A firelich resembles a comet of yellow, orange, and red flames. The "head" of the comet has a skull-like face with a mouth that appears locked in a perpetual scream. The "head" measures 6' in diameter, with a fiery tail 18' long trailing behind it. It has no limbs.

    Combat: Unlike its groundling brethren, a firelich goes out of its way to find confrontation. Its blazing eyes always seek spelljamming ships, in the same way that a person on fire would look for water or a blanket. The firelich attacks by plunging headlong into the ship in a screaming dive, in the insane attempt to extinguish itself. Once it learns it cannot permanently snuff out its eternal torment it flies away, screaming out in anguish towards its next target. Although it is a lich, the firelich cannot cast spells known in its previous existence. It has no limbs for the somatic components of a spell, and it cannot mouth words for the verbal portion.

    Burn (Ex): Those hit by a firelich's slam attack must succeed at a Reflex save (DC 20) or catch fire. The flame burns for 1d4 rounds (see Catching on Fire, page 86 in the Dungeon Master's Guide). A burning creature can take a move-equivalent action to put out the flame.
    Any creature hitting a firelich with natural weapons or unarmed attacks takes fire damage as though hit by the firelich's attack, and also catches fire unless they succeed at a Reflex save.

    Charge (Ex): The firelich only attacks using a charge maneuver. Additionally, it deals double damage when charging. This maneuver and its effects are not calculated in the totals above.

    Explode (Su): When a ship's hull is not perforated by a firelich's slam attack, it self-destructs at the point of impact into a ball of fire. Treat this ability as a delayed blast fireball cast by a sorcerer whose level equals the firelich's hit dice total. On the round after the explosion, the firelich's life-force recreates its comet-like body outside the ship, and the entity flees frantically through space, screaming in renewed frustration.

    Fear Aura (Su): The firelich continuously exudes a potent fear effect out to a radius of 60 feet. All affected must make Will saves (DC 22) or be affected as if under a fear spell cast by a sorcerer whose level equal's the firelich's hit dice. Those who make their saving throw are merely panicked and suffer a –2 morale penalty to attack, damage, and saving throw rolls for the duration of the encounter.

    Fiery Trail (Su): At any time when the firelich successfully perforates a ship or it flies within 20 feet of flammable material (ship's rigging, etc.) it leaves behind it a path of fire. Treat this as a wall of fire cast by a sorcerer whose level equals the firelich's hit dice.

    Fire Subtype (Ex): Fire Immunity, double damage from cold except on a successful save.

    Perforate (Ex): If the firelich successfully executes a charge attack and deals enough damage to destroy a hull section (see Player's Handbook Tables 8-12 and 8-15 for details), it immediately continues its charge action (provided it has movement left) and makes a second attack roll at the same bonus to hit versus the other side of the ship's hull. It may continue to make charge attacks versus hull walls until it either strikes an object it does not destroy (and subsequently explodes as above) or it has flown its maximum flight speed for the round.

    Undead: Fireliches are immune to poison, sleep, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, and necromantic effects, and they ignore mind-influencing effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects). They are not subject to critical hits, subdual damage, ability damage, ability drain, or energy drain. They have no Constitution scores and are therefore immune to anything requiring a Fortitude save (unless the affect effects objects). Undead creatures are not at risk of death from massive damage, but when reduced to 0 hit points or less, they are immediately destroyed. Fireliches have darkvision with a range of 60 feet.

In The Spheres
    Firelichs are high-level evil spellcasters whose bodies were prepared for lichdom upon their death. Such casters exploded in the phlogiston either through ignorance (such as in casting fire spells) or spell failure. The lich-preparation spells in their bodies turned them into living fireballs of undeath, racing through wildspace (how they got from the phlowgiston to wildspace is unknown), screaming in eternal pain and looking for something to collide with, as a way to extinguish the flames. A few observers have managed to coax a few fireliches to reveal their identities.

*Improved Sunder and Power Attack are two feats described in the Sword & Fist guidebook.

Firelich, SPELLJAMMER, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, AD&D, the D&D logo, the AD&D logo, the d20 System logo and d20 are trademarks owned by Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., and are used with permission. All titles, and all proper nouns, including character names, locations, and named items are considered Product Identity per Section 1 of the Open Game License v1.0a and are exclusively owned by Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
©2002 Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

Compliance of Conversion Policy, Open Game License and the d20 System Trademark License:
Use of WIZARDS OF THE COAST® Product Identity including proper names and product titles is hereby permitted exclusively via this ESD Conversion Agreement. A current version of this policy can be obtained at: http://www.wizards.com/d20/conversionpolicy.asp

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Firelich, © 1991 Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
d20™ System, Conversion of Firelich ©2002, Ron Pollard
Image by Ron Pollard
Original Source: Monstrous Compendium #9

    Notes on this Conversion: This conversion was one I though of doing for Troy, but didn't commit to it. This creature is nasty to say the least and should cause multiple hull breaches in most vessels, except adamantite hulls (and even then it can on a good roll provided the ship doesn't have a reinforced thickened structure). Versus beings this creature isn't nearly as nasty – it is meant as a “tac-nuke” versus ships. By the time the PCs can react to this critter's attack, it is gone (one way or the other) and the party should be trying to franticly extinguish their ship and perform damage control, not get revenge. Enjoy.