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.
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Posted Jun 11, 2022I don’t see how this could possibly be CR18-20. 150ish DPR plus 80 healing per round is incredible, and five LRs plus the triple counterspell opportunities means that Vecna will very rarely be CC’d. Not to mention how Fell Rebuke can crash a melee martial’s damage when combined with at-will fly.
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Posted Jun 11, 2022yup a poor spellcaster
its just a combat avatar nothing more 😖
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Posted Jun 11, 2022Why doesn't Vecna cast spells like a wizard or sorcerer? Vecna's spell list seems a bit weak and incomplete.
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Posted Jun 11, 2022Newer monster profiles don't include huge laundry list spellcasting blocks anymore; the spells that a monster is most likely to use in a fight are now actions/bonus actions/reactions, while the spellcasting block is typically the "backup" or setup spells around the fight itself (i.e- Vecna would probably have globe of invulnerability active if he knows a fight is coming, and he would only use dispel magic if the globe and his unlimited counterspell failed).
Beyond that, out of combat magic is just whatever the DM wants to describe; Vecna's a big bad so the DM can have him raise a legion of zombies to wage a war, or reconstruct the environment around himself etc. for flavour purposes, none of that needs to be listed in the block or defined as a single explicit spell, tracked as slots etc. For the purposes of the stat block they're now focusing mostly on only what you need to run a creature during combat.
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Posted Jun 11, 2022Its not worth the 26. Also Vecna can be turned lol...what a joke that is. Acererak actually beats him 1 vs 1 using these stat blocks as well. Its...nuts. You can justify it as they did above...but really he isn't CR 26, i think he is closer to a 22 or 23 at most. However they seem to have a really hard time making high CR creatures. Add his lair abilities to him from the adventure and he might be a bit stronger then.
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Posted Jun 12, 2022Folks are really under-selling this guy, lol. The dude has an action economy monopoly and he jumps around every time he does get hit. And if your party is that stacked, you could always just add whatever spell you want to his sheet. The idea that folks are saying he needs Wish to be a difficult encounter is a bit of a shock to me.
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Posted Jun 12, 2022Yeah when creatures have regeneration abilities like vecna's it's assumed they get 3 rounds of regeneration and that amount is added to their health. That means vecna is considered to have 512 health for the sake of calculating cr. Normally I find this leads to hit and run style enemies which Vecna kind of is with his ability to teleport as a reaction and as bonus action but I don't think he's any where near as squishy as a vampire whose regen is allot easier to block.
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Posted Jun 14, 2022Check out the new article on How to make Vecna the big bad of your campaign, it has a section for Lich Minions.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1256-how-to-make-vecna-the-big-bad-of-your-d-d-campaign
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Posted Jun 14, 2022For all those who are interested, here is a revised statblock for Vecna with spellcasting appropriate for the archlich: https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/2648634-archlich
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Posted Jun 14, 2022While I can appreciate the effort that's been put into it, this just seems enormously unwieldy; there's a reason the trend is towards simplification, because you'd need a DM with a degree certification in how to run just this one creature as that stat-block is huge, and that's not accounting for the even greater scope for minions that need to be run at the same time (with additional rules to account for if near Vecna).
It's also way, way stronger than CR 26; the one from the dossier is probably about right for CR 26, but the linked one is easily CR 30+ when you factor in legendary actions (one of which lets all undead within 60-feet attack for only a single legendary action, so with 10 in range you can attack the players 30 times in a round!), even more reactions, lair actions, more special features, higher ability scores, more hit-points etc.
A lot of people seem to be obsessed with misreading the block provided in the dossier; it's a very strong monster, and a tough fight even for CR 26 assuming there's no metagaming going on (it has a couple of exploitable weaknesses, but nothing that characters should know about without discovering them in advance), and it's easily scaled if you need more difficulty by granting full access to the book of vile darkness, or starting with undead minions (or bringing them in if the fight is proving too easy), and so-on. DM's have all the tools they need to make the fight as epic as they want.
Giving him a huge list of spells only makes him harder to run; most fights in D&D don't last more than 10 rounds at most, a particularly epic one might go on for a bit longer, but very few will. If your caster has 30+ spells then that's 20+ spells they'll never get a chance to use, and in practice a lot more, as most of the time their basic actions are all they need anyway. And really there's no need to have such a spell list; if the DM wants a big bad to cast a spell for effect, then they can simply have them do it. Monsters are not bound by the need to prepare spells.
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Posted Jun 14, 2022A monster as important and powerful as Vecna deserves such a big statblock including full casting progession, I see no issue there.
