Dungeons and Dragons: The Dracolich 

A moment of silence for my brave companions, the eight of us walked into darkness expecting to find a black dragon (thanks villagers) but after expending spell slots and losing hp to get to the cave, we came face to face with the dracolich. 8 went in only one returned, my friends died, I survived because of my friends sacrifice. To this day I believe that the dracolich survived the cave in, and is thirsting for my character's blood.

"born at the age of 17"... the D&D world is a crazy place

Dracolich, because Lichs and Dragons are too easy :)

funnily enough dracoliches are easier to put down permanently, if harder to kill in the first place, than normal liches since they need a complete dragon corpse to inhabit. if one is not available near it's gem then it's stuck. then it's a matter of destroying the gem which is just as hard if not harder than a normal phylactery but at least you wont have to deal with the thing popping out of your bag of holding every day.

I wonder if you could have a metallic mummy dragon cult to be kind of a foil for an evil dracolich cult. Is there any reason why cultists would not mummify a metallic dragon and maybe through worship accidentally bring it to life?

What would happen if a beholder dreamed of becoming a dragon could said being become a lich

Here's a scary encounter one of the titanic sized red dragons in the nine hells willingly being turned into a dracolich now that would be a horror that would make even the toughest beings think twice

I wonder , Dracolich and Shadowdragon being templates ....do they exclude each other ? do we even want a Shadow Dracolich? i guess it would be a bad thing to even live on the same Planet as such a thing....or make that the same Plane of existence...

Hey AJ, one of my favorite Dragons. Back in 90's my friends & I played Battle System by TSR. I had a 200 miniature armor of undead and one of these pieces was a Dracolich. One of my tactics was to have the Dracolich land on a unit of soldiers, crushing that unit. Than breath its undead poisonous breath weapon on to another unit. Pretty much destroying two units in one turn. My friends hated that Dragon, (lol). Thanks AJ & have a great day.

Bane : you merely adopted the dark

Another great video! From all the monsters and powerful beings in D&D, i think that Dragoliches are one of the most fascinating and also one that i would fear greatly as a player. Good luck with your computer upgrades! Waiting for the next video :)

Imagine an elder brain dracolich! Should send shivers down everyone's spine

Thanks again AJ, love your channel and yeah... Dracoliches. Thats fucking scary.

My favorite channel! Thanks for being great A.J.!

Well that was doubly inspiring. >drow dragon called to chase down Demogorgon after thr sack of Menzoberranzan. >stalks and brawls with Demogorgon in the Darklake, gets ass kicked. >flees and seeks the cult pf the dragon for a quick powerup to get back there and recover his pride >demogorgon vs adult of ancient shadow dragon with full dracolich-powered Drow Favored Consort wizard spellcasting... Is that a closer fight? Just a fun brawl to imagine going on while the d lords roam around

🌋😁🐉 "lava" back here a second time, these things are going to be such a resource. a pyroclastic ancient lawfull evil dracolich called appocalypse.

Heh we fought one of these as one of the final bosses in our DM's homebrew campaign.....it's stats and abilities were supped up to match our stats and homebrewed gear better, without it being impossible to kill....sadly one of our group died several sessions ago when the other half of the group first encountered it....rest in peace gunslinger....

Ahhh, the *perfect* patron of an Undying Warlock

LOL bonafide? BONE a fide!?!?! Ouch

could you do an ecology on gargoyles if you haven't yet

So how long exactly do dragons live? i can imagine a red dying of old age, then being lichified by a bunch of cultists who worshipped it inlife, then basically resulting in it creating an undead version of tolkiens mordor. but if the dracolich is supposed to be what a lich aspires to be, durnehviir from the video game skyrim being an example, where you have a self respawner, what kills the thing, at its full potential? a party of celestials? you'd have to time killing it to get at its phalactory. maybe a bad guy that you don't foil dirrectly, but you kill its head minion and magically trap it under a collapsed mountain for centuries, if not millenia, untill a bunch of power hungry foolhardy folks release the thing. it would be more ancient evil geography, than just fighting a dragon.

Please do bahamut and tiamat

1:20 Born in 800 DR at the age of 17... Wizzard kids, they grow up so fast ;)

Samester ? I really don't recall that character, from Forgotten Realm... I remember Elmister, of course, and Blackstaff Arunsun, and I can recall that Elminster was friend with a female Dracolich(but I forget her name).

I just had a fun idea....Draco-mummes!

What if you made a pseudodragon a dracolich if you killed a real dragon could the pseudodragon possess its corpse?

As he studied the works of.....Dollar shave club! Best commercial break lol

Clicked to ask an old question that might resurface in the game. Good Metalic dragon with a Ring of Mind Shielding dies while shapechanged. What is that... like? What if you put the ring on like, a highly complex construct? When do we cross the line? When you power the mind/mech up with life energy? If you use bones or dragon bones in the build?

