Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the dracoillithilich fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
Rejuvenation. If it has a phylactery, a destroyed dracoillithilich gains a new body in 1d10 days, regaining all its hit points and becoming active again. The new body appears within 5 feet of the phylactery.
Spellcasting. The dracoillithilich is an 18th-level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 20, +12 to hit with spell attacks). The dracoillithilich has the following wizard spells prepared:
Cantrips (at will): mage hand, prestidigitation, ray of frost
1st level (4 slots): detect magic, magic missile, shield, thunderwave
2nd level (3 slots): acid arrow, detect thoughts, invisibility, mirror image
3rd level (3 slots): animate dead, counterspell, dispel magic, fireball
4th level (3 slots): blight, dimension door
5th level (3 slots): cloudkill, scrying
6th level (1 slot): disintegrate, globe of invulnerability
7th level (1 slot): finger of death, plane shift
8th level (1 slot): dominate monster, power word stun
9th level (1 slot): power word kill
Turn Resistance. The dracoillithilich has advantage on saving throws against any effect that turns undead.
Magic Resistance. The dracoillithilich has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Innate Spellcasting (Psionics). The dracoillithilich’s innate spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 20). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no components.
At will: detect thoughts, levitate
1/day each: dominate monster, plane shift (self only)
Multiattack. The dracoillithilich can use its Frightful Presence. It then makes three attacks: one with its bite and two with its claws.
Frightful Presence. Each creature of the dracoillithilich's choice that is within 120 feet of the dracoillithilich and aware of it must succeed on a DC 19 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature's saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to the dracoillithilich's Frightful Presence for the next 24 hours.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 19 (2d10 + 8) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) fire damage.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d6 + 8) slashing damage.
Tail. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (2d8 + 8) bludgeoning damage.
Paralyzing Touch. Melee Spell Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 10 (3d6) cold damage. The target must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw or be paralyzed for 1 minute. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
Tentacles. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 21 (3d10 + 5) psychic damage. If the target is Large or smaller, it is grappled(escape DC 15) and must succeed on a DC 20 Intelligence saving throw or be stunned until this grapple ends.
Extract Brain. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5 ft., one incapacitated humanoid grappled by the lich. Hit: 55 (10d10) piercing damage. If this damage reduces the target to 0 hit points, the lich kills the target by extracting and devouring its brain.
Mind Blast (Recharge 5–6). The dracoillithilich magically emits psychic energy in a 60-foot cone. Each creature in that area must succeed on a DC 18 Intelligence saving throw or take 27 (5d8 + 5) psychic damage and be stunned for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
Fire Breath (Recharge 5–6). The dracoillithilich exhales fire in a 60-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 21 Dexterity saving throw, taking 63 (18d6) fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
Negate Spell (3/Day). The dracoillithilich targets one creature it can see within 60 feet of it that is casting a spell. If the spell is 3rd level or lower, the spell fails, but any spell slots or charges are not wasted.
The dracoillithilich can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. The dracoillithilich regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Tentacles. The lich makes one attack with its tentacles.
Extract Brain (Costs 2 Actions). The dracoillithilich uses Extract Brain.
Mind Blast (Costs 3 Actions). The dracoillithilich recharges its Mind Blast and uses it.
Cast Spell (Costs 1–3 Actions). The dracoillithilich uses a spell slot to cast a 1st-, 2nd-, or 3rd-level spell that it has prepared. Doing so costs 1 legendary action per level of the spell.
Detect. The dracoillithilich makes a Wisdom (Perception) check.
Tail Attack. The dracoillithilich makes a tail attack.
Wing Attack (Costs 2 Actions). The dracoillithilich beats its tattered wings. Each creature within 10 feet of the dracolich must succeed on a DC 22 Dexterity saving throw or take 15 (2d6 + 8) bludgeoning damage and be knocked prone. The dracolich can then fly up to half its flying speed.
Description
Mind flayers that pursue arcane magic are exiled as deviants, and for them no everlasting communion with an elder brain is possible. The road to lichdom offers an alternative way to escape the permanency of death, but that path is long and fraught with barriers. dracoillithilich's are mind flayers who have true polymorphed themselves into dragons and then further ritually obtained lichdom through separating their soul from their physical form.
Elder brains forbid mind flayers from pursuing magic power aside from psionics, but it isn’t an interdiction they must often enforce. Illithids brook no masters but members of their own kind, so it isn’t in their nature to bow to any god or otherworldly patron. However, wizardry remains a temptation. In the pages of a spellbook, an illithid sees a system to acquire authority. Through the writings of the wizard who penned it, the illithid perceives the workings of a highly intelligent mind. Most mind flayers who find a spellbook react with abhorrence or indifference, but for some, a spellbook is a gateway to a new way of thinking.
For a time, the study of such forbidden texts can be hidden from other illithids and even from an elder brain. Yet eventually, mind flayer arcanists determined to pursue wizardry must flee the colony for their own safety. Once they taste freedom from the colony, some prize their privacy, others seek to commune with similar minds, and still others seek to dominate a colony by elevating themselves to the position of leadership normally held by an elder brain. Regardless, all such arcanists face the same stark fact: when they die, they will not join the host of minds in the elder brain—deviant minds are never accepted as part of the collective. For them, death means oblivion.
Lichdom offers salvation and the prospect of being able to pursue knowledge indefinitely. Yet learning the secret of achieving lichdom requires an arcane spellcaster to be at the apex of power—a significant challenge for mind flayers, given the scarcity of available mentors and training.
Lair and Lair Actions
An Ancient Dracoillithilich's Lair
Ancient dracoillithiliches lair in high mountains or hills, dwelling in caverns under snow-capped peaks, or within the deep halls of abandoned mines and dwarven strongholds. Caves with volcanic or geothermal activity are the most highly prized red dracoillithilich lairs, creating hazards that hinder intruders and letting searing heat and volcanic gases wash over a dracoillithilich as it sleeps.
With its hoard well protected deep within the lair, a dracoillithilich spends as much of its time outside the mountain as in it. For a dracoillithilich, the great heights of the world are the throne from which it can look out to survey all it controls—and the wider world it seeks to control.
Throughout the lair complex, servants erect monuments to the dracoillithilich's power, telling the grim story of its life, the enemies it has slain, and the nations it has conquered.
Lair Actions
On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the dracoillithilich takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects; the dracoillithilich can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row:
- Magma erupts from a point on the ground the dracoillithilich can see within 120 feet of it, creating a 20-foot-high, 5-foot-radius geyser. Each creature in the geyser’s area must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 21 (6d6) fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
- A tremor shakes the lair in a 60-foot radius around the dracoillithilich. Each creature other than the dracoillithilich on the ground in that area must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or be knocked prone.
- Volcanic gases form a cloud in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on a point the dracoillithilich can see within 120 feet of it. The sphere spreads around corners, and its area is lightly obscured. It lasts until initiative count 20 on the next round. Each creature that starts its turn in the cloud must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the end of its turn. While poisoned in this way, a creature is incapacitated.
Regional Effects
The region containing a legendary ancient dracoillithilich's lair is warped by the dracoillithilich's magic, which creates one or more of the following effects:
- Small earthquakes are common within 6 miles of the dracoillithilich's lair.
- Water sources within 1 mile of the lair are supernaturally warm and tainted by sulfur.
- Rocky fissures within 1 mile of the dracoillithilich's lair form portals to the Elemental Plane of Fire, allowing creatures of elemental fire into the world to dwell nearby.
If the dracoillithilich dies, these effects fade over the course of 1d10 days.
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