Anyone wanting a ton of fun ideas for variant liches should check out Pointy Hat's channel, he's doing a whole series on custom lich types for different kinds of spellcaster (and he also just did a Barbarian Lich type, the Scourge, so he's branching out to non-spellcasters too).
Great call. I very heavily based him on the Intoner, with some adjustments for him being an orator/teller of tall tales instead of a musician. And yes, if you're not watching Pointy Hat get on that ASAP!
I also endorse Pointy Hat and his content. It's on YouTube, and he's also recently been streaming multihour world building sessions on Twitch (I think on Saturdays). Lots of good stuff, presented in an entertaining way.
The petrification trick works on any lich to counter its phylactery. Unless the lich has prepared some way to counter it, which they might have because liches are highly intelligent generally speaking and don't just sit in a room waiting for adventurers to come and whack them.
Huh, I saw VaranSL from dumpstat posted something similar a year or so ago. Did variant liches for all the classes. I liked it enough it based my current adventure on it.
Is that video the only lich one Pointy Hat has done? Or are his villain videos about liches in part?
Edit: oh yeah that's it. Villain videos are in the Which Lich playlist.
Sometimes DMs put a lot of thought into their homebrew setting and like anything else it can be more interesting than what ever is going on, like trying to remember Jacob's name.