# Lich

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Lich

A lich (not to be confused with a lichen) is a class of monster in NetHack represented by the overall symbol L.  All the liches are powerful spell-casters, and the more powerful ones have the ability to cast destroy armor, touch of death and most other spells, and teleport away when attacked; they are thus a frequent target of blessed genocide.  All liches crumble to dust when killed and therefore do not leave corpses. The two most powerful kinds can be generated with athames, useful engraving weapons that are not normally generated.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.

Zombies and liches can now raise monsters killed by them without a weapon as zombies, unless they are cancelled. The corpse will rise 5-20 turns after death if it has a corresponding zombie type. You can also do this if polymorphed into a zombie or lich. Zombies and liches will now fight (grudge) living monsters that can be turned into zombies.

Contents

1 Lich
2 Demilich
3 Master lich
4 Arch-lich
5 Strategy
6 As pets
7 Origin
8 Encyclopedia entry

Lich

L lich 

Difficulty

14

Attacks

Touch 1d10 cold, Spell-casting

L lich 

Difficulty

14

Attacks

Touch 1d10 cold, Spell-casting

Base level

11

Base experience

269

Speed

6

Base AC

0

Base MR

30

Alignment

-9 (chaotic)

Frequency (by normal means)

1 (Very rare)

Genocidable

Yes

Weight

1200

Nutritional value

100

Size

Medium

Resistances

Cold, Sleep, Poison

Resistances conveyed

Cold

A lich:

 does not breathe.

 has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso.

 regenerates HP quickly.

 is poisonous to eat.

 does not eat. (*)
 is undead.

 is normally generated hostile.

 can pick up magical items.

 has infravision.

 never leaves a corpse.

Reference

monst.c#line1514

The lich, L, is the least powerful monster of this class.  It is slower than its brethren and usually not a significant threat.  At the experience levels it is normally encountered, its complement of spells include healing itself, hasting itself, stunning you, turning invisible, draining your strength, destroying your armor, cursing your items and aggravating monsters (awakening monsters on the level and drawing them to you). It is possible for a lich to be generated with a high enough level (16) to cast summon nasties; however, this will not happen in the Castle unless you reach it at a much higher experience level than normal.

Demilich

L demilich 

Difficulty

18

Attacks

Touch 3d4 cold, Spell-casting

L demilich 

Difficulty

18

Attacks

Touch 3d4 cold, Spell-casting

Base level

14

Base experience

378

Speed

9

Base AC

-2

Base MR

60

Alignment

-12 (chaotic)

Frequency (by normal means)

1 (Very rare)

Genocidable

Yes

Weight

1200

Nutritional value

100

Size

Medium

Resistances

Cold, Sleep, Poison

Resistances conveyed

Cold

A demilich:

 does not breathe.

 has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso.

 regenerates HP quickly.

 is poisonous to eat.

 does not eat. (*)
 is undead.

 is normally generated hostile.

 can pick up magical items.

 has infravision.

 never leaves a corpse.

Reference

monst.c#line1520

In addition to the spells the normal lich can cast, the demilich, L, can often cast summon nasties; if you encounter one at the Castle, it is certain that it can cast this spell. It is possible for a demilich to be generated at a high enough level (21) to cast touch of death; however, this is almost impossible before reaching Gehennom.

Master lich

L master lich 

Difficulty

21

Attacks

Touch 3d6 cold, spell-casting

L master lich 

Difficulty

21

Attacks

Touch 3d6 cold, spell-casting

Base level

17

Base experience

494

Speed

9

Base AC

-4

Base MR

90

Alignment

-15 (chaotic)

Frequency (by normal means)

1 (Very rare)

Genocidable

Yes

Weight

1200

Nutritional value

100

Size

Medium

Resistances

Cold, Sleep, Poison, Fire

Resistances conveyed

Cold

A master lich:

 does not breathe.

 has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso.

 regenerates HP quickly.

 is poisonous to eat.

 does not eat. (*)
 is undead.

 is normally generated hostile.

 can pick up magical items.

 wants the Book of the Dead.
 has infravision.

 appears only in Gehennom.

 never leaves a corpse.

Reference

monst.c#line1527

Master liches and arch-liches (usually referred to as "the purple L") can warp to the player, then to the upstairs to heal and back again, like a demon lord/prince. This form of movement is unaffected by no-teleport levels. While master liches at their base level cannot cast touch of death, if your experience level and/or dungeon level is high enough, they will be generated with the ability to cast that spell. Master liches are generated with a 7% chance of either an athame (86% chance) or a wand of nothing, but no random offensive items.

