Arch-lich - Revision history

Umbire the Phantom: pothole

2025-02-06T03:54:32Z

pothole

Umbire the Phantom: /* dNetHack */ pasto

2024-12-02T11:15:14Z

‎dNetHack: pasto

Umbire the Phantom: variants and other touchups

2024-12-02T10:56:39Z

variants and other touchups

Umbire the Phantom: apparently I jumped the gun and added those redirects for master lich already! ah well - note fire res and do what I've done for the others

2024-07-24T23:38:22Z

apparently I jumped the gun and added those redirects for master lich already! ah well - note fire res and do what I've done for the others

Umbire the Phantom: pothole

2024-05-08T14:15:21Z

pothole

Umbire the Phantom: chance to:opportunity::chance of:probability

2024-02-19T13:35:59Z

chance to:opportunity::chance of:probability

Umbire the Phantom: /* EvilHack */ pothole

2024-02-19T08:18:16Z

‎EvilHack: pothole

Umbire the Phantom: word choice

2024-02-19T08:13:58Z

word choice

Umbire the Phantom: pronoun consistency

2024-02-19T07:36:53Z

pronoun consistency

Umbire the Phantom: lede

2024-02-19T07:34:15Z

lede

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
   |frequency=1
   |genocidable=Yes
-  |attacks=Touch 5d6 [[cold]], [[monster spell|Spell-casting]] 0d0 mage
+  |attacks=Touch 5d6 [[cold]], [[Monster spell|Spell-casting]] 0d0 mage
   |weight=1200
   |nutr=100

@@ Line 82: / Line 82: @@
 ===dNetHack===
-In [[dNetHack]], [[notdNetHack]] and [[notnotdNetHack]], an arch-lich appears within the room in the lair of [[Demogorgon (dNetHack)|Demogorgon]] if his dwelling appears as [[User:Chris/dNetHack/Branches/Brine Flats#Demogorgon's palace|the third Abyss level]].
+In [[dNetHack]], [[notdNetHack]] and [[notnotdNetHack]], an arch-lich appears within one of the rooms in the lair of [[Demogorgon (dNetHack)|Demogorgon]] if his dwelling appears as [[User:Chris/dNetHack/Branches/Brine Flats#Demogorgon's palace|the third Abyss level]].
 ===EvilHack===

