You Should Drop A Nuclear Warhead On Vecna – How to build a character for 5e’s last adventure

D&D 5^th Edition is coming to an end, and soon OneD&D will be out. This is no cause to rejoice, as the playtest material for the new game displays a clear lack of… well, anything. It’s underwhelming, uninteresting and fixes none of the game’s actual problems while making several aspects of gameplay more bland (an example being the total shift to abstract statblocks for familiars, Wild Shapes etc.) – in other words, all the worst parts of 5e.

The final adventure in 5e, Vecna: Eve of Ruin, will take PCs from level 10 to 20 on a quest to stop the evil dark god from doing evil dark god things. Specifically, it has to do with some kind of broken stick and a lot of dimension hopping. In this article, I will give some advice on character creation for the last 5e adventure to be released – both mechanical and backstory stuff.

Please note that I will be playing through this adventure myself with fellow optimizers – I have avoided spoilers for the most part, and do not possess information about the plot beyond that which I shall include here. I will be chronicling my own playthrough of the adventure on this blog.

NOTE: BEARS ARE FISH
Ever since the Second Sundering, bears have been considered a species of fish. This is evident due to the fact that in the Dungeon Master’s Guide there is an item called the trident of fish command. This item allows you to control any beast with an innate swimming speed. The trident of fish command lets you command bears, therefore bears are fish.
How does this let you beat Vecna? It doesn’t, but you should just know that bears are fish.

Starting Out

The adventure begins in Neverwinter. You can find information about this city in the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide or, if you prefer Floppa to Bingus, in the Neverwinter Campaign Setting for 4^th Edition. Other books with information on the subject include the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting and Volo’s Guide to the North. This is the city where the action of the latest D&D movie takes place.

The adventure provides a few options for backstory hooks, why your character is in Neverwinter and what you did previously. I have not read them yet and don’t particularly feel the need to do so later, as my backstory is already done.

You start at level 10 and progress to level 11 at the end of the first chapter. Note that this means that your character starts at roughly the same level as most 5e adventures end. You can easily bring back a character from a module you played previously, or just include the module’s events as part of your backstory. This can establish your character in the world’s history as “the guy who did that thing you may have heard about”. A complete list of 5e adventures that end at level 10:

• Curse of Strahd – levels 1-10
• Storm King’s Thunder – levels 1-11
• Tales from the Yawning Portal – going through the adventures in order and ending on Dead in Thay brings you to level 11
• Tomb of Annihilation – levels 1-11
• Lost Laboratory of Kwalish – levels 5-10
• Strixhaven – levels 1-10
• Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen – levels 1-11
• Keys from the Golden Vault – levels 1-11

Perhaps your Strixhaven adventure turned into a meme mine of Harry Potter references and your sorcerer ended up pledging allegiance to a lich patron who now wants the funny rod macguffin to turn it into seven more phylacteries. Or maybe your character from Keys from the Golden Vault loves stealing things so much he just wants to steal Vecna’s money.

Some adventures end at level 12 or 13 and thus it’s plausible that your character could have beaten the challenges within them early on without getting the full XP. These include:

• Ghosts of Saltmarsh – levels 1-12
• Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus – levels 1-13
• Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden – levels 1-12
• Call of the Netherdeep – levels 1-13
• Phandelver and Below – the Shattered Obelisk – levels 1-12

Special mention to the plot of Baldur’s Gate 3 – it ends at level 12, with your character presumably saving the city. That would also make for a pretty solid backstory for your character, either playing as Tav or one of your companions. Or go full silly mode and bring your Dark Urge to fight Vecna. Bonus points if another player is bringing a character from BGDiA which happens almost simultaneously.

When making your character, you should ask yourself the following questions:

• Why am I in Neverwinter?
• Who am I and why am I level 10?
• Which of the city’s factions do I have good/bad relations with, if any?
• What do I know or care about Vecna?

Once that is done, pet your cat and move on to step two – building a character. I will start with very basic things, in case you’re a first-time reader. If you seek evidence of any claims made in the advice below, you will likely find it in earlier blog content.

Optimization 101 – complete basics

D&D 5e character optimization focuses primarily on maximizing endurance. We want our resources to last as long as possible (hit points included), as they are limited and recharging them via a rest is not always an option.