I regularly run monsters with spell slots and have no issues with those, even when there are minions as well. Just recently I ran a black dragon with spellcasting and a couple of other homebrew traits in its lair together with minions and everything went smoothly.
Also, I think the official statblock is nowhere near CR 26, I am curious how you would call a fight with it challenging when all it can do is dealing a bunch of necrotic damage with its pseudo-finger of death to a single target. Its reactions are nice, but not even close to good legendary actions - it cannot even upcast his counterspell, meaning the so-called archlich cannot stop the party from using high-level magic against it; and the teleport does not help it to avoid getting slaughtered by melee characters if they have enough movement - such as barbarians with instinctive pounce, paladins with their steeds, anyone with haste, misty step or a racial teleport...
The heal looks impressive, but is shut down easily with chill touch or spirit shroud.
The book of vile darkness does almost nothing for Vecna besides increasing his Intelligence to 24 (which it should have been at in the first place) and giving it an additional dominate momster with a lower DC.
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Posted Jun 14, 2022The size of a stat-block or spell-list is only equivalent to how challenging the encounter will be to actually run; again, the trend is towards simplification for a reason.
This Vecna can move 60-150 feet in a round ignoring most obstacles, his counterspell also isn't his only magical defence as he has globe of invulnerability and 5/day legendary resistance, the counterspell just means he has a chance to cancel higher level spells outright without having to use the latter. While this doesn't mean he can automatically shut down magic that doesn't target him, that's not something you really want a BBEG to be doing anyway (otherwise you might as well just ask the spellcasting players to not show up at all).
He can counterspell either of these, and for spirit shroud he can go for the caster directly to break concentration. This is also assuming the party brought either of these spells. It's like saying a fire heavy monster is useless because the party all showed up with fire immunity; this is fine if they know to do it, otherwise it's luck, and the DM knows in advance either way if they want to adjust for it. A BBEG does not need to have an answer to everything built into its stat-block; it has a DM for a reason.
That's not all that the book of vile darkness does; it's literally a free license for whatever evil stuff the DM wants to grant, on top of the various random benefits (which the DM is free to choose as well).
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Posted Jun 14, 2022The trend is towards massive oversimplification, a trend I am not going along with - and many others dislike this trend too. There is no reason to not give one of the most powerful wizards ever in existence full spellcasting progression up to 9th level spells.
I am curious how much experience you have with playing and DMing for high level parties.On paper, if you read the statblocks, these abilities look impressive, but in practice, they are almost irrelevant.
Because I was interested to see how terribly weak the official Vecna is, I just ran a mock fight of TWO Vecnas against a party between level 12 and 16 (Shepherd druid 12, Divine Soul Sorc 10 / Peace Cleric 1 / Celestial Warlock 2, Barbarian 8 / Echo Knight 4, Paladin 16), all characters directly taken from games I play in without changes. And the Vecnas lost horribly.
Several issues were exposed in this battle:
The spells are fairly common, Chill Touch is a mere cantrip. Also as I just explained, you cannot rely on being able to counterspell anything. And yes, he might be able to break concentration on Spirit Shroud or dispel it, but... it can just be cast again, and one hit while it is active is enough to stop Vecna's healing for the round. Of course a DM always needs to adjust an encounter to their party.
You need to differentiate between statblocks you make for your own games and statblocks you make to share them with other DMs, to give them ideas and inspiration for what they can do. As a DM I often make stuff up on the fly and do not write everything down in a statblock. Because noone else sees the statblock I use on the table, I do not need to. I can just say that the monster does this and that. Same goes for spellcaster, I can just come up with whatever spell I want them to cast. But that does not work for statblocks that are created to be shared. They need to be complete, they need to have every ability and every spell the monster can cast listed in them.
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Posted Jun 14, 2022I support the trend, because not everyone has the time to do all the homework required to run complicated stat-blocks in every session; a DM needs what is necessary to run the encounter, anything else they can add themselves if they want more.
And this Vecna has a 9th-level spell, it's called Rotten Fate; it's an upscaled finger of death that he can use an unlimited number of times, and can't be counterspelled. Monsters aren't bound by the limitations of players, they don't need the same named 9th-level spells players can get.
You seem to be assuming that he's starting within melee range of the melee attacker rather than the attacker having to move to him; in reality he should be going for the weakest links first, which means separation from any melee threats. If a melee attacker moves up and attacks, he can teleport as a reaction meaning they need to make another 30 foot move to keep attacking him. While there are melee attackers that can do this, it means that he's now even further away from any others.
