How to create a Lich's Phylactery?

[PaladinV]

I'm beginning a series of adventures set in my home town that involve a banestorm displacing a powerful Lich and his massive horde of 1000 year genetic breeding plan produced super orcs into the Chattahoochee Valley Basin of south Georgia in the US.

There are about a million of these orcs in the horde and the Lich is your basic Sauron type character. The story is about average people becoming heroes and combines several different members of the groups desires into one game.

I'm wondering how to build the Phylactery for the lich guy. He's basically just like a d&d lich in that his life force is stored in the Phylactery and it must be destroyed to actually kill him. He's to powerful for the PC's to go and fight him so they'll find out they have to go to his world and destroy his life force.

What do you guys think, some kind of device which is not on his person and grants him a number of powers? He's a mcguffin but I want to use the template again later so I'd like to stat it up.

[chris1982]

Well, I'd hide the thing somewhere in the ocean I guess...

The phylactery should grant him Unkillable 2 or even 3 I'd say.

Otherwise... Depends on what you want him to be able to do...

[Wernern]

Unkillable I-III with some Gadget Limitations (Can be stolen, Unique,...). And dont forget the disadvantage Terminally Ill to the Lich. You will have to modify it:
+100% because it will kill him instantly
-70-80% because it has a Mitigator that is always aviable and in use
or something like this

You might also think about adding some Damage Resistance to the Lich himself.

[Anders]

If he's not a personal Enemy of the PCs, wing it. Just say that it has this and that effect and don't worry about point costs.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by Wernern

You might also think about adding some Damage Resistance to the Lich himself.

What for? If they somehow physically reach him and issue the beat-down while the phylactery is intact, they accomplish nothing. I'd have him go down in one hit, laughing.

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by Wernern

Unkillable I-III with some Gadget Limitations (Can be stolen, Unique,...). And dont forget the disadvantage Terminally Ill to the Lich. You will have to modify it:
+100% because it will kill him instantly
-70-80% because it has a Mitigator that is always aviable and in use
or something like this

If you want a D&D style lich then you don't want to do that.
Destroying the phylactery doesn't actually kill the liche, it just prevents it from respawning when destroyed.
You do want the Unkillable (gadget) though.

Nasty D&D lich trick - use your phylactery as the lock that contains something worse than you (a minimus contained tarrusque, a gate to the Far Realm, a forgotten demon prince, that sort of thing).

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by Wernern

Unkillable I-III with some Gadget Limitations (Can be stolen, Unique,...). And dont forget the disadvantage Terminally Ill to the Lich. You will have to modify it:
+100% because it will kill him instantly
-70-80% because it has a Mitigator that is always aviable and in use
or something like this

That's terribly abusive and backwards from proper stealable gadgets. Unkillable already has Achilles Heel for attacks on the phylactery, which would generally be Rare, unless the lich fiddles with it for some plot reason, making it more commonly found nearby.

[chris1982]

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

What for? If they somehow physically reach him and issue the beat-down while the phylactery is intact, they accomplish nothing. I'd have him go down in one hit, laughing.

Well, at least in D&D it takes the lich a couple of days to come back, giving the PCs ample time to loot your stuff, which might not be nice...

[LoneWolf23k]

If you have GURPS Magic, then this is exactly what the spell "Soul Jar" is for, if you're the subject of your own spell.

[Captain-Captain]

The character IS the phylactery. The Lich is just a solid illusion. If you're using Standard Magic in this campaign, I proposed a spell which could help here.

Originally Posted by me

Illusion Creation
Regular V/H

Prerequistes: Telecast and Create Servant OR Create Warrior

Cost: 3 plus the underlying cost and maintenence for the servant or warrior spell.

Time to cast: 5 seconds plus the time to cast the underlying spell.

The Caster's mind is not quite transfered to a Created Servant (or Warrior) but is imposed. It requires full concentration to 'operate' the servant this way. What the servant sees and hears etc is sent back to the caster's body and this tends to cut the caster off from the immediate surroundings. Will -3 to notice any activity going around his own body (subject to circumstial modifiers of course). The servant's mind is not shut off, it simply knows it's job is to 'carry' it's master's mind. If the caster stops concentration the Servant either stops or follows preset commands for such a contingency Independence and Initiative are RESISTED by Avatar. You either have an avatar or an independent servant, not both.

The Avatar functions in place of a wizard eye for the telecast spell. Costs are figured normally. The servant doesn't do anything while telecast is being worked unless it was programmed to gesture and speak to make it look like it's casting a spell.

This will only be a cursory disguise for the fact the servant isn't casting a spell. The servant doesn't know spells and a wizard probably could notice it was doing the casting wrong.

The Created Servant version of an Avatar is easier to maintain, but undeneath the wizard's mind, it's a Created Servant, and subject to vanishing if attacked, confused or subjected to anger. A wizard with a bad temper has a good chance of destroying the servant just by getting too angry while in it's mind!

The Created Warrior version can take a lot more grief, but of course costs more fatigue.

Control spells are resisted by the Will of the Caster at -3 because of the connection to the Servant. If the control is taken from the Avatar, the wizard's mind returns to the wizard's body (actually it never left) and the Servant or Warrior is Controled by the winner of the contest.

It's not uncommon for vampire wizards to learn this spell, and send copies of themselves out and about in broad daylight.

Item: Wand or Staff. Energy to create: 800

Your Phylactery never sleeps, has spells in the 25 range for most parts and a regenerating energy reserve that realistically won't be seriously taxed until the big final confrontation, if even then.

He may well have an improved Created Warrior spell as the base form for his lich body too. He can as a brute form of Create Warrior have high ST (or ridiculous ST if you use the 'improved Create Warrior and all manner of defensive magicks up

As a suggestion: The improved Create Warrior can, for triple fatigue cost, have Super Extra Effort ST on 10 of his 15 ST. He punches and lifts lilke a 105 ST character while doing this.