The most durable characters in the game are spellcasters with a one or two-level dip in another spellcasting class taken to obtain both medium armor and shield proficiency and access to the shield and absorb elements spells. You should pick up silvery barbs if able to as well. Such characters have a base Armor Class of 19 (half plate, shield) and are able to get +5 from the shield spell for a round to mitigate particularly devastating blows. While martial characters may seem more durable at first glance, they have worse AC due to being forced to choose between wielding a shield and dealing good damage (hand crossbows require a free hand to reload), and a single casting of the shield spell in combat against an average monster will mitigate significantly more damage than the gap in HP caused by the martial having bigger hit dice.

If you are planning on bringing a weapon-using character – and I can’t really blame you, some magic weapons are actually cool – the key to performing on par with a well-played spellcaster is to raise your damage output through a bonus action attack feat (Crossbow Expert, Polearm Master) and a power attack feat (Sharpshooter, Great Weapon Master) and multiclass frequently to avoid the massive drop in power that martials experience after Extra Attack. Having an exclusively ranged party is preferable to having melee characters in it.

With ten levels to begin with, you have quite a few options and a decent amount of build variety. Here are some staples for each class:

• If you’re mainly going Artificer, a few levels of Wizard with a good subclass will give you the shield and silvery barbs spells, along with find familiar and a few others. One of the big weaknesses of the Artificer spell list is not having any good 3rd-level spells, something that five levels in Wizard can fix.
• My condolences to all Barbarian players, as the class is one of the weakest in the game. There’s little point in going beyond 5^th level, maybe 6^th. Multiclassing into Ranger and Fighter can help tremendously, for example Barb (Zealot) 5/Fighter 2/Ranger (Gloom Stalker) 3
• I almost forgot about Bard – its main asset is being a Charisma caster, meaning you can take two levels of Hexblade warlock to deal baseline at-will damage and get medium armor proficiency.
• If you’re going Cleric, you need little multiclassing due to being a fullcaster. One level of Sorcerer or two levels of Wizard (War Magic remains a favorite) will strengthen your defenses with the absorb elements, shield and silvery barbs spells.
• For a Druid, few multiclass options offer as much as the Divine Soul Sorcerer for absorb elements, shield and Favored by the Gods, along with a level of Life Domain Cleric to supercharge your goodberry spell with Disciple of Life. You will be upcasting spells a lot more, so the delayed progression due to multiclassing will be far less painful.
• While Fighter certainly sucks, it has some upsides like Action Surge and the Battle Master and Echo Knight subclasses. It’s not worth sinking levels into it for the 11^th and 20th-level Extra Attack upgrades, but starting out with five before going into Gloom Stalker Ranger and either Barbarian (for melee fighters) or Rogue (for ranged fighters) will make you stronger.
• The Monk class sucks at the archetypal class fantasy of punching people with fists. You have but two options to optimize it – turn into a cat and drink a glass of liquefied memes every time your Monk 1/Moon Druid 2/Beast Barbarian 5 Tabaxi has a feature that refers to “unarmed strikes” or “your claws”, or grab a musket and go Fighter + Gloom Stalker + Rogue.
• Paladin is almost as bad at delivering the class fantasy, being forced to choose between going into melee to inefficiently convert spell slots to damage using Divine Smite or staying back to grant your Aura of Protection benefits to the characters who benefit from it the most (the latter is the better tactical choice). On a paladin, a 2-level dip in Warlock is essential to grant you a ranged attack. Expect to be using it a lot more than your weapons. After reaching paladin 7/warlock 2, feel free to take all your remaining levels in Sorcerer – you already picked up all the key auras, now it’s time to get better at magic.
• Ranger is the best weapon-user in the game by far, combining 80% of the martial capabilities of a fighter with 50% of the spellcasting of a druid (far more than 130% the power of a fighter, but still less than 100% of a druid). Fighter and Rogue will help to boost your damage, and three levels of Warlock will allow you to cast pass without trace and spike growth more often.
• Rogue really sucks, and the best thing you can give it is an additional attack because one just isn’t enough damage. Five levels of Fighter or Ranger will help a lot.
• Sorcerer suffers from not having much of a reason to take it over Wizard (while still being one of the best classes in the entire game), and Metamagic is usually a worse use of your sorcery points than making new spell slots. Two to three levels of Hexblade Warlock will give you medium armor and shield proficiency and a good at-will attack.
• Warlock has its own casting system that is hindered more by multiclassing, but you do want some low-level slots and the defensive reaction spells. One level of Sorcerer and either a level of Cleric or the Moderately Armored feat will make you solid defensively.
• Wizard is the pinnacle of power in this game, and all it wants is a level in Cleric or Artificer for the armor proficiency.

