The Vecna Dossier is a homage to one of the greatest villains in Dungeons & Dragons, the archlich Vecna. Inside, you'll find information regarding Vecna's past, as well as a stat block for using him in your games. The Vecna Dossier was available to claim by all D&D Beyond users until January 4, 2023.
Who Is Vecna?
Vecna is the ultimate Big Bad Evil Guy (BBEG) of D&D lore. Known as the Undying King or the Whispered One, Vecna is an immensely powerful wizard that turned to lichdom in order to achieve immortality. With his undying life, Vecna has searched for ways to increase his magical might. After amassing an empire on the world of Greyhawk, Vecna turned his gaze to the multiverse and now seeks godhood above all else. In some stories, Vecna has achieved the power he sought. In others, a heroic band of adventurers may be able to stop him before he succeeds in his goals.
Tales of Vecna's evil have been around since the first edition of D&D. The Vecna Dossier contains lore and stat blocks so you can bring his terrible power to your own games!
What You'll Find in the Vecna Dossier
The Vecna Dossier contains all of the information you'll need to run Vecna in your game, including:
- Lore surrounding Vecna's backstory and rise to power.
- Tidbits of information regarding legendary magical artifacts, like the Sword of Kas and the Book of Vile Darkness.
- A CR 26 stat block for Vecna which can be used in D&D Beyond's Encounters tool.
How to Access the Vecna Dossier
After claiming your copy of the Vecna Dossier, you can find it in your Sourcebooks collection. To access your collection of sourcebooks, open the Sources menu. Beside "Sourcebooks," select "View All." From there, you'll find the Vecna Dossier.
New Digital Dice Set: Manipulate Your Fate With the Dice of Vecna
Do you dare conjure Vecna's dark magic to aid you in battle? The Dice of Vecna are available in the marketplace. This dice set represents a legendary artifact known as the Eye of Vecna—an artifact that holds great power for its wielder but also comes at a gruesome cost. When rolled, the Dice of Vecna displays the result in the pupil of the Eye. Whether success or failure is had with the Dice of Vecna, one thing is certain: the Whispered One is watching.
I am sorry, but you are in the wrong here. Yes, there is a tower before the Vecna encounter. But I doubt that tower will severely hamper a level 20 party unless you buff the encounters within it seriously.
But back to the actual point here, Vecna is a CR 26 statblock. That means, it alone, without minions and without a dungeon or tower to traverse for the party beforehand, should provide a challenge to level 20 characters. It alone should match the power of a gem greatwyrm, of Orcus with his wand, of Tromokratis, of Niv-Mizzet... and it horribly fails at that.
It is supposed to be the iconic archlich, the most powerful necromancy wizard in the world. And yet, CR 23 Acererak, the other archlich, outclasses it with ease by actually being a level 20+ wizard with spell slots, who actually can upcast his counterspell to prevent the party's 9th level spells from annihilating him, who actually has more HP and considerably higher AC (21 + Shield) - and actual legendary actions.
The Book of Vile Darkness might make the encounter more challenging depending on the random properties you pick, but it is not part of the "special equipmet" of Vecna's statblock and therefore not a factor for his CR. It is more akin to just simply buffing/rebalancing a monster's stats when you prepare your session to make it appropriate for your party.
It is a fact that this Vecna statblock is severely underpowered for its CR and does not represent the archlich Vecna as it should do. With sneak attack added it could make for an interesting dread assassin-style enemy though.
I have published a revised version of Vecna that gives him full wizard spellcasting among other stuff, if you are interested :-)
I don't think spell casting would fix the problem. He really just needs a survivability option aimed at martial attacks specifically. I suggest undead fortitude, resistance to magical weapons, an ac/hp boost and or shield. Any combo of those will cover the hole treantmonk points out.
If you want to go full caster I recommend starting from scratch basically. This stat block has a very teleporty cloak and dagger style.
That is what I have done too: https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/2665296-archlich
He has a good AC and HP boost, shield and other spells to help him deal with martials on top of giving him the spellcasting a wizard like him deserves to have. On the other hand I kept his teleports and reactions, although with slight modification, as I did not want to dervate too much from the original.
