As someone who has played many liches over the years in D&D, you're forgetting a very important part of D&D lichdom. Liches must feed souls into their phylacteries, usually around once a year. If they fail to do so, their minds will start to unravel and they will eventually degrade into demi liches, having lost a great deal of their power and sanity. In 5th edition, feeding souls to a phylactery requires the use of the Imprisonment spell, using the Phylactery as the material component. This is a 9th level spell and requires you to be near the phylactery. So where ever you had this thing, it would need to be accessible as-needed, at least once a year, in order to feed it a fresh soul. I once made a phylactery out of a magical weapon that had the property of ripping souls out of people below a certain health threshold if you rolled a critical hit. IIRC, less than 100 hit points, and you roll a nat 20, it just sucks the soul right out. By doing this, use of the sword would feed the phylactery automatically. I then gave it as a gift to some evil folks who ended up using it because it was a powerful weapon, and it auto-fed the lich. Wizards can also cast the demiplane spell to create their own private extradimensional space to store it in. No one is able to access your demiplane without knowing its exact nature, so it would be presumably inaccessible even if someone knew it was in one unless they'd actually been there and seen it themselves. It's a great way to keep it safe with zero risk of anyone ever encountering it or even following you to it since the most common way you'd get there is by dying and to get back, you can create a sort of extradimensional airlock by going into an empty demiplane, thoroughly scanning it for ethereal and invisible creatures after the door closes to ensure you weren't followed, then open the demiplane to the actual location. Other methods i've used was building a large war memorial statue in the center of a capital city and putting the phylactery inside around the base, and creating a coffin-sized chamber within it to reform inside of. No one knows it is there, so you can reform then teleport out as needed. The statue itself is heavily enchanted with all sorts of effects, so picking up magical auras on its surface is to be expected and well known, and because its stone, magical detection cannot penetrate deeply enough to detect the phylactery within. Although this was done as a mummy lord, using a heart rather than an actual phylactery, and mummy lords aren't restricted by the "must feed souls" caveat liches have. Although it isn't stated anywhere, I believe the reason for the distinction is that mummy lords don't actually have souls and are instead just reanimated corpses that retain their personality and intelligence. Would explain why they come back so quickly and don't have that limitation. Makes sense as well since you can only mummify a dead body while the lich ritual must be performed on the living.

Step1: Make a randome stone into your phylactery Step2: Sink it in the deepest part of the ocean Step3: Realize that you are in a fantasy setting Step4: Constantly get spawn killed by leviathans Step5: Get the leviathan low over time by curing it over and over Step6 Raise it after it finaly dies and emerge from the abyss of the seas with your new undead abomination

My phylactery would be made of wood. A sturdy branch fashioned into a wooden beam. A support beam. Placed carefully as the support beam to the local orphanage. It couldn't be removed without bringing down the orphanage. The lich would put wards on the hole building... you know for the safety of the children. And every year you pick the saddest child who needed a family and take him out for the day and take him to his new home.... inside your phylactery. Adventurers would have to be real careful to remove it without being branded as those jerks that tore down the orphanage. And its probably the most evil way to secure it.

I once ran campaign in which a lich had a his Phylactory in a spoon.

I think I would use a stone as my phylactery. A semi-precious one, like a quartz or a Tiger Eye. It would be very convenient to transport if needed as it is a small object, precious enough to not be confused by myself with any other rock in my lair, and humble enough to not drawn the attention of anyone who would be investigating my crypt. Beside, it would be easy to hide it among other similar rocks. So, if my lair get raided, it would be left untouched -as there would be far more interesting loot to take, or just circulate a bit like a coin, without the risk of being smelted, before being selled

Your phylactery? A tarrasque. Immortality achieved.

Since corpses are objects, make your phylactery out of the strongest body you can find, then reanimate it. It now has all the protection of a phylactery plus a powerful undead, and whenever youre reborn from it you instantly have a strong minion with you. Order it to flee any combat while youre not alive. Digging skeletons are especially useful for this. Alternatively, make it out of a tiny stone, then make a small undead bird and cast mask of life on it to make it look alive. Have it act like a normal bird, flitting around the forest.

