Dungeons and Dragons Lore: Demilich and Acererak 

Greed is a vice. 👍

Dang, forgot to specify that, thank you Yawnos

I just found my over arching villian for my orcus cult endgame, and I have a rouge who would do just this thank you.

It would be a great plot device if the players didn't know this. The DM could use the Rogue by tricking them into pocketing the gem that appraises for 120,000 gold.

Its really the bard you want to watch out for. Those guys will lie their ass off and are just as devious as the rogue.

A demilich who named itself Yorik just for kicks.

Why... Thank you. I never thought of it that way. oooh I'm gonna have so much fun.

That is extremely devious. I like it.

Now they're really playing with the big boys... Be nice to your ancient lich skull, compliment it. Polish it. Rest it in good locations that catch the light. Yeah sure the efreet in the lamp you captured is scared of it & stoped ranting on about the 101 ways they'll boil the marrow inside the parties bones since you picked the skull up. And seems tame and skittish, and never dirrectly looks at the skull. But don't worry if you're endarring enough, maybe you'll all get to part ways without any involentary events of live magical dissection. In far more ways than haraazan the happy newly reformed singing and dancing efreet can imagine. 😺💀😱

Great now I'm forever going to hear Acererak and Vecna's voices as Abridged Nappa and Vegeta.

@@andyenglish4303 LMAO

Never make a threat you aren't willing to back up. It just isn't a good look for gods. Evil gods in particular.

@@thatoneguy9615 This was probably before Vecna obtained godhood.

@@JanusHoW *Facepalms* Likely, yes.

Rogue: Guess he’ll die

I dislike the idea of a lich having more than one phylactery. The phylactery is supposed to house their soul. Why would a lich have 37 souls to house in phylacteries?

I honestly think whoever was working on it knew nothing of how ths original lore and just saw the word "demi", or for some reason they wanted to change it. Because, for some reason, in 5E a demilich is an involuntary degradation of a lich, and is innately less powerful. Instead of the next stage of lichdom it has been in past editions. But, that's why we just play 3.5.

@@LuxuriaU Amen. The same could be said for everything written in 5e to date. The lore was tossed aside to make room for whatever seemed cool or whatever the newest market would find interesting. Before long there will be Fortnite skins in 5e.

5e did the whole game dirty

@@yignoloth I cannot deny this statement

​@@yignolothespecially magic. 70ish% of spells are all concentration now, which means no more creative combinations unless you have more than one caster. Concentration got absolutely fetishised in 5e.

Ooh that's a great idea A bit late how Did it go?

@@amitgabay3721 no party did get there yet 😅 you know: the problem with a 1-20th level campaign is it takes a looong time 😄

@@projectfantasy1385 I get you bro

True, generally they are busy with grand schemes and less devoted to solitude and study, just, well, solitude and security, so they tend to attack and defend themselves with extreme force when they have to, but they don't go looking for trouble on the material plane, their focus is beyond the material plane, towards godhood.

That is cool!

The skull of a demilich as a helmet? With the rib cage becoming a badass chest piece. On top of litany of badassedery.

Minor issue: the negative energy radiating from undead is detrimental to life, and the negative power of a lich is strong indeed. The wearer would probably become an undead just from exposure (or perhaps something like a hag). Another issue is that the lich would consider you a tool, and would likely dispose of you once your usefulness has ended.

@@krofgninut5984 there has to a way around that through through phylacteries and use of genees, enchantments and outright coercing the Lich you might be able to make him a decent set of armor

@@krofgninut5984 You can hedge the risk with a Protection from Evil and Good spell that you probably have a way to make permanent if you are interacting with Demilichs. Immunity to possession, fear, and charming while not actually causing harm to the Demilich should work out well enough. Just use a Greater Restoration once in a while for the radiation.

That sounds badass man🤘

I’m imagining something like the emperor from 40k

Error Oh that's a great idea.

Badaboom tish!

