Rakshasa 5e: Stats, Magic Immunity and How to Run the Villain

A rakshasa is a CR 13 Medium fiend that hides in plain sight. The 2014 version has AC 16, 110 hit points, two cursing claws and Limited Magic Immunity: no spell of 6th level or lower can affect or detect it unless it allows it. The 2024 version is a different monster at the same CR: AC 17, 221 hit points, three Cursed Touch attacks that deal about 31 damage each, a psychic blast called Baleful Command, and Greater Magic Resistance, which makes it automatically succeed on saves against spells and makes spell attacks miss. In both editions its weakness is piercing damage, but the condition that triggers it changed from "a good creature with a magic weapon" to "anyone under a Bless spell."

Table of Contents

• •Rakshasa Stat Block (2014)
• •The Rakshasa in the 2024 Rules
• •What Magic Works on a Rakshasa?
• •How the Rakshasa Fights
• •Running a Rakshasa Encounter
• •How Players Beat a Rakshasa
• •Rakshasa Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Rakshasa Stat Block (2014)

This is the rakshasa from SRD 5.1, the same stat block as the 2014 Monster Manual.

The 2014 rakshasa is a weak melee combatant with a CR 13 defense. Two claws at +7 for 9 slashing each is the damage of a CR 3 creature. Everything else is about not being touched: immunity to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks, Limited Magic Immunity, and an innate spell list built for deception (Disguise Self and Detect Thoughts at will, Deception +10, Insight +8).

The claw's curse is the part players remember. A cursed creature gains no benefit from finishing a short or long rest: no hit points, spell slots or class features back until Remove Curse or similar magic ends it. For a party without Remove Curse, one claw hit turns a dungeon crawl into a death march.

The Rakshasa in the 2024 Rules

The 2024 rakshasa (SRD 5.2.1) keeps the CR, XP, size, speed, ability scores and the curse, and changes almost everything else.

The 2014 rakshasa is a schemer that fights only when cornered. The 2024 rakshasa is a front-line killer: about 60 damage a round against AC 18, almost seven times the 2014 output. It lost its enchantments, so its manipulation now comes from Deception +10, Disguise Self and Detect Thoughts, not mind control.

What Magic Works on a Rakshasa?

2014: Limited Magic Immunity. The rakshasa can't be affected or detected by spells of 6th level or lower unless it wants to be. Against all other spells and magical effects it has Advantage on saving throws.

• •Blocked completely: every spell of level 0 to 6. Fireball, Hold Monster, Banishment, Polymorph, Disintegrate, Faerie Fire, Spirit Guardians. Also detection: See Invisibility, Detect Thoughts, Detect Evil and Good and even True Seeing (6th level) can't reveal it. An invisible 2014 rakshasa stays invisible to all of them.
• •Works, with Advantage on its save: spells of 7th level or higher, and magical effects that aren't spells, such as a magic item's own non-spell power. Under the SRD's spellcasting rules, a spell cast with a higher-level slot "assumes the higher level for that casting," so Banishment cast with a 7th-level slot is a 7th-level spell and can affect it.
• •Works normally: magic weapons (a magic sword is not a spell), and spells that target your allies instead of the rakshasa, like Bless or Haste on your fighter. A weapon enchanted by a low-level spell (Magic Weapon, Shillelagh) is a DM call; decide before the fight.

2024: Greater Magic Resistance. The rakshasa automatically succeeds on saving throws against spells and other magical effects, and attack rolls of spells automatically miss it. No spell can observe it remotely or detect its thoughts, creature type or alignment without its permission.

• •Fails completely: spell attacks (Eldritch Blast, Fire Bolt, Guiding Bolt) and any spell whose effect depends on a failed save (Hold Monster, Banishment, Polymorph). Upcasting doesn't help.
• •Half damage: save-for-half spells like Fireball and Spirit Guardians still deal half, because the rakshasa only succeeds on the save.
• •Full effect: spells with no attack roll and no save. Magic Missile hits for full force damage. Buffs on allies (Bless, Haste) work normally, and Bless switches on the rakshasa's vulnerability.
• •Not blocked: the 2024 version has no weapon immunity at all. A nonmagical spear hurts it.

In short: the 2014 rakshasa shuts out casters without 7th-level slots and anyone without a magic weapon. The 2024 rakshasa shrugs off every control spell but takes full damage from blessed martial characters.

How the Rakshasa Fights

The 2014 schemer

Played straight, a 2014 rakshasa deals about 9 damage a round to an AC 18 character (two +7 claws hit 50% of the time). Don't play it straight.

