Summary
As one might expect in a high-levelDungeons & Dragonsadventure, Vecna: Eve of Ruin features an astounding variety of boss monsters for the characters to contend with. While the bosses in the book’s later chapters are undeniably more powerful than those in earlier chapters, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are more easily defeated.
In fact, a politically minded party can avoid many of the boss encounters in this book altogether if they are willing to make some moral concessions. Alternatively, some bosses don’t have to be outright defeated for the party to obtain a piece of the rod of seven parts and complete their objective. With all these things in mind, let’s take a look at the hardest bosses in Eve of Ruin.
9Rerak
True Liches Are Always So Busy
Assuming the party doesn’t have protection against the frightened condition, Rerak is a considerably terrifying opponent to face. Unfortunately for Rerak, the presence of a single paladin in the party pretty much nullifies the false lich’s primary method of attack.
Additionally, the party will have numerous attempts to discern that Rerak doesn’t really enjoy his day job as the caretaker of the tomb of wayward souls. Any character who realizes this can then make a Persuasion check to convince Rerak to betray his creator.
After three successful Persuasion checks, Rerak gives up the fight entirely and provides the party with his piece of the Rod of Seven Parts. As far as actual combat difficulty is concerned, this is one of the most lackluster fights in the book. It does provide some very cool roleplaying opportunities though!
8Hertilod
He’s Just A Hungry Fella
This serpentine monstrosity would normally be a terrible foe to contend with. However, the circumstances of the encounter as well as the hertilod’s weakness to lightning damage make it far less dangerous than it would be otherwise. The hertilod has swallowed a rod piece which the characters must retrieve from inside of its body.
Thankfully, the monster is asleep when the party stumbles across it. This gives them a good chance atsurprisingthe hertilodwhich will immediately swing the encounter in the party’s favor. Furthermore, if the party has discovered the creature’s susceptibility to lightning damage they can force it to regurgitate the rod piece without actually felling it.
Seeing as the hertilod swallowed the rod piece by accident, the party is free to escape from the monster once they’ve secured the rod. The oversized lizard may want to hungrily pursue the characters, but it will be difficult for it to keep up with a party of this level.
7Ker-arach The Spiderdragon
Spider Content Warning
Despite being the first boss in the module, Ker-arach provides a significant challenge due to her high-damage breath weapon, mobility-reducing stifling webs bonus action, and yochlol ally. While fighting the spiderdragon might be an enticing proposition, a smart party will attempt to avoid a fight with her and opt to stealthily steal the rod piece in her lair instead.
Even though Ker-arach has a decent passive perception of 16, a rogue with maxed-out Dexterity and expertise in stealth at this level has a +13 bonus to their stealth check. Consequently, as long as the party comes up with a way to avoid the webs draped through the spiderdragon’s lair, it should be easy enough to steal the piece of the rod while remaining unnoticed.
The biggest worry for a party who fights the spiderdragon isn’t Ker-arach herself but her yochlol ally. If the yochlol lands its dominate person spell on one of the party members, the fight becomes nigh unwinnable unless the yochlol’s concentration can be broken swiftly.
6Strahd, Master Of Death House
Otherwise Known As Strahd 2024
This updated version of Strahd is a bit scarier than the original stat block the vampire count was given in Curse of Strahd. This is thanks to two things. For one, Strahd gains the blighted fire action which is essentially a fireball that recharges on a d6 roll of five or six and deals half fire damage, half necrotic damage.
Secondly, Strahd’s bite attack is now a bonus action. This gives him a total of three attacks instead of two and one of them can be a blighted fireball. Strahd is also accompanied by two vampire spawn who are sure to complicate things for the party.
All this being said, the party does have a fair chance of avoiding a fight with the master of death house entirely assuming they’re on good terms with Sarusanda: the NPC who helps them during this chapter.
5Glaive
Your Best Chance To Make Fun Of Your Party’s Edgy Rogue
Monsters capable ofambushing the partyalmost always provide a challenge due to how the action economy works. Glaive and her blade scout cronies fit this bill. As the party explores the interior of a destroyed colossus, the warforged assassin Glaive continuously ambushes them using hit-and-run tactics to lower the party’s defenses.
