RA 726 Lich Lords Review

Lich Lords is an adventure from Mayfair Games written by Lynn Sellers. It was published in 1985. It is part of their “Role Aids” series of adventures and products. This is the first of the Mayfair Games adventures that I have reviewed. These are written a bit differently that the TSR adventures or the Judges Guild ones. It takes a little getting used to when you read through it the first time. It is written for use with Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. It does not specify which edition. My guess would be second given that it came out in that time frame. But it could easily be used with either.

This is a high level adventure. You could probably figure that out just by reading the name. But given that there are five Lich in this adventure….you might want to consider this before putting your players through this adventure. It states that it is for characters of 12th to 16th levels of experience. This is probably an accurate range. How difficult this adventure becomes depends greatly upon how quickly the adventurers get to the villains and face them. The more time it takes the stronger these villains become. For this reason it might be advisable to use the pre-generated characters provided with the adventure.

The general story line is this: ages ago five wizards were given golden crowns by the gods and nearly became gods themselves. The gods feared that they had made these wizards too powerful and then chose to destroy them. But the city that these wizards lived in survived. It was badly damaged. But the wizard kings recovered over the years and now have possession of their crowns again. They are becoming more powerful by the day. And soon they will be back to full strength again. The adventurers are summoned by the king and sent on a mission to destroy these Wizard Kings and their crowns so that the land can return to peace again.

What I like about Lich Lords

This adventure comes with a few creative ideas. The Lich getting more powerful over time is an interesting twist. Five Lich is scary. But five weakened ones isn’t nearly so. There are a few new rules provided (optional) that might make this adventure more interesting. These new rules cover the use of wishes. Naturally these Lich all have access to wishes. And they would use them for their own defense. The module offers some suggestions of specific wishes and the outcomes of them.

The adventure involves an ancient city. Basically it is a city of the dead. Naturally these Lich are the leaders of this place. And each of the Lich controls a different part of the city.

To succeed the adventurers need to play the Lich off of each other. As powerful wizards these guys all have huge egos. And rivalries. They will aid those who might make their own positions better. And this is their weakness which can be exploited. One who just goes crashing in and expects to kill all five without help will likely be rolling up new characters shortly afterwards.

Each of these Lich have different defensive setups. They have chosen different wishes to defend themselves. They have contingency spells set up to protect them. And each is still recovering power after regaining their crowns. Each has a unique spell list and will use these spells differently than the other Lich.

The adventure shows two versions of each Lich. One is the before the deadline version and the other is the fully recovered version. The players who get to the city quickly can meet the weakened versions of the Lich. Those who waste time will find them fully recovered.

Time is a critical factor in this adventure. To win…one must get to the city quickly and them go to work. Keeping track of time is essential. Providing the adventurers with side quests and delaying tactics is part of the job of the DM in this one.

There are parts of this adventure that are wilderness. And other parts are in a city. It is an old ruined city. So it is more or less just a dungeon. Parts of the wilderness adventure offer some key weapons that the adventurers might need in order to defeat these Lich.

Normally I am not a big fan of “read aloud” text. This is the boxed test that some adventures have for the DM to read to the players. In this case, however, the read aloud text is short and to the point. And it is not stilted language that no one would ever choose to use. In this adventure it should work just fine.

What I do not like about Lich Lords

The story line itself leaves a bit to be desired. Why do the adventurers choose to take this mission in the first place. What, exactly, is their motivation. If your players are anything like mine they are going to be asking exactly that. Why would I want to go up against five Lich. What is in it for me?

Five powerful Lich could easily make this a total party kill. It will be challenging….to say the least.

Would I recommend this adventure to others?

If your players have characters in the right level range for this adventure then I would recommend this one. It is a high level adventure. It will be challenging. You might want to consider using the pre-gens….if your players are really attached to those characters. And by the time characters are that high in level most people are really attached to them. But if you cannot find challenges for such characters then even the players will be thrilled to have one for a change.

Would I run this adventure with my own players?

I might. But I would probably use the pre-gens. Or I would wait until the characters are so high in level that they are getting bored with what I am putting in front of them on a regular basis. Groups do get like that. I have had a couple that have gotten to that point. When your characters start getting into the 12-14 level range there is not that much in the game that is really dangerous to them any more. Instead of one beholder to challenge them you might need six or seven. You can always throw more monsters at them but even that gets boring after a while. This adventure has some creative ideas on how to make these Lich more challenging. I think it would be interesting enough to run and I think my players would enjoy it.

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