Name a cool way to permanently kill a rakshasa

[RangerWickett]

Well, the method I'm going for in my next campaign is that it since it possesses a sliver of divinity (having once been a deva, which was given the blessing of reincarnation by a god), it can only be killed by a shining bolt from the astral plane that has not been tainted by the material world.

In short, you can only kill rakshasa with a falling star.



(And to borrow from Pkitty, you can call forth a falling star by forcing the rakshasa to confront the event that caused it to fall. So basically, it's a roleplaying challenge to lure the monster to some place where it must face its past, and then light flashes overhead, turning the scene into a combat challenge to keep him from fleeing as the blessed bolt from the stars is conjured to slay him.)

 

[SSquirrel]

My idea: Feed it a slice of sardine, anchovie and banana pepper pizza. That will at least kill it's social life.

My wife's idea: "Have a hag curse it to eternally be some kind of swamp critter like a tree frog."

 

[Kunimatyu]

IMC, the party "killed" one by trading in a favor to convince the Grand Sultan of All the Efreet to set the rakshasa on fire for eternity and lock it in a cage in his palace. The fire didn't reduce it to 0 HP, but you'd be amazed how much being on eternal fire interferes with your ability to concentrate on pretty much anything.

 

[Heathen72]

The blessed crossbow bolt-thing is kinda boring. I'm thinking more of "The poorest man in the land must give the rakshasa a kiss on the forehead, and if the rakshasa is killed by sinking a blessed dagger into its forehead no more than a day after, the fiend is permanently destroyed"

I like this sort of thing as long as the Rakshasa doesn't know about it, or failing that doesn't see that such a prophecy can be fulfilled in an unexpected way (the slaying of the Lord of the Nazgul - unkillable by any man - by a halfling and a woman is a good example of what I mean by this).

I would suggest that the Rakshasa should be unique and that there be a strong backstory to his character. You really should know who he was, and how and why he chose the path he did. How he will be destroyed should then be linked to that backstory. We're trying to tell Bram's Stoker's Dracula, instead of a generic vampire tale, if you understand my meaning. Otherwise it doesn't matter whether you choose a crossbow bolt or a kiss on the cheek - it's may as well just be garlic, wooden stakes and sunlight for all the meaning it will have.

Secondly, how does the party learn of the necessary method of execution? Is there some prophecy? Have they found the diary of the Rakshasa's original lover? Or did they read of it in a legend in some dusty tome? If so, there may well be ambiguities there that they may not realise. Perhaps a word in the text had two meanings back when it was written that only a high 'languages' roll would reveal. Using the example above, perhaps 'kiss' only means to touch, as in the kiss of a cue ball and billiard ball. A kiss with the lips will certainly work, but is difficult to arrange, and might be shown to be unnecessary if the players take the time to research carefully! Certainly, a simple touch would be less likely to arouse the Rakshasa's suspicion (if it is indeed aware of the 'prophecy')

In any case, it would be really interesting to see how the group goes about their task. Again, using your example, what if they decide 'poor' means poor in spirit? What follows from there? Or, if poor literally means impecunious, how they go about finding such a man? Does he cease to be poor if the party pays him to carry out the deed - and if they don't pay him, how do they convince him to do the kissing at all? There are lots of interesting problems for them to work out. You might leave it all open by not determining the outcome in advance and just giving the party room to work out a solution and following their lead.

Here one way to set it up, based on your idea:

Keep the blessed crossbow bolt element as a link back to the original concept and to give the players a sense that you are not just making it all up! However, add a layer of complexity by requiring the bolt to be blessed by someone in particular. i.e.,

"An arrow, blessed by the most lovelorn woman in the land, shot into the heart of the Rakshasa, before dawn on the day after he is kissed by the poorest man in the land, will kill him and prevent his return. Note well, that the kiss and the blessing may not be forced, or the prophecy will fail"

Tying the themes of Love, Richness and Poorness (and even Reincarnation) into the backstory of the Rakshasa gives you a Prince who loves a Princess that spurns him for the love of a pauper. The Prince kills the Pauper (shooting him through the heart with an arrow) and then kills the Princess (who learned of his deed) by cutting her up and feeding her to his tigers. He then tries to kill himself, but is cursed to live on (unable to climb the kharmic ladder) as some sort of tiger spirit - or Rakshasa.

To tie things up really sweetly at the end of the game, the most lovelorn woman the players need to find also happens to be rich. During the game, she meets and falls in love with the poorest man, fixing both their problems and ending their curse - as of course they are the reincarnated princess and pauper.

 

[Silverblade The Ench]

Holy Crossbow Bolt of Bunghole Slaying +5, fixed to fire upwards when he sits down on the crapper...



yeah, my players just LUUUUUV my Improvised Extremely-evil Devices

 

[Scott DeWar]

I saw severl mentions of a ritual of some sort.Perhaps it requires several steps:
1) Immerse in the water of a spring from consecrated land
this is an act of forgiveness
2 )Immerse in a vat of acid- this leaves the bones
this is an act of final judgement
3)crush/grind the bones, mix with salt of the sea and pour into molton silver
this is an act of purification
4) cast miracal or wish or disitagrate on the molrton silver/ ground bones
this is an act of counter resurections/reincarnation.

to find the lore will require a skill challenge for each step.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Schroedinger's Rakshasa: Drop it in magma in the center of an active volcano. It may reincarnate, but it just arrives back in the center of the volcano. It isn't permanently dead, but neither is it alive.

Or stuff it in a bag of devouring. Or in a certain black mouth of a carving of a green demon head.

 

[nedjer]

liquid carpet cleaner

 

[Scott DeWar]

from the animated movie: 'toon

DIP!

 

[karlindel]

I like Piratecat and Spunkrat's suggestions, and if it were my campaign I would use something based on the Rakshasa's history, rather than something generic for all Rakshasas. It also depends a bit on how much of a part of your campaign you want to make it, and whether you and the players prefer a story of redemption or destruction.

One idea that comes to my mind is a complex ritual involving multiple pieces related to the Rakshasas history (perhaps from multiple of his past lives). The interesting part of the adventure was that the ritual had two forms, one of which killed the user (i.e. permanent destruction for the Rakshasa) and the other form had some other effect. It would be interesting for the ritual to be usable to either permanently destroy the Rakshasa or to allow it an opportunity for redemption, with no one but the PCs knowing which (and possibly not needing to decide until the end). You could then have NPCs along the way trying to sway the PCs one way or the other, and possibly aiding them in the hopes that they would go the way that NPC prefers.

Another option is finding out why the Rakshasa fell and trying to repair that. This could be followed up by guarding the partially redeemed Rakshasa as it goes on a pilgrimage to fully redeem itself (perhaps going to ). Alternately, it could go on a pilgrimage on its own, and later be encountered by the PCs to aid them in a future adventure or ask for their help.