Viconia DeVir/Combat

Overview

Combat

Viconia DeVir
Medium Humanoid
Level 11 Lolth-sworn drow
Stats
Armour Class	20
Hit points	124 (Balanced) 161 (Tactician)
Movement speed	9 m (30 ft)
Weight	75 kg (150 lb)
Initiative	+4
Ability scores
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 14 (+2) 19 (+4) 10 (0) 17 (+3) 18 (+4) 16 (+3)
Proficiency bonus	+4
Saving throws	Str +2 Dex +4 Con 0 Int +3 Wis +4 Cha +3
Conditions
Shield of Faith	+2 to armour class.
Sanctuary	Cannot be targeted by enemy attacks or spells.
Radiant Retort	Reflect Radiant damage back at your attacker twofold as Force damage.
Veil of Shar	Shield of Faith also grants +2 to saving throws.
Nightbringer's Beloved	Regain 7~76 HP when using Channel Divinity.
Features
Born into Darkness	Can see through any darkness, cannot be Blinded.
Darkvision	Can see in the dark up to 12m.
Fey Ancestry	Immunity to sleep and advantage on saves against Charmed.
Magic Resistance	Advantage on Saving Throws against Spells and other magical effects.
Mortal Reminder	The target of a critical hit, and nearby enemies, might become Frightened.
Opportunity Attack	Automatically attack an enemy moving out of your reach.
Protection Tactician	While you have a shield, use a reaction to give an enemy attacking an ally Disadvantage. Only within 1.5m (5ft) and that you can see.
Rebuke of the Mighty	Strike back at an enemy that hits you, dealing Force damage and knocking them Prone.
Sentinel: Opportunity Advantage Tactician	Advantage on Opportunity Attacks.
Sentinel: Snare Tactician	When you hit a creature with an Opportunity Attack, it cannot move for the rest of its turn.
Sentinel: Vengeance Tactician	Using a reaction, attack an enemy who attacks an ally within your melee range.
Shadow Ambush	Deal +4d8 Necrotic damage when attacking from the shadows.
Shar's Umbrae	While obscured, the wearer has advantage on Stealth Checks.
Sharran Veil	Shield of Faith also grants you a +2 to all saving throws.
Spellguard	Advantage on saving throws against spells. Spell attack rolls against you have Disadvantage.
Sunlight Sensitivity	While in sunlight, disadvantage on attack rolls and some Perception checks.
Tenacity (passive feature)	When you miss an attack, deal Bludgeoning damage anyway.
Impenetrable Shadow Honour	If ending your turn in darkness, receive Sanctuary of Loss.
Legendary Action: Heartwrench Honour	Heartwrench a Heartform Mapped creature after it strikes an ally.
Legendary Action: Sanctuary of Loss Honour	Cast Sanctuary of Loss when an ally is struck.

This page focuses on Viconia DeVir's behaviour during her combat encounter. Viconia DeVir is able to be fought in the Cloister of Sombre Embrace, which is found under the House of Grief in the Lower City. She is joined by the members of her flock.

Attacks and abilities

Viconia fights like a level 11 Cleric, capable of casting spells up to level 6 and possessing two Channel Divinity charges.

•  Blight
•  Channel Divinity: Cloak of Shadows
•  Divine Intervention: Sunder the Heretical
•  Divine Strike: Poison
•  Shadow Step
•  Spirit Guardians: Necrotic

 Sanctuary ()

You or an ally cannot be targeted until you attack or harm a creature. You can still take damage from area spells.

Until the affected entity attacks or harms another creature, it cannot be targeted by enemy attacks. However, it can still take damage from spells that influence a larger area.

 Range: 18 m / 60 ft

Mapping of the Heart spells

Main article: Mapping of the Heart

•  Castigate Heartform - applies a specialized debuff depending on the character's responses to the Mapping of the Heart
•  Mapped Terror- applies  Frightened and an additional condition depending on the character's response to "What is your greatest fear?" during the Mapping of the Heart. Cast against the same target as  Castigate Heartform. Two variations have additional effects that buff the Sharrans:
  •  Mapped Terror: Wolves - Uniquely cast against Shadowheart if she sat on the bench in the House of Grief, this ability polymorphs Viconia and two allies into wolves.
    •  Bite
    •  Sinister Howl
  •  Mapped Terror: Spiders - Polymorphs Viconia and two allies into spiders.
    •  Bite

Conditions and passives

[[Whenever you take Radiant damage, reflect it back at your attacker twofold as Force damage. ]] [[Regain 7~76 Hit Points every time you use your Channel Divinity.]]

