The Lich. It's arguably the most influential iconic monster from D&D. While people will recognize Beholders and Mind Flayers, Liches have just become fully part of the canon of fantasy tropes.
Liches are simultaneously monsters - they're rotting, undead corpses that are happy to kill you - while also being intelligent, eve brilliant. The Lich is the kind of quintessential Big Bad of a D&D campaign. And their ability to come back again and again if you kill them means that they're sort of safe for a Dungeon Master to use because the Lich is only fully dead and gone when the DM allows the party to find their phylactery and also find the proper way to destroy it.
Liches are generally portrayed as wizards, or sometimes sorcerers, who have undergone this transformation willingly in order to become harder to kill and to be able to stick around long enough to see longterm plans accomplished.
Now, because of that nature, the 5th Edition monster manual version of the lich leans heavily on spellcasting as its primary capabilities. While I encourage any DM who feels comfortable running monsters that have full player-like spellcasting capabilities, I, for one, find that style of monster a real pain to run. The newer versions of spellcasting monsters and NPCs as seen in Monsters of the Multiverse presents a model we could use going forward. Here, spellcasters are given magical abilities that take the place of most offensive spellcasting, while they retain some actual "as found in the PHB" spells to retain their utility.
One thing that these new stat blocks have done is give creatures more accurate challenge ratings.
So, my approach here will be to try to get a version of the Lich that retains its magical capabilities and thematic elements while providing a clear set of actions to live up to its challenge rating and fearsome reputation.
I'll be using the DMG's guidance on creating a monster and the stats by challenge rating.
The goal here is to make a version of the Lich that lives up to the expectations the Monster Manual sets, but is easier to run and reflects its CR accurately.
When figuring out a monster's challenge rating, we break this down into two things: Offensive Challenge Rating (OCR) and Defensive Challenge Rating (DCR) and find the average of them to get our final result.
A lich has a variable challenge rating base on lair actions, but we're going to set those aside and just assume that the same change will happen when those lair actions are back in.
Our goal is a CR of 21.
DCR:
DCR should be easier for us to figure out, because I'm going to aim to change as little as possible.
A lich has, on average, 135 hit points. This is actually very, very low for a monster of that CR. Now, the presence of damage immunities or resistances will effectively raise this. But given that we're aiming for a CR of 21, those elements are not going to have as significant an impact as they would at, say, CR 2. Because we're at a 17+ CR, the presence of immunities (to poison and bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks) only raises the effective HP of the lich to about 169.
169 is the effective HP of a CR 7 monster.
The lich also has an AC of 17. It is here that I will note that the monster statistics by challenge rating table for some reason does not show any ACs over 19 - it has everything from CR 17 to CR 30 listed as having an AC of 19 - but because we're below that oddity, we can now place AC 17 as somewhere in the CR 10-12 range. 169 is near the middle of the CR 7 range, so we'll pick CR 11 as the one we're getting from AC.
Thus, we find that the DCR for the lich is about 9.
So, what does that imply for the OCR we're going to need? Well, technically, it means we cannot actually reach our intended CR because to get a total CR of 21, we'd need to have an OCR of 33 - which goes off the chart.
Even if we want our Lich to be something of a glass cannon, we need to make it a bit beefier to live in that CR 21 range.
How far we go is a judgment call. I do think our lich should be more effective at offense than defense - they are a wizard, after all - but they're also a big bad that should be able to stay on the battlefield long enough to unleash some pain. So, let's instead shoot for a DCR of 16. This way, we can get an OCR of 26 and still hit that average of CR 21.
And I think the way I want to do this is just boosting the lich's HP. We'll leave the AC the same, reflecting that they're not heavily armored.
So, if our AC is giving us 10-12 DCR, then we'll want to hit an HP DCR of 20-22. Let's just stick to the middle on both. So, if we want the HP of a CR 21 creature (which, hey, this actually is) we need its effective HP (EHP, if you don't mind more abbreviations) to be somewhere in the 401-445 range. Again, let's shoot for the middle. We'll go for an EHP of around 420. We can now divide by 1.25 because of its immunities, giving us an actual HP of 336. Now that's something that could survive a round or two of combat!
Ok, we can then reverse-engineer the lich's hit dice. A lich has a +3 to constitution and a d8 hit die (as it's a medium creature) so we divide 336 by 7.5 (4.5 being the average roll of a d8 and then +3) and we get 44.8. So we'll bump it up to 45 and say that the lich's health is actually 337 (45d8 + 135).
And now we have a DCR of 16.
OCR:
The OCR goal we have, now that we have a DCR of 16, is 26.
