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 |
- For the monster class, see Lich (monster class).
A lich, L, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The lich is an undead spellcaster that is the most basic member of the lich monster class, and ideally the first of them that you will encounter. Liches have enhanced regeneration and infravision, and will seek out magical items to pick up.
A lich has a cold touch attack and will attempt to cast one mage monster spell during each of their turns. Liches possess cold resistance, sleep resistance and poison resistance like most undead.
Liches are poisonous to eat, which primarily comes up if they are digested by another monster.
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 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.
Per commit d963c6dd, a lich's touch attack deals reduced physical damage (1d6) if used against a cold-resistant target.Contents
Generation
Randomly-generated liches are always hostile. A lich can grow up into a demilich.
A lich 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.[1]
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.
A lich may appear in the central chamber of the mausoleum themed room.Strategy
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. It is possible for a lich to be generated with a high enough level to cast summon nasties, but this typically requires a character to run up their own experience level above the usual.
Liches thankfully have a quite low movement speed of 6, with the haste self spell boosting it to a paltry 8: this makes it much easier for characters to outrun liches in order to whittle them down from range and/or let a strong pet handle them; liches cannot damage cold-resistant pets with their touch, and cannot normally cast spells against other monsters. Stoning, disintegration and digestion will also take care of a lich in short order.
The lich is often a target for a blessed scroll of genocide; for single-monster genocides, it is best to target the stronger liches first and work down to the base lich if desired.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.
The changes to the lich's touch attack enables them to damage and kill cold-resistant monsters.History
The lich first appears in NetHack 3.0.0.
Origin
In fantasy works and media, a lich (which comes from the Old English līċ, meaning "corpse" or "body") is a type of undead creature. The word "lich" previously described any corpse (animate or otherwise) as recently as early 20th-century fantasy fiction, and media such as Dungeons & Dragons has since codified the lich as a powerful undead spellcaster proficient in necromancy, who typically undergoes the transformation in order to defy death and gain command over lesser undead while retaining their intelligence and magical abilities. Dungeons & Dragons in particular also takes inspiration from sources such as H.P. Lovecraft story "The Thing on the Doorstep" and Gardner Fox's titular mage of "The Sword of the Sorcerer".
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"), which are the source of their magic and immortality and anchor parts of their soul to the material world. Many liches take precautions to hide and/or safeguard them since those portions of the lich's soul within will continue to exist in a non-corporeal form if their corporeal body is killed, and can be resurrected from the "soul-artifacts" in the near future. However, if they are all destroyed, then destroying the lich's body will kill them 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 involve vile components and acts of utter evil. Despite this process and the commonplace detachment from mortal morality, it is possible for liches to ascribe to any alignment - in very rare instances, truly good liches can arise from either possessing a more noble purpose for seeking lichdom, or else from having lichdom forced upon them.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, liches need a +2 or better weapon to be hit, and hit monsters as a +2 weapon themselves.
Standard liches may appear among the random L generated in the Chaotic Quest. A lich is generated within the easternmost room of The Lost Tomb at level creation.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, a lich is generated within the easternmost room of The Lost Tomb at level creation.
The lich is the second quest monster for Binders, making up 24⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Binder quest. Two hostile liches are generated on the upper filler level(s) at level creation.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, players killed by any type of lich will arise as a revenant instead of a ghost in bones files.
Two liches are generated on the first floor of Vecna's Domain at level creation, and four guard Vecna's room within his lair on the third floor. Vecna's presence in the dungeon prevents the genocide of any liches; once he is destroyed, they can be subjected to genocide as normal.
Liches are much more dangerous compared to vanilla NetHack, since they have access to several new monster spells - 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 liches it hits; The Sword of Kas is an artifact gemstone two-handed sword that deals double damage versus L, including liches.
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 . . .
