Rakshasa class progression (Savage Species)

[zeela]

The Rakshasa in the DMG has natural armor +9, but somehow that got missed in Savage Species. And of course there aren't any errata yet.

How would you spread out the +9 over the 14 levels that it takes to become a full-grown Rakshasa? Somthing like 1,2,3,4, then every other level to 12th? That seem similar to how some other monster races are done.

Any ideas?

 

[Arcturus_Rugend]

IIRC, SS also botched the DR for the Rakshasa, listing it as 15/+3 as opposed to the 20/+3 listed in the MM. This might be a sign of things to come in 3.5 or could just be a typo.

You probably shouldn't front-load the natural AC quite so much. AC is a much bigger deal at lower levels when there are fewer options to protect yourself. As long as the AC bonus is spread roughly evenly over the 14 levels, I think any way you do it won't be terribly unbalanced.

 

[shilsen]

IIRC, SS also botched the DR for the Rakshasa, listing it as 15/+3 as opposed to the 20/+3 listed in the MM. This might be a sign of things to come in 3.5 or could just be a typo.

It's not the only creature which has had its DR changed in SS (for example, the ghaele went from 25/+3 to 10/+2), so it's probably a 3.5 change.

As for the original question, perhaps you should just model it on one of the creatures which has a similar amount of natural armor. The flesh golem, for example, gets +9 natural armor spread over the first 13 levels, so you could use the same progression and just start at lvl 2 instead of 1.

 

[Arcturus_Rugend]

It's not the only creature which has had its DR changed in SS (for example, the ghaele went from 25/+3 to 10/+2), so it's probably a 3.5 change.

Interesting. It looks like 3.5 might make damage reduction occur strictly in multiples of 5/+1(i.e. 5/+1, 10/+2, 15/+3, etc.), rather than the haphazard way it's done now. Both changes seem to support this, but it's just a guess.

 

[zeela]

Thanks guys.

It could be that the Rakshasa and lots of other monsters will be changed significantly in v3.5. But since we are about to start playing a 3.0 campaign it would be hard to play a nerfed race in a world where everything else still expects the un-nerfed 3.0 Rakshasa... No natural armor at first level and no spellcasting abilities yet, that would be hard. AC 10+dex and nothing else? And since they have even less HP than your average wizard (1d8+con every two levels instead of 2d4+2*con) it is even more important....

I'll just compare it to a monster with similar AC.

 

[danielinthwolvesden]

I noticed this myself. When is WoC going to do an errata?

 

[Spatula]

No natural armor at first level and no spellcasting abilities yet, that would be hard. AC 10+dex and nothing else?

That's what everyone else (i.e. the normal races) gets, so what's the problem?