"Purist" demiliches

[polytope]

Sorry to keep posting my own mods in the SCS forum, but demiliches aren't really working as intended in the current version, so I tinkered with them for a bit, adding back some of their PnP powers and susceptibilities.

As with the original boss of the Tomb of Horrors, demiliches can be damaged by a few spells - Holy Word, Shatter and Dispel Evil - since two of those are unimplemented in game, I've extended this to any spell that causes purely physical damage such as Bigby's Clenched Fist and Implosion, whilst the deafening effect of Holy Word will inflict upon them a chance of miscasting their spells (but not spell-like abilities). Power Word: Kill will destroy a demilich if it's under 60hp (see below). Demiliches cannot be turned.

The most scary special ability of the demilich, draining a soul, does not allow a save (the ToH was designed to be lethal to high level parties with good saves) but you may choose on installation whether it should be blocked by magic resistance or a berseker's enrage and the protagonist's slayer transformation; the former option is my favored take, because paladins are supposed to be among the best classes against these ultimate undead and soul trapping is quite unlike the spells Imprisonment and Maze which bersekers can ignore (it's also fairer, because any character class can gain MR, unlike berserking). If you choose this option, those freed by the Freedom Spell return with 1hp and unbuffed, so it may be dangerous to cast in mid-battle (a demilich's attack is supposed to destroy the character's body as it steals their soul).

In either case spell protections can deflect Trap the Soul, which is by the book a 7th level conjuration, not abjuration, important to know if like most players you're relying on Spell Immunity as a defense, (TtS normally allows a save, but not if you touch the trigger object and apparently not if the caster is a demilich). A demilich can only use this attack a maximum of eight times per day.

Another ability of the demilich, to lay a powerful curse, is restored. Curses can be foiled by magic resistance, but not dispelled, you need Remove Curse for that. The curses (which I made up) you may see are as follows:

• Curse of Misfortunes, -5 penalty to attack rolls, damage rolls and saving throws, lasts 24 hours
• Curse of Mortal Terror, every round for the next 3 rounds save vs spell at -4 or lose 25% of hp and flee in panic for the rest of the turn, inspired by the ability of the titan Coeus from Legends & Lore, counter with RC and Remove Fear
• Curse of Foul Rotting, a deadly disease, based on the periapt of the same name, counter with RC and Cure Disease or Heal
• Curse of Internal Fire, what it says on the tin, really

Demiliches will not buff themselves with protective spells (as they didn't in the vanilla game), they already have a natural, or rather unnatural, superlative immunity to most forms of attack. Extra defensive magic which you need to strip is gilding the lily, so to speak, and always felt wrong to me. Demiliches also have fewer memorized spells than a regular lich, only two of every level, which are mostly used to remove protections so they can use their preferred attack forms of soul trapping, howling or cursing (they can howl in the same round they use a spell or curse, with a 2-5 round cooldown between howls, because it's described as "instantly unleashed" and is arguably their weakest attack).

Lastly, there is an option to increase the hp of demiliches, which is out of line with PnP, then again, the original demilich was designed before 2nd ed introduced weapon grandmastery and Improved Haste (not to mention Whirlwind Attack and Improved Alacrity). If you install this then you might need to get them down to ~40-50% of their hp before PW:Kill will be effective.

I was going to add some dialogue to the Watcher's Keep demilich, because it's strange for a boss type creature not to say their piece before attacking, but the fourth floor of WK already has plenty of talkative enemies and I'm not actually a good fiction writer.

A potential warning, I play tested this on the original ToB engine, I wouldn't expect it to be incompatible with EE, and the demilich script actually checks for a few EE added weapons (those which could hit it) in prioritizing targets, but I haven't tested it yet.

My pilot character (a sorcerer) was "only" lvl 23 in this duel, but it was a pretty close call as you can see, since I didn't take Spell Shield and the demilich has just stripped me of Spell Immunity.

I should also note that these demiliches use my own scripts, not SSL, I've tried not to break anything when it comes to detection, the main potential problem is that HLAs like Whirlwind and Smite share a stat with berserking on the default SCS ToBEx install, of course, if you choose the install option for berserkers not to be automatically protected from Trap the Soul then my AI won't be confused by this.

Note that Polylich should be installed after SCS but does not require any components of SCS. It has no effect on the behavior and abilities of regular liches. Incompatible with Improved Anvil.

polylich.rar

Edit, a very quick and silent update to ensure the WK demilich has the correct number of spells if you install it after, rather than instead of SCS spellcasting demiliches component.

Edited February 7, 2022 by polytope
updated

[Endarire]

@polytope
You mentioned you advised against installing this on EE but said you did something with EE scripts.  How EE compatible is this?

Thankee!

