Note: This article contains spoilers for the full release of the Vecna: Eve of Ruin D&D 5e campaign. I will be discussing relevant information from the book without warning.

The final adventure for this iteration of Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition is out. Vecna: Eve of Ruin is available in some physical shops and also on D&DBeyond for those who pre-ordered a physical copy from Wizards.

Reactions to the adventure have been mixed, not quite paying off the hype many had for D&D 5e‘s last outing. However, there’s still plenty of enjoyable content in the book. Read Artificial Twenty’s review of Vecna: Eve of Ruin for D&D 5e here.

Long before Vecna: Eve of Ruin‘s release date, I discussed it in several articles. In particular, one was my list of predictions for what we’d see in Vecna: Eve of Ruin, based on prior experience with D&D 5e campaigns.

Having now read the finished product, I have no need to speculate. How accurate were my predictions for Vecna: Eve of Ruin? Read below to find out.

Vecna: Eve of Ruin Will Feature Most D&D 5e Planes

Verdict: Easily True

This was far and away the easiest prediction I could make about Vecna: Eve of Ruin‘s release. From the very off, Wizards of the Coast made no secret that it was going to be a multiversal, plane-hopping adventure that covered most of the multiverse.

This serves to cap off over a decade of D&D 5e, highlighting almost all of the settings it covers. Sigil is a recurring location, with major action happening in the Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Ravenloft, Spelljammer, and even less focused D&D settings like Greyhawk and Dragonlance.

Even Pandemonium, not exactly a staple fixture of D&D‘s Planescape setting, serves as a climactic location in the story.

There were some missing settings from D&D 5e‘s roster of planes. Wildemount, owned by Critical Role, doesn’t appear. Neither do the Magic: The Gathering settings Ravnica or Theros. Many campaign locales in the Forgotten Realms, such as Chult and Icewind Dale, take a backseat to avoid it being a Faerun-heavy campaign.

Now, some people have reservations with Vecna: Eve of Ruin‘s multiversal travel. Most planes consist of exactly one location, and some lack the mechanics (Spelljammer) or tone (Dragonlance) they’re known for. However, it’s undeniable that Vecna: Eve of Ruin does cover broad swathes of D&D planar settings.

High-Level Monsters and Magic Items

Verdict: Mixed

Vecna: Eve of Ruin sets itself apart from many D&D 5e campaigns through its level range. It starts at 10th level and goes to 20th, higher than any other module besides Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage.

A higher-level adventure needs both challenging monsters and rewarding loot to populate it, far more than you’d expect to find in a lower-level campaign like Curse of Strahd or Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden.

One thing’s for sure. Vecna: Eve of Ruin does not disappoint with new high-level monsters. There are some areas where greater numbers of low-level enemies make up the difference, but there’s plenty of variety.

Most new enemies introduced in Vecna: Eve of Ruin are CR7 or higher, with only a handful below CR10. It includes or reprints high-level D&D 5e monsters like the Astral Dreadnought and the Bone Roc, and foes like Vecna the Archlich and Kas the Betrayer.

Vecna: Eve of Ruin isn’t exactly devoid of high-level D&D 5e magical items either. Later adventures casually give rewards like a +2 shortsword or a +3 Wand of the War Mage.

However, where my prediction is mixed is that I thought Vecna: Eve of Ruin would be more replete with artefacts and items of similar power. One, the Rod of Seven Parts, is a focal point of the campaign. Apart from that, however, it’s slim pickings.

The artefacts one would expect, the Hand and Eye of Vecna, are both absent from D&D 5e‘s Vecna: Eve of Ruin. Even the Sword of Kas only appears in an illusion (with the book suggesting a DM might want to think about including the real thing, but not providing it).

Vecna: Eve of Ruin doesn’t take its chance to go all-out with the most powerful magic items in D&D 5e. However, the loot is far from disappointing.

A Cheeky Hint at the New D&D Version

Verdict: Dead Wrong

Given Vecna: Eve of Ruin‘s fairly obvious inspirations from D&D history, and the timing, I thought it might borrow another leaf from Die Vecna Die!‘s book. In that multiversal, edition-ending adventure, Vecna’s attempt to dominate the multiverse causes damage that the Lady of Pain alters – resulting in the jump to D&D Third Edition.

Vecna: Eve of Ruin seems to build up to this. Vecna’s plot is to rebuild the universe in his image, rewriting its laws to benefit him and cause others to suffer. The players even travel through a few demiplanes showcasing his eventual universe.

However, nothing comes of this. When the players stop Vecna, the multiverse apparently foes back to normal, with none of its rules changed. This despite Vecna: Eve of Ruin being a very close lead-in to D&D 5e 2024 and its altered Player’s Handbook.

There’s really not much of a denouement in Vecna: Eve of Ruin at all. After banishing Vecna, the book hints that there might be an enormous celebration, but the story closes fairly unceremoniously.

Arbitrary Magical Restrictions Throughout

Verdict: Only partially correct

Drawing from the D&D 5e campaign Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, I assumed that Vecna: Eve of Ruin would limit the toys that high-level spellcasters can use. One of the reasons high-level D&D 5e campaigns are so difficult is how adventure-warping magic can get.

Teleportation, planar travel, and especially Wish can be problematic even if you’re not in the confines of a pre-written adventure. Plenty of high-level content circumvents this problem by restricting these spells.

However, Vecna: Eve of Ruin doesn’t have the blanket high-magic ban I expected.

Instead, individual adventures put limitations on spells in Vecna: Eve of Ruin, usually related to the mechanics of the adventure. Sigil has its usual limitations on extraplanar travel, summoning, and banishment. The Spelljammer adventure has misfiring teleportation as a big part of it. The final dungeon shuts down teleportation entirely.

In general, Vecna: Eve of Ruin isn’t afraid to shut down certain types of magic (mostly teleportation) when it needs to. There are a handful of more railroad-y restrictions (like preventing Disintegrate from working on something otherwise identical to Wall of Force), but it’s relatively sparse throughout.

Many Throwbacks to D&D History

Verdict: Fewer than Expected

Besides being a capstone D&D 5e campaign, Vecna: Eve of Ruin is part of the 50th-anniversary celebrations and the closer to the game’s most popular edition ever. As a result, everyone was expecting it to be chock full of fanservice, with familiar faces popping up time and time again.

And yes, everyone, including me, was correct to expect this. However, it’s less omnipresent than I was expecting.

Vecna: Eve of Ruin does have three of D&D‘s most famous Wizards – Asturiel Silverhand, Tasha, and Mordenkainen – as allied NPCs. It even gets four for three here, as (major spoilers) Mordenkainen is actually the infamous vampire Kas in disguise.

Nonetheless, Vecna: Eve of Ruin isn’t the constant Easter egg fest I expected it to be. Some major setting figures, like the Lord of Blades, get side mentions. Some infamous villains even appear in the flesh – Tiamat in a modest showing, Strahd von Zarovich in a disappointing one.

Nonetheless, players don’t spend their time in Vecna: Eve of Ruin palling around with Minsc and Boo for one adventure, and then running into Rudolph van Richten in the next, only to have dinner with the Lady of Pain in a third.

It’s restrained, far more than I expected. In fact, I kind of wish Vecna: Eve of Ruin did more with the D&D 5e characters it does feature heavily.

This has been the retrospective on my predictions for D&D 5e‘s Vecna: Eve of Ruin. My overall score was 4/5 for at least partially correct, although I was rarely spot-on. I’m going to call that not bad.

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If you want to learn more about D&D 5e‘s best villain, check out ‘Five Vecna Appearances to Check Out Before D&D 5e’s Vecna: Eve of Ruin‘.