Why your next Big Bad should be a Lich 💀 

The Lich Queen Rises!!! 💀👑

An interesting idea I saw was someone who threw a Lich at their party, and when the group got confused why the Lich's spells were "wrong", the DM informed them that the Lich was using spells from 3.5e instead of 5e, because when they were alive, spellcasting worked differently. Thought that was a cool idea

My favorite lich story is one where he was the owner of a gladiator arena, funded for the emperor's entertainment. The souls of those who died would go to the lich. No one suspected him; it was incredible

This Ginny Di/Pointy Hat crossover cured all my wounds

"Came in through the 4th wall!!

My husband suggested a lich being the BBEG for my campaign not five minutes before this video notification dropped. I think this is the push I needed.

"She don't wanna die, so she never will" is an incredibly catchy lyric, and also a perfect and perfectly simple reason for a lich to go down that road.

Another interesting direction for a lich as a Big Bad is to make them a lich-to-be. It gives them a rock-solid goal - obtain lichdom - and a whole arc to travel through. There's plenty of room for clashes with the party as they search out the necessary knowledge and materials. And even a meaningful change for the party to enact on the plot: either they stop the Big Bad before they complete the ritual, or they have a "new", more powerful Big Bad for the next part of the story.

My favorite twist on a lick was inspired by the OG pirates of the Caribbean. The Lich had made its phylactery as a single gold coin and kept in a chest with hundreds of other gold. The party found said chest of gold early on and used the money to buy some gear. Only to later on find merchants they had traded with were ending up dead or disappearing. The lich was hunting down people who had come in contact with its gold and possible phylactery. Which lead to multiple encounters with said lich as both parties raced to find it first.

I do love the idea of a lich, who has reached their goal thousands of years ago, their big plan, their big break-through in arcane studies, that they sacrificed their life for, and now they are just bored. Adventures get to their tower, trying to get the legendary treasure of the ancient, powerful lich, go through monsters and traps, only to find the lich at the top of the tower, just like baking cookies (that they can't actually eat) and seeking a conversation with the adventurers. They resupply their own tower with traps and monsters not to kill adventurers, but so they "wouldn't be too dissapointed" when reaching the tower. The lich ends up just giving each party member a magic item and send them on their way. Liches so old, they essentially just become an immortal grandma.

Phylactery: An adamantine room with a single chair fused to the floor in its center. When he dies, he reappears in the chair, and if anyone else sits in the chair, their soul is absorbed into the phylactery, feeding the lich. Said lich is a king and an artificer, so it's an abominable wonder of technology, and an excellent way to execute enemies of the state. He had a sort of Dorian Grey meets Elizabeth Bathory type of undeath where he essentially sucks the life force out of his victims to add to his own ticking clock... though his ticks down much faster than average.

The vampire stat block just screams "campaign villain" and not encounter enemy the way that it's designed; it's not that interesting to fight but it has incredible power of intrigue. Count Strahd is the famous obvious example that makes full use of those features. The Mummy Lord stat block is also fun because it's lich-like in its ability to come back to life after being defeated but has totally different spells and other abilities, if perhaps not quite as iconic.

Me seeing your lich: "I can fix her."

That lich cosplay is DOPE.

My Lich had pauldrons with giant spikes sticking up, upon each of which was a disembodied head. The heads were his formal rivals he'd revived as his advisors. The heads were forced to obey his commands, but didn't have to be happy about it and delighted in pointing out any perceived failing they noticed.

I'd absolutely love a whole series on different Big Bads. I can always see how cool they'd be to run in my head, but i feel like i can't translate something right in the execution. Mindflayers, Beholders, Hags, Dragons! I want 'em all!

Your lich lady is so pretty in such a weird way, i love her!!! I really hope youre able to make this format into a series, ot was super helpful

In my campaign, the bbeg is a lich whose phylactery is his blood, that’s why his entire bloodline has to be defeated before taking him down. It’s not going to be an easy task because the lich’s blood gives incredible powers to those who carry it. My party was never that invested in a villain before

I think the most fun one I’ve played was when the DM allowed us to find the lich’s safe, and we assumed it’s vessel was in there, and it took us several failures to realize it wasn’t in the safe; it was the safe

I love the idea of a lich being a god's mortal form. It's an undead ghostly image whose spells can be changed to befit the god. The phylactery can be a temple, and it's a good way for players to fight deitys who can never truly die.

I absolutely want you to talk about hags!!! There is (apparently) a whole kingdom that was ruled by three hags that got ret conned out of the lore of dnd! It’s insane what you can do with those tall ladies

In my last campaign I had a Lich named "Charles Darwin" who when he was a human went around the world trying to help cure diseases but ended up making monsters. So, he became a Lich to have enough time to fix his mistakes and one of my players was his granddaughter who after the campaign finished his work for him so he could rest. Also his phlactere (or how you spell it) was a bit of the string of DNA of a goblin that would always pass down.

