Off the top of my head, the most creative way to hide a lich's phylactery would be, put the item into a Bag of Holding, make someone swallow it, use Flesh to Stone on them, Polymorph them into an amulet, and then hide it all in a demiplane surrounded by an adamantite vault.
What could be a better solution?
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"Never walk away from home ahead of your axe and sword.
You can't feel a battle in your bones or foresee a fight."
"The new body appears within 5 feet of the phylactery."
So... Somewhere where the Lich wouldn't be trapped for all eternity upon corporeal destruction sounds pretty good to me.😜
EDIT: Okay. To be serious now (and not just submitting another reply since this is already at the top of the forum)...
A lead chandelier in a hallway in a place where lead chandeliers are common. Nobody's going to think twice if a chandelier doesn't show as magical with Detect Magic. The best way to hide something is to camouflage it in plain sight where nobody's going to expect it or waste a spell slot or supplies on common stuff.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Off the top of my head, the most creative way to hide a lich's phylactery would be, put the item into a Bag of Holding, make someone swallow it, use Flesh to Stone on them, Polymorph them into an amulet, and then hide it all in a demiplane surrounded by an adamantite vault.
What could be a better solution?
fill the bag of holding with spell scrolls of plane shift and your good to go
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Why fight if a lively chat is possible? If things get out of hand, just show yourself out with a dimension door.
Take a stone. Cast arcanist's magic aura on it. Throw it into a lake. Since you're undead, you don't need to breathe, and therefore won't drown upon resurrection.
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All stars fade. Some stars forever fall. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Homebrew (Mostly Outdated):Magic Items,Monsters,Spells,Subclasses ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
You know that jar at the back of the cupboard, in the kitchen? The one that has some kinda of spices or something in it, that's being kept in case it might be needed one day?
The problem with “purloined letter “ hiding scheme is that the phylactery screams magic. According to the old rules (right now it’s pretty up in the air in 5e) you had to cast : enchant item, trap the soul, magic jar, permanancy and reincarnate on it before you actually did the ritual to become a Lich. So it’s not just going to show like a continual flame spell on a candelabra it’s going to flare like mad if you detect magic. So you either create a secure place for it or you disguise it in something that already reeks of magic then hide that in an obvious place or best make it like a minor league Blackrazor so it can suck all or parts of souls on a hit and slip it to some adventurers that don’t know better and let them keep him topped off with souls as the adventure.
Easy. Make an iron golem (Their magical, so detect magic will just detect them), use the phylactery as their core. Then just start a cult around it, so they sacrafice things to it. That'll make the soul gathering easy.
Or: Make a flesh golem, hide the phylactery in it, dress it up like a wizard, and just make it wander a wizards tower or school.
Nobody had a better idea than JRR. The most secure place is with someone who will infallibly give their life to protect it. If it’s beneficial (or seems beneficial) to everyone who carries it, nobody will cut it open and ask what’s inside of it. You hide it inside the folds of people’s brains in a little corner full of selfishness.
Easy. Make an iron golem (Their magical, so detect magic will just detect them), use the phylactery as their core. Then just start a cult around it, so they sacrafice things to it. That'll make the soul gathering easy.
Or: Make a flesh golem, hide the phylactery in it, dress it up like a wizard, and just make it wander a wizards tower or school.
Do you think that by proximity to the soul within the phylactery, the soul might start to bleed into the golem, giving it some semblance of actual life?
Making it too complicated means the Lich can't get to it, either.
Embedded in an ordinary lead chandelier in a simple hallway with no traps or magic, and have lead chandeliers scattered throughout the place. Few people look up and fewer people look up where magic is not detected (lead blocks Detect Magic - doesn't appear as "blocked magic", simply appears as non-magical) and ever fewer people look up where magic is not detected someplace that seems completely unimportant, and nobody's going to waste resources looking there. It's also so simple that nobody would expect it.
How much more secure can a thing be than when a person is simply not looking? Given all these replies, I'm convinced the players will look for the most complicated thing because all the suggestions are complicated things. Keeping it simple will throw players off the trail. They'll never find it, but the Lich will know where it is and can get to it quite easily.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Covering it with lead to hide the magic is ok, except, the Lich has to feed it souls regularly how is that going to work coated in lead? Something like a giant slayer that takes a bite of the soul each time it hits but isn’t sentient works well- especially in a neutral evil warrior’s hands. The phylactery is hidden in plain sight, it’s fed souls regularly, and if the Lich needs a new body there are generally a few around recently dead for it to inhabit. The worst that can happen (other than it being figured out) is it ends up in some protected collection that minions can raid and and it’s slipped back into circulation.
I cannot find anything that states ghosts, souls, spirits, or other incorporeal beings cannot pass through lead.
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Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Ah, but can you find anything that says they can? If we are going to block magic, radiation, and pretty much everything else you may want proof that a soul/spirit can not just no proof it can’t ( abscence of proof is nor proof of abscence).
The question really is is there anything on the material plane that acts as a solid wall on the ethereal plane since that is where ghosts and incorporeals go to pass around/through objects on the prime.
The best place for a phylactery would be where its most likely to get souls. In one campaign I was in, my warforged warlock had one as their core. Detect magic did nothing but reveal that they do magic, and when we actually fought a lich, my character had been possessed after their passing, which happened slowly over time as they acted more and more suspicious. Once the Artifacer realized what was going on, my PC was now a boss character, and I had to roll a new one
(i also didn't know that I was the phylactery until we beat the Lich.)
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a hobbit of the tolkeinite cult
a frequenter of taverns
mainly an Emerald half-dragon with a psudodragon pet
haven't been on because mobile sucks and wifi sucks
Self-proclaimed Non-Binary Diety of bad writing and Lizardfolk Monks
The question really is is there anything on the material plane that acts as a solid wall on the ethereal plane since that is where ghosts and incorporeals go to pass around/through objects on the prime.
