Thanks for watching gang! Is there a monster you'd like to see in a future upload? Let me know and perhaps it will appear! Edit: Also yes, I mixed up descendants and ancestors in this video. I recorded it at 4 am and that's all I have to say on the matter.
I feel this is an average conversation between the fiends: Rakshasa: "look at this tame house kitty. degrading yourself to serving mortals, are you even a real fiend?" Naztharune: "Look as this broke pussy, where's all your gold and souls? That's right, you have neither because you can't focus on the goal hard enough to push aside your pride."
I always imagined a Rakshasa becoming borderline genocidal against weretigers after being sick of people getting the two of them constantly mixed up, and now a petty annoyance has consumed them.
For what Rakshasa are. Becoming genocidal over an annoyance is right. Better than that, to do so because others perception of the Rakshasa was being interfered with, without any discernible intention on literally anyone’s part. Mere happenstance. That’s the anti-moral pettiness that you really can’t find at that level in many other types of evil creatures.
Aren't they Lawful Evil? If anything, I'd expect them to be pragmatic, and use people mixing them up with Weretigers to their advantage. Also, despite the artwork always seeming to show them with Tiger heads, apparently, they can have any number of different types of animal heads. And the tiger ones aren't even the most common, if I'm remembering righ? They're a really neat monster though!
Ok hear me out, a Naztharune partnered with a gray dragon as buddy cop style bounty hunters. The Naztharune gets the gold for the bounties and the dragon gets that hunting experience with a worthy hunter at their side. You're welcome for the idea!
This Naztharun would be a great to go alongside last week's Shadow Giants and Shadow Mastiffs as hired help for a cult of darkness with the Naztharun doing reconnaissance for the cult and picking off those the cult don't want. Plus the Banishment spell would hit hard unfortunately
If you banish a Rakshasa, they will come back for more in time. It's not like with demons, where they broadcast their position at all times with demonic taint to all the Celestial host if they ever cross over to the Material Plane. Rakshasa are a little more subtle.
...and now I feel compelled to construct a whole social system and culture of rakshasa-kin. Thanks Dad, I guess? 😅 I could see some cool interplay between these monsters, mindflayers, and doppelgangers. If you could extend their psychic ability to mask their thoughts, they'd probably be the go-to assassins for mindflayers, too. Fun times and intrigue abound!
Pathfinder has that and a whole lot more types of Rakshasa. The tiger/cat ones are just the most common, the mid point on their caste system. They're the souls of wicked mortals so bound by selfishness and worldly desires that they become fiends while still on the material plane. The main goal of a given Rakshasa is to become powerful enough to escape the cycle of reincarnative immortality the collective race has going and become truly immortal/a god-like being.
@@Grinnerz1 Oh, good to know! Thanks; I didn't know that Pathfinder had something fleshed out. I took a look and it helps a bit to get started, but I'm still going to do a lot more work to get all the details out for my setting 😁
I'd love to see the Nemisis Devil from pathfinder, a cruel old pagan God that push it on a real Gods showed up, being so salty they literally went to hell join the legion just to get some smoke with their former followers. The warlock patron almost writes self really.
I can only imagine that if you're not the one paying them -- say, for example, the Naztharune is the leader of your friendly neighborhood assassin's guild - they wouldn't hesitate to clap back against any insult to their pride. Probably by murdering your parents, swapping your bag of gold for their severed heads, and then stabbing you in the back while you stare in stunned disbelief.
My first thought on it is "Do they have anything to do with tabaxi?" I guess Rakshassa don't in an original setting (they do in our homebrew setting, but they are a somewhat different concept, to begin with), but... I guess it would be interesting. Can also involve some catlords/the Catlord from one of the previous episodes.
Ngl the idea of an orphen being trained by a demonic panther assassin sound cool as hell. Now I have an idea that the same orphen will now be forced to kill his master who is now the bbg. Not only the roleplay potential is great, I like to think that the master will be kinda proud if the orphen will kill them because they will feel like that they did good job training them.
What if the naztharun killed their parents because the player's great grandparent was some kind of legendary demon hunter, and then, once they found the player as a baby they took them under their wing because the greatest revenge that the naztharun could think of was not to destroy their mortal enemy's bloodline, but to corrupt it so completely that when anyone heard their name all they would think of is their own blood thirsty protégé
Definitly fun to look at for any campaign where you need a stealthy killer. I could see this being used as part of a campaign where you are bodyguarding someone, as one the major assassains hired to kill your charge. Also favorite Monster so far, probably a tie between the Purple and Pink Dragons.
