Anyone have thoughts on how they would run the frequency of a Lich's need to feed? The books are pretty vague, saying that they need to consume souls "periodically". Would you translate that as once a week? Month? Century? Should it matter what kind of soul is consumed (Baby vs Elder)/ (Random nobody vs. legendary level 20 hero)
A quick google search popped up some interesting answers, but most of them are back dated several years, so i wanted to see how people would answer it NOW vs. how people answered it way back when.
Not sure if it matters, but I'm also using a non traditional process for how my Lich of choice, will be capturing souls; so i might have to tool around that a bit
It's entirely "as often as the narrative requires". Your average lich would have a lot of deaths on their conscience, if they had one, but it allows for them to have been isolated for years and years doing, you know, Lich stuff.
It's entirely "as often as the narrative requires". Your average lich would have a lot of deaths on their conscience, if they had one, but it allows for them to have been isolated for years and years doing, you know, Lich stuff.
I do get that, I'm mostly trying to get a rough metric. Some of the answers i've seen imply that your average lich is powering through dozens (if not hundreds) of people a week. And/or slaughtering wave after a wave of high level humanoids/ genocide'ing every thing with a CR rating above 1, in a country sized radius.
I do get that, I'm mostly trying to get a rough metric. Some of the answers i've seen imply that your average lich is powering through dozens (if not hundreds) of people a week. And/or slaughtering wave after a wave of high level humanoids/ genocide'ing every thing with a CR rating above 1, in a country sized radius.
That seems non-viable over the long term, but I guess that's what they needed for the narrative.
There's no average lich. The rate at which they need souls doesn't need to be constant from lich to lich. And nothing stops them from consuming more than they need. Whether that's waste or stocking up for the future is another unanswered question that you may find useful to answer.
The lich who conquered a country is probably regularly consuming the souls of their enemies. The lich who's holed up in an isolated tower doing magical research may be consuming less than a soul a year. (And may be feeling peckish when the PCs show up.)
that's one possible choice, But i feel like it makes it hard to balance the story around that. Like who's going to want to live anywhere near a place where someone is mysteriously dropping dead every day.
The theory that really gave me a laugh was souls = spell points (because the lich doesn't sleep no auto refresh of spells). I just imagine the lich basically clear cutting a multiple hundred mile radius, of all sapient life... then being confused why nothing wanders in to feed on going forward.
So many variables that are not answered here. I think the most obvious answer would be, "As many souls as he can get away with." for how many he consumes. Lets face it, they would slaughter whole towns every day for just 1 more moment of life, but just like the economy, supply and and demand control this hunger more than desire. Not to mention how many souls does one have to consume in order to gain notice from the local populations. The real question should be, "How long between souls can the lich last without suffering too much hunger, and what is the quality of soul required?"
The next obvious question would be how long can they go between eating souls before they have adverse affects. That probably depends on the magic used to enter lichdome and the quality of soul used in the ritual to keep his unholy soul alive. The best thing to do is set your own requirements. Let's say a grand wizard made a pact with Nihilator or maybe Orcus for the secret to immortality. Either one should be capable of offering a ritual that brings power or recognition to the deity while turning the wizard into an undead lich so they can follow their own misbegotten fortune. The soul requirement could be a simple offering to the phylactery that extends their life. On something this simple, he could lasts generations unknown to local populations by sacrificing any no-body once a month on the full moon.
But if you want to complicate it a bit, lets make it the sacrifice of innocence so he needs 1-2 virgin souls to power his phylactery every full moon. If you notice I like using lunar events to power things of the veil. But even if you have a standard event in your area that powers something magical, you can set the interval to whatever you want. Like maybe a portal that keeps you grounded in the prime material, or something like that. The only thing that hinders you is continuity and canon, and let's face it the DM creates the canon in a game.
