D&D 3E/3.5 [3.5] Rhakshasa scoop [Possibly spoiler for players]

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

The legend is SPECIFICALLY a crossbow bolt blessed by a Brahman, if I recall correctly. Hence they tried to stay true to the source.

Perhaps, but what if they had used a thrown dagger instead? The legend didn't specifically say you had to use a crossbow bolt, unless there's something you know that I don't

This Rakshasa I'm not even sure why they gave him a CR 10; a 6th level Archer is going to take him out by himself. Admittedly, he'll still have the problem with a first level cleric with a crossbow, but he's far weaker in his defense.

He can cast spells as a 9th-level sorcerer, like Improved Invisibility and Web.

 

[Technik4]

OT:

Psi: youre gonna have to fix your sig line pretty soon...whenever its considered "official" that 3.5 is out

Technik

 

[Belphanior]

Er... Belphanior ...

You could always kill a Rakshasa by lowering it's hps to -10 like anything else.

It was a special vulnerability, not an invulnerability power.

You completely missed my point. Psi didn't though.

The legend say he got killed by a blessed bolt. But why only bolts? Why wouldn't a blessed arrow kill him? Or a blessed thrown dagger? Or a blessed javelin?

I feel that by making their DR into "blessed and piercing", WotC has made a big improvement, because the bolt-only scenario just doesn't fly with me.

 

[spunky_mutters]

Well, if he's not slain outright by something that's good and piercing, then they've smoothed things out somewhat. It used to be that you would either be prepared and kill him right away, or he would kick your butt and you'd have to retreat. Now we'll see parties being able to actually damage him at the levels they should be meeting him, while he doesn't have that giant achilles' heel anymore. It does remove some of the flavour, but not all of it while making it a more palatable encounter for players.

 

[RigaMortus]

You completely missed my point. Psi didn't though.

The legend say he got killed by a blessed bolt. But why only bolts? Why wouldn't a blessed arrow kill him? Or a blessed thrown dagger? Or a blessed javelin?

I feel that by making their DR into "blessed and piercing", WotC has made a big improvement, because the bolt-only scenario just doesn't fly with me.

How come the Daylight spell doesn't kill vampires? I mean, it IS Daylight, right? Or any type of light for that matter? What is so special about light from the sun?

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Petrosian

one of the results of the new dr... removing specific creature problems in order to make them all fit into the new dr and thus losing its specific flavor.

What in the world could i be disagreeing with?

I mean, its not like they could not have simply written it as "good and bolts" instead of "good and piercing" if they wanted to restore the flavor.

But not the balance. 3.5 is the "balance" edition (or the "attempted balance" edition for those who don't like it).

Also they could have left that part out of the DR and left it as a special weakness like vampires and sunlight, which is what it was.

Except for some high-level spells (Sunbeam) a vampire's weakness never appears in-game. (You can't kill a vampire with a Daylight spell ... see the nightshade description ... but I believe the MM 3.0 dropped the ball by not clearly stating this.)

I think the point is sort of moot, though. Rakshashas are masters of illusion, and IME 10th-level parties rarely prepare True Seeing (YMMV). The players shouldn't even know they're facing a rakshasha until they've killed it.

Technik4

Psi: youre gonna have to fix your sig line pretty soon...whenever its considered "official" that 3.5 is out

I know ... so, should I change it on the 18th, or when I get the books?

 

[Sejs]

I'm glad that the "blessed crossbow bolt instant-kill" off switch is gone.


I'm sorry, if a CR 9 creature can be killed by ANY level 1 cleric, there's something wrong.

 

[Kerrick]

I rather agree with hong, Petrosian, and the others - this is silly. Making a rakshasa vulnerable to any blessed piercing weapon opens it up to getting slaughtered by anyone with a bless spell. I mean, yeah, the same thing was the case before, but it only applied to one weapon. IMO, they should have changed the spell immunity to SR 27, possibly lowered the DR (but left it magical, like +2) and left it at that (and possibly add a Fort save - make it so a blessed bolt is like a coup de grace attack).

Ok, so the legend say he got killed by a blessed bolt. Does that automatically mean crossbow bolts only should be capable of killing a rhakshasa? Why not any piercing blessed weapon?

Since someone brought up vampires, let's bring them into this discussion. If you read through the various legends, vampires are not always killed by a stake to the heart - sometimes a silver weapon works, and sometimes all it takes is cold steel. So, then, should we change that too? After all, every player knows that vampires are vulnerable to a stake through the heart - kills them dead. And yet, somehow, we seem to overlook the fact that it's usually player knowledge and not character knowledge.

 

[Petrosian]

i will not get off on my "player knowledge character knowledge rant....
i will not get off on my "player knowledge character knowledge rant....
i will not get off on my "player knowledge character knowledge rant....
i will not get off on my "player knowledge character knowledge rant....


As for the rakshasa... i think good and piercing will mean he needs an aligned piercing weapon. My understanding is that will not be just a spell with a MW spell or bless on it anymore but one using a specific alignment spell or item.

We will know more when the srd is revised.

 

[Destil]

I'm guessing it's nearly impossible to work the Rakasha into the CR system properly with such a tremendious weakness. Unless you listed 2 CRs (one for a party that knows how to kill it, one for thoes that just smack it around until it's at 0HP) you couldn't give it a CR with any degree of meaning given how easy/hard it could be to kill.

Personally I'd have prefered if they had done that, since a big point of the new DR system is to make monsters more like their originaly legends. But from the looks of things they just wanted the to preserve the CR system without any exceptions.