{"id":1487,"date":"2010-12-19T15:38:02","date_gmt":"2010-12-19T15:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unicornrampant.com\/newccb\/?p=1487"},"modified":"2014-12-05T15:44:25","modified_gmt":"2014-12-05T15:44:25","slug":"buffing-the-4e-lich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unicornrampant.com\/newccb\/?p=1487","title":{"rendered":"Buffing the 4e Lich"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

I recently ran a group through an encounter involving a lich, and found them grossly underpowered. \u00a0Their lack of a melee attack renders them weak in the face of a single 15th lvl fighter, let alone a full party. \u00a0To make up for this likely accidental shortcoming, here are some powers that beef up the 4e lich.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Fear Aura <\/strong>(psychic) \"\"<\/a> Aura 3
\n<\/strong>Any creature beginning its turn in the aura takes 5 damage and is immobilized (save ends).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Necrotic Touch<\/strong> (necrotic) \"\"<\/a> At-Will<\/strong><\/p>\n

Attack: <\/em>Melee 1 (one creature) +15 vs. Fortitude<\/p>\n

Hit:<\/em> 2d6 +5 necrotic damage, and the creature is dazed until the end of the lich\u2019s next turn<\/p>\n

Dominate the Living <\/strong>(psychic) \"\"<\/a> Minor \"\"<\/a>Recharge \"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Attack: <\/em>One living\u00a0creature within close burst 10, +15 vs. Will<\/strong><\/p>\n

Effect: The lich dominates\u00a0one living creature (save ends).<\/em><\/p>\n

These effects provide the lich with plenty of up-close-and-personal, up-in-your-Kool-Aid power that will make your players truly fear an encounter with this granddaddy of the undead. \u00a0Feel free to adjust the numbers to make an appropriately-powered lich for your encounters.<\/p>\n

Update: after writing a draft of this post, Scott Murray of Save Versus Death<\/a> pointed me to the Monster Vault, which includes a number of improved variants of classic creatures that seemed underwhelming in 4e. \u00a0The Lich Necromancer on page 183 takes on similar traits, as well as added ranged attacks and movement.<\/p>\n

Happy player hunting!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently ran a group through an encounter involving a lich, and found them grossly underpowered. \u00a0Their lack of a melee attack renders them weak in the face of a single 15th lvl fighter, let alone a full party. \u00a0To make up for this likely accidental shortcoming, here are some powers that beef up the 4e lich. Fear Aura (psychic) Aura 3 Any creature beginning its turn in the aura takes 5 damage and is immobilized (save ends). Necrotic Touch (necrotic) At-Will Attack: Melee 1 (one creature) +15 vs. Fortitude Hit: 2d6 +5 necrotic damage, and the creature is dazed until the end of the lich\u2019s next turn Dominate the Living (psychic) Minor Recharge Attack: One living\u00a0creature within close burst 10, +15 vs. Will Effect: The lich dominates\u00a0one living creature (save ends). These effects provide the lich with plenty of up-close-and-personal, up-in-your-Kool-Aid power that will make your players truly fear an encounter with this granddaddy of the undead. \u00a0Feel free to adjust the numbers to make an appropriately-powered lich for your encounters. Update: after writing a draft of this post, Scott Murray of Save Versus Death pointed me to the Monster Vault, which includes a number of improved variants of classic creatures that seemed underwhelming in 4e. \u00a0The Lich Necromancer on page 183 takes on similar traits, as well as added ranged attacks and movement. Happy player hunting!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[224,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4th-edition","category-creature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unicornrampant.com\/newccb\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unicornrampant.com\/newccb\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unicornrampant.com\/newccb\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unicornrampant.com\/newccb\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unicornrampant.com\/newccb\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1487"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unicornrampant.com\/newccb\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1488,"href":"https:\/\/unicornrampant.com\/newccb\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1487\/revisions\/1488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unicornrampant.com\/newccb\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unicornrampant.com\/newccb\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unicornrampant.com\/newccb\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}