Limited Magic Immunity. The rakshasa can't be affected or detected by spells of 6th level or lower unless it wishes to be. It has advantage on saving throws against all other spells and magical effects.
Innate Spellcasting. The rakshasa's innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 18, +10 to hit with spell attacks). The rakshasa can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
At will: detect thoughts, disguise self, mage hand, minor illusion
3/day each: charm person, detect magic, invisibility, major image, suggestion
1/day each: dominate person, fly, plane shift, true seeing
Multiattack. The rakshasa makes two claw attacks.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6 + 2) slashing damage, and the target is cursed if it is a creature. The magical curse takes effect whenever the target takes a short or long rest, filling the target's thoughts with horrible images and dreams. The cursed target gains no benefit from finishing a short or long rest. The curse lasts until it is lifted by a remove curse spell or similar magic.
this thing would tear my level 14 arcana cleric apart
I was wondering one thing in particular about the limited Magic immunity. Would the Rakshas claws be able to pass through a wizards shield spell? If they aren't affected by spells 6th level or lower, wouldn't the shield be afftecing them at the time of the attack, so they should ignore the +5 AC, correct? Then by extention, they would be able to pass through wall of force, right?
cr 13??? aren't some young/adult dragons cr 13?
I would say cr 6-8
Don't use the Rakshasa as a direct encounter. Of COURSE a party of martially optimized level 7s with some magic weapons could shred this guy.
What makes Rakshasa so dangerous is how powerful he is without ever showing his hand, without ever even appearing to the PCs directly. Dominate Person / Suggestions / Detect Thoughts + Plane Shift? Immunity to spells lower than level 6? I've used Rakshasa as the main villain of my campaign and the sheer amount of damage he can do by stirring constant chaos for the PCs and then be gone before any of them can react.
Stalk the PCs. Detect Thoughts and the Rakshasa can start to determine the weaknesses, habits of the party. Wait for the party to long rest. Invisibility in on the fighter's watch. Dominate / Suggest / Mage Hand to stir up trouble (burn the party's rations. steal the cleric's divine focus and go toss it in the river. Start a heated argument that begins to tear the party's loyalties apart. Make endless chaotic racket for the party so as to lay on the exhaustion for every single camped night). Never let up, never show up, always warp out before the party can react, always take the long term psychological damage over a few lost HP.
CR DM's saddism level.
ooft
Cantrips are spells, they spell level 0
Shield affects the caster, target of self. If the spell is not directly targeting it, it will be fine, summoning and buff spells are okay that directly affecting something other than the Rakshasa are okay
This is a weird monster
Divine sense is not a spell, therefore it is not affected by the magical immunity, and while a paladin burns spell slots for the smites, the smites themselves are not spells. bypassing the immunity.
The danger lays not in its health, but in its difficulty to actually kill.
It's basically immune to any spells below 6th level, whilst this wouldn't be a problem for magical weapons, it basically removes spellcasters from combat.
You also wouldn't just throw one at a party on its own (unless your party has specifically made efforts to trap it alone) as a lawful evil charisma based spellcasters it will very rarely be alone.
CR ratings are always a little off (an intellect devourer can basically just kill a player in 2 rounds) but if used correctly, these things can completely destroy parties.
... So one of my players managed to BEFRIEND one. How you ask. He complimented his outfit. I say, roll for deception. He says "but I really think it's a nice outfit." Ok, roll for persuasion. With advantage(Magic item). Nat 20, 34 with advantage. He is now a sidekick.
They are a spellcaster’s worst nightmare...figuratively in terms of the magic immunity and literally in the case of the curse
Absolutely yes.
I mean... the curse, if it hits a creature, without any save, whereby the characters cannot gain any benefit from a short or long rest. Ugh... this is a very powerful effect. Explains at least 1 or 2 points from the CR already. Plus spell-like abilities with +10 To hit and Save DC 18... This is a powerful creature, and a great PI! (Welcome Vincent Trench)
The big one to me is the "limited magical immunity", which I read as "unable to be affected by spells of 6th lvl or lower", including attack spells. Sure, this wouldn't be that hard for a group of low level melee fighters with magic weapons, but it will make any magic user less than lvl 13 basically useless. Which for many parties could be most of the group.
Just to clear up some things in case anyone is interested.
1) Counterspell is affected by Limited Magic Immunity since it targets the creature while it is casting the spell rather than the spell itself. Dispel Magic on the other hand is not affected unless you directly target the Rakshasa.
2) Upcasting a spell can bypass Limited Magic Immunity.
Any spell cast using a 7th level spell slot is considered a 7th level spell even if the spell has no subtext for upcasting benefits. The PHB states his on page 201:
"When a spellcaster casts a spell using a slot that is of a higher level than the spell, the spell assumes the higher level for that casting."
Several comments have this ability mistaken with the text for Globe of Invulnerability which says:
Any spell of 5th level or lower cast from outside the barrier can't affect creatures or Objects within it, even if the spell is cast using a higher level spell slot.
While any DM is fully within their right to house rule whatever they want, they should consider that ruling spells to always be treated as the level written in the spell description (as I've seen in several replies) can cause a lot of unforeseen issues and will ultimately result in a nerf for all spellcasters.
Let's not forget that if you "kill" a rakshasa, all the twisted, secretive and powerful plots it can deploy against you will happen again and again and again for the rest of your life, as well as the lives of your family and friends and descendants it seeks retribution against. Every few months or so it will get more sophisticated, elaborate and clever, and more likely to catch you and your party in that moment where its planning and your unlucky rolls combine to ultimately defeat you. Or, you know, you could simply take a quick trip to THE NINE HELLS, hunt it down and defeat it there. That's not a very high level excursion, is it? Maybe your DM is lazy or forgetful and actually won't take advantage of that core feature of a rakshasa's motivation though, right? (playfully sarcastic tone here friends. Not trying to be a jerk. :-) )
It's the immunity to spells below 6th level
I disagree because Magical Weapon are rare (see X’sGTE rules for time out and you will see how it’s expensive) in fact at level 6xth the only mean to deal magical damages are the unarmed attacks of monks (for example with 13 characters there are only 2 that can efficiently deal damages to Rakshasa : my 16th level wizard and a 8th level monk)
Yes