What is the coolest thing you've done with a dracolich phylactery?

[Aquablade88]

So my group just took down a dracolich and I was wondering what the coolest thing anyone has done with a dracolich phylactery? We have a lenient DM that will let us do most anything within reason and I was wanting to try to push the limits!

[JellyPooga]

Well, you've basically got a highly valuable gem with an adult - ancient dragons soul trapped in it...as long as you don't let it it touch another dragon.

Crafting a magic item that draws upon the soul as a "power source" may be an idea. An evil intelligent item might be an appropriate side effect to consider, but I don't recommend making a weapon; eventually, any weapon powerful enough will be used to attack a dragon and *poof* Dracolich is back!

Alternatively, you could sell it to the highest bidder; I hear the Lower Planes have a thriving market for souls. Buy yourself a little Paradise in Hell, perhaps? Or maybe he service of some Fiends? Just be sure to check the contract...carefully.

Lastly, there's some ambiguous wording surrounding the origin of Half-Dragons, including allusions to rituals that will do the job. Talk to your GM about researching such a thing involving this Dracolich soul; a Half-Drafon apotheosis coul be fun, especially if it comes with the whisperings of a mad and evil ancient undead dragon...

The biggest problem you'll have as a player is that whatever you do with it, beyond destroying it, gives your GM free reign to screw with you; it's Evil with a capital "E", it's older, probably smarter than you and even as a soul trapped in a gem, it will do its utmost to restore itself and have its revenge upon those that destroyed its body and abused its soul.

[Dr. Cliché]

I'll be honest - I've never been in a situation where we've got a surplus of dracolich phylacteries and are looking for creative uses for them.

However, I'll suggest the following uses for a Drocolich's Phylactery:
- Put it in the toilet/chamber pot of a noble you don't like.
- Feed it to another dragon.
- Feed it to a troll.
- Drop it in a well and let the villagers wonder why their water supply keeps shouting at them.
- Give it to a kid and tell him it's a lucky charm that will magically scare away intruders (bonus points if he allies with the dracolich and becomes the campaign boss).
- Sell it to a merchant.
- Donate it to a church you don't like.
- Donate it to a church you do like, but where the vicar has annoyed you in some way.
- Put it in a barn, surrounded by alchemist's fire, and wait for the dracolich to reform. Leave it just enough time to appraise its situation, and then cast the fire spell.
- Offer it to a cloud giant and tell him it's a xylophone maker.
- Use it as trebuchet ammunition during a siege.
- Find an isolated cave somewhere, hire some monsters to guard it, and then fabricate a treasure map leading to the gem, referring to it as the 'Lost Sun Gem of Atharia, the World's Last Hope'. See to it that this treasure map 'accidentally' falls into the hands of a rival adventuring party.

[JellyPooga]

However, I'll suggest the following uses for a Drocolich's Phylactery:

Bear in mind that a Dracolich doesn't reform automatically like a regular Lich; it requires a new body to inhabit and to touch the phylactery to that body. It's kind of a bum deal for the Dragon really.

[Dr. Cliché]

Bear in mind that a Dracolich doesn't reform automatically like a regular Lich; it requires a new body to inhabit and to touch the phylactery to that body. It's kind of a bum deal for the Dragon really.

Oh. Well that's boring.

Well, in that case, do what you want with it. Might as well be a regular gem for all the magic it has.

[JellyPooga]

Oh. Well that's boring.

Well, in that case, do what you want with it. Might as well be a regular gem for all the magic it has.

Yeah, I was disappointed too. As far as eternal life goes, Dragons are pretty screwed. Having said that...all that's required to become a Flameskull is to be a "dead Wizard" have a willing participant to turn you into one (which a Dracolich requires anyway...in fact, a relatively easy way to kill an ancient dragon is to sell it the idea of becoming a dracolich and set yourself up as the ritualists it requires for the process. Let it drink the insta-death potion and simply don't perform the ritual that turns it into a Dracolich. Anyway, I digress...where was I? Oh yes, Flameskulls).

Dragons certainly live long enough to learn a little wizardry and unlife as a honking great flaming dragon skull that reforms after only an hour after destruction isn't a terrible way to spend eternity, I guess...

[Dr. Cliché]

Yeah, I was disappointed too. As far as eternal life goes, Dragons are pretty screwed. Having said that...all that's required to become a Flameskull is to be a "dead Wizard" have a willing participant to turn you into one (which a Dracolich requires anyway...in fact, a relatively easy way to kill an ancient dragon is to sell it the idea of becoming a dracolich and set yourself up as the ritualists it requires for the process. Let it drink the insta-death potion and simply don't perform the ritual that turns it into a Dracolich.