Now that is on top of other things that have been discussed on the Lich topic. Like do they lose a level every time they are returned to their phylactery, and what does it take to get back to full strength if a lich dies and goes to wight form? You seem hung up on the part that literally is up to the story teller to come up with which could be 1000 different ways of how you interact with various higher powers who all could just turn you into a lich and have or not have the weaknesses, and your not too concerned by the topics that are actually meat and potatoes.
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I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!
So many variables that are not answered here. I think the most obvious answer would be, "As many souls as he can get away with." for how many he consumes. Lets face it, they would slaughter whole towns every day for just 1 more moment of life, but just like the economy, supply and and demand control this hunger more than desire. Not to mention how many souls does one have to consume in order to gain notice from the local populations. The real question should be, "How long between souls can the lich last without suffering too much hunger, and what is the quality of soul required?"
The next obvious question would be how long can they go between eating souls before they have adverse affects. That probably depends on the magic used to enter lichdome and the quality of soul used in the ritual to keep his unholy soul alive. The best thing to do is set your own requirements. Let's say a grand wizard made a pact with Nihilator or maybe Orcus for the secret to immortality. Either one should be capable of offering a ritual that brings power or recognition to the deity while turning the wizard into an undead lich so they can follow their own misbegotten fortune. The soul requirement could be a simple offering to the phylactery that extends their life. On something this simple, he could lasts generations unknown to local populations by sacrificing any no-body once a month on the full moon.
But if you want to complicate it a bit, lets make it the sacrifice of innocence so he needs 1-2 virgin souls to power his phylactery every full moon. If you notice I like using lunar events to power things of the veil. But even if you have a standard event in your area that powers something magical, you can set the interval to whatever you want. Like maybe a portal that keeps you grounded in the prime material, or something like that. The only thing that hinders you is continuity and canon, and let's face it the DM creates the canon in a game.
Now that is on top of other things that have been discussed on the Lich topic. Like do they lose a level every time they are returned to their phylactery, and what does it take to get back to full strength if a lich dies and goes to wight form? You seem hung up on the part that literally is up to the story teller to come up with which could be 1000 different ways of how you interact with various higher powers who all could just turn you into a lich and have or not have the weaknesses, and your not too concerned by the topics that are actually meat and potatoes.
Fair points, i do kind of wish you had answered the replacement questions. But that's neither here nor there.
I think i'm stuck on the question as is, because I lack a proper answer to it. The story teller doesn't "know" how long between feedings; because the lich in question has such a steady supply of soul energy. If one passively feeds, it becomes hard to pin down if the feeding occurs once a month, once a year, etc... even more so when you have decades, if not centuries worth of "food/offerings" saved up. This of course assumes a certain level of soul consumption, hard to budget around a beast that consumes a small city's worth of people every couple days.
Again a lot of variables there as well. I honestly think you should start with how did the Lich achieve lichdom? Was it through intervention of a deity? Was the transformation a gift or a curse? Did the Lich study for decades on how to transform his life force into a phylactery and what was the original sacrifice to create the phylactery? This story is yours to create however you like. It really doesn't matter if someone doesn't like how you imagined it. Because no answer is wrong when you are the story teller. The only thing you need to use to impress your table or listeners is continuity.
If you want someone else's story of how they did it, there have been discussions in Dragon #26, The Red Wizards of Thay had some interesting lore as that cult was dedicated to creating a nation of Undead. Also some good reading is the various modules put out. The story of Larloch the Shadow King is a good one to look up, if I am not mistaken he healed himself with the spell he developed, "Devastate Undead" which he casted on his undead servants to drain them. Arklem Greeth was visited by erinyes who tempted him with the secrets of lichdom which he shared with Valindra Shadowmantle this all can be found in "Tomb of Annihilation". While another great lich was Szass Tam who was chronicled in "Throne of Deceit" and "The Runes of Choas". If you want to know of any novels with these characters you can find them on the Forgottenrealms Fandom Wiki. Don't forget to look up the sourcebook "Dreams of the Red Wizards" if nothing else it is a great look at the city of Thay and some of the Liches I mentioned.
