Making a ring as a Lich's Phylactery?

[eyebreaker7]

The Lich’s Phylactery
An integral part of becoming a lich is creating a magic phylactery in which the character stores its life force. As a rule, the only way to get rid of a lich for sure is to destroy its phylactery. Unless its phylactery is located and destroyed, a lich reappears 1d10 days after its apparent death.

Each lich must make its own phylactery, which requires the Craft Wondrous Item feat. The character must be able to cast spells and have a caster level of 11th or higher. The phylactery costs 120,000 gp and 4,800 XP to create and has a caster level equal to that of its creator at the time of creation.

The most common form of phylactery is a sealed metal box containing strips of parchment on which magical phrases have been transcribed. The box is Tiny and has 40 hit points, hardness 20, and a break DC of 40.

Other forms of phylacteries can exist, such as rings, amulets, or similar items.

Without using a bunch of gems how else could you make the ring cost so much in order to be used as a phylactery? Could you make a magic ring and then alter it more so it's also the phylactery? This is assuming the mage makes the ring of course so (s)he would need to also have the forge ring feat. I don't want it to be flashy at all. Just as crappy looking as I can get for 120,000 gold. The idea is to make it seem like an ordinary magic ring that a character would use and have the lich keep coming back and haunting the party until they figure it out and do something about the ring.
The lich entry gives stats for a small box "The box is Tiny and has 40 hit points, hardness 20, and a break DC of 40." but what would the ring have?

The following is from another one of my posts about making a weapon that some of you gave the following info on:

"The strongest metal in the whole D&D 3.5 is Oerthblooded Pure Ore Obdurium!

Obdurium has Hardness and HP: 30/60 per inch of thickness.

Get it in Pure Ore form, meaning the purest form of the metal, doubles the hardness and HP = 60/120

Oerthblood, (a magical alloy mixed into the pure ore obdurium) further doubles hardness and one and a half times the hp = 120/180. Furthermore, Oerthblood also reduces the enchantment cost and time by 25%
So no, mithral is far far far from the strongest metal!

So I guess the only way to calculate price on Obdurium is calculate how many pounds go into the weapon you're crafting?
Well Pure Ore cost +400gp per lbs of item in question and Oerthblood cost +6000gp... Obdurium cost twice of what adamantine costs."

[Particle_Man]

Eventually some halfling tries to throw the ring into a volcano. Needless to say hilarity ensues.

[Kelb_Panthera]

You misunderstand. You don't need a ring worth 120k. You need the thing that will be the phylactery and various magical ingredients and reagents that go into working the magics that make it function and the total cost of those undescribed bits and bobs comes to 120k.

Also, there's a pretty sharp conflict between the concepts of "pure ore" and alloyed metal. I'd run that by your gm before you commit to it.

[King of Nowhere]

Obdurium has Hardness and HP: 30/60 per inch of thickness.

Get it in Pure Ore form, meaning the purest form of the metal, doubles the hardness and HP = 60/120

Oerthblood, (a magical alloy mixed into the pure ore obdurium) further doubles hardness and one and a half times the hp = 120/180. Furthermore, Oerthblood also reduces the enchantment cost and time by 25%

how can you have a pure metal into an alloy? if you alloy it, it becomes a mixture, then it can no longer be pure. it's a contradiction.
you either get the bonus for it being pure, or you get the bonus for it being alloyed.
furthermore, multiplication of bonuses works on the base value, like a +100% bonus. so, even if you could stack those bonuses (which you cannot), it would be the base value +200%, so you'd get 90/150

[YellowJohn]

First, Pure Ore & Oerthblood are Dragon Magazine content (347 and 351 respectively), and Oerthblood is additionally setting specific (Greyhawk). However, it sounds like you are the DM. So...

Pure Ore doesn't seem to refer to the purity of the ore, it's a term for special versions of the metal found on the Elemental Plane of Earth. 'Items made of metal forged with at least an ounce of pure ore are of masterwork quality and have twice as many hit points and double the hardness'.
So there is nothing there which would preclude you from taking your Pure Ore Obdurium and alloying it with Oerthblood.

However, this is actually irrelevant to the OP, because...

