D&D: Five Great Weapons for Fighting a Lich
If you’re going to take on Vecna himself, you might want to be prepared. Here are five magic items perfect for fighting a lich.
Liches can be powerful opponents, and Vecna is, arguably, the most powerful lich of them all. But even if you’re not gearing up to go head-to-head with Vecna, taking on a lich is no mean feat. These undead spellcasters have had lifetimes to master the arcane arts, and have only gotten more powerful and paranoid in the interim.
How can you hope to stop them? Well, aside from radiant damage (which is a very good friend), you’re going to want to bring the right assortment of magical items. Items like these!
Rod of Absorption
When fighting a lich, one of the things you’ll have to watch out for is its array of spells. Even if the DM doesn’t swap them out for optimal party-ruining spells, they can still be quite deadly. And while there are things like counterspell that can save your bacon, a Rod of Absorption is, in many ways, much better than that.
With a Rod of Absorption, you can absorb the energy of an incoming spell, not only negating its effects entirely (works only on spells that target you, sadly, not AoEs) but storing the energy for your benefit. You can use this stored energy to power your own spells without having to expend your precious spell slots, letting you either fight with better sustainability or helping you get back in the fight if you’re already spent.
Antimagic Armor
But there are many spells and spell-like abilities that a lich, like Vecna, might have that can’t be counterspelled or absorbed. Against these, you might want to invest in a suit of antimagic armor. These armors, introduced in the Book of Many Things, are magical armors that let you cast the antimagic field spell once per day.
If you’re a Fighter or Barbarian or some other big beefy type who is excellent at grappling, activating your antimagic field and then grappling the lich can turn the whole fight into an absolute cakewalk. It even shuts down Vecna himself, if you can get close enough to him. No more teleporting away!
Necrotic Absorbing Tattoo
While those two items will be very active counters, if you are going to go toe to toe with Vecna or any other lich, you’ve got to remember that no plan is absolutely foolproof. So it’s wise to have a backup plan.
A Necrotic Absorbing Tattoo is a great item to bring because it passively protects you at all times, granting you resistance to necrotic damage. But wait, there’s more. It also gives you the ability to use your reaction to gain immunity against incoming necrotic damage. Instead, you regain hit points equal to half the damage you would have taken. Now you can turn Vecna’s most powerful attacks into free heals.
Scarab of Protection
Why should Legendary Enemies have all the fun of Legendary Resistance? This Scarab grants you advantage on all saving throws against spells, and it has 12 charges which can be spent to turn a failed save against a necromancy spell or harmful effect originating from an undead creature into a successful one.
Last Stand Armor
Finally, Last Stand Armor is the ultimate backup plan. If you die while wearing this +1 armor (of any variety), then it explodes in a wave that potentially banishes each celestial, fey, and fiend within 30 feet of you back to their home plane of existence.
So you could potentially take one for the team, send Vecna packing, and then get resurrected like it wasn’t even a thing.
What would you bring to a fight with a lich?
