You may know Vecna as the Undying King, the Whispered One, or the Lord of the Rotted Tower. He is a being so evil and powerful that most dare not even whisper his true name in the fear that he will be summoned.

This vile being has lived for thousands of years and has amassed such great and terrible power that he has been able to not only transform himself into a lich but, in some settings, has achieved godhood. Many adventurers have tried and failed to stop the dastardly machinations of this dark creature.

This article will go over everything you need to know to make Vecna the biggest and baddest BBEG your party has ever faced.

• Who is Vecna?
• Setting up Vecna as your Big Bad
• Confronting Vecna

Vecna Dossier

D&D Beyond users were previously able to claim a copy of the Vecna Dossier, which contained lore and statistics for the Undying King. If you own the Vecna Dossier, you can access its contents by navigating to the Sources page.

Who Is Vecna?

Vecna is one of Dungeons & Dragons' most infamous villains. His roots stretch all the way back to the first edition of the game. Since the '70s, Vecna's lore has been fleshed out in various editions of D&D, and, more recently, he appeared in a number of pop culture phenomenon like Critical Role and Stranger Things. If this lengthy resume can ascertain one thing, it's that Vecna is the Big Bad Evil Guy of D&D.

Vecna started off not as the tyrannical being of pure evil that we see today but as a pair of magic items, the Eye of Vecna and the Hand of Vecna. These items spoke of a legendary figure of evil, but the story behind Vecna wasn't fully fleshed out until the third edition. At this point, Vecna's backstory in the Greyhawk setting was revealed.

Vecna's story began on the world of Oerth when his mother, a lowly hedge witch, was exiled for practicing necromancy. Now orphaned, Vecna was bound into servitude as a scribe by the very order of wizards that cast his mother out. Little did they know, Vecna snuck into the order's libraries and began teaching himself the arcane arts. Eventually, with the help of a dark deity who fueled his cruel intentions, Vecna's power grew to a point where he was able to destroy the order of wizards that uprooted his life.

From there, Vecna's hatred and yearning for power never ceased. He forged a mighty empire in the world of Greyhawk that lasted for generations. Eventually, Vecna's mortal body began to fade, and he used dark magic to become immortal.

After achieving lichdom, Vecna grew bored of his kingdom on Greyhawk and sought powers beyond his world. He appointed Kas, an oathbreaker paladin, as his regent to oversee his kingdom. To aid Kas, Vecna granted him a fell blade, known as the Sword of Kas. This sword helped Kas smite the enemies of Vecna, but—unbeknownst to Vecna—a sentience contained within the blade conspired with Kas to overthrow his master. Eventually, Kas succumbed to the blade's will and attempted to destroy Vecna.

After the dust settled, all that could be found of the combatants were the Sword of Kas and the Hand and Eye of Vecna. Vecna, managing to escape the fray, now roams the multiverse, seeking to grow his power. Most recently, Vecna was able to ascend to godhood and is now beyond the reach of conventional adventurers. However, in your D&D campaign, Vecna may still be attempting to ascend—allowing your party to foil his schemes. 

Setting Up Vecna as Your Big Bad

Using Vecna as a Big Bad works well for campaigns going all the way up to the 20th level, as parties below this level won't stand a chance against such a mighty foe. For campaigns that will be ending at a lower level but that still want to include Vecna, consider making the climax of the campaign a showdown with cultists who intend to summon Vecna. 

Foreshadowing Vecna

Vecna is more than a being of evil power. He is a presence that invades the mind of every power-hungry creature with ill intentions. If you want to set Vecna up to be the Big Bad of your campaign, you have to be subtle and bide your time. Vecna isn't like Strahd; he won't invite the party to his castle as soon as they appear on his radar. Instead, Vecna works from the shadows. He corrupts those that also seek the power to subjugate others to their will. 

You can roll on the table below for examples of events that foreshadow Vecna's arrival.

Important Magic Items

Vecna's backstory features some extremely powerful magic items that can serve as crucial set pieces in a Vecna-centric campaign. It's essential to read up on the story behind these items and their effects before running a campaign with Vecna as your Big Bad.

