Dealing with a Lich [The Center Cannot Hold spoiler]

[Skjaldbakka]

So, I have a group of PCs that are being sent to retrieve the hand and eye of Vecna from a Lich(straight from MM Lich). I am somewhat concerned as to their ability to succeed at this goal. I would like for someone to come up with a plan that would make these guys pull through, so that I know it is at least theoretically possible, w/o using their Get Out of Jail Free Cards.

The PCs:
Half Dragon Dragon Shaman 7 or 8
He is half-gold, but reveres silver, so among other things, he is immune(or possibly merely very resistant to cold) and to fire. Alignment NG

Half-Celestial Ranger 6/Fighter 2, going for Beloved of Valarian
Alignment CG, archery focused

Tiefling Half-Celestial Swordsage/Shadowsun Ninja (not sure exactly the levels, but has 7-9 HD. Alignment CG

Human Cleric of Wee Jas 10, with the line of feats that make him count as undead for lots of things. Alignment LN

Tibbit Swordsage 10. Alignment recently changed to LE. Focused on Desert Wind and Shadow Hand. Has Insightful Strike also.

Tibbit's Cat Familiar. Alignment LE. I allowed him to take the Obtain Familiar feat.

Cleric's Cleric of WeeJas Cohort, Level 7. Alignment LN

Tiefling's as-of-yet unstatted cohort, ECL 7(I think)

Resources:
An NPC spellcaster who is 29th level, who is willing to cast spells on the party if they pay standard price for them. This is the guy sending them on the mission, in return for casting the spells needed to destroy the artifact they are trying to destroy.

~35K a piece. The NPC spellcaster has agreed to make one magic item a piece for the party, if they pay the standard cost. I told the PCs that this is an opportunity to get custom magic items, as long as they aren't horridly broken.

A cloak that grants immunity to cold.

Level 7 WBL gear.

A +3 Axiomatic Chaotic Outsider Bane Longspear

A +1 Lawful Shortsword that is spellstoring 3/day with a CL 25 shocking grasp

A +3 Lawful Spellstoring Shortsword

2 Animated Heavy Shields

The Spellcaster that is sending them is giving them the following information:
The Hand and Eye of Vecna are currently in the possession of a Lich, who is at Location X. I will tell you the capabilities of either the Lich, or of the artifact. The rest you will have to do on your own. I figure the party is likely to be able to make the Knowledge check for one or the other, on average.

Get Out of Jail Free Cards:

A ring with one wish
Ogham's Favor (if you are reading this, and part of this game, you know who you are. This next bit is in spoilers because you really need to not read it)

Spoiler

Show

The party earned the gratitude of a lvl 20 Fey druid in an early plot arc. Because of this, he will help them out of an impossible situation 3 times. One of these has already been used, so they have two left. They don't know they have this.

My thoughts:

The Lich will open up with Blasphemy from the artifacts, which will Kill the party, except for the Tibbit, unless the Cleric puts up Death Wards on the Party. If he does that, everyone but the Tibbit and the Half-Dragon will be paralyzed, and the Half-Dragon will be dazed. The Cleric could cast Imbue with Spell Ability on the Half-Dragon, the Tibbit, and the Tibbit's familiar, which would be enough to have Remove Paralysis for the party after the daze wears off. The Lich than flies up and Cone of Colds the paralysed PCs, who are denied their saves.

[Apollishar]

If the lich is straight from the MM, then there is no reason this party will actually have any real problems.....it seems about right overall

[Skjaldbakka]

The thing that tips the scales is the fact the Lich has the Eye and Hand of Vecna, and will be using them against the party. Also the fact that I absolutely refuse to play wizards stupidly. I'm not going to change the Lich's prepared spells, but he will be using them to maximum possible effectiveness.

[herrhauptmann]

did I actually just read 'half-celestial teifling'?

That just seems stupid.

[ZeroNumerous]

Straight from the MM Lich?

Cleric: Cast Spell Resistance on himself. Cast Summon Monster V, summon a Bearded Devil. Move into melee range with lich. Cast Cure Critical Wounds. Repeat until it's dead. (An average of 28 damage means 3 rounds until it dies, assuming the Bearded Devil misses every single attack).

No one else is really relevant to this discussion.