Better a dragon than the tarrasque...lol

@@spedwyrm7427 Good point. There are scarier hosts.

@@Elliandr I remember running an old 3.5 campaign, in it the large looming threat which was the draconic equivalent of a demi Lich. It kept the phylacteries for all of its servants and Commanders amongst its forces Within the hollow of its own skull. This game ran for over 4 years and by that point the party who had ventured into Epic Level play two years prior- finally confronted the draconic Demi Lich. They had reached an average party level of 36. The final confrontation had taken nearly three sessions to complete because they had to face all of their old Lich foes as well as the forces physically arrayed against them already. I made quite sure that they had to earn every single point of damage before it was finally completed and they emerged Victorious LOL.

@@spedwyrm7427 Now just imagine what would have happened if that Demi Lich never acted with it's own body, only possessing others from a hermetically sealed chamber, but led the players into believing that it was it's true body they killed.

@@Elliandr so it's effectively a scryborn Suel Lich...I like it

I would see like a lawful evil oath of vengeance paladin doing that. Basically doom guy lmao

Oh man, I hope you played classic disco music during the encounter.

Eternal suffering or become a Atheist.

Exactly what I thought of😂😂🤘

That would just be awesome!

Go go power liches

Hail to the king baby! *cocks arcane shotgun* 😂

Yup, quite liked that character.

Isn't he just a spirit of intellect?

It really freaked them out. They said fantasy films would never look the same again

I once designed a vampire dryad that consumes maple syrup. Would be a great setting for it.

Death Priest: Room temperature iq Lich: average brain size Demi-Lich: *A P E X I N T E L E C T*

Technically, but...

Thanks Charles!

The infinity gauntlet is a demilich!!

CONSUME THE SOULS OF THE DAMNED

Take that up with 4.0 D&D. Good lich was an epic class.

Even for the dead.

@@thedarkmaster4747 Mors certa. Hora incerta.

The underdark, what's the underdark? All we have are the crypts that run under the country. None who went in ever return...that Dwarven mining town broke into them on accident a number of years ago and we're killed to a dwarf. So what I'm hiring you to do is go into the town and kill the undead milling about so the reclamation team can build defenses. Try not to get to close to the old mine though, don't want to kick the undead Hornets nest like when we tried to go in ourselves last time... But, it shouldn't be to much of a problem for you, we just want some basic walls around the town. The wandering zombies have been a real pain for the farmers about the township.

Imagine if you had a character with like an Afro or something and it just chilled out in the pc’s hair 😂

If I ever run a Lich against the party, I’m using this. Many Lich’s become immortal so that their quest for knowledge may continue unhindered.

Matthew Turner emphasis on "UNHINDERED" 😷🤓🤪📖🤔😵🧪💉🧬🔬💀🐱‍🏍⚡😱🤢😰

I thought that could be a wet dream of would be necromancers but here we are, such a thing is possible it seems.

HellGod67 now I seem to remember in another video of his he made mention that liches are fueled by their connection to the negative energy plane so try as they might to do good, they are still evil and twisted and corrupt at the core. Though a baelnorn, a good aligned elf lich, is possible.

@@Eric-kb2xt Ed Greenwood confirmed that there were good liches in Forgotten Realms. Basically, a good character’s god has some mission that requires them to remain in play for some time after their normal lifespan would allow so the god puts them in a lichdom that does not change their good alignment. Once the mission is accomplished they expire as normal.

