Vecna
Vecna, L, is a unique boss monster that often appears in variants of NetHack. He first appears in NetHack Plus, and also appears in SLASH'EM, SlashTHEM. EvilHack and Hack'EM. He is a powerful spellcasting lich, typically found waiting at the end of an optional dungeon branch.
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Contents
Common traits
In all appearances, Vecna never leaves a corpse and will instead drop an artifact body part upon defeating him, unless he is destroyed in a way that would not leave a corpse with any other monster (e.g., digestion or disintegration). In SLASH'EM and its variants, he drops The Hand of Vecna, while in EvilHack he drops either The Hand of Vecna or The Eye of Vecna.
Description
L Vecna 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 56 |
| Attacks |
Touch cold 9d6, Spellcasting |
| Base level | 49 |
| Base experience | 3230 |
| Speed | 9 |
| Base AC | -8 |
| Base MR | 90 |
| Alignment | -15 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | Unique |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 1200 |
| Nutritional value | 100 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | fire, cold, sleep, poison, stoning |
| Resistances conveyed | |
|
Vecna:
| |
| Reference | SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2/monst.c#line4600 |
Generation
Vecna is always found within the largest room in the Chaotic Quest's room-and-corridors map. He is the Chaotic Quest nemesis, guarding the Key of Chaos, and will drop the Key and the Hand of Vecna upon his defeat, unless destroyed in a way that would not have left a corpse.
Strategy
Although he is the second-highest level spellcaster in SLASH'EM, Vecna is less difficult than that status may imply - he is somewhat slow at 9 speed, and has only two attacks per turn of his: a powerful cold touch and a single spellcasting attack. However, he does require a +4 or better weapon in order for you to even deal damage, and his high base level lends some serious power to his spells, particularly his psi bolts.
His main weakness is not any particular set of traits, but a constraint imposed by his location: the Chaotic Quest entrance is a portal rather than a staircase, and Vecna is covetous. Vecna will therefore readily warp to you, but will not teleport away to heal. Vecna respects Elbereth, and a permanent engraving alongside a well-enchanted weapon can potentially trivialize matters - even more so if you have cold resistance, drain resistance and/or magic resistance. However, the branch and its denizens are still quite difficult, as is Vecna himself, and unless you take appropriate measures (including obtaining additional resistances) he is unlikely to face you by himself.
Vecna and other spellcasters within the level, such as the more evasive covetous liches, can and will summon nasties including Elbereth-ignoring minotaurs or couatl to surround you with if given the opportunity - Vecna himself can cast the spell at a higher base level than even an arch-lich. Additionally, the random V that generate upon the level's creation can include vampire mages, who are vicious nasty-summoning spellcasters in their own right, or even fire vampires that can tear through a character lacking fire resistance with their alarming speed and abundant hit die. This will almost necessitate drain resistance, which thankfully has more sources in SLASH'EM. On top of it all, you may want a source of reflection to deal with other potential summons, as well as a means of levitation or water walking to survive or avoid a potential drowning attempt thanks to the create pool spell.
Like most other monsters, Vecna may receive a wand of teleportation upon generation; if so, he will use it to try and evade you like any other intelligent monster, which may allow him to heal in line with more typical covetous behavior. Wands in SLASH'EM and its variants also possess more charges on average compared to vanilla - if you cannot dispatch him quickly, it may be worth it to double back later, especially if you lack a means to destroy or steal the wand. He may also have a scroll of teleportation on hand; this is especially aggravating if the scroll is cursed, and also makes for potentially disastrous corner cases where you can confuse him before he gets the chance to read it (e.g. with Magicbane) - in either case, you will then have to track him down throughout the main dungeon.
While the branch (and by extension Vecna) is entirely optional since you only need two of three alignment keys, the Hand of Vecna is a quality artifact that may well be worth the trouble: it is a semi-guaranteed source of hungerless regeneration and half physical damage (both rare intrinsics on their own), and may even serve as a wielded source of drain resistance in a pinch.| L Vecna
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 50 |
| Attacks |
Touch 8d6 cold, Touch 6d6 withering damage, Gaze 3d4 Touch of death, Spell-casting 4d6, Spell-casting 4d6 (clerical) |
| Base level | 46 |
| Base experience | 3012 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | -10 |
| Base MR | 90 |
| Alignment | -20 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | Unique |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 1200 |
| Nutritional value | 100 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | fire, cold, sleep, electricity, poison, level drain |
| Resistances conveyed |
None |
|
Vecna:
| |
| Reference | EvilHack - monst.c, line 2132 |
Generation
In EvilHack, Vecna is found on the last floor of his own domain, meditating on a throne in the deepest room of his lair. Vecna will always generate with a ring of slow digestion and wears a cursed, rotted robe of drain resistance.
