]

I just got the Monster Manual yesterday and have been looking through it for interesting monsters to add to my campaign. Looking through I noticed something odd. Demiliches are apparently now LESS powerful than regular Liches.

This comes as rather odd to me. For ages Demiliches were considered to be a vastly superior form of Lich, far superior in its power and knowledge. But now they are suddenly considered degenerated forms of their more common undead brethren. Why this sudden change in status? I suppose it makes the name more fitting, but it seems odd to change something like that.

[Naanomi]

As far as I know Demi-lich were always just the mostly empty husk of undead who long left to explore the multiverse as beings of pure consciousness and negative energy, often being drawn to the negative quasi elemental planes (void specifically called out).

But it is true that this leftover husk was generally more dangerous, albeit less cunning, than a normal lich. The intelligent demilich was always a rarity; Acererack and Kangaxx being the prominent examples that were perhaps both so popular as to overshadow the 'normal' demilich as detailed in the 5e MM

[Townopolis]

As I understand it:

In order to make liches more actively malevolent and definitely evil rather than just "some guy who did something really evil a long time ago, but maybe could have turned good in the millennia since then," WotC added a stipulation that liches have to devour souls to maintain their cogent state. With this new requirement in place, they then needed to figure out what happened to liches who failed to annihilate enough immortal souls, and the demilich was already there and already "what happens to liches when they stop being liches," so it was relatively natural to retool them into a degenerate form.

[MeeposFire]

Also realize that they still have the more powerful form but it is now special rather than being the only version.

This new idea with the lich I think is a good one as it makes them more undead like. NOw the only question is how will the archlich change. The good lich probably does not require taking souls to survive (unless they are being very dark).

[Rogue Shadows]

In order to make liches more actively malevolent and definitely evil rather than just "some guy who did something really evil a long time ago, but maybe could have turned good in the millennia since then,"

Aw, but I kind of like /tg/'s version of liches...that is, human minds were not meant to cope with immortality and so eventually most liches go more than a little crazy, acting kind of like a guy who hasn't gotten sleep for ages but has just caught his second wind so he's mobile and awake but also functionally high as a kite.

[supergoji18]

So basically, the type of Demilich I was referring to was a unique variant of Demilich that still has the old Lich's intelligence and spellcasting power?

[Naanomi]

So basically, the type of Demilich I was referring to was a unique variant of Demilich that still has the old Lich's intelligence and spellcasting power?
Yeah, those types chose to become Demiliches for... Reasons... Rather than it being a side effect of not eating souls//getting bored of the whole 'body' thing and leaving it behind.