Jowgen
2020-01-13, 03:20 AM
A Lich's Phylactery is crafted with use of the Blood Artisan feat, which stipulates that any magic item created be cursed, with the curse randomly determined by the DM acording to the tables in the DMG (A&E adds its curses to that list), which superceeds the normal stipulation that phylacteries can't have other magical properties built into them.
The issue of course is that Lich Phylacteries are rather unique in terms of magic items.
The construction of a phylactery is the prerequestie for gaining the Lich template. Going by Libris Mortis, the Phylactery stores a Lich's "life force", and "constructs"/"recreates" the Lich upon their destruction, which is an effect suppressed while inside an AMF.
With this in mind, is seems like a good number of the official curses wouldn't be applicable or at least appropriate to add onto a Phylactery.
The purpose of this thread is to get opinions on what works and what doesn't in that context, with custom/homebrew curses not being up for consideration; and then to ideally compile those agreed as workable into new tables with proportionate percentile chances.
My initial thoughts:
From the "Common Curses" DMG table, Delusion just doesn't work. A Phylactery has no "user", and if it straight up didn't work the Lich in question would not have been able to become one in the first place.
Much the same for opposite effect or target (which is quite broken in itself), as the phylactery's only option for opposite effect is straight up not working (i.e. again would preclude becoming a Lich in the first place) and it doesn't target anything.
Intermittnet Function seems workable for the most part. Unreliable might work, though that leaves the question as to whether it then never works or retries after 1d10 days. Dependent would work, so that reconstruction is only possible if the phylactery is in those conditions. Requirement can work in part, in that some of the given requirements could be seen as having to be performed on the Phylactery by a 3rd party for the reconstruction to trigger.
Drawback only affects characters who are actually in possession of the item (unless specifically noted otherwise), so that one would actually just act as a layer of protection on the phylactery by messing with anyone who picks it up. But it would work.
Completely Different Effect and Substitute Specific Cursed Item don't work for the same reason as Delusion.
From the A&E table, we have the following additions:
Awkward Use, Extra Space, Short Circuit and Won't Resize categorically can't apply because its not the right kind of item.
Divination Resistant is just a straight up desireable buff for the phylactery. But it would work.
The extra Drawbacks presented seem largely more fun than the DMG ones, and might well ruin the day of any aspiring Phylactery thief.
Fragile is boring but should work, unless you rule that the rule demanding Phylacteries always have the same physical stats overrides.
Posessed... I can only see it work if the posessing entity is treated as being the currently reconstituting Lich itself, in which case it is a huge defensive buff. Although I am not sure it'll all work as written.
So by the looks of it, adding the A&E options is just of straight up benefit to the Lich.
That's all I got so far, any contributions would be much appreciated.
The issue of course is that Lich Phylacteries are rather unique in terms of magic items.
The construction of a phylactery is the prerequestie for gaining the Lich template. Going by Libris Mortis, the Phylactery stores a Lich's "life force", and "constructs"/"recreates" the Lich upon their destruction, which is an effect suppressed while inside an AMF.
With this in mind, is seems like a good number of the official curses wouldn't be applicable or at least appropriate to add onto a Phylactery.
The purpose of this thread is to get opinions on what works and what doesn't in that context, with custom/homebrew curses not being up for consideration; and then to ideally compile those agreed as workable into new tables with proportionate percentile chances.
My initial thoughts:
From the "Common Curses" DMG table, Delusion just doesn't work. A Phylactery has no "user", and if it straight up didn't work the Lich in question would not have been able to become one in the first place.
Much the same for opposite effect or target (which is quite broken in itself), as the phylactery's only option for opposite effect is straight up not working (i.e. again would preclude becoming a Lich in the first place) and it doesn't target anything.
Intermittnet Function seems workable for the most part. Unreliable might work, though that leaves the question as to whether it then never works or retries after 1d10 days. Dependent would work, so that reconstruction is only possible if the phylactery is in those conditions. Requirement can work in part, in that some of the given requirements could be seen as having to be performed on the Phylactery by a 3rd party for the reconstruction to trigger.
Drawback only affects characters who are actually in possession of the item (unless specifically noted otherwise), so that one would actually just act as a layer of protection on the phylactery by messing with anyone who picks it up. But it would work.
Completely Different Effect and Substitute Specific Cursed Item don't work for the same reason as Delusion.
From the A&E table, we have the following additions:
Awkward Use, Extra Space, Short Circuit and Won't Resize categorically can't apply because its not the right kind of item.
Divination Resistant is just a straight up desireable buff for the phylactery. But it would work.
The extra Drawbacks presented seem largely more fun than the DMG ones, and might well ruin the day of any aspiring Phylactery thief.
Fragile is boring but should work, unless you rule that the rule demanding Phylacteries always have the same physical stats overrides.
Posessed... I can only see it work if the posessing entity is treated as being the currently reconstituting Lich itself, in which case it is a huge defensive buff. Although I am not sure it'll all work as written.
So by the looks of it, adding the A&E options is just of straight up benefit to the Lich.
That's all I got so far, any contributions would be much appreciated.