"Rajah, I keep telling you. Human hands are on the other side of the arm. How will we sell all these scissors." "Don't worry Tony, if anyone asks, I twist arms backwards for free."
Rakshasa in D&D was inspired from the 1970s series “Kolchak the Night Stalker” in an episode where he encounters a rakshasa. In the episode it was killed by a holy crossbow bolt. Gary Gygax loved the series and when he made the rakshasa he got the crossbow bolt idea from that show. There. Secret revealed.
@@Creationweek Because some folks want some deep mystical answer steeped in centuries of folklore, and get upset when the real answer is "They made it that way because of a tv show they liked" .
I can already imagine the hilarity that ensues when a party fought a Rak, they throw everything at it, it didn't work then the cleric tries to shoot it with his blessed crossbow bolts, it scratches the Rak, it deals 1 damage. And the DM goes "How do you wanna do it?".
OR, you will eventually learn that you were not fighting a Rak but something pretending to be a Rak so you would never think you were fighting a Rak after this finding out, even though, double twist, you actually are!
@@tyrant-den884 But you are not and it's actually a Mindflayer mind- fucking you instead of eating your brain because he's in fact a Rakshasa in disguise.
My party hired one. They only found out because my sister is a huge geek and read about them, plus her character is a scholar on different cultures and creatures. Well, technically ONLY she knows. * evil laugh*
Rakshasas reads mind of a "human" that like treasures Rakshasas transforms into a jewelry dealer selling dimonds "human" "buys" diamonds Rakshasas returns back to original form, tries to eat "human" "human" returns back to original form, an elder gold dragon, holding a colossal magical crossbow. Gold Dragon: I came here to loot gold and chew bubblegum, and I'm all out of gum... Rakshasas: Oh shit.
Okay, okay, but, “What They Don’t Tell You About Humans - D&D?” I know, I know, I’ve asked before, but I’d really like to learn about this rare creature.
Not a Furry fetishist but I like that those fetishists can actually play one lorewise. As long as the behaviour in the group does not become too... _"intimate"._
and I wonder how many people got confused and criticized the artists for getting it "wrong" on the few occasions where they actually got the hands right
In my campains, I like to break the mold with creatures. I had a rakshasha whom served as a royal advisor and the head general of an army. To prevent mutiny, he would host open challenges to defeat him in battle, to claim themselves as the new general. While respected enough for his battle prowess and his intellect, he was equally distrusted for his race. These open challenges he proposed were to instil a mutual trust. Meaning he's aware of how his comrades feel, and is willing to step down if ever bested. Like his kind, he loves human flesh. His source of this delicacy comes from the battle field, the worst criminals, or evil humans. Arsinitch is his name. One of my favorite npcs I've ever had.
Is it weird that I ship rashasha with one of my party members? She is a tabaxi (looxks like a Linx) life Domain cleric and such a sweet innocent creature and we always drag her into terrible situations. She's also our tank and for some reasons all the monsterd always end up biting her in her shoulders so she has multiple scars there 😂 I imagine her being strong enough to impress a rashasha with her durability and also inflicting fear in him because she is actually a really good person (and cleric who can bless). In my head they either meet in desguace or in battle and when he tries to read her mind when she looks in his glowing eyes full with death and how they called it "pure evil" and the only thing he figures out is that she thinks he looks cute. I wanted to ask my DM if we could try something like that and get a Kampagne with a conflict involving one or more rashasha and surprise my friend with it. But maybe I should ask her first if she would let her character fall in love with someone who's pure evil and if it would end bad or we might get a strong ally if we manage to turn him neutral.
Me: *chants* MORE LORE! MORE LORE! X2 Mr. Rhexx: *2weeks later* More Lore. Thank you, Mr. Rhexx. I just got into D&D and this helps me prepare to become a DM
Well, with this new wisdom I feel I have an appropriate type of antagonist for my next campaign. A feud between a Rakshasa and the Dragon that keeps killing it.
*In a dingy bar, in the underbelly of an eastern city, a Rakshasa finalizes a contract.* "You know what the last person to try to screw a rook on a deal said?" *no one answers* "'Help, help, I'm being mauled to death by a tiger.'" *Smile entirely too pleasant for the situation* *Sips martini* No, I don't know what this is from, I just know it's great.
What’s the big secret on the crossbow bolts? All I could find was that it was part of Hindu myth that they could be killed by a crossbow bolt blessed by Brahma. Also that Gygax made sure to put it in because he saw it in an episode of Kolchak, solidifying his position as god-king of geeks. Is that really the secret? “The monster from religious myth is based on… religious myth. And the person who made your favorite RPG is a big ol nerd.”
Gygax would qualify as the creator god of DnD, he said let there be D20s, and there were D20s, and let them be used for all manner of spells and skills, and they were, and it was good
CorvusCorone68 here’s a young whippersnapper. The ones that Gygax did had no skills, a small spell list, and an obsession with a d6. Seriously: Play Fantasy Chainmail. Actually, don’t. It’s a bit manky.
CorvusCorone68 he was critical to its creation, but he “only” co created the original as an add-on to Chainmail and recompiled it into Advanced. There have been 5-7 (interpretable) editions since then. If you ask me, his greatest contributions are his published adventures and more, his role in the creation of the group of people responsible for the rest.
Amber Hoke I feel that, but in this context, it’s like crediting the New Deal to Washington because he was president first. Apologies if that sounds like gibberish. *rants in American*
Could you do the "Thri-kreen" I developed a recent intrest in it and would like to know more about it. Overall the video was pretty good, keep up the good work!
I tend to take rules limitations as challenges, so when I found out how deadly exhaustion is in D&D I tried to figure out a way to make a character who can't benefit from rests survive. Rakshasa's curse ended up being the key to it, as well as the dryad race, a magic arrow (very fitting now I've seen this video and learned about their weakness!), and a stolen spell scroll. Playing this character will be very difficult (always at disadvantage, never gets most class abilities more than once-ever). And usually would be impossible. But since I found a way, wow will it lend some awesome role-playing potential!
Hearing about possible rakshasa tiefling at the end made me think back to the beginning of the video with rakshasa not necessarily looking like a tiger person. That could lead to some really creative character designs given a DM willing to let that slide!
The last time I checked this channel, I was getting back into Skyrim, and you were posting skyrim videos like usual, and now I’m starting my first d&d campaign, and i suddenly get a months worth of recommendations of your new d&d videos. I feel like this is some sort of omen
The blessed crossbow bolt thing comes from the West Asian mythology that the Rakshasa was adopted from. The Rakshasa wasn't created specifically for D&D. It pre dates D&D by centuries. There is a show called Kolshac: The Night Stalker from the 70's. First time I heard of Rakshasa was in the Horror in the Heights episode. Featured the creature using ESP to appear as a trusted person to victims & that it could only be killed by a blessed crossbow bolt.
@@toko099o the material plane would go on top of a Avernus. It is only the 10th layer in that it is the [would be] layer which raises the count from 9 to 10. But it would be the 1st layer when everything is done. He is not planning to supplant Asmodeus. Yet.
I'm curious how that's in his best interest because creatures in the Nine Hells can not be killed in the material plane (as I understand), so wouldn't pulling the material plane full of people who can kill devils just lead to a serious decline (DnD has some deep lore that I am not an expert on)?
