Liches’ can really be a pain. One can kill them a hundred times but unless one finds that phylactery that Lich just is not dying. And now we get a book that makes them even tougher as it has clever ways to make the phylactery something that people are really not going to expect. This is a cool idea and DM’s every where should be laughing evilly over this.
A Dozen Unusual Phylacteries is a new PDF by Ronin Arts. Ronin Arts is Phil Reed who wrote this particular book and has been a well established RPG writer for at least a decade it seems. The PDF is short and simple and to the point. It is seven pages, black and white, and has a nice lay out and book marks. The title like many of Ronin Arts projects tells the reader exactly what one can expect in this book. This is one in a line of a Dozen of series that has been great in offer a little extra to one’s campaign.
The book presents twelve creative ways for the Lich to hide his or hers life force. Not only is the Phylactery described and explained but the name of the Lich that uses it and a bit of history is presented each well. The Phylacteries are well described and will be easy to take the idea of them and use them with another Lich of the DM’s creation or of a module or campaign setting. The book runs a nice balance of explaining the Phylactery and presenting it with some good background but not locking the background with the Phylacteries.
In the book the reader gets ones of a grave yard, a magical shield, and even a dead druid’s tree. I like the variety and creativity in these. Using these in a campaign can be easy and spark adventures in themselves. I can see it going the usual way where the party is trying to find the Phylactery of a specific Lich but some of these are so odd and almost random seeming that a DM can easily have a group run across a weird Phylactery and then be forced to find the Lich it goes to. The book also reprints the material from the System Reference Document on Phylacteries for easy reference by the reader.
The book like many of Phil Reed’s shows a great amount of creativity and really easy to use in a variety of fantasy campaigns. All one needs is a Lich and this book becomes really useful. It includes a new feat of the Critical type which is a feat that allows one another option whenever they score a critical hit. It is a good feat and I like the little extras like that in the book. There is even a nice side par to make one of the Phylacteries even more deadly. The name of that side bar is appropriately named “Evil DM’s Take Note”. This a cheap way to add another complication and adventure ideas to one owns Lich encounters.
