Lich question

[holywhippet]

There was something that occurred to me regarding a Lich and it's ability to reappear after it's body has been destroyed. What if the adventurers found the Lich just after it had reappeared out of it's phylactery? Assuming that, in life, the Lich was of a spell casting class that needed to memorize or pray for spells each day - what, if any, spells would it have at that moment? Would it be completely out of spells having just come back from "death"? Would it have whatever spells it hadn't cast before being destroyed? If the Lich was originally a divine caster, could it pray for new spells while waiting for it's new body?

[Flickerdart]

Spells are not prepared by a body; they are prepared in the mind. You don't lose these prepared spells just because the day has elapsed - a wizard (or more likely, a mystic theurge, who has tons of slots) could go on for days without resting, relying on careful conservation of its slots to make it through.

[Jeraa]

Spells are not prepared by a body; they are prepared in the mind. You don't lose these prepared spells just because the day has elapsed - a wizard (or more likely, a mystic theurge, who has tons of slots) could go on for days without resting, relying on careful conservation of its slots to make it through.

A prepared arcane caster loses the prepared spells it has when it dies. Nothing about the liches rejuvenation would seem to change this.


Death and Prepared Spell Retention

If a spellcaster dies, all prepared spells stored in his or her mind are wiped away. Potent magic (such as raise dead, resurrection, or true resurrection) can recover the lost energy when it recovers the character.

As far as I know, the rules are silent on what happens for spontaneous or divine casters.

[Flickerdart]

A prepared arcane caster loses the prepared spells it has when it dies. Nothing about the liches rejuvenation would seem to change this.



As far as I know, the rules are silent on what happens for spontaneous or divine casters.
A lich does not actually die when its body is destroyed, though - it merely appears that way. "Unless its phylactery is located and destroyed, a lich reappears 1d10 days after its apparent death."

[KillianHawkeye]

Quoting the rules concerning what happens when a spellcaster dies is kind of useless in this case because the Lich is ALREADY dead and cannot die again unless destroyed and brought back to life first.

[Galvin]

Quoting the rules concerning what happens when a spellcaster dies is kind of useless in this case because the Lich is ALREADY dead and cannot die again unless destroyed and brought back to life first.

There is death in the literal sense and death in the D&D sense. A lich cannot die in the literal sense because it was already dead. Death in the D&D sense means something along the lines of your soul leaving the material plane.

Interpreting the rules of D&D using interpretations of death from a world in which death cannot be reversed or delayed through magical means and bringing them into a world governed by the rules of Dungeons and Dragons is almost surely to end in failure.

Also,


A lich does not actually die when its body is destroyed, though - it merely appears that way. "Unless its phylactery is located and destroyed, a lich reappears 1d10 days after its apparent death."

A single creature cannot apparently die and actually die from the same attack. If a lich is destroyed by a fighter and "apparently" dies, it cannot have died from the same attack, otherwise it would not have apparently died, it would have just straight up died. And since prepared arcane spells don't disappear until actual death, a destroyed lich would retain prepared spells at the time of it's "apparent" death.

[J-H]

To the OP: Congratulations, you made a Lich thread that was new and different. :smallsmile: