WotC Vecna Eve of Ruin: Everything You Need To Know

WotC has posted a 19-minute video telling you 'everything you need to know' about Vecna: Eve Of Ruin.

• Starts at 10th level, goes to 20th.
• Classic villains and setting, famous characters, D&D's legacy.
• Vecna wants to become the supreme being of the multiverse.
• Vecna is a god of secrets and secrets and the power of secrets are a theme throughout the book.
• A mechanical subsystem for using the power of secrets during combat.
• Going back to Ravenloft, the Nine Hells, places where 5th Edition has been in the last 10 years.
• It would be a fun 'meta experience' for players to visit locations they remember lore about.
• Finding pieces of the Rod of Seven Parts, pieces throughout the multiverse.
• Each piece in one of seven distinct planes or settings.
• Allustriel Silverhand has noticed something is wrong, puts call out to Tasha and Mordenkainen, who come to her sanctum in Sigil.
• The (10th level) PCs are fated to confront Vecna.
• Lord Soth and Strahd show up. Tiamat is mentioned but doesn't appear 'on screen'.
• Twists, turns, spoilers.
• It's a 'love letter to D&D'.

 

[Distracted DM]

I think that happens to every 5e adventure. They seem to suffer a bit in editing (not to bash the editors). Again, I think that they should try to do less with each adventure and use the space to make them better.

I was going to say, yeah this seems like a lot of the adventures... Which suggests that cutting down heavily to a severe degree isn't seen as an issue, or the original content is just lackluster.

 

[Distracted DM]

Spoiler

You answered your own question there by mentioning the Crown of Lies. Kas says he's helping cast wish, and the artifact makes Alustriel and Tasha 100% believe that he is doing so. No further explanation is necessary. The fact that he isn't actually casting the spell is the reason it malfunctions and summons the PCs.

Spoiler

People believe your lies... But the crown isn't a mind control helmet. If it was, then Kas could just get the most powerful folk in the multiverse to be his mind-controlled army and go kick Vecna's ass. Maybe they can go get the rod pieces for him too, why not.

The real hole in that hypothesis is that the player characters can discover hints that Kas is masquerading as Mordenkainen and confront him, and fight him. Why would Kas even need to fight them if he could lie, and the characters will believe the lie?
So the crown has limits. Which should extend to waving your hands and saying "arcane nonsense" when the other most expert mages in the verse are looking at you. "I'm casting Wish." "No, you're not."

 

[Demetrios1453]

Spoiler

People believe your lies... But the crown isn't a mind control helmet. If it was, then Kas could just get the most powerful folk in the multiverse to be his mind-controlled army and go kick Vecna's ass. Maybe they can go get the rod pieces for him too, why not.

The real hole in that hypothesis is that the player characters can discover hints that Kas is masquerading as Mordenkainen and confront him, and fight him. Why would Kas even need to fight them if he could lie, and the characters will believe the lie?
So the crown has limits. Which should extend to waving your hands and saying "arcane nonsense" when the other most expert mages in the verse are looking at you. "I'm casting Wish." "No, you're not."

Spoiler

Nope. They said, "Yes, you are."

It's an artifact. Which has powers explicitly stated that any and all lies are believed, by anyone hearing them, with no chance of disbelieving them no matter how knowledgeable the hearer is. To quote: "While in your disguised form, any lies you tell always seem to be true, no matter what magical or mundane methods are used to detect your falsehoods" (emphasis mine). The mundane method of "I've got a lot of experience weilding magic" is of no help in this case, as per the item's description.

We'll just have to disagree about this one, I guess.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Spoiler

People believe your lies... But the crown isn't a mind control helmet. If it was, then Kas could just get the most powerful folk in the multiverse to be his mind-controlled army and go kick Vecna's ass. Maybe they can go get the rod pieces for him too, why not.

The real hole in that hypothesis is that the player characters can discover hints that Kas is masquerading as Mordenkainen and confront him, and fight him. Why would Kas even need to fight them if he could lie, and the characters will believe the lie?
So the crown has limits. Which should extend to waving your hands and saying "arcane nonsense" when the other most expert mages in the verse are looking at you. "I'm casting Wish." "No, you're not."

Sometimes the smartest people are the easiest to fool. That why there were a load of scientists experimenting with ESP in the 1970s, and why the Insight skill is attached to wisdom rather than intelligence. And it doesn't matter how outrageous the lie, it's the way you sell it that matters. You only have to look at politics to see that people, even very smart people, will believe anything.

 

[Hussar]

/edit - sorry, hadn't realized how far back in the thread I was. My bad.

 

[Distracted DM]

Sometimes the smartest people are the easiest to fool. That why there were a load of scientists experimenting with ESP in the 1970s, and why the Insight skill is attached to wisdom rather than intelligence. And it doesn't matter how outrageous the lie, it's the way you sell it that matters. You only have to look at politics to see that people, even very smart people, will believe anything.

Fair point!

Spoiler

Nope. They said, "Yes, you are."

It's an artifact. Which has powers explicitly stated that any and all lies are believed, by anyone hearing them, with no chance of disbelieving them no matter how knowledgeable the hearer is. To quote: "While in your disguised form, any lies you tell always seem to be true, no matter what magical or mundane methods are used to detect your falsehoods" (emphasis mine). The mundane method of "I've got a lot of experience weilding magic" is of no help in this case, as per the item's description.

We'll just have to disagree about this one, I guess.

Spoiler

If it's that powerful, then I don't understand how any of this is plausible.
How do the PCs have opportunities to discover that Mordenkainen isn't who he says he is, and battle Kas then and there? He can just say "Alustriel is the evil one here!" or "I am Mordenkainen, and you need my help" or even "I'm Kas but I'm actually here to help you. Give me all your weapons and armor because that's what you want to do! Also become my vampire spawn slaves because it'll be really great for you and it'll guarantee our defeat of Vecna!"

 

[Shardstone]

Can the crown work on vecna? Big if true

 

[Quartz]

So, is the adventure a pile of rubbish or not?

 

[MerricB]

So, is the adventure a pile of rubbish or not?

No. It's a mixed bag.

It is fundamentally what some people don't want, and they really shouldn't buy it.

 

[Demetrios1453]

So, is the adventure a pile of rubbish or not?

No. Some parts are better than others. There are some excellent parts, and there are some parts that are passable and might need some work. But it definitely doesn't fall into the "pile of rubbish" category.