Liches have a long and storied history of unfettered ambition, cruelty, and power. If the likes of Vecna, Szass Tam, and Acererak have inspired you to seek out lichdom, this article is for you.

But beware, adventurer, for your hubris takes you down a dark road. Here is a look at how you can use a blend of established lore and homebrew solutions to become a lich in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons.

• What Is a Lich?
• Becoming a Lich Requires Dungeon Master Approval
• Ways to Learn the Secrets of Lichdom
• The Ritual to Become a Lich
• How to Play a Lich as a Player Character

What Is a Lich?

Artist: Zoltan Boros

Liches are powerful Undead who laugh in the face of the Raven Queen and feed souls to their spirit jar to maintain their immortality. They have a gaunt or skeletal appearance and keep collections of spells and magic items in their lairs.

Capable of casting 9th-level spells, paralyzing enemies with a touch, and returning to “life” even after facing utter destruction, the lich is a monster made to be the undead Big Bad of campaigns.

Former Wizards Who Hoard Magic and Dark Secrets

Collectors of magic, liches rule from the haunted abodes of their former lives and are cunning and keen enough to anticipate those who would act against them.

Though they may care little for the squabbles of us mortals and prefer to study from their libraries of spellbooks, their insatiable hunger for knowledge forces them to seek out and take by any means whatever secrets and magics they have yet to uncover. In this way, you might think of a lich as a dragon, a creature who is always adding to their hoard. But as with a dragon, you would be unwise to approach a lich.

Immortality with a Condition

Even a lich who finds solace in what treasures they keep must feed souls to their spirit jar. A spirit jar is an item that houses the lich’s soul. We discuss spirit jars in more detail below, but it’s important to note that only by destroying a lich’s spirit jar can you hope to truly defeat a lich.

As long as their spirit jar is intact, a lich who is destroyed reemerges with a new body after a short time.

Becoming a Lich Requires Dungeon Master Approval

Before we can talk about how to become a lich, you need to have a chat with your DM and likely fellow players. The process of becoming a lich is less than savory, to say the least.

Further, under normal circumstances, when a player character becomes a lich, they become an NPC under the DM’s control. Your DM would need to permit you to play as a lich, and work with you to determine the mechanics for what that looks like, such as by applying a template to your character.

If you think your DM would be amicable to your character pursuing lichdom, be prepared to discuss the following:

• Why your character would seek out lichdom
• Whether a pursuit of lichdom suits the adventure and any soft and hard limits set by the table
• Whether you’ll lose control of your character, whether temporarily or permanently
• How your goal will affect the other players and their characters
• What it will take to achieve lichdom in the adventure’s setting

You may also need buy-in from your fellow players, as the lich is a dark and cruel monster, and you’re not liable to keep your hands clean in your pursuit.

Ways to Learn the Secrets of Lichdom

Artist: Tyler Jacobson

Becoming a lich is no easy task, even for player characters who are masters of the arcane arts.

As these creatures have access to 9th-level wizard spells, your DM may require you to be able to cast them yourself before undergoing the ritual needed to become a lich. (Even one established method for learning about lichdom has this requirement, noted in the “Tenebrous, a Dark Power” section.)

The secrets of lichdom are well-guarded and those few who know the secrets to this form of undeath are bound to use it to control you, if you can even get to them. As you’ll find below, the most direct methods to learning about lichdom come from powerful beings and magic items that encourage high-level play. The big asterisk here, of course, is that your DM has the final say on where the secrets of lichdom are kept.

Without further ado, here are a few ways in fifth edition D&D where you may learn how to become a lich.

• Orcus, Demon Prince of Undeath
• Tenebrous, a Dark Power
• Book of Vile Darkness
• Seek Out a Patron
• Make a Wish!

Spoilers Ahead

The following sections draw information from a variety of official fifth edition books, including Curse of Strahd, Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, Keys from the Golden Vault, and Candlekeep Mysteries. Be prepared for spoilers!

Orcus, Demon Prince of Undeath

Artist: Richard Whitters

Also known as the Blood Lord, Orcus commands undying hoards and grants a modicum of his power to those who would raise more. He works to turn the multiverse into a thriving necropolis under his control. Convince him that you will pursue this aim in his name, and he may reveal to you how to become a lich. Fail to impress him and expect to become a ghoul or zombie under his control instead.

Where to Find Orcus

For a demon prince obsessed with decay and undeath, there’s no better home than the inhospitable Abyss. Orcus rules over the layer of Thanatos from his fortress city of Naratyr.