That roleplay foundation also really prepares you for when your players do things that ruin your plans. It helps prepare you for working out how the bad guy would respond

I hadn't realized 5E liches were presented the way they are; they were a template the last time I ran them, which made treating them as you suggest a lot easier (and also making them a little beefier in combat). But you're absolutely right: They've always been meant to be the scary mastermind behind the scenes, not the "leap into combat with the PCs type." Think Palpatine, not Vader, as it were.

This was awesome! Also, I’d love an exploration on Hags-they’re so weird and wonderful, and seeing as Van Richten’s introduced the concept of Brujas (Hags who turned Good or Neutral rather than Evil), I’d love to see what you have to say about them! “Oh Daughters, oh Sons, oh Roses and Guns. I seek to find a baby born, and force upon his parents scorn…” -Runesmith

"maybe one of the player has accidentally acquired the lich phylactery, but wanted nothing to do with it " Frodo Baggins as joined the chat ! Great video as always, thanks

Great video @GinnyDi ! We’re just a couple of Basic Liches, but we love the deep story potential that actual liches bring as big bads. You showcased them brilliantly! Long “live” the Liches!

The weirder you get with it, the better your villain will be - I love that! Such good advice.

I have a necropolis in one of my homebrew worlds with two undead factions warring with each other. One lead by a lich, the other a "death knight" for lack of a better term. The interesting thing is what created this situation was a strange artifact was unearthed in the local salt mine and when the arch mage of the city went to investigate, it surged with a pulse of energy that converted the entire populous into various undead. Now the factions are at odds. The lich (who is the arch mage that accidently unleashed this power) and his followers are both keeping the other faction confined to the city as best they can and trying to get back into the mine to destroy the artifact and end the curse. The "death knight" is trying to defeat the lich's faction to conquer the world. So in this scenario, the lich is the good guy. Unfortunately, the artifact keeps reanimating any fallen undead within the city, so neither side is able to get an advantage over the other.

A Lich that can puppet(put their minds into) a newly dead person until it decompose is how I did it. Love the eye makeup Ginny

I love the Pointy Hat collab! More of this please!

I suddenly have the fun idea to write a lich who was once a bard, so the big bad turns out to have been the loveable reprobate at the tavern the whole time, who knew the party's plans because they were all made while the lich was sitting at the bar eavesdropping.

I'm getting ready to start my first homebrew campaign ever, and your videos have been amazing for tips and inspiration! This one in particular has convinced me that a lich is PERFECT for my campaign so, yes, my big bad WILL be a lich.

I love the idea of this intelligent item just talking the ear off (perhaps even literally) of an immortal lich.

I would definitely be on board for a Taking20 style "kill your party with" Big Bad of the week series.

Yes a series of this would be so good! I hope this video blows up!!

My favorite lich phylactyery to date I used, (in agreement with the player), was that one of the PC's was a descendent of a family line that the Lich had bound their soul to. Everytime a new member of the family was born, the "phylactery" became bound to that new child. About halfway through the story, the PC's figured out that one of their own was the source of the Lich's immortality. They faced the moral dilemma of "do we kill one of our own" or find another way. After exhausting resources (and missing some things), it lead to a final climactic battle with the Lich, where the PC who was the phylactery took their own life moments before the Lich was defeated. It lead to a very dramatic moment of both the PC's in shock, and the Lich flying into a panic before it was destroyed. They discovered after the Lich was defeated, that the PC in question did not have to remain dead, that their death freed them from the Lich's soulbinding. It lead to a quest to revive the PC that ended quite well!

Best phylactery I've ever seen is the archmage Dyrr in Menzoberranzan who hid his phylactery in a spider golem in the Houses chapel to Lolth. War of the Spider Queen, book six. Love the vid Ginny!

I made a lich once who was a high-ranking lord of a city... Prior to being undead, he was one of the greatest heroes the city had ever had, and defended them multiple times. But at the end of his life, there was no one powerful enough to take his place. He eventually turns into a tyrant, but it's all for the good of his people, at least in his eyes.

The crossover we all needed

Thanks to Kobold Press for sponsoring me w̶i̶t̶h̶ h̶u̶m̶a̶n̶ s̶o̶u̶l̶s̶ with normal currency! Get "Deep Magic" in print or PDF at koboldpress.com/kpstore/product/deep-magic-volume-1-2-2023 (Limited edition holographic covers will be coming to the shop before the holidays!)

