Legendary Resistance (3/day). If the lich fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
Rejuvenation. If it has a soul idol, a destroyed lich gains a new body in 1d10 days, regaining all its hit points and becoming active again. The new body appears within 5 ft of the soul idol.
Infectious turn resistance. The lich, as well as any undead within 30 ft of the lich, have advantage on saving throws against any effect that would turn undead.
Magic Immunity. The lich can't be affected or detected by any spells unless it wishes to be.
Charming gaze. When a creature that can see the lich's eyes starts its turn within 30 ft of the lich, the lich can fore it to make a DC 20 Charisma saving throw if the lich isn't incapacitated and can see the creature. A creature that fails this save is charmed by the lich. While charmed, the creatures’ speed is reduced to 0. If a charmed creature starts its turn in a place where it cannot see the eyes of the lich or if the lich is more than 30 ft away, a charmed creature can reattempt the save, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature can no longer see the lich and the lich can no longer see the charmed creature, the effect immediately ends. Unless surprised, a creature can avert its eyes to avoid the saving throw at the start of its turn. If the creature does so, it can't see the lich until the start of its next turn, when it can avert its eyes again. If the creature looks at the lich in the meantime, it must immediately make the save. If the lich sees itself reflected on a polished surface within 30 ft of it and in an area of bright light, the lich is affected by its own gaze.
Undead Nature. The lich doesn't require air, food, drink or sleep.
Multiattack. The lich makes two attacks, and, if available, it can use its Steal Magic action. It can choose to replace one of these attacks with a spell, or the Teleport action.
Corrupting Touch. Melee Spell Attack: +14 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 19 (3d8+6) necrotic damage, and the target must succeed in a DC 22 Constitution saving throw, taking 17 (5d6) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one. If a creature fails the saving throw, they are corrupted for 1 minute. While corrupted, the creature takes 3 (1d6) necrotic damage at the start of each of their turns, and have a -6 penalty to all attack rolls. A corrupted creature is also poisoned and deafened. At the end of each of its turns, a corrupted creature can reattempt the saving throw, ending the effect on itself on a success, and taking 10 (3d6) necrotic damage on a failed save.
Steal Magic (recharge 5-6). The lich targets one creature within 60 ft of itself. That creature must succeed in a DC 22 Intelligence saving throw or lose a number of spell slots whose totals equal 9 (for example, three 3rd level spell slots). A creature cannot use those spell slots to cast spells, and they are counted as used until the end of the creature's next long rest. The lich can then transfer the spell slots to its soul idol, or it can choose to use them to cast any spell on the wizard spell list, as long as the spell levels do not go over the number of spell slots gained.
Teleport. The lich magically teleports, along with any equipment it is wearing or carrying, up to 60 ft to an unoccupied space it can see.
Spellcasting. The lich casts one of the following spells, requiring no material components and using Intelligence as the spellcasting ability (spell save DC 22, +14 to hit with spell attacks):
At will: magic missile, hold person, animate dead, inflict wounds (3rd level version), bestow curse, scrying, alarm, lightning bolt, banishment, hold monster, contact other plane, telekinesis
3/day: control weather, animate objects, planar binding, mass suggestion, simulacrum
1/day: feeblemind, meteor swarm, resurrection (the creature resurrected by this spell suffers no penalties when it returns to life)
The lich 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 lich regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Corrupting Touch. The lich uses its Corrupting Touch.
Necrotic Vortex (Costs 2 Actions). The lich unleashes a 30 ft tall, 5 ft radius cylinder of necrotic energy. Any creature within the cylinder must succeed in a DC 22 Constitution saving throw or take 11 (2d10) necrotic damage. The lich then regains hit points equal to the amount of necrotic damage dealt in total. Undead in this cylinder gain 11 (2d10) hit points instead of taking damage.
Undead Allies (Costs 3 Actions). The lich summons four zombies, which appear in unoccupied spaces within 60 ft of it. The zombies act on the lich's initiative, making their actions right after the lich. The lich controls the actions of these zombies. The lich can only have twelve zombies summoned in this way at a time.