Some fun take aways! Sometimes they talk about constant sacrifices, sometimes they don't. The only time I have seen them collecting powerful heroes or villains to sacrifice, they were usually trying to bind a lesser deity to their will. So if you need other people's canon for permission there is a lot of reading out there on Liches. There is created lore for actual good liches which can be known as Archliches, a notable one is Lady Alathene Moonstar of Waterdeep. So have fun making your lore, and incorporating anything you feel fit to add. Nothing is in concrete, that was the beauty of WoTC. The created their own open-ended lore that can allow the creation of anything based on the story telling, and whims of the powerful.
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I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!
I think i'm stuck on the question as is, because I lack a proper answer to it. The story teller doesn't "know" how long between feedings; because the lich in question has such a steady supply of soul energy. If one passively feeds, it becomes hard to pin down if the feeding occurs once a month, once a year, etc... even more so when you have decades, if not centuries worth of "food/offerings" saved up. This of course assumes a certain level of soul consumption, hard to budget around a beast that consumes a small city's worth of people every couple days.
Anther option if you are not comfortable writing your own story, there are people on this thread that will write out parts of your story that you can use. It seems you want a singular answer for broad question. Since the answer is going to be broader than you are comfortable with, asking for someone to write a small back story for you to develop your story off of is an option as well. Either way, I hope the best of luck in your story, and hope you enjoy it!!!!
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I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!
I'm a bit late to this but you can always go down the route of its not quantity but "quality" of souls. In essence the age of the person sacrificed to the phylactery extends the liches lifespan by a like amount, so the lich could sacrifice a 25yr old human and extend their life span by 25 years or they could sacrifice a 300yr old elf and extend it by 300 years. This would free them up from a lot of needless hunting of people to sacrifice to their phylactery and would likely be well served by dispatching the occasional party of PC's that happen by.
It might even become one of their things where they periodically feed/seed rumours into the adventuring community to entice adventurers into their lair.
Alternatively they could create cults of followers that actually look after communities or towns and then they "harvest" the oldest members of their society or maybe they have a warrior cult akin to the norse/viking where they want to die in battle but if they reach old age they go to a shrine to ritually kill themselves int he hope of getting to their afterlife but in reality they are feeding the phylactery.
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* Need a character idea? Search for "Rob76's Unused" in the Story and Lore section.
I'm a bit late to this but you can always go down the route of its not quantity but "quality" of souls. In essence the age of the person sacrificed to the phylactery extends the liches lifespan by a like amount, so the lich could sacrifice a 25yr old human and extend their life span by 25 years or they could sacrifice a 300yr old elf and extend it by 300 years. This would free them up from a lot of needless hunting of people to sacrifice to their phylactery and would likely be well served by dispatching the occasional party of PC's that happen by.
It might even become one of their things where they periodically feed/seed rumours into the adventuring community to entice adventurers into their lair.
Alternatively they could create cults of followers that actually look after communities or towns and then they "harvest" the oldest members of their society or maybe they have a warrior cult akin to the norse/viking where they want to die in battle but if they reach old age they go to a shrine to ritually kill themselves int he hope of getting to their afterlife but in reality they are feeding the phylactery.
My current game plan is that they run a BIG ASS port city. Their method of feeding basically steals a small part, of the soul, of anyone who passes through the city gates. The magic leaves a small magical brand on the person. The brand wears off after a set amount of time, but while active it prevents multiple triggering of the soul harvesting magic. This allows them the ability to harvest an exceptionally large amount of souls, without having to hide a bunch of mysterious deaths. Might also add in a special Order of knights/mages, that serve the Lich. They are gifted powerful magical artifacts... but the artifacts do consume their soul upon death.