The city is surrounded by the River Styx, a maze-like river that serves as a route to a grim afterlife. The city itself is as unwelcoming to the living as you might imagine; vast numbers of Undead dwell and war with one another here.

Once you make it through the hordes of Undead, you’ll find a central castle made of bone and decorated with flesh and hair, a grim reminder of all the creative ways you may be of use to Orcus.

Petitioning Orcus

Delving through the corrupting layers of the Abyss to petition Orcus is certainly an appropriate task for one seeking to become a lich. Still, you should not arrive at the hooves of the Demon Prince of Undeath empty-handed. You might offer up the heads of faithful followers to a god who opposes undeath, like the Raven Queen’s shadar-kai or those who pray to Lathander.

Alternatively, you might strike down Demogorgon or another demon prince. The demon princes of the Abyss each hope to bring about some apocalyptic event to the multiverse, but that does not mean their goals align or that they wouldn’t take joy in seeing one another annihilated.

Barring that, you could always ask Orcus for lichdom via sending, if your DM would permit that. Just remember to say, “Please!”

Tenebrous, a Dark Power

Curse of Strahd and Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft explore the Domains of Dread, pocket realms made to torment the likes of Strahd von Zarovich. The Domains of Dread are crafted by the Dark Powers, mysterious and sinister entities whose power can be likened to gods. It is the written works of Tenebrous, one of these Dark Powers, that can teach you how to become a lich.

Not much is known about Tenebrous or the other Dark Powers; they do not seek worship, preferring instead to relish in the torment and evil acts of the most nefarious people from throughout the multiverse.

A Hidden, Evil Vestige

In the Balinok Mountains of Barovia, a Domain of Dread, you can find the Amber Temple. Built by do-gooders to stow away evil secrets, the Amber Temple has long been taken over by the lich Exethanter.

You don’t necessarily need Exethanter’s help to obtain the knowledge of lichdom, but he can make the task easier. Tucked away in the Amber Temple are amber sarcophagi offering all manner of dark gifts. Among these can be found the “dark gift of Tenebrous.”

You will need to be capable of casting 9th-level wizard spells and be evil in order to receive this gift, though that may be a given considering… (gestures at this entire article).

Could This Other Book Be a Lead?

I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that a book found in Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage may be another path to lichdom. Found on the 22nd level of the dungeon is a book titled Tenebrous and the True Path to Lichdom. Its given value (100 gp) suggests to me, as a DM, that it doesn’t contain a checklist of the tasks needed to achieve lichdom, but it could perhaps serve as a good first step on your quest.

Book of Vile Darkness

Artist: Kieran Yanner

If ever a book served as a build-your-own-spirit-jar, it would be the Book of Vile Darkness. Penned by Vecna the lich-god, and added to over time by others, this artifact contains information on just about every evil thing you could do, from laying out LEGO on the carpet to, yes, becoming a lich.

Assuming it isn’t in Vecna's hands, the adventure Fire and Darkness from Keys from the Golden Vault reveals where the book may be found. The adventure tells us that cultists attempted to use the Book of Vile Darkness in a ritual to turn a red dragon into a dracolich. They were attacked during this ritual, and the book landed in the hands of an efreeti who has stored it on the Material Plane.

Finding the Book of Vile Darkness

The adventures in Keys from the Golden Vault are setting agnostic, but if we’re going by the book, we know this much about the location of the Book of Vile Darkness:

• It was taken by the efreeti Vrakir to Brimstone Hold, a remote military outpost on the Material Plane
• The outpost is built alongside a volcano and receives shipments via lava-resistant boats
• Plenty of fiery elementals, devils, and an efreeti named Jarazoun guard the hold

You may be able to sneak your way through Brimstone Hold, but you’ll find the Book of Vile Darkness well protected by other means. Be prepared!

Reading the Book of Vile Darkness

Once you’ve obtained the Book of Vile Darkness, you’ll need to spend about three days scouring its pages to reap the benefits of its magic. If you weren’t already evil, this process will likely turn you evil.

Your studies will also physically change your character. Your DM will decide in what way your character’s appearance will match their unholy work, whether that’s giving you a forked tongue or just a permanently bad hairdo.

Seek Out a Patron

Artist: Carlo Arellano

All this talk of demon princes and Dark Powers will make even a 20th-level wizard sweat. Yet, if you serve an evil god or patron of undeath, you may not need to venture far to become a lich.

Patrons of undeath include famous liches such as Vlaakith, Vol, and yes, even Vecna himself. Serve them faithfully, and they may impart knowledge of the unholy ritual of lichdom.