Description
Arcanaloths are magical yugoloths, but even though they are extremely powerful, it doesn't keep them from fearing death. As mercenaries, they are constantly in the midst of battle, and they fear what happens after death, when they have to meet those they have killed face to face. Due to this fear, some arcanaloths go through an agonizing ritual which tears the soul from an arcanaloth and trasfers it to an item of the arcanaloth's choice, which then becomes a soul idol. To maintain a soul idol, the arcanoloth lich has to feed it magic, or else the arcanaloth will age rapidly and its soul would die. The soul idol can maintain a arcanaloth lich for up to a year before the soul is consumed by the idol in an attempt to maintain the lich alive, which actually kills the lich. Each spell slot consumed by the idol maintains the lich alive for another 10 days, so the lich is in near constant search for magic to feed the idol. Many times, a lich will have a couple spellcasters locked up in the lair of the lich for the lich to steal their magic to feed its idol, but many times this is not enough on its own.
Paranoid isolationists. Arcanaloth liches rarely come into contact with other creatures, which is mostly by their own attempts to avoid other creatures. Arcanaloth liches are incredibly paranoid, and attempt to encounter as few people as possible, unless those creatures are magic casters, in which case the arcanaloth liches wish to steal the magical capabilities of those creatures. Arcanaloth liches are notoriously weary of other creatures, so many times an arcanaloth lich will only have a handful of minions that it trusts enough with its soul idol and maintain its lair secure.
Magical collectors. Even though arcanaloth liches despise other creatures, many will venture out into the world with the one purpose of discovering new magic items to add to its trove. Many arcanaloth liches have massive vaults in their lairs filled with magical items, and they are never afraid to use them when they are under attack.
Soul idol. To destroy an arcanaloth lich for good, its soul idol must be destroyed as well, which is no easy feat. A soul idol is bound to the lich who created it, and therefore the lich must be destroyed to have the soul idol weakened enough to be damaged. Even when the lich is dead, many protective measures make it difficult to destroy, including curses, stored spells, and alignment immunities. The soul idol is a very rare magic item, with the following traits:
The soul idol has four stored spells. The creature attuned to the soul idol can choose which spells are stored within it. The spells must be ones that the attuned creature can cast. The attuned creature can then choose when the spells will be activated, and once a spell has been activated, it cannot be activated again until the creature attuned to it stores the spell within it again.
No more than one creature can be attuned to a soul idol at one time. When that creature dies, they are resurrected after 1d10 days with all their hit points and the soul idol creates a new body for that creature.
A soul idol is immune to all damage while the creature attuned to it is alive, but while the creature is dead, the soul idol has AC 20 and 10 hit points, as well as immunity to all damage except for bludgeoning damage dealt by creatures of a good alignment.
A creature that touches the soul idol must succeed in a DC 17 Constitution saving throw or gain a -5 penalty to all attack rolls the creature makes in the next hour.
Lair and Lair Actions
The lair of an Arcanaloth lich is a secluded and isolated area, usually either a cave, a ruined city, or sometimes even underground tunnels. Almost every room has at least one trap in it, as the lich that resides within it is notoriously paranoid. Deep within the lair is also the soul idol of the lich, which is normally protected very heavily and very difficult to reach.
Lair Actions
On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the arcanaloth lich takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects; the arcanaloth lich can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row:
- The lich casts either darkness or cloudkill on one place within its lair.
- The lich casts bestow curse on one creature within its lair.
- The lich teleports itself or its soul idol to a point within the lich's lair
Regional Effects
The region containing a legendary arcanaloth lich’s lair is corrupted, which creates one or more of the following effects:
- Animals within 1 mile of the lair of the lich are overly wary of people, and are more prone to attack if aggression is shown.
- Plants within 1 mile of the lich's lair wither and die after 1 month of growth.
- Storms are more frequent within 1 mile of the lich's lair. Usual storms include thunderstorms, tornadoes, and sandstorms.
If the arcanaloth lich dies, these effects fade over the course of 1d10 days.
Comments