This question actually goes way back to the TSR days. The actual question that was asked is, how to do Liches absorb souls? Ravenloft had just come out, and fans were asking how to incorporate this element in the game. TSR punted the question instead of answering it. They bluntly said they wanted to leave it open to interpretation, because any definitive answer wouldn't satisfy the many types of possibilities DMs could use that would answer it. This was kind of a weird stance by TSR because they never shied away from making lore for every detail and Liches were a popular monster. I remember being let down by their answer.
When Van Richton's guide to Liches came out, it described everything aspect of the Lich, right down to how to become one and preserve their body, but never mentions a need to feed. I think TSR abandoned this notion.
As to how often, there has been hints that its once a year, and that liches can store souls up for a certain period. If a lich is unable to meet this requirement, it becomes a demi-lich. Demi-liches look like floating skulls and have all the powers of the standard lich, but have none of the intelligence or restraint. Demi-liches also have no phylactery which does make them easier to perma kill. They are basically mindless 18th level murder machines. Again, in Van Richtons Guide, this was somewhat changed to the Lich no longer wanting to live and simply stops taking care of itself until its body falls apart and it becomes detached from its phylactery. It does not mention this as a result of neglect to feed as earlier books do. I think this was done because the lich, Azalin transcended for a time to a Demi-lich, and TSR didn't want to down grade their second most famous dark lord.
The Complete Guide to Necromancers and Van Richton's Guide to Liches on the DMSGuild will have the best lore on lichs.
The best answer for you is, they feed as often as necessary to your story.
The true soul can't be destroyed, and undead can't consume true souls, but other thing: incarnum/chi/ki/ka/sah/lifeforce. If the undead could consume souls, then all deities would send agents to destroy them because they don't want to lose worshippers.
The true soul can't be destroyed, and undead can't consume true souls, but other thing: incarnum/chi/ki/ka/sah/lifeforce. If the undead could consume souls, then all deities would send agents to destroy them because they don't want to lose worshippers.
So in whatever metaphysics you're claiming aside, in the fictional worlds of D&D souls traditionally can be consumed/destroyed, which is why Liches do what they do. The part of your complaint in bold actually describes the conditions of many D&D campaigns.....
Anyone have thoughts on how they would run the frequency of a Lich's need to feed? The books are pretty vague, saying that they need to consume souls "periodically". Would you translate that as once a week? Month? Century?
I agree with Dudeoutlaw in that the developers clearly abandoned this idea at some point and whomever resurrected it for D&D5 is just confusing the issue.
Liches are sustained by magic, that's the whole point. Their ritual makes them perpetual; they do not obey the laws of thermodynamics.
If you need a lich to devour souls for the purposes of your campaign, more power to you, and as other posters have said, the rate of consumption should be whatever you need it to be.
But personally, I think a lich can and should find way more interesting uses for souls than a soul sandwich.
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J Great Wyrm Moonstone Dungeon Master
The time of the ORC has come. No OGL without irrevocability; no OGL with 'authorized version' language. #openDND
Practice, practice, practice • Respect the rules; don't memorize them • Be merciless, not cruel • Don't let the dice run the game for you
I would say it varies, to say the least. for me I use this method: after you feed a soul to your phylactery, roll 1d12 and ad four to the outcome, that is how many months you have to feed another soul to your phylactery before the lich's body starts to decay and turn into a demilich.
I have no idea how often liches need to feed (frankly, if anyone were to ask me, I'd say they don't), but I do like the idea of a lich being ... rational about it. Not emotional, like a vampire might be, but cold and calculating, setting up a farm, making sure there's sufficient output, and either being merciful about the whole thing, taking only the eldest - or being an utter villain, nursing his foodstock for maximum 'calories' whether it be by education, or indulgence in the various passions of the flesh, or fear, then eating only the choicest 'cuts'.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Oh i like this take on the question. Decided to go with a variation of this idea actually. And all it took was a tiny bit of homebrew and a willingness to look my players in the eyes and tell them "no, YOU will never be allowed to bend the rules, like i am with this idea".