[iceman]

The blasphemy spell is listed as an evil/sonic effect. So to avoid that particular spell the party would have to be under a silence effect. If the party can include the Lich within any of the areas of silence it significantly reduces his spell choice. (This plan is not without its problems but it should help a little bit).

[iceman]

Just thought of something else.
Protection from evil and/or magic circle against evil are good spells to keep the Lich from dominating or controlling any of the weak willed party members. (especially the half dragon who is immune to paralysis)

[Shosuro Ishii]

Does the party know about the lich's phylactery (not sure on spelling)?

Because if they don't, then killing the lich won't be what they really have to worry about.

[mostlyharmful]

You're gonna throw a level 11 cater at the level8 party without playing it intentionally stupid? they're dead. and the automatic true res effect is just the icing on the cake.

with multiple HUGE LA PCs you've just got to tone it down or they'll get wiped in no time at all. with no come back and merciless followup on the survivors.

try just having them talk to the slightly insane Lich, use social skills and possibly hightail it when that abyssmally fails to work.

[Ganurath]

did I actually just read 'half-celestial teifling'?

That just seems stupid.

The way I see humanoids with celestial blood is this:

Outsider parent: Halfblood.
Outsider grandparent or great grandparent: Fiendish/Celestial.
Outsider +great grandparent: Planetouched.

Assuming it's something like this, the father could be a celestial while the mother's great grandsomething is a fiend.

BACK ON TOPIC!

I'm seeing tricks that say easy win for lich, and I see tricks that say easy win for the party. Therefore, I'm going to have to say this lich is a fair opponent.

[Skjaldbakka]

You're gonna throw a level 11 cater at the level8 party without playing it intentionally stupid? they're dead. and the automatic true res effect is just the icing on the cake.

Have you seen the spell list for the default lich? It is a blaster-mage. I'm not changing its spell list, I just plan on using that spell list as intelligently as I can.

did I actually just read 'half-celestial teifling'?

That just seems stupid.

Thanks for the input. That was really productive of you. FYI, the backstory for the character is that he was a half-celestial that was captured by the Evil Empire (TM), and tortured and twisted and otherwise magically experimented on, eventually changing him to a Tiefling. He effectively has Tiefling as an acquired template.

[triforcel]

I think that the simplest thing would be to get the Lich inside an anti magic field somehow. That'll negate his spells, special attacks, and DR, and then the party can use their non supernatural abilities to take him out. It's kind of the DM's discretion if the anti magic field suppresses the spell like abilities granted by the artifacts or not. If they are, then the party is golden once they get the Lich in the field. If not, then the party would have some difficulty still, but still might be better off.

[Skjaldbakka]

Two or more antimagic fields sharing any of the same space have no effect on each other. Certain spells, such as wall of force, prismatic sphere, and prismatic wall, remain unaffected by antimagic field (see the individual spell descriptions). Artifacts and deities are unaffected by mortal magic such as this.

Emphasis mine.

My current thoughts on how the fight goes down.

1) Party teleports into Lich's Lair, setting off the alarm spells throughout the area.

2) Lich makes use of Hide skill and secret passageways to ambush party. Spot is a good skill for one of the PCs, which makes the odds 50/50 on the Lich getting the drop on the entire party. The entire lair is magically dark via the unhallow effect of the artifacts. The Trueseeing from the eye makes that a big advantage for the Lich.

3) Lich uses artifact to summon a barbed devil, which hides and uses major image to create an illusion of some nasty Demon (perhaps a Balor).

4) Party swarms illusionary Balor. Lich moves up and uses Blasphemy from artifact. Barbed Devil uses Unholy Blight.

5) Lich flies up and blasts PCs with cone of cold. Barbed Devil uses Order's Wrath on PCs.

6) Barbed Devil picks a weak looking opponent and melees (probably the Tibbit). The Lich tags whoever seems the biggest threat with Disintegrate.

[triforcel]

I know that, in fact I said that it would depend on the DM. I know people who would rule it as the spells produced by the artifact being spells and not part of the artifact and therefore wouldn't work. But you don't seem to be taking that approach.

If they were just facing a Lich without the artifacts then the antimagic field would almost make it a sure thing. With the artifacts still in play the field brings down their concerns to one casting of blasphemy, one casting of destruction, and three castings each of domination and eyebite. What they don't have to worry about are the lich's spells, his DR, his magic items, and his paralyzing touch.