In my setting the nation of Uhrat has developed a way of creating non-evil undead. It's fostered a culture of ancestor worship, where they will raise significant figures from their history so they can aide and give counsel. They bolster their forces with undead that are the bones of great warriors. The way this works is that they have a special kind of phylactery called a qa'sesh, a long scarf/ribbon that is made throughout your life. Loved ones add to it to commemorate important moments in your life and when you die, you are wrapped in this qa'sesh for a special funeral rite. They carry you out to the desert and a mag'yet (priest) will cause the body to burn within the qa'sesh. The body becomes ash and bones, and the bones are gathered into an urn which is taken back to a necropolis. The family take home the qa'sesh and place it in a family shrine. That qa'sesh holds the soul of that person and it keeps it from becoming corrupted. If the country has need for your ancestor, they have to request the family's permission for the qa'sesh of that person. Families can't just raise their loved ones because the necropolis has their bones. But they can pray at the shrine of their ancestors where they keep all their family's qa'sesh' and hopefully gain guidance from them. When they go to war, they'll often wear the qa'sesh of their ancestors into battle to give them strength. If a Uhratian falls in battle, that fallen person and the ancestor who's qa'sesh they were wearing, will both be brought back from the dead. In this way killing one Uhratian only increases their forces. Lore dumped lol sorry, love good-aligned undead stuff.

I know is even possible for a good aligned mummy lord,but can a death knight be a good aligned?

The Moore Demi the Moore problems?

The DM was right.

Two wrongs don't make a right, it is not "less evil" to horribly murder and destroy the soul of a convicted criminal, murder is murder.

@@AJPickett so I take it you do not believe in the death penalty

@@ramsesv5339 we are talking about Dungeons & Dragons.

Well we differ in our opinion then. To me I am old Testament eye for an eye

@@ramsesv5339 we differ in our alignment. 😉

Don't remember. What did the kids do with the Crystals?

They kill something like 30 juvenile Aboleth, whose collective psychic death knell gives a portion of the river Styx sentience.

@@axepoison255 On Sigil we call that "Tuesday"

@@AJPickett Twas a Tuesday to aspire to. The metric for which other Tuesdays might be judged.

QorinHalfhand. I feel that liches would be immune to that effect. Even if not, in the latest edition he has something like 27 int. That combined with legendary resistances means that you’ll have to get through a lot of tough defenses before you could even try casting something like feeble mind. By then if he picks up on what you’re doing you’ll probably die very quickly.

@@sanddry738 theres a reddit post about it and it explains just how you can do it. It requires A LOT of prepwork but if done right you can make him your bitch.

But he would be kinda useless by this point. More like an undead dog then a powerful caster.

As hilarious as that would be (flaming skulls in a cannon on a lich’s tower comes to mind instead), I think the spellcasting power and howl is far greater than a mere hunk of metal. Although it’d be one of the nastier surprises a party could face...

You would think that, as I was directly referring to the ELH, I would have noticed that, but nooooo.

@@AJPickett Lol no worries, I had to think about it myself like wait... I've read this somewhere, oh right!! Honestly though I loved hearing your take on it, plus hearing your lores are quite nice, can listen to them while playing other games, thanks for the uploads!

@@AJPickett Magic Immunity (Ex): Demiliches are immune to all magical and supernatural effects, except as follows. A shatter spell affects a demilich as if it were a crys-talline creature, but deals half the damage normally indicated. A dispel evil spell deals 3d6 points of damage (Fort save for half damage). Holy smite spells affect demiliches normally. page 174 of the epic lvl handbook ... the rule lawyer in me wants to argue while it's probaly intended as they are immune to secondary effects like slow... etc the name of that ability and the wording makes a pretty good argument that they are immune to magic ie a fireball to the face would do nothing

Sounds like the colossal land squid needs to sit on the sidelines. Lol

@@NanoMayTry The colossal land squid is a panzy.

Welcome and enjoy!

Any bones. Like the pelvis. Leg. Knee.Foot... ribcage.

Even the tip of a little toe.

Yes, goood, excellent. I needed something small thst could be misconstrued as a weird necklace pendant.

Untill it calls you an "imbicle!" after you mess up a spell or a potion.

@@zacharyhawley1693 I prefer a kneecap with an arrow stuck in it "I used to be an adventuring wizard, until I took this arrow to the knee".

Seems like a legit plan 🤘

Use bees instead u can sell the honey