Phylactery Puns

I saw this in the preface of book 5 of Strength of Thousands. It will, I'm sure, get a lot more extensive mention in Book of the Dead next year.

>Starting with the lich >!Dwandek !<in this adventure, we’re making a long‑overdue terminology change. The use of the word “phylactery” as the item in which a lich stores their soul is both inaccurate and inappropriate given the evil nature of liches and the word’s connotation with real‑world religious practices. Instead, liches in Pathfinder Second Edition store their souls in objects called soul cages—an act that liches see as an ultimate act of defiance against the cycle of life and death. Liches consider their souls not as things to cherish, but as weaknesses that, once locked away in a cage, allow for eternal undeath. Apart from this change in name, the mechanics for how liches function remain unaltered.

Seems a fair change. I just thought it was interesting to see them taking a big terminological step like this one!

Was working on a zoolock deck and scrolling through my collection when I noticed the 2 gold elwynn boars, an though: "you know what?? Yeah that makes sense.. Instead of copying the nerubian egg's deathrattle or Korrak (witch I was surprised that worked BTW) I'll just fill a board of imps, broomstick the hell out of them and give them the ol' Tamsin perfume, am BAM! sword of a thousand truths, live to win and all that.. Turns out the truth hurts waaay more than i expected.. It says on the card that they need to be called "elwynn boar" and not imp or broom.. After 5 games trying to get all the pieces, lost the 6th one because of my inability to read.. Although a weird thing happened: after using tamsin's phylactery I got a boar added to my hand.. Don't know if that's supposed to happen or not..

Anyways, thanks for reading.. See you on my next failure..

I'm running my first proper 5e campaign and I'm trying to get things set up for the parties first big bad. is there any reason a lich cant have multiple phylacteries?

I’ve been googling trying to figure it out. I was told that I needed to enchant an item with trap the soul, but then found out that was merged into imprisonment. I’m still confused about how this works.

The tree burst into song: "I GOT SOUL BUT I'M NOT A SOUL JAR."

Like, put your soul in another body, become a Lich, that body-phylactery should also be your thrall since it has a soul and thus you can use necromancy to animate it? Better yet ask daddy Divayth Fyr to make a clone of you - now there's 2 immortal you, one Lich and one Phylactery.

Why is an effect that confers almost no mechanical advantage restricted to level 5+? This isn't a complaint, I'm just curious if there's something from the designers out there that explains why it should be difficult for characters to obtain an item that helps them remain faithful to their deity/oath/lifestyle.

In PF1, a Phylactery of Faithfulness was a CL1 item that alerted you if you were going to do something that "could adversely affect his alignment and his standing with his deity "

In PF2, a Phylactery of Faithfulness does much the same (except it is keyed to a single deity), but also provides a hefty +2 to religion checks and can cast Augury 1/day, and is therefore a Level 9 item (with a corresponding price tag).

Is there some lower-level stepping stone I'm missing? There's the Detect Anathema fulu, but that's still a level EIGHT(?!) item (and is one-time-use, for better or worse). Certainly not "Given to undisciplined acolytes at risk of breaking their vows" - this thing costs a fortune! Also, given that it is a Talisman, it could just be removed by spending ten minutes before our unruly acolyte engages in whatever anathema-breaking activity they do, no?

The easy answer is to just create a powered-down Phylactery of Faithfulness of course, removing both secondary abilities and give it out as a 1st or 2nd level item. But the existence of the Fulu, which only works once, is clearly meant to be used by a willing wearer (unless I'm missing something about removing then reattaching it), and is only one level lower, suggests that these kinds of effects are meant to be relatively powerful magic.

Now, anathema in 2e are generally straightforward, and there's usually not much ambiguity. But these kinds of effects are great! It's a way for player and GM to say, "Oh oops, player A, your Champion of Torag is reminded that showing mercy to this enemy of your people would be anathema." It doesn't matter in all (or many) games, but it it truly perplexing to me as to why these effects are so expensive.

Title.

I am getting so sick and tired of facing this build of the Warlock. For those who don't know, the point of that deck is to stall until they can cast Tamsin's Phylactery (Discover a friendly Deathrattle minion that died this game. Give your minions its Deathrattle) targeting Humongous Owl (Deathrattle: Deal 8 damage to a random enemy) and then winning.

Any tips?

Hello, I am developing a plot where if the players want to kill the lich in the story, they will have to kill its phylactery, which will be a living humanoid being. In the most probable case the players develop a bond with the phylactery and want to save it, I want to let them have a way out... How do I provide that option? And how can they go about carrying it out? So far some options I have are the following:

1. The phylactery 'swallowing' the lich
2. Reversing the magic so that the lich is now the phylactery
3. Sealing the lich
4. Controlling the lich

Of course there's also the possibility that the players come up with their own alternatives by themselves, which I might consider. At this moment though, for the options above, I don't know how to carry them out, so I could really use the advise on how to do them and what their implications are :,)

Some other options will be greatly appreciated and how they can be done. Thank you in advance!

I cannot for the life of me find Zacharius Phylactery. I even know where it is! Been walking around the >!basement of the Ziggurat!<, at the exact spot where others told me to find it, and nothing gets triggered. I don't find any >!hidden walls. !<

Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong or is this a bug?

