Dracolich

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* 2e

More than a powerful form of undead, a **dracolich** was a dragon who had voluntarily tied its soul to a phylactery, freeing itself from death. A type of lich, the creature's spirit could possess any dead reptilian body, usually their original form, and retained all the powers and abilities of the former body. That meant a dracolich had the supernatural fear aura, spells, and breath weapon it had in life, plus the terrible might of the undead.

## History

The process of becoming a dracolich was discovered by Sammaster the Mad, a fallen Chosen of Mystra, who was inspired after re-translating *The Chronicle of Things to Come* by the prophet Maglas. He was convinced that Toril would suffer a great apocalypse and "naught will be left save shattered thrones with no rulers. But the dead dragons shall rule the world entire..." Sammaster's first success was with the great red wyrm Shargrailar the Dark in the Year of Queen's Tears, 902 DR. Since then, Sammaster and his followers, the Cult of the Dragon, created many more, preparing for the apocalypse they "know" will come."

## Powers

A dracolich had the strange ability to inhabit the body of any reptilian corpse upon death, though they were at their most powerful when inhabiting the corpse of a dragon. When killed in its corporeal body, the dracolich didn't "die". Instead, its spirit fled and hid in the phylactery, awaiting another suitable body to animate and inhabit. Like other types of lich, a dracolich was only truly annihilated when its phylactery was destroyed.

## Known Dracoliches

* Aghazstamn
* Alasklerbanbastos
* Alglaudyx
* Aurgloroasa
* Cypress
* Daurgothoth
* Dretchroyaster
* Hephaestus
* Iltharaph
* Kistarianth
* Malygris
* Melauthaur
* Pelendralaar
* Rauglothgor
* Sapphiraktar the Blue
* Saurglyce
* Shargrailar
* Urshula
* Vix'thra
* Xavarathimius

## Appendix

### Gallery

Dracolich - comics.jpgAn illusion of a dracolich in the **Advanced Dungeons & Dragons* comic.*Dracolich - Matt Wilson.jpgBy Matt WilsonDracolich - Clyde Caldwell.jpgBy Clyde CaldwellDaurgothoth - E. M. Gist.jpgBy E. M. GistNwN Dracolich.jpgA dracolich as it appears in the game editor of *Neverwinter Nights*
### Appearances

Board Games

* *Dungeon Command: Curse of Undeath*

Comics

* *Shackles of the Past*

Novels
* *Promise of the Witch-King*

Video Games

* *Neverwinter Nights*

### Further reading

* Eric L. Boyd, Eytan Bernstein (August 2006). *Dragons of Faerûn*. (Wizards of the Coast). ISBN 0-7869-3923-0.
* Ed Greenwood, Sean K. Reynolds, Skip Williams, Rob Heinsoo (June 2001). *Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 3rd edition*. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. {{#regex:310–312|%(,)(\S)%|$1 $2}}. ISBN 0-7869-1836-5.
* Dale Donovan (January 1998). *Cult of the Dragon*. (TSR, Inc). ISBN 0-7869-0709-6.
* Richard Pett and Greg A. Vaughan (June 2006). “The Ecology of the Dracolich”. In Erik Mona ed. *Dragon* #344 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), pp. {{#regex:84–90|%(,)(\S)%|$1 $2}}.

### References

1. ↑ Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford, Christopher Perkins (2014-09-30). *Monster Manual 5th edition*. Edited by Scott Fitzgerald Gray. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. {{#regex:83–84|%(,)(\S)%|$1 $2}}. ISBN 978-0786965614.
2. ↑ Mike Mearls, Stephen Schubert, James Wyatt (June 2008). *Monster Manual 4th edition*. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. {{#regex:72–73|%(,)(\S)%|$1 $2}}. ISBN 978-0-7869-4852-9.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Ed Greenwood, Sean K. Reynolds, Skip Williams, Rob Heinsoo (June 2001). *Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 3rd edition*. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. {{#regex:310–312|%(,)(\S)%|$1 $2}}. ISBN 0-7869-1836-5.
4. ↑ Andy Collins, James Wyatt, and Skip Williams (November 2003). *Draconomicon: The Book of Dragons*. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. {{#regex:148–149|%(,)(\S)%|$1 $2}}. ISBN 0-7869-2884-0.
5. ↑ Doug Stewart (June 1993). *Monstrous Manual*. (TSR, Inc), p. 61. ISBN 1-5607-6619-0.
6. ↑ Dale Donovan (January 1998). *Cult of the Dragon*. (TSR, Inc), p. 1. ISBN 0-7869-0709-6.
7. ↑ Dale Donovan (January 1998). *Cult of the Dragon*. (TSR, Inc), p. 5. ISBN 0-7869-0709-6.
8. ↑ **Warning:** edition not specified for Promise of the Witch-King

### Connections

Dragonkind
The Family of Dragons

True dragons**Metallic dragons:** Gold • Silver • Bronze • Copper • Brass • Iron • Mercury • Platinum • Steel
**Chromatic dragons:** Red • Black • Blue • Green • White • Brown • Gray • Purple • Yellow
**Gem dragons:** Amethyst • Emerald • Sapphire • Topaz • Crystal • Obsidian
**Lung dragons**: Chiang lung • Li lung • Lung wang • Pan lung • Shen lung • T'ien lung • Tun mi lung • Yu lung
**Planar dragons**: Astral • Battle • Chaos • Ethereal • Faerie • Howling • Mirage • Oceanus • Pyroclastic • Radiant • Rust • Shadow • Styx • Tarterian
**Miscellaneous dragons:** Air • Ascendant • Brainstealer • Dzalmus • Force • Mist • Prismatic • Radiant • Rattelyr • Song • Vishap

**Lesser dragons**Dragon turtle • Hellfire wyrm • Pseudodragon • Rock wyrm • Scalamagdrion • Sea wyrm • Sunwyrm • Wyvern
**Drakes:** Guard • Portal • Smoke • Vulture

**Related creatures**Abishai • Dracon • Dracosphinx • Dragonborn • Dragonkin
**Dragonbloods:** Draconic creature • Dragonborn of Bahamut • Dragonspawn • Dragonwrought kobold • Drow-dragon (shadow) • Drow-dragon (deep) • Half-dragon • Kobold • Urd • Zar'ithra • Zekyl
**Undead dragons:** **Dracolich** • Vampiric

Liches
Alhoon • Archlich • Baelnorn lich • Banelich • Demilich • **Dracolich**

de:Drachenleichname