Just had an idea; Have a character who inherits or is given a protection charm from someone they trust who tells them it will keep them safe, but it turns out that item is the Phylactery of a great lich who gave it to the last surviving hero who originally tried to kill them as part of a Rouge's cunning deal. The lich can't be too evil because their soul is always in the hands of a hero, the hero always has massive protection, but the hero usually doesnt know but when they find out they rarely want to part with the power it gives them

I really love the litch's book in a great library idea. Genius!

I love cameos of all my favorite RU-vidrs. My current campaign's BB is a druid lich from pointy hat. Thanks for the ideas to further "flesh" her out. And great lich costume/makeup

me, currently running a game where the BBEG is a lich: well, this is VERY convenient for my needs

I would absolutely love the video on how to do a dragon right! A series on super villains sounds awesome.

*Algorithm engagement snacks* I'd love to see more of this kind of analysis and breakdown. I fancy myself creative, but you always manage to present me with new ideas or opportunities I simply overlooked because I'm too deep into the mechanics... Thank you for that

Okay, but the puppet strings idea was absolutely incredible!

Unrelated to the video but thanks for introducing me to W.I.T.C.H. I’m not on TikTok so I didn’t know what to expect. But DANG does that base hit.

Picture a room covered with trinkets, each of which has a foul, necromantic soul devouring energy. Which of the jars, amulets, crystsl balls, and ivory statues is the phylactery of the lich your party is hunting? None of them. The real phylactery is the stone room itself. 4:19

The pointy hat lich variants are truly some of the most impressive third party/homebrew out on the market.

Liches do have a major advantage in that the PCs can throw down with them repeatedly (and win) without messing up the storyline. Most recurring villains you have to either set up ways for them to escape or make it so the players encounter them in situations where combat isn't feasible.

This was so helpful! I am running a Victorian Gothic themed campaign where nearly all the monsters are undead, and I was planning on the big bad being a lich. This came out at the perfect time.

Soul bound to a tea spoon or a key that's been shoved to the back of a drawer. Bound to a left sock that's disappeared. So many things that can reliably never be found.

The actual “pen to paper” techniques for building a campaign here are great. Rather than a big picture idea you’ve given me something I can actually do to make my DM’ing better. Thanks.

I've always liked the idea of the lich's phylactery being a family item of sentimental value and the party has to learn more about the lich's backstory in order to figure out what form the phylactery takes. Give the lich a tragic backstory, and if it fits the story, have them thank the player for bringing them back to their senses and giving them peace. (Similar to Ketheric Thorm)

We're playing Citadel of the Unseen Sun right now (spoilers ahead). A lich killed us and put us in his phylactery at the end of the first session!! We've spent the past ten sessions just getting out of that! It entailed braving the Ditches, fighting Crawling Graves, escaping to Dream Town, entering people's dreams, and fighting Living Dreams! Even though we haven't seen the lich since the end of session 1, his influence is major as he's created this elaborate prison and brought multiple sidekicks and victims under his control. And it builds up the dread of realizing we're probably gonna have to fight him before this campaign is over...! Also, Pointy Hat?!

I liked when WotC did some years back when they were doing monsters with PC levels. The drow lich's phylactery was a spider-shaped greater iron golem. As the fight with Sofina in Honor Among Thieves shows, when a lich has their magic stripped away, they are a pushover. But stripping away the magic is... tricky. That's the difference between a villain/BBEG and just an antagonist. A lich is good for both of those roles. Personally, I like the idea of other classes, but give them different flavor. The extra monsters online for Spelljammer had a lich-like creature from a warlock, where the creature that it made the pact with had... taken over, in a ways. Perhaps using the dracolich as a starting point for the Sorcerer, where death removed much of what was human, magnifying whatever else they had been. I liked when I made a death knight monk as a recurring antagonist in a game. That was fun. For me, anyway. Also, I think Imhotep from the 1999 Mummy is a good way to do a lich.

I was blessed to play a lich, and his phylachtery was in fact an entire dungeon.

It was an amazing video! I would love a series of those In my setting, I have a family of creature that were so afraid of losing each other that they found a way to become immortal in exchange for killing so many people, a few races almost went extinct. Thanks to you, I finally understand that they're actually liches and that I can do so many more things with them!

I absolutely love the atmosphere of the lich's lair.

Please do more of this, I would love to DM one day but coming up with the kind of stories and characters that D&D needs is far harder than regular stories.

I like how you always encourage DMs to be a creative and to think outside the box. To shy away from the clichés. The great transmuter lich that combines animals, for example, is an awesome idea!

You got me with the 4th wall joke.

I love this Lich big bad character so much 😍 I'd be fascinated by your ideas of how to make dragon big bads unique!