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
   |frequency=1
   |genocidable=Yes
-  |attacks=Touch 5d6 [[cold]], [[monster spell|Spell-casting]]
+  |attacks=Touch 5d6 [[cold]], [[monster spell|Spell-casting]] 0d0 mage
   |weight=1200
   |nutr=100
@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 }}
-An '''arch-lich''', {{monsym|arch-lich}}, is a type of [[monster]] that appears in ''[[NetHack]]''. The arch-lich is the strongest type of [[Lich (monster class)|lich]], and has the highest [[monster difficulty]] of any randomly-generated monster, as well as the second highest of non-unique monsters after the [[high priest]]. Arch-liches are [[breathless]] and have enhanced [[regeneration]] and [[infravision]] like other liches. An arch-lich is [[covetous]], and will seek out the [[Book of the Dead]].
+An '''arch-lich''', {{monsym|arch-lich}}, is a type of [[monster]] that appears in ''[[NetHack]]''. The arch-lich is the strongest type of [[Lich (monster class)|lich]], and has the highest [[monster difficulty]] of any randomly-generated monster, as well as the second highest of non-unique monsters after the [[high priest]]. Arch-liches are [[breathless]], and have enhanced [[regeneration]] and [[infravision]] like other liches. An arch-lich is [[covetous]] and capable of warping, and desires the [[Book of the Dead]].
 An arch-lich has a powerful [[cold]] touch attack and will attempt to cast one mage [[monster spell]] during each of their turns. Arch-liches possess [[cold resistance]], [[sleep resistance]], [[poison resistance]], [[fire resistance]], and [[shock resistance]].
@@ Line 63: / Line 63: @@
 A lich is generally depicted as a revenant with an undecaying body that is cadaverous, desiccated or completely skeletal, and has glowing lights in place of their eyes. Liches are often capable of sustaining tremendous physical damage, and are immune to disease, poison, fatigue and other effects that affect only the living; they were also quite resistant to various forms of magic, and the mere sight of them often compelled the weak-willed to flee. The lich's most dangerous asset, beyond even its undead gifts, is their vast intellect, mastery of sorcery and limitless time to research, plot and scheme. ''Dungeons & Dragons'' introduces the lich in 1975 as part of its first supplement, ''Greyhawk''.
-In ''Dungeons & Dragons'' settings, a mage that becomes a lich usually gives up some portion or the entirety of their soul to form "soul-artifacts" (also referred to as "soul gems" or "phylacteries") that are the source of their magic and immortality. Many liches take precautions to hide and/or safeguard them, as they anchor a part of a lich's soul to the material world: if their corporeal body is killed, those portions of the lich's soul within it will continue to exist in a non-corporeal form capable of being resurrected from that "soul-artifact" in the near future. However, if all of the lich's soul-artifacts are destroyed, then destroying the lich's body will kill it permanently. Most forays into lichdom often require the creation and consumption of a deadly potion on a full moon; the exact details vary, but almost universally involves acts of utter evil and vile components. Despite this process and their commonplace detachment from mortal morality, it is possible for liches to ascribe to any alignment - in very rare instances, truly good liches can arise, either from possessing a more noble purpose for seeking lichdom or from having lichdom forced upon them; these are known as "archliches", not to be confused with the arch-liches of ''NetHack''.
+In ''Dungeons & Dragons'' settings, a mage that becomes a lich usually gives up some portion or the entirety of their soul to form "soul-artifacts" (also referred to as "soul gems" or "phylacteries") that are the source of their magic and immortality. Many liches take precautions to hide and/or safeguard them, as they anchor a part of a lich's soul to the material world: if their corporeal body is killed, those portions of the lich's soul within it will continue to exist in a non-corporeal form capable of being resurrected from that "soul-artifact" in the near future. However, if all of the lich's soul-artifacts are destroyed, then destroying the lich's body will kill it permanently. Most forays into lichdom often require the creation and consumption of a deadly potion on a full moon; the exact details vary, but almost universally involves acts of utter evil and vile components. Despite this process and their commonplace detachment from mortal morality, it is possible for liches to ascribe to any alignment&mdash;in very rare instances, truly good liches can arise, either from possessing a more noble purpose for seeking lichdom or from having lichdom forced upon them; these are known as "archliches", not to be confused with the arch-liches of ''NetHack''.
 ==Variants==
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 * Lure a monster to pick up the dragon scales, which will not set off the trap. A cursed [[figurine]] (e.g. any [[Orc (monster class)|orc]]) and [[Elbereth]] can be handy here. Most pets cannot be used for this: they will try to pick up the arch-lich statue before anything else in the stack, and few monsters smaller than [[giant]]s will be able to lift it. Pets will also be reluctant to step over the cursed dragon scales and will not pick them up until the scales have been uncursed.
-If all else fails, you can also have a suitably strong pet, including an [[Archon]], [[Planetar]] or [[Solar]], help you fight the arch-lich or even take them on for you.
+If all else fails, you can also have a suitably strong pet, including an [[Archon]], [[Planetar]] or [[Solar]], aid you or fight the arch-lich for you.
 ===dNetHack===
-In [[dNetHack]], an arch-lich appears within one of the rooms in [[Demogorgon]]'s lair if his dwelling appears as [[User:Chris/dNetHack/Branches/Brine Flats#Demogorgon's palace|the third Abyss level]].
+In [[dNetHack]], [[notdNetHack]] and [[notnotdNetHack]], an arch-lich appears within the room in the lair of [[Demogorgon (dNetHack)|Demogorgon]] if his dwelling appears as [[User:Chris/dNetHack/Branches/Brine Flats#Demogorgon's palace|the third Abyss level]].
 ===EvilHack===
-In [[EvilHack]], players killed by any type of lich will arise as a [[revenant]] instead of a [[ghost]] in [[bones]] files.
+In [[EvilHack]], a hero killed by any type of lich will arise as a [[revenant]] instead of a [[ghost]] in [[bones]] files.
 An arch-lich is generated in front of Vecna's room on the third floor of [[Vecna's Domain]] at level creation. Vecna's presence in the dungeon prevents the genocide of arch-liches - once he is destroyed, they can be subjected to genocide as normal.

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 {{upcoming|NetHack 3.7.0|Arch-liches that are not [[cancelled]] can raise monsters killed by them as [[Zombie (monster class)|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 an arch-lich. They will also [[grudge]] living monsters that can be turned into zombies.
-Monsters with [[digestion]] attacks can gain [[intrinsic]]s from swallowing monsters whole, making it possible for them to gain cold resistance from an arch-lich that is digested.}}
+Monsters with [[digestion]] attacks can gain [[intrinsic]]s from swallowing monsters whole, making it possible for them to gain cold resistance or fire resistance from an arch-lich that is digested.
 ==Generation==
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 [[Stoning]], [[disintegration]] and [[digestion]] will deal with an arch-lich if you are pressed for time or want to avoid as many nasties and item curses as possible; a blessed [[scroll of genocide]] can eliminate them and the rest of their kin. Arch-liches are worthwhile targets for [[throne]] [[genocide]]s as well.
 ==History==

