I'd argue more reactions is superior since it interrupts players' turns where legendary actions come in after. 

Not really sure how to inform the people with the power to fix this, but I found a mistake in the stat block within this supplement. Under Flight of the Damned it says "On a failed save" followed by "On a failed save" again, instead of saying "On a successful save". Hope this helps!

His appearance reminds me of the awakened Architect.

its not showing in my sources

Quote from Gilbert_Declare >>

its not showing in my sources

 

 it isn't in the drop down menu, but if you click "view all" you will see it next to Monstrous Compendium.

I take it this is the second free content drop (after Monstrous Compendium). However, when the MC dropped, the Wizards page made mention of a short spelljammer adventure, I'm hoping we will still get this? Are we waiting for August, when the Spelljammer box set to drops? These perks were supposed to drop monthly... I hope this is still the case. Not that I'm complaining but if anything has changed since then it would be nice to be kept informed.

I hate to say this, but this version of Vecna is disappointing, especially for a CR26? :( 

I think you might want to go back and reREAD some of those key abilities. Case in Point, in addition to one other action (which could be a Lightning Bolt each turn dealing up to 8d8 to anyone in a 100 ft line) Vecna gets to make two "Afterthought" attacks which might only do 18 points of damage (on average and 9 points of damage each turn there after till the PC makes a DC20 CON save) this ability prevents ANY healing to the afflicted target. When you have +13 to hit with that ability, even PCs with 20+ AC will be suffering soon enough. And since you can do this attack twice you can pretty effectively force the party to go throughout this entire fight without recieving ANY healing. That is insane.

Oh and Vecna has an AC of 18 making him pretty hard to hit, with three reactions of which you could self teleport upon taking damage!!!

You don't need a sheet full of spells to be dangerous or memorable, this stat block proves it.

Quote from Haravikk >>

Quote from Bigbossduckman >>

Lol, I just look at Acererak's statblock, he has a 27 intelligence while *this* Vecna only has 22 and less than half of Acererak's languages.
Vecna's apprentice is smarter than his master and has better spells.

Vecna wants to be a god of death, so Acerak arguably is more intelligent by being slightly less insane. 😝

Plus the ability scores have little influence on a monster's difficulty; Vecna has more legendary resistances and is just straight up nastier to face.

Quote from teioh8189761>>

Chill Touch (vs laughable AC18) and that teleport joke die on spot.

He can simply counterspell this if used.

Insane, but we are literally looking at the Ultimate BBEG. Acererak merely tried to make a god while Vecna literally has traveled the multiverse, lived eons, is the pinnacle of all Archliches, is worshipped as a god, and has liches serving under him.

Dumbing it down due to insanity is really underselling the sheer impact this character has and the multitude of dark knowledge he has come to possess in his eons of living.

Acererak to me seems to be a bit more insane than Vecna tbh, since he wanted to father a god and built an elaborate deathtrap dungeon for adventurers to die in.

The stat block is a little weak in my opinion. Looks like people might need to make some tweaks, because if a CR20-ish lich has a 9th level spell and VECNA's highest spell is... wait for it... plane shift. Come on.

Spell list aside which anyone can just fill in themselves, this dude seems crazy busted, at least just looking at him in a vacuum. On table it might play out differently, but that BA teleport, the RA's, and Rotten Fate, are insane. Especially the teleport, would annoy the crap out of me to play against.

Quote from AtlasWyverm>>

Insane, but we are literally looking at the Ultimate BBEG. Acererak merely tried to make a god while Vecna literally has traveled the multiverse, lived eons, is the pinnacle of all Archliches, is worshipped as a god, and has liches serving under him.

None of these means Vecna needs to have a higher intelligence score; Vecna has been killed multiple times, whereas Acererak fortified himself inside a tomb that is very, very good at killing adventurers for him, so there's definitely an argument that Acererak is the smarter of the two (apprentices can surpass their masters).