Reminds me of how I was trying to make an idea for a big bad by combining multiple bad things as possible. I was thinking of a dragon that through some method was made into an Illithid, which then in turn became a Lich, that the Illithid thought they could use a dragon with its mighty brain as a base, but just turned into something that even monsters would work to keep under control. Had this idea of doing a whole Cthulhu thing. Based on that, I had the idea they specifically locked it away rather than slay it under not knowing where its phylactery is. The book is also kind of specific of the phylactery possessing a new corpse rather than the standard Lich's creating a new one. So I was also thinking along the lines of a party somewhat manipulated into at one time working for the death of an ancient dragon before "killing" the adult dragon sized sealed dracolich like monster, whereupon a cultist in possession of the phylactery (an otherwise helpful archmage) would use it on the ancient's body to upgrade the dracolich away from prying eyes.

Maybe in the future if you want maybe you could cover Demi lichs and the lichs who become gods

If I was to introduce a Dracolich, I would have it Swoop out of the Sky and attack a city decimating it, before being driven off. The Player Characters are among those that survive the onslaught of that attck.

Tldr i have a dracolich idea who has a homebrew breath weapon and uses echolocation do you like it? I have an ideah for a dracolich aka a dragon lich but he has a homebrew breath weapon instead of fire or ice or something he opens his mouth and skulls ingulfed in blue flame fly out his breath weapon is essentialy a summon that creates the flame skull enemy's and the body of fire the skulls originate from is also deadly so you dodge his blue flame only to be struck by a cackling skull on fire also the skulls are fast but can't steer well like a bull and im considering makeing the dracolich have empty eye sockets with him instead using Echo location would this guy be a possible character also hes sposed to be in a abandoned elven place eif worship full of banshee and mumys flaming skulls and puzzles set by the minnons of the dracolich he attacked the place centuries ago and has taken the place over scince liching himself with the help of a group of cultists under his wing who worship him perhaps they went to that dragon boneyard you mentioned idk im new to dnd and havnt tried writing only playing anyways he now lays apoun a pile of gold offerings to the gods left behind by the elfs all thise years ago aswell as new good by the cultist you can wake him to fight or ateno to steal his phlactory because a nearby village has been complaining about noises from the area also if i do make him blind like I mentioned ima put a chandelier near him see if anyone notices and ima give him some sorta screech effect that gives people disadvantage or debuffs cause its hard to focus when there's loud noises ringing in your ear what do you think of the idea

Wouldnt they lose a hell of alot of HP though??? Going from a Con of 20 something, to a Con of -- is a big negative.

30' tall? At 120' plus long, I thought it would be 40' or 45' for that size category

Thank you, I always wanted a video on the Cult of the Dragon.

There was also a Dracolich in the video game NWN Hordes of the Underdark. I still remember my first playthrough when I first came across it and I was like, WTF! ARE YOU KIDDING ME! That was many years ago.

OMG 7 years old computer with Vista... its an undead computer, lets call it Computerolich

That was very very cool !! and best of luck with the computer upgrade

something occured to me while watching this. we have dragons who aren't evil. we also have liches who aren't evil. so why don't we have dracoliches who aren't evil?

I wanted to create a campaign based on the old cult of Dragon. Thanks for the informations, very useful! I came from Jorphdan channel and you both are spectacular! Thank again!

Your content is my biggest inspiration for my D&D world, your Yuan Ti video inspired the current plot my players must unveil and because we started with the lost mines of Phandalin and the Dragon cult is in it and they went separate ways to my party i can run a dracolich story arc now and I only thought of doing this because of your video. Thanks AJ.

hello there wanted to say I very much enjoy this series quite informative..secondly I was wondering if it was possible to add "Gibberlings" to the list..not much info i could find on them but i do know they are NASTY evil blights of cannon fodder and when played right they can be a party's WORST nightmare

I'd love to see a video on the Sphinx Variants. Androsphinx, Gynosphinx and the others.

I really love all of your videos, best D&D lore videos on RU-vid. Could you do a video on Psionics, the characters and their powers? Also obsidian dragons? Are there any good aligned shadow dragons, or good-aligned dragons who are not metallic?

*Creeping doom intensifies*

Hi, I like your videos! But can you please do a video about Dragonborns? If you already did, can you please link me to it?

What was the music when that first dracolich picture showed up? It gave me the chills.

So fire emblem finale boss ever.

I think there is a Dracolich in Finland

Are the Purple Dragon Knights of Cormyr connected to Dragons in any way? If so, you think any of them would be secret cultists?

It's weird that dracoliches have existed for so long; I remember seeing them in 2e, at least, yet they seem to have no connection to Falazure, THE Dragon God of Undeath, at least to the degree dragons have God's. You'd think those of a priestly skill set, among g the Cult, would worship that deity, who would seek more undead dragons because their existence would strengthen His own, but they seem to remain totally unrelated. I do appreciate, though, that 5e had Tiamat, Herself, basically seize control of some of the misguided Cult, and got it to serve Her ambitions of reentering Toril. Probably didn't last, based on Her actions at the end, and likely being defeated, after that, but a cool moment, all the same.

I just switched from a 8 year old vista myself. Loooong overdue. Also great video, you just changed my bbeg from a dragon leading an army to a dracolich!

