How Often Does a Lich Need to Feed?
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A lich needs to feed on mortal souls as often as the narrative requires, but it should be no more often than once every 24 hours, considering it takes 24 hours to consume a soul and it can only hold one soul at a time. The imprisonment spell, a 9th-level spell, used by liches to trap souls, is typically limited to once per day, further restricting the frequency of feeding.
Understanding Liches and Their Feeding Habits
Introduction to Liches
To delve deeper into the feeding habits of liches, it’s essential to understand what they are and how they sustain their undead form.
Frequently Asked Questions About Liches
General Questions
- What is a lich? A lich is a spellcaster of the necromantic persuasion who seeks to gain immortality and greater power through evil magics.
- How does a lich stay alive? Since a lich’s soul is mystically tied to its phylactery, destroying its body will not kill it; instead, its soul will return to the phylactery, and its body will be recreated.
- Can a lich sleep? A lich does not need to eat, sleep, or breathe, but over its epic lifespan, it must eventually consume mortal souls to sustain the magic that protects its undead form.
Feeding and Soul Consumption
- How often must a lich feed? A lich must feed on mortal souls as often as the narrative requires, but typically no more than once every 24 hours due to the time it takes to consume a soul and the limitation of the imprisonment spell.
- How does a lich feed? A lich feeds by using the imprisonment spell to trap a target’s body and soul inside its phylactery.
- What happens if a lich doesn’t feed? A lich who fails to regularly feed souls to its phylactery fades into a demilich, decaying until only its skull remains.
Creation, Destruction, and Characteristics
- Can any creature become a lich? To become a lich, one must be an epic-level caster, whether cleric, wizard, or something else, making it a rare and powerful undead form.
- How to kill a lich? The only way to permanently destroy a lich is to destroy its phylactery, as merely destroying its body will cause its soul to return to the phylactery and its body to be recreated.
- Is a lich immune to anything? Liches are immune to poison damage as well as bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from non-magical attacks.
Advanced Questions
- Can a lich become a god? Becoming a god is possible for a lich, although it’s ambitious and usually tied to the number of worshippers.
- Does a lich have to be evil? Depending on the method of becoming a lich, it can retain any alignment it had in life, though many liches are depicted as evil.
- How long does it take a lich to regenerate? If a lich has a phylactery, it gains a new body in 1d10 days, regaining all its hit points and becoming active again.
- Can a lich become human again? If the phylactery and the lich’s body were destroyed, True Resurrection could restore the lich to mortal life, returning it to its non-undead form.
- What is a lich’s weakness? A lich’s greatest weakness is its phylactery, as destroying it would destroy the lich.
- Can you soul cage a lich? A lich can be trapped in a soul cage, which then rebuilds the lich’s undead body over 1d10 days if it is destroyed.