Lich
L lich 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 14 |
| Attacks |
Touch 1d10 cold, Spell-casting |
| Base level | 11 |
| Base experience | 269 |
| Speed | 6 |
| Base AC | 0 |
| Base MR | 30 |
| Alignment | -9 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 1200 |
| Nutritional value | 100 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | Cold, Sleep, Poison |
| Resistances conveyed |
Cold |
|
A lich:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line1514 |
A lich, L, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. It is the most basic member of the lich monster class, and ideally the first of them that you will encounter.
Liches are breathless, poisonous, and have enhanced regeneration and infravision, along with resistance to cold, sleep and poison like most undead. A lich has a cold touch attack and the ability to cast mage monster spells.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.
Liches that are not cancelled can now raise monsters killed by them as zombies of the corresponding type; if they have one, they will be raised 5-20 turns after they are initially killed. This also applies to you if you are polymorphed into a lich. They will also grudge living monsters that can be turned into zombies.
Monsters with digestion attacks can gain intrinsics from swallowing monsters whole, making it possible for them to gain cold resistance from a lich that is digested.Strategy
It is possible for a lich to be generated with a high enough level (16) to cast summon nasties; however, this will not happen in the Castle unless you reach it at a much higher experience level than normal.
Magic resistance makes fighting against liches much more bearable, since it protects you against destroy armor and drain strength, and weakens the impact of the curse items spell some higher-level liches may have.
Origin
Liches are powerful spellcasters, often magicians or kings, who seek to defy death by magical means. They are depicted as being clearly cadaverous, bodies desiccated or completely skeletal, with glowing lights in place of their eyes.
Lich means "corpse" or "body" in several Germanic languages (compare e.g. Dutch lichaam and German Leiche), and survives in Modern English in the word "lichgate" (or "lych-gate", etc.), a covered entranceway to a churchyard.
Encyclopedia entry
But on its heels ere the sunset faded, there came a second apparition, striding with incredible strides and halting when it loomed almost upon me in the red twilight-the monstrous mummy of some ancient king still crowned with untarnished gold but turning to my gaze a visage that more than time or the worm had wasted. Broken swathings flapped about the skeleton legs, and above the crown that was set with sapphires and orange rubies, a black something swayed and nodded horribly; but, for an instant, I did not dream what it was. Then, in its middle, two oblique and scarlet eyes opened and glowed like hellish coals, and two ophidian fangs glittered in an ape-like mouth. A squat, furless, shapeless head on a neck of disproportionate extent leaned unspeakably down and whispered in the mummy's ear. Then, with one stride, the titanic lich took half the distance between us, and from out the folds of the tattered sere-cloth a gaunt arm arose, and fleshless, taloned fingers laden with glowering gems, reached out and fumbled for my throat . . .
