Vecna (Veck-na)
Overview
Son of Mehena and twin brother of Nodris. Vecna is the god of undeath and disease, as well as physical wasting and sickness. Legends say he was the only of Mehena’s children that was stillborn, and was the first being to write his findings in the Enchiridion of Lichdom. Vecna's priests are primarily composed of clerics and necromancers. They have few responsibilities to uphold, other than helping those who desire undeath, and protection of their own. Understandably, they often are secretive of their religious inclinations in public.PORTFOLIO AND RESPONSIBILITIES
He is a god whose portfolio includes the undead, disease, gluttony, and rot. The church is organized as a patriarchy, with a powerful cleric, always male, at the head of each temple; if the priest is an undead, the entire temple is considered especially blessed. Priests who can create undead, either through magic or through the passing of their undead taint, are called Necro-Lords, and receive extra privileges.Divine Domains
Death (including Plague and Undeath), Evil (including Corruption, Daemon, Fear, and Plague), Knowledge, Plant (only Decay), Magic, Famine, NecromancyDivine Symbols & Sigils
Holy Weapon - Scythe Holy Animal - Maggot or Fly Holy Colors - Red Holy Mineral - None Holy Symbol - BurningTenets of Faith
Edicts - Never surrender yourself to death. Explore the true power between life and death. Indulge in excess and power as much as possible. Anathema - Allow people to interfere in the expansion of necromantic research. Allow yourself to starve, either physically or spiritually.Antipaladin Code
The antipaladins of Vecna are creatures of the night, plague-bearers and bringers of death. They seek to spread Vecna’s gifts by the sword and by emulating their god. Their tenets include the following affirmations.- The grave opens to us all. We hasten the living on their inevitable path.
- The deathless are the true expression of existence, for they are beyond life and death. I will emulate their ways and destroy those who would defile their timeless perfection.
- I have no duty but to my hunger and my god.
- Existence is hunger. Both life and death feed on life. I am an instrument of transition.
Holidays
The faith has yet to coalesce into a homogeneous creed, however, and widely varying rituals are found not only in different temples but within individual temples as well. Two rituals have become fairly widespread. The Binding of the Crypt and the Pact of the Everlasting are two rituals performed by powerful clerics, allowing them to return as an undead creature or be raised from the dead automatically if they are slain. Both rituals involve numerous other horrible incantations and the foul sacrifice of numerous good-aligned sentientsPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Body Features
Vecna is said to appear as a gaunt husk of a man wearing long tattered red, purple, and black robes. His skin was weathered and decayed, pulled taut against his skeletal frame; there was no hair on his spotted head. His cheeks were sunken around skeletal teeth in a terrible grin. His left hand was missing, and where his left eye would be was just an empty socket constantly streaming sickly green magical energy upwards.Meta Information
Obedience
Cover a table (or suitable flat surface) with a black velvet cloth and spread a feast atop it. If you are in the wilderness or another area where fine food is not readily available, load the table with the best quality food you can find in whatever amount you have. Eat to the point of painful fullness, sipping wine between dishes and reciting a prayer to Vecna. At the end of the hour, consume a piece of rotten fruit, rancid meat, moldy cheese, or other spoiled bit of food. Trust in Vecna to protect you from any sickness or disease that might follow. Treat your caster level as 1 higher when casting necromancy spells.
Boons - Deific Obedience
Evangelist
1: Pestilent Penitent (Sp) curse water 3/day, feast of ashes 2/day, or contagion 1/day
2: Death Knowledge (Su) Your knowledge of the arcane workings of death increases. Your familiar can teach you one new spell from either the Death or Magic domain spell list. The spell must be of a level you can cast, and once you choose the spell, your selection can’t be changed. If you cast spells from a spellbook, you learn a new spell in the same manner, though it appears magically in your spellbook. If you cast spells spontaneously, you can choose one spell to add to your list of spells known, but you gain no additional spell slots.
3: Blight of Ruin (Su) Your blight hex gains power from Vecna's favor. If you use your blight hex on a plot of land, you can affect an area whose radius is equal to 20 × your combined witch and evangelist levels. If you blight a creature of the animal or plant type, increase the saving throw DC by 4 and the curse’s effect to 2 points of Constitution damage per day. If the target successfully saves against your blight hex, it instead takes 3d6 points of negative energy damage. If you don’t have access to the blight hex, you instead gain the ability to use mass fester once per day as a spell-like ability.
