D&D 5E Lich Phylactery

[Balfore]

1. If a Lich has a Clone and a Phylactery, does he get to choose where he goes if he is slain?

2. If a Lich is slain after he returns from the Phylactery, can he then inhabit a Clone?

3. If the Phylactery is destroyed, can the Lich then inhabit the Clone?

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

A lich can't have a clone - the clone spell duplicates a living creature.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

4.) Can a Lich even be cloned in the first place?

Answer: No. Clone says, "This spell grows an inert duplicate of a living creature as a safeguard against death." Liches are undead, not living.

 

[Balfore]

Well, obviously he may have cast it when he was young and handsome ;-)

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[machineelf]

Well, obviously he may have cast it when he was young and handsome ;-)

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So if a wizard makes a clone, then turns himself undead, does the clone activate, and therefore the wizard is still alive and has a lich version of himself? And can you repeat that process? Because if so my wizard character just figured out a way to take over the entire world.

 

[Balfore]

You can only have 1 clone active at a time

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[Leatherhead]

Creating a Phylactery traps the soul of the Wizard in the Phylactery. The Lich's intelligence can escape, so it can occupy the undead corpse body, but the soul is permanently inside of the Phylactery.

The Clone only activates if the soul is able and willing to go into the Clone. A Clone will remain inert and ready to accept a soul for an indefinite period of time, so long as it's vessel is undisturbed. The wizard can only be Cloned at a time before they become a Lich, and must not become a Lich before the 120 days it takes for the Clone to mature.

However, if the Phylactery is destroyed, then the soul is freed, typically going to whatever evil afterlife the lich earned for themselves. It is at this point where the soul could be intercepted by the Clone, provided the Clone is still in the vessel, and the vessel is still undisturbed after however many years something like this would take.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

So if a wizard makes a clone, then turns himself undead, does the clone activate, and therefore the wizard is still alive and has a lich version of himself? And can you repeat that process? Because if so my wizard character just figured out a way to take over the entire world.

I would go with "No."

The process of turning yourself into an undead creature seems like it precludes your soul being "free and willing to return" (i.e. you've bound it to your phylactery to become a lich, or are showing by becoming undead on purpose that you don't want to exist in a living body anymore).

 

[Balfore]

Check out the thread here, especially the part about Demiplanes (can someone explain this in simpler terms please):
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?t=405162

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[Balfore]

Ultimately, I guess it matters where the soul goes.
What's to say the Lich doesn't have a Clone pod stashed on the Astral Plane

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