what's up with the hands in that picture?? looks like they are on backwards

Quote from Warcryiii >>

what's up with the hands in that picture?? looks like they are on backwards

 “All rakshasas have a physical oddity that remains when they adopt magical disguises, such as palms where the backs of the hands would be on humans.”

That is intentional - it is even specifically mentioned in the description on this very page.

My BBEG just got even stronger. Glorious!

Also, that 1st sentence under Greater Magic Resistance may be the most insanely broken thing I have seen on an official stat block ever. At least with the 2014 version, it was 6th-level or lower immunity.

Spellcasters are going to get absolutely bodied by these guys. Can't wait to include them in my campaigns.

It’s crazy how all of these fiends with Plane Shift and Fiendish Restoration basically have two lives per day in the material plane by RAW, more lives the more Planeshifts they have. Since the new body is instant, they can come back whenever their turn is up with an action. This means double HP for someone like the Rakshasa, with the option of tormenting the party twice a day. It makes Planeshifting to their home plane on the same adventuring day a must.

IMO I preferred when the restoration happened after a range of time, it fits more with the narratives that have been told in previous D&D novels and adventures where fiends had to wait it out after being defeated, not robbing the protagonists of their victory.

Quote from JazzyBassy >>

It’s crazy how all of these fiends with Plane Shift and Fiendish Restoration basically have two lives per day in the material plane by RAW, more lives the more Planeshifts they have. Since the new body is instant, they can come back whenever their turn is up with an action. This means double HP for someone like the Rakshasa, with the option of tormenting the party twice a day. It makes Planeshifting to their home plane on the same adventuring day a must.

IMO I preferred when the restoration happened after a range of time, it fits more with the narratives that have been told in previous D&D novels and adventures where fiends had to wait it out after being defeated, not robbing the protagonists of their victory.

its def situational based. If the party could defeat the Rakshasa with ease to medium difficulty, it's probably not wise for it to immediately Plane Shift back and try again. It would at minimum be smart enough to grab allies first which most likely would take time given that it would have to rally them first. 

Remember, your monsters aren't idiotic meat puppets throwing themselves at the party just cuz. They can be intelligent and tactical!

So just to be clear, with this new Greater Magic Resistance I could just trade my soul to a Rakshasa and he could easily kill Vecna or Acerak? Like sure the uber powerful demigod lich could teleport away but honestly trading a single soul to get rid of a CR21 or higher uber powerful spellcaster sounds like a great deal. Usually the heroes have to have hundreds of innocents die to kill the lich, now just trade your soul to the Uber powerful anti-spellcaster, and problem solved. Just have them go invisible, sneak in and kill the Lich. or an evil campaign can just have one of these guys go after Elminster, 7 sisters, halaster blackstaff, and every other spellcaster out there since they are invincible to spell casters. Yeah, that is not in any way an issue for lore and world building...

Also does no benefit of long rest mean you would gain 1 exhaustion every 24 hours? if so then dear god.

Hi,
I've actually changed my mind three times about whether new smites work on Rakshasa. At first, I thought they wouldn't because all smites are spells now, and it says that attack rolls from spells miss. Smite will work because the attack roll is not part of the spell. A paladin makes a melee weapon attack and then applies the damage from the spell.

Paladins are still good against this fiend, only pure spellcasters suffer.

Quote from theron >>

So just to be clear, with this new Greater Magic Resistance I could just trade my soul to a Rakshasa and he could easily kill Vecna or Acerak? Like sure the uber powerful demigod lich could teleport away but honestly trading a single soul to get rid of a CR21 or higher uber powerful spellcaster sounds like a great deal. Usually the heroes have to have hundreds of innocents die to kill the lich, now just trade your soul to the Uber powerful anti-spellcaster, and problem solved. Just have them go invisible, sneak in and kill the Lich. or an evil campaign can just have one of these guys go after Elminster, 7 sisters, halaster blackstaff, and every other spellcaster out there since they are invincible to spell casters. Yeah, that is not in any way an issue for lore and world building...

 

Also does no benefit of long rest mean you would gain 1 exhaustion every 24 hours? if so then dear god.

You can still use Fireball and/or Meteor Swarm on it. It will last longer because it always succeeds on saving throws, but the half damage can still kill it. I think a party of level 20 wizards will kill it easily.

