Reading this thread made me feel 20 years younger.
The amount of aggressive Gatekeeping and Passive Aggressive Insults aimed at the younger generations of players has always been there, but this is the first time I ever inhaled it like an inverse Sanderson Sister to grow more powerful and youthful by comparison!
More simply:
He's freaking VECNA. He has any spell you want at any time you want him to have it. If it suits you to have the PHB open to the spell list behind your DM screen go for it. If you're just using him as a mortal foe pre-ascension for your players, though, he's probably not going to last long enough to truly show off his full power so most should just use the statblock.
The amount of aggressive Gatekeeping and Passive Aggressive Insults aimed at the younger generations of players has always been there, but this is the first time I ever inhaled it like an inverse Sanderson Sister to grow more powerful and youthful by comparison!
More simply:
He's freaking VECNA. He has any spell you want at any time you want him to have it. If it suits you to have the PHB open to the spell list behind your DM screen go for it. If you're just using him as a mortal foe pre-ascension for your players, though, he's probably not going to last long enough to truly show off his full power so most should just use the statblock.