Lich

A lich is an undead spellcaster, usually a wizard, or more rarely a sorcerer, cleric or other spellcaster, who has used its magic powers to gain eternal life through undeath. Because liches have eternal longevity they often use this time to form schemes that take decades to develop, sometimes preferring to outlive a foe instead of confront it, and as such most liches live in secluded areas of Toril where they are content with furthering whatever research or plots they have in motion.

A lich is a gaunt and skeletal humanoid with withered flesh stretched tight across horribly visible bones. Its eyes have long ago been lost to decay, but bright pinpoints of crimson light burn on in the empty sockets.

Perhaps the most powerful lich, and arguably one of the most potent beings of all of Faerûn is Larloch, a lich with a legion of lesser liches at his command.

Another famous lich was the lord-mage of House Arach Dyrr in the drow city of Menzoberranzan. Lord Dyrr was recently destroyed when his plots to seize power in the City of Spiders failed, and he was destroyed by the cities Archmage Gromph Baenre.

The Lich's Phylactery
The process of achieving lichdom requires that the spellcaster constructs a powerful magical artifact, a phylactery, in which the lich will store its life essence, as long as this phylactery is unharmed the lich is immortal and will attempt to reassemble if it is ever vanquished (this happens 1d10 days after its apparent death). For this reason liches take great care in protecting their phylactery from harm, employing decoys, traps and other means. Crafting the phylactery requires the Craft Wondrous Item Feat and the creator must have a caster level of at least 11. In addition to this the material and experience costs of the phylactery are 120,000 gp and 4,800 XP. The phylactery is often a small or tiny sized trinket, usually a box, but it can take other shapes if the lich expends more gold and experience to make such alterations

Types of Liches

 * Alhoon : An Alhoon is an illithid lich.
 * Archlich : While the overwhelming majority of liches are evil, an archlich is not. One such good lich is Lady Alathene Moonstar of Waterdeep. Lady Alathene is devoted to hunting down her brother Lord Vanrak who has become a murderous undead champion of evil. Archliches are able to memorize spells through intuitive nature and do not need spellbooks; they also remain in their form for eternity. An Elven Archlich is called a Baelnorn. They do not use Phylacteries as their undeath is gifted to them by the Seldarine.
 * Baneliches : These liches were once clerics of Bane who were transformed into undead to serve him. As they grow older, their powers increase as well until they are as powerful as any other lich.
 * Demilich : This advanced form is achieved when a lich feels it cannot learn any more in its present state and seeks other avenues to attain knowledge. It might do so by using astral projection to travel across other planes of existence.
 * Dracolich : A dracolich is a dragon whom has achieved lichdom. The process required to do this was discovered by Sammaster, former chosen of Mystra.