Is Vecna in Baldur’s Gate 3?

With the understandable hype going around about Vecna due to the launch of Vecna: Eve of Ruin for D&D 5e and Astarion’s VA voicing him in the trailer, newcomers to BG3 are wondering if he actually appears in the game. So is Vecna in Baldur’s Gate 3?

Does Vecna Appear in Baldur’s Gate 3?

The legendary mortal turned lich and later God-like entity Vecna doesn’t officially appear in Baldur’s Gate 3. There was an early theory that Withers, who roughly matches Vecna’s Lich-like visual description and theme of undeath, was perhaps Vecna himself. However, with the newest BG3 epilogue and overall narrative hints the community is mostly in agreement that Withers might be an aspect of Jergal, the previous God of Death.

That said, there is a major reference to Vecna in Baldur’s Gate 3 through The Other Hand of Vecna item. This is a magical consolation prize won from Akabi the Red Genie at the Circus of the Last Days. It’s a reference to Vecna’s legacy magic items which are his severed left hand and left eye. The Hand and Eye of Vecna are incredibly powerful magical artifacts and The Other Hand of Vecna is a likewise powerful and hilarious nod to them.

These pointers to Vecna in Baldur’s Gate 3 have recently been accompanied by Neil Newbon, the voice of Astarion, actually voicing Vecna. His performance was showcased in the trailer for the D&D 5e campaign book Vecna: Eve of Ruin which recently launched. With all this back and forth between D&D 5e and BG3, it’s almost sad to remember that Larian won’t be making any more BG3 content past Patch 7.

So is Vecna in Baldur’s Gate 3? Not officially, but there are a few references. That certainly won’t stop the BG3 modding community from perhaps making Vecna for the game. This might actually become a reality considering modders will be the only new-content creators for BG3 after Patch 7.