Tomb of Annihilation gives us one of the most powerful and iconic villains in the history of Dungeons & Dragons: the archlich Acererak. This centuries-old, planeswalking master wizard was once a cambion (half-fiend) from the world of Greyhawk (Oerth), the son of an Orcus-worshipping balor and for a time the apprentice of the infamous Vecna (before the latter ascended to godhood). Acererak’s real claim to fame, however, is his penchant for constructing elaborate death traps to harvest the souls of powerful adventurers. It is this legacy that endures in the eponymous dungeon of Tomb of Annihilation.

Su-Monster #11/45 Icons of the Realms: Tomb of Annihilation. Regular price $3.39. Icons of the Realms: Tomb of Annihilation - Tomb and Traps Set. Basic Information. Author (s) Wizards RPG Team: Christopher Perkins, Will Doyle, Steve Winter, Adam Lee. Editor (s) Publisher. Cover Artist (s).

Bring the heroes, villains, and monsters from the jungle of Chult, as well as the Tomb of the Nine Gods, to life in this latest series of fantasy miniatures! Collect all 44 figures from Tomb of Annihilation, the newest set of randomly sorted monsters and heroes in our exciting line of D&D miniatures, Icons of the Realms.
More miniatures printed for my ongoing 'Tomb of Annihilation' game. All were printed on my Ender-3. First, the Z-Rex, a file I nabbed off Thingiverse. The eternal and ever-smelly Champion, Dragonbait! File designed by the talented DM Workshop, Miguel Zavala. I did have to replace his sword hand with an Empire bit.

This article is part 1 of the Tomb of Annihilation series. You can read part 2 here.

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Since his first appearance in the original Tomb of Horrors (1978), Acererak (ah-SAIR-ak) has taken many forms, including that of a lich, demilich, and a vestige (a kind of super-ghost invented to give a purpose to the Binder class in Third Edition). In the Fifth Edition Monster Manual, Acererak was mentioned in the context of the demilich entry, possibly indicating that he was originally intended to take that form again. However, demiliches are no longer the advanced form of a lich as they were in the past, and so Chris Perkins et. al. at Wizards of the Coast opted to restore him to full lichdom in Tomb of Annihilation. Not only that, they gave him an advanced stat line that put him on the same level as some demon lords. Seriously, he’s nuts.

Most remarkable about Acererak’s Fifth Edition stats are his spellcasting abilities, which are well beyond even the mightiest mortal archmage. Able to cast 1st- through 3rd-level spells at will—including outside his turn as legendary actions!—as well as having more spell slots of higher levels (two 9th-level spell slots!), he is in a completely different league than any PC could become. Reading through his abilities, it is impossible to not have visions of arcing bolts of lightning and roaring eruptions of flame. Dropping three fireballs just as legendary actions?

Except… no, that can’t be right. He doesn’t even have fireball prepared? What?

Closely perusing Acererak’s spell list has led many people to scratch their head in wonder at the way his stat block was designed. How does he expect to prevail against interloping adventurers without fireball? How can he have not availed himself of the opportunity to throw one of the best spells in the game around four times in a single round? He’s got 27 Intelligence, this is a no-brainer!

Worst spell list ever.

Now, many have argued that Acererak isn’t expecting to have to rush to the tomb that day in order to smite some upstart adventurers, and therefore that he’s not necessarily going to be packing enough magic to annihilate a small army. And those people would be right… if his current loadout didn’t include high-level damage spells like disintegrate and circle of death. He frequently travels the planes exploring dangerous locales, has enemies across the multiverse, and regularly deals with dangerous situations. He is always going to be ready for a fight.

In actuality, there is a more (and also less) logical reason for him to eschew the most damaging spells that he can spam: so that he doesn’t wipe the entire party within a few rounds. Adding three fireballs to the average damage of each turn raises Acererak’s per-round average damage considerably. We say that this is more and also less logical because there is already zero chance that the PCs should be able to defeat him; they should have depleted most of their resources crawling through six levels of Faerûn’s deadliest dungeon and then fighting a coven of night hags as well as an aborted godling. By this point, Acererak could show up with nothing more than a pointed stick and be able to destroy the 10th-level (max!) party.

In other words, sparing the players fireballs as Acererak’s legendary actions in hopes that it makes the encounter at all survivable is an exercise in futility. No 2nd-tier party should prevail against Acererak the Devourer. In fact, we would go so far as to say that you’re doing your players a disservice if you don’t wipe the floor with them in this fight. You wouldn’t make Demogorgon a pushover, would you? A 10th-level party that fights Orcus or Dispater is going to be soundly trounced, and that’s precisely what the party should be expecting from this fight.

Of course, those who argue that Acererak, while he should be ready for deadly situations, shouldn’t be outfitted ready to singlehandedly wipe out a small army have a very good point. But it is a point that raises issue with his basic spell list, too. For someone supposedly not prepared for war, there is a notable lack of utility in Acererak’s spell list. It’s as though he was halfway through swapping out his spells from a day he expected combat to a day he thought he’d just bum around opening magically locked doors and then just… got bored and stopped. It really doesn’t make sense.

So what should he have prepared? To figure that out, let’s look into a day in the (un)life of one of the most powerful wizards in the multiverse.

Acererak’s Day

What does a mighty archwizard who has need of neither air nor food nor sleep do in a typical day? Aside from overseeing the construction of deadly tombs on far-flung worlds, Acererak primarily “wanders the cosmos in search of souls to harvest” (TOA 94). In his odyssey across the planes, he comes into conflict with powerful spirits (such as the Nine Trickster Gods of Omu) and rivals in his search to plumb the secrets of creation. His adventures, then, are fraught with peril, and even though he will always reform when destroyed (so long as his phylactery survives), he is sure to resent delays in his adventuring and so would ensure that he possesses the means to defeat his foes.

What about Acererak’s style? As a necromancer, he probably doesn’t put too much stock in the illusion school, so while phantasmal killer would certainly be fitting for an evil wizard who enjoys terrorizing his foes (or underlings), it probably doesn’t belong on Acererak’s list. Likewise, he is too economical to run a high-level spell like maze, which does what a low-level spell (banishment) does better. A creature that Acererak doesn’t have time to deal with but also doesn’t want to destroy (perhaps because he wants to interrogate it later) is better banished indefinitely for later recovery using the demiplane spell. The only illusion spell he’d take would probably by greater invisibility, as it allows him to cast spells without fear of being counterspelled (since he cannot be seen and therefore cannot be targeted).

When you take into account Acererak’s particular brand of villainy and consider his daily activities, you can draw a few conclusions. He would have to have spells that can move him from place to place, damaging spells that can deal with various types of foes, spells to protect himself against those damage types to which he is not already immune, and spells to help him to defeat ancient magical protections. Let’s take a look at what this would look like:

Now this is a spell list you could expect from someone who means

Tomb Of Annihilation Monster List