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why would a demi lich be more powerful than a lich? why not a super lich? or a scary lich? or a super scary magic lich?

Originally posted by Miscreant
why would a demi lich be more powerful than a lich?

Dunno. But thats what they've been called since first edition AD&D. And they used to be a lot tougher back then (and they're not even proper songs any more, cant even tell what they're singing, mumble mumble etc.)

Originally posted by Miscreant
why would a demi lich be more powerful than a lich? why not a super lich? or a scary lich? or a super scary magic lich?

[Me searches for my copy of "Van Richten Guide to the Lich", ah, here it is]

Besides many other things it says: "The Demilich is as close to godlike status as a monster can be." and "They are rare to the verge of being unique."

Basically a demilich is the next step in the evolution of a lich. At the point when the lich has learned virtually everything it can, it's body crumbles to dust and only the skull is left. The Demilich itself doesn't actually inhabit the skull, it rather explores other planes etc. and only returns if the skull is disturbed.

The Demilich's powers are far beyond that of a lich, eg the Demilich can control up to 100 undead (eg Liches) at will. The Demilich is also able to "wreak havoc upon a 100 mile(!) radius with earthquakes, fire, storms and other catastrophic occurences, killing all or almost all living beings therein". Besides that nobody knows what a Demilich is up to but it's plans would probably be stuff like "Let's find out how to drain an entire of existence of it's life essence" or "Let's cross swords with the gods". Pretty powerful skulls they are.

The Demiliches in BG2 are not imbued with equal ablities or even a fraction of these powers. IMHO they should at least be able to cast any known (mage, priest, quest) spell at will to give a weak impression of what they are capable of.

Whoever asked about lvl 10 spells yes they do work.

In fact if you cast spell trap before going in and then swap the faded spell trap icon in your spell book for a 10th lvl spell like dragons breath (as if you are going to memorise DB next rest) his imprisonment spells will get caught by the spell trap and rememorise the DB spell (I think Spell trap only catches 30 lvls so this doesn't buy as much time as a protection vs magic spell but it does keep recharging your top lvl spells which will hurt him.)

The original PNP version would die instantly to someone who was ethereal and casting Power Word Kill, it would be neat if they included that but I've never tried it. Holy Word should also do 5-30 points but I've never tried that either. Also paladins with +4 weapons should do full damage rather than the 1-2 pts most +4s do.

The original PnP version was a one off monster that appeared at the end of a tournament game and wasn't in the rule books. It had very weird vulnerabilities to encourage players experimenting with spells that didn't get used much. The low lvl mage spells 'forget' and 'shatter' were both very good against it because the designers knew nobody would memorise them but neither are in BG. It was a lot more dangerous than the BG version but it also took some really stupid moves by the PCs to totally awaken it (which I guess Kangaxx does as well but the TOB one you can just wander into.).

@OwenE, Really impressive first post!

The tournament module was then published and is called the 'Tomb of Horrors' IIRC. The demi-liche made it to the Monster Manual II in 2nd ed. I was going to post the listing from it but there doesn't seem much point now.

BTW my old DM then made a point of having one show up in dungeons from time to time. The Monster Manual 2 lists them as Very Rare. Yeah right. - Curdis !

Originally posted by Curdis

The tournament module was then published and is called the 'Tomb of Horrors' IIRC. The demi-liche made it to the Monster Manual II in 2nd ed. I was going to post the listing from it but there doesn't seem much point now.

BTW my old DM then made a point of having one show up in dungeons from time to time. The Monster Manual 2 lists them as Very Rare. Yeah right.

Urg, the Tomb of Horrors... what a nightmare that was...only rangers and paladins with +4/5 weapons could hit the sodding thing. Not that any of us got that far

I think there was also one in an early dragonlance module too