Book of Vile Darkness

The Book of Vile Darkness is where Vecna has recorded all of his evil deeds, vile spells, and gruesome thoughts. While Vecna usually carries the book, it has been known to end up in the hands of different owners who add their own terrible entries to the book. No one knows whether this is at the will of Vecna or if the book has its own sentience and desires. 

The Book of Vile Darkness is handy for sowing the seeds of Vecna's arrival. As pages can be removed from the book, a party of adventurers finding a yellowing sheet of parchment with abyssal scrawlings can be a great plot hook to go to an ancient library or a purveyor of magical items to decipher its contents and origins. Another plot hook could stem from one of the effects of the Book of Vile Darkness, in that nature cannot abide its presence. The ramifications of this effect could provide a hook in which the party has to investigate a dying tree that is sacred to a circle of druids.

The Vecna Dossier states that Vecna always carries the Book of Vile Darkness on his person. Were the book to go missing, a group of Vecna cultists could go on the hunt for it. With the various secrets it carries, the book might be the MacGuffin they need to summon Vecna onto the Material Plane or could perhaps contain the location of the Eye and Hand of Vecna.

Eye and Hand of Vecna

The Eye and Hand of Vecna are some of the most famous items in D&D history and are all but required to include in a campaign that uses Vecna as the Big Bad. These powerful artifacts are infused with great power but come at a cost—either your eye or your hand depending on which you wield. That said, an eye and a hand are ultimately a small cost for access to the wish spell, which is the main reason that unsavory folks seek out the artifacts in the first place. Beyond the power they provide, they are also a source of pain for Vecna. They represent his greatest failure at the hand of his subordinate. 

An interesting way to introduce these items into your campaign would be to have the party have a run-in with a group of cultists who are all missing either their left hand, left eye, or both. This is an immediately distinguishing—and disturbing—trait that could be used to represent Vecna's minions throughout your campaign. Say, once the cultists have been established as no good, your party is at the banquet of a friendly noble when they realize that one of the noble's servants has a prosthesis on his left hand! And he's pouring the noble a drink!

A unique trait shared by the Eye and Hand of Vecna is that they need to be wielded by the same creature in order to be destroyed by the Sword of Kas. Maybe this will result in a sacrifice being made by a party member, who gouges out their own eye, chops off their own hand, and allows themselves to be smote by the Sword of Kas to allow evil to be destroyed once and for all. This could also serve as a terrifying learning opportunity for the party when they strike down a creature wielding either the Eye or Hand individually, only to realize that the artifact hasn't been destroyed.

Sword of Kas

While not initially well-intentioned, the Sword of Kas once served as a foil to Vecna. As it stands, the sword is the only known artifact that can destroy the Eye and Hand of Vecna. Unfortunately, it can just as easily be destroyed by a creature that wields both the Eye and the Hand. This can result in an interesting final encounter with the wielder of the artifacts—whether it's with Vecna himself or just one of his loyal followers—where the party can't reveal they have the sword until the last minute. 

Once Vecna has been established as the main villain, the party will likely need to research his past to find his weaknesses. After a trip to the library, the party could discover that Kas is still rumored to be "alive." Unfortunately, he's pretty hard to talk to as he's currently serving time as the Darklord of Tovag—a Domain of Dread within the Plane of Shadow. Oh, he's also now a vampire. The process of finding a way to travel to Tovag, surviving the dangers of the Domain of Dread, convincing Kas to tell them the sword's location, and finally escaping the Plane of Shadows can be a mini-arch of a campaign all in itself.

Confronting Vecna

The Vecna Dossier provides Dungeon Masters with the stat block for Vecna before he ascended to godhood which, at no surprise to anyone, is a CR 26 powerhouse with a frightening amount of combat tricks. But, to use Vecna as your Big Bad, you'll need more than just a stat block. You need to get inside the head of this evil genius to entirely and utterly dismantle the puny band of adventurers that dare oppose you.

Vecna's Minions

Vecna's dark power draws many different creatures into servitude. Whether they intend to see Vecna rise again or to expand their own power, Vecna usually has good use for creatures that will not balk at the vile deeds he tasks them.

