Rakshasa Question

[Arcturus_Rugend]

I'll give the peer pressure route a go. The argument against the ritual may, indeed, be more convincing if the party, particularly the paladin and cleric, decides that an evil creature is better slain than "converted" with respect to alignment.

Thanks again for your input!

 

[Caliber]

Note that for the forced alignment chance, it says that the character will NOT seek out a way to return to their new alignment. Instead, they will feel that their new alignment if proper and right.

Sure puts a damper there.

Also, the Ritual of Alignment doesn't actually change your alignment, just your alignment subtype.

A Demon who has the Good subtype (and is therefore immune to Holy Word) can be a rough encounter indeed. Especially when things like Smite Good, or Holy weapons fail to affect him.

His alignment though, as far as I am aware, would still be LE.

 

[Arcturus_Rugend]

That IS an important distinction. I think both my player and I missed that when going through the material. Most of the attention was spent on the Ritual of Vitality.

And that being the case, I'm again wondering about the subtype problem I mentioned above. If a creature with a subtype of (Evil) can change that to a subtype of (Good) without changing its actual alignment, does a character who is True Neutral who undergoes a ritual into a creature with an alignment subtype gain that subtype regardless?

For instance, the sorceror in question transforms via ritual into the rakshsasa and makes his save vs the involuntary alignment change. Does he still gain the (Evil) and (Lawful) subtypes? Does that imply that some creatures have the essence of evil (or law or good or chaos) in them regardless of how the creature actually acts or what it believes?

 

[Alchemist]

Whoo. That one is subject to heated debate on a regular basis.

Do you want moral relativism or absolutism? If you think that some beings are inherently evil by birth regardless of their actions, you're in the category where the subtypes would stick regardless of actual alignment. If you're more the relative sort (like me), just because you're born a goblin dosen't mean you can't be raised good.

Outsiders might be a whole other story though. I think outsiders epitomize the good/evil law/chaos dichotomy, and when it says "always lawful evil", they mean it. That guy is treated as LE as far as spells and whatnot are concerned by virtue of birth.

In a nutshell, I think it's a DM call. The rules seem to imply a absolute view of law/chaos, good/evil. I don't go that route in my game. Do what *you* feel is right for you and your players.

 

[Caliber]

The one argument I raise against you Alchemist, is that we aren't talking Alignment. We are talking Alignment descriptors.

For example, Devils are Chaotic and Evil type. Not just Chaotic Evil, but made of the very essence.

I'd say if you performed a ritual to turn into a Devil, it doesn't matter if you kept your alignment or not, you still have the Chaotic and Evil subtypes.

Its part of the very essence of the creature you turned into.

I could see a Demon seeking redepmtion changing alignment over time, before undergoing a ritual to clense it of the "taint" (taking away its Evil descriptor)

Could be a pretty cool plot hook in fact.

 

[Arcturus_Rugend]

I could see the argument that a outsider that has an alignment subtype would always match the alignment of its home plane, being born a creature of good or evil, law or chaos from the planar stuff of the multiverse. But I also like the idea of a creature being able to somehow redeem itself despite less than savory origins, or truly fall from grace into darkness.

Does it say anywhere what plane rakshasas hail from? I was hoping to somehow tie the plane of origin of outsiders to their alignment subtype for all cases. This would make it much easier to explain creatures retaining their subtypes, despite the alignment of the original. Would it be a bad idea to assume all outsiders with the (Lawful) and (Evil) subtypes are from the Nine Hells?

What would happen if a Balor (Chaotic, Evil) transformed into a Trumpet Archon (Lawful, Good)? Would it keep all it's alignment descriptors due to the immutable nature of outsiders? If so, would it be immune to Holy/Unholy Word and the like or susceptable to both?

 

[Arcturus_Rugend]

And while I'm thinking of it, could a trumpet archon or silmilar outsider who is progressing through its race as a "class" as described in SS sacrifice XP with a ritual of vitality to have the full allotment of "class" levels in something like a balor? What race would the resulting creature be? Should the new creature still even posess any of the abilities from its previous class/race?

The possibility for freakish race/class hybrids with the ritual of vitality is enough to give any DM a headache, alignment descriptors or not. Unless there is some reason this doesn't work, I'm officially worried about what's going on behind WOTC closed doors.

 

[mkletch]

I'm pretty sure that you just need to hit the Rakshasa's armor class with the blessed crossbow bolt. The damage reduction applies for normal attacks, but this is a vulnerability of the creature that has the DR. The vulnerability takes precedence, otherwise it would be irrelevant.

-Fletch!

 

[mkletch]

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