Dracolich

A dracolich usually looks much as it did when it was a living evil or neutral dragon, except that its eyes have become pinpricks of light hovering deep in dark sockets. Some are skeletal or half-rotted. Its mind, memories, spells and breath weapon all survive the change. Each spell can be cast once per day, and it can breathe once every three rounds.

Its senses match its living form, with two additions: it perceives invisible creatures and objects, including those hidden by fog or darkness, out to 10 feet per age category, and inside its lair it has natural clairaudience to 20 feet per age category.

The list of things that cannot touch a dracolich is long: charm, sleep, enfeeblement, polymorph, hold, insanity, death spells and symbols, cold of any kind and electricity. Poison, paralysis and priestly turning all fail against it. It keeps its old magic resistance, but it can be hurt only by magic cast by a wizard of at least 6th level or by a monster with 6+ Hit Dice. Its Armor Class is 2 points better than in life (AC -1 becomes -3), and attackers get no bonuses to hit or damage against it.

Morale starts where the living dragon's did. After its first victory over foes whose combined Hit Dice equal or exceed its own (16 HD of enemies for a 16 HD dracolich), it becomes permanently Fearless (19) and immune to magical fear.

Its fear aura is stronger than a dragon's, imposing an extra -1 on the save vs. spell. Its burning gaze paralyzes creatures within 40 yards that fail a save; those of 6th level or 6 HD and up get +3, and anyone who resists once can never be paralyzed by that particular dracolich.

Every claw, bite and other physical blow deals the original dragon's damage plus 2d8 chill damage, and the target must save vs. paralyzation or be held for 2d6 rounds. Cold immunity stops the chill but not the paralysis. A dracolich does not drain levels. It tends to fight as it did in life; a former green dragon tears into weak prey but stalks stronger foes, waiting to strike with breath and spells.

Once every three days it may seize control of undead within 60 yards, as a potion of undead control, with a -3 penalty to their saves. Control lasts one turn, during which the dracolich cannot cast spells, and ending it early does not reset the three-day wait.

Creating one is usually a partnership between an evil dragon (ideally an old or older spellcaster) and wizards or priests, most infamously a dragon-worshiping cult, though strong casters sometimes force an unwilling dragon through the process. Priests still need a wizard for parts of the ritual, and the chromatic dragon goddess's church is working to change that.

First the wizard prepares a host: a solid, decay-proof item worth at least 2,000 gp, never wood. Gems are usual, favorites being jet, morion (smoky quartz), ruby, citrine, pearl, moonbar, epidote, carbuncle, chrysocolla and chalcedony, and are often set in a weapon hilt. Casting enchant an item while naming the dragon readies it, though the item saves vs. spell as an 11th-level wizard and must be replaced if it succeeds. Glassteel may then protect it.

Next the dragon drinks a potion of exactly seven ingredients, among them vampire blood, a potion of invulnerability and a potion of evil dragon control; a percentile roll decides the outcome. On success the spirit flies to the host at any distance and rests there as a faint glow, unable to act and immune to contact or attack, for as long as needed.

Next the host is carried to within 90 feet of a reptile corpse dead no more than 30 days, ideally the dragon's own; a living body can never be taken. The wizard touches the host, casts magic jar while naming the dragon, then touches the corpse, which must fail a save vs. spell (with modifiers) or reject that spirit forever. Its own body rises as a dracolich at once, but regains voice and breath only after seven days, so spells with verbal components wait too.

Any other body becomes a proto-dracolich: dracolich hit points and immunities and its old mind, but the borrowed body's Strength, movement and AC, and none of the speech, spells, breath, chill, gaze, fear or undead control. It senses its true body anywhere on the same plane and hunts it obsessively. Eating 10% of that body, even as ashes or fragments, completes the change seven days later. Only disintegrate truly destroys the original, and a wish on the same plane can restore it. A proto-dracolich that can never feed stays as it is until slain.

Slain, a dracolich's spirit returns to its host and later possessions need no wizard, since magic jar is only required the first time. With no corpse in range, it waits trapped. Power word, kill or similar magic ends it outright, as does smashing the host while the spirit is inside with no body nearby. A host destroyed while the dracolich is active leaves it unable to possess again. A spirit with neither body nor host is thought to sink to the lower planes.

In return for honors, help and steady gifts of treasure, the dracolich defends its makers and aids their plots. It lairs alone, but always within a few miles of them or one of their safe houses, in the same terrain its living kind prefers. It favors darkness: night, dim woods, underground mazes. It keeps aging and gaining power like any dragon.

A dracolich never feels hunger but must eat to recharge its breath, preferring its old diet; a former red dragon still wants fresh meat. When destroyed, its body rots within hours into a reeking powder that skilled wizards grind into potions of undead control and related concoctions.