[polytope]

The demiliches do check for EE-added weapons of +4 or better enchantment (which could hit them and which they prioritize characters wielding). I don't make many assumptions about engines and aim for cross compatibility. I just haven't playtested it for EE as I don't have it installed on my device atm.

The reason for my warning is that I remember the Imprisonment opcode being bugged in previous EE versions and causing all kit bonuses to be re-applied upon rejoining the party, that's fixed by now but it's clear they've changed something about its function.

For EE players it would probably be best to install the option: "Demilich Trap the Soul bypasses magic resistance, berserk characters are immune (as in the unmodded game)"

This is the more conservative and least hacky variant, which relies on the least trickery with opcodes that I haven't fully tested between engines.

At the least, it won't cause any bugs that Imprisonment on your version of EE doesn't currently cause.

[DavidW]

I like quite a lot of this. How would you feel about me borrowing some of it for regular SCS demiliches? 

[polytope]

19 hours ago, DavidW said:

I like quite a lot of this. How would you feel about me borrowing some of it for regular SCS demiliches? 

I'd be fine with that. It will increase audience reach to have it appear in a better known mod.

My scripts probably have too many OR() conditions in the targeting blocks - it doesn't slow things down too much, because they're fought alone - mostly in identifying PCs with +4 weapons as threats, however since those are auto-detectable by stats on an SCS install the block can be pared down considerably.

Edited August 25, 2023 by polytope

[DavidW]

Cool, will take a look. (Plausibly not for the next version, which I'm keen to get out.)

[morpheus562]

Does the current version of SCS Trap the Soul change it to allow a saving throw? I'm seeing that for the first time in my current mod setup and trying to track down where that change occurred.

EDIT: A simple readthrough of the SCS notes answered my question. Yes, SCS alters Trap the Soul to save at -5.

Edited August 25, 2023 by morpheus562

[DavidW]

It has ever since the spellcasting demiliches component was added, I think.

[polytope]

By default in SCS it's a save vs death at -5, although really seems like it should be a save vs spells or no-save as in my version.

If the demilich has a lot of magical protections, I'll concede that a save is probably necessary because you'll need a few rounds to strip it and make it vulnerable to damage.

Otherwise, it's a race against time to see how much damage your party can do the highly resistant skull as it picks off characters one by one...

[DavidW]

Narrowly on saving throw type: I think death is the right category according to AD&D 2nd edition rules: it *is* death magic; it *isn't* a spell. (Though AD&D saving throws are a bit of a mess so you could easily argue the other way.)

Broadly on creature design: it's ages since I wrote that component so I forget my original motivations, but reconstructing:

- battles turning on lots of instant-kill effects are problematic in a game when the death of Player 1 ends the game immediately

- Spell Immunity: Abjuration is a perfect counter to the vanilla Demilich's attacks (once you've saved against the original howl) and so sending in a character with SI:Abj to whittle it down gently is a pretty-much-guaranteed success strategy

- It's a bit dislocating that Kangaxx goes from a lich with zillions of spells to a demilich with no spells at all.

- From a lore point of view, the demilich is supposed to be an ancient end-state evolution of the lich, which explains why it's lost its spellcasting and just chills out in a tomb. But Kangaxx was casting spells fifteen seconds ago! He acts a lot more like an *awakened* demilich, albeit that's not a concept (I think) introduced until 3rd edition D&D. (EDIT: turns out it's not D&D at all, it's Pathfinder.)

(The latter two reasons, to be fair, don't really apply to the Watcher's Keep demilich, which is a more classic version.)

But I am inclined to think that SCS goes too far towards making demiliches just like ordinary liches (which you fight a lot of in BG2), which is why I'm interested in the ideas in your version.

[polytope]

15 hours ago, DavidW said:

- Spell Immunity: Abjuration is a perfect counter to the vanilla Demilich's attacks (once you've saved against the original howl) and so sending in a character with SI:Abj to whittle it down gently is a pretty-much-guaranteed success strategy

My version is capable of dealing with spell protections, but not a Protection from Magic scroll unless the separate SCS component to make that removable by Spellstrike is included (I feel that the scroll duration is the main issue, it's far longer than in PnP).

Much like with dragons, which do need a means of stripping characters who are protected from their breath and physical attacks, so some degree of access to actual magic is needed, but the battle should still revolve around those uniquely Draconic (or in this case spooky undead) threats. I wouldn't even mind seeing (some) dragons get "Lair actions" - based upon their color type - as in 5th ed, to get around the usual 1 spell equivalent action per round limit that lets the party get ahead of them.

[polytope]

PSA: I no longer recommend using this mod with the latest SCS since I produced it because of a bug in a previous version and it's not current, also I've been made aware by PM of a problem in the item assignment (which I never saw in game but it's still there and needs to be fixed). I'll test future versions if any in conjunction with SCS and Talents of Faerun.