Should try it. If not table top then the video games. Baldurs Gate is a nice start. And who knows, maybe you beat the first two games until the 3 one comes out next year
A secret that most people dont like to talk about is anything that is inspired by dnd is really inspired by lore of the rings. Or more specifically Tolkien Most if the stuff he wrote is what we now know as modern fantasy. Also you should play divinity original sin too I'm pretty sure the people who made baldur's gate made that as well
@@biznessman5632 as much as i love Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings he didn't invent most of his lore he was inspired just as dnd is by real world cultures and myths the Raksasha are based on creatures from Hindu legend which should be obvious given their title structure and i am hopping i missed that part in the video where he mentioned it cause i know most of these videos he has mentioned the real world inspiration. as for the original bauldur's gate game those were made by bioware and black isle studios
@@mattedmands2085 well of course every fantasy ever comes from ancient real world mythos, and folklore that's a given. But Tolkien's version of it was and is the most popular interpretation. The version of orcs, elves, hobbits, and more are mainly form that vision. mischievous, like the ones we think of when we think of Christmas. Some cultures even call what we'd would like call fairies, elves. For example some cultures characterize elves as very small and trickster like creatures kinda like gnomes, but the elf that we know from the Hobbit and LoTR are the ones we use in dnd. Not say dnd completely copied everything not saying Tolkien invented folk lore. The way I see it Tolkien is like the street fighter of fantasy. Its inspired by real martial arts but its version of the martial arts is the one that most other fighting games find there roots in.
@@biznessman5632 I am by no means trying to diminish Tolkien's influence on modern fantasy he did in fact formalize a strong mythic presence but I will with the exception of hobbits which some might argue are an interpretation of fey folk like brownies or leprechauns all the others existed previously in well established Scandinavian and finish lore. My real point in the initial post though other than that i think Tolkien gets too much credit for the modern landscape of modern fantasy was that real world cultures and their legends are a deep trove of inspiration. I wish more people would take an interest in and I am not jumping on some SJW bandwagon. and i am not sure if you meant street fighter the game i am more of a mortal kombat guy, but i would compare Tolkien to MMA which is primarily based around Brazilian jujitsu which is in and of itself is based on the Japanese martial arts and other styles of martial art were adapted to compliment and built upon and it became something different but it still owes itself to.
As an Indian person who grew up hearing the Ramayana, I'm actually really surprised by how much of their background is based on Ravana and his Rakshasa kingdom in Sri Lanka
D&D just copied some basic stuff from the Ramayana. Remember all this originated in the 1970s before the Internet, so some D&D creator just had some Ramayana book.
5th edition Rakshasa: "hmm... This human baby is going to be very tasty..." baby:"kitty! *accidentally stabs the Rakshasa with a fork, a vorpal fork*" Rakshahsa:"shit, damn my obsession with vorpal cutle-* collapses in a pile of ash*"
What i did with my adventure was that a coven of hags up north had started to drag rakshasa souls from the depths and fuse them with animals. The rakshasa's memory would dull and muddle up, so that they effectively reborn into the animal with only their vicious nature. Eventually the essence of the rakshasa twists the host and takes over, making them intelligent and super strong versions of the animals. Some would escape the Hags eventually and start gathering troupes and even armies to terrorise and dominate the land. This allowed me to make different power levels of demo hosts, some only resistant to magic, some immune, and all pretty terrifying, mainly on a quest of domination of lesser beings. Great fun roleplaying a huge monster bear with the intellect of a rakshasa suffering from memory loss of his previous lives, at the head of a mercenary army. :D
Watching your series on “what they don’t tell you about ___” has inspired a lot of NPC ideas, playable character ideas, and even main campaign arch’s I plan on doing. Your Night Hags and Rakshasa vid has really got my imagination gears turning lol.
Our party met a friendly Rakshasa who managed to expell his desire to eat human flesh and just simply had a love for Humanoids, shout out to my boy Joe
the insight into tieflings at the end is nice. always see people saying tiefling art not being accurate. but tieflings can look just about like anything based on their heritage
Player: Learns of a Rakshasha, gets a crossbow with blessed bolts Rakshaha: Has a permanent protection from projectiles spell on, and also took one level of monk to be able to deflect arrows and bolts.
Just looked it up, and my assumption was right; as most of fiends and celestials come from real world mythology, so do their weaknesses. Just gotta look up Hinduism, Rakshasa, and arrows Ramayana, Book III: Vana Parva, Section 285
Very, very late comment here. A few things crossed my mind here. - The blood war espionage potential for Rakshasa is absolutely insane. Imagine you have an extremely ambitious lower-caste Rakshasa family. Mother can’t advance in society but is every inch as cunning and ambitious as a male. Raises her children with all the tests described but when she sets them upon the material plane-she sends them to the Underdark specifically. Demonic Lolth is also fond of tests, treachery, and mind-games but Rakshasas have shapeshifting. Goal is to climb the ladder among the drow and undermine Lolth’s disciples as much as possible to replace them with infernal influence. - Possible complication or opportunity, two-headed rakshasa could reaaaaaaally catch the attention of a cult to Demogorgon. Even if not in the previous drow conflict I described just seeing blood war stuff unfold around that tension could be wild.
My (three years older) brother brought home the original box set D&D from the hobby shop in our El Paso neighborhood in '77, '78 (or '79) to adventure with our 18 months younger little bro and myself... Long story short... They all still have first editions of the MM, PH and DMG. THANK YOU for quickening the child's heart in me (not the one I ate most recently, that one quickened itself!)!
I'm glad you brought up the thing about Tieflings. I've been thinking of making a feline Bard or Sorcerer with some levels as an Echo Knight Fighter; the idea is to have a character who's essentially an anthropomorphic displacer beast. I'd been thinking of making them a Tabaxi, a Shifter, or even a Simic Hybrid (climbing & tentacles), but Glasya Tiefling looked tempting too, and I saw that the Variant Tiefling's appearance options included catlike eyes and sharp teeth. Think I might go with that now; think it could be interesting to play the lost child of a Rakshasa. Edit: I'd assume the vulnerability to holy arrows or bolts is a reference to Rama killing Ravana with the Brahmastra in the Ramayana.
This upload was perfect (purrfect. heh.). I've been singing Aladdin songs all day and was starting to think of making a D&D campaign with an Arabian type setting.
As if it matters, there is a great AD&D series all centered around deserts, pyramids, Arabian themes, a ship that sails a glass (desert) sea. Aside from being ver. 2.5-3.0 and from the 80's, the 3 module set was a blast to play through.
I really like the detail and the composition of the presentation of this topic. Very informative, structured and logical, but also enthusiastic and free-flowing. It was a pleasure to listen to, and learn from. ^^
I was suggested this video on my search of "What sounds do a baby rakshasa make." Although this video didn't answer that I have learned a lot and I'm just going to leave a baby rakshasa at my party's doorstep.
Sorry to say it, but the image at 15:35 is an illustration I did for Blood Window Pinamar, an Argentinian horror film festival. Please tag the authors of the images you're using. Be nice and tag me properly. Thanks.
I've been making a character who's a Bard/Warrlock who's backstory was they were going to be raised to become a powerful spellcaster so a Raksasha could take their body and manipulate others as an extra set of defenses but a powerful fey taught the girl a pattern that she began to mark the whole city with for five years until completing it with the fiend trapped inside while in exchange for freeing them the girl was cursed with eyes that can charm or terrifying uncontrollably...she then becomes a dancer using her unique trick to make crowds awe and shock st their displays before using that money to train in greater magics for their goal of killing the Fiend before the seal breaks.
@@jujujohnson01 It could also be said that Tieflings are essentially Aasimars with fiendish blood instead of celestial, or that any planetouched is essentially any other planetouched with any other planar blood. Planetouched is the umbrella term, not Tiefling. THE GRAMMAR NAZI IN ME CAN'T STAND IT!
I was planning on using a Rakshasa as an enemy down the line in my campaign and was sad that you hadn't made a video about them just the other day! Thank you very much, for your hard work I'm too lazy to do.
