A Rakshasa is a Hellspawn that was crazy desperate to get out the lower planes in order to have some humanoid flesh like it was caviar. They were able to free their essence after performing a dark ritual that allowed them to roam the material plane. It guises itself to look like anyone it wants, giving it prime opportunity to replace someone rich or powerful in order to fulfill its desires. So what does a Rakshasa even really look like? Tony the Tiger with backwards hands. Yah, it’s basically a Tabaxi with the unique deformity that is backward hands.

For a Rakshasa, death is terrible. “Well DUH,” you may exclaim, “death sucks for everyone.” True, for those who die on the material plane, but for those who have existed on another plane such as the nine hells, they just start from “Go” and come back later. However, for a Rakshasa, their “essence” remains trapped in the nine hells waiting for their body to reform and continue their goal for human nom noms; A process that could take months or even years. years. A PROCESS THAT COULD TAKE YEARS. So when a Rakshasa finally returns to its body, it also regains all the memories and knowledge of its former life. You can imagine how pissed Tony the Tiger is gonna be after being pasted by some holier than thou adventurers. Hide your kids and hide your wife because Rakshasa comin.

Let’s take a look at those numbers you math freak

STR 14 (+2): Dude is strong, but not otherworldly

DEX 17 (+3): Like a jungle cat, he ready to pounce. But seriously, they a slippery one.

CON 18 (+4): Tigger was born in Hell, did a dark ritual to transform their essence into flesh, all to taste that sweet, sweet taste of man flesh. Suffice to say he a toughy.

INT 13 (+1): Surprisingly not the most intelligent being. For all that genius villain talk I’ve been throwing out, they are just a tad smarter than the average dude.

WIS 16 (+3): Wisdom describes a character’s willpower, common sense, perception, and intuition. This makes sense since it is crazy safe about keeping their guise while exposing others for their own gain.

CHA 20 (+4): Can probably convince an entire population that it is the second coming of Jesus

Shere Kahn over here has 16 natural armor, an average of 110 (13d8 +52) health. Tough but absolutely doable if ganged up upon. Don’t forget about that 40 ft. of movement, ensuring that it can absolutely hit and run if it wanted to.

What makes them cool?

Skills: Deception +10, insight +8

Ok, so what we are figuring out here is that Rakshas are role playing fiends. Their insane charisma, deception, and insight ensures that their guise is well protected from anyone trying to find them out.

Vulnerability: piercing from magic weapons wielded by good creatures.

This one is very interesting. A Rakshasa is vulnerable to being stabbed by good people. A DM could absolutely throw some nuggets of info out there eluding to Rakshasas being terrified of good people, and pointy objects.

Limited Magic Immunity:

A Rakshasa cannot be detected or affected by spells that are 6th level or lower. Unless it wants to be like some maniacal villain who wants some fancy pants reveal. Oh, and it has advantage on saving throws against spells and magical effects. Say hello to a wizards worst nightmare.

Innate Spellcasting:

Charisma (spell save DC 18, +10 to hit with spell attacks). They can innately cast :

At will: detect thoughts, disguise self, mage hand, minor illusion

3/a day: charm person, detect magic, invisibility, major image, suggestion

1/a day: dominate person, fly, plane shift, true seeing

Ok, so there’s a lot to unpack for evil Hobbes here. Look at their stats, their skills, and their spellcasting abilities and you can easily see that they are built for role play. Which is AMAZING for a DM to use against their players. A Rakshasa can easily be hidden from view for a very long time in order to do their evil plans, whatever they are.

Dem Actions

Multi attack: Two Claw Attacks

Claw: +7 to hit dealing 9(2d6+2) damage. And the target is cursed as long as it ain’t no robot. It takes effect during a long or short rest, affecting their sleep with dreams about a evil naked people singing twinkle twinkle little star while boiling them in a pot with carrots and onions. They don’t get any benefits of resting basically. It can only be lifted by a remove curse spell or of similar magic. (Which is a pretty low level spell technically speaking so it can be easily removed)

I’m actually pretty disappointed. A Rakshasa is all bark and no bite. Deals a low amount of physical damage (especially for a CR 13) and NO spells that actually do any sort of magical damage. The coolest creature to use as a villain but when the final show down happens, they are entirely dependent on minions or they will die pretty quick.

I have cool ideas that you want to steal from ME

1. The noble. He could be the adventurers liaison to quests and helping them with whatever they needed. By doing so however, they are unknowingly helping him in his diabolical scheme. He should be looked at as the coolest/kindest/best guy ever. When the time is right, the BBEG will invite them to dinner and attempt to kill them, or maybe try to invite them into his patronage?

2. The cardinal. Think cult. Get followers. Make them sacrifice. Eat sacrifice. Extend reach. Gain power. Each sacrifice gains him greater strength/power(increase stats). A Rakshasa could totally go from bumpkin town to bumpkin town pretending to be the next coming of Jesus by using Fly, major image, invisibility, dominate person, the list is endless. For simple people never seeing magic in real life, you can imagine that they could revere this person as a demigod or something.

3. The rich merchant. All about owning everything no matter what. These Rakshasa would bathe in the wealth it would bring in by selling secrets, people, or anything in the black market. The sheer opulence and greed this fucker would exude would be suffocating. A great moment if the players needed to get information, receive some sort of rare artifact, or find someone or something and are desperate to get it and are forced to deal with “The Merchant.”

6. I have an idea, let’s make this toothless Tiger into a…toothy…feline? I got nothing. But let’s admit it, this cat has no real damage, and may deflate your final battle if your looking for that last epic encounter. For that, I would ignore any physical action and focus purely on damage spells. Their DC 18 saving throw, and +10 to hit is no joke, so let’s play with that. One example: since the Rakshasa is a bit of a wimp, let them summon his buddies from Hell with Infernal Calling, Summon Fiend, or Summon Greater Demon. We could go another route where it would enjoy a more…personal touch: Mental Prison, Otto’s Irresistible Dance, Enemies Abound, Fear, or Phantasmal Killer. I mean, get creative!

7. I want it to be absolutely known that it is absolutely okay to leave them as is. Sometimes it’s fun to destroy everything the Rakshasa has built and watch the villain break down and ultimately be helpless after all that bravado.

8. DMs. Use this cat in a players backstory if you can. This will really spice up a possibly bland backstory for a character and ensure that you have a villain for them to play with. Especially if the Rakshasa starts targeting this family members. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.