When multiclassing spellcasters, bear in mind that the Cartomancer feat – added in the Book of Many Things – exists and is practically an autopick. This feat will, for example, grant a wizard 9/cleric 1 access to 5th-level cleric spells. Incredible, isn’t it?

You will be going to 20^th level, so bear that in mind and plan your level ups ahead.

COMMON ERROR – IT HAPPENS EVENTUALLY, WHY BOTHER?
At times you will hear people say on online forums that “I’m taking a 3-level dip on my <fullcaster>, I’m still getting 9th-level spells so it’s fine” – this mentality disregards the fact that delayed progression is a serious hindrance that should be accounted for when deciding whether or not to multiclass. You will be playing the 10^th, 11^th, 12^th, 13^th, 14^th, 15^th, 16^th, 17^th, 18^th and 19th-level version of the character before you hit 20^th level near the end of the campaign.
On the other hand, it is true that most classes give you very little after you hit 17^th level in them, so you can multiclass further afterwards for your last level or two.

Background Selection

The new 5e design standard is that backgrounds now give you feats. As a result, there are few old backgrounds even worth considering. Your real options are:

• Strixhaven and Ravnica backgrounds give you an expanded spell list
• The Book of Many Things adds Ruined and Rewarded, with such great options as Lucky and Alert
• Spelljammer’s Astral Drifter grants Magic Initiate (Cleric)
• Knight of Solamnia provides a bit of nova for martials in need, and as this campaign goes to multiple crystal spheres you should have no problem with the “Dragonlance Campaign” prerequisite. Note that this will augment the damage of a dhampir’s vampiric bite.
• Initiate of High Sorcery is mostly remarkable for unlocking the next feat in the line, and less for its own merits.
• The Planescape backgrounds give you Scion of the Outer Planes, which – like most feats in those books – doesn’t really do all that much.
• The Inheritor background feature allows you to pick a free item, basically. Yay, more loot.

Don’t miss the opportunity to take the equipment of the Investigator background, a list which contains a trinket of your choice – this can be a spyglass, and those are worth 1000 gp!

Starting Equipment

The Dungeon Master’s Guide has rules for starting equipment at higher levels. For a standard 10th-level character, this means 500 + 1d10 x 25 gp on top of your regular starting equipment. It’s not much, but it is something.

• Magic items may or may not be available
• Moorbounders cost 400 gp and are cute and floppy
• Elephants cost 200 gp
• Mules cost 8 gp

Note that the average common item costs far less than a suit of half plate or plate armor, and armor of gleaming is a thing.

Additionally, take a look at the “This is Your Life” table in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. You are allowed to roll on it or select an option, and some of those are just a ton of free money. Just pick the money each time. There’s another table like this in Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount, but even sillier.

My character for the campaign – Xerxes

Character sheet in the style of a Star Wars Saga Edition statblock – I find this style to be the most readable.

When building this character, I took inspiration from my Plafond Pupil build. I have every intention of surpassing the Pupil, a task which will likely not prove challenging whatsoever.

The Cartomancer feat is pulling a lot of weight, even though it’s worse on a Warlock. Access to powerhouses like sleet storm and spirit guardians (DC 16) is massive. I might even use a fireball every now and then.

I decided to bring back the first 5e character I ever made – Xerxes the Living Secret, the master of dark magic blessed by Vecna for an unknown reason. He’s a really big ceiling fan.

The hardest choice was picking between the Moderately Armored feat and an armor dip. I’m already taking a level of Sorcerer, so a level of Cleric would mean two whole levels of delayed spell progression. On the other hand, a feat is a massive investment.

Whatever feats I select and however many of them I end up fitting into my build, they can definitely be arranged in some order from the most important one (Feat #1) to the least important one (Feat #N). Moderately Armored is going to be Feat #1, because having 19/24 AC is non-negotiable.