Meh... I mean, they are both cuasi eternal, near invulnerable, evil S.O.B. and besides they can't use the other achilles heel, and in top of that both are of the manipulator archetype.... It will be either and awkward stalemate ("come at me skullface/furrydemon!" while standing next to a big trap for the other) or the more drag-on nerd fight ever seen... Or something in between
15:45 James Rolfe made a good point about vampires. “If you can kill a vamp with a wooden stake, and a silver stake... then it can probably be made out of fuckin’ anything.”
The first time I heard about Rakshasas was reading about Arijani from Ravenloft and I've been fascinated ever since!! Great video as always Rhexx!! Keep up the awesome work mellon!! :)
Being vulnerable to a holy crossbow bolt sounds like a reference to Rama killing Ravana with the Bramhastra, which is a holy weapon made by Bhrama and is usually portrayed as a blessed arrow. However, how the weapon looked wasn't really described in detail in any of the translations of the Ramayana I've read, besides being a projectile, so blessed crossbow bolt works too!
You read that? You mean you read the thousand other people who commented that exact same thing more or less before you? Buuuut you thought if you got a little more descriptive that you'd make people think you're edumacated and strangers on duh internets would tink you smaaaht
@@jaysonisgreat nice description of the reason for your own post, person who somehow expected a comments section on the youtubes to look any different.
Thank you so much for that last bit. Was watching this and being like "How can I play this race without being a super powered god compared to other PCs?" and then . . you told me how.
Man, Rhexx, I love these videos. Lore about D&D, the most relaxing hobby, set to relaxing music, delivered with a relaxing accent. What type of accent is that, and can I get the google lady to speak using it?
I think I just got caught up on all your lower videos for Dungeons & Dragons. I absolutely love this series and I hope you continue. In addition to some of the deep lore that you're acquiring from the past Dragon magazines which I've read most of those but it's great refresher into here at verbalizes fantastic, I think it would be wonderful if you expanded your section on demons and Devils covering the demon princes and the Dukes of hell that would be fantastic. It also love it if you got around to doing the say while they didn't see that one on your playlist but maybe I just missed it. Would be really cool to if you did some of the Heaven's and Celestial Realms and things of that nature definitely hook
Just a reminder to everyone in the world, we have more than 5 senses. It's closer to about 18 senses. Sense of limb position, pain, heat, and organ volume are some extra senses.
I hope you do a guide on Tabaxi, as I'd like to know more about them! I have an idea for a Tabaxi character who's actually pretty spoiled and pampered, being adopted into a rich family of humans, and he has no idea what Tabaxi are supposed to be like, but then again, it doesn't really matter to him all that much. He's rich and has a loving family, what more could you want? Well, at least, that all changes once he discovers he has magic... His family doesn't kick him out for his magical abilities, but they strongly suggest for him to go somewhere where he can better learn to control his powers. He agrees of course, because he doesn't want to accidentally hurt anyone, and so he agrees that leaving to control his powers would be a good idea. His older brother is not happy with this arrangement, because he actually really likes his Tabaxi little brother, and doesn't like the idea of him getting himself into danger. But of course, he goes anyway, because he doesn't want to put his family in danger of his wild magic, and so that's how he ends up being an adventurer. But, I'm curious as to how different he'd be from other Tabaxi in the world, and if he's really possible. I'm new to D&D, so I don't know how probable my character idea is, but if you want to give your opinion of my story, I'd like to hear any criticisms or suggestions you may have!
Excellent! These are one my my favorite boss-baddies!! With all the talk being about Avernus and the devils, please do a few episodes on these infernal baddies ;-)
IDK if this exists in D&D, but in Pathfinder there were sort of subtypes of Rakshasas and one of them was called a Raktavarna which is one of my favorite creatures ever. It is a tiny sized snake that can transform itself into a dagger or short sword or tiny objects like cups or crowns. While transformed, they are indistinguishable from the actual object. They can become familiars under the right circumstances so they are great spies for hiding in plain sight. The coolest thing about them is that they have a special type of venom and when they bite you in their snake form, it causes you to forget ever having seen them. I always found that to be really nifty.
The Rakshasa and their God Rawana is take from Hindu Mythology, India. I am just very happy that my home country could contribute to my all time favorite game D&D!!! By the way amazing content man. Keep up the good work!!
So do I! I have been trying to figure out what to do with a certain group of people in my campaign and this made it so clear. But now I must know why only crossbow bolts so I can work it into my lore.
MrRhexx didn't want to say it, so I won't post it in his comments. You can find the answer if you Google "Rakshasa crossbow" and click on the second link (should be from rpg stackexchange). The top answer has a quote from Gary Gygax.
Rakshasa tieflings seem like they'd be more common in Eberron than Toril, given they're more prolific there. Bet there's at least a few among the Carrion Tribes.
This is awesome thank you. I have a villain Tabaxi coming up in my campaign but this is even better. A Rackshasa masquerading as a Tabaxi with a network of assassin monks to do his bidding in order to gain power within the community. The party has a cleric but she doesn't use crossbows nor is she good (true neutral), could be interesting.
I actually played a Rakshasa once. We were playing a high level (17th) evil group, in 3.5 edition (some 3.0 rules and unofficial materials were allowed, as well as anything, as long as it was within the rules of certain books from these editions). This group focused a lot on min/max'ing, roleplaying less so. After growing a bit tired of creating sub-par characters, that died easily or were outperformed by everyone else in the party (my characters weren't exploiting the rules as well as my min/max'ing fellow party members), I discovered that you could level in a Monster class. So my Rakshasa Lvl 14/ Fighter Lvl 3 was born. I was quite proud of the in-character spell list i came up with (a mix of Illusion and Necromancy spells), as Rakshasa's effectively leveled as over-powered Sorcerers. But, I think it was the moment, in-game, when my DM realized that being immune to any spell below 8th level, not being harmed by non-magical weapons and being able to use the spell Alter Self at will (at least that's how I remember it), was perhaps a BIT too much! Can't remember if I just abandoned the character because it was a bit too silly (rules-wise) or if I was asked politely to make a new one. But the character actually had a lot of interesting role-playing potential, despite its over-powered abilities....and there was this one drawback, that made it all "sort of" balanced. I would constantly have had to be paranoid about anyone (probably including some of my party members [we were evil and kind of working together, but really selfish individuals when it came down to it]) ever discovering my true identity, because if they did, they would have very little trouble discovering my ONE weakness, that would just insta-kill me!
He's a screenplay writer and a radioshow narrator. D&D isn't for an audience, it's for the players. Dice rolls should matter. It's tabletop role-playing GAME, not roundtable script reading
It's about the dm and players creating a joint story that they enjoy. They are trained actors that have practiced ad lib situations and will play off each other. Being entertaining to an audience is a good thing. If you don't like it fair enough. But it is not scripted (apart from fitting their stories with the dm, as it should be). Try some acting classes. If someone throws something at you, you go with it. It's why all the players took to it. Not jjst a gzmd but practicing their craft.
lol you clearly have never rolled dice and have no idea that Mercer railroads to match his written serialized episodes. That show is not what you think it is. It isn't about improv. Dice are supposed to determine how you react, not some based on some chuckle of a whim for the viewers. You'll never experience a truly deep and rewarding experience if you let your DM railroad everything. I have no idea how you think Mercer's style is in any a group creation
I think the weakness about crossbolts and goodness is because of the story of Ravana, he was a Rakshasa lord but he was not defeated by and army, but a simply farm girl...
Oh man I could have used that last week XD. I just intrudused one a new villan in my campagne. And now I see this and I think ... wow what a coincends. Nice Video. Your really inspireing my.
