# Has someone used the eye or hand of Vecna?



## huank (Mar 29, 2011)

Hello everyone. I'm thinking of a plot where the hand or the eye of Vecna will be envolved, but after reading both artifacts on the DMG I started to doubt a little bit about using them, so, I would like to know if someone did it already and if so, see if you can share some advice with me.

Thanks!


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## Dice4Hire (Mar 30, 2011)

I have never used them in a game, as I never have expected one of my players to actually do the self-mutilation needed to become a part of Venca. It is a cool idea for an adventure though. 

If I put it in, I would make it unavoidable that someone would have to use the eye to succeed.

Plus the next adventure later to get rid of it would be cool, too.


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## pemerton (Mar 30, 2011)

Not yet. One of the PCs in my game is an invoker of Vecna, Ioun and Erathis, however, so I'm hoping to get these into play. (The PCs are about to discover the Sword of Kas.)


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## Aegeri (Mar 30, 2011)

I will be in one of my future campaigns.


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## Wednesday Boy (Mar 30, 2011)

Dice4Hire said:


> If I put it in, I would make it unavoidable that someone would have to use the eye to succeed.




If I was running a game with it, I'd let the players decide to use it or not.  If they use it they would have an easier, more decisive victory.  If they decided not to use it they could still win a victory but it would be much more costly one.

That lets the players keep their freedom of choice and would introduce an interesting temptation to the players.


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## Nahat Anoj (Mar 30, 2011)

I'd love to use the Hand and Eye of Vecna, but I feel they are somewhat limited by being Paragon artifacts. I wish there was a way to upgrade them to Epic, or to downgrade to Heroic. That way, they could be usable across more tiers.

In addition, a big challenge I have with the Hand and Eye is thinking up scenarios where use of this artifact is vital enough that a player has their PC maim itself. I've never heard of it actually being used in a "serious" game.

Storywise, if I were to incorporate these artifacts into my campaign, I'd return Vecna to his roots as a powerful, wizardly demigod on the cusp of true divinity. He died long ago, but portions of his malevolent spirit linger on in his hand and eye. If Vecna's various body parts (I also like the idea of a Heart of Vecna - the Head, not so much  ) were all reassembled, then Vecna has a chance of being reborn. That would be the plot of my Vecna-focused campaign.


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## webrunner (Mar 30, 2011)

Situations where you would need eye or hand of vecna:

- You find a magical retinal/hand scanner keyed to Vecna

- player already is missing hand/eye.  hey, free hand/eye!  nobody's going to turn down that deal!

- Player wishes to be a thri-kreen and is therefore hording hands.

- player is currently fighting the power, and needs something in order to see the invisible and touch the untouchable. 

- player already has one of them and are severely lacking in hand-of-vecna-eye-of-vecna-coordination-of-vecna

- player is secretly actually vecna and wants his stuff back

- bard player gives another player "a hand with that", and is so sick of the bard decides to just go with it to spite the bard.

- player is told "all the cool kids are doing it"

- player thinks "eye for an eye" is some sort of eye trading service and wants to trade up.

- player is getting bored with own hands during 'personal time', needs something to 'spice it up'.


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## brehobit (Mar 30, 2011)

*Hand...*

I ran a "2-shot" and one character (a troll, they were playing mosters) started with the hand.  I believe I nerfed it a little bit, but it's really handy (bada-bing!).  It actually worked out quite well.


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## huank (Mar 30, 2011)

At last! Someone that has actually used it! Anyone else?


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## Ktulu (Mar 30, 2011)

huank said:


> Hello everyone. I'm thinking of a plot where the hand or the eye of Vecna will be envolved, but after reading both artifacts on the DMG I started to doubt a little bit about using them, so, I would like to know if someone did it already and if so, see if you can share some advice with me.
> 
> Thanks!




I used it in a campaign recently.  Thematically, it was changed to be the eye of the first lich in my world, someone as powerful as Vecna, but in a world with a very small list of gods.

The party "found" it, though it would later be realized by the bard (who had a bit of precognition) that he had been drawn to its location.  After a severe beating over the course of some sessions, the bard realized he wasn't as strong as his allies and needed the power granted by the eye to be a valuable ally in the battle against the Yuan-ti oppression (it's easier to just read the campaign guide -- link's at the end).

Anyway, it did grant him power and was corrupting him with the need for more knowledge and power (the lich's point of being was to continuously survive for more knowledge).  In a brief spot in hell, where the party traded favors to a version of Asmodeus for their friend's life, the bard asked to have the eye removed.  Asmodeus did so, killing the bard instantly.  His life was spared, only because it amused him so.

