Dungeons and Dragons Lore : Rakshasa 

Special Attacks: Ability to cast Frosted Flakes every morning.

Supercool!!! Many years ago I ran an adventure whose story line I borrowed from the movie "Apocalypse Now", or more accurately, Conrad's famous "The Heart of Darkness" where the antagonist ('Kurtz' in both popular versions) was a Rakshasa. In my version, the players had to take their "river boat" up unto the depths of a tropical jungle to face this surprisingly charismatic and manipulative demon. Turned out to be one for the ages! Epic stuff to work with and nice job on the ecology.

Rakshasa is Indian (India Indian) based version of the undead, corporeal version. In their mythology, the corporeal undead is a virtually indestructible possession of a corpse by an evil supernatural force akin to a manifestation of Shiva. Why so many humanoid cat forms and not a super-enhanced human corpse? The animated great cat corpse is far superior to a human corpse for the most part if not a mere RakShasa food soldier. Possessing a body allows for some liberal body alterations, especially if you need not blend in. The AD&D version is 9.5/10 in translation to me.

Now this is a nasty antagonist for just about any level party,they have lots of good (bad) henchmen,and they make good henchmen for more powerful beings as well,nice ecology vid kiwi! Keep cranking them out buddy!

I'm introducing a rakshasa into my current Eberron game. I really like how much more importance rakshasa are given in that setting, especially given the pulp/noir style of the setting. My players will never know what hit 'em...

devils: "we must find a way to free ourselves from this plane!" plane shift spell: "am I a joke to you?"

the backwards hands thing is so strange, but im loving this monster as a campaign element. i keep thinking a monty hall kind of guy who wants to make you a deal that seems too good to be true....

In my homebrew world, much like gnolls were created by Yeenoghu; tabaxi were created by a powerful rakshasa. Also changelings and some tieflings are distant relatives of some rakshasa (tieflings resembling some catlike features).

I'm absolutely using a rakshasha for my next campaign. I think the group I have (a newly formed mercenary company) will find him in a cell early on in the first or second adventure. He'll offer his services as a merchant for the group at base camp, all the while steering them toward his own dark plots. I think I can pull this off with a very minimal amount of checks.

Great video! I’m making a tiefling sorcerer who’s dad was a rakshasa so this video was super helpful!

Rakshasa::Jazz hands::

"Their real pleasure on the mortal plain is killing and eating people, eating victims. They like to indulge their savage nature in that they hate mortals..." I think the Rakshasa at 2:11 would beg to differ as to what his primary pleasure on the mortal plane is.

Great video, my one critique is that rakshasas are fiends but not devils. That's why they don't have the damage immunities and resistances is that normal levels have. It's because they're not.

Go Into The Water. Interesting song choice.

Nice work on the video, Rakshasas are amazing :) learning about them for my Khyber/Eberron One-shot and eventually the main campaign.

I like the different types of cats portraying Rakshasa

I've had a Rakshasa serving as an island Harbor Master and secretly running a local resort for wealthy influential types. So much information coming and going and plenty of food willingly staying after the Harbor Master's work offer convinces them to leave their life at sea. He's been revealed after a fairly messy gambit involving a rival crime boss and the family of a couple PCs came to a head. He will offer the party a means of rescuing a PC's husband from an unwittingly taken suicide mission in order to save his own skin and finish off the Crime Lord and his wife who have both been transformed after death into greater devils. Their power, wealth, and influence as well as their lawful evil natures in life and a Night Hag on payroll to help them avoid the typical path for new souls in Hell, but it also means they never learned the hard lessons devils learn over centuries. He's made the rescue mission dangerous enough to make killing him a waste of resources that could cost them everything if they choose to kill him on the material plane. When they return, battle worn, he'll be prepared and ready to eat

they are much different in DnD 3.5 iv been playing that version for years my friends and i find it to be the best, im actually playing a Rakshasa now (and the rules and back story is a bit different im the monsters and monster3 ) one this that they are mortal they are native outsiders and that means they do die but they have a life span of like 500+ years. Still good work thanks for this its given me a few ideas for flushing out his back story

Back in 4e when Deva could be reborn as Rakshasa when they were evil, was it also possible for Rakshasa to be reborn as a Deva if they somehow turned good?

