As the title says, has anyone played the free level 20 oneshot that was release this summer? I'm thinking that it would make a nice Halloween oneshot but I wanted some opinions, from players and GMs alike. Does it work as written, what, if any changes should be made? Are there any sections that are extr afunny or tricky for the players? Can you really finish it in 2-3 hours as it says in the intro? Do I need to boost Vecna's powers, etcetera.
So, it works as written. The monsters and traps will feel trivial in the beginning. Like, they will body the monsters and avoid the traps easy. But they aren’t there to be a real threat. They are there to be obstacles of attrition. To waste items like potions and spell slots on minimal attacks and damage.
The real challenge is the big guy himself. I supplemented him by having a turn 20 lair action where there are zombies that get summoned from blood portals on that turn. I made a table of several types of zombies, including Trex Zombie, Strahd Zombies, Ogre Zombies, etc. If you play Vecna smart, he destroy PCs. I had three players, a Paladin, a Bladesinger/Psi Warrior multiclass, and a wonky multiclass of Bard/Ranger/Fighter that was designed to be a better Arcane Archer build. Have Vecna cast Fly right away while he’s on the opposite side of the room, away from the players. Utilize that nasty Counterspell to shut down spells, especially buffs like Haste. His attacks are potent enough to do some hardy damage.
My PCs got worked. The Bladesinger went down due to a Rotten Fate, then was swarmed by zombies and killed. The Archer got dropped unconscious by a Flight of the Damned and the Paladin had to grab the Archer and the body of the Bladesinger and Plane Shift out with a magic item. My players have never lost that bad before so they were feeling hot, but in a good way! They loved getting handled at level 20 and it’s the most brutal I’ve ever played a villian on them. They knew the assignment, tried their best to build out OP characters and lost. They admitted that the lair summons were their undoing, as they kept trying to focus on Vecna and the zombies mosquito’d them to death.
Only changes I made was giving them a level 16 Expert sidekick (who got mindcontrolled against them in the Vecna fight and they had to put him down) and the lair summons, which was just a slight variation of the suggested lair actions in the Dont Say Vecna article. Vecna needed no boosts for my party but if you have a lot of players or really experienced ones, maybe give him a small bump in HP? There’s a god-tier stat block of Vecna floating around the internet/Reddit if you wanna find a CR30 version of him.
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Profile pic - credit to Michael Cobra (Mandalorian Urban Assassin)
The traps seem lethal to me. Not by themselves, but a quarter of the party is likely to join Vecna's side. If you cancel out another player to account for that, that means that you're effectively down to half a party fighting Vecna, which makes it 3.5x a deadly encounter. The characters are also likely to permanently lose a magical each, plus they'll have been fighting other creatures and potentially even have had to make crippling sacrifices.
I've never played L20, but I'm looking at the situation and thinking those traps are actually pretty horrific.
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
As the title says, has anyone played the free level 20 oneshot that was release this summer? I'm thinking that it would make a nice Halloween oneshot but I wanted some opinions, from players and GMs alike. Does it work as written, what, if any changes should be made? Are there any sections that are extr afunny or tricky for the players? Can you really finish it in 2-3 hours as it says in the intro? Do I need to boost Vecna's powers, etcetera.
Thanks in advance, happy spooky season!
Hey! GM here who ran Vecna.
So, it works as written. The monsters and traps will feel trivial in the beginning. Like, they will body the monsters and avoid the traps easy. But they aren’t there to be a real threat. They are there to be obstacles of attrition. To waste items like potions and spell slots on minimal attacks and damage.
The real challenge is the big guy himself. I supplemented him by having a turn 20 lair action where there are zombies that get summoned from blood portals on that turn. I made a table of several types of zombies, including Trex Zombie, Strahd Zombies, Ogre Zombies, etc. If you play Vecna smart, he destroy PCs. I had three players, a Paladin, a Bladesinger/Psi Warrior multiclass, and a wonky multiclass of Bard/Ranger/Fighter that was designed to be a better Arcane Archer build. Have Vecna cast Fly right away while he’s on the opposite side of the room, away from the players. Utilize that nasty Counterspell to shut down spells, especially buffs like Haste. His attacks are potent enough to do some hardy damage.
My PCs got worked. The Bladesinger went down due to a Rotten Fate, then was swarmed by zombies and killed. The Archer got dropped unconscious by a Flight of the Damned and the Paladin had to grab the Archer and the body of the Bladesinger and Plane Shift out with a magic item. My players have never lost that bad before so they were feeling hot, but in a good way! They loved getting handled at level 20 and it’s the most brutal I’ve ever played a villian on them. They knew the assignment, tried their best to build out OP characters and lost. They admitted that the lair summons were their undoing, as they kept trying to focus on Vecna and the zombies mosquito’d them to death.
Only changes I made was giving them a level 16 Expert sidekick (who got mindcontrolled against them in the Vecna fight and they had to put him down) and the lair summons, which was just a slight variation of the suggested lair actions in the Dont Say Vecna article. Vecna needed no boosts for my party but if you have a lot of players or really experienced ones, maybe give him a small bump in HP? There’s a god-tier stat block of Vecna floating around the internet/Reddit if you wanna find a CR30 version of him.
Profile pic - credit to Michael Cobra (Mandalorian Urban Assassin)
Thank you! I will look into throwing some zombies into the mix, if nothing else to even out the action economy a bit.
The traps seem lethal to me. Not by themselves, but a quarter of the party is likely to join Vecna's side. If you cancel out another player to account for that, that means that you're effectively down to half a party fighting Vecna, which makes it 3.5x a deadly encounter. The characters are also likely to permanently lose a magical each, plus they'll have been fighting other creatures and potentially even have had to make crippling sacrifices.
I've never played L20, but I'm looking at the situation and thinking those traps are actually pretty horrific.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
map? thanks!