Quote from Brithal >>

Quote from theron >>

So just to be clear, with this new Greater Magic Resistance I could just trade my soul to a Rakshasa and he could easily kill Vecna or Acerak? Like sure the uber powerful demigod lich could teleport away but honestly trading a single soul to get rid of a CR21 or higher uber powerful spellcaster sounds like a great deal. Usually the heroes have to have hundreds of innocents die to kill the lich, now just trade your soul to the Uber powerful anti-spellcaster, and problem solved. Just have them go invisible, sneak in and kill the Lich. or an evil campaign can just have one of these guys go after Elminster, 7 sisters, halaster blackstaff, and every other spellcaster out there since they are invincible to spell casters. Yeah, that is not in any way an issue for lore and world building...

 

Also does no benefit of long rest mean you would gain 1 exhaustion every 24 hours? if so then dear god.

You can still use Fireball and/or Meteor Swarm on it. It will last longer because it always succeeds on saving throws, but the half damage can still kill it. I think a party of level 20 wizards will kill it easily.

sure, an entire party of them could, but 1 on 1 I doubt it. truthfully though I meant against NPCs not players, since all NPCs no longer have spell slots I would assume that the Lich or archmage just straight up cannot kill this guy since I would assume Arcane burst or Eldritch burst or whatever their base attack is would count as a spell attack roll so automatically misses and they just don't have enough saving throw spells per day to win. PCs would have no issues killing it, though it would be a miserable fight with the caster probably just sitting around bored. But imagine the options for roleplay where a party can make a deal with one of these to deal with the Lich for them, but they have to track it down before they can even negotiate, or maybe even a powerful enough party could summon it. This guy being the ultimate weapon against all spell casters could make for some great roleplay and I am already thinking of ways to use this for a campaign, though actually fighting one would likely be miserable just because the casters become borderline useless and will definitely be bored with the encounter. Also still curious if you think the curse means they would die of exhaustion if not lifted in a few days?

So I far as I skim through the new versions of monsters and see what the team is trying, the "Vulnerability to Piercing damage from weapons wielded by creatures under the effect of a Bless spell". Has to be one of the coolest vulnerabilities I've seen and opens up an awesome amount of design space and possibilities for future monsters. I hope some of the other monsters in this book have vulnerabilities like this and more do in the future.

Nah, the lich can just Eldritch Burst it to death. That is not a spell, so is unaffected by Greater Magic Resistance. Or Paralyzing Touch it and laugh as it gets turned to paste.

If your lich dies to a Rakshasa, it's because it's an idiot.

Quote from ExplosiveCarnage >>

Nah, the lich can just Eldritch Burst it to death. That is not a spell, so is unaffected by Greater Magic Resistance. Or Paralyzing Touch it and laugh as it gets turned to paste.

If your lich dies to a Rakshasa, it's because it's an idiot.

So even though it is blatantly a spell or at least a magic attack, eldritch burst wouldn't count as a spell because they worded it as just a ranged attack? that is incredibly saddening. By that ruling, does this mean that antimagic field is also useless against any NPC spell caster as well? because if so dear god, just have your lich sit in one of those and laugh at everyone trying to hit him with the equivalent of non-magic sticks while he blasts away.

It is not a spell. It does not have spell components, a casting time, a spell level, nada. It is a magical attack I'll grant you, but spell is much more specific than "magic".

Antimagic Field blocks more than just spells. "No one can cast spells, take Magic actions, or create other magical effects inside the aura, and those things can’t target or otherwise affect anything inside it. Magical properties of magic items don’t work inside the aura or on anything inside it."

So Eldritch Burst circumnavigates things like Counterspell and Greater Magic Resistance, but is a magical effect (in my book), so would be effected by Antimagic.

Quote from ExplosiveCarnage >>

It is not a spell. It does not have spell components, a casting time, a spell level, nada. It is a magical attack I'll grant you, but spell is much more specific than "magic".

Antimagic Field blocks more than just spells. "No one can cast spells, take Magic actions, or create other magical effects inside the aura, and those things can’t target or otherwise affect anything inside it. Magical properties of magic items don’t work inside the aura or on anything inside it."

So Eldritch Burst circumnavigates things like Counterspell and Greater Magic Resistance, but is a magical effect (in my book), so would be effected by Antimagic.

