Victorio Cassalanter, a half-elf priest of Asmodeus, is one of the main villains in Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. His alignment is Lawful Evil, indicating that he won’t put himself in harm’s way to help protect his allies (His wife and children, who he actually likes, are the only exceptions to this rule)
Victorio has three magic items: the Ring of Protection and Glamoured Studded Leather increase his AC, while the Rod of Rulership ensures that social interactions go his way. The Rod of Rulership can be used to charm potential attackers and deescalate the situation when Victorio doesn’t want to fight. However, once combat erupts, none of these items significantly affect his tactics.
Victorio’s main combat oriented features are a non-magical rapier, Cloak of Shadows, Summon Devil, and his spells. His mental abilities are significantly higher than his physical abilities, which indicates that he prefers to stay away from melee combat and won’t use his rapier very often.
Cloak of Shadows turns Victorio invisible until the end of his next turn, which can be used to safely relocate when an enemy comes within melee range. He also might use it when fleeing combat, to make it harder for enemies to tell which room he ducked into.
Summon Devil conjures a CR 5 Barbed Devil that acts as Victorio’s ally. This feature has the potential to turn the tide of battle, especially if it’s used near the beginning of combat. However, Victorio can use this feature only once every 9 days, and he needs it to confirm that his twin’s souls are saved if he manages to complete his plans. Because of this, Victorio won’t summon a devil in ANY circumstance if Founder’s Day is 9 days or less away. If the feature has time to recharge before founder’s day, Victorio will summon the devil when he’s moderately wounded (reduced to 68hp or less)¹
Victorio’s most complicated feature is, of course, his spells. Many of them² aren’t useful in combat, while others³ are extremely situational and probably won’t be necessary against PCs. The rest of the spells, which are more useful in combat, are analyzed below:
- Spiritual Weapon is an awesome enhancement to Victorio’s action economy, letting him attack at a range as a bonus action on each turn. He’ll cast it first thing if pressed into combat
- Blink and Mirror Image make Victorio harder to hit and will be cast near the beginning of a fight
- Sanctuary can be used to protect Victorio’s kids if they are unable to flee combat.
- Insect Plague is a good concentration spell that deals ongoing damage. With a 20 foot radius, Victorio will try to position this spell so it can affect at least 4 targets
- Dominate Person can make an enemy temporarily switch sides. If he casts it on a spellcaster, he can force them to waste their high level spell slots.
- Victorio could use Polymorph to turn an ally into a dinosaur, giving them extra hit points and more damaging attacks. However, his only likely ally with a high enough CR to turn into anything worth his concentration is Ammalia, and she’d probably prefer to stay in her human form.
- Banishment is useful to get an annoying enemy out of the way and could also be used to banish his wife to safety.⁴ ⁵ It’s not quite as effective as Insect Plague or Dominate Person, so Victorio will only use Banishment once he’s run out of 5th level slots.
- Spare the Dying puts Victorio in danger to give someone else a chance at staying alive. He’ll only use it on his wife or kids.
- Heal can restore Victorio to near maximum hit points
- Dispel Magic is used to, you know, dispel magic
- Command can be used to tell an enemy to flee and provoke opportunity attacks from Victorio’s allies.
- Divine Word is great for finishing enemies off when their looking particularly ragged.
- Dimension Door is an excellent escape hatch when Victorio needs to get out of combat
- Earthquake is destructive enough that Victorio will usually flee from battle before casting it, especially if he’s fighting in his villa. The only situation I could see him using this spell in is to kill his founder’s day guests if the PCs stop Ammalia’s scheme to poison them.
Now that we’ve analyzed all his features, we can lay out a strategy for Victorio to use in combat.
In the first round, Victorio will cast Spiritual Weapon and use it to attack whichever opponent seems to be the leader. He can’t cast any other leveled spells, so he’ll use his action to dodge
In the second round, Victorio will cast Blink and start disappearing into the ethereal plane, making him harder to hit. His bonus action will be an attack with Spiritual Weapon, on the same target as before
In the third round, Victorio either casts Insect Plague if he can get at least 4 enemies are within the spell’s radius, or Dominate Person if a bard, wizard, warlock, or sorcerer seems to be his most dangerous opponent.⁶ If there isn’t a bard, wizard, warlock, or sorcerer to mind control and Victorio can’t affect 4 enemies with Insect Plague, he casts Mirror Image instead.
In subsequent rounds, Victorio continues attacking with his Spiritual Weapon as a bonus action. If he has a spellcaster under the effect of Dominate Person, he uses his action to take complete control of them and make sure they expend their highest level spell slots.
Victorio uses Dispel Magic if there’s a particularly annoying sustained spell effect and Commands an enemy to flee if there are at least twice as many allies that could get an opportunity attack against it as there are enemies that Victorio thinks will attack him in the next round. He dodges to protect himself if none of the above conditions are met.
If an enemy closes within melee distance of him, Victorio will first use a bonus action to attack that enemy with Spiritual Weapon, then use Cloak of Shadows as an action to turn invisible and relocate to a less dangerous part of the battlefield. On his next turn, he uses his movement before he attacks to make sure that that enemy won’t close with him again next round.
If Victorio loses concentration, his dominated target breaks free, or all his enemies have moved out of the area of his Insect Plague, he recasts a concentration spell. Victorio choosing Insect Plague if it will affect at least 3 targets, Dominate Person if it can’t, or Banishment if he has already used both his 5th level slots.
Victorio only attacks with his rapier when an enemy is looking extremely ragged and he thinks he can finish them off in one round.⁷ If multiple enemies seem to be near death, Victorio uses Divine Word to finish them off, or at least blind them to make them easier to kill. If he himself is reduced to 30 hit points, he casts Heal on himself so he can continue the fight.
The second time he’s reduced to 30 hit point, he surrenders if his enemies seem like they may be willing to bargain or casts Dimension Door to escape if they seem likely to kill him.
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