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 Arch-liches may appear among the random {{white|L}} generated in the [[Chaotic Quest]].
-A [[statue trap]] of an arch-lich is always generated in the middle of the swampy maze within the [[Lawful Quest]], with a cursed -9 set of [[gray dragon scales]] on its square. The arch-lich statue is created with a [[wand of fireball]], a [[cockatrice corpse]] and a cursed -1 pair of [[leather gloves]], alongside wands of {{wand of|create horde|speed monster|and=1|make invisible}} that all have one charge each. While the arch-lich cannot actually use the cockatrice corpse due to lacking a weapon attack, and wearing the scales will greatly weaken their defenses, their natural spellcasting prowess combined with the wands and magic resistance are still more than capable of giving even well-prepared characters some serious trouble - the arch-lich also has no stairway to warp to, meaning that they cannot escape, but also ensuring that they will continually harass you as you fight it. There are various ways of dealing with the arch-lich statue without animating it:
+A [[statue trap]] of an arch-lich is always generated in the middle of the swampy maze within the [[Lawful Quest]], with a cursed -9 set of [[gray dragon scales]] on its square. The arch-lich statue is created with a [[wand of fireball]], a [[cockatrice]] [[corpse]] and a cursed -1 pair of [[leather gloves]], alongside wands of {{wand of|create horde|speed monster|and=1|make invisible}} that all have one charge each. While the arch-lich cannot actually use the cockatrice corpse due to lacking a weapon attack, and wearing the scales will greatly weaken their defenses, their natural spellcasting prowess combined with the wands and magic resistance are still more than capable of giving even well-prepared characters some serious trouble - the arch-lich also has no stairway to warp to, meaning that they cannot escape, but also ensuring that they will continually harass you as you fight it. There are various ways of dealing with the arch-lich statue without animating it:
 * Zap the statue with a [[wand of teleportation]], and then find the loot with a blessed [[potion of object detection]]. This can be done from outside the swamp, and is probably the easiest and safest method.

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 Though arch-liches cannot be randomly generated outside of Gehennom, class-specific monster generation may generate an arch-lich in the [[Castle]]. Arch-liches may also be generated by the [[summon nasties]] monster spell cast by a hostile spellcaster that is either chaotic or in Gehennom.
-Randomly-generated arch-liches have a {{frac|3}} chance of [[Monster starting inventory|being generated with]] either an [[athame]] ({{frac|2|3}} chance) or a [[quarterstaff]] ({{frac|3}} chance), with the weapon's enchantment raised by 1-3 points if it is below +2 and a {{frac|4}} chance of it being [[erosion]]-proofed.{{refsrc|src/makemon.c|730|nethack=3.6.7}} There is a {{frac|13}} chance to call the function for making the weapon into an [[artifact]] if possible{{refsrc|src/makemon.c|732|nethack=3.6.7}} - in practice, this means that an arch-lich has a {{frac|1170}} chance (less than ~0.086%) of generating with [[Magicbane]], the only [[artifact weapon]] eligible to be generated in this manner. Arch-liches are not eligible for random [[offensive item]]s.
+Randomly-generated arch-liches have a {{frac|3}} chance of [[Monster starting inventory|being generated with]] either an [[athame]] ({{frac|2|3}} chance) or a [[quarterstaff]] ({{frac|3}} chance), with the weapon's enchantment raised by 1-3 points if it is below +2 and a {{frac|4}} chance of it being [[erosion]]-proofed.{{refsrc|src/makemon.c|730|nethack=3.6.7}} There is a {{frac|13}} chance of calling the function for making the weapon into an [[artifact]] if possible{{refsrc|src/makemon.c|732|nethack=3.6.7}} - in practice, this means that an arch-lich has a {{frac|1170}} chance (less than ~0.086%) of generating with [[Magicbane]], the only [[artifact weapon]] eligible to be generated in this manner. Arch-liches are not eligible for random [[offensive item]]s.
 An arch-lich [[Corpseless|never leaves a corpse]] when killed - if killed by any method that ordinarily leaves a corpse, a message is printed about their body crumbling to dust.{{refsrc|src/mon.c|2083|nethack=3.6.7|name="dusted"}}