If you’re a warlock or wizard but do not serve an Undying patron, you might seek to become an eldritch lich instead (see below). If you're a druid, you could become a lichen lich. Information on the process to becoming a lichen lich is thin, but Xanthoria from the Candlekeep Mysteries adventure of the same name may have answers for you.

A Lich Made by a Great Old One

The likes of Orcus and Vecna may hold the secrets to lichdom, but this hidden magic is also known by beings far older than them. Cthulhu and other Great Old Ones can create an eldritch lich by implanting a parasite from the Far Realm into a willing host.

Introduced in Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures, eldritch liches are wracked by whispers from the Far Realm and have tentacles that sprout from their chests. When killed, their parasite sucks them into the Far Realm, where their body is reconstituted.

Make a Wish!

Alternatively, you could make a wish to utter your desire into reality. Just beware of the potential consequences of this spell, including:

• Drawing the gaze of gods who loathe Undead
• Being forced into the servitude of Orcus
• Losing knowledge of your spells, except those listed in the lich stat block
• A powerful adventurer learns the secret to destroying your spirit jar
• Not knowing where your spirit jar is being kept

The Ritual to Become a Lich

Artist: Kieran Yanner

The lich entry in the 2014 Monster Manual and the amber sarcophagi detailed in Curse of Strahd reveal that becoming a lich takes 13 days. You must spend 10 days constructing a spirit jar to entrap your soul and 3 days concocting a potion of transformation that will kill you and transform you into a lich.

These two steps cannot be done concurrently, and if we are to follow information from Curse of Strahd, you must also be capable of casting 9th-level wizard spells, as well as imprisonment.

The specifics of the lichdom ritual are described below.

Constructing a Spirit Jar

Before becoming a lich, you must create a spirit jar to house your soul. If you fail to do so, your soul will be whisked off to the Outer Planes to face judgment.

As part of its construction, you will decide what form your spirit jar takes. Containers, talismans, and gemstones are common spirit jars for liches and dracoliches. Consider the following liches and their spirit jars:

Lich Spirit Jars

Whether it’s a cursed gold locket or an old boot, the spirit jar you construct must have an interior space where you can inscribe arcane sigils with silver. These are sigils of “naming, binding, immortality, and dark magic,” according to the 2014 Monster Manual.

As part of your spirit jar’s construction, you will also need to determine how it can be destroyed. Spirit jars can be tricky devices, and destroying them is not always a straightforward process. (See “Protecting Your Spirit Jar”)

Ability Checks for Construction. Your DM will determine the needed ability checks and materials to construct your spirit jar, if any. Depending on the form your spirit jar takes, they may call for ability checks using a specific tool proficiency. A spirit jar that is in the form of a pocket watch may require ability checks using jeweler's tools, for example. Additional Intelligence (Arcana) checks may be needed to inscribe the magical sigils.

Brewing a Potion of Transformation

Not much is known about the precise ingredients needed for a potion of transformation. But we do know that brewing one takes 3 days, the concoction is poisonous, and it is mixed with the blood of a sentient creature whose soul will be the first sacrificed to your new spirit jar.

Achieving lichdom is a grim task, so your DM may ask you to gather all manner of mundane and magical alchemical ingredients that will catch the eye of do-gooders. These may include the blood of a celestial being, a highly potent poison or venom, and an organ or two to be simmered in your concoction.

Ability Checks for Brewing. Given that the potion of transformation will kill you, your DM might ask for ability checks using a poisoner's kit. Extracting blood from your victim might be a Wisdom (Medicine) check in order to avoid killing them before their soul can be absorbed by your spirit jar.

Other Steps Required in the Ritual

The ritual to lichdom may require other steps. Perhaps it must be performed at night, an innocent being must bear witness, or you must prepare specific arcane sigils on unhallowed ground before you can drink your potion of transformation. Such steps are not detailed in fifth edition books but may nevertheless be asked for at your DM’s discretion.

It is fair to say, however, that the last step in your transformation will be imbibing your potion of transformation. When you drink it, you will die but emerge as the lich you’ve long wished to be.

What Happens If the Ritual Fails?

There’s no fun in undergoing a dark ritual to become an immortal monster if there isn’t a chance of failure. If your body is too weak or you don’t have the necessary arcane talents to move your soul into your spirit jar, your ritual to become a lich will fail.

When this occurs, your soul binds itself to an evil person within a few miles and you emerge as a boneclaw under their servitude. You are immortal, yes, but only so long as your master lives and they remain evil.

