Striking back against a malevolent GM

Question

I have a GM in our D&D game who is being extremely problematic and toxic in our D&D game.

The last session we were in, the five of us were exploring the desert seeking out a pyramid where a dry lich was supposed to be hidden.

We came across a town in the desert that was being attacked and decided to stop in to resupply and help out the locals. Going up to the church, the GM tells me, "You feel an extremely powerful force walking towards you." and I decide to use my paladin's Detect Evil class feature to get an idea of what it is. Suddenly, I get told I'm having a nosebleed and I get stunned for a round.

No save. OKAY, that's not fair, but I decide to let it slide because he uses the round to just talk. What it basically boiled down to was the lich we were after had just gone in and killed most of the people in the temple as a warning, and now he was looking at us to see what we would do.

Naturally, I decide we shouldn't fight him because of how broken overpowered having the ability to stun and cause blood loss without saves is, and maybe we can take him later. I decide to call it a night and I leave, because honestly I don't want to lose my character to this stupid cheap stuff.

---

The GM loves to do this kind of thing. Another example was when we were doing a dungeon crawl and there was a treasure chest in a secret room. Out of nowhere it was suddenly a mimic just because I wanted to open it. The GM does this kind of stuff all the time, treating the game like normal for everyone else and then suddenly raising up the difficulty just for me. I once played a kobold in a game of his and I got killed just because I was caught stealing an apple in a human town, despite the fact that I was journeying with a group of other players.

---

I need your help in figuring out how to easily cheese this lich. I don't want to lose my character to some save or die because I know he'll cheat and either not allow a save or just fudge a roll. I can't miss another game session (I told him I had to do something last week) or I might get kicked out, and we play on Friday.

If you have any tips or advice on how I can defeat the lich without really putting myself in a position where I can get insta-killed that would be great. I have a lot of time and story developed in my Gnoll and I do not want to start over.

Answer 1

Out of game problems should be solved out of game

Talk to the DM. Seriously. Especially since you're kind of over-reacting.

The things the DM did are by the rules

Stunning on detect evil? Perfectly by the rules.

If you are of good alignment, and the strongest evil aura’s power is overwhelming , and the HD or level of the aura’s source is at least twice your character level, you are stunned for 1 round and the spell ends.

Treasure chests becoming mimics? Also perfectly fine. The rules say that you need to examine the chest closely to determine it's a mimic - and since paladins don't have Spot in-class, I can't imagine your result was particularly high.

Anyone who examines the mimic can detect the ruse with a successful Spot check opposed by the mimic’s Disguise check (1d20+13). Of course, by this time it is generally far too late.

Killing your kobold was a little harsh, but it's not a completely unreasonable response against a monster in a city.

How to handle the lich

The lich is over twice your level (Epic, if it isn't a cleric), and didn't attack you. You're clearly not meant to fight it. If you still want to perform a Good action, rush into the temple and see if you can save anyone, or at least perform burial rites.

If you have an issue with the DM throwing such a powerful antagonist NPC at you, talk to him about it out of game. Attempting to cheese his guy will result in an arms race, one that a gnoll paladin (being a very mechanically weak class-race combo) is going to lose.

Answer 2

Only one thing to do when you really don't like the GM. Don't keep playing in his game.

Answer 3

As far as I can understand it, the question is

"How do I defeat a powerful lich?"

I apologise if I am misunderstanding, but I will do my best to answer anyway.

Defeating a Lich, step one - Destroy the phylactery

A lich's phylactery is an item with arcane inscriptions that stores it's life-force. One part of the process to become a lich is to create one.

If you do not destroy the phylactery, the lich cannot be destroyed permanently. Usually, Liches do not carry this item on their person, as it would mean that it could be discovered if they were defeated in battle (and thus be unable to defend it)

A lich phylactery will often be disguised and can even be hidden in plain sight, so your party will have to do some research in order to locate it and be prepared to fight through a dungeon to find it, and break through magical means of concealment to recognise it.

Once you have found the phylactery, you can reasonably expect it to have the following stats: size Tiny, hp 40, hardness 20, break DC 40 (Libris Mortis, p151)

Note: attacking a magical item is not the only way to destroy it

Defeating a Lich, step two - Destroy the creature

Destroying the phylactery will not kill the lich. However, once the phylactery is gone it can never be replaced and the lich can then be killed normally with no fear of it returning from the dead a week later.

Liches are almost always powerful spellcasters, so the best way to disarm a lich is to have a character cast "antimagic field" before the battle. This can be cast by an 11th level cleric with the protection or magic domains, or an 11th level wizard or 12th level sorcerer.

This antimagic field will not only stop the lich from casting spells, but it will also nullify it's supernatural abilities as well.

The Abilities of a Lich

A lich has the following qualities in addition to his spellcasting:

Fear Aura - A creature with 5 HD or less must make a will save or be affected by a fear spell (note if you pass your save, you cannot be affected by this aura for 24 hours)

Paralysing Touch - Any creature that is touched by a lich is indefinitely immobilized. This can only be removed by a Remove Paralysis spell, or any spell that can remove a curse. (Important: The lich only has to beat your dodge and deflection AC to do this, your armour or shield cannot protect you from a touch attack)

Immunity - The lich is immune to the following damage types and status affects: Cold damage, Electricity damage, polymorph (unless they want to be polymorphed), mind-affecting spells and the standard undead immunities apply.

Remember that while it is a powerful spellcaster, the lich is still an undead creature, so all the weaknesses from being an undead will apply to it as well as being susceptible to any spells and special abilities that affect undead specifically (such as flame strike or searing light)

---

But most importantly of all you should take this with a pinch of salt because if your DM has it in for you then no amount of strategy or planning will help you.