Or you could let your villain be killed by the Rakshasa right before the final battle starts. Imagine your party run into the boss arena just to see how he gets killed by this tiger (or other animal) deamon. And from there it all depends on the DM and the Party. Will he send them away? Will he become a quest giver? ^^
I would love it if at some point you chose to cover changelings in the future. I say me, but there has to be at least a few other people looking forward to that video. Efit: I actually remember a time when me and my party actually encountered a Rakshasa, one who was eager to take over a city and rule over its residents. The problem was that he was too eager, and had he investigated a little more he would have learned that the city was also under the watchful eye of a green dragon. An ancient green dragon, who was none too pleased with having someone else encroach on her turf. We essentially had to recruit ( although in actuality it was more like she was recruiting us) her into helping us get rid of the Rakshasa, in exchange for a sizable amount of treasure and political leverage.
Dude, awesome video, the last thing I would expect seing here was tiger tiefling. Do you expect making videos about the demon lords in the future? I think it would be amazing
These are one of my favorite intrigue monsters, boss monsters. I have only had my players confront one. One. They are behind that many layers of intrigue. They usually work with them, thinking they are decent town folk. One was the mayor, also the town's lord, also the guild master of opposing thieves' guilds, also the head of the mercenary/assassin guild, also the commander of the town guards & investigators, also the head of the vault (merchant's guild that ran the local economy). Again, I say that was one. It was one rakshasa with a bunch of identities.
I had one of these introduced in my last game of a campaign I'm running. It was the 'leader' of a powerful bandit organisation which was caught in a war between mind flayers and undead, but it managed to get the players on its side due to them being unable to detect anything off about him, magically or otherwise, and it helped that one of his captains that helped the players earlier was a tabaxi, which look very similar to the untrained eye. So, they figured this guy was just another tabaxi.
"And from this day henceforth, anyone found in possession of a crossbow within our blessed sovereign state shall be guilty of high treason; a apex crime that will result in the forfeiture of all wealth and rights to the governing body, and immediate execution of the individual to be carried out by any available means seen fit by the acting law enforcement or state representative." Also... any rakshasa worth the position to attempt the evil overlord act would have several overlapping defenses to thwart ever being touched by a blessed bolt.
Fun fact: the first campaign I ever played ended with my lvl 18 hellfire warlock fought a lvl 20 rakshasa. The fight ended with us both getting completely destroyed
The artist is Bulgarian guy Svetoslav Petrov and he drew the painting in the thumbnail www.artstation.com/svetoslavpetrov He calls it Rakshasa, but what does he know right?
The blessed crossbow bolt is straight from the mythology of Rakshasas. Name is literally man-eater in Hindi. That's why look like tigers. Tigers being the animal in India known to eat men.
I like how much importance Rakshasa are given in the Eberron setting. In fact I've just introduced a Rakshasa villain into my ongoing Eberron campaign, without even hinting at its true nature. My players will never know what hit 'em...
Mr. Rhexx: "i feel like everybody knows the raksasha'
Me: "I've never met this man in my life"
You have, many times, you just don't know it.
I haven’t seen one ether
@@phantomnxc6081 Ha nice try that's exactly what a Rac would say
Are you a Rakshasa? By law you have to tell me if I ask.
My last GM is in love with this fucking things. The second the a party was strong enough to take them on. BAM. Rakshasa.
"Rajah, I keep telling you. Human hands are on the other side of the arm. How will we sell all these scissors."
"Don't worry Tony, if anyone asks, I twist arms backwards for free."
"or we could sell the left handed tools to right handed humans and vise versa"
Wait... Are you saying that Tony, the Frosted Flakes Tiger, was a Rakshasa all along? O_O
@@Harrowed2TheMind Just a common name, no relation
@@Harrowed2TheMind Frosted Human Flakes. They're GGGGreat
Nice Futurama reference
Rakshasa in D&D was inspired from the 1970s series “Kolchak the Night Stalker” in an episode where he encounters a rakshasa. In the episode it was killed by a holy crossbow bolt. Gary Gygax loved the series and when he made the rakshasa he got the crossbow bolt idea from that show.
There. Secret revealed.
Why would that ruin anything?
So they can only be killed by a crossbow?
Thank you, I wasn’t looking forward to researching that. And it is indeed disappointing.
@@Creationweek Because some folks want some deep mystical answer steeped in centuries of folklore, and get upset when the real answer is "They made it that way because of a tv show they liked" .
@@TonySamedi that is probably the correct answer even if it isnt a satisfying one.
I fear no magic nor swords. But that THING...
_scene from Van Helsing where he dips full auto assault crossbow in holy water_
it scares me.
Wan Hellsing?
@@MrUsoutlaw Van*
That would be a hilarious houserule twist to rain on your DM's plot lol.
LMAO
I can already imagine the hilarity that ensues when a party fought a Rak, they throw everything at it, it didn't work then the cleric tries to shoot it with his blessed crossbow bolts, it scratches the Rak, it deals 1 damage.
And the DM goes "How do you wanna do it?".
haven't laughed this hard in a long time
If your party knows they are tangling with a Rak, its not a very clever Rak.
One killed a party member by selling him a cursed item months ago in my campaign and they still think it was just some creepy human merchant
OR, you will eventually learn that you were not fighting a Rak but something pretending to be a Rak so you would never think you were fighting a Rak after this finding out, even though, double twist, you actually are!
@@tyrant-den884 But you are not and it's actually a Mindflayer mind- fucking you instead of eating your brain because he's in fact a Rakshasa in disguise.
@Michael Fox Yall truely captured the mind set of a Rak! 👏
My party hired one. They only found out because my sister is a huge geek and read about them, plus her character is a scholar on different cultures and creatures. Well, technically ONLY she knows. * evil laugh*
Me: "These guys seem chill"
Rhexx: "They like to eat people alive"
I mean, Ive seen worse.
Yeah man, nobody is perfect.
I mean, they ARE pretty chill, for Fiends that is.
Tbh when he said that they like us for our flesh I legit thought that meant they wanted to fuck us.
@@stakefr0mjatefarmvods534 Who says they don't..?
Remember, Tieflings with Rakshasa ancestry is a thing. 😈
Soooo what do you think? Unredemable or is it possible to get one to neutral?
Rakshasas reads mind of a "human" that like treasures
Rakshasas transforms into a jewelry dealer selling dimonds
"human" "buys" diamonds
Rakshasas returns back to original form, tries to eat "human"
"human" returns back to original form, an elder gold dragon, holding a colossal magical crossbow.
Gold Dragon: I came here to loot gold and chew bubblegum, and I'm all out of gum...
Rakshasas: Oh shit.
Its like playing 10 chess games at once
busted
Very enjoyable to read and imagine, more so that I imagined the Rakshasas reaction.
i102.photobucket.com/albums/m95/puh_02/tiger-scared.jpg
It was at this moment that he knew, he f***ed up.
When a gold dragon has a crossbow you are straight up screwed like the bolt piercing through your body.
Okay, okay, but, “What They Don’t Tell You About Humans - D&D?” I know, I know, I’ve asked before, but I’d really like to learn about this rare creature.
Humans are Dire Halflings
"Rare"? O.o
Luan X Idk man, I can’t get that many resources on them
They can mate with anything. And we mean: ANYTHING.
Saving the foulest of all the creatures for last...
Rakshasa: *exists*
A single lvl 7 paladin of retribution: I'm about to end this man's whole career
Rip Tony the Tiger
Don’t forget that the Paladin is wielding a rapier or crossbow. Rakhasas have vulnerability to piercing damage dealt by good aligned characters
And it is for this reason that Rakshasa prefer to let their subordinates do the dirty work
crossbolt: I'm about to end this whole man
In the original 1E ADD Paladins could not use bows or crossbows...
Rakshasa tiefling? That's sounds like furry with extra steps
It is
Gleep glorp glooble...somones gonna get laid in college...
@@stephentaylor6726 Those furry orgies are a great way to get laid
Just play a Tabaxi
Not a Furry fetishist but I like that those fetishists can actually play one lorewise.
