Indestructible Items?

[fireinthedust]

I'm thinking of a way a Lich would protect its phylactery. Seeing as they're powerful spellcasters, and immortal so long as their phyllactery is intact, what would they build it into so that it couldn't be ruined?

Adamantine?


I mean, what is out there that can't be overcome? Other than plot, i guess (and clever players foil that all the time)

 

[jonesy]

Put a contingency on it so that it teleports to a safe (an actual metal safe) which is somewhere safe, in the event that someone else approaches it. Then put another contingency on the safe that it teleports to. And so on and so on.

 

[humble minion]

No matter how tough you make it, PCs will break it somehow. Better make it hard to find or hard to get at. Put it in something that loads of other powerful people will fanatically (but unknowingly) protect. Incorporate it into the empire's crown jewels. Use Passwall or similar to stash it in the centre of the huge marble block that makes up the high altar in the cathedral. Craft a headband of intellect +6 (or 4e equivalent...) out of it, and plant it in some treasure horde for another powerful wizard to find and then defend covetously.

Only problem with these approaches is if the DM rules that a lich reappears after its death at the location of its phylactery...

 

[Dice4Hire]

Depending on what game system you use, there are different limitations.

One of the big ones in an older edition of D&D (and I do not remember which one) was that there had to be a body to reanimate and convert to the lich. SO no keeping the soul in the middle of nowhere.

As or making it indestructable, I would disallow that. Hard to destroy is fine, but not inddsctructible.

 

[Relique du Madde]

Put a contingency on it so that it teleports to a safe (an actual metal safe) which is somewhere safe, in the event that someone else approaches it. Then put another contingency on the safe that it teleports to. And so on and so on.

Scry...

Teliport....

Dumb de dumb.. Greater Dispell!

or

Dumb de dumb... Mage's Disjunction!

 

[jonesy]

Scry...

Teliport....

Dumb de dumb.. Greater Dispell!

or

Dumb de dumb... Mage's Disjunction!

"If someone other than me notices this phylactery teleport it to [the safe]"

The only way to dispel that would be if you wouldn't notice it first. Right?

 

[amerigoV]

Don't worry about making it indestructable. Make it something people would not part with or will fight for. Embed it in a relic for example. Another might be bind it into a most holy book (say the first praybook of a powerful good god). I like the second as it (1) kinda ties to the real definition of the word and (2) a good church would never believe such a relic would be tainted by a lich's soul

And since it is tied to a relic, the only way to destroy it is to destroy the relic, which is not easy ("here Tarrasque, come and get it!")

 

[TanisFrey]

Make it into a Staff of the Archmagi

 

[Umbran]

More fun than making it something the players cannot destroy, make it something they don't want to destroy...

Like, say, the king's castle. Or maybe their planet's star. Or anything else for which there'd be major repercussions should they break it. Make destroying the lich not just a matter of a fight and a puzzle. Make it a difficult choice.

 

[fireinthedust]

Hard Choice: This I like.


Holy Relic: Okay, stop. Please re-think what you've just suggested. Liches are Undead, and an item they use is highly magical. While I do understand that you'd want lich-hunters to not destroy it, you're leaving an Undead surrounded by Undead-turning Clerics. That's the worst place ever to store it! Even if it's not just them, their spells and the potential for a deity to send a vision of the desecration of their relics... I just think that it's asking for trouble in a temple filled with people who can *contact other plane* or detect undead.

Crown Jewels: This I like, because it doesn't necessarily imply a cleric. In theory there is one handy, but likely it'll be fighters and suchnot, maybe a wizard. And, of course, cunning rogues looking to steal the crown jewels. They go missing and a pile of interested parties go looking for them: the theives guild, the royal guard, and a cult of mages working for the undead monster who founded them...

The Sun: Hard to enchant pre-undeath. I don't know how potent fly spells are, but cold and lack of air are killer. Granted, interesting concept for a sci-fi d20 scenario: a lich lost in space attaches to the hull, hilarity ensues...


Imprisonment: does this work on objects? Would the Lich be trapped in the spell if they were slain, and so wouldn't this also be awful?


More important: What are the destructive forces PCs have at their command?

Disjunction
Dispel Magic
Greater Dispel
Offensive Spells (that damage objects)
Weapons
Adamantine Weapons (ignore hardness)
Volcanoes (mt. Doom et al)
Sphere of Annihilation
Disintegrate spell
Toss into the Positive Energy Plane
Terrasque's belly
Bag of Holding + Portable Hole
Wish it destroyed
will of the gods
polymorph into something destroyable
Antimagic field to get rid of its buffs, them smash it.
Confused the GM into thinking you destroyed it at the end of last marathon session...