Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Becoming a Lich (But Were Afraid to Ask) (Patreon)

The contents of the Book of Vile Darkness give exact instructions for a wizard to become a lich. Only select wizards are awarded the book, typically the most vile, selfish, and chaotic of their kind. 

Becoming a Lich 

To become a lich, a creature must be at least an 18th-level wizard. The candidate must have access to the spells enchant an item, gentle repose, and magic jar. The procedure is ruined if the candidate dies at any time during the process. Even if successfully revived, the candidate must begin the process anew. The basic procedure involves the fabrication of a magical phylactery and a potion. (Most candidates prepare the potion first and arrange for an apprentice or ally to raise them if ingestion of the potion proves fatal. Fabrication of the phylactery is so expensive that most candidates do not wish to waste all the effort of the preparation by dying after it is completed but before they are prepared for lichdom.) 

The potion requires nine ingredients: 

• Arsenic (2 drops of the purest distillate) 
• Belladona (2 drop of purest distillate) 
• Blood (1 quart, from a pegasus foal killed by wyvern venom) 
• Blood (1 quart, from a vampire)
• Heart (intact, from a humanoid killed by a poisonous mixture of arsenic and belladonna)
• Reproductive glands (from seven giant moths, dead for less than 10 days, ground together) 
• Venom (1 pint, drawn from a phase spider less than 30 days prior) 
• Venom (1 pint, drawn from a wyvem less than 60 days prior) 

The ingredients are mixed in the order given by the light of a full moon. The potion must be drunk within seven days after they combine into a sparkling black liquid that gleams with a bluish radiance. All of the potion must be drunk within 30 seconds. 

It produces an effect from the potion table (see below). 

Potion Effects

• d100: 01 - 10.  All body hair falls out, but potion is ineffective (the candidate knows this), Another potion must be prepared.  
• d100: 11 - 40.  Candidate falls into a coma for ld6+1 days, is physically helpless and immobile, mentally unreachable. Upon waking, potion works; the candidate knows this. 
• d100: 41 - 70.  Potion works, but the candidate is feebleminded. Any failed attempt to cure the candidate's condition is 20% likely to slay the candidate.  
• d100: 71 - 90.  Potion works, but candidate is paralyzed for 2d6+2 days (no saving throw, despite curative magic). There is a 30% chance for permanent loss of Id6 Dexterity points. 
• d100: 91 - 96.  Potion works, but candidate loses a sense or speech; it can be regained only with a wish spell.  D6: 1 - 2. Deaf; 3 - 4. Mute; 5 - 6. Blind.
• d100: 97 - 100. Candidate dies. Potion fails.

The candidate always knows if the potion has worked. A successfully prepared candidate may appear somewhat paler of skin than before imbibing the potion, but cannot be mentally or magically detected by others as ready for lichdom. The candidate, however, is always aware of readiness for lichdom, even if charmed, insane, or if memory loss has occurred. (A charmed candidate cannot be made to reveal the location of the phylactery-although he or she could be compelled to identify what the phylactery is, if it is directly shown.) 

Once prepared by the potion, the candidate can live for an indefinite number of years before becoming a lich. The process fails if death comes before the preparation of the phylactery and the candidate’s undeath. 

The phylactery can take any form-it may be a pendant, gauntlet, scepter, helm, crown, ring, or even a lump of stone. It must be of inorganic material, solid and of high quality workmanship if made by humans, and cannot be an item containing other spells or magical properties. The phylactery might be decorated in any fashion. Enchant an item is cast on the phylactery (a rare case in which this spell can he cast on unworked material); this process requires continual handling of the phylactery for a long time. The phylactery must make a successll saving throw as noted in the spell description. The phylactery must be completely enchanted within nine days (instead of the 24 hours normally allowed by the spell). Note that the “additional spell” times given in the enchant an item spell description are required. When the phylactery is ready, trap the soul must he cast on it. Percentile dice are rolled; the spell has a 50% chance of working, plus 6% per level of the caster over 18th level. The phylactery glows with a flickering blue-green faerie fire radiance for one round if it is receptive to the candidate’s essence. The candidate must then cast gentle repose on the phylactery, and within a turn of doing so, cast magic jar on it and enter it with his or her life force. No other creature is required for this use of the magic jar spell. 

The candidate is now a lichnee, and must return to his or her own body to rest for 1d6+1 days. 

The next time the lichnee candidate dies, despite the manner or the planar location of the death, or barriers of any sort between the corpse and the phylactery, the candidate’s life force goes into the phylactery, 

The lichnee can attempt to enter its own corpse once per week until it succeeds. When the lichnee enters its own corpse, it rises in 1d4 turns as a full lich, with all memorized spells and all undead ahilities described in the MM. If for any reason, the lichnee’s corpse is not available, the lichnee can try to take over the corpse of any recently dead creature (less than 30 days) within 90 feet of the phylactery.  The lichnee might be able to use the possessed body to find or recover its own body, eventually completing the process of becoming a lich. (A phylactery too well hidden might never offer a lichnee a corpse to enter. Many lichnees arrange their own final deaths to avoid such troubles.)