Hollowcrown Lich
- Monster
- undead
- CR 13
- Ruin
- Dungeon
- Crypt
Appears in: Undead, Boss Fights, Wilderness and Survival, Underground and Caverns
Hollowcrown Lich
AC 17 / HP 135 (18d8 + 54) / CR 13
- STR
- 11
- DEX
- 16
- CON
- 16
- INT
- 20
- WIS
- 14
- CHA
- 16
Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the lich fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
Rejuvenation. If it has a soul orb (its phylactery), a destroyed lich gains a new body in 1d10 days, regaining all its hit points and becoming active again. The new body appears within 5 feet of the soul orb.
Turn Resistance. The lich has advantage on saving throws against any effect that turns undead.
Deathfire Bolt. Ranged Spell Attack: +10 to hit, range 120 ft., one target. Hit: 24 (4d8 + 6) necrotic damage, and the target cannot regain hit points until the end of its next turn.
Withering Touch. Melee Spell Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d8 + 5) necrotic damage.
Soul Drain (Recharge 5-6). The lich targets one creature it can see within 60 feet. The target must make a DC 18 Constitution saving throw, taking 36 (8d8) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. The lich regains hit points equal to the damage dealt.
Raise the Fallen (1/Day). The lich raises 1d4 + 2 skeletons from corpses or graves within 60 feet (use the Skeleton stat block). They obey the lich's commands and act on its initiative.
How to run Hollowcrown Lich
Hollowcrown Lich is a cr 13 undead for D&D 5e & 2024. Drop it into any ruin scene; the statblock above is free to add to your compendium in the app, and the one-shot below gives you somewhere to run it.
Where it begins
- 1
Every grave in the valley cemetery was dug open from the inside in a single night.
- 2
A returning patrol found their fallen comrades standing in formation with green fire in their eye sockets, blocking the mountain pass.
- 3
A scholar who copied an old funerary inscription aged forty years overnight and now whispers the same two words in her sleep.
Crown of the Dead
The dead are rising along the old road, marching toward a ruined keep where a hooded sorcerer sits enthroned. The party must cut through the lich's risen ranks, find the soul orb that keeps it from dying, and end the thing wearing the crown of bone.
The Marching Dead
The road ahead is packed with corpses that walk, hundreds of them, shuffling toward a black keep on the ridge. Green light pulses behind its broken windows in time with a low droning hum. The nearest bodies turn their burning eyes toward you as one.
The party cannot fight every corpse, so frame this as a problem of routing and timing. They can slip through gaps in the procession, draw the dead off with noise or fire, or follow the column straight to its source. Survivors hiding in roadside farms can describe when the marching started and which direction the green light first appeared, pointing the party toward the keep.