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Anyone have thoughts on how they would run the frequency of a Lich's need to feed? The books are pretty vague, saying that they need to consume souls "periodically". Would you translate that as once a week? Month? Century? Should it matter what kind of soul is consumed (Baby vs Elder)/ (Random nobody vs. legendary level 20 hero)
A quick google search popped up some interesting answers, but most of them are back dated several years, so i wanted to see how people would answer it NOW vs. how people answered it way back when.
Not sure if it matters, but I'm also using a non traditional process for how my Lich of choice, will be capturing souls; so i might have to tool around that a bit
It's entirely "as often as the narrative requires". Your average lich would have a lot of deaths on their conscience, if they had one, but it allows for them to have been isolated for years and years doing, you know, Lich stuff.
I do get that, I'm mostly trying to get a rough metric. Some of the answers i've seen imply that your average lich is powering through dozens (if not hundreds) of people a week. And/or slaughtering wave after a wave of high level humanoids/ genocide'ing every thing with a CR rating above 1, in a country sized radius.
That seems non-viable over the long term, but I guess that's what they needed for the narrative.
There's no average lich. The rate at which they need souls doesn't need to be constant from lich to lich. And nothing stops them from consuming more than they need. Whether that's waste or stocking up for the future is another unanswered question that you may find useful to answer.
The lich who conquered a country is probably regularly consuming the souls of their enemies. The lich who's holed up in an isolated tower doing magical research may be consuming less than a soul a year. (And may be feeling peckish when the PCs show up.)
I think it is one soul a day.
that's one possible choice, But i feel like it makes it hard to balance the story around that. Like who's going to want to live anywhere near a place where someone is mysteriously dropping dead every day.
The theory that really gave me a laugh was souls = spell points (because the lich doesn't sleep no auto refresh of spells). I just imagine the lich basically clear cutting a multiple hundred mile radius, of all sapient life... then being confused why nothing wanders in to feed on going forward.
So many variables that are not answered here. I think the most obvious answer would be, "As many souls as he can get away with." for how many he consumes. Lets face it, they would slaughter whole towns every day for just 1 more moment of life, but just like the economy, supply and and demand control this hunger more than desire. Not to mention how many souls does one have to consume in order to gain notice from the local populations. The real question should be, "How long between souls can the lich last without suffering too much hunger, and what is the quality of soul required?"
The next obvious question would be how long can they go between eating souls before they have adverse affects. That probably depends on the magic used to enter lichdome and the quality of soul used in the ritual to keep his unholy soul alive. The best thing to do is set your own requirements. Let's say a grand wizard made a pact with Nihilator or maybe Orcus for the secret to immortality. Either one should be capable of offering a ritual that brings power or recognition to the deity while turning the wizard into an undead lich so they can follow their own misbegotten fortune. The soul requirement could be a simple offering to the phylactery that extends their life. On something this simple, he could lasts generations unknown to local populations by sacrificing any no-body once a month on the full moon.
But if you want to complicate it a bit, lets make it the sacrifice of innocence so he needs 1-2 virgin souls to power his phylactery every full moon. If you notice I like using lunar events to power things of the veil. But even if you have a standard event in your area that powers something magical, you can set the interval to whatever you want. Like maybe a portal that keeps you grounded in the prime material, or something like that. The only thing that hinders you is continuity and canon, and let's face it the DM creates the canon in a game.
Now that is on top of other things that have been discussed on the Lich topic. Like do they lose a level every time they are returned to their phylactery, and what does it take to get back to full strength if a lich dies and goes to wight form? You seem hung up on the part that literally is up to the story teller to come up with which could be 1000 different ways of how you interact with various higher powers who all could just turn you into a lich and have or not have the weaknesses, and your not too concerned by the topics that are actually meat and potatoes.
I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!
Fair points, i do kind of wish you had answered the replacement questions. But that's neither here nor there.
