My players have discovered that the council of archmages who govern a rival empire are secretly a council of rakshasas.
I originally included this as one of the secrets in the world when I created the campaign, but hadn't intended for it to even necessarily be discovered or a part of the central campaign storyline. But the players had an encounter in which they made enemies with one of the secret rakshasas, and a bit of research and powerful divination revealed the truth about the council. Now my players are hungry to take on the full council. I should mention this is a long running campaign and by this point they're averaging 17th level.
This has potential to be a lot of fun, but I would love to crowd source ideas from other experienced DMs. Any advice on how a group of Rakshasas would interact with each other, or how taking on a group of them would be different from a single one? What would you want to include in this sort of set up? Any concerns about these fiends I should take into consideration? Any other bit of inspiration or advice you might have? Thanks in advance.
Rakshakas are the most back stabbing, smooth talking, conniving tricksters of fiends that exist. IMO, their threat exists not in combat, but in their ability to manipulate pretty much anything and everything they can get their backwards hands on. If this is a whole council of them, they definitely have an army behind them. Maybe it is an undead army, maybe it is literally just townsfolk that they have tricked. (Now that I think about it, a party having to mow down innocent townsfolk solely because the council tricked them would be a very morally defining battle. It may not take their HP down, but they just slaughtered a bunch of families. Have kids and elderly join the fight, because the rakshasa are the "good guys" in the townsfolk's eyes. Only evil would oppose them they say.)
Another interesting note would be using an antimagic field centered on a rakshaka. They have immunity to nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, slashing attacks. So any spells or magic weapons are pretty much useless inside this field, the rakshaka literally cannot be hurt except through stuff like poison or torch fire. This really puts a strain on parties that have had magic weapons and spells throughout their whole time adventuring, and are suddenly completely powerless to this can man with 100+ hp. Most parties don't prep for stuff like that.
Definitely have each rakshasa use different tactics and equipment when they fight. Adjusting AC, attack damage, attack range, or spellcasting ability for each.
A party of 4 level 17 characters could fight 2 rakshasas or a rakshasa with 4 cr5 body guards or 2 cr7 body guards.
I recommend using an encounter calculator like kobold fight club to prepare the encounters. And remember rakshasa reform in hell if they aren't killed there.
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My players have discovered that the council of archmages who govern a rival empire are secretly a council of rakshasas.
I originally included this as one of the secrets in the world when I created the campaign, but hadn't intended for it to even necessarily be discovered or a part of the central campaign storyline. But the players had an encounter in which they made enemies with one of the secret rakshasas, and a bit of research and powerful divination revealed the truth about the council. Now my players are hungry to take on the full council. I should mention this is a long running campaign and by this point they're averaging 17th level.
This has potential to be a lot of fun, but I would love to crowd source ideas from other experienced DMs. Any advice on how a group of Rakshasas would interact with each other, or how taking on a group of them would be different from a single one? What would you want to include in this sort of set up? Any concerns about these fiends I should take into consideration? Any other bit of inspiration or advice you might have? Thanks in advance.
Rakshakas are the most back stabbing, smooth talking, conniving tricksters of fiends that exist. IMO, their threat exists not in combat, but in their ability to manipulate pretty much anything and everything they can get their backwards hands on. If this is a whole council of them, they definitely have an army behind them. Maybe it is an undead army, maybe it is literally just townsfolk that they have tricked. (Now that I think about it, a party having to mow down innocent townsfolk solely because the council tricked them would be a very morally defining battle. It may not take their HP down, but they just slaughtered a bunch of families. Have kids and elderly join the fight, because the rakshasa are the "good guys" in the townsfolk's eyes. Only evil would oppose them they say.)
Another interesting note would be using an antimagic field centered on a rakshaka. They have immunity to nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, slashing attacks. So any spells or magic weapons are pretty much useless inside this field, the rakshaka literally cannot be hurt except through stuff like poison or torch fire. This really puts a strain on parties that have had magic weapons and spells throughout their whole time adventuring, and are suddenly completely powerless to this can man with 100+ hp. Most parties don't prep for stuff like that.
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Definitely have each rakshasa use different tactics and equipment when they fight. Adjusting AC, attack damage, attack range, or spellcasting ability for each.
A party of 4 level 17 characters could fight 2 rakshasas or a rakshasa with 4 cr5 body guards or 2 cr7 body guards.
I recommend using an encounter calculator like kobold fight club to prepare the encounters. And remember rakshasa reform in hell if they aren't killed there.