Lich (Final Fantasy)

Lich is the Fiend of Earth from the original Final Fantasy. He appears at the bottom of the Cavern of Earth. He is undead with the appearance of a skeleton.

Story
As the Earth-elemental Fiend, he drains the power of the Earth Crystal rotting the soil in Melmond. He was the third fiend to awaken, doing so shortly before the Warriors of Light set out to their quest. When the Warriors arrive at Melmond they find the earth rotting and people dying. They learn a vampire is blamed for this and travel into the nearby Cavern of Earth to defeat it, but upon returning to the town they see the earth is still decaying.

Using the Star Ruby found in the cavern to gain passage through the Giant's Cave, they travel to the Sage's Cave where they are told by Sadda that the vampire was only working for a greater force: Lich. The Warriors return to the Cavern of Earth where they find the Earth Crystal. After confronting Lich, the party prevails. The Earth Crystal shines again, and the land stops rotting.

Later, the Warriors fight a younger version of the Lich in the Chaos Shrine 2000 years in the past. They defeat him once more, preventing him from journeying to the future and causing the earth to rot in the first place.

First Battle
Lich is a difficult boss, the hardest boss faced at that point in the game. As an undead enemy, he is weak to Dia and Fire. Mere physical attacks are not too effective; if one uses physical attacks, they should be augmented with Temper.

Lich is a proficient user of elemental spells and can complement his physical prowess with Haste, as well as hinder the party with Sleep.

Second Battle
Even though Lich was defeated, when the Warriors of Light travel through time they must fight the Lich of the past. The "Lich Room" in Chaos Shrine contains many of the monsters from the Cavern of Earth and the stairway to the next floor is guarded by the past Lich, a fixed encounter which can be triggered many times by walking through the same spots.

This time he has more HP and an expanded spell list, including Death and Flare. The same tactics from the previous battle work, with the Firaga and Diaga spells effective against the still undead fiend. Even physical attacks can prove to be a help against Lich, by augmenting physical attacks with Haste, Temper and Saber.

Trivia

 * Lich is the only Chaos Fiend who does not talk to the party before fighting them. The same occurs when it reappears in Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. In the remakes the Lich does talk to the party.
 * The Lich makes a major appearance in the Final Fantasy parody webcomic 8-Bit Theater, where he is one of the Four Fiends, and guards the Earth Orb from the Light Warriors.
 * Due to a bug in the PSP version, if the game crashes while in the Lich fight, more Liches may spawn. This may also happen if Final Fantasy is closed during the Lich fight. This can cause problems with leaving the cave.

Related Enemies

 * Vampire
 * Marilith
 * Kraken
 * Tiamat

Todbringer (FFI) Lich (Final Fantasy)