Force effects used to in older editions, but I don't think that's the case anymore.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
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Off the top of my head, the most creative way to hide a lich's phylactery would be, put the item into a Bag of Holding, make someone swallow it, use Flesh to Stone on them, Polymorph them into an amulet, and then hide it all in a demiplane surrounded by an adamantite vault.
What could be a better solution?
"Never walk away from home ahead of your axe and sword.
You can't feel a battle in your bones or foresee a fight."
- Havamal, The Sayings of Odin
"The new body appears within 5 feet of the phylactery."
So... Somewhere where the Lich wouldn't be trapped for all eternity upon corporeal destruction sounds pretty good to me.😜
EDIT: Okay. To be serious now (and not just submitting another reply since this is already at the top of the forum)...
A lead chandelier in a hallway in a place where lead chandeliers are common. Nobody's going to think twice if a chandelier doesn't show as magical with Detect Magic. The best way to hide something is to camouflage it in plain sight where nobody's going to expect it or waste a spell slot or supplies on common stuff.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Most secure place to hide a phylactery?
https://youtu.be/_w15H6Giqoo
fill the bag of holding with spell scrolls of plane shift and your good to go
Take a stone. Cast arcanist's magic aura on it. Throw it into a lake. Since you're undead, you don't need to breathe, and therefore won't drown upon resurrection.
All stars fade. Some stars forever fall.
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Homebrew (Mostly Outdated): Magic Items, Monsters, Spells, Subclasses
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If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
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D&D Beyond FoundersYou know that jar at the back of the cupboard, in the kitchen? The one that has some kinda of spices or something in it, that's being kept in case it might be needed one day?
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The problem with “purloined letter “ hiding scheme is that the phylactery screams magic. According to the old rules (right now it’s pretty up in the air in 5e) you had to cast : enchant item, trap the soul, magic jar, permanancy and reincarnate on it before you actually did the ritual to become a Lich. So it’s not just going to show like a continual flame spell on a candelabra it’s going to flare like mad if you detect magic. So you either create a secure place for it or you disguise it in something that already reeks of magic then hide that in an obvious place or best make it like a minor league Blackrazor so it can suck all or parts of souls on a hit and slip it to some adventurers that don’t know better and let them keep him topped off with souls as the adventure.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Easy. Make an iron golem (Their magical, so detect magic will just detect them), use the phylactery as their core. Then just start a cult around it, so they sacrafice things to it. That'll make the soul gathering easy.
Or: Make a flesh golem, hide the phylactery in it, dress it up like a wizard, and just make it wander a wizards tower or school.
I play a miriad of characters at the lord's rest inn
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Nobody had a better idea than JRR. The most secure place is with someone who will infallibly give their life to protect it. If it’s beneficial (or seems beneficial) to everyone who carries it, nobody will cut it open and ask what’s inside of it. You hide it inside the folds of people’s brains in a little corner full of selfishness.
Do you think that by proximity to the soul within the phylactery, the soul might start to bleed into the golem, giving it some semblance of actual life?
Making it too complicated means the Lich can't get to it, either.
Embedded in an ordinary lead chandelier in a simple hallway with no traps or magic, and have lead chandeliers scattered throughout the place. Few people look up and fewer people look up where magic is not detected (lead blocks Detect Magic - doesn't appear as "blocked magic", simply appears as non-magical) and ever fewer people look up where magic is not detected someplace that seems completely unimportant, and nobody's going to waste resources looking there. It's also so simple that nobody would expect it.
How much more secure can a thing be than when a person is simply not looking? Given all these replies, I'm convinced the players will look for the most complicated thing because all the suggestions are complicated things. Keeping it simple will throw players off the trail. They'll never find it, but the Lich will know where it is and can get to it quite easily.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Covering it with lead to hide the magic is ok, except, the Lich has to feed it souls regularly how is that going to work coated in lead? Something like a giant slayer that takes a bite of the soul each time it hits but isn’t sentient works well- especially in a neutral evil warrior’s hands. The phylactery is hidden in plain sight, it’s fed souls regularly, and if the Lich needs a new body there are generally a few around recently dead for it to inhabit. The worst that can happen (other than it being figured out) is it ends up in some protected collection that minions can raid and and it’s slipped back into circulation.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
I cannot find anything that states ghosts, souls, spirits, or other incorporeal beings cannot pass through lead.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Ah, but can you find anything that says they can? If we are going to block magic, radiation, and pretty much everything else you may want proof that a soul/spirit can not just no proof it can’t ( abscence of proof is nor proof of abscence).
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Since the rules say nothing, it's the GM's call.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Agreed
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
The question really is is there anything on the material plane that acts as a solid wall on the ethereal plane since that is where ghosts and incorporeals go to pass around/through objects on the prime.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
If I told you I’d have to kill you. (Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead.)
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The best place for a phylactery would be where its most likely to get souls. In one campaign I was in, my warforged warlock had one as their core. Detect magic did nothing but reveal that they do magic, and when we actually fought a lich, my character had been possessed after their passing, which happened slowly over time as they acted more and more suspicious. Once the Artifacer realized what was going on, my PC was now a boss character, and I had to roll a new one
(i also didn't know that I was the phylactery until we beat the Lich.)
a hobbit of the tolkeinite cult
a frequenter of taverns
mainly an Emerald half-dragon with a psudodragon pet
haven't been on because mobile sucks and wifi sucks
Self-proclaimed Non-Binary Diety of bad writing and Lizardfolk Monks
Force effects used to in older editions, but I don't think that's the case anymore.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.