Raksasha have their thumbs on the opposite side of their hands as humans,

For the campaign I'm running right now, the NPC that runs the magic shop is a Rakshasa. The party does whatever he wants because they have no reason to mistrust him, and he rewards them well after a quest. He is one of the 3 main antagonists, two of which are secret (him being one) and the other openly evil. I'm honestly hoping for the party to makes an attempt to attack him, just because of how cool a payoff that their only magic supplier is against them... and then they realize that they're cut off.

They are designed to be THE mastermind villain in disguise.

Could a Rakshasa Tiefling be a thing?

If discovered, couldn't a Rakshasa just say it's a Tabaxi? I mean aside from the hands and the smell, I doubt Gaven the town guard could tell the difference from a cursory glance.

Could u use a rakshasa as a fiend patron?

Ooh! I LOVE the idea of a bunch of murder hobos becoming the dupes of a rakshasa. Such a natural fit. Elegant in its simplicity. Muah ha ha ha ha!!!!

Trying decide how I would place the " Tiger Lords". Lords of the Darkest bamboo forests. Masters of illusion. Creatures of nightmare. Ravenna's lieutenants. They do work best in an Oriental sphere. Chinese and Japanese would have them as Tigers ... Indian myths are split... Tigers or Orangs with reversed claws. Regardless, they are almost akin to Kitsuné. A more advanced form of Hengyoki-like spirit creature. Portrayed in 1st Edition Dragon #84

Could a rakshasa be enslaved by a aboleth, so then to use the rakashasa has a lure getting strong worthy people to it's lair only to be control and slaved by the aboleth.

I finally recognized one of the songs 😊

I am surprised you didn't touch on their Real World roots in Hindu folklore. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakshasa

The backwards hands confused the hell out of me when I first found out about these monsters. I thought it was an artist mistake, but it kept showing up over the years. Apparently that's how their hands actually work!

Thanks AJ.

I'll rock Sasha where did she run off to tell her come'er

Could a tiefling be descended from a Rakshasa?

Nice presentation ! I did love in 4th edition when they set the duality between Devas (angels who abandonned their power for infinite lives to live fully) vs Rakshasas. If a Devas goes to the dark side, he gets reincarnated after death into a Rakshasas. I do love that idea xD

i have a rakshasa named xogexog in my campaign who is a demon toymaker and sends his cursed toys all across the islands of darnen to bring misery to his buyers >:)

New to D&D. Been fascinated by Rakshasas ever since I heard of them. Can anyone recommend some books about Rakshasas?

Hey, about Rakshasas: I haven't been able to find anything about this. Do Rakshasas have any elemental immunity like other fiends? Fire, etc.? All I see anywhere is the immunity to physical weapons and magic, but nothing about different types of energy.

Hell yeah starting the video with some Dethklok Go into the water!

What would happend to werecat mage that would drink his blood

one minute in: "they are defined by their freedom from the hells" me: "man I feel like a dick for giving a warlock npc a devil talisman to control a rakshasa as a servant of infernal mechanisms across a campaign setting

I’ve got a rake has a as one of two villains for the current arc of my homebrew campaign, the other has been corrupted by the rakshasa and is too far gone, he’s the bard’s uncle

What is the song that plays at the begining?

So much good stuff here. 😈😈

Have any D&D novels (or other fantasy novels) featured Rakshasas as characters?

I first heard of this demon in Magic The Gathering.

So can a level 18 samurai fighter and a level 13 ranger monster hunter beat this guy if they had some magic weapons items and more.remember I'm a old rookie.some of these enemy's are very overpowered

lol I had a friend that loved raksasha

right on, man. do you think they see through illusion as easily as they weave it? would they immediately know if they were in a room full of doppelgangers?

With all the stories in Hindu mythology to draw on the Rakshasa has largely been an underutilized hopefully one of the D & D publishers will use them as a centerpiece of a adventure.

Sneak

5th ed nerfed them compared to 3.5

Haha - if this is a playable race, then I may have to give roleplaying a try! }:3

They not immortal they live very long