The Arcane Archers literally can't make the 22 WIS save. What am I being wrong about for stating that 2 Arcane Archers can't clear this content? It is exhausting to read this kind of response completely divorced from what I'm responding to - I'm flabbergasted.
The whole argument around Vecna here revolves around him being in his lair when two 2 Arcane Archers roll in. They can't make it to the damned lair. That's the point.
So, we're not using the Book of Vile Darkness that is literally under his ribs / rib cage in the art?
Cool. I have no idea why you quoted me or wanted to drag me into promoting your homebrew. But, cool.
Did I miss something? What if we already have a subscription? I have a master teir sub and I can't seem to claim this.
Although, if he doesn't even have legendary actions, I'm not sure the dossier is worth claiming anyway. 😂
I believe the window for claiming the dossier has expired. The stat block uses multiple powerful reactions and a more complex main turn in place of legendary actions.
You might be right. The original post does indicate that if you missed the first opportunity then you will have an opportunity again through June and July when you subscribe. I'm wondering if, because I'm already a subscriber, that I am somehow not eligible. Kind of like getting a better deal on your cable bill if you're a new subscriber rather than an existing customer... Sort of. You get the idea, though.
I think Vecna should have more Hp than… I forgot his total HP. Still, more powerful.
Why can Vecna speak Elvish?????
What D&D board game I can find Venca at?
Dunno.
He can literally teleport infinitely and deal damage WITH that said teleport. Afterthought can also deal repeated damage effects.
Holy Hand Grenade batman.... Why did you guys make Vecna such a weak punk? Dudes the OG Lich king, most powerful of all, and he's weaker in many ways to a normal lich. Bad spell options, low damage, He should be ranked like a CR 30.
1: No 9th level spells at all, normal lich gets Power Word Kill, 8th level gets Power Word Stun
2: Rotten Fate has potential to be good, but... Zombie? really? If you're fighting a CR 26, are you worried about a zombie? Will a Zombie even be able to hit you with it's +3 to hit and average of 4 damage. There's no threat there.
3: Dread Counterspell is also neat, has potential, but mostly, meh.
4: Afterthought is almost cool, but it's damage is so little, it's insane.
Mostly, his spell list is complete garbage for an All Powerful Lich king, most famous of wizards. His damage is insanely low, and over all, I think a Barbarian at level 20 with the right gear and prep could solo Vecna.....
True That.
Rotten fate is basically an at will 9th level finger of death it has roughly the damage you'd expect for a custom 9th level spell and does basically the same damage as power word kill, power word kill effectively does 100 damage while rotten fate does 96. Of course rotten fate will be easier to land the power word kill for a variety of reasons. Personally I think of the zombification effect as kind of like a disintegrate it prevents resurrection. As does after though btw because if you die with it active that effect remains active and you cannot regain hit points.
There are spells that could boost his damage but power word kill isn't it. You'd need to add a heavy hitter like meteor swarm which is strong even for a 9th level spell, it does about 2.8x the recommended damage for a spell of that level. It's very much an outlier like fireball and not what you should expect.
As a buff I actually suggest the following combo maddening darkness and mind blank. Gives him a big cloud of darkness that he can see in, that does about a fire balls worth of damage every round to everyone in it but him. I also think it fits the assassin theme but be warned that kind of combo is brutal even for high level players.
Bruh, I’m getting MAJOR Voldemort vibes
*dammit
Seems really cool, but I missed the event so I’ll just have to resort to a pdf. Also, why make it an event? Just do what you did with the radiant citadel and have it be like an sample from an book to entice people to get that book instead of locking away a pretty cool boss to an limited time event. At least I can still use the internet pdf. 😐
Please... Can you make it available again ? Same for other free add-ons like The Radiant Citadel, Rrakkma and Spelljamer Academy. Not to be able to own all the content is rather frustrating.
Lets suppose that Vecna's stat block is without his legendary body parts - he is essentially hurt or without his full power. That said he has resources - doesn't he have an entire demi-plane?