Since half of Vox Machina fought a rakshasa last episode, I took a closer look at the monster... and found it pretty underwhelming.
I mean, it's sneaky as heck, and pretty tough with its immunity to non-magical weapons as well as any spell of 6th level or lower. But it has a pretty glaring vulnerability (piercing damage dealt by a good creature), so-so hit points (110 - on par with the challenge 5 otyugh), and very little offense. Charm person is mostly useless once combat has started, and suggestion is nice but limited and requires concentration. Pretty much the only real offensive move they have is dominate person, and that's a 1/day ability that gives a save to prevent it, and then allows multiple saves to break it. This creature is supposed to be challenge 13. That's on par with a nalfeshnee, or with an adult white dragon.
Back in the day, they had more open-ended spell-casting ability - In 3.5, they cast spells as a 7th level sorcerer which could include some pretty strong offensive spells, as well as the potential for +8 AC. In 5e, they are more limited with their Innate Spellcasting, although it does contain some spells beyond the capabilities they would have had in 3.5e. 1e/2e had something similiar, but with them just having a few spells of up to 3rd level.
Sure, the rakshasa is a great mastermind monster, using its charm, detect thoughts, and disguise self to infiltrate places and take more subtle control of things and people. But challenge rating is supposed to be more about how good they are in a fight - the difficulty posed by the rakshasa's minions are accounted for in the minions themselves.
I'm probably missing something here, but the way I see it rakshasa ought to be more of a challenge 6-7 monster. I'd be way more afraid of a mind flayer than a rakshasa.
I mean, it's sneaky as heck, and pretty tough with its immunity to non-magical weapons as well as any spell of 6th level or lower. But it has a pretty glaring vulnerability (piercing damage dealt by a good creature), so-so hit points (110 - on par with the challenge 5 otyugh), and very little offense. Charm person is mostly useless once combat has started, and suggestion is nice but limited and requires concentration. Pretty much the only real offensive move they have is dominate person, and that's a 1/day ability that gives a save to prevent it, and then allows multiple saves to break it. This creature is supposed to be challenge 13. That's on par with a nalfeshnee, or with an adult white dragon.
Back in the day, they had more open-ended spell-casting ability - In 3.5, they cast spells as a 7th level sorcerer which could include some pretty strong offensive spells, as well as the potential for +8 AC. In 5e, they are more limited with their Innate Spellcasting, although it does contain some spells beyond the capabilities they would have had in 3.5e. 1e/2e had something similiar, but with them just having a few spells of up to 3rd level.
Sure, the rakshasa is a great mastermind monster, using its charm, detect thoughts, and disguise self to infiltrate places and take more subtle control of things and people. But challenge rating is supposed to be more about how good they are in a fight - the difficulty posed by the rakshasa's minions are accounted for in the minions themselves.
I'm probably missing something here, but the way I see it rakshasa ought to be more of a challenge 6-7 monster. I'd be way more afraid of a mind flayer than a rakshasa.