That's a great potential adventure hook, if there's a older dwarf (or whatever the party has met a few times) you could have him suddenly facing a vengeful Raksha that he defeated in his youth. Or maybe they need to get a mcguffin because he knows he's going to be returning. Heck that could be a mini campaign arc..
@@zacharyweaver276 glad you liked it. Just occurred to me it could be a good way to use these guys with a lower level party that might not be up to the challenge solo. And heck nothing says he doesn't return later in the campaign to get revenge on them. Revenge, truly the gift that keeps on giving 😉 (Total joke to be clear)
@@agentchaos9332 Dragon+ 28, Eberron: Rising of the Last War, Rime of the Frostmaiden, and Dungeon of the Mad Mage discuss how to make spells into living creatures. The problem is that 5e limited it to 5th level spells where as 3rd went all the way to 9th.
I am literally about to have my players begin encountering an assassin’s guild, and you have just made this campaign sooo much more epic! Thank you for the unintended timing!
Dude, all of your videos lately have been home runs! Keep up the awesome work. I always walk away from your videos re-inspired and excited to play and write.
Loved this. One of my players is subjected to the Devil card form the Deck of Many things, which means a powerful demon wants him dead. Time to hire some muscle before he can come and see the job done properly. The encounter: During a travel segment the party is hailed and greeted by a side road stall that has a sweet and enticing smell of pies. Apple and Butterscotch. The stall is run by a elderly firendly couple who banters ammong each other and offers the party large sweet tasting pies for only 8 silver each and also offers small free samples of each for all the party members to try, confident in their flavor. The flavor is indeed nice in both the samples and the pies. Later in the night the part is ambushed by a pair of arrows comming without warning from the shade of the night. The initial ambush will deppend on how your players set up camp for the night, but the first attack attempted from the duo of Naztharune will be done with advantage and with the poison arrows. Immediately threatening and increasing the tension ammong the party with the high damage numbers due to sneak attack. One round after the battle started the assassins (who will be supporting each other to inflict more sneak attacks) will mention: - Hey ! Is it time yet ? the second one looking at the sky to find th emoon or time of the night will smile maliciously and say: - Yes. At this point, the party members who tried the sample or pie of butterscotch will suffer effects of Midnight Tears, the members who also tried the apple pie will suffer the effects of Pale Tincture (both poisons are described in the Basic Rulebook) Members who tasted the apple but not the butterscoch will suffer only from Pale Tincture mere minutes after tasting it, and could already be aware of the disguise from the elderly couple. Who will suspisciously insist for them to also try the butterscotch since the Midnight Tears will hold the effect of the tincture to be triggered together. As the combat proceeds if the party is about to win a Paladin will hurriedly appear to aid the party, warning about the wanted assassins and the dangers of their poisons. " - By the light ! The dangerous duo, assaulting travelers in the dead of the night with no honor ! Have any one you been affected by their poison ? Come and take my shoulder, any second counts in treating it, the herbalist in my camp nearby can treat it." If a party member does come close and look vulnerable to the Paladin he uses a claw attack revealing himself as a Rakshasa under Disguise Self, working with the pair of Naztharune to kill one or the entire party. This encounter is clearly more difficult than just having one Naztharune so reccomended for parties of level 10~12. If the Rakshasa himself is badly hurt or both Naztharune are knocked uncouncious or killed, he will gather his allies and cast Plane Shift to run away to ambush the party again another day. Also... i added the poison damage from the arrows to the shortsword attacks.
i could imagine the Naztharune setting up advertisement services for mercenary groups, with their contact info on front page of that ad. could also see them being part of the bbeg party as the rogue.
Just gave me an idea for a character... an elf druid of some kind, has an extremely long lifespan and specialises in hunting Naztherune(?) Leaves taunting clues at the location of their death, that lead directly to the druid... and traps
I recently rewatched your video on Sun and Moon dragons, and as a fan of Fizban’s Dragon Treasury, I love it. Because I love Sun Blades, and I love the idea of a Sun Dragon blessing a heroic adventurer’s Sun Blade with his Dragon Wrath enchantment. Keep up the good work, and I look forward to your metallic dragon videos!
