Bossification: Vecna, Archlich

 

Vecna: The Man of Many Titles

Hello and welcome to Bossification, where we create new monsters or adapt existing ones for all your epic boss battle purposes. Our first edition tackles Vecna, the infamous Dungeons and Dragons lich, god, wizard, and vampire hater. 

First things first: Why not use the lich in the Monster Manual?

The lich in the Monster Manual is fine, but it is not nearly strong enough to be the impactful boss fight everyone wants to see from a master of magic. 135 hit points is not even close to enough. At the level the lich is intended to be faced at, a fighter or paladin could easily do close to that amount in a single round. The lich has a giant spell list, but the majority of them are going to be useless in a fight. I don't really need to know that it can cast prestidigitation. The rest of the lich's abilities simply aren't very interesting. A boss battle, especially if its the last one of the campaign, needs to be EPIC. The Monster Manual lich doesn't have that special sauce. 

So, our goals with the Bossification of the lich are as follows: 

- Increase Hit Points

- More damage per round

- More useful spells and remove useless ones

- Portray the master of magic flavor of Vecna in the ability design

- Incorporate Villain Actions 

Villain Actions are a fantastic invention of Matt Colville, which he explains in this video. I highly recommend incorporating them into your important boss battles. 

Note that this version is intended to be a less powerful version of Vecna where he is merely a lich rather than a god of magic. He is also not in possession of either the Hand or Eye of Vecna. Rest assured, there will be a future edition where we look at a fully juiced up godlike Vecna. 

Here is the full statblock.

Now, you may be thinking one thing.

"Holy crap, that is a lot of abilities!"

Yes, it is. But keep in mind that the intent of this monster is to face down a 12-15th level party all by himself. In order to be the threat that he needs to be, he must constantly be acting and showcasing his mastery over all things magic. If you decide you want less abilities for a single monster, remove his Villain or Legendary Actions and give him some minions instead. These should serve the same purpose. 

Now go forth and make your players truly afraid of the Whispered One!

Thanks for reading!

Art by Riot Games.