As long as the behaviour in the group does not become too... _"intimate"._
I wonder how many fantasy artists for D&D got frustrated trying to draw Rakshasa hands backwards.
and I wonder how many people got confused and criticized the artists for getting it "wrong" on the few occasions where they actually got the hands right
Me: their hands are kinda weird or am I seeing things?
MrRhexx: also their hands are backwards.
Me: ohhh... yeah I don't like that
I like it =D just imagine them giving you high five xD
One, two, three, four, I declare a thumb w- ... wait, how is this supposed to work again?
I don't like it either
[Confused Screaming]
In my campains, I like to break the mold with creatures. I had a rakshasha whom served as a royal advisor and the head general of an army. To prevent mutiny, he would host open challenges to defeat him in battle, to claim themselves as the new general. While respected enough for his battle prowess and his intellect, he was equally distrusted for his race. These open challenges he proposed were to instil a mutual trust. Meaning he's aware of how his comrades feel, and is willing to step down if ever bested.
Like his kind, he loves human flesh. His source of this delicacy comes from the battle field, the worst criminals, or evil humans.
Arsinitch is his name. One of my favorite npcs I've ever had.
Is it weird that I ship rashasha with one of my party members?
She is a tabaxi (looxks like a Linx) life Domain cleric and such a sweet innocent creature and we always drag her into terrible situations. She's also our tank and for some reasons all the monsterd always end up biting her in her shoulders so she has multiple scars there 😂
I imagine her being strong enough to impress a rashasha with her durability and also inflicting fear in him because she is actually a really good person (and cleric who can bless).
In my head they either meet in desguace or in battle and when he tries to read her mind when she looks in his glowing eyes full with death and how they called it "pure evil" and the only thing he figures out is that she thinks he looks cute.
I wanted to ask my DM if we could try something like that and get a Kampagne with a conflict involving one or more rashasha and surprise my friend with it. But maybe I should ask her first if she would let her character fall in love with someone who's pure evil and if it would end bad or we might get a strong ally if we manage to turn him neutral.
I feel like you tried to do a play on the word "Arsenic" with your character...but all I see is "Arse Itch." ...sorry. :|
Yes, yes inverting the trope isn't exactly as in the mold as playing it straight. 🙄
sounds like a solid example of lawful evil
So yeah I took a screenshot because I this inspired a hurricane of npc fleshing out ideas. Thanks for sharing
Me: *chants* MORE LORE! MORE LORE! X2
Mr. Rhexx: *2weeks later* More Lore.
Thank you, Mr. Rhexx. I just got into D&D and this helps me prepare to become a DM
Hey welcome to the community some other Dnd related channels I recommend are, runesmith, and xp to lvl 3. Happy Adventuring
Well, with this new wisdom I feel I have an appropriate type of antagonist for my next campaign.
A feud between a Rakshasa and the Dragon that keeps killing it.
A silver dragon, one who likes to basically LARP as a paladin with adventurers. That'd fit well.
me, not knowing about rakshasas: "lol this artists drew the wrong hands on the wrong arms. wait so did this one? and this one too-wait minute"
*In a dingy bar, in the underbelly of an eastern city, a Rakshasa finalizes a contract.*
"You know what the last person to try to screw a rook on a deal said?"
*no one answers*
"'Help, help, I'm being mauled to death by a tiger.'"
*Smile entirely too pleasant for the situation*
*Sips martini*
No, I don't know what this is from, I just know it's great.
What’s the big secret on the crossbow bolts?
All I could find was that it was part of Hindu myth that they could be killed by a crossbow bolt blessed by Brahma. Also that Gygax made sure to put it in because he saw it in an episode of Kolchak, solidifying his position as god-king of geeks.
Is that really the secret? “The monster from religious myth is based on… religious myth. And the person who made your favorite RPG is a big ol nerd.”
Gygax would qualify as the creator god of DnD, he said let there be D20s, and there were D20s, and let them be used for all manner of spells and skills, and they were, and it was good
CorvusCorone68 here’s a young whippersnapper. The ones that Gygax did had no skills, a small spell list, and an obsession with a d6.
Seriously: Play Fantasy Chainmail.
Actually, don’t. It’s a bit manky.
@@Ewok612 i don't understand what you're saying, what ones that Gygax did? are you saying he didn't have a hand in making DnD?
CorvusCorone68 he was critical to its creation, but he “only” co created the original as an add-on to Chainmail and recompiled it into Advanced. There have been 5-7 (interpretable) editions since then.
If you ask me, his greatest contributions are his published adventures and more, his role in the creation of the group of people responsible for the rest.
Amber Hoke I feel that, but in this context, it’s like crediting the New Deal to Washington because he was president first.
Apologies if that sounds like gibberish. *rants in American*
"They like to dominate them, to enslave them, to rule over them... they like being around them."
..
So, cats, then.
"They love human flesh." Definitely cats.
Could you do the "Thri-kreen" I developed a recent intrest in it and would like to know more about it. Overall the video was pretty good, keep up the good work!
Caroline Lewis I love Thri-kreen, they're one of my favorite races to play as.
Interesting race. did they come from the Dark Sun setting? or just play a bigger roll?
Yes, we need to know what happens when human mates with a Thri-kreen
I agree, more Dark Sun and Ravenloft needed
Yes! I love Dark Sun and I want to know more about Athas monsters!! :)
I tend to take rules limitations as challenges, so when I found out how deadly exhaustion is in D&D I tried to figure out a way to make a character who can't benefit from rests survive. Rakshasa's curse ended up being the key to it, as well as the dryad race, a magic arrow (very fitting now I've seen this video and learned about their weakness!), and a stolen spell scroll. Playing this character will be very difficult (always at disadvantage, never gets most class abilities more than once-ever). And usually would be impossible. But since I found a way, wow will it lend some awesome role-playing potential!
Love this! These have to be my favorite D&D monster now, there are just so many aspects of them that just seem so unique
Yup: they got women, I love 'em!
Agreed. They are perfect villains in my mind. Cunning, evil, and strong
Hearing about possible rakshasa tiefling at the end made me think back to the beginning of the video with rakshasa not necessarily looking like a tiger person. That could lead to some really creative character designs given a DM willing to let that slide!
The last time I checked this channel, I was getting back into Skyrim, and you were posting skyrim videos like usual, and now I’m starting my first d&d campaign, and i suddenly get a months worth of recommendations of your new d&d videos. I feel like this is some sort of omen
The blessed crossbow bolt thing comes from the West Asian mythology that the Rakshasa was adopted from. The Rakshasa wasn't created specifically for D&D. It pre dates D&D by centuries. There is a show called Kolshac: The Night Stalker from the 70's. First time I heard of Rakshasa was in the Horror in the Heights episode. Featured the creature using ESP to appear as a trusted person to victims & that it could only be killed by a blessed crossbow bolt.
My big bad is a Rakshasa trying to pull the material plane into hell to create a new tenth layer.
Oh that’s cool.
Let's hope he succeeds! That'll be a story for the players to talk about for years to come.
Your guna need that Rakshasa fight Asmodeus for space, because the true form of Asmodeus is under the 9th hell.
@@toko099o the material plane would go on top of a Avernus.
It is only the 10th layer in that it is the [would be] layer which raises the count from 9 to 10.
But it would be the 1st layer when everything is done.
He is not planning to supplant Asmodeus.
Yet.
I'm curious how that's in his best interest because creatures in the Nine Hells can not be killed in the material plane (as I understand), so wouldn't pulling the material plane full of people who can kill devils just lead to a serious decline (DnD has some deep lore that I am not an expert on)?
I dont play D&D so i love these vids man. so much is influnced by D&D. That most of this knowledge applies.
