Lich Statbock 5e vs. 5.5e / 2025 Monster Manual

Great old school deep dive into the lich here: https://dumpstatadventures.com/blog/deep-dive-the-lich

Referencing the Old 5e Lich stats: https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/16943-lich

Sly Flourish / Lazy DM / Lazy RPG show at this time, shows new Lich 5.5e AKA 2025 Monster Manual stats: https://youtu.be/m48Vc0fLq7M?list=LL&t=1804

5e

5.5e AKA Monster Manual 2025 Lich

• CR stayed same, but the lich was probably way too weak in 5e (likely even more so due to all the extra newer book power creep bloat stuff). 
• Interesting... basic lich in 3.5e was only CR12 ... only cast up to level 6 spells. Very different. 
• HP went from 135 to 315. Waaay more than double...  double plus 35 HP. 
• Multi-attack = 3 attacks. 5.5e has a new "simple base dmg", Eldrich Burst, 3 att at 31 each so does 93 dmg force dmg per round if all of it hits. Wow, nice. 
• Eldrich Burst: Melee OR ranged attack roll, +12, reach 5ft melee or 120ft ranged. Hit: 31 (4d12+5) force dmg. 
• can be mixed in, 1, 2, or up to all 3 multiattacks. 
• Paralyzing touch Melee att roll +12, reach 5 ft., Hit: 15 or 3d6+5 Cold dmg, and target is paralyzed till start of Lich's next turn. 
• can be mixed in, 1, 2, or up to all 3 multiattacks. 
• Old Paral.touch in 5e only did 10 dmg, and only once per round, and had a DC save on paralyz. 
• 5.5e, they list way less spells, DC went up from 19 to DC 20 though. 
• but then give infinite/At Will level 5 Fireball and Level 5 Lightning bolt. Nothing to sneeze at. 
• 1 cast each of some hard hitters, like Chain Lightning, Finger of Death, Power Word Kill... and Scrying only once (man, ppl are so on fire about Scrying... weirds me out still, how are they playing this game?)
• Shield or Dispel magic as a reaction, infinite times per day. 
• Inviz, mage hand, prestidig., detect thoughts, Counterspell ---> At will/ infinite casts.
• (why does dispel only have 1 "L"... m-w says Middle English, from Latin dispellere, from dis- + pellere to drive, beat — more at felt)
• Legendary Actions (3, or 4 in lair)
• Frightening Gaze = Fear (spell) by gazing at opponent. Once per turn. 
• Deathly teleport - 60 ft away (sight needed) does dmg 10 ft from where left (11 or 2d10). Can do it over and over per turn. 
• Disrupt Life - Con save DC 20; 20 ft radius from lich emanation, fail: 31 or 9d6, save half. Once per turn. 
• Old 5e could only Disrupt Life as a legendary action once per round, now it's 3 or 4 times per round!
• Renamed Phylactery to Sprit Jar, so don't get lost there. They must be learning from all the annoying software companies that rename their software 10 times a year b/c you know... we like to spend our energy and time relearning their stupid software names... so annoying. 

So I definitely would add back in all the extra spells from 5e or 3.5e to the Lich, even if he might not use them much. Can use them for a "cut scene" type thing. 

Missing spells from 5e are:

1. Cloudkill
2. Blight
3. distenegrate
4. Globe of invul
5. Power word stun
6. Dominate Monster(?)