Ultimately, now free of the eye's control, the party went in search of the first lich to gain the knowledge needed to defeat the Yuan-ti lord, Skather-sol.  The lich offered the information provided the bard become the liche's new host.  The bard reluctantly agreed, and realized that his original actions had always drawn him to this ultimate conclusion.


Epic Words - a home for your RPG - Role-playing Game Blogs and Wikis


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## jcayer (Mar 31, 2011)

My players will be questing for the hand, eye, and heart of Vecna soon, but they will need to destroy them so when they finally face Vecna, he won't discorpulate, or whatever it is Gods do not to get killed.


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## Plane Sailing (Mar 31, 2011)

Yep, I used it in my first 4e campaign. It was found in Thunderspire labyrinth, and the hellfire warlock decided to implant it (having been cajoled by its whispered promises of secrets and power which appealed to this PC's character. The player was saying 'Oh no, you fool!' while his PC was saying 'mine all mine!'

The PC was 6th level at the time, and it made for an interesting addition to the campaign, it gave me a fifth column for giving the warlock impressions of things, and he started to get an idea about when the eye was pleased with him and when it was not...

It's powers are not overwhelming, but it is full of character potential, and I don't regret using the eye at all.

Cheers


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## Blue (Apr 3, 2011)

We had the Head of Vecna.  Talk about epic power.  Everyone wanted it.


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## Heresstuff (Oct 18, 2019)

I designed a campaign where an orc lord had found the Eye of Vecna and used it to unite the neighboring tribes with his own.  The leaders of the other tribes put aside their enmity and joined with him because they assumed the Eye was a blessing from Gruumsh, the main orc deity ("The eye never sleeps.")  He then launched a war against the neighboring kingdoms.  The players were conscripted to fighting the war as 1st level characters and gradually worked their way up to becoming war heroes.

They did not learn about the orc king having the Eye of Vecan until they were about 8th level.  It was sometime after that when they discovered that he lad launched the war in order to locate the Hand so he could possess them both.  This realization helped revitalize the campaign as fatigue started to set in.


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## kenada (Oct 18, 2019)

I played in a con game where the GM put the _hand of Vecna_ on a table, and someone completely failed his saving throw to resist attaching it. That had apparently never happened before, so the GM had to scramble to salve the game while PvP broke out.


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## (Psi)SeveredHead (Oct 19, 2019)

kenada said:


> I played in a con game where the GM put the _hand of Vecna_ on a table, and someone completely failed his saving throw to resist attaching it. That had apparently never happened before, so the GM had to scramble to salve the game while PvP broke out.



More details. Moar!


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## kenada (Oct 19, 2019)

(Psi)SeveredHead said:


> More details. Moar!



It was a killer dungeon game at Origins this year. We were supposed to go into the dungeon to stop some major evil thing from destroying the world (though we ended up actually freeing it, which was bad).

We’d entered the dungeon and found a wizard’s lab/chambers. There were a bunch of interesting things around the room. Being a one-shot, most of them were bad/dangerous. I think someone found an intelligent ring that did _vampiric touch_, but it would drain you if you didn’t keep it topped off. Anyway, there was a cloth over a dome. The cleric went over, pulled the cloth off, and the DM does likewise at the table, revealing a skeletal hand in the jar. The cleric opens it, the DM gives him a saving throw, and he rolls a 1.

What followed after that is the cleric immediately put his hand on the table and chopped it off with his axe, and then he held the _hand of Vecna_ to the stump. At that point, he gradually started turning into Vecna. The DM told us later that he had never had that actually happen, so he was scrambling to try to prevent the game from getting completely derailed. As the cleric’s powering up, we’re trying to take him down before he kills us. No one died, but I’m pretty sure at least one person went down. In the end, we managed to knock the cleric out and chop the hand back off before it was permanent. I’m pretty sure that’s not how things are supposed to work, but (again) the DM didn’t want to derail the game (as awesome as that would have been).

We ended up completing the dungeon, encountering some nasty traps but overcoming them. He was using Grimtooth’s for his traps, which was also great. In the end, we couldn’t overcome the big nasty at the end. Well, we won, but we also lost. It was a killer dungeon, so that’s expected, and it’s probably best it happened at the very end when was also revealed we were tricked into coming here to unleash the big nasty.

Overall, it was the most fun I’ve had playing 5e, but my sample size for that is extremely small. I’d totally do it again next year if they’re running something again.


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