Passives

Viconia's armour and weapons grant her a few passives and boosts:

• Handmaiden's Mace
  • Set the wearer's Strength score to 18

• Viconia's Walking Fortress
  •  Rebuke of the Mighty
  • Spellguard

• Viconia's Priestess Robe
  • Shar's Umbrae
  • Sharran Veil

Allies

Viconia DeVir can be fought in the Cloister of Sombre Embrace. She is joined by eighteen other Sharrans:

• Two Justiciar Crusaders; Owltalon and Nightmist
• Five Sharran Fidelians; Gloommask, Lamnoa, Hyrald, Uttermmask and Gydd
• Ten Sharran Novices
• One Sentry Fredrichk

If Shadowheart is a Dark Justiciar, she can convince some of the Sharrans to fight alongside the party.

Tactics

If fought, Viconia is one of the more difficult opponents in the game. She is continuously affected by the conditions Nightbringer's Beloved and Radiant Retort and begins the battle under the effect of Sanctuary. She has a high initiative bonus and will begin her first turn using Castigate Heartform on the character who underwent the Mapping of the Heart, followed by Mapped Terror on the same target, crippling one character with a series of debuffs. Of the several variations of Mapped Terror, Mapped Terror: Ceremorphosis is potentially the worst, fully locking down one character for at least two turns with a stun-like effect.

The easiest way around the Mapping abilities is also the most obvious: don't do the Mapping of the Heart, or don't take the mapped character into battle. Avoiding the Mapping can be done by leaving Shadowheart at camp and passing a DC 20 Investigation check to reveal a button that unlocks the entrance to the Cloister. Without the Mapping completed, Viconia cannot use Caastigate Heartform or Mapped Terror.

Viconia herself is a capable striker thanks to the strength bonus from her Handmaiden's Mace, application of Divine Strike: Poison, and potential guaranteed critical hits from Castigate Heartform. Disarming her can be useful for reducing her damage output, but she will still have many powerful spells to fall back on.

Allies

The Sharrans possess overwhelming strength in numbers. She is supported by almost twenty allies including two powerful Justiciar Crusaders and four Sharran Fidelian mages. All of her allies are capable of controlling the arena with Darkness and casting synergistic spells like Overwhelming Grief. All possess the Shadow Ambush passive, allowing them to deal extra necrotic damage to the party on attacks; they also liberally use Bone Chill to prevent healing.

Necrotic resistance and crowd control are the surest ways to increase survivability against the Sharrans' overwhelming numbers. Sources of Darkvision and/or immunity to Blind are necessary for melee strikers to wade through the clouds of darkness. The Justiciar Crusaders, Nightmist and Owltalon, are second only to Viconia in power and are great targets for Crown of Madness or Dominate Person.

Counterintuitively, this is an potentially an excellent battle to use a Cleric's Divine Intervention: Sunder the Heretical, specifically in conjunction with death-prevention effects like Death Ward. The enormous radius and large radiant damage will wipe many weaker Novices out of the initiative order. Triggering  Radiant Retort will surely kill the caster, but upon revival the cleric will have rejuvenated their actions, effectively giving them an extra turn. Triggering Viconia's Radiant Retort with a small source of Radiant damage, such as Sacred Flame or Callous Glow Ring, can prematurely block her Sanctuary and allow her to be targeted before she gets a turn.

Honour Mode

Viconia gains one Legendary action per round and three new abilities on Honour Mode: Heartwrench, Sanctuary of Loss, and the passive Impenetrable Shadow. Heartwrench adds a high-power targeted attack that focuses down the character whose heartform was mapped, giving the party one more reason to leave that character back at camp for the fight. The latter two abilities defensively buff Viconia and her allies with additional instances of Sanctuary.

Notes

• The bestial polymorphs from Mapped Terror: Wolves and Mapped Terror: Spiders are illusory, and thus not targetable with Dominate Beast. They also function like a Druid's Wild Shape, with the polymorphed creature returning to their original form after the beast's hit points are depleted.

• Especially in Honor Mode, it is recommended to bring a dedicated caster or a large number of AoE spells to this fight. Viconia's Sanctuary and Legendary "Sanctuary of Loss" abilities can provide her with very frequent immunity to being targeted by melee attacks or single-target spells.

• Viconia's Sharrans make liberal use of Bone Chill cantrips during the fight. Be sure to prepare your party with additional HP, temporary HP, or a way of preventing damage to one or more characters (invisibility, sanctuary, etc.) to avoid a situation where much of your party is immunized to healing effects.

• If one is willing to resort to the "nuclear" option, a Runepowder Barrel or Runepowder Bomb taken from the Ironhand Gnomes' hideout in Rivington, paired with a Globe of Invulnerability cast on the party, will usually outright kill all ten Sharran Novices and all five Sharran Fidelians and seriously wound Viconia and the two Crusaders.