Critical Role: Who Is The Most Powerful Member Of Vox Machina?
"Critical Role" fans have had a long time to get to know Vox Machina. The first "Critical Role" campaign revolves entirely around the adventuring party, which is comprised of characters portrayed by the actual play show's core cast of accomplished voice actors. While the series' first campaign came to an end all the way back in 2017, too, it has revisited its Vox Machina characters multiple times since then via several one-shots. Of course, the fictional group's adventures have also served as the source material for the first "Critical Role" animated TV series, "The Legend of Vox Machina."
All of this is to say that most "Critical Role" fans are not only familiar with the show's first adventuring party but have had plenty of time to discuss and debate different things about the group. Certain questions — like where Vox Machina got their name — are easy to answer, while others remain hot topics of debate among fans. In one Reddit thread, "Critical Role" viewers even came together to debate which Vox Machina member is the party's most powerful. The topic, predictably, elicited numerous passionate responses.
The thread never led to one consensus fan pick, but several viewers made strong cases for three "Critical Role" characters, in particular, as the most powerful member of Vox Machina: Keyleth (Marisha Ray), Pike (Ashley Johnson), and Scanlan (Sam Riegel). As one fan argued, "Consistent power goes to KiKi [because] she's near-immortal and can shape[change] at will. But at that level, Pike can auto-succeed in a Divine Intervention and call up the Everlight and Scanman can just Wish the problem away."
With all this in mind, the character that the majority of fans seem to agree is the most powerful and difficult-to-beat member of Vox Machina is ultimately Ray's Keyleth.
Vox Machina's most powerful members are forces to be reckoned with
While there were some "Critical Role" fans who argued that Vax'ildan (Liam O'Brien) might be the most capable and, therefore, powerful member of Vox Machina, most of the aforementioned Reddit thread's commenters seemed to agree that Scanlan, Pike, and Keyleth are the worthiest characters for that title. That may come as a surprise to some "Critical Role" viewers, especially those who have seen the high amounts of damage that characters like Percy (Taliesin Jaffe) and Grog (Travis Willingham) are capable of dealing in single turns.
However, Pike, Scanlan, and Keyleth's spell-casting abilities are too powerful for any of Vox Machina's melee fighters to really stand a chance against them. Pike, for her part, has a Level 20 ability that lets her automatically succeed at Divine Intervention, which allows her to literally call on the aid of her chosen deity. Scanlan, meanwhile, has access at Level 20 to the Wish spell, which gives him the chance to access the kind of powerful incantations — like Power Word Kill — that could, theoretically, incapacitate even his most powerful allies.
That said, "Critical Role" fans agree that the circumstances would still need to be very specific for either Pike or Scanlan to outlast and take down Keyleth. "[Divine Intervention] is often played by [Dungeon Masters] as being a powerful almost Wish-lite thing but it's really just a big damage chunk. Certainly not enough to one-hit KO Keyleth," noted u/vincent118, while another fan commented, "At Level 20[,] Keyleth (on paper at least) is probably the most powerful. With unlimited uses of Wild Shape, she can simply switch between 2 of her tankiest forms as a bonus action each turn to basically negate a little over 100 damage per round."
Keyleth won the Level 20 Battle Royale one-shot
It's worth noting that Keyleth's power has been demonstrated more than a few times on-screen, including in certain fights against her fellow Vox Machina members. In fact, "Critical Role" famously released a battle royale one-shot in 2017 that pitted nearly every Level 20 Vox Machina character against each other. The only members of the team who were absent from the game were Ashley Johnson's Pike and Laura Bailey's Vex'ahlia. Keyleth, notably, won the battle.
Indeed, while Scanlan was able to successfully use his Wish spell to Feeblemind her — leaving her incapable of casting spells — she was still able to cycle through her unlimited Wild Shape forms and constantly reset her health points. It was, consequently, nearly impossible for any of the one-shot's other characters to do enough damage to her in one round to knock her unconscious. In other words, while Pike wasn't there to use her Divine Intervention or Anti-Magic Field spells against Keyleth, the battle royale made it clear just how powerful her endless Wild Shape uses make her.
As a result, it seems fair to say that the odds will always be slightly more in Keyleth's favor, no matter which of her fellow Vox Machina members she's pitted against. If she were to fight Scanlan after the events of the "Dalen's Closet" one-shot, he wouldn't even have access to his Wish spell anymore — making it even more difficult for him to beat her.
In the end, Keyleth is the most straightforwardly powerful member of Vox Machina. Fans aren't the only ones who think so, either. Taryon Darrington himself even spoke of Keyleth's immense power in "Critical Role" Campaign 1, noting, "She is the most powerful and leader of the group." Who are we to disagree with Tary?