I think i'm stuck on the question as is, because I lack a proper answer to it. The story teller doesn't "know" how long between feedings; because the lich in question has such a steady supply of soul energy. If one passively feeds, it becomes hard to pin down if the feeding occurs once a month, once a year, etc... even more so when you have decades, if not centuries worth of "food/offerings" saved up. This of course assumes a certain level of soul consumption, hard to budget around a beast that consumes a small city's worth of people every couple days.
Again a lot of variables there as well. I honestly think you should start with how did the Lich achieve lichdom? Was it through intervention of a deity? Was the transformation a gift or a curse? Did the Lich study for decades on how to transform his life force into a phylactery and what was the original sacrifice to create the phylactery? This story is yours to create however you like. It really doesn't matter if someone doesn't like how you imagined it. Because no answer is wrong when you are the story teller. The only thing you need to use to impress your table or listeners is continuity.
If you want someone else's story of how they did it, there have been discussions in Dragon #26, The Red Wizards of Thay had some interesting lore as that cult was dedicated to creating a nation of Undead. Also some good reading is the various modules put out. The story of Larloch the Shadow King is a good one to look up, if I am not mistaken he healed himself with the spell he developed, "Devastate Undead" which he casted on his undead servants to drain them. Arklem Greeth was visited by erinyes who tempted him with the secrets of lichdom which he shared with Valindra Shadowmantle this all can be found in "Tomb of Annihilation". While another great lich was Szass Tam who was chronicled in "Throne of Deceit" and "The Runes of Choas". If you want to know of any novels with these characters you can find them on the Forgottenrealms Fandom Wiki. Don't forget to look up the sourcebook "Dreams of the Red Wizards" if nothing else it is a great look at the city of Thay and some of the Liches I mentioned.
Some fun take aways! Sometimes they talk about constant sacrifices, sometimes they don't. The only time I have seen them collecting powerful heroes or villains to sacrifice, they were usually trying to bind a lesser deity to their will. So if you need other people's canon for permission there is a lot of reading out there on Liches. There is created lore for actual good liches which can be known as Archliches, a notable one is Lady Alathene Moonstar of Waterdeep. So have fun making your lore, and incorporating anything you feel fit to add. Nothing is in concrete, that was the beauty of WoTC. The created their own open-ended lore that can allow the creation of anything based on the story telling, and whims of the powerful.
I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!
Anther option if you are not comfortable writing your own story, there are people on this thread that will write out parts of your story that you can use. It seems you want a singular answer for broad question. Since the answer is going to be broader than you are comfortable with, asking for someone to write a small back story for you to develop your story off of is an option as well. Either way, I hope the best of luck in your story, and hope you enjoy it!!!!
I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!
I'm a bit late to this but you can always go down the route of its not quantity but "quality" of souls. In essence the age of the person sacrificed to the phylactery extends the liches lifespan by a like amount, so the lich could sacrifice a 25yr old human and extend their life span by 25 years or they could sacrifice a 300yr old elf and extend it by 300 years. This would free them up from a lot of needless hunting of people to sacrifice to their phylactery and would likely be well served by dispatching the occasional party of PC's that happen by.
It might even become one of their things where they periodically feed/seed rumours into the adventuring community to entice adventurers into their lair.
Alternatively they could create cults of followers that actually look after communities or towns and then they "harvest" the oldest members of their society or maybe they have a warrior cult akin to the norse/viking where they want to die in battle but if they reach old age they go to a shrine to ritually kill themselves int he hope of getting to their afterlife but in reality they are feeding the phylactery.
My current game plan is that they run a BIG ASS port city. Their method of feeding basically steals a small part, of the soul, of anyone who passes through the city gates. The magic leaves a small magical brand on the person. The brand wears off after a set amount of time, but while active it prevents multiple triggering of the soul harvesting magic. This allows them the ability to harvest an exceptionally large amount of souls, without having to hide a bunch of mysterious deaths. Might also add in a special Order of knights/mages, that serve the Lich. They are gifted powerful magical artifacts... but the artifacts do consume their soul upon death.
