Rakshasa, Common

This figure’s backward-bending fingers and its bestial, snarling visage leave little doubt as to its fiendish nature.

[This content was created for the Pathfinder rules by Paizo Publishing LLC and is part of the Pathfinder RPG product line.]

Source: Pathfinder d20pfsrd.com

The rakshasa is an evil spirit that cloaks itself in the guise of a humanoid creature that it might walk unseen among its prey. They embody what is taboo among most societies, and in the shape of those it seeks to defile, a rakshasa gorges itself on these hideous acts. Were they human, these acts of cannibalism, blasphemy, and worse would mark them as criminals condemned to the cruelest of hells.

When not disguised as a humanoid, the otherwise humanoid rakshasa has the head of an animal. Often, they possess the heads of great cats (such as a tiger or panther) or a snake (like a cobra or viper), yet other heads are not unknown ‘apes, jackals, vultures, elephants, mantises, lizards, rhinos, boars, and more are possible. In most cases, the type of head they possesses speaks in some way to its personality – a tiger-headed rakshasa is stealthy and ravenous, while a boar-headed one might be gluttonous and crude.

These changes rarely impact their base statistics, although there are more powerful variants of the standard rakshasa that possess multiple heads, more potent spellcasting powers, and additional deadly and unusual special abilities.

They scoff at religion- they understand the power of the divine, but see themselves as the only thing worthy of worship from the mortal races. Rakshasa clerics are thus quite rare. Although they are outsiders, they are also very much creatures of the Material Plane, and many believe the first rakshasas chose this exile over some other role offered them by a long-forgotten god. Although they usually work alone, it isn’t unheard of to find extended families of rakshasas working together to ruin a mortal civilization from the inside out over the course of many generations. A rakshasa is 6 feet tall and weighs 180 lbs.

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Rakshasas as Characters

Characters possess the following racial traits.

• +2 Strength, +4 Dexterity, +6 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, +6 Charisma.
• Medium size.
• A rakshasa’s base land speed is 40 feet.
• Darkvision out to 60 feet.
• Racial Hit Dice: They begin with seven levels of outsider, which provide 7d8 Hit Dice, a base attack bonus of +7, and base saving throw bonuses of Fort +5, Ref +5, and Will +5.
• Racial Skills: Their outsider levels give them skill points equal to 10 x (8 + Intelligence modifier).

Its class skills are Bluff, Disguise, Listen, Move Silently, Perform, Sense Motive, and Spot. A rakshasa has a +4 racial bonus on Bluff and Disguise checks, and it can gain further bonuses by using change shape (+10 on Disguise checks) and detect thoughts (+4 on Bluff and Disguise checks).

• Racial Feats: It’s outsider levels give it three feats.
• +9 natural armor bonus.
• Natural Weapons: Bite (1d6) and 2 claws (1d4).
• Detect thoughts (Su): The save DC is 13 + the character’s Charisma modifier.

Spells: A rakshasa character casts spells as a 7th-level sorcerer. If the character takes additional levels of sorcerer, these levels stack with the rakshasa’s base spellcasting ability for spells known, spells per day, and other effects dependent on caster level. A rakshasa character likewise uses the sum of its racial spellcasting levels and class levels to determine the abilities of its familiar.

• Special Qualities (see above): Change shape, damage reduction 15/good and piercing, Spell Resistance equal to 27 + class levels.
• Automatic Languages: 2. Bonus Languages: Any 2
• Favored Class: sorcerer.
• Level adjustment +7.