I was literally about to introduce a black panther rakshasa into my next sidequest. This is exactly what I needed for inspiration and minion ideas! Tyvm, and awesome video! My lvl 14 party should have some fun with this. >:3
A Leonin/Rakshasa crossbreed would be cool, basically a anthropomorphic liger with backwards hands. And since Ligers grow to be bigger than either lions or tigers this would be like 9 feet tall. It would basically be a Leonin Tiefling, with its fiendish parent being a Rakshasa.... Need to Homebrew this as a playable race.
Please do the gut fiend Demon? It’s a parasite demon. We don’t get enough parasite, type monsters, please, I beg of you have been watching your channel from the beginning. I would love it if you could do it.
Another one in the bag. Good job. It's unfortunate that 5e is shying away from certain monsters, but going all-in on others. With the rakshasa was given more respect.
iv never played dnd before and i always wanted to try it but its still really great to learn the history of its monsters and them being updated to current 5e for when I find a campaign. love your channel man, I truly do :)
Hi! I just wanted to swing by and say I appreciate you taking the time to tell us about these monsters. I’m thinking about incorporating some of these monsters (like the Bonesinger) into my DnD games, and I’m looking forward to challenging my players in creative ways with them 😊
I would love to see one of these reimagined as a fantasy-esque version of Benny from Fallout: New Vegas. Thematically and motivationally they seem to have enough overlap to make it really work.
11:45 fun expansion on this idea, the ancestor who killed the Naztharune was a former student who killed the Naztharune and stole everything they had hoarded for retirement. The Naztharune now hunts their student's descendants, not to replace their money...but to lure out their student who, in 250 years, used the skills and magic they learned to ascend into a Cat Lord!
Great idea relating to the painful long rebirth of them and their cousins; One realizes that "wanting vengeance on those that made me have to be painfully reborn" and decides to start an assassination business that basically have "vengeance insurance" where if a customer is killed they will go and reap horrible vengeance upon the killers, with legalese language that just so happens to make it so that when that customer ends up reforming they owe a literal century's worth of late payments debt and now they're basically an underling to a Naztharune
DND God: We need cat people Assistant: Yes, yes, excellent my lord. Anything else? DND God, hitting a FAT hit off of his blunt: Make the hands.....backwards....to make them stand out Assistant: .......I...but they alre----....ok.
Obligatory and obvious request, but I'm tossing my hand into the ring for the remaining 'missing dragons' that DND 5th didn't cover. There's a handful of metallics I saw name references to when I did my own research, and even a nice breakdown of Steel Dragons (alongside names at least for Cobalt, Mercury, Adamantine, Mithral, Orium and Platinum dragons), but I also found mention of Obsidian and Beljuril Dragons as lost gem dragon types, not to mention the potential of doing some homebrew gem dragons ala the Color Wheel theory of chromatics, but this time with something like birthstones. The growing Draconic Council of Telvyan requires your research skills, Dad of the Dungeons!
One thing that I liked about this monster in 3.5 is that technically you could have one of your players running one. It had the rules for what the class equivalent would be and you can just add rogue/assassin levels on top. (11 racial levels base, with +5 level adjustment)
7:26 I recently played in a campaign as a way of shadow monk. Despite being in the underdark during the latter half of the campaign, I was always told by the DM that I wasn’t in an area of dim light or darkness so I never got to use my shadow step ability. I’m still mad about it
Didn't realize he was in Dragon 355 as well. He's on the list, but only his Pathfinder 1e version was listed. Adjusted the references and added your name to the others.
absolutely love it, my 2 cents for anyone who wants to use the "a Naztharune adopted and raised me" backstory, make sure to hash out EXACTLY what you're expecting from that backstory tie, is dear old Dad over-protective and might step in if you're in danger? do you get an 'allowance'? or is it just a "as long as X guild has a safe house here, i have a place to stay"
I feel like the one with shadows thing should be more lile the gloomstalker ranger ability, where if you are relying on darkvision to see the bastard, you cannot see him, because he is invisible to your eyes.