What about a crown? These tend to be highly protected and guarded objects, and even touching it without permission can get you executed/imprisoned, so it may deter most people. You could possibly even enchant it sort of like Excalibur, and only "the one true king" can wear it, meaning the person you let wear it, and anyone else who tries will get cursed/repelled. On top of that you can even keep your agents close to the king/crown to give it even further protection. And in the chance of a siege or the crown getting stolen, people would think that your powerful enchantment is what is preventing them from touching or destroying it. This could give you enough time to reclaim it, and maybe hide it better or use a transmutation spell to turn it into something else? Honestly I don't follow D&D at all so I don't know the limitations of a Lich, but I like these basic ideas a bit.

A problem with a low quality coin phylactery is that low quality coins tarnish, or rust. If your coin finds its way to the back of a goblin cave for forty years before being found by adventurers, it'll be quite suspicious to find 200 rusty coins, and one in pristine condition, all in the same stack. There is also a problem of the kingdom that mints these coins eventually falling, and the money that it used now falling out of favor. Imagine a 2,000 year old lich of today using a Roman denarius as its coin phylactery. A Roman denarius is incredibly rare now, and stands out. On top of this, they are all damaged in some way, so one still in perfect condition is very suspicious.

Coins are cool but whenever they get thrown around you never know where you gonna end up. Could end up in a bank with security high enough to take down a reborn lich over and over again until they find out that one of those coins might be a phylactery I would for myself make a phylactery made out of a tooth that I would install on a random lowest minion in my ranks in their sleep, maybe just some random goblin. That way they dont know they have a magical tooth. Then I would promote them to a ranger and forbid him from returning to the lair. From that day forward whenever the heroes kill a random minion on the outskirts they probably wont think too much of it before heading to the lich's lair where the real monsters would run around. When the lich dies, they get reborn either near their ally outside of their base (Where heroes could still lurk about) or around a corpse. Either case provides a single minion to convert or team up with to rebuild your empire. Once you get a following once more, remove the tooth and install it on another minion and let the circle continue The only downside I can think of is a hero that collects teeth, but they mostly collect big, grand, sharp, impressive teeth of beasts to make cheap jewelry from. Thats why I think they wouldnt bother with a random half-rotten goblin tooth

I just had an idea for a phylactery: What if you store your soul inside one of the bricks used to construct your evil lair? Imagine how difficult it would be for a party of heroes to demolish the place, looking for the one, solitary brick that is the source of your immortality!

My idea fro a phylactery is a knife. You give the knife to a butcher; that way you’ll be feeding off the animals souls. If you have it enchanted to never dull then that would cover the magical signature.

So one of is you make a holy book( plactery)you pretend to be a cleric of a temple then forge a fake grandmasters book so when makes sacrifices to there Gods even temple of talos you can enchant the emblem of talos so when they sacrifice to there Gods they really be sacrificeing to you this can also free up your undead horde for raiding

A Phylactery has to be a container of sorts, right? Okay, I pick the underdark. Like, the whole underdark. Good luck taking that to the celestial plane for destruction.

Hands of a great clock tower. Too useful to be destroyed even if the city is taken by opposing forces. Reform where few people have reason to go.

in medieval europe it was very common for coins in circulation to be brought back and reminted, usually due to a change in the prices of gold and silver, so your coin phylactery would be found very easily, also, having your phylactery be in circulation like that sounds like an absolutely terrible idea, you have no idea where it's going to go, so it could easily end up lost in a place you couldn't easily find/get to, and finally, having your phylactery just out there changing hands makes no sense, if you die and need to re materialize, it's going to be extremely telling when a lich begins to form in the middle of some business there's a reason liches keep their phylacteries hidden in crypts, because it's objectively the best place to put it, anywhere not under your direct supervision would be insane, just have it hidden underground, in a place you can't access without teleporting, ergo only you know where it is and only you can access it

Loooooving this.

A cursed amulet. Curse it so that anyone who gets near it other than you is somehow hindered from destroying it. Bonus points if you make it a spellcasting focus.