Cleric 1/Sorcerer 1/Warlock 18: Feat #1 at level 1, Feat #2 at level 6, Feat #3 at level 10, Feat #4 at level 14, Feat #5 at level 18
Sorcerer 1/Warlock 19: Feat #1 at level 5, Feat #2 at level 9, Feat #3 at level 13, Feat #4 at level 17, Feat #5 at level 20

As we can see, if simply comparing feats gained, the Cleric dip remains the winner. This was the final bit of persuasion I needed – I am taking a level of Twilight Cleric.

As for spell selections, I am a 1st-level sorcerer, 1st-level cleric and 8th-level warlock – this means I get 9 warlock spells of 4th-level or lower, 2 cleric spells of 1st-level and 2 sorcerer spells of 1st-level.

My Sorcerer picks were the easiest by far – shield and absorb elements are autopicks, and I ran out of choices afterwards. Done. Divine Magic gives me bless.

For cleric, I get sleep and faerie fire from my subclass, neither of which I expect to use. My two free picks, which I can swap out on a long rest, will be healing word and shield of faith. I’m not going for ceremony tech – it’s stupid, plus my character is already married.

Warlock gives me harder choices to make – especially as we were allowed to use Grim Hollow content in our campaign.

I looked over the Warlock spell list and picked a few key spells from the base game that I wouldn’t leave home without – hunger of Hadar, phantom steed, death ward, summon greater demon. After this initial search, I then looked through the stuff in Grim Hollow – I ended up selecting consume mind for some very welcome utility, as well as dark sacrament for finishing off a minion before going on to kill the boss. The rest of my spell list was filled in with classic picks – hypnotic pattern, fear, you get the idea.

After that was done, I jumped to feat selections, of which I had two to start with. First of all, Fey-touched is just about mandatory on this build. +1 Cha to get to a +4 modifier, with an extra free cast of silvery barbs (we have gift of alacrity via our wizard, who will be rest casting it) and misty step for emergency retreats. For my second feat, I had a hard time choosing whether I wanted Cartomancer or Vital Sacrifice (from the Tal’dorei Campaign Setting Reborn book) first, but ended up selecting Cartomancer with sleet storm and spirit guardians in mind.

My background and equipment were the most amusing thing to optimize, because 5e is insane. I selected the Investigator background with the Inheritor background feature. In order to limit the insanity, our DM restricted our picks to items of Rare rarity or lower (we agreed to count cubes of force as artifacts), then added vehicles to the list after we spent a good hour arguing in VC about how many nautiloids our party needs.

The most noteworthy pieces of equipment my character has access to are – infernal amulet (Chains of Asmodeus module, +2 to save DC/attack rolls but it’s cursed), amulet of the devout +1, rod of the pact keeper +1, gauntlets of ogre power (for my imp familiar, to help him steal heavy things while hidden and invisible – basically an undetectable flying Vistani. I stole a portal to the Abyss with this trick once), cast-off survival mantle (because it’s dirt cheap 19 AC), wand of magic missiles (for my minions, especially the skeletons I’ll get next level up) and a deck of wonders.

Deck of Wonders
What’s this item? Well, this thing lets you draw any number of cards from it, each card granting a positive or negative effect. All the negative ones last until your next long rest, while some positive ones are permanent:

• Free 500 gp
• Free uncommon weapon
• Free uncommon wondrous item
• Proficiency in Wisdom saving throws

We agreed to remove the bit where cards return to the deck to prevent me from drawing twenty-two septillion cards and drowning Toril in gemstones and weapons. Still unquestionably optimal to draw the entire deck, thus freeing up one feat later on in my progression.

I played Xerxes in Curse of Strahd back when 5e was less broken. His backstory involved being granted the spark of magic by Vecna and several unpleasant experiences in his homeland far from the Sword Coast, which led him to Neverwinter to evade trial for war crimes. There he made a name for himself as a mercenary, living a simple life until one night the mists took him on a surprise vacation to Barovia. In this dark land, he put his magical skills to good use, making the creatures of the night fear him before going after Strahd himself to assert dominance, crushing the Darklord in an arcane duel.

After returning to the Material Plane, Xerxes took his wife on a honeymoon along the Sword Coast (and actually a lot more than just that), occasionally providing advice to adventurers on quests of their own (“Don’t be a martial”). He now lives in a fortified mansion in Neverwinter, writing for various magical publications and ignoring most of the major factions in the city unless their mages have things to trade.

Things are about to change, however, as his eldest cat just discovered something highly unusual in the city’s catacombs…