Vecna: Eve of Ruin D&D 5e Review - A Culmination Of Years Of Work

2024 is the big year of the Dungeons & Dragons 50th Anniversary, and for such a big year it only makes sense that we're getting some pretty big releases. This includes The Making Of Original Dungeons & Dragons, a new set of Core Rulebooks, and their capstone adventure for 5th Edition, Vecna: Eve of Ruin. And while it's filled with massive set pieces, cameos, and high stakes, just how well does Vecna: Eve of Ruin fare as a cataclysmic show-stopping adventure?

What is Vecna: Eve of Ruin?

Before we get into the content of the book I want to first talk about what it actually is. Vecna: Eve of Ruin is a level 10-20 adventure for 4-6 characters written for the 5th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons. While this year will see a new Core Rules update/release, the name is expected to remain 5th Edition -- so it's important to note which came before or after.

The adventure itself takes place over 186 pages - added to that page count is further information on about 33 new Monsters, as well as detailed dossier pages on 11 important characters. The dossier pages are intended to be 'cheat sheets' for DMs so that you don't need to scrounge around online to learn just why Kas the Betrayer or Miska the Wolf-Spider are important and where their allegiances may lie. More on how useful that is later though...

Danger To The Multiverse

In Vecna: Eve of Ruin the players begin their adventure by being hired by the Lord of Neverwinter to investigate the disappearances of a few high-profile members of Neverwinter society. Through Chapter 1 the party rescues these residents but also get themselves entwined in the activity of various Cults of Vecna.

Having become connected to Vecna through a misfiring ritual the party is informed by powerful spellcasters - Lady Alustriel Silverhand, Mordenkainen, and Tasha - that they're the only ones who have the ability to collect the different segments of the Rod of Seven Parts and use it to track down and seal away Vecna.

It's a classic setup, there's a big bad rising to power and it's up to the party to collect Macguffins and then face the final foe. Interestingly, the premise is not that dissimilar from the major call to action and collection of themed magical items as D&D 5th Edition's first adventures Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat, which has since been re-bundled as Tyranny of Dragons.

While I say the setup is classic that is in no way to say that's it's dull or that anything about being a classic takes away from it's presentation or execution.

As I continued to read through the adventure, learning of the different locations of hidden pieces of the Rod it was exciting to read how the book was doubling down into high-fantasy tropes and really reveling in the history of Dungeons & Dragons.

The Party gets to spend time with the famous spellcasters I mentioned earlier, face off against the biggest of the big bads of D&D, and there are even a number of important cameos like Strahd Von Zarovich. It's not just the important people that get highlighted either as this adventure will begin in the Forgotten Realms but very quickly travel to the Shadowfell, Sigil, Barovia, the Astral Plane, Krynn, and more.

Having watched the 5th Edition release cycle get each of these locations in the minds of players over the past five years an adventure like this does feel like "The Avengers" of Dungeons & Dragons.

High-Level Combat Slowing The Adventure

Being a high-level adventure there is a lot of dungeon crawling, you won't spend as much time in an 'overworld' state looking for clues or interacting with the world.

This is definitely a side-effect of having crammed so many locations into a single adventure, but also when you start as Level 10 and end the campaign as walking deities a stroll between villages is likely going to detract from your adventure as opposed to enhancing it.

Spending time in these dungeon crawls will lead to a lot of combat. I don't have many issues with Dungeons & Dragons combat, but there were times in the early half of this campaign that a lot of combat felt more like a speed bump than anything to enhance the experience.

I understand the need to have combat, but fewer and more complex combat encounters will always be my preference over larger but trivial combat.

Within Chapter 1, traditionally used to deliver a plot hook and get the players involved, the story opens with a dungeon crawl that includes eight combat encounters. Some encounters offer a refreshing battle against a Water Elemental or Balgura, while the rest are Wights or various levels of Cultists/Necromancers.

The reprieve from a lot of this combat comes in the back half of the book. The party will delve into the trapped Tomb of Wayward Souls or infiltration of the Red Belvedere casino. While combat is not totally absent the balance between roleplay and combat is much better.

Secrets As A Currency

A new mechanic introduced is that the party will be able to collect currencies as secrets throughout their adventure. This skill is one granted to them by their strange connection with Vecna.

There are seventeen secrets that can be collected and they can be spent to grant the party advantage on all rolls for the next minute. Obviously, a massive boon to have in the midst of battle but could also be used in a dire moment to clutch a successful persuasion roll in combat.

The flip side of this very valuable and limited currency is how secrets can be used in the final conflict with Vecna aka The God of Secrets. With each collected secret the players can go from having inspiration at the start of the battle, all the way up to having permanent advantage on any Constitution Saving Throws.

I know from my own players that when I hand them powerful objects they tend to save them for paramount battles, a mechanic like this is the ultimate 'save the big weapon for the end of the game' to reward players for their months of exploration for secrets and their unwillingness to let those secrets go.

Character Dossiers Are More Like Paragraphs

One of the aspects that was emphasized during pre-release was the inclusion of character dossiers to better help DMs who might not be familiar with 50 years of Dungeons & Dragons lore but want to understand more about characters like Kas the Betrayer and Lolth the Spider Queen. Some characters do get a sizable amount of fleshed-out information, like Lolth, but Lord Soth only gets four sentences and Tasha only gets two paragraphs.

Realistically this won't have the greatest impact as with most NPCs a DM will add their own shine to it and create a performance in their own way, but for such important characters with plot integral to the adventure these dossiers are more than likely just going to prompt those running the game to start looking through Wikis as they would with other important NPC.

Vecna: Eve of Ruin Review | Final Thoughts

There is a lot going on throughout Vecna: Eve of Ruin. You can see the dedication to create a grand adventure, hitting up some of D&D history's most important characters and visiting the most interesting locations, but there's also some places where it stumbles or loses pace.

If you're a DM ready to lead a party all the way to level 20 then it's good that there's a book that will take you there, and that it's an adventure of the highest caliber.

I am afraid for many players the adventure will start sluggish, with combat for the sake of combat, and it might not feel like much progression is being made, but once they reach the back half of the adventure they'll get a much better balance.

Overall this is a very high-fantasy adventure that really doubles down on what it is to be that classic take on Dungeons & Dragons, ultimately for better or worse. If that's your bag then you're going to have a grand time.

The copy of Vecna: Eve of Ruin used in the creation of this review was provided by the publisher.