High stealth and perception modifiers allow Glaive to inflict the surprised condition on the party fairly often. This means the party might not even get a chance to retaliate against the construct before it disappears yet again into the guts of the colossus.
When used properly, Glaive and her blade scout strike squad should pose a significant threat to one or more characters by chipping away at their resources before finally closing in for the kill.
4Kas The Betrayer
High-Level Combat Doesn’t Have To Be Complicated
The battle with Kas can vary in difficulty greatly depending on when and where the party decides to face him. Whatever the case, the party will likely face other creatures before encountering Kas. The legendary betrayer is a relatively simple combatant who relies on getting close with his sword to take down his enemies.
However, a high initiative bonus, advantage on attacks against any creature that is frightened, and critical hits on d20 rolls of 19 or 20 all make him quite capable of downing a player character in a single turn. While Kas can summon specters, he’s better off sticking to his powerful sword attacks as specters won’t prove a threat to a 19th-level party.
It’s recommended to play up Kas' bloodthirstiness and challenge by having him continue to attack any character he knocks unconscious until they are outright dead. You might even have Kas behead characters he kills to make resurrecting them that much more difficult. After all, millennia-old vampires are quite knowledgeable about coming back from the dead.
3Teremini Nightsedge
One Powerful Mage
Like any archmage, Teremini is a force to be reckoned with due to her access to powerful spells, including cone of cold, wall of force, counterspell, banishment, misty step, globe of invulnerability, and time stop. In case you’re new to running this stat block, the best strategy is to cast time stop on your first turn and then set up whatever defenses are necessary to defeat the party.
Typically, this means using the archmage’s free turns to move to a safe place on the map before casting mirror image, fire shield, and a globe of invulnerability around the archmage. If you happen to have a leftover turn, you can use the final time stop turn to fire a lightning bolt or cone of cold on the entirety of the party.
This fight is complicated by the arrival of an adult lunar dragon that attacks everyone in sight while focusing on slaying Teremini. The party should face collateral damage as these titans go to blows with one another. Escaping with this rod piece will be no easy task as Teremini’s defeat is unlikely to quell the lunar dragon or whoever remains of Teremini’s forces.
2Windfall
You Were The Chosen One!
This tiefling champion of the dragon queen Tiamat would provide a deadly challenge to a high-level party thanks to her spellcasting prowess and high melee damage if it weren’t for her susceptibility to one spell in particular: Force Cage. At high levels of play, Force Cage is known for turning what should be a deadly encounter into nothing more than a party shooting range.
This is because the spell traps a creature up to gargantuan size in a cage-shaped prison without any saving throw. The only escape from the prison is teleportation magic accompanied by a high Difficult Class (DC) Charisma saving throw. Unfortunately for Windfall,she has no teleportation magic or ability.
This is a glaring flaw with the encounter and we would advise fixing it to preserve the encounter’s difficulty. Aside from this hiccup, Windfall’s stat block can more than hold its own against a 17th-level party, especially in the event Tiamat restores her to full hit points.
1Vecna The Archlich
A Truly Worthy Campaign Ending Climactic Battle
Thankfully, the titular villain of this adventure does indeed provide a climactic final encounter. Despite not featuring the legendary actions we are used to seeing in high-level stat blocks, Vecna the Archlich remains a suitable opponent thanks to very powerful bonus action and reaction options.
Vecna’s melee attack with his dagger Afterthough also plays up the difficulty of this battle as creatures hit by the dagger will likely be unable to receive healing. Finally, the Cave of Shattered Reflections offers a confounding battlefield that will take the player characters much trial and error to properly navigate.
All that being said, a party that kept the majority of the secrets they unveiled during the campaign close will have numerous powers that make this fight much easier. Additionally, a character that can properly wield the Rod of Seven Parts as a weapon will deal an additional 10d6 psychic damage to Vecna on every successful attack.
Consequently, this encounter becomes far more manageable for a party that has properly prepared. That’s the kind of storytelling and gameplay we want to encourage though, especially in high-level adventures. For these reasons, we think the opportunity to make this combat more easily won is one of the reasons it’s the best boss fight found in the book.
