In the world of Dungeons and Dragons, there are a few iconic names. There is the magnificent wizard, Mordenkainen, and his various discoveries across the multiverse. There is the Drow hero, Drizzt Do'Urden and his allies The Companions of the Hall. Then, there is the undying archlich, Vecna, a name that embodies everything players know and fear about liches. Now, The Undying King will be able to menace adventuring parties anew, thanks to Wizards of the Coast releasing his new, updated fifth edition statblock
Where Can I Get The New Vecna 5e Statblock?
This new take on the iconic lich, formally called The Vecna Dossier, is available right now for free on DnD Beyond. includes some lore about the character, including his origin on the plane of Oerth, the severing of his hand and eye by his traitorous aid, Kas, his creation of The Book of Vile Darkness, and his ultimate ambition to conquer the entire multiverse. If you have never played Dungeons and Dragons before, this dossier condenses decades of lore into a few paragraphs.
What Is In The New Vecna 5e Statblock?
The new Vecna 5e statblock contains its share of surprises for adventurers brave enough to face him. In accordance with how spellcasting has changed for monsters with the release of Mordenkainen's Monsters of the Multiverse, Vecna can just cast multiple different high-level spells at will with no material components. These include Lightning Bolt and Animate Dead as at-will spells, Dimension Door and Invisibility twice per day, and Globe of Invulnerability and Dominate Monster once per day. Furthermore, he can cast two deadly abilities up to three times each round as a reaction. The first is Dread Counterspell, an enhanced version of Counterspell where any 4th level spell or lower it instant fails and anything higher requires an Intelligence check by the archlich. But no matter what spell level, the caster takes psychic damage in addition to having their spell countered. The second is Fell Rebuke, which allows Vecna to inflict psychic damage on whoever dealt damage to him last as well as let him teleport up to 30 ft.
Finally, since Vecna is a centuries-old necromancer, he also wields some powerful special actions and weapons as well. There is his dagger, Afterthought, which deals 2d8 ongoing necrotic damage to its target, which he can attack with twice per round. Then there is his Flight of the Damned, a 120-foot cone effect which can deal on average 36 necrotic damage and inflict the Frightened condition, and his single target Rotten Fate, which can deal an average of 96 necrotic damage and bring anyone killed back instantly as a zombie. Overall, he is depicted as a CR 26.
It must be noted that this Vecna 5e statblock does not depict the character at full power. This is a character that has taken on many roles throughout the history of Dungeons and Dragons, including being a Dark Lord in his own Domain of Dread in Advanced Second Edition and even becoming the head of his own evil pantheon of gods in Fourth Edition, and trying to depict him in all of those various contexts would be daunting. Instead, the statblock presented is meant to represent Vecna as an archlich before Kas' betrayal; his left hand and left eye are still intact. Furthermore, the statblock doesn't account for any additional dark power or tricks provided by The Book of Vile Darkness.
The release of the Vecna 5e statblock marks the second time smaller forms of content for Dungeons and Dragons have been made available through DnD Beyond. This coincides with Wizards of the Coast officially buying the digital content platform. This has led to them giving away older books on the platform for free as well as the first Monstrous Compendium.
The Vecna Dossier will be available for all users until June 16.