That being said, if the party gets the drop on the lich with the antimagic field up, they should be able to do enough damage to drop him in the first round.

[Skjaldbakka]

Sadly, the party is not AMF capable. The cleric of WeeJas took domains to make him a better necromancer. His cohort has the magic domain, but is not high enough level to have 6th level spells. Which puts the 8th level cleric AMF out of reach.

[triforcel]

But they do have a 29th level NPC caster who's willing to create any magic item that they can pay for. An item that casts Antimagic field at level 11 caster level costs 26400 for use activated or 23760 for command word. Since they each have 35000 to spend it's well within their price range.

[Skjaldbakka]

That is true. They could get a use-activated AMF item. I guess that puts the Lich fight at 'about fair', given they have options were they might beat him on their own merits, w/o use of wish or Ogham.

[herrhauptmann]

Thanks for the input. That was really productive of you. FYI, the backstory for the character is that he was a half-celestial that was captured by the Evil Empire (TM), and tortured and twisted and otherwise magically experimented on, eventually changing him to a Tiefling. He effectively has Tiefling as an acquired template.

Ganurath, I agree with your reasoning on what it means to be a halfblood and a planetouched.


I mock the tiefling halfcelestial because it sounds similar, but not as stupid to have a monk2, brb 2, rgr2,ftr4,rog1,wiz1 who's a vampiric weretiger skulk. Yes, I saw a character like that. Anyway, if your guy chose halfcelestial tiefling at the start, I'll maintain my opinion it is stupid, but if it happened afterwards as a result of things he couldn't control, I'll give an apology.

[SoD]

What I'd do in this situation: charge in screaming, hoping to catch him by suprise. It's the last thing he'd expect, a small armed force charging up. I'd also hire a bunch of kobold miners to mine underneath the castle (was it a castle? I've been picturing a castle) so it collapses down, meanwhile, while the parties charging, and the kobolds mining, and the castles crumbling, get the paladins (oh yeah, inform any local paladins that there's a lich living here, with a few evil artifacts, and tell them that defeating said lich would be a blow to the forces of evil) to ride in on their paladin mounts from the east, before having a friendly wizard teleport the paladins inside.

Yeah. I'd be dead, right? But what a way to go!

[Skjaldbakka]

Anyway, if your guy chose halfcelestial tiefling at the start, I'll maintain my opinion it is stupid, but if it happened afterwards as a result of things he couldn't control, I'll give an apology.

While he did choose tiefling half-celestial at character creation, his backstory is not in the least bit contrived. That the empire does things like that is part of the introductory blurb for the setting. He is also playing up the conflict of natures bit (hence the shadowsun ninja PrC).

[herrhauptmann]

Shadowsun ninja...
I know nothing about that prestige class. What's it do?

[The Mormegil]

It lets you use negative and positive energy or light and darkness energy effects as well as melding together monk and swordsage. Cool indeed, but useless...

The Dragon Shaman is going to shine as he's immune or resistent to many of the lich's attacks. I'd say it's ok since two good hits on the lich and it's gone. I'd say if the swordsage has focused on shadow hand and has got a good strike, he's going to teleport behind him (even if flying, he only gets a pair of d6 damages) and strike true. The cleric can continue to cast mass CLW to heal & injure, then switch to some serious cures or some serious buffs or some serious blast (yeah, sometimes it's only good to have a damage dealer).
The others are there to face the mooks.

[herrhauptmann]

I cringe at the level adjustment for the half celestial-tiefling by the way.
Planetouched are all +1. Half celestial and half fiend are both +3 or +4.

So how does he roleplay the conflict between his diluted fiend blood and the more recent half-celestial? Though on the surface the description of the shadowsun ninja sounds like it fits pretty well.

And what's a tibbit btw?

[Skjaldbakka]

So how does he roleplay the conflict between his diluted fiend blood and the more recent half-celestial?

Actually, Tiefling was the acquired part. He used to be human. Since it all happened in backstory, there is no mechanical conflict caused by this. The plot hasn't really touched on his backstory yet.

Tibbits are a halfling like race that have an alternate cat form (as in housecat).