The big bad of my campaign is a lich and their phylactery is a crown that was broken into smaller pieces. The players have one piece of the crown, and I was thinking that the lich could scry on the piece as it is their phylactery. But, the mechanics of the spell say a creature.

I know as DM I can do whatever I want essentially, but I want my players to have a chance against the scrying as well.

I'm playing in a campaign where my wizard just became a lich. I made my phylactery a dagger which I used to kill my rival. How should I protect it to ensure it isn't destroyed? My first thought was to put it in our bag of holding, but on second thought something like creating a trapped dungeon in a volcano is probably much safer. What are your recommendations?

Hi all,

My party is about half-way through ToA; my players are really enjoying Chult so was trying to think of ways to keep things going. I ended up making one change - I replaced Ace with a home-brew lich - she was the BBEG in our previous adventure (same players, different characters) and wanted to give the characters another run at her. Having her replace Ace and start the death curse works just fine, but I'm looking for ideas when (if?) they are able to stop her and perhaps being able to find her phylactery

I love the Mezro plot hooks (I am reading the Lost of City Mezro supplement now). I'm trying to think of ways that I might be able to integrate her into the Mezro's backstory. Maybe she betrayed the guardians of the Heart of the Wild, she stole it, corrupted it, and made it her phylactery just to really stick it to the gods? I don't know a ton about Chultan lore, so looking for any ideas/brainstorms.

https://preview.redd.it/lbqycpswwe081.png?width=332&format=png&auto=webp&s=fc169f3ce8a0d3d07ffd1011ad9053170a43641e

Just a warning, on KT if you are down in the phylactery and walk over the portal, your channeled spell cancels.

I cancelled so many convokes early and finally figured it out.

I've got a lich NPC/Antagonist showing up in my campaign in a few sessions and I wanted to give them a memorable phylactery. Taking some inspiration from Warcraft 3, I've decided that it will take the form of a Burial Urn, which was used to transport the their charred bones before they were risen as a lich through a divine ritual related to the BBEG's patron deity.

So far, I know that the urn will allow the lich to reform faster and can be used to trap the souls of those killed by the lich as though they'd performed bind soul, but I think it could do with some other cool properties/abilities that make it more dangerous.

Keep in mind that the urn itself was once the vessel for a powerful force of good before the BBEG the ritual to raise the bones as a lich corrupted it.

I'm running a campaign for my players where they randomly discover a powerful Dracolitchs Phylactery and have to find out what to do with it while being chased by a cult.

When I started mapping out the fine details, I realised how do you destroy it? Surely you can't just hit it really hard?

Any ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated.

...cuz I got it in gold and could really use the dust (:

Just wanted to bring this up, because Liches are one of my favorite monsters in DnD.

The Phylactery is the keystone of any Lich, and what separates the low/mid tier necromancer goons from the S-Tier Bone Daddies we all know and love. Knowing this, I seem to notice at least two things DMs either forget or change about them.

1: It Ain't a Horcrux. Phylacteries in RAW DnD are explicitly containers or vessels of some kind, because the inside needs to be inscribed with runes and it will contain scraps of parchment or leather with the Lich's True Name on them. It is even noted that they feed souls to it with a modified Imprisonment spell that puts the soul IN the container to be devoured.

With this in mind, it isn't technically possible to have a Phylactery that is a ring, sword, or other miscellaneous item, so it isn't like a Horcrux in Harry Potter, which could be anything. However, I think it is fair to ignore this, because God knows hiding it in a giant treasure hoard and watching your party panic and just start smashing random treasures in a blind panic as Vecna is approaching is a special kind of feeling.

2: They Ain't easy to Destroy. At All. In this manner, Phylacteries are a bit like Horcruxes, because Phylacteries are HARD to Destroy. For reference and not trying to spoil too much, near the end of Tomb of Annihilation you can find a bunch of phylacteries near a pool of lava. The module explicitly stated it takes specific spells and rites to Destroy a phylactery, and even hurling it into the lava is only a 1/10 chance of destroying it.

Just smashing a Phylactery with your +3 Warhammer isn't actually going to do anything, no matter how high your strength score is. Finding the phylactery may be a half a quest in and of itself, but breaking it is gonna be the other half.

Now why am I telling you this? Simple.

Give the party a Phylactery at low level.

If you want to use a Lich as a BBEG later on, don't be afraid of giving the party his phylactery at low level. Even if a Lich hasn't shown up, it is great foreshadowing for the party to find this artifact steeped in necromantic power, and just having it on their person can be a great source of plot hooks. Agents of the Lich hunting it down, zealot orders thinking the party are the Lich's retainers, mages trying to bind the Lich and steal his secrets, you can do a lot with the sealed soul of some of the strongest spellcasters there are.

And the party can't destroy it because, again, they take very spe

I want to keep the phylactery but as a result the quest will not expire so I can't get another quest until I hand in the phylactery? Is there anyway around this where I could keep the phylactery but also have the quest fail so I can get new quests in mannshire?

This means the lich will come back, but if you where a Lich who’s major plan had been thwarted by a group of heroes and home is in complete ruins due to certain explosives.

What would you wish for?

Preferably one where they recognize it due to popular culture in the Muggle world.

inspired by discussion in dndmemes https://www.reddit.com/r/dndmemes/comments/qlk0zy/immersion_ruined/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3