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 An arch-lich is generated in front of Vecna's room on the third floor of [[Vecna's Domain]] at level creation. Vecna's presence in the dungeon prevents the genocide of arch-liches - once he is destroyed, they can be subjected to genocide as normal.
-Arch-liches are much more dangerous compared to vanilla ''[[NetHack]]'', since they have access to several new monster spells, including [[Cancellation (monster spell)|cancellation]], [[Reflection (monster spell)|reflection]] and [[Stone to flesh (monster spell)|stone to flesh]] - this also makes them much better pets and polyforms, with full access to their repertoire of monster spells when fighting other monsters.
+Arch-liches are much more dangerous compared to vanilla ''NetHack'', since they have access to several new monster spells, including [[Cancellation (monster spell)|cancellation]], [[Reflection (monster spell)|reflection]] and [[Stone to flesh (monster spell)|stone to flesh]] - this also makes them much better pets and polyforms, with full access to their repertoire of monster spells when fighting other monsters.
 Sunsword now has a chance of instakilling any arch-liches it hits. [[The Sword of Kas]] is an [[artifact]] [[gemstone]] [[two-handed]] sword that deals double damage versus {{white|L}}, including arch-liches.

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 Arch-liches are [[poisonous]] to eat, which primarily comes up if they are [[digest]]ed by another monster.
-{{upcoming|NetHack 3.7.0|Arch-liches that are not [[cancelled]] can now raise monsters killed by them as [[Zombie (monster class)|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 an arch-lich. They will also [[grudge]] living monsters that can be turned into zombies.
+{{upcoming|NetHack 3.7.0|Arch-liches that are not [[cancelled]] can raise monsters killed by them as [[Zombie (monster class)|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 an arch-lich. They will also [[grudge]] living monsters that can be turned into zombies.
 Monsters with [[digestion]] attacks can gain [[intrinsic]]s from swallowing monsters whole, making it possible for them to gain cold resistance from an arch-lich that is digested.}}

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 An '''arch-lich''', {{monsym|arch-lich}}, is a type of [[monster]] that appears in ''[[NetHack]]''. The arch-lich is the strongest type of [[Lich (monster class)|lich]], and has the highest [[monster difficulty]] of any randomly-generated monster, as well as the second highest of non-unique monsters after the [[high priest]]. Arch-liches are [[breathless]] and have enhanced [[regeneration]] and [[infravision]] like other liches. An arch-lich is [[covetous]], and will seek out the [[Book of the Dead]].
-An arch-lich has a powerful [[cold]] touch attack and will attempt to cast one mage [[monster spell]] during each of its turns. Arch-liches possess [[cold resistance]], [[sleep resistance]], [[poison resistance]], [[fire resistance]], and [[shock resistance]].
+An arch-lich has a powerful [[cold]] touch attack and will attempt to cast one mage [[monster spell]] during each of their turns. Arch-liches possess [[cold resistance]], [[sleep resistance]], [[poison resistance]], [[fire resistance]], and [[shock resistance]].
 Arch-liches are [[poisonous]] to eat, which primarily comes up if they are [[digest]]ed by another monster.
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 The arch-lich is one of the most fearsome spellcasters that you can randomly encounter: they are always guaranteed to have access to the [[touch of death]]. A [[polymorph trap]] or [[shapeshifter]] (e.g., [[chameleon]]s and [[doppelganger]]s) can very rarely result in an arch-lich appearing far earlier than intended - engrave a semi-permanent [[Elbereth]], drop a [[scroll of scare monster]], or secure your escape via other means as quickly as possible, or they will likely [[Instadeath|visit a swift doom upon you]].
-Arch-liches can be prevented from warping by throwing a [[potion of paralysis]] as a high-[[dexterity]] character (which can be boosted with worn [[gauntlets of dexterity]]), or by wielding one and hitting them with it while wearing a [[ring of free action]], giving you time to either flee or wear them down. The general strategy for dealing with covetous monsters also applies if you plan to fight and kill an arch-lich: occupy or block the upstair (e.g. using [[teleport control]] to teleport yourself there), and try to keep it out of melee range where possible if you want to avoid the brunt of its spellcasting.
+Arch-liches can be prevented from warping by throwing a [[potion of paralysis]] as a high-[[dexterity]] character (which can be boosted with worn [[gauntlets of dexterity]]), or by wielding one and hitting them with it while wearing a [[ring of free action]], giving you time to either flee or wear them down. The general strategy for dealing with covetous monsters also applies if you plan to fight and kill an arch-lich: occupy or block the upstair (e.g. using [[teleport control]] to teleport yourself there), and try to keep them out of melee range where possible if you want to avoid the brunt of their spellcasting.
 [[Stoning]], [[disintegration]] and [[digestion]] will deal with an arch-lich if you are pressed for time or want to avoid as many nasties and item curses as possible; a blessed [[scroll of genocide]] can eliminate them and the rest of their kin. Arch-liches are worthwhile targets for [[throne]] [[genocide]]s as well.