You and the random farmer wiþ your Phylactery when you refoem in his house: ( ø_ ø) (o _o )

2 different options I've heard of was: a statue setup to commemorate a cities victory (one of the gems in the statue) and could visit it with a soul when needed, using nystul's magic aura cast until it was a permanent effect masking the artifact from prying magics. Another was a representation of a holy symbol set up in a church the lich helped found for the unwitting m eff members, was a part of a large fixture in the main section marked by spells to seem good in nature and of a non necromantic radiance.

If a player starts with knuckle bone dice as a trinket make those the phylactery, and make them made out of his original body

I think phylacteries should have more harsh requirements. For instance the phylactery should be a vital component that the lich must keep on their person. Like their heart. It is what is keeping them on the mortal plane. Another thing I would change is how the lich returns once defeated. Instead the phylactery is indestructible. So the lich can never truly be destroyed. With his body destroyed though he needs a vessel. Kinda like diablo 2 dark wanderer you would need your phylactery to fall into the wrong hands. Someone craving wealth and power. You slowly corrupt them devouring their soul and replacing it with your own. You are reborn once again. This would make creating a phylactery out of fancy gems the best way to go. You get defeated and your phylactery gets ceased. Your enemies can't destroy it so they keep it in safe keeping. Rumors spread, some cunning thief manages to steal it and you slowly corrupt him. How many years have passed? Doesn't matter!

Personally my BBEG lich had his Phylacteries implanted into his 4 Undead generals, it made breaking them very difficult for the players

I was trying to find to find the best way to hide a phylactery for my BBEG, so my players can after months or years, discover where it is, but this method is too good

The coin is a very good idea u can Cast nistuls Magic aura In order to hide from detect Magic the Magic that emanate from the coin

Could I use a god...The only way I could die is if they could destroyed that god?

Honestly I like the idea of my phylactery being a singular gold coin strictly because the heroes that killed me would just see a normal gold piece & think nothing of it Not only that, but it would be also among other gold pieces that's in the treasure room in my Crypt. Then again this is all assuming that there is no set dimension or changes that are necessary for a phylactery to be a phylactery. This is just assuming that you can make any old thing a phylactery & it won't look auspicious when amongst other things of a similar type, though for me I would want it to be a gold piece if there are no limitations to what a phylactery can be. Even if the adventurers pick it up they are inevitably going to use it on something & the DM can just roll on his side of the table to see if they spend me, then when they do I just reform, probably kill the person who had me along with everyone inside the building, then after emptying out the entire town of their souls I'd just peace out into my Crypt again. Honestly though if there are limitations then I would pick whatever the most simplest object is within the limitations. Sometimes the simple approach is the best approach. *Sometimes.* Edit: Well I'm glad he was thinking what I was thinking. I would say great minds think alike, but I would never insult him like that.

A set of adamantine armor given to a noble or a king

Maybe in some holy place or old relic

Phylacteries don’t have magic auras and you need to have at least 1 body that your soul can reanimate into.

What if you could just turn a dragon or tarrasque into one? Sounds silly but a boy can dream haha

Coins are not great long term. What if an empire falls and that kind of coin isn't used anymore? What if heroes record the serial number? What if everyone switches to paper money? As a lich, you have to consider what the world will be like hundreds of not thousands of years in the future.

There's a problem with coins called the "Seigniorage Tax". Governments for some time now (thousands of years) have understood that there's a hidden tax in money creation when they recover and destroy that money. So it's not "safe enough" to be fiat; the intention is for the money to be destroyed in order to harvest the "seigniorage tax". imagine a worthless paper money. It becomes a little less worthless when there's a "dollar bill" or bank note from 1700s still circulating. Eventually someone will want to collect it for its uniqueness. And governments want to destroy it so they can harvest that tax and redistribute a new coin or dollar.

A good candidate for a phylactery would be an "ark of the covenant". A whole religious people built around a sacred object that they seek to preserve perfectly. If word got out that it was a lich's phylactery; that religion would not believe it and would see it as an attack on their religion. If in the modern age where we think "genocide is bad" you'd get a stalemate like Palestine vs. Israel fighting over the Temple mount. Where removing one stone will get you killed, and entire wars are fought over its preservation. Two warring religions over a single sacred object would create a stalemate where the object can never be destroyed and the claim it is a lich would be regarded as absurd by either side.