In his own turn he can simply walk away from any melee threat that starts next to him, because if they hit him with an opportunity attack he can use his own reaction to teleport, which on top of his Vile Teleport will give him 90-feet of movement in the turn, while if they miss he doesn't need to so has the reaction for later, and that's assuming he doesn't hit them with a Flight of the Damned, Rotten Fate or dominate monster. He also has dimension door if he really needs to create distance.
Using cover to block his line of sight won't allow you cast a spell directly at him, and he should still have globe of invulnerability active to start with, as well as legendary resistances for anything that you can clip with in an area of effect. The purpose of his counterspell is not to shut down all casting, it's to make it harder to harm him with spells.
And Rotten Fate is a great way to break a Sorcerer's concentration.
The damage may not be much on their own, but if you're assuming 1-3 targets hit by the teleport and three reactions used each round then that's an extra 40-60 automatic damage (no hit rolls or saving throws involved).
You also seem to be over-stating immunity to being frightened, the main ones would be a Berserker Barbarian's Mindless Rage (needs to remain Raging to ignore it), a Monk's Stillness of Mind (costs an action counter it), heroes' feast (cleric/druid only spell that must be used in advance) or a Paladin's aura of courage (only works if the paladin remains within 30-feet, which with Vecna teleporting is easier said than done), otherwise the options are mostly just resistance (advantage on the saves). If there is a linchpin, like the Paladin, to any of these then that only encourages focusing Rotten Fate or other options on them to eliminate it.
Buffing that he can aim to counterspell or dispel and other melee he can attempt to avoid.
Except that he can fairly reliably counterspell both; chill touch can't be cast without line of sight to the target, and if he went after a target to break its spirit shroud then he should be able to see them.
Err… no they don't? Literally everything in D&D is open for customisation by the DM, there is a giant section of the Dungeon Master's Guide on that subject alone. A giant, over-complicated stat-block is overwhelming and requires the DM to pare it down just to use it, a simplified stat block can be run as-is shortly after giving it a decent read, and only requires additions if you need them.
The book of vile darkness is a specific invitation to do this; it has a bunch of attached benefits that the DM can choose for Vecna to tailor him however they want, and it can allow casting any spells they want. But most DMs won't need to do this, or won't need to change much to tailor for their players.
If you want your Vecna to raise an army of undead before a fight, you don't need the stat block to tell you what spells he'd use, you just decide how many undead you want him to have and that happens, if you want him to have traps or tricks in his lair, then he simply has them and so-on. You don't need a list of spells to dig through. You also seem determined to assume that Vecna should be run without any chaff being thrown at the players? Everybody knows if you want a fight to be challenging it's about the adds, not the big bad, as they're the ones that threaten the player party's action economy; and you don't face Vecna alone because Vecna is never alone. You can't assume perfect positioning of your every attack, or that your melee fighters can close the distance, because he's going to be teleporting around while you're bogged down dealing with other threats, or trying to get clear of them.
You've put enough effort into overpowering your stat-block that you should be able to see how you're supposed to run the original.
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Posted Jun 14, 2022im more surprised to the fact that vecna is not legendary with legendary actions...
then again, they added a lot of action economy to the new monsters.
literally they gave bonus actions to most monsters giving them one more thing to do. now they gave him more reactions. though counterspell wont work often... as in he counters the wizard,the wizard counters himself and vecna as to wait another turn still. so thats not gonna be much help. but as i said, he has more actions per turn... but what i hate is that he has to wait for his turn to come back... my players prooved me long ago that at level 20, they are capable of doing 500+ damage in one single round. so that 80 hp per turn is not gonna be helpful either.
that said... its not a brutal fight, but it is still a hard fight.
as for unlimited zombies... anything can kill those zombies and those zombies may not be able to hit at all.
in the end, vecna is gonna ruin himself by using those... space is gonna get sparce... thus vecna will lose his own teleports over time.
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Posted Jun 14, 2022Why is Vecna so weak?
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Posted Jun 15, 2022Because DMs are totally clueless that the Book of Vile Darkness has 3 minor and 1 major beneficial properties they can use to re-tune Vecna with various immunities, AC or HP boosts or access to additional spells and are pretending every party that would run this encounter is just as amazingly optimized as their party is at cheesing 5e mechanics.
99% of the complaints here seem clueless that the Book literally allows these DMs to do whatever they want to make Vecna specifically more difficult for their party. No homebrewing required, lol.
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Posted Jun 15, 2022Vecna's counterspell isn't a spell, so it can't be counter-counterspelled.
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Posted Jun 15, 2022The book legit only gives him a free dominate monster, and some of the major benefit artifact abilities, why is that super strong?
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Posted Jun 15, 2022Wizards don’t need to know languages. They can just cast spells like comprehend languages etc. The time he didn’t spend learning them he spent on more important tasks...