Experiences with Rakshasas

[Kid Charlemagne]

I'm starting to plot out some ideas involving the Rakshasa, and I'm looking for inspiration. To what uses have you put them to as a DM, or experienced them as a player?

There was a thread years back that mentioned a group of Rakshasa lords that competed in a kind of "great game" scenario, always trying to best one another - I've searched and searched, but the thread may have vanished in a crash or board changeover. Maybe someone here remembers a bit about it...

So what cool experiences with our favorite tiger-headed, weird-palmed friends have you had?

 

[Crust]

You know, I'd love to use rakshasa in my campaign, but the simple fact that their hands are reversed just irks me, and I'd rather not listen to my players constantly point out the ridiculousness of those hands (which has happened before), so I leave them out.

Tiger-headed humanoids are awesome. Rakshasa are cool. If I ever did use them, I might just have to give them normal hands.

Why are their hands like that, anyway? Imagine how awkward that must be. Wouldn't that mean they'd suffer penalties using double-weapons? Eating, manipulating small objects, writing... The whole thing is illogical to me. Maybe the rakshasa are meant to symbolize illogical behavior. I don't know.

 

[Li Shenron]

The whole thing is illogical to me. Maybe the rakshasa are meant to symbolize illogical behavior. I don't know.

I think I'd rather say that it's a curse that the gods or whoever have cast upon them to punish their depraved evilness. They could have some penalty tho...

 

[shilsen]

I'm starting to plot out some ideas involving the Rakshasa, and I'm looking for inspiration. To what uses have you put them to as a DM, or experienced them as a player?

There was a thread years back that mentioned a group of Rakshasa lords that competed in a kind of "great game" scenario, always trying to best one another - I've searched and searched, but the thread may have vanished in a crash or board changeover. Maybe someone here remembers a bit about it...

So what cool experiences with our favorite tiger-headed, weird-palmed friends have you had?

I've just wrapped up a major plot arc in my Eberron campaign with a rakshasa as the BBEG. The campaign's 2 years and 45 sessions old, and the PCs discovered only about midway through it that they were being significantly manipulated by some entity. As time passed, they discovered more and more and eventually discovered that they had been manipulated even before the campaign began (i.e. that there were background elements which had been directly or indirectly set up by the rakshasa).

The reason that they found out is actually because they managed to get hold of an incredibly rare and powerful item, which caused the rakshasa to eventually reveal itself in the process of taking it from them. Then they chased it across the continent, finding out more and more in the process, and last session, came to a climactic encounter with him in the depths of a volcano while he was freeing one of the most powerful rakshasa rajahs (think the equivalent of a demon lord).

Worked out very well in my estimation, from the viewpoints of plot, roleplaying and action, and tied the entire two years of gaming together very well.

 

[sjmiller]

Tiger-headed humanoids are awesome. Rakshasa are cool. If I ever did use them, I might just have to give them normal hands.

Why are their hands like that, anyway? Imagine how awkward that must be. Wouldn't that mean they'd suffer penalties using double-weapons? Eating, manipulating small objects, writing... The whole thing is illogical to me. Maybe the rakshasa are meant to symbolize illogical behavior. I don't know.

In some of the Hindu myths I have read the rakshasa have poisonous fingernails and are demons who love to torture and eat people. I also don't seem to find any reference to the whole hand thing, so just take it out. It's more of flavor text than anything.

Also remember, because they are demons in Hindu mythology they do not have to make sense to humans. Demons are evil, chaotic creatures who do things for reasons beyond human understanding.

 

[Shemeska]

I ended up using a pair of Rakshasas as the antagonists in a plot arc of my 1st Storyhour that spanned from a castle atop a dead god on the Astral (Maanzicorian), to an Angkor Wat style palace in Carceri's scarlet jungle of Cathrys, then back to the Astral. Those two 'Rakshasas' were a bit of a special case however.

In my second campaign, one of the major metaplots revolves around some intrigue within the Rakshasa nobility of Acheron, an exiled Rajah, and the pre-Rakshasa race of Acheron natives known as the Hassitor. One of the PCs' long-term NPC companions is also a variant Rakshasa type (the rogue styled one from MM3).

 

[edemaitre]

Rakshasas

In my homebrew campaign setting, the Rakshasas are the rulers of a Lawful Evil realm at the edge of the desert. The predominant culture is Indo-Arabic, with an Assyrian/Persian-style military. They are few in number, rarely seen by humans outside palace walls, and love to toy with adventuring parties. They tolerate the presence of Necromancers, summoners, and priests of various deities.

The backwards-hands thing is a sign of their evil to some, and certainly their extraplanar origins. In my game, the cruel Rakshasa are not above setting other feline humanoids, such as Sphinx, Wemics, and Jaguar folk, against one another or manipulating canine beings (hyena-like Gnolls, Egyptian-style Jackal men, or barbaric Wolven) into doing their bidding.

They prefer not to get their hands dirty in the wars of humans or intrigues of the Drow and other demihumans, preferring to rule their domain with a combination of secret police, draconic laws, and the fear of the darkness and terrors of the deep desert sands that force people to crowd into their ancient cities, surrounded by trackless swamps... Recently, they have allowed (Turkic and Roman-style) Goblinoids to migrate into their territory, making use of the Hobgoblin legions at their borders. However, the Rakshasa's long-term goals are unknown...

 

[Varianor Abroad]

An alternate spelling is rakasha, if researching Hindu myth.

I have used them on many occasions. They are clever opponents. Try to set them up with some sort of long-term shapechanged disguise. With their innate charm and suggestion abilities, they often work well as viziers and advisors to more obvious ruler types who can appear to be the BBEG.

My best use though was a world ruled by them. I plane shifted a bunch of PCs on an island into a rakshasa dominated place where they were the Rajahs and Shahs and barons and nobles. It's hell when the local lord can send his own kids to spy on the puny humans and look like them.

 

[Sejs]

Why are their hands like that, anyway? Imagine how awkward that must be. Wouldn't that mean they'd suffer penalties using double-weapons? Eating, manipulating small objects, writing... The whole thing is illogical to me. Maybe the rakshasa are meant to symbolize illogical behavior. I don't know.

Awkward for you and me, maybe, but for them it's natural. They're used to it. Their hands have always been that way for them.

Why should they have penalties?

 

[MojoGM]

One change I made to Rakshasas to make them more interesting is that they are not all instantly slain by blessed crossbow bolts.

Now, each one has a very specific thing that willslay them instantly. Usually a crossbow bolt imbued with some spell (or spells) but not always.

I've used them once when the PCs were trying to stop one from being released from a captivity, and they had to make an alliance with an evil Cleric who was needed to help destroy the Rakshasa.

I plan to use them again soon (due to the very cool D&D mini I got)