Should try it. If not table top then the video games. Baldurs Gate is a nice start. And who knows, maybe you beat the first two games until the 3 one comes out next year
A secret that most people dont like to talk about is anything that is inspired by dnd is really inspired by lore of the rings. Or more specifically Tolkien Most if the stuff he wrote is what we now know as modern fantasy. Also you should play divinity original sin too I'm pretty sure the people who made baldur's gate made that as well
@@biznessman5632 as much as i love Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings he didn't invent most of his lore he was inspired just as dnd is by real world cultures and myths the Raksasha are based on creatures from Hindu legend which should be obvious given their title structure and i am hopping i missed that part in the video where he mentioned it cause i know most of these videos he has mentioned the real world inspiration. as for the original bauldur's gate game those were made by bioware and black isle studios
@@mattedmands2085 well of course every fantasy ever comes from ancient real world mythos, and folklore that's a given. But Tolkien's version of it was and is the most popular interpretation. The version of orcs, elves, hobbits, and more are mainly form that vision. mischievous, like the ones we think of when we think of Christmas. Some cultures even call what we'd would like call fairies, elves. For example some cultures characterize elves as very small and trickster like creatures kinda like gnomes, but the elf that we know from the Hobbit and LoTR are the ones we use in dnd. Not say dnd completely copied everything not saying Tolkien invented folk lore. The way I see it Tolkien is like the street fighter of fantasy. Its inspired by real martial arts but its version of the martial arts is the one that most other fighting games find there roots in.
@@biznessman5632 I am by no means trying to diminish Tolkien's influence on modern fantasy he did in fact formalize a strong mythic presence but I will with the exception of hobbits which some might argue are an interpretation of fey folk like brownies or leprechauns all the others existed previously in well established Scandinavian and finish lore. My real point in the initial post though other than that i think Tolkien gets too much credit for the modern landscape of modern fantasy was that real world cultures and their legends are a deep trove of inspiration. I wish more people would take an interest in and I am not jumping on some SJW bandwagon. and i am not sure if you meant street fighter the game i am more of a mortal kombat guy, but i would compare Tolkien to MMA which is primarily based around Brazilian jujitsu which is in and of itself is based on the Japanese martial arts and other styles of martial art were adapted to compliment and built upon and it became something different but it still owes itself to.
As an Indian person who grew up hearing the Ramayana, I'm actually really surprised by how much of their background is based on Ravana and his Rakshasa kingdom in Sri Lanka
D&D just copied some basic stuff from the Ramayana. Remember all this originated in the 1970s before the Internet, so some D&D creator just had some Ramayana book.
"Don't fix it if it's not broken."
D&D monsters are inspired from creatures of all cultural myths.
Did you see his video about the fallen angel who becomes the ruler of the nine hells? Straight up Satan.
How do you do, fellow Indian?
5th edition Rakshasa:
"hmm... This human baby is going to be very tasty..."
baby:"kitty! *accidentally stabs the Rakshasa with a fork, a vorpal fork*"
Rakshahsa:"shit, damn my obsession with vorpal cutle-* collapses in a pile of ash*"
And he is reborn in the Nine hells shortly after.
@@nikiosko "Why does no one tell me not to give the baby a knife!!!"... "It's hard to get good help these days"
What i did with my adventure was that a coven of hags up north had started to drag rakshasa souls from the depths and fuse them with animals. The rakshasa's memory would dull and muddle up, so that they effectively reborn into the animal with only their vicious nature. Eventually the essence of the rakshasa twists the host and takes over, making them intelligent and super strong versions of the animals. Some would escape the Hags eventually and start gathering troupes and even armies to terrorise and dominate the land. This allowed me to make different power levels of demo hosts, some only resistant to magic, some immune, and all pretty terrifying, mainly on a quest of domination of lesser beings. Great fun roleplaying a huge monster bear with the intellect of a rakshasa suffering from memory loss of his previous lives, at the head of a mercenary army. :D
You see a tiger, you run, you see a hellish devil, you run, you see a helish devil tiger man, you guessed it, run
Watching your series on “what they don’t tell you about ___” has inspired a lot of NPC ideas, playable character ideas, and even main campaign arch’s I plan on doing. Your Night Hags and Rakshasa vid has really got my imagination gears turning lol.
Me: Think rakshasa.
My cat friend from Sultai/Silumgar : Do you want to join my clan?
But where do the Khajit fit??
Our party met a friendly Rakshasa who managed to expell his desire to eat human flesh and just simply had a love for Humanoids, shout out to my boy Joe
the insight into tieflings at the end is nice. always see people saying tiefling art not being accurate. but tieflings can look just about like anything based on their heritage
What if the only thing you trust in life is a blessed crossbow?
*sees mrRhexx has uploaded*
me: hey maybe it'll be 1 of the other giants
mrRhexx: What They Don't Tell You About Rakshasas
me: ok
Player: Learns of a Rakshasha, gets a crossbow with blessed bolts
Rakshaha: Has a permanent protection from projectiles spell on, and also took one level of monk to be able to deflect arrows and bolts.
yeah... Vampires can survive a nuclear bomb, can't deal with a pointy stick...
Love the bit about Tieflings at the end there. Totally wanna know the spoiler about the crossbow bolts too :p
Same honestly if anyone knows please tell.
@@brandonlowe3299 had to do with a cartoon Gary Gygax liked
Just looked it up, and my assumption was right; as most of fiends and celestials come from real world mythology, so do their weaknesses. Just gotta look up Hinduism, Rakshasa, and arrows
Ramayana, Book III: Vana Parva, Section 285
One of my absolute favorite D&D monsters.
Rakshasa, the ultimate tiger mom.
Very, very late comment here. A few things crossed my mind here.
- The blood war espionage potential for Rakshasa is absolutely insane. Imagine you have an extremely ambitious lower-caste Rakshasa family. Mother can’t advance in society but is every inch as cunning and ambitious as a male. Raises her children with all the tests described but when she sets them upon the material plane-she sends them to the Underdark specifically. Demonic Lolth is also fond of tests, treachery, and mind-games but Rakshasas have shapeshifting. Goal is to climb the ladder among the drow and undermine Lolth’s disciples as much as possible to replace them with infernal influence.
- Possible complication or opportunity, two-headed rakshasa could reaaaaaaally catch the attention of a cult to Demogorgon. Even if not in the previous drow conflict I described just seeing blood war stuff unfold around that tension could be wild.
This species has always interested me! So much history behind them! OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH RHEXX! I love your videos!!
My (three years older) brother brought home the original box set D&D from the hobby shop in our El Paso neighborhood in '77, '78 (or '79) to adventure with our 18 months younger little bro and myself...
Long story short...
They all still have first editions of the MM, PH and DMG.
THANK YOU for quickening the child's heart in me (not the one I ate most recently, that one quickened itself!)!
I'm surprised a Rakshasa would ever mate with a Human since they consider Human flesh a delicacy.
Well, bestiality does exist, so i guess it could work somewhat like that? Except a tad less disturbing?
If they're a mantis one, it's both.
Playing with its food 🙃
Haven't you ever had a bacon cheeseburger so GOOD, that you wanted to fuck it?
You say it as if the Human needs the Rakshasha's consent...
I'm glad you brought up the thing about Tieflings. I've been thinking of making a feline Bard or Sorcerer with some levels as an Echo Knight Fighter; the idea is to have a character who's essentially an anthropomorphic displacer beast. I'd been thinking of making them a Tabaxi, a Shifter, or even a Simic Hybrid (climbing & tentacles), but Glasya Tiefling looked tempting too, and I saw that the Variant Tiefling's appearance options included catlike eyes and sharp teeth. Think I might go with that now; think it could be interesting to play the lost child of a Rakshasa.
Edit: I'd assume the vulnerability to holy arrows or bolts is a reference to Rama killing Ravana with the Brahmastra in the Ramayana.