With the OCR, things are going to have to get a little creative. A lich shouldn't just be tossing out spell attacks that do necrotic damage - even if those will hit very hard.
Still, we should get a baseline of how much damage the lich should be doing per round.
And in this case, I'm going to fully toss out their spell list - only bringing things back when we get to utility and perhaps the odd AoE (though I want to have a built-in proprietary AoE ability as well).
With an intelligence modifier of +5 and a proficiency bonus of +7, the Lich's spell attack modifier is +12 and their spell save DC is 20.
The table in the DMG suggests that an attack bonus of +12 puts you in the 24-26 range of CRs. A DC of 20 is listed as 21-23. My general thought is that a lich will probably be more devastating with abilities that have a save DC than with their attacks, so we're going to weigh things a bit more toward the latter (I will note that with DCs that hit or exceed 20, you start to have some effects that players might not be able to succeed on even with a natural 20, so this does feel like a bit more significant of a threshold. Tip your Paladin and their aura of protection, guys).
Ok, so, if we take the middle of that DC 20 range, we're at an OCR of 22. To push that, then, to an OCR of 26, we need to hit CR 30 in terms of damage output per round (I should note that this "output per round" assumes full damage potential if everything hits and all saving throws are failed).
To hit CR 30 on damage output, we want to be putting out 303-320 damage per round.
Which is, you know, a lot.
In fact, if we maybe take a step back and think instead to base the Lich's OCR on their attack bonus, we could actually look instead at the damage output listed at CR 26 - maybe aim for the top of it to allow for the top CR that a +12 to hit allows. This brings the damage output we need down to around 248.
Which is still, you know, a lot. But hey, this is a lich we're talking about!
Ok, so first, we should look at single-target, which is the simplest way to calculate this.
Most casters in Monsters of the Multiverse (especially all the wizard stat blocks) have some kind of "Arcane Burst" attack, and typically make three with a multiattack.
Three such attacks would require each to do about 83 damage. But if we, instead, have the Lich make five attacks (which feels like the kind of epic terror such a legendary creature should be able to perform) we can have each do about 50 damage.
Another possibility is to have fewer single-target attacks and then some AoE ability.
This is going to complicate things, but I think we can manage it, and I think it'll make for something particularly scary.
So, AoE abilities are tricky - obviously they're a lot more effective if you hit more targets. We're going to assume that the lich can hit two targets consistently with an AoE ability.
Ok, so now let's assume that the Lich has three Arcane Burst-like attacks that each hit for 50 damage. We'll call it Necrotic Burst: +12 to hit, one target, deals 9d10 necrotic damage on a hit. That gives us 150 damage each round. But then, as part of the same Multiattack, they use something that's really devastating to the group.
I'm really tempted to make this a sort of "force lightning" ability similar to the Emperor in Return of the Jedi. It's a 60-foot cone (same size as Cone of Cold, which is enormous) and requires creatures within to make a DC 20 Dexterity saving throw. On a failure, they take 15d12 (which is an average of around 98) lightning damage. And then, they can save for half.
Ah, but that's actually overtuned - we need to lower the damage to account for the ability to hit multiple targets. So, instead, let's make it about half as much. 14d6 gives us an average of 49 damage.
Now, this is a decent start. We have a monster that is just pouring out a ton of damage.
But we might want to instead add some effects to these default abilities. The current Monster Manual lich has Paralyzing Touch as a melee spell attack. This only does 10 cold damage, but requires a DC 18 Con save or the target gets paralyzed for a minute (interesting that it's not the same DC as the spells - like it's charisma based or something). While the damage of this ability is nearly negligible, paralyzation is one of the nastiest conditions in the game.
Here's where the guidance in the DMG is a little less precise. For one thing, paralyzation is terrible regardless of the encounter, but it's especially bad if you have some hard-hitting minion. If our lich has a death knight minion, the auto-crits from being paralyzed are going to be a whole lot worse than if the lich is on its own (while the general advice for liches is to always give them lots of minions, I want a version that can be a threat on its own as well).
Now, any attack that hits a paralyzed target from within 5 feet is a crit - not just weapon attacks. Thus, if our lich uses an Arcane Burst-like attack (which can be a ranged or melee spell attack, so no disadvantage) as their bread and butter on a paralyzed foe, they can still be really devastating.
So, then, let's say we work in that paralyzing touch attack from the original stat block as well.
This seems like an ability that should only come in once per round - indeed, in the original stat block, it takes the Lich's full action, though they can also use it with two legendary actions. We are, though, buffing their damage output. So, I want this to be part of the multiattack.
