D&D 5E Enhancing Vecna: Eve of Ruin *SPOILERS*

[TheGlen]

Oh, I'd ignore the reference to FR and place it entirely in Greyhawk. If the adventure makes this difficult, that is a point against it for me.

I grabbed one character from a different setting. Made for some serious roleplay possibilities. Especially fighting the Sorcerer King in Dark Sun's lost city.

FR: we are screwed!

DS: OUR DEATHS WILL BE LEGENDARY

DL: What? It's only one dragon!

 

[Distracted DM]

What I wonder about most is the mood and themes of the adventure. Is Vecna as a lord of secrets well represented? Does Vecna try to find the secret that will bend each of his opponent's to his will?

The adventure doesn't actually have secrets being used like that, in a practical sense. Secrets are like spell points, or tickets at a game center where you can trade them in for a prize.
Vecna has acquired lots of secrets, so now he can trade them in for the Remake All Realities ritual.

The PCs, being tied to Vecna cuz Wish, can now also collect secrets for prizes. If they haven't spent all their Secret Points for rerolls by the end of the adventure, they get a big buff to really help them stomp Vecna into the dirt. The more Secret Points they haven't spent, the bigger the endgame buff.

The secrets aren't actually leverages against people.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I feel like people are underestimating the difficulty of these things. Particularly Vecna and Miska.

For one thing a full 20th level party with magic gear is supposed to be able to defeat a CR 26 like Archlich Vecna in a straight fight at full strength.

The PC's are not going to be at full strength for those fights. At minimum before fighting Vecna with no rest after they have to defeat two Death Knights and four CR 10 Mirror Shades (Honestly it's very likley that the mirror shades wait and are fought alongside Vecna. The Arena they are fighting him in is also very tricky in a way that does not affect Vecna.

The issue starts with the damage. Flat out, Miska should be dealing out hundreds of damage a turn, or be putting out comparable effects. At CR 24, against a level 19 party, nothing else is going to cut it. No minions matter; the minions are bosses or PART of the boss fight, so you gotta' balance MIska like he's a true solo. And he needs to be dumping out at least a hundred damage, minimum, a turn; and that should be in addition to wild, crazy effects triggering OR spells being interwoven between the attacks.

This is Miska the MINION as it is right now. Give me three of these and an interesting terrain and it'll be a fun fight at level 13. Just one? Or one and a bunch of weaker, mid minions? Sigh.

You do know Miska was always more famous for his generalship than his induvial combat prowers even in his original depiction. (In 2e he was impressive but not that impressive) Here he's a CR 24 and matches that as he is. He averages 141 damage + incapacitation a round assuming he doesn't use a spell that turn (If he does he drops to 115), he's also a general and is expected to be backed up by powerful Spyder-Fiends.

I am pretty sure a Level 13 party will die to this guy unless they get very lucky.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Do the actions of the PCs matter along the way? That is, unlike Shattered Obelisk, if the PCs succeed along the way, does the end get easier (or some such)? Other than getting the Rod parts?

The adventure is written to stand alone. However it wouldn’t be difficult to seed little bits of foreshadowing into whatever adventure you run first.

I’m rewriting the first chapter to remove Neverwinter from the adventure, so it flows more fluidly from my current, Ravenloft based campaign.

Chapter 1 is basically a prologue, designed to establish a connection to Vecna. The adventure proper starts some time after, at level 11. You could replace it with Nest of Evil Eye at lower level, or any other adventure where your players interrupt a sacrifice of secrets to Vecna.

 

[Distracted DM]

Do the actions of the PCs matter along the way? That is, unlike Shattered Obelisk, if the PCs succeed along the way, does the end get easier (or some such)? Other than getting the Rod parts?

If the PCs have the rod, it'll make the Vecna fight even easier since it specifically does a lot of extra damage against him per hit. If they haven't used accumulated secrets for rerolls, they get powerful buffs for the fight.

 

[pukunui]

Chapter 1 is basically a prologue, designed to establish a connection to Vecna. The adventure proper starts some time after, at level 11. You could replace it with Nest of Evil Eye at lower level, or any other adventure where your players interrupt a sacrifice of secrets to Vecna.

Yes, it feels a bit odd that Nest of the Eldritch Eye is essentially the same thing as the Eve of Ruin prologue (i.e. investigate Vecna cultists in Neverwinter).

If the PCs have the rod, it'll make the Vecna fight even easier since it specifically does a lot of extra damage against him per hit. If they haven't used accumulated secrets for rerolls, they get powerful buffs for the fight.

It's like how the trickster gods in Tomb of Annihilation make the fight against Acererak much easier by granting the PCs 50 temp hp every round during the fight against him and +3d6 psychic dmg with every attack that hits.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Yes, it feels a bit odd that Nest of the Eldritch Eye is essentially the same thing as the Eve of Ruin prologue (i.e. investigate Vecna cultists in Neverwinter).

The text implies they are part of the same cult, so you could run both if you are running a Neverwinter based anti-Vecna cultist campaign. But one can also substitute for the other based on party level.

 

[pukunui]

The text implies they are part of the same cult, so you could run both if you are running a Neverwinter based anti-Vecna cultist campaign. But one can also substitute for the other based on party level.

Yes. I'm just saying it feels a bit repetitive.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I've pretty much decided on what I'm going to do about the betrayal. I'm keeping the impersonation, but he is working against Vecna.

"Who wants to free the Demon Lord Miska?"

Spoiler

It was Tasha all along.

 

[Distracted DM]

I've pretty much decided on what I'm going to do about the betrayal. I'm keeping the impersonation, but he is working against Vecna.

"Who want's to free the Demon Lord Miska?"

Spoiler

"It was Tasha all along."

On first read, I thought you meant that that was what Kas would tell the party when they discover who he is, since they have to believe any lie he tells them.

Spoiler

"OK I'm not Mordenkainen, but I'm really trying to help you- the villain was Tasha all along!" He laughs as the party heads off to kill Tasha.