Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
5e Rakshasa weak?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 6689399" data-attributes="member: 7006"><p>And therein lies the whole difficulty with trying to establish one particular 'Challenge Rating' number for a monster, and why I think (and I suspect the folks at WotC believe) that they really should only be used as guidelines <em>at best</em> and to really want/hope individual DMs look at their own game, their own playstyle, their own group and <em>take upon themselves</em> the actual job of figuring out the kind of challenge they want to present.</p><p></p><p>Take on a rakshasa with all the acoutrement that Darsuul talks about and yeah, it's probably toast. Take on a rakshasa after the entire party has had a long rest and yeah, it's probably toast. Take on a rakshasa as a solo creature with no other minions in the room and yeah, it's probably toast. But then once you start introducing all those bits and bobs that allow a rakshasa to play to its strengths (in party terms, a rogue assassin type) rather than having to be a 'tank and spank' creature... the challenge of facing off against the creature is much more difficult and begins to justify its CR rating.</p><p></p><p>I don't know how many of us oftentimes consider the role (Gah! The dreaded 'R' word! I must be flayed alive for daring to use it! LOL) of a monster and whether we are using them as foes in the manner that they should be used to create encounters. If used in the manner for which it is best suited (like as Dausuul says, darting in and out invisibly, tagging PCs with curses, letting their minion harass the party physically encounter after encounter), the creature can be deadly. Put it in a relatively empty room for a tank and spank after having allowed the party to rest and get back much of its resources and strength (like what happened in the last Critical Role episode)... then absolutely, it seems like a pushover.</p><p></p><p>Matt Mercer is a very 'party-friendly' DM and does not go out of his way to try and kill off his players or take them out of the game. (Anyone who watched the CritRole episode against the beholder probably noticed he <em>wasn't</em> telekinetically throwing the PCs that were on the roof entirely off the building to the outside such that they'd not only take massive damage when they landed, they also would have needed like 4-5 rounds to run back into the battle.) So we can't necessarily take what happens in that show as gospel on how powerful or not a particular monster in the MM might truly be.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 6689399, member: 7006"] And therein lies the whole difficulty with trying to establish one particular 'Challenge Rating' number for a monster, and why I think (and I suspect the folks at WotC believe) that they really should only be used as guidelines [i]at best[/i] and to really want/hope individual DMs look at their own game, their own playstyle, their own group and [i]take upon themselves[/i] the actual job of figuring out the kind of challenge they want to present. Take on a rakshasa with all the acoutrement that Darsuul talks about and yeah, it's probably toast. Take on a rakshasa after the entire party has had a long rest and yeah, it's probably toast. Take on a rakshasa as a solo creature with no other minions in the room and yeah, it's probably toast. But then once you start introducing all those bits and bobs that allow a rakshasa to play to its strengths (in party terms, a rogue assassin type) rather than having to be a 'tank and spank' creature... the challenge of facing off against the creature is much more difficult and begins to justify its CR rating. I don't know how many of us oftentimes consider the role (Gah! The dreaded 'R' word! I must be flayed alive for daring to use it! LOL) of a monster and whether we are using them as foes in the manner that they should be used to create encounters. If used in the manner for which it is best suited (like as Dausuul says, darting in and out invisibly, tagging PCs with curses, letting their minion harass the party physically encounter after encounter), the creature can be deadly. Put it in a relatively empty room for a tank and spank after having allowed the party to rest and get back much of its resources and strength (like what happened in the last Critical Role episode)... then absolutely, it seems like a pushover. Matt Mercer is a very 'party-friendly' DM and does not go out of his way to try and kill off his players or take them out of the game. (Anyone who watched the CritRole episode against the beholder probably noticed he [i]wasn't[/i] telekinetically throwing the PCs that were on the roof entirely off the building to the outside such that they'd not only take massive damage when they landed, they also would have needed like 4-5 rounds to run back into the battle.) So we can't necessarily take what happens in that show as gospel on how powerful or not a particular monster in the MM might truly be. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
5e Rakshasa weak?
Top