Good lich

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, a lich is a type of undead creature.

A lich was once a powerful wizard who has prolonged his life beyond its natural span. He becomes undead by using powerful evil magic, dark rituals, or ceremonies. (These spells and rituals are undocumented in the game itself, as they are simply a plot device for explaining the existence of the lich.) The prospective lich creates a special item, called a phylactery or lich's phylactery that houses the lich's lifeforce. It is usually little more than a hard iron box containing components created during the spell or ritual, but is often other small items such as rings or amulets. The lich, now undead and immortal, will hide, protect and/or trap his phylactery. Unless the phylactery is destroyed the lich lives on forever and, even if temporarily slain, will return to existence after only a few days. (Where the lich goes during this state of non-existence is also undocumented, although it is thought the liches soul is within the phylactery.) Liches are typically evil and go on living, performing evil deeds and gaining in power. Unlike vampires, liches have no need to feed on the living. Unlike zombies or other forms of undead they retain their extensive intelligence, thus making them formidable game adversaries.

The good lich is presented in Monster Compendium: Monsters of Faerûn, a supplementary rule book for the D&D 3rd edition rules. Good liches differ from evil liches in that they have sought undeath for a noble cause, to protect a place, a loved one, or to pursue an important quest. In a typical D&D campaign, liches are evil, power-hungry arcane or divine spell casters (of at least 11th level and typically wizards, sorcerers, or clerics) who have, as noted, cheated death by turning themselves into undead. The D&D version 3.5 Monster Manual, a core D&D rule book, emphatically states that liches are always evil. However, good liches are an anomaly amongst the other liches in D&D, given the fact that they are considered of good alignment.

Aside from the alignment (D&D's measuring stick of whether a character or monster is good or bad), there is little difference between good liches and evil liches. They have much the same abilities and characteristics, although a few have additional abilities. Good liches, for example, do not exude the aura of fear evil liches do, and clerics (i.e. priests) interact with them differently.

Varieties of good liches
The AD&D Spelljammer accessory Lost Ships also introduced the good archlich, who is able to memorize spells through intuitive nature and does not need spellbooks. The archlich also does not become a demilich but remains in its form for eternity. In the Forgotten Realms, arch-liches are liches from mortals who were divine casters of good alignment. Baelnorns are ancient elven liches who head noble families and aid communities through sage advice. While there are some records of good liches, they are extremely rare, and evil liches are far more prevalent. The abilities of good liches are somewhat diminished as well.

The fourth edition book Arcane Power included the epic destiny archlich, which is intended for good, lawful good, or unaligned heroes.