Arch-lich

L arch-lich 

Difficulty

29

Attacks

Touch 5d6 cold, Spell-casting

L arch-lich 

Difficulty

29

Attacks

Touch 5d6 cold, Spell-casting

Base level

25

Base experience

915

Speed

9

Base AC

-6

Base MR

90

Alignment

-15 (chaotic)

Frequency (by normal means)

1 (Very rare)

Genocidable

Yes

Weight

1200

Nutritional value

100

Size

Medium

Resistances

Fire, Cold, Sleep, Shock, Poison

Resistances conveyed

Fire, Cold

An arch-lich:

 does not breathe.

 has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso.

 regenerates HP quickly.

 is poisonous to eat.

 does not eat. (*)
 is undead.

 is normally generated hostile.

 can pick up magical items.

 wants the Book of the Dead.
 has infravision.

 appears only in Gehennom.

 never leaves a corpse.

Reference

monst.c#line1536

The arch-lich, L, is the most powerful form of lich.  In fact, it has the highest difficulty of all randomly generated monsters.  Next to the Wizard of Yendor, it is one of the most powerful spell-casting monsters in the game.  In addition to the spells its weaker brethren can cast, it is guaranteed to be able to cast touch of death, bringing instadeath to the unprepared.
Arch-liches have a 33% chance of getting either an athame (66%) or a non-negatively enchanted quarterstaff. There is a very small (1/260) chance the athame is Magicbane.
If you teleport, a pet arch-lich will warp to your new location.  They will pick up and wear armor, but not wield weapons.  You do not need to feed it.

Strategy
|&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;223iii&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;i&nbsp;ii&nbsp;1322|&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;------------3|&nbsp;&nbsp;2&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;..L@...&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;||------------------&nbsp;||&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;%&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;||^---------------&nbsp;|)|An arch-lich in action.
Since the more powerful liches are covetous (warping back and forth from the up stairs), the general strategy for dealing with covetous monsters applies here. If you have teleport control, you can teleport to the up stairs before it does.
Liches can be prevented from warping by wielding a potion of paralysis, and hitting them with it while wearing a ring of free action. This should provide enough time to be able to dispose of them while they are paralyzed.
The best way to deal with a lich is to wield Magicbane to prevent the lich from cursing your inventory and make you resistant to the touch of death. Another way is to use Elbereth or a scroll of scare monster to prevent the lich from touching you. These strategies will still leave you potentially open to attacks from the nasties that the liches summon. However, summoning is not always bad. A strong character wielding Magicbane might allow liches to continuously summon nasties to kill for gear, exp, or a full-on extinction run.
Because the three lower lich types don't resist shock damage, Mjollnir is an excellent weapon to deal with them. If Mjollnir is not available, the Fire Brand will work on them as well. Arch-liches resist most elements, so there is no quick way to take them down, except by hitting them with a cockatrice or chickatrice corpse (don't forget to wear gloves), which will turn them to stone immediately. All liches can also be disintegrated by black dragon breath or digested by a purple worm.
All types of lich are undead and can be pacified by reading the blessed Book of the Dead. If you're chaotic, the lower two ranks can also be tamed this way.

As pets
Liches can make acceptable pets, but have their disadvantages. They are essentially useless against cold resistant monsters and are dangerous to abandon. The stronger versions will also always stay next to the player, which is useful if you don't have a magic whistle but also can be a nuisance by them getting in the way, and makes it difficult to stop them from killing aligned priests and shopkeepers. Master liches and arch-liches cannot be tamed directly due to their covetous nature, but it's possible to polymorph another pet into one, or to tame a lich or demilich and have it grow up.

Origin
Liches are powerful spellcasters, often magicians or kings, who seek to defy death by magical means. They are depicted as being clearly cadaverous, bodies desiccated or completely skeletal, with glowing lights in place of their eyes.
Lich means "corpse" or "body" in several Germanic languages (compare e.g. Dutch lichaam and German Leiche), and survives in Modern English in the word "lichgate" (or "lych-gate", etc.), a covered entranceway to a churchyard. Nothing to do with "leech".

Encyclopedia entry

But on its heels ere the sunset faded, there came a second apparition, striding with incredible strides and halting when it loomed almost upon me in the red twilight-the monstrous mummy of some ancient king still crowned with untarnished gold but turning to my gaze a visage that more than time or the worm had wasted. Broken swathings flapped about the skeleton legs, and above the crown that was set with sapphires and orange rubies, a black something swayed and nodded horribly; but, for an instant, I did not dream what it was.  Then, in its middle, two oblique and scarlet eyes opened and glowed like hellish coals, and two ophidian fangs glittered in an ape-like mouth.  A squat, furless, shapeless head on a neck of disproportionate extent leaned unspeakably down and whispered in the mummy's ear. Then, with one stride, the titanic lich took half the distance between us, and from out the folds of the tattered sere-cloth a gaunt arm arose, and fleshless, taloned fingers laden with glowering gems, reached out and fumbled for my throat . . .

[ The Abominations of Yondo, Clark Ashton Smith, 1926 ] 