Regardless of the phylactery’s form, its game statistics remain the same: size Tiny, hp 40, hardness 20, break DC 40. As a magic item, it receives saving throws against magical effects that can affect objects.
So there's the stats for your ring whatever you make it out of.
There is a spell in the Spell Compendium called 'Hardening', which has permanent duration and increases hardness by 1/2 caster levels, so that should stack but can be dispelled.
Increasing hardness and hitpoints may not be the way to go anyway. Hardness can be bypassed, and once they do the party will wear away its hitpoints eventually. When I wanted something to make my Item Familiar from, I settled on Aurorum (Book of Exalted Deeds). It has the same Hardness and Hit Points as Steel, but you can repair it by putting the pieces back together. Note that a lich does not die when their phylactery is destroyed.

Can you put other enchantments on a phylactery? Can you put a Phylactery on an item which is already magic?
Yes and yes. See the rules for Adding New Abilities in the DMG p.288.
Secondary abilities have a +50% cost markup, so you probably want to add abilities to the phylactery. Also note that if you put its cost over 200,000gp you will need Forge Epic Ring.
Protection is an exception to the 50% markup rule, and a ring of protection +5 has Caster Level 15 without pricing you into Epic. Why is that important? Because you want to have a higher caster level than the Phylactery to mask its aura. The Nystal's Magic Aura spell is also your friend here.

Hope that was all helpful :smallsmile:

[Segev]

The box is Tiny and has 40 hit points, hardness 20, and a break DC of 40.

Frankly, it is absolutely ludicrous to assume any lich would settle for so fragile a container for his life force. This is literally his one weakness, in terms of ultimate survival. No way he does anything but make it as durable as it is within his power to do. And if he can become a lich, he can afford stronger materials, at the very least, let alone magical defenses and the like that make it harder to hit and damage.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Frankly, it is absolutely ludicrous to assume any lich would settle for so fragile a container for his life force. This is literally his one weakness, in terms of ultimate survival. No way he does anything but make it as durable as it is within his power to do. And if he can become a lich, he can afford stronger materials, at the very least, let alone magical defenses and the like that make it harder to hit and damage.

This is one of those things where forum experience is skewing expectation. That's not at all fragile. Hardness 20 suggests adamantine as a primary component or more common material magically reinforced to be just as strong. It also protects from adamantine and similar's ability to bypass hardness.

PC class characters on the whole are pretty rare and those who can do damage enough to be a threat to that degree of durability before mid-level are rarer still. Beasts and monsters that would be interested in it at all, much less in destroying it are also largely a non-issue.

Then, of course, there's the in-character vs meta knowledge gap. Adamantine is described as exceedingly rare and materials that are stronger are typically described as still more rare while magical reinforcement has its limits.

Finally, it being more than durable enough to protect from most physical threats is secondary to the fact it has a powerful caster holding a vested interest in keeping others from finding where it is and getting to it if they do. It's durability is its last line of defense not its first. No amount of hardness or hp will stop even a third level martial adept from just mountain hammering it into oblivion if he reaches it.

[Thurbane]

There's game balance to be considered as well as verisimilitude.

If the Lich's phylactery was essentially indestructible, it radically changes how they would play out as encounters.

[dantiesilva]

Have your lich make it a beneficial ring that they bequeath to their next of kin as a sign of ruler ship in the family. Now when your lich dies they poof back to a well protected family member who has no reason to want to destroy said ring (as they don't know its your phylactery) and as a lich with a really high intelligence you were smart enough to erase your family name from record so there is no tie to the family and you. Throw a few spells on the ring so that it cannot have its magical aura detected and cannot be scryed upon and such and you are basically safe because who is going to go looking for lord such and such of whocares who has been ruling his people for centuries justly and fair? And say they do, who is going to allow someone to destroy a precious family heirloom that has been passed down for generations?

For extra layers make sure your lich always has the court wizard under their control. This way he can be off doing his own thing and always has someone competent looking after his phylactery without him having to personally keep an eye on it. If something worrisome catches the wizards eye he informs the lich and they take care of it quietly.

[Particle_Man]

Actually that raises a question: If someone else is wearing the ring, does the lick start reforming out of the ring while on someone else's hand?

[Bphill561]

These calculations come up every so often.

Also make it a poison ring from the Dragon compendium. Races of the stone have Dwarven crafted which will give more hardness and HP. There are also alternative master crafti g options in dragon magazine 358 that can add hardness and hp.

