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Special Episode: Lich (Patreon)

Published:
2021-03-23 23:33:22
Imported:
2023-12
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Content

Patreon backer Glenn brings you this bonus episode all about the undead villain par excellence, the lich!

Thanks to Ray Otus for our thumbnail image. The intro music is a clip from "Solve the Damn Mystery" by Jesse Spillane, used under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

Comments

Steve

I hope I would notice, I watched He-Man last week.

Anonymous

James, you engaged (in good faith) with an argument that has popped up repeatedly in recent years, questioning whether Gygax intended the lich's phylactery to mean the Jewish tefillin and whether his use of the word had antisemitic implications. But those claims often based on assumptions and oral histories and infer motivations for and connotations of things Gygax simply did not write. History is, as always, far more nuanced: https://gdorn.circuitlocution.com/rpgblog/history_of_phylactery.html In short, most of the claims (on both sides of the argument) are just factually incorrect. To wit: Gygaxian (1e) liches have phylacteries, but they're flavor text with no mechanics. Gygaxian liches don't even reform after being destroyed. Phylacteries were definitely meant to be what Jewish people would call tefillin, but your Lawful Good cleric would want one, too. It wasn't until 2e that the lich's phylactery was the means by which they obtain and maintain immortality, and not until 4e (and more importantly 5e) that the only phylactery in the game was for liches. 5e's lich is especially problematic, given the new mechanic requiring liches to feed them fresh souls to retain their powers... I do agree that it's not worth keeping the word when almost no lich is using a literal phylactery anyway, especially when "greater soul jar" just sounds so much cooler.

monsterman
>>56375713

Well, I don't think the argument is really about Gygax per se -- it's about the lich of contemporary D&D, and we all make the mistake (as I did) of collapsing a complex textual history. Do you mind if I point people to your post on the topic?