Exalted
1: Master of Undeath (Sp) inflict light wounds 3/day, desecrate 2/day, or animate dead 1/day
2: Bolstering Channel (Su) When you channel negative energy to heal undead creatures, you infuse the targets with negative energy made more powerful by Vecna’s influence. Any undead creatures healed by your channeled energy increase their movement speed by 10 feet for 1 round for every Hit Die you possess.
3: Ally from the Grave (Sp) The Pallid Prince’s servants have taken notice of your deeds and answer your call. Once per day as a standard action, you can summon a bhuta to serve you. You gain telepathy with the bhuta to a range of 100 feet. The bhuta follows your commands perfectly for 1 minute for every Hit Die you possess before vanishing back to its home. It doesn’t obey commands that would make it perform overly good acts, and such instructions could cause it to attack you if they are particularly egregious.
Sentinel
1: Glutton for Slaughter (Sp) magic missile 3/day, acid arrow 2/day, or fireball 1/day
2: Scythe Wielder (Ex) You have trained extensively with Vecna's deadly favored weapon and with many related weapons, and you wield them with the skill of the Pallid Prince’s most favored undead champions. If you selected the heavy blades group for your weapon training class feature, increase your attack and damage bonuses with heavy blades by 1. If you don’t have the weapon training class feature, you instead gain a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls with the scythe only.
3: Fearless in the Face of Undeath (Ex) You have spent too much time among the unliving to be taken in by their tricks and abilities, and you are proof against many of their powers. Increase your bravery saving throw bonus by 1. This bonus now applies to saving throws against any spells and effects generated by undead creatures, as well as against fear effects. The bonus also applies to nonmagical effects generated by undead creatures, such as a deathweb’s poison. If you don’t have the bravery class feature, you instead gain a +2 profane bonus on saving throws against spells and effects generated by undead.
Divine Fighting Technique
Vecna's Hunger
The grisly content of Pallid Cravings can be found in many places where the Pallid Prince maintains a significant presence, especially within the undead nation of Kymos. The pages of this manuscript are said to be tattooed onto a humanoid and flensed off while the victim is still alive; the swaths of skin are then carefully preserved for presentation in the book. Pallid Cravings details hundreds of ways for a member of Vecna’s faithful to satisfy her depraved urges for an opponent’s flesh and blood while in battle.
Initial Benefit: A number of times per day equal to your Wisdom bonus, you can feast upon the life essence of a creature that you hit with a scythe. Activating this ability is a swift action. When you do so, you gain a number of temporary hit points equal to the damage you dealt with the scythe attack. These temporary hit points last for 1 minute and don’t stack.
Advanced Prerequisites: Divine Fighting Technique, Heal 10 ranks, base attack bonus +7.
Advanced Benefit: A number of times per day equal to your Wisdom bonus, you can exacerbate any lingering contagions within a target’s body upon making a successful melee attack with a scythe. Activating this ability is a swift action, and causes the target to immediately attempt additional saving throws against all diseases with which it is currently afflicted. Any failed saves cause the target to immediately take the effects of that disease, while a successful save does not count toward the number of consecutive saves that the target must succeed at in order to cure the disease.
Unique Spell Rules
Antipaladin
Ghoul Touch can be prepared as a 2nd-level spell
Purify Food and Drink can be prepared as a 1st-level spell
Cleric/Warpriest
Ghoul Touch can be prepared as a 2nd-level spell
Inquisitor
Ghoul Touch can be prepared as a 2nd-level spell
Purify Food and Drink can be prepared as a 0-level spell
Sorcerer
Contagion can be prepared as a 3rd-level spell [arcane version]
Remove Disease can be prepared as a 3rd-level spell [arcane version]
Wizard
Contagion can be prepared as a 3rd-level spell [necromancer only, arcane version]
Remove Disease can be prepared as a 3rd-level spell [necromancer only, arcane version]
Other Rules
Priests who cast remove disease may draw diseases into themselves as they heal their targets; they become carriers without suffering ill effects. Contagion spells cast by Vecna’s priests always use the caster’s spell DC for the disease’s secondary saves.
Divine Classification
Rank 11 Intermediate Diety
Alignment
Neutral Evil
Realm
Church/Cult
Honorary & Occupational Titles
“The Pallid Prince” or “The First Lich”
Children
Pronouns
he/him
Aligned Organization
Ruled Locations