This upload was perfect (purrfect. heh.). I've been singing Aladdin songs all day and was starting to think of making a D&D campaign with an Arabian type setting.
Oh man I'm about to start a campaign with an Arabian/Egyptian style continent and mythos. Alls I can say are Genies are fun
As if it matters, there is a great AD&D series all centered around deserts, pyramids, Arabian themes, a ship that sails a glass (desert) sea. Aside from being ver. 2.5-3.0 and from the 80's, the 3 module set was a blast to play through.
I really like the detail and the composition of the presentation of this topic. Very informative, structured and logical, but also enthusiastic and free-flowing. It was a pleasure to listen to, and learn from. ^^
Demonac's take on Rakshasas from Tales from my D&D Campaign is one of the best takes on these monsters I've seen.
I was suggested this video on my search of "What sounds do a baby rakshasa make." Although this video didn't answer that I have learned a lot and I'm just going to leave a baby rakshasa at my party's doorstep.
Sorry to say it, but the image at 15:35 is an illustration I did for Blood Window Pinamar, an Argentinian horror film festival. Please tag the authors of the images you're using. Be nice and tag me properly. Thanks.
I've been making a character who's a Bard/Warrlock who's backstory was they were going to be raised to become a powerful spellcaster so a Raksasha could take their body and manipulate others as an extra set of defenses but a powerful fey taught the girl a pattern that she began to mark the whole city with for five years until completing it with the fiend trapped inside while in exchange for freeing them the girl was cursed with eyes that can charm or terrifying uncontrollably...she then becomes a dancer using her unique trick to make crowds awe and shock st their displays before using that money to train in greater magics for their goal of killing the Fiend before the seal breaks.
"Tiefling = Human + Outsider" . . . So, Aasimars, Genasi, and the rest of the Planetouched are all Tieflings?
Spicy Tieflings.
Aasimars are in essence teifling but celestial blood. Says as such in PHB
@@jujujohnson01 It could also be said that Tieflings are essentially Aasimars with fiendish blood instead of celestial, or that any planetouched is essentially any other planetouched with any other planar blood. Planetouched is the umbrella term, not Tiefling. THE GRAMMAR NAZI IN ME CAN'T STAND IT!
@@jujujohnson01 it is known
Outsiders in that specific situation is only used for evil/devilish outsiders.
I was planning on using a Rakshasa as an enemy down the line in my campaign and was sad that you hadn't made a video about them just the other day! Thank you very much, for your hard work I'm too lazy to do.
Rakshasa vs a lich that would sound like a interesting battle.
1vs1?... Or the whole mob-boss vs deranged genius...?
@@hectorisraelalvarezespinos59 I'm talking 1v1
Meh... I mean, they are both cuasi eternal, near invulnerable, evil S.O.B. and besides they can't use the other achilles heel, and in top of that both are of the manipulator archetype.... It will be either and awkward stalemate ("come at me skullface/furrydemon!" while standing next to a big trap for the other) or the more drag-on nerd fight ever seen... Or something in between
15:45
James Rolfe made a good point about vampires.
“If you can kill a vamp with a wooden stake, and a silver stake... then it can probably be made out of fuckin’ anything.”
Him:-Honey your earrings are distracting me from you beautiful green eyes.
Her: You sly, sweet talker. You know what to expect after sex
4:13
The first time I heard about Rakshasas was reading about Arijani from Ravenloft and I've been fascinated ever since!! Great video as always Rhexx!! Keep up the awesome work mellon!! :)
Being vulnerable to a holy crossbow bolt sounds like a reference to Rama killing Ravana with the Bramhastra, which is a holy weapon made by Bhrama and is usually portrayed as a blessed arrow. However, how the weapon looked wasn't really described in detail in any of the translations of the Ramayana I've read, besides being a projectile, so blessed crossbow bolt works too!
You read that? You mean you read the thousand other people who commented that exact same thing more or less before you? Buuuut you thought if you got a little more descriptive that you'd make people think you're edumacated and strangers on duh internets would tink you smaaaht
@@jaysonisgreat nice description of the reason for your own post, person who somehow expected a comments section on the youtubes to look any different.
@@jaysonisgreat Hey! Fuck off, asshole.
Just let em have an any blessed projectile. For the flavor win that it is
Thank you so much for that last bit. Was watching this and being like "How can I play this race without being a super powered god compared to other PCs?" and then . . you told me how.
Man, Rhexx, I love these videos. Lore about D&D, the most relaxing hobby, set to relaxing music, delivered with a relaxing accent. What type of accent is that, and can I get the google lady to speak using it?
I'd like to imagine they chuff like actual tigers
I think I just got caught up on all your lower videos for Dungeons & Dragons. I absolutely love this series and I hope you continue. In addition to some of the deep lore that you're acquiring from the past Dragon magazines which I've read most of those but it's great refresher into here at verbalizes fantastic, I think it would be wonderful if you expanded your section on demons and Devils covering the demon princes and the Dukes of hell that would be fantastic. It also love it if you got around to doing the say while they didn't see that one on your playlist but maybe I just missed it. Would be really cool to if you did some of the Heaven's and Celestial Realms and things of that nature definitely hook
I think it's clear we need a "What they don't tell you about races"
*laughs in JQ*
Just a reminder to everyone in the world, we have more than 5 senses. It's closer to about 18 senses. Sense of limb position, pain, heat, and organ volume are some extra senses.
Oh yeah boi 5 seconds in to upload this’ll be perfect for decent in to Avernus
I hope you do a guide on Tabaxi, as I'd like to know more about them!
I have an idea for a Tabaxi character who's actually pretty spoiled and pampered, being adopted into a rich family of humans, and he has no idea what Tabaxi are supposed to be like, but then again, it doesn't really matter to him all that much. He's rich and has a loving family, what more could you want?
Well, at least, that all changes once he discovers he has magic...
His family doesn't kick him out for his magical abilities, but they strongly suggest for him to go somewhere where he can better learn to control his powers. He agrees of course, because he doesn't want to accidentally hurt anyone, and so he agrees that leaving to control his powers would be a good idea.
His older brother is not happy with this arrangement, because he actually really likes his Tabaxi little brother, and doesn't like the idea of him getting himself into danger.
But of course, he goes anyway, because he doesn't want to put his family in danger of his wild magic, and so that's how he ends up being an adventurer.
But, I'm curious as to how different he'd be from other Tabaxi in the world, and if he's really possible.
I'm new to D&D, so I don't know how probable my character idea is, but if you want to give your opinion of my story, I'd like to hear any criticisms or suggestions you may have!
Loved it dude although the Tiefling can happen as well with strong curses by outsiders
Excellent! These are one my my favorite boss-baddies!! With all the talk being about Avernus and the devils, please do a few episodes on these infernal baddies ;-)
IDK if this exists in D&D, but in Pathfinder there were sort of subtypes of Rakshasas and one of them was called a Raktavarna which is one of my favorite creatures ever.
It is a tiny sized snake that can transform itself into a dagger or short sword or tiny objects like cups or crowns. While transformed, they are indistinguishable from the actual object. They can become familiars under the right circumstances so they are great spies for hiding in plain sight.
The coolest thing about them is that they have a special type of venom and when they bite you in their snake form, it causes you to forget ever having seen them. I always found that to be really nifty.
The Rakshasa and their God Rawana is take from Hindu Mythology, India. I am just very happy that my home country could contribute to my all time favorite game D&D!!!
By the way amazing content man. Keep up the good work!!
I really want to know this secret now... I'm sure it'll ruin the mystery for me... but then again so does learning any of this stuff imo :P
So do I! I have been trying to figure out what to do with a certain group of people in my campaign and this made it so clear. But now I must know why only crossbow bolts so I can work it into my lore.
I found it. It's not worth knowing. I'm sad now.