Id love to see more like this! You make such a great point when you mention taking just 1 personality trait and making it outside the box. That can be such a game changer in RP because sometimes it influences..everything! That melancholic lich might have had a phase where they tried to preserve all their loved ones who passed away, so there could be tales of folks who were resurected 3 times and went mad from not being allowed to rest. And the Lich's lair could have chambers with the mummified undead of their loved ones, who rise as particularly strong undead if the players fail a puzzle. Stuff like that. The difference in psychology can influence a lot and I think thats super cool.

"I just came in right through the 4th wall over there." - perfect! Please make more content like this, how to flesh out & embody classic Big Bads.

I love the idea of more videos like this. Wonderfully inspiring.

I've been working on a Lich BBEG for a long time. I can't say more, here, because my players sometimes watch your videos (I'm constantly sharing them), but I'm very excited to see how things end up going. Also, your makeup game is *always* amazing; if you had a makeup tutorials channel, I know dozens of people of several genders who play D&D and LARP who would love the pointers.

I'm very nervous to run my first game, but your videos make me feel a touch more prepared!! Thanks Ginny!!!

My lich plan is to create a simulacrum as a public stand in who is the players' patron, giving them quests and guidance. These quests of course secretly further the lich's needs, like sending them to kill a werewolf because it's terrorizing travelers but also because it refused to swear fealty to the lich.

Guys we need more engagement on this video- I want more in this series 😭

This was awesome! Loved the PointyHat collab too! It's be cool to see a focus on big bads that don't get used very frequently, like a Mummy Lord or Rakshasa.

I will share my Lich story. Before he was a Lich he was a humble mage who grew up with an interesting childhood friend. This child was secretly a pheonix who was cursed to take humanoid form forever. Be it honorable death, self end or a long life the pheonix is always forced to be reborn into the same child body somewhere nearby where it died. They grow up, fall in love yet they know she can never truly die (as far as they know) while he eventually will. So together they delve deep into the magics. Even drawing from forgotten knowledge she recalls from past lives. They succeed and his life force is bound to hers. However he is a man not a pheonix. So instead of being reborn a child like the pheonix is he instead becomes undead and, ultimately, a Lich. Neither are truly evil. Simply twisted and odd after living, dying and coming back over so many centuries together.

Would love to see this as a series, especially if it includes Beholders, Vampires and Mind Flayers (some of my favourite bad guys)

Awesome! So many ideas

Feeding the algorithm so Ginny can feed us 🍏 🍏 🍏 (Those apples are poisoned, it felt thematic)

This is such a fun video and a great way to help DMs with a concept that can seem very daunting. I hope this becomes a series! 💜

Love this!!!

Please do more. I would love to have more.

Excellent tips! I love that the focus on the big bad moves to the narrative rather than just a boss fight! The flavoring you suggested at the beginning is awesome too!

Awesome hints 👌

Awesome ideas G

One of the Lichs I used in a campaign used its own finger bones in undead it created giving the undead abilities of the Lich and act as a spore point if the Lich dropped below 20% hit point, his sole jar was the treasure room of the castle he used which had golden walls destroy the gold to get rid of the Lich

I like the idea of the phylactery being a magic item bound to one of the players; no matter what, it will always find its way back to them. The players have no way of destroying it, but it still places the lich in a compromising position.

Thanks for all the awesome ideas!

The collab with "spikey hat" was great. It's fun to see some of my favorite content creators work together for better and, in this case, funnier content.

awesome video! I'd love to see more of these. Mind flayers are pretty popular right now, also a doppelganger big bad could be really interesting

The collab we all needed!

Yessssss series please 🎉🎉

Loved the idea

Your litch costume is pretty! I’d love to see this be a series !

I loved using a player item as a souljar. It was an amulet with the only pictures of the family of the player. when the lich was killed we played the "next campaign" because they destroyed an urn which they thought to be the souljar. The lich then started to manifest in the dreams of the player until it regained its form. it was a long process and an emotional rolercoaster. just thinking about them discussing the chance that the amulet could be the link to the lich ... *DRAMA*

More of these!

Love this kind of stuff! Keep it up!

I want to see this as a series! (Any/all)

Maybe the lich's soul is bound to a party member's weapon and they never found out. That could lead to some interesting moments.

Love to see more.

Well done!

What about a lich who is a former hero? He has retired and taken a job as warden for a prison. Everyone knows he is a lich, but he is protecting the kingdom from foes outside and in. Anyway, he only uses evil souls to fuel his immortality. No one cares avout that. The people of the kingdom might not understand why the PCs want to stop the lich. They might even interfere, if they can. 9:21