Everbright is a cheap weapon property that makes it immune to acid and rusting.

The sizing weapon property also comes up as well. Enlarge to colossal for more HP. Although not so well hidden.

[dantiesilva]

Actually that raises a question: If someone else is wearing the ring, does the lick start reforming out of the ring while on someone else's hand?

That is a rather good question. If I had to guess the person wearing the ring would "know" about its other property and when advised by their wizard locks it in a secure location inside the castle and wears a fake until said lich is done reforming. Or just have everyone in family buried with a family ring and well yours is simply in the crypt. A lot easier for someone to say oh lets destroy it as it doesn't per say belong to someone but it is an option.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Make the ring as such:

Material: Shapesand or aurorum, because it can be put back together if "destroyed" by anything other than complete vaporization (as even disintegrate and such leave powder behind that can be reconstituted). Basically, relatively easy to disassemble but very hard to destroy. Alternately, riverine, but painted to make it look like metal, which means the mandatory hardness is a moot point, since it's physically indestructible.

Nonmagical device phylactery: A device (nondispellable, non-disjoinable, non-magic "magic item" from Ravenloft: Legacy of the Blood), so your phylactery is incredibly hard to identify as a phylactery. Detect magic, arcane sight, identify, analyze dweomer, etc won't be able to identify it as a phylactery at all. Plus, the cost of being a phylactery won't affect any magic item properties you add to it. And since this property isn't magic, you can't use Mordenkainen's disjunction, rods of cancellation, or similar to destroy its properties as a phylactery, unlike magical ones.

Magical effects: Make it into a unique and useful magic ring that nobody will want to destroy, like a +1 sizing/morphing/cursed morphing/metalline/skillful/aptitude poison ring (Dragon Compendium) that doubles as a pair of ring gates that interlock like a simple child's puzzle; the cursed morphing property turns it into anything that is a tool, rather than a weapon, so you can turn it into pretty much any tool or weapon of any size. Wear it as a ring when you want to keep it on the down-low, then use it as a multipurpose tool or weapon for anything you need, and then as a pair of sizing ring gates when you need even more utility out of it, so long as you unlock the two pieces from each other and use sizing to enlarge them. Add a stacked weapon crystal (MIC) that grants a ton of additional magical abilities as the stone setting to make it even better.

Artifact: See if you can turn it into a major artifact (or convince a very powerful monster that would have interest in it that it is one) and spread rumors so that very few would risk going through the process of destroying it, given its "status" as a "major artifact," and being destroyed by its guardian. Make sure the rumors include a way to destroy it that is both incredibly difficult and dangerous, as well as guaranteed to not destroy the ring; bonus points if it looks like it's been destroyed. Tossing an aurorum or shapesand ring into the hugely massive sphere of annihilation or umbral blot (ie, black hole) at the center of the universe, only so that you can cast a wish to transport the dust back to you and reform it into its original form is a fine way to go about doing things. And most creatures would kill themselves trying, so you don't have to worry about them after. If you do this, make sure the "magical effects" above are also nonmagical device effects, since identify doesn't work on artifacts.

[Bphill561]

Back on the Poison Ring idea, there are also the illithaid grafts in the field folio that could be useful. Graft weapon makes the weapon have all the same properties but it is non-magical so it is immune to disjunction.

Downside is it has to be grafted to a living creature. I would think if you later converted the creature to undead, an non-living graft would not die as it is a natural attack. I might add gloves of man from savage species to the ring since it makes than hand unable to hold anything. The question is do you graft it to yourself or something else. Warforged are living and don't really have an age category.

Also strange is that they are hard to salvage from a creature. I guess you could cut off the warforge's arm afterwards and preserve the part. Anyway it is kind of screwy, but eliminates disjunction as a threat.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

You could always plant a rumor that it's an artifact and the only way to destroy it is to break it in a volcano in the hottest area the Elemental Plane of Fire, but that there's a trap involved: there's an extradimensional space within containing massive amounts of brown mold, and if the phylactery is destroyed, the phylactery teleports to a random spot on the plane and the extradimensional space collapses, releasing the brown mold onto the Plane of Fire? That would be a very bad thing.

Anyone wanting to destroy the phylactery would risk upturning and/or destroying the entire Great Wheel.