This doesn't mean that Vecna is weaker though; his profile is much stronger than Acererak's, if you face him in an encounter then his slightly lower INT score isn't going to make him any easier to fight unless your plan is to unleash a horde of intellect devourers and hope they defeat him for you without him allying with them.

Quote from Haravikk >>

Quote from AtlasWyverm>>

Insane, but we are literally looking at the Ultimate BBEG. Acererak merely tried to make a god while Vecna literally has traveled the multiverse, lived eons, is the pinnacle of all Archliches, is worshipped as a god, and has liches serving under him.

None of these means Vecna needs to have a higher intelligence score; Vecna has been killed multiple times, whereas Acererak fortified himself inside a tomb that is very, very good at killing adventurers for him, so there's definitely an argument that Acererak is the smarter of the two (apprentices can surpass their masters).

This doesn't mean that Vecna is weaker though; his profile is much stronger than Acererak's, if you face him in an encounter then his slightly lower INT score isn't going to make him any easier to fight unless your plan is to unleash a horde of intellect devourers and hope they defeat him for you without him allying with them.

 No it doesn't even matter. They can only remove intellegince on a creature with a score of 3d6 or lower. 22 is 4 more than 18. This is the first sentence of the devour brain thing.Body Thief. The intellect devourer initiates an Intelligence contest with an incapacitated humanoid within 5 feet of it that isn’t protected by protection from evil and good. Vecna is not a humanoid.

I don’t see what would be wrong with Acererak surpassing this Vecna- remember that the stat block is prior to Vecna’s ascension to godhood, and big A is an incredibly powerful and intelligent lich in his own right. Just take a look at some of the magic Acererak must be capable of to construct his traps. 

Is the dread counterspell considered a spell? Or is it not affected by counterspell 

Quote from MilestoGo_24 >>

No legendary actions! A transdimensional god has no legendary actions!

 He does tho

Quote from JacobDragonbornGold >>

Quote from Haravikk >>

Quote from AtlasWyverm>>

Insane, but we are literally looking at the Ultimate BBEG. Acererak merely tried to make a god while Vecna literally has traveled the multiverse, lived eons, is the pinnacle of all Archliches, is worshipped as a god, and has liches serving under him.

None of these means Vecna needs to have a higher intelligence score; Vecna has been killed multiple times, whereas Acererak fortified himself inside a tomb that is very, very good at killing adventurers for him, so there's definitely an argument that Acererak is the smarter of the two (apprentices can surpass their masters).

This doesn't mean that Vecna is weaker though; his profile is much stronger than Acererak's, if you face him in an encounter then his slightly lower INT score isn't going to make him any easier to fight unless your plan is to unleash a horde of intellect devourers and hope they defeat him for you without him allying with them.

 No it doesn't even matter. They can only remove intellegince on a creature with a score of 3d6 or lower. 22 is 4 more than 18. This is the first sentence of the devour brain thing.Body Thief. The intellect devourer initiates an Intelligence contest with an incapacitated humanoid within 5 feet of it that isn’t protected by protection from evil and good. Vecna is not a humanoid.

I feel like you're missing my point a bit when it should have been fairly obvious I wasn't seriously proposing fighting a CR 27 archlich with CR 2 monsters that I didn't bother to research 😝

This Vecna has 120-foot truesight and a range-of-sight counterspell it can use up to 3 times a round, I'm not sure chill touch is gonna cut it lol.

I do wish the stat block had more spells (Shield, Wish/Meteor Swarm, and better concentration spells especially) to beef it up. I don't think it's nearly the cake walk most people seem to think it is though.

The term half done speaks out to me with this stat block.

No legendary action, no mass amount of spells, 11 spells with no DPS. well, it's lovely to see that wizards have finally broken the reactions rules and given him more. his counterspell dose DPS back lovely but overall very lacklustre for a CR26!. well if I ever need a loose guide that needs about an hour's work to buff up this is a nice framework. tbh it feels more like cr 20/18 & I can see if I used this he would need a few mini mobs to guard him.

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