I really love that idea. :smallbiggrin:



Dragons certainly live long enough to learn a little wizardry and unlife as a honking great flaming dragon skull that reforms after only an hour after destruction isn't a terrible way to spend eternity, I guess...

That's actually a really great idea. Could also make for an amusing boss fight, wherein you have to first fight a dragon and then do battle with its reanimated head.

That said, I don't envy the flameskull (dragon or otherwise) that gets an itch. :smallwink:

[BillyBobShorton]

Dracolich Phylanctery? Gosh, there's been so many... almost as common as belts or shirts. I guess in the several hundred or so that have come in and out of my possession over the years, all of which I've had the chance to do something "cool" with, I'd have to say throwing one at a drunk commoner is probably at the top of my list.

He was just minding his own business, mumbling about his wife's cooking, and I thought, "Boy, this guy is REALLY uninteresting. I know! I'll belt him in the face with this Dracolich Phylanctery I've got in my pocket. What else are you supposed to do with these silly old things, anyway?" So I threw it and hit him right in the mustache as I yelled, "Nobody cares!"

One man laughed so hard that I had to cast greater restoration to get him to stop.

I tipped the bartender one of my 15 or so rings of wishes I keep handy in a sock, then went about my way.

[Mjolnirbear]

Yeah, I was disappointed too. As far as eternal life goes, Dragons are pretty screwed.

...they live millenia anyways. They are *so* not screwed because all they have to do is spend a few years learning to be a transmuter or Artificer or just make potions of longevity.

I can't think why any dragon would willingly become a dracolich. Would you? Hmmmm, stay alive for a few more centuries and double my size and power, or... Become a static undead thing that might let me resurrect if these incredibly rare circumstances happen. Choices, choices
....

[JellyPooga]

...they live millenia anyways. They are *so* not screwed because all they have to do is spend a few years learning to be a transmuter or Artificer or just make potions of longevity.

I can't think why any dragon would willingly become a dracolich. Would you? Hmmmm, stay alive for a few more centuries and double my size and power, or... Become a static undead thing that might let me resurrect if these incredibly rare circumstances happen. Choices, choices
....

Even Dragons can die of old age, not to mention the prospect of being bumped off by pesky adventurers or a rival. For the Dragon that wants a little insurance, Dracolich-dom is definitely an option. You just need to contrive some way for your phylactery to be conveniently near another Dragon at all times...

[Mjolnirbear]

My point. It's far easier to live, and get stronger as dragons do, thereby being harder to kill, than kill yourself, bind your soul to a phylactery, set your power level to 'stasis', just in case you die and can somehow convince a dragon to touch it, and which dragon would go around accepting gems that smell of necromancy and dragons?

I know the reasoning, but in the case of dragons its illogical. They are already close to immortal, and age only makes them stronger. They have as much of forever as they want. I don't think it makes sense that they have cheat death thoughts. And if they did, there are far, far easier ways to do it than 'kill yourself to cheat death and hope Vrykoliss forgets to check his mail for necromancer magic'

[Vogonjeltz]

Dragons certainly live long enough to learn a little wizardry and unlife as a honking great flaming dragon skull that reforms after only an hour after destruction isn't a terrible way to spend eternity, I guess...

Until someone spills holy water on you of course. That and you only dimly recall who you were, so that sounds awful. On the bright side, we now have a way to make Mort from Planescape: Torment, right? So that sounds kind of awesome.

[JellyPooga]

Until someone spills holy water on you of course. That and you only dimly recall who you were, so that sounds awful. On the bright side, we now have a way to make Mort from Planescape: Torment, right? So that sounds kind of awesome.

Well, we are talking about a dragon and their heads are pretty big, so that's a lot of holy water (I'm not sure just one flask will do the trick). As for memory...Eh *shrug*, you've got an eternity to remember. Or just make a journal...let's see now, how does it start? Something about a couple of kegs of Styx-wash... :smallbiggrin:

[MrStabby]

So a general Phylactery thing... I wonder if you, as a Lich or whatever, can get a bit of a team together to defeat something even bigger and badder and imprison it within your phylactery. If someone wants to destroy your Phylactery then they are going to have something even worse to contend with.

Of course that then makes you a bit of a target for any minions/cultists of that even bigger bad guy...

[JellyPooga]

So a general Phylactery thing... I wonder if you, as a Lich or whatever, can get a bit of a team together to defeat something even bigger and badder and imprison it within your phylactery. If someone wants to destroy your Phylactery then they are going to have something even worse to contend with.

Of course that then makes you a bit of a target for any minions/cultists of that even bigger bad guy...

Your phylactery is *your* soul hidey-hole; if you go feeding it other souls it'll only go towards powering your own life-force.

This isn't to say you couldn't soul trap some powerful being and pretend the gem you've imprisoned them in is your phylactery though, to the same end.