 That seems far too hard to really discern the difference when we get to more nuanced things such as the Ghast Gravecaller, whose ability is probably magic but could honestly just be so type of foul necrotic liquid being thrown. Still, I understand your stance on it but this is definitely something that I feel will probably need a better clarification in the future. Because based on your ruling, the best way for a party of mostly spell casters to kill a rakshasa would probably be to just pay 3 mages to kill it for them, or a big group of mage apprentices simply because NPC spell casters aren't real spell casters now and therefore don't function the way they probably should.

This led to an interesting issue for my group last week, where they wanted to take a mage prisoner but realized that they literally couldn't do that safely. There is no possible way to disarm a 2024 mage since he needs no components or arcane focus to do full damage. If he is awake, he can do 48 damage, which is a ton especially at level 6, so it was just to dangerous. Silence doesn't work, no weapon or arcane focus you can remove, simply hope the DM made the mage willing to surrender instead of die because there is no possible way to interrogate them safely except Antimagic field now. Still, it is your game and your rules which is how this game should be. Thanks for clarifying your position, though I think personally I like the idea of the party bargaining with a Rakshasa for aid against the evil Lich or whatever other spell caster the BBEG is so I will probably treat Eldritch Burst as a spell.

To clarify some of the concerns raised here,

The Rakshasas' Greater Magic Resistance trait reads as follow: "The rakshasa automatically succeeds on saving throws against spells and other magical effects, and the attack rolls of spells automatically miss it."

The question is: does Greater Magic Resistance also apply to actions that are Ranged/Melee Spell Attacks? The answer is no. For Greater Magic Resistance to apply, the attack must originate from a spell. See "[T]he attack rolls of spells automatically miss." (emphasis added). The language "Ranged [or Melee] Spell Attack" indicates two things: (1) the attack is magical and (2) the attack uses the creature's spellcasting ability as the ability for the attack (Wisdom, Intelligence, or Charisma, generally). The language "Ranged [or Melee] Spell Attack" is not synonymous with it being a Spell. So, an anti-magic field would stop Ranged/Melee Spell Attacks on account of them being magical, as Explosive Carnage explained, but a Rakshasas' Greater Magic Resistance would have no effect.

You are correct that Rakshasas' are extremely dangerous opponents for spellcasters, but there's no point in doing a "who would win in a fight" analysis here because those sorts of discussion ignore the exigencies of a real, in-game encounter that will inevitably control the battle's outcome. I find it more productive to imagine where a group will likely encounter a Rakshasa. In light of its ability to resist most spells and protection against divination, societies governed by mages run an acute risk of being infiltrated or controlled by Rakshasas behind the scenes.

I am not at all convinced that a Rakshasas would pose any danger whatsoever to Vecna, Acerak, or the like. I doubt they would even need to dirty their own hands to deal with one. A cabal of Rakshasas may be a different story, but that's a plot line unto itself.

Its baleful command ability makes this even more lethal to spellcasters, as incapacitated drops concentration. Other interesting thing: the only other ability I can think of (I'm probably forgetting about something) that inflicts two debilitating conditions on a single failed save is the tarrasque's roar.

I just went down a rabbit hole on why Rakshasa have tiger heads in D&D which isn't really a part of the Indian mythology. Turns out they were supposed to have any kind of animal head normally tiger or ape, (based on a few mentions in the Ramayana) but that the first D&D image the artists chose a tiger and it has stuck. So this is pretty noteworthy that it has finally been restored in the image to any kind of animal head! The backwards hands was an overstatement of a source that said their fingers curled back from their palms, but I'm glad they made it more vague so that my players can actually be led astray, rather than straight up tell everytime that they are up against a Rakshasa. Great updates for 5e! I miss the 4e varieties of Rakshasa and their connection to Devas though. Placing them in the Nine Hells makes it a little hard to understand to understand their relationships to devils. 

Or you can just throw undead or summoned creatures at it.

Well. I guess Magic missile work on this new version of him at least. But damn, that version of the magic resistance is so weird. Clearly prefeared old version.

And I liked the way of Rakasha being not real devils anymore, who dont revive in the nine hells when slained, but could make themself pass for more human... Well, i will probably just continue to use my old ruling on this point...

And also, with the new ruling of counterspell, that means he cant get counterspelled even by using a 9th level spell slot....