Strategy
Vecna is an even more vicious adversary in this variant, with two powerful touch attacks, a death gaze, and two spellcasting attacks per round. One is a powerful touch of cold that is standard for liches, while the other induces withering similar to mummies.
The Sword of Kas is often a vital part of most players' kits for dealing with Vecna, due to Kas himself residing on the previous floor; said artifact weapon can provide a very useful means of offense for a player that excels in two-handed swords or otherwise lacks options, as any damage it deals against Vecna is tripled. However, lawful characters take alignment penalties for using poisoned weapons, while Priests of any kind suffer a -30 to-hit penalty from trying to use it, on top of potentially angering their god. Alignment penalties in EvilHack also weigh far more heavily against the player's fortunes, especially if they have not yet completed their Quest.
The robe of drain resistance Vecna generates with is likely to be very useful for those seeking aid in maintaining casting power while in Gehennom, making it a valuable asset for inevitable later fights against wraiths and vampires (including Vlad the Impaler and his Lifestealer).
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Encyclopedia entry
Vecna's early life was clouded in legend and contradiction.
Most accounts stated that he was originally a human wizard
from Oerth, although some reports claimed that he was a half-elf.
After having become an extremely powerful wizard and starting to
fear for his own mortality, Vecna was taught by Orcus how to
achieve undeath, later becoming one of the most powerful liches
ever in existence.
During his reign, Vecna trusted his lieutenant Kas with most
administrative tasks. He forged the powerful Sword of Kas as an
instrument of his lieutenant's authority. However, Vecna's evil,
manifested in the sword, seduced Kas into usurping and killing his
master.
History
In NetHack Plus, Vecna was known as Master Vecna, and acted as the Undead Slayer quest nemesis. Master Vecna's base level was 25, and his melee attack did only 3d6 damage; he still had enchantment resistance to weapons below +4.
Vecna was made into a unique boss lich starting with SLASH 6, presiding over his own lich-populated special level similar to other monsters such as the Rat King and Grund the Orc King. In this game, killing Vecna produces either the Hand of Vecna or the Eye of Vecna, with a 50% chance of each.
Vecna was first introduced to EvilHack in version 0.7.0 as part of three commits that added Vecna's Domain as a new branch.[1][2][3]
Origin
Vecna is an original creation of Dungeons & Dragons, where he originally was a background figure that became popular enough to feature as a major antagonist. He is named for fantasy author Jack Vance, who among other achievements developed the "fire-and-forget" magic system that would come to be used in D&D and many other fantasy works.
Vecna is first mentioned in Eldritch Wizardry, the third supplement to the original Dungeons & Dragons game co-developed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. Brian Blume, who co-authored the supplement with Gygax, introduced the Hand and Eye of Vecna as the only remnants of a long-destroyed evil lich - no details of the artifacts were ever revealed to Gygax, and the only other fact known was that he had a bodyguard known as Kas. The descriptions of the artifacts in the 2nd edition's Dungeon Master's Guide released in 1989 further expanded on his history, before he finally appeared in person within the 1990 adventure Vecna Lives!; here, he was revealed to be a demigod and the chief antagonist of the adventure. Among the various details of his life, the Greyhawk setting reveals that Kas had ultimately turned traitor and brought about Vecna's (temporary) downfall.
At some point, Vecna had either created or procured The Sword of Kas for his most trusted lieutenant, depending on the edition; details of Kas's service to Vecna and subsequent betrayal likewise vary. What remains consistent across tellings is that Kas used the sword against his former master in a pitched battle that left neither standing: Vecna was destroyed save for his hand and left eye, and Kas had been flung into faraway planes, with the Sword, Hand and Eye as the only remaining objects in the area after the fight.
During the various editions of Dungeons & Dragons, Vecna has served as a lesser deity with dominion over the undead; he has also appeared as a god of secrets. It has been suggested that the Hand and Eye were inspired by similar items from the Eternal Champion series of works by Michael Moorcock (specifically, the Hand of Kwll and the Eye of Rhynn). Vecna also took the half-demon child known as Acererak under his tutelage, leading to Acererak becoming a powerful lich in his own right.
Other variants
dNetHack
Vecna's stats can be found in the code of dNetHack, making him a deferred monster. According to one of the developers, Vecna would have served as the boss of The Lost Tomb, but plans for this were tabled; however, there is still a chance that he may be implemented in a future version.