How to Play a Lich as a Player Character

Artist: David Auden Nash

At last, you are a lich! By the rules, a player character that becomes a lich becomes an NPC under the DM’s control. But if your DM has decided to allow you to play as a lich, talk to them about how you’ll approach this change in character, whether you update your character sheet or take a more narrative approach.

• What Stats to Use as a Lich
• Playing Nice as a Lich at Your Table
• Protecting Your Spirit Jar
• Building a Lich’s Lair

What Stats to Use as a Lich

It may be unsatisfying and unbalanced to lose your character and be handed the lich stat block. Your character has come so far on their path to lichdom, so keeping your character sheet largely or entirely intact is important.

Nevertheless, you want to be a lich. Here are ways you can reflect your lichdom while retaining access to your character sheet.

Changes in Alignment and Appearance

Talk over how this dark ritual changes your character’s personality, alignment, and physical appearance. You may make them neutral evil, for example, and have them take on the following flaw provided by the gift of Tenebrous from Curse of Strahd: “All I care about is acquiring new magic and arcane knowledge.”

Your newfound power may also twist your physical appearance. Perhaps ingesting the potion of transformation burns a hole into your chest, leaving a gaping wound that does not heal, or your skin becomes sunken and gray.

Reflecting Your Undead Nature

Player characters have a few mechanical options to reflect their undeath.

The Reborn lineage from Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft modifies your species and is specifically tailored for characters who have died but somehow returned back to life. With it, you don’t need to eat, drink, or breathe, and you are harder to kill, among other benefits.

The Hollow One supernatural gift from the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount bestows Undead-like benefits and traits. For example, you no longer age, you register as Undead to spells and other effects, and you’re harder to kill.

Homebrewing a Spirit Jar

You should also discuss what role your spirit jar plays in-game. It could simply be a tool for roleplay or have mechanical benefits. We go into more detail on spirit jars below, but your DM could create a homebrew magic item that only you can attune to and that offers such benefits as:

• Clone Spell: Liches are iconic because of their ability to return back to life again and again. Your spirit jar may permit you to cast clone, granting you protection from death in a similar fashion to the lich’s Rejuvenation trait.
• Cannot Die from Old Age: So long as you are attuned to your spirit jar, you cannot die from old age. However, your body may decay over time, leading you to appear as the classic lich.
• Cold Damage on Unarmed Strikes: Having your unarmed strikes deal cold damage could mimic in a small way the lich’s Paralyzing Touch.
• Damage Resistances: Picking up resistances such as to cold or necrotic damage would befit a lich player character.

The need to feed souls to your spirit jar is a classic drawback to being a lich. Your DM may rule that your attunement to your spirit jar automatically ends or that the magic item does not function if it is not fed on a regular basis. This could lead to dire consequences.

Drawing Inspiration from the Lich’s Stat Block

Delving deeper into the realm of homebrew, you and your DM can look over the lich stat block to see what traits may be applied to your character. Just be wary of traits such as immunity to nonmagical attacks, as these will cause a power imbalance at your table.

However, you might look to change your species’ creature type to Undead. This would subject you to effects that normally affect Undead but also make you immune to effects that normally affect Humanoids, such as calm emotions and hold person.

Rather than homebrew a magic item for your spirit jar, you might also simply pick up the lich’s Rejuvenation trait. We talk more about the need to protect your spirit jar below.

Playing Nice as a Lich at Your Table

Artist: E. M. Gist

Whether you’re playing as a werewolf or some other supernatural creature, it’s important that you respect your fellow players and your DM. Here are a few tips for would-be lich players:

Share the Spotlight

Your journey to becoming a lich and playing as one can put you center stage, so find ways to involve your fellow players. Ask your party members how they feel about your quest and share your motivations. Lean into disagreements in your roleplay and be flexible as a player.

Be patient on your journey, too. You may be excited to follow the road to lichdom, but that doesn’t mean other characters’ stories should take a backseat.

It’s also worth mentioning that playing a character whose goal is to become a lich doesn’t fit every campaign. This path may be best served for a campaign with evil-aligned characters or a high-level mini-campaign. So, bide your time until you, your DM, and your party feel as though a character with these ambitions would fit.

Be Prepared for Consequences

If you’re playing an evil character in a good-aligned party, and your quest is being kept secret, be prepared for everyone to turn on you the second your intentions are made clear. Convincing the party that you have good intentions will be an uphill battle, though it’ll be much easier if you talk to your fellow players before you start sipping on that potion of transformation.