Due to the fear of death, mortals with short lifespans are easy targets for the seductive power the Undying King can provide. Once corrupted, expendable followers would become cultists, whereas those with a bit more promise could lead the ravel as a cult fanatic. For tasks that need to be handled quietly and effectively, assassins would be one of Vecna's first choices. 

While his cultists and assassins manage the everyday preparations for his return, Vecna's archmage will lead their team of mages in more arcane matters. As followers of an undead lich, these magic users may be more inclined to prepare necromantic spells like toll the dead, cause fear, or animate dead over the spells suggested in their stat blocks.

When looking for supernatural forces, Vecna is more likely to use controllable undead minions rather than something with autonomy like a demon, devil, or aberration. For unimportant tasks, any corpse of a previous victim can become a zombie or skeleton to bolster his ranks. As some humanoids may be intimidated by the thought of leading an undead horde, wraiths are ideal commanders of these forces.

At the top of the pecking order, right below Vecna in terms of command, could sit a death knight. As a bizarre repetition of what happened with Kas, Vecna could seek another paladin who has fallen from grace and twist him into a monstrosity of malevolent magic. However, this time it would be different. Vecna's jaded pride would not get in the way of completely breaking the death knight's mind so that they have no doubt who is the master and who is the servant. 

Vecna's Lair

As his title of Lord of the Rotted Tower suggests, Vecna once ruled from an obsidian tower that rose from the waters of a fathoms deep lake. Because beings of immeasurable power and immortal life aren't likely to try new things, it stands to reason that Vecna would once again look for a tower to use as his stronghold. This tower would likely be in a rarely traveled, desolate area where he is unlikely to be bothered as he puts his schemes into place.

Adventurers bold enough to attempt to invade Vecna's tower would do well to expect all kinds of traps, powerful magic, and deadly creatures. As a lair of one of the most paranoid, powerful magic users in the multiverse, the traps encountered in Vecna's stronghold will likely be elaborate and deadly. If you're struggling to think up traps dastardly enough for Vecna, the Complex Traps in Xanathar's Guide to Everything are a great place to start.

Those that survive the tower long enough to encounter Vecna will have to face the lich at his strongest, as he will be surrounded by sources of dark magic to draw from. If you're looking to increase the difficulty of the encounter with Vecna, consider adding the Lair Actions from the lich's stat block. We also offer homebrew lair actions in this level 20 adventure that ends in a showdown with Vecna.

Ideas for the Final Encounter 

Even though Vecna is one of the most powerful liches ever to exist, it doesn't excuse him from the fact that he is still a lich. Because they are released from their mortal tether, liches become vain, cruel, and always search for more power. After achieving lichdom, Vecna soon set his eyes on an even loftier goal, godhood.

In some stories, Vecna has already ascended to godhood and will need divine intervention from another deity to face directly. In other stories, Vecna is still searching for the vile rituals required to become a god or perhaps was cast out of the Outer Planes by his fellow gods and seeks a way to return. Still more stories may deal with a Vecna in a catatonic state or imprisoned in a demiplane where he cannot touch the Material Plane. Whatever Vecna's intention, the tale will likely culminate with a mad dash to prevent Vecna from enacting whatever ritual he needs to achieve his goal.

Preventing the Ritual

Using a ritual as the climactic final battle is an excellent way to add suspense to the final fight. Instead of a straightforward initiative, an event with a timer could lead to multiple alternative goals to the scenario. When planning the final battle with Vecna, you can roll on the table below to help brainstorm ideas to make the combat multidimensional.

The Time of Vecna is Nigh!

Vecna's evils and hunger for power know no bound. This, combined with his knowledge of the multiverse's inner workings, allows Vecna to be the villain in just about any campaign you can imagine. With the help of the Vecna Dossier, you too can unleash the terrifying power of Vecna on your table. Want to see Vecna in action? Check out our one-shot stream with Jasmine Bhullar as Dungeon Master!

Mike Bernier (@arcane_eye) is the founder of Arcane Eye, a site focused on providing useful tips and tricks to all those involved in the world of D&D. Outside of writing for Arcane Eye, Mike spends most of his time playing games, hiking with his girlfriend, and tending the veritable jungle of houseplants that have invaded his house.