I truly wonder about a Dragonborn becoming a lich what do you think would happen

Think I need to craft one of these. So cool.

I'm new to dnd as you may Remer but weekday dr mean you said 902 Dr. What's that mean

Dracolich killed our healer, thus ending our nearly two-year long campaign ☹️

13:17 the alternative title to dungeons and dragons has been said

A baby dracolitch and a gnome lich.

how would one stat a golden dracolich planing for the future as it will be the mastermind of the undead uprising not including the death tyrant my party is currently on their way to deal with (which the death tyrant is currently not in its lair but putting a major metropolis to the proverbial undead sword). nvm just going to use the anceint red dracolich template and add in the golden dragons secondary breath attack and a few different things golden dragons can do.

I know that this is not from 5e, but could you do a video on the death giants? I don't know how much lore there are but I saw them in the 4e monster Manuel and they seem pretty cool

Also, will you do a video on Shades?

I am really enjoying these videos

Not to be confused with bone dragons..... unless you prefer to die over a mistaken identity

Ok so would a dracolich with the ability to absorb the life out of its surroundings to restore health be too strong?

I haven't played in or run a D&D or other tabletop game in years but I love your vids when I'm trying to avoid stress from news. Thanks!

Can't wait to see a video on the Druid!!! Superb channel AJ!

YAY! I was so looking forward to this one thank you thank you thank you

Can you do the Skum (Ulat-Kini) next?

Aye Pickett 2.0 incoming.

hey AJ! I have finished the purple worm! any contact I can send the picture to?

that's badass dude keep putting stuff like that!

All hail Tiamat! May her dominion of the world be swift!

Here doing research. So you know I'll have to ask for videos on dudes like Kalzareinad and Null now, right?

Destroying soul is evil and chaotic act of the ruinous sort, even if the soul was evil itself. It is usually both instant Moral Event Horizon crossing and Spiritual Anti-Matter touching in one, in which these characters who cause destruction of souls with non-stop are almost always Eternal Defiance. Also, Eternal Defiance's wanton and needless acts of violence are done by combining heinous crimes with mutinous kill counts.

The history of Mystra's chosen was awesome.

I decided to never use a dracolich after the first time I used one as the to bad guy... to my veteran players. I really use the high intelligence of monsters and think on that level how each monster (or even bad guy) would think. I then ponder the entire world environment relative to how such issues would surface and be dealt with. I then think of the behind-the-scenes people that would allow it and why. When my players finally faced the dracolich, he was speaking to them like they were playthings. This enraged the party and rallied their hired army into action. The dracolich laughed, flew away, and the players suddenly had to fight their hired army and the undead that came in to back them. I was accused of being a killer DM with that encounter. I apologized for that by making a hero-worshiping sect recover their gear and restore them all to life with a great support group with a mere cost of losing a month of existing in the world. They continued playing, but the campaign ended without them ever getting interested in killing the dracolich... a dracolich I thought of as a half-baked, stupid version who would have been easy to defeat relative to how the monster's existence.

Why can't dracolich cast spells to ? Like they should at least be able to summon undead or something

Upgrading from Vista :-) I often listen to you stuff while upgrading servers - cut and assigned 16TiB of disk during this episode alone.

And of course one of the most powerful dracolich was created by an illithid using the crystal shard Crenshinibon(an artifact created by with the souls of 7 arch necromancers) to fuse its self and the crystal with a dying blinded red dragon

the dracolich.. the bone dragon in mtg

Wasn’t expecting the dragon cry at the beginning and almost pissed myself cuz it was super loud and terrifying

What happens when an Ancient Red Dracolich's body is destroyed and it inhabits the body of a dead Adult Blue Dragon? Does the Red Dragon keep it's fire breath, immunities, and resistances or does it get the Blue Dragons, or do they get both? Does the body of the Blue Dragon transform to that of the original Red Dracolich body, or is it the mind of the Red Dracolich in a Blue Droclich body? And when a there isn't a dragon body, and they have to use a kobold or something, does the kobold turn into the original Red Dracolich body or the Blue Dracolich body?

dikko

What would you Tiamat’s opinion of a Dracolitch would be? Is it an insult to her creation?

So what happens if the dragon fails to become a dracolich? Like how a failed lich is a boneclaw.

When you say "decade" I can only hear "dick head"

You mistake me i will not quiver to the beast it bleeds as I do for it is not a god

Have you any homebrew monsters you would like to share with us?

Could you imagine having your heart broken by the Silver Lady

Is a dracolych subject to the dracorage

4:48 hahaha, The word "negative" would be dangerous in America for someone with a New Zealand accent:3

The Force Dracolich; the ultimate bad guy.

That's gonna be awesome AJ I look forward to it

What about shadow dracolich?

You forgot the Dread Dracolich. Or the Dread Lich.

Great we got Undead dragons yeah but Warhammer has that

Would a cult be able to control it with the gem?

this tiamat energy so beautiful

Drsgonborn Dracolich? ....... Warlock? lmao

Like the artwork and the lore.