Lenard Lakofka Has Passed Away

Lenard Lakofka, one of the earliest contributors to Dungeons & Dragons who helped playtest and edit the game, and is responsible for some of its iconic adventures, spells and creatures, not to mention his many contributions to the long-running Dragon magazine, has unfortunately passed away on October 23, 2020.

Lenard’s Wikipedia article offers a quick recap of his involvement with Dungeons & Dragons, while this Reddit thread directs us to a quick interview with the man and an article highlighting some of his spells. Moreover, if you’d like to celebrate Lenard’s legacy, there’s a great comment in that thread that explains how he was integral to shaping our understanding of what a Lich is.

Here’s a quick excerpt, but there’s plenty more there:

The next time I was able to find published rules about Liches was in Len Lakofka’s article in Dragon #26 Blueprint for a Lich in 1979. In this article Len outlines the process by which, as part of becoming a Lich, a spellcaster seals away their soul within a specially prepared magic box;

Preparation for Lichdom occurs while the figure is still alive and must be completed before his first “death.” If he dies somewhere along the line and is resurrected, then he must start all over again. The lich needs these spells. Magic Jar, Trap the Soul, and Enchant an Item, plus a special potion and something to “jar” into.
The item into which the lich will “jar” is prepared by having Enchant an Item cast upon it. The item cannot be of the common variety, but must be of high quality, solid, and of at least 2,000 g.p. in value. The item must make a saving throw as if it were the person casting the spell. (A cleric would have to have the spell Enchant an Item and Magic Jar thrown for him and it is the contracted magic user’s level that would be used for the saving throw.) The item can contain prior magics, but wooden items are not acceptable

Len’s article also includes rules by which the Lich returns to its magic jar following death and how it can regain its form. As an added point of interest, under Len’s rules the Lich loses a level with every death and if brought below 10th level is unable to reform from its soul jar. Nowhere in the article is this spooky soul jar referred to as a phylactery, the combination of the soul jar and the phylactery would come later.