This question actually goes way back to the TSR days. The actual question that was asked is, how to do Liches absorb souls? Ravenloft had just come out, and fans were asking how to incorporate this element in the game. TSR punted the question instead of answering it. They bluntly said they wanted to leave it open to interpretation, because any definitive answer wouldn't satisfy the many types of possibilities DMs could use that would answer it. This was kind of a weird stance by TSR because they never shied away from making lore for every detail and Liches were a popular monster. I remember being let down by their answer.
When Van Richton's guide to Liches came out, it described everything aspect of the Lich, right down to how to become one and preserve their body, but never mentions a need to feed. I think TSR abandoned this notion.
As to how often, there has been hints that its once a year, and that liches can store souls up for a certain period. If a lich is unable to meet this requirement, it becomes a demi-lich. Demi-liches look like floating skulls and have all the powers of the standard lich, but have none of the intelligence or restraint. Demi-liches also have no phylactery which does make them easier to perma kill. They are basically mindless 18th level murder machines. Again, in Van Richtons Guide, this was somewhat changed to the Lich no longer wanting to live and simply stops taking care of itself until its body falls apart and it becomes detached from its phylactery. It does not mention this as a result of neglect to feed as earlier books do. I think this was done because the lich, Azalin transcended for a time to a Demi-lich, and TSR didn't want to down grade their second most famous dark lord.
The Complete Guide to Necromancers and Van Richton's Guide to Liches on the DMSGuild will have the best lore on lichs.
The best answer for you is, they feed as often as necessary to your story.
The true soul can't be destroyed, and undead can't consume true souls, but other thing: incarnum/chi/ki/ka/sah/lifeforce. If the undead could consume souls, then all deities would send agents to destroy them because they don't want to lose worshippers.
So in whatever metaphysics you're claiming aside, in the fictional worlds of D&D souls traditionally can be consumed/destroyed, which is why Liches do what they do. The part of your complaint in bold actually describes the conditions of many D&D campaigns.....
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I would translate that to once per season.
I agree with Dudeoutlaw in that the developers clearly abandoned this idea at some point and whomever resurrected it for D&D5 is just confusing the issue.
Liches are sustained by magic, that's the whole point. Their ritual makes them perpetual; they do not obey the laws of thermodynamics.
If you need a lich to devour souls for the purposes of your campaign, more power to you, and as other posters have said, the rate of consumption should be whatever you need it to be.
But personally, I think a lich can and should find way more interesting uses for souls than a soul sandwich.
J
Great Wyrm Moonstone Dungeon Master
The time of the ORC has come. No OGL without irrevocability; no OGL with 'authorized version' language. #openDND
Practice, practice, practice • Respect the rules; don't memorize them • Be merciless, not cruel • Don't let the dice run the game for you
I would say it varies, to say the least. for me I use this method: after you feed a soul to your phylactery, roll 1d12 and ad four to the outcome, that is how many months you have to feed another soul to your phylactery before the lich's body starts to decay and turn into a demilich.
I have no idea how often liches need to feed (frankly, if anyone were to ask me, I'd say they don't), but I do like the idea of a lich being ... rational about it. Not emotional, like a vampire might be, but cold and calculating, setting up a farm, making sure there's sufficient output, and either being merciful about the whole thing, taking only the eldest - or being an utter villain, nursing his foodstock for maximum 'calories' whether it be by education, or indulgence in the various passions of the flesh, or fear, then eating only the choicest 'cuts'.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Oh i like this take on the question. Decided to go with a variation of this idea actually. And all it took was a tiny bit of homebrew and a willingness to look my players in the eyes and tell them "no, YOU will never be allowed to bend the rules, like i am with this idea".