Because our Necrotic Burst and Crackling Cone abilities as currently balanced fulfill the damage we needed to hit the lich's OCR, we're going to need to reduce either the damage they deal or the number of attacks, or both.
I'll say that because a paralyzed target might take about twice their normal damage, we should count this attack as doubling the other attacks (though not the saving throw-based crackling cone).
So, first off, let's lower the number of Necrotic Bursts they make to two - this will make the Multiattack do two Necrotic Bursts, one Crackling Cone, and one Paralyzing Touch.
Crackling Cone, which I'm leaving unchanged, takes up 98 damage of our 248 damage "budget," leaving us with 150.
Paralyzing touch deals 10 damage (3d6,) on its own, so we can lower that remaining budget to 140.
But, we're also going to count the paralyzation effect as, essentially, doubling the remaining attacks. This obviously won't play out every time in combat, but you could imagine a round where the lich paralyzes the unlucky fighter and then bursts them twice and hits them with a cone of lightning. So, we thus divide the 140 damage left to us by four, giving us 35 damage per attack (on the logic that this will frequently be doubled to 75 damage per attack).
35, conveniently, can be achieved with a roll of 10d6. That is, however, a lot of dice to roll, admittedly only twice per round, but given that we're expecting it to crit often, which would require 20d6, let's try bigger dice. 6d12 gives us an average of 39, and given that sometimes this will be at range or otherwise not able to take advantage of the paralyze effect, we'll skew up slightly.
The ability to paralyze a target (potentially for multiple rounds) each turn is pretty scary. We're also going to allow for the Necrotic Burst to be a legendary action.
In terms of spells, we want to keep most of their utility stuff, and perhaps keep one or two scary damage spells in case the DM wants to switch things up.
Liches can, of course, be friendly (even if evil) NPCs, so we'll hold on to stuff they can use to help the party.
So, let's get a mockup of our updated Lich statblock!
DAN'S UPDATED LICH
Medium undead, Any Evil Alignment
Armor Class 17 (natural armor)
Hit Points 337 (45d8+135)
Speed 30 ft.
STR 11 (+0) DEX 16 (+3) CON 16 (+3) INT 20 (+5) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 16 (+3)
Saving Throws Con +10, Int +12, Wis +9
Skills: Arcana +19, History +12, Insight +9, Perception +9
Damage Resistances: cold, lightning, necrotic
Damage Immunities: poison; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks.
Condition Immunities: charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned
Senses: truesight 120 ft., passive Perception 19
Languages Common plus up to five other languages
Challenge 21 (33,000 xp) or 22 (41,000 xp) when encounter in lair.
Proficiency Bonus +7
Legendary Resistance (3/day). If the lich fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
Rejuvenation. If it has a phylactery, a destroyed lich gains a new body in 1d10 days, regaining all its hit points and becoming active gain. The new body appears within 5 feet of the phylactery.
Turn Resistance. The lich has advantage on saving throws against any effect that turns undead.
Actions:
Multiattack. The lich makes two necrotic burst attacks, then uses crackling cone and can use paralyzing touch.
Necrotic Burst. Melee or Ranged Spell Attack. +12 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 120 ft., one creature. Hit: 39 (6d12) necrotic damage.
Crackling Cone. The lich sends out a crackling burst of shadowy lightning in a 60-foot cone. Each creature within the cone must make a DC 20 Dexterity saving throw. On a failure, the creature takes 49 (14d6) lightning damage, or half as much on a success.
Paralyzing Touch. Melee Spell Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 10 (3d6) cold damage. The target must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw or be paralyzed for 1 minute. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
Spellcasting. The lich casts one of the following spells, using Intelligence as its spellcasting ability (spell save DC 20, +12 to hit with spells).
At will: animate dead, detect thoughts, detect magic, mage hand, magic missile
3/day: fireball, dimension door, globe of invulnerability, mirror image, scrying
1/day: dominate monster, plane shift, power word kill, power word stun
Obviously, the spells might require some tweaking - I like giving them at-will Animate Dead, though I advise any DMs to let liches have any number of undead minion without needing to cast some spell to summon them.
The legendary actions are the same except that they get Necrotic Burst instead of a cantrip. And the lair actions are the same except the one where they regain a spell slot - we'll need to come up with something else for that. Perhaps instead they get advantage on an attack? Not sure.
Anyway, my hope is that this revised lich still feels like it would be the kind of diabolical and versatile threat that it should be, but be a lot easier to run in combat.
It's still two years until we get the 50th anniversary core rulebooks, and I'm sure we're going to see some changes to how the lich is built. This is basically my approximation of what we can expect.
No comments:
Post a Comment