If you can’t convince them to let you play a lich, don’t take it personally. Instead, find a way to give your character an ending you’re satisfied with. Perhaps they flee and leave you to become an evil NPC under your DM’s control, the ritual is incomplete and you bear the scars of your failure, or the ritual fails and you become a boneclaw.

Who knows, you may even get to have a climactic showdown with your party as the campaign’s BBEG. Just be prepared to be vanquished, as evil usually is at the end of an epic D&D story.

Remember, D&D is a cooperative game; your fun doesn’t take precedence over everyone else’s, so lean into the needs of others when necessary.

Think About the Greater Story

You are now a lich that must regularly feed souls to your spirit jar. You’ve also likely made a lot of new enemies and cannot safely travel to most cities. What does this mean for your DM’s campaign and for the stories the other players are trying to tell?

Consider how you, as a lich, fit into the larger narrative. If your party asks you to be a “good lich,” you might seek to only harvest the souls of the wicked. Your character may also be motivated to stay with the party and do good out of the promise of learning new arcane secrets, or to help destroy what you consider a greater evil.

Can You Play As a Good Lich?

This is a tough question because the path to lichdom requires you to petition powerful and evil entities, scour tomes of dark magic, and, ultimately, sacrifice others for the sake of your own immortality. Were you playing at my table, I’d set your alignment to at least neutral evil to start and see where you take your character from there.

An argument could be made for a chaotic good lich if the character is someone who turned to undeath to win the trust or favor of other Undead to further their pursuit of vanquishing evil. This would be someone who will go to any lengths—even sacrificing their own humanity—for the sake of the greater good.

Protecting Your Spirit Jar

A lich’s immortality is inherently tied to their spirit jar; this vessel serves as your Achilles’ heel. Luckily, destroying a spirit jar is not always a simple task.

They can typically only be destroyed by following a specific ritual or by using a specific weapon or item. The lich Ezzat from Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage has a spirit jar that can only be destroyed if eight mages simultaneously cast disintegrate on it, for example. Weaker liches like Exethanter, though, may have a spirit jar that can be destroyed by radiant damage.

Decide How Your Spirit Jar Can Be Destroyed

You may be immortal, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be annihilated. Luckily, you have an incredible story opportunity in determining how your spirit jar can be destroyed.

Tying your spirit jar’s weakness to your character backstory can make any future endeavor to destroy you an emotional journey. Perhaps your character once loved to garden, and your spirit jar can be broken only by the touch of your favorite, albeit rare, flower. Or maybe only someone related to a former party member can hope to damage your spirit jar. This could lead to a future character of yours going on an adventure you and your table find cathartic.

What Happens If You Don’t Feed Souls to Your Spirit Jar

You can’t simply pitch your spirit jar into the Astral Sea and hope no one ever finds it and ties it back to you. You must feed it sentient souls using the imprisonment spell. Lich monsters who fail to do so turn to dust and leave behind a very angry little skull, otherwise known as a demilich.

Your DM may rule that if your spirit jar is not fed on a regular schedule, you risk becoming a demilich under their control. Or, perhaps, you simply die—like, actually die.

Building a Lich’s Lair

A lich looking for a safe place to store their spirit jar will be thrilled at the prospect of setting up a base of operations. Given the opportunity to build a home, there’s ample roleplay opportunity for lich players.

Liches typically make their homes in the places they favored in life; your favorite library, the ruins of your childhood village, or your old wizard’s tower could serve as a good callback to your former life.

If you’re sharing a home with party members, a lich’s proclivity to collect spellbooks and other magical items will make for great decor. As liches like to show off their cunning and keen mind, you can also work with your party to have this reflected in your home’s defenses. Perhaps you’re prone to having overly complex traps to safeguard the kitchen cabinets or you keep well-trained Undead butlers.

See You on the Other Side

A key part of playing as a lich in fifth edition D&D is working with your DM and fellow players. It will also require some homebrew solutions and care to prevent you from disrupting the power balance at the table.

If you get to enjoy playing as a lich, keep others at the forefront of your mind. And whatever you do, don’t forget where you left that spirit jar!

Michael Galvis (@michaelgalvis) is a tabletop content producer for D&D Beyond. He is a longtime Dungeon Master who enjoys horror films and all things fantasy and sci-fi. When he isn’t in the DM’s seat or rolling dice as his anxious halfling sorcerer, he’s playing Helldivers 2 and Magic: The Gathering with his partners. They live together in Los Angeles with their adorable dogs, Quentin and Eliot.