Thank you for the breakdown. I more or less remember these from "Vecna Lives" but that was so long ago that I'd forgotten much of it. This new "Eve of Ruin" release should be interesting.
No problem :) I had seen some confusion on different forums about the hand and the eye, with many people not knowing about the creatures. I think it's good to know the structure of the cult before going through Vecna Lives.
I know it isn't the old lore but if they really felt compelled to change the great stuff that is already there perhaps The Eye and The Hand could be a tag team that always works together, one sees all for both of them and the other is super strong and does all the dirty work.
That would definitely work well because while the eye is formidable, its place isn't really to fight. The hand is just an abomination of mixed creatures that only knows anger. In a longer campaign, like Eve of Ruin, it would be great to have some an early encounter with the hand but not let it play out completely. In other, more horrific games, players often know when to cut their loses and escape, but in 5e there's almost an expectation that you'll win every battle, so that could be hard to balance. The other option would be to have the Hand called away, but that's always a bit of a cop out. Given the limited information we have about the campaign, there will definitely be travel to different planes. I would have a battle with the hand where the hand is clearly stronger than the players, but there's some confusion and they are sent to separate planes. It could also seem like the hand was killed. And they can breathe a sigh of relief. But then towards the end, in Vecna's tower, the hand reappears. Similarly you could have earlier interactions with the eye, so they both confront the party together towards the end. That's a great way to use up some party resources before they get to vecna, to make it a really tense battle!
@@rpgswithpaddy Apologies I've been away - That is a great idea, it is really difficult having dangerous enemies the party most likely can't beat and conveying that to the players in 5E with it being designed around the balance being tipped against the monsters. Perhaps the eye and the hand don't normally kill their prey but take them to some kind of Vecna controlled pocket dimension, either to toy with or to imprison people for later interrogation. I'm almost envisioning these two creatures as the Pyramid Head monsters in Silent Hill 2, being a threat but their actions and goals being very alien.
Thank you for the breakdown. I more or less remember these from "Vecna Lives" but that was so long ago that I'd forgotten much of it. This new "Eve of Ruin" release should be interesting.
No problem :) I had seen some confusion on different forums about the hand and the eye, with many people not knowing about the creatures. I think it's good to know the structure of the cult before going through Vecna Lives.
I know it isn't the old lore but if they really felt compelled to change the great stuff that is already there perhaps The Eye and The Hand could be a tag team that always works together, one sees all for both of them and the other is super strong and does all the dirty work.
That would definitely work well because while the eye is formidable, its place isn't really to fight. The hand is just an abomination of mixed creatures that only knows anger. In a longer campaign, like Eve of Ruin, it would be great to have some an early encounter with the hand but not let it play out completely. In other, more horrific games, players often know when to cut their loses and escape, but in 5e there's almost an expectation that you'll win every battle, so that could be hard to balance. The other option would be to have the Hand called away, but that's always a bit of a cop out.
Given the limited information we have about the campaign, there will definitely be travel to different planes. I would have a battle with the hand where the hand is clearly stronger than the players, but there's some confusion and they are sent to separate planes. It could also seem like the hand was killed. And they can breathe a sigh of relief. But then towards the end, in Vecna's tower, the hand reappears.
Similarly you could have earlier interactions with the eye, so they both confront the party together towards the end. That's a great way to use up some party resources before they get to vecna, to make it a really tense battle!
@@rpgswithpaddy Apologies I've been away - That is a great idea, it is really difficult having dangerous enemies the party most likely can't beat and conveying that to the players in 5E with it being designed around the balance being tipped against the monsters.
Perhaps the eye and the hand don't normally kill their prey but take them to some kind of Vecna controlled pocket dimension, either to toy with or to imprison people for later interrogation.
I'm almost envisioning these two creatures as the Pyramid Head monsters in Silent Hill 2, being a threat but their actions and goals being very alien.