Yes This is one of my favourite creatures/races, in D&D. I loved playing them as a DM AND player Especially when you have them working for multiple different guilds, not even assassins, justice, trade money, and my opinion better than the tiger people PS sorry if your favourite creature/ race is the tiger people
Let's not forget the "RAKSHASA MAH", the "RAKSHASA RAJAH" and the "RAKSHASA RUKH" that were in the AD&D Gold Box game "Shadows of Darkness". A shame they didn't come with any real lore, but the Rakshasa Mah would easily beat any other variant of Rakshasa out there.
If the backwards hand thing was made up for that issue of Dragon magazine, it makes me wonder if the artist accidentally drew the hands backwards, then thought "fuck it" and just rolled with it 😂
Fun Fact: there is technically no one animal called a panther, most of the big cats are a part of the Panthera class(so lions, tigers, jaguars, leopards and i think 1 or 2 more i cant think of), so all of them are panthers. What we know as a Black Panther is just a jaguar or leopard with a genetic defect making their fur black, and this defect doesn't exist in Lions or Tigers. also Cougars arent even a part of the Panthera class, so they shouldnt be called panthers, and as far as im aware they also dont have the defect that makes Black panthers
Also fun fact: "Panther" was the name of a mythical beast initially, which was like a white leopard with disarming breath that makes you calm and borderline asleep so it can easily kill you without you resisting after it breathes on you. This somehow through the telephone game got applied to leopards with a _black_ color scheme, and then to the leopard's extended family like lions and tigers.
Had an idea for an encounter where the players would be contracted to investigate murders, and a rakshasa is suspected. So I send the players on that quest but it actually turns out that there are two, one of whom is moving in on the turf of another and interrupting the usual business of the original rakshasa. In fact, if I'm feeling spicy, I might even have the first Rakshasa hire the players to "investigate" the murders and it'll just become a deliciously confusing investigation. Now they are caught in the middle of an interdimensional turf war in the confines of some random town/city.
13:00 After parents are murdered in an alley mugging gone awry, the young master is raised by the dedicated butler and long standing family of the family (whose ancestry is unbeknown to be of the Naztharune). A butler known to the young ward as Alfred, Alfred Pennyworth.
Because “black panthers” refers to high-melanin lions, leopards, jaguars, and tigers; it could be that all three “variants” of rakshasa are just different colors of tiger.
You know, it might also work for the Naztharune to actually function on the lawful side as a NPC, a particularly visible one. Just take the logic that this kingdom is rather safe from it's jobs because, well, you don't shit where you sleep and/or spend your cash. He got out of the hells and, essentially settled down and takes jobs elsewhere for piles of cash. He also might aid the city watch and higher ups in dealing with troublemakers...and among the higher ups what this guy is might be something of an open secret... Essentially, he's the city's version of Alucard from hellsing in that if someone's causing issues and they want them to "disappear," well the cat comes out to play...while being well treated and part of the city. If he's wanting some other cash, he might take contracts elsewhere to bring in the funds and then goes home to a lavish lifestyle and added, willing protection via the city that he doesn't actually have to do that much with.
I think you mean 'they might have descendants,' Ancestors - generations preceding you (e.g. father, grandfather, etc) Descendants- generations coming after you (e.g. children, grandchildren etc) I dont know why but RU-vidrs seem to always get that mixed up
I don't know why every terminally online youtube commenter has to make condescending or patronizing comments to correct content creators who give them essentially free entertainment and more.
@@gwynbleidd1917 I wasn't trying to be condescending or degrading. I suggested that he might have misspoken. Also I don't know why you'd assume I'm "constantly online," just because I commented. He happened to upload a video while I'm riding a train into work. I saw the notification because I have them turned on, because I'm a big fan. Genuinely not my intent to be insulting. Just curious about the phenomenon of it happening on RU-vid.
Should have mentioned this in the original comment but this was a really cool video. I've been into the hobby since the mid 90s and hadn't heard of these guys. I do appreciate all the work that goes into the channel. Dungeon dad rocks!
@KS-PNW sorry, I just see a lot of commentors on youtube rudely correct creators in negative ways, and assumed you were doing the same. Again, my apologies.
@@KevinVideo I was making a joke about the classic Sci-Fi series Lensman which is notorious for the rate of escalation of the weapons the warring factions are using.
Regarding the backwards hands thing, I dug into it too, and it turns out it's not even universal across the board in D&D! Some Rakshasa have them, some just don't.