@@holden426 cmon, say it
@@holden426 Where did you find it? I tried looking for it but had a hard time finding anything..
MrRhexx didn't want to say it, so I won't post it in his comments. You can find the answer if you Google "Rakshasa crossbow" and click on the second link (should be from rpg stackexchange). The top answer has a quote from Gary Gygax.
i like when you actually get into the sources you use in the video and show us what's going on
Guess we're gonna need another RUclips channel for "things MrRhexx won't tell you about dungeons and dragons"
Rakshasa tieflings seem like they'd be more common in Eberron than Toril, given they're more prolific there. Bet there's at least a few among the Carrion Tribes.
Can you do the channelings?
This is awesome thank you. I have a villain Tabaxi coming up in my campaign but this is even better. A Rackshasa masquerading as a Tabaxi with a network of assassin monks to do his bidding in order to gain power within the community. The party has a cleric but she doesn't use crossbows nor is she good (true neutral), could be interesting.
...And now I want to play a tiefling who has a raksasha parent.
@Kathy Kat i guess they are called beastbrood
I actually played a Rakshasa once. We were playing a high level (17th) evil group, in 3.5 edition (some 3.0 rules and unofficial materials were allowed, as well as anything, as long as it was within the rules of certain books from these editions). This group focused a lot on min/max'ing, roleplaying less so.
After growing a bit tired of creating sub-par characters, that died easily or were outperformed by everyone else in the party (my characters weren't exploiting the rules as well as my min/max'ing fellow party members), I discovered that you could level in a Monster class.
So my Rakshasa Lvl 14/ Fighter Lvl 3 was born. I was quite proud of the in-character spell list i came up with (a mix of Illusion and Necromancy spells), as Rakshasa's effectively leveled as over-powered Sorcerers. But, I think it was the moment, in-game, when my DM realized that being immune to any spell below 8th level, not being harmed by non-magical weapons and being able to use the spell Alter Self at will (at least that's how I remember it), was perhaps a BIT too much!
Can't remember if I just abandoned the character because it was a bit too silly (rules-wise) or if I was asked politely to make a new one. But the character actually had a lot of interesting role-playing potential, despite its over-powered abilities....and there was this one drawback, that made it all "sort of" balanced. I would constantly have had to be paranoid about anyone (probably including some of my party members [we were evil and kind of working together, but really selfish individuals when it came down to it]) ever discovering my true identity, because if they did, they would have very little trouble discovering my ONE weakness, that would just insta-kill me!
Amazing as always. Hope mat mercer, mike mearles and chris perkins watch. That they realise there is no need to dumb down. We love the depth.
Matt Mercer should not be listed with the others. He's a hack and the others are actual WotC leadership.
Hack? He's a story teller and dm. He is what d&d is all about. He makes the game fun for his players and the audience.
He's a screenplay writer and a radioshow narrator. D&D isn't for an audience, it's for the players. Dice rolls should matter. It's tabletop role-playing GAME, not roundtable script reading
It's about the dm and players creating a joint story that they enjoy. They are trained actors that have practiced ad lib situations and will play off each other. Being entertaining to an audience is a good thing. If you don't like it fair enough. But it is not scripted (apart from fitting their stories with the dm, as it should be).
Try some acting classes. If someone throws something at you, you go with it. It's why all the players took to it. Not jjst a gzmd but practicing their craft.
lol you clearly have never rolled dice and have no idea that Mercer railroads to match his written serialized episodes. That show is not what you think it is. It isn't about improv. Dice are supposed to determine how you react, not some based on some chuckle of a whim for the viewers. You'll never experience a truly deep and rewarding experience if you let your DM railroad everything. I have no idea how you think Mercer's style is in any a group creation
I think the weakness about crossbolts and goodness is because of the story of Ravana, he was a Rakshasa lord but he was not defeated by and army, but a simply farm girl...
Oh man I could have used that last week XD. I just intrudused one a new villan in my campagne. And now I see this and I think ... wow what a coincends. Nice Video. Your really inspireing my.
It's not too late, you could have your current one be a transformed one.
Or you could let your villain be killed by the Rakshasa right before the final battle starts.
Imagine your party run into the boss arena just to see how he gets killed by this tiger (or other animal) deamon. And from there it all depends on the DM and the Party. Will he send them away? Will he become a quest giver? ^^
I think this will be my groups new patron. With them trying to take over the world and all.
Maybe the boss is actually working for the rak
I would love it if at some point you chose to cover changelings in the future. I say me, but there has to be at least a few other people looking forward to that video.
Efit: I actually remember a time when me and my party actually encountered a Rakshasa, one who was eager to take over a city and rule over its residents. The problem was that he was too eager, and had he investigated a little more he would have learned that the city was also under the watchful eye of a green dragon. An ancient green dragon, who was none too pleased with having someone else encroach on her turf. We essentially had to recruit ( although in actuality it was more like she was recruiting us) her into helping us get rid of the Rakshasa, in exchange for a sizable amount of treasure and political leverage.
Dude, awesome video, the last thing I would expect seing here was tiger tiefling. Do you expect making videos about the demon lords in the future? I think it would be amazing
Amazing. Prob my fav D&D channel at this point.
13:30 *"Hah, good luck Fuckers! My mind is just full of Gay stuff!"* -Van'Das, Shepherd Druid.
These are one of my favorite intrigue monsters, boss monsters. I have only had my players confront one. One. They are behind that many layers of intrigue. They usually work with them, thinking they are decent town folk. One was the mayor, also the town's lord, also the guild master of opposing thieves' guilds, also the head of the mercenary/assassin guild, also the commander of the town guards & investigators, also the head of the vault (merchant's guild that ran the local economy). Again, I say that was one. It was one rakshasa with a bunch of identities.
And now I know how I can get Tony the Tiger into my campaign
I had one of these introduced in my last game of a campaign I'm running. It was the 'leader' of a powerful bandit organisation which was caught in a war between mind flayers and undead, but it managed to get the players on its side due to them being unable to detect anything off about him, magically or otherwise, and it helped that one of his captains that helped the players earlier was a tabaxi, which look very similar to the untrained eye. So, they figured this guy was just another tabaxi.
"And from this day henceforth, anyone found in possession of a crossbow within our blessed sovereign state shall be guilty of high treason; a apex crime that will result in the forfeiture of all wealth and rights to the governing body, and immediate execution of the individual to be carried out by any available means seen fit by the acting law enforcement or state representative."
Also... any rakshasa worth the position to attempt the evil overlord act would have several overlapping defenses to thwart ever being touched by a blessed bolt.
One of my thieves semi-regularly does business with a Rakshasas trader. Always fun interactions.
Is his name Jzzargo.....
*Furries they’re just furries with magic*
And backward hands
owo?
evil furries with backwards hands and hella magic
And all the swag. Lotsa swag.
fiend evil furries with hella lotta magic
Fun fact: the first campaign I ever played ended with my lvl 18 hellfire warlock fought a lvl 20 rakshasa. The fight ended with us both getting completely destroyed
3:54 Classy boi!~
This was incredibly well done, thanks for the information!
"What they don't tell you about rakshasas"
*Has kahjiit in thumbnail*
The artist is Bulgarian guy Svetoslav Petrov and he drew the painting in the thumbnail www.artstation.com/svetoslavpetrov He calls it Rakshasa, but what does he know right?
Thank you for this video! I love hearing you talk about dnd! Especially the creatures.
The blessed crossbow bolt is straight from the mythology of Rakshasas. Name is literally man-eater in Hindi. That's why look like tigers. Tigers being the animal in India known to eat men.
I like how much importance Rakshasa are given in the Eberron setting. In fact I've just introduced a Rakshasa villain into my ongoing Eberron campaign, without even hinting at its true nature.
My players will never know what hit 'em...