• •Fight through other people. At will it reads minds with Detect Thoughts and wears any face with Disguise Self. Three times a day it can cast Charm Person and Suggestion, and once a day Dominate Person, all at DC 18. Its real attack is a dominated fighter swinging at the wizard.
• •Claw for the curse, not the damage. One claw on each party member wins the war even if it loses the fight: nobody recovers on a rest until Remove Curse is cast on each of them.
• •Go for the wizard. Without 7th-level spells the casters can't touch it, so it walks past the fighter to the wizard.
• •Leave on its terms. Fly, Invisibility and Plane Shift (1/day) make it hard to pin down. A 2014 rakshasa below half its hit points casts Plane Shift and starts planning the next scheme.

The 2024 killer

The 2024 rakshasa has Initiative +8 and wants to go first.

Round 1: Baleful Command. Every enemy within 30 feet makes a DC 18 Wisdom save. On a failure it takes 28 (8d6) psychic damage and is Frightened and Incapacitated until the start of the rakshasa's next turn. On a success, nothing. Against a level 13 party:

Incapacitated in the 2024 rules means no actions, no Bonus Actions, no Reactions, and broken concentration. Baleful Command ends the party's Bless, Haste and Spirit Guardians in one breath, and the Incapacitated characters lose their next turn.

Then Cursed Touch. Three attacks at +10, each 12 slashing plus 19 necrotic. Against AC 18 each hits 65% of the time, about 60 damage per round. Baleful Command and Multiattack are both actions, so the two never land in the same turn: the conditions end at the start of the rakshasa's next turn, before it can follow up with touches. Its allies, not the rakshasa, get to exploit the Incapacitated targets.

Recharge and repeat. Baleful Command recharges on a 5 or 6 (one in three each round). Otherwise, all three touches go to whoever holds concentration.

Truesight and Perception +8. Invisible characters, illusions and shapechangers within 60 feet don't fool it. A 2024 rakshasa can't be ambushed by a party relying on Invisibility.

Death is a setback. Fiendish Restoration means a 2024 rakshasa killed anywhere except the Nine Hells reforms there with all its hit points, so it fights without fear of dying.

Running a Rakshasa Encounter

A rakshasa is worth 10,000 XP. Use the 2024 SRD 5.2.1 budget per character, multiplied by four:

Under the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines (our encounter difficulty calculator uses them), a lone rakshasa is 10,000 XP with no multiplier: Hard for four level 11 characters (Hard 9,600) and Medium at level 13 (Medium 8,800, Hard 13,600). Add two knights and it becomes 11,400 × 2 = 22,800 adjusted XP, past Deadly (20,400) at level 13.

The XP is misleading in both directions. A 2014 rakshasa against casters with no magic weapons is far deadlier than its CR; against two magic weapons and a good-aligned paladin, it's easier. A 2024 rakshasa is a fair CR 13 against a spread-out party, and can end the fight in two rounds against one bunched within 30 feet.

Pair it with humanoids. In 2014, its Charm Person and Dominate Person only work on Humanoids, so its natural allies are charmed guards, nobles and spies. In 2024, use servants who don't know what their master is.

How Players Beat a Rakshasa

Against the 2014 rakshasa:

• •Get magic weapons, then get a good-aligned archer. It's immune to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks, and it takes double damage from piercing from magic weapons wielded by good creatures. A good-aligned ranger with a +1 longbow and Dexterity 18 (1d8 + 5, 9.5 per hit) deals 19 per hit against it.
• •Use 7th-level slots or higher. Banishment cast with a 7th-level slot sends a fiend home if it lasts a minute, though the rakshasa makes the Charisma save (+5) with Advantage. Spell slots of 6th level or lower are useless against it directly.
• •Carry Remove Curse. Every character the claws hit needs it before the next rest.
• •Fight the plot, not the monster. Its Charm Person and Dominate Person only work on Humanoids. Protect the people it's charming, and look for the rakshasa through ordinary means: its own servants, a slip in its story, a hunting dog. Spells below 7th level can't find it.

Against the 2024 rakshasa:

• •Bless the archers and the spear users. Bless on three characters with piercing weapons doubles every piercing hit. A fighter with a longbow and Dexterity 20 (1d8 + 5) deals 19 per hit instead of 9.5, and attacks three times a round from level 11. Keep the cleric out of Baleful Command range: it emanates 30 feet from the rakshasa, so a Bless caster standing 35 feet away keeps concentration.
• •Spread out. Baleful Command catches everyone within 30 feet. A party spread across 60 feet loses one or two characters to it, not four.
• •Stop casting control spells. They auto-fail. Spend slots on buffs, healing, save-for-half damage and upcast Magic Missile, the most reliable spell damage you have.
• •Grapple and shove. These aren't magical, so Greater Magic Resistance doesn't help it. It resists with Dexterity (+3) at best, so a strong fighter can hold it in place and stop it walking away.
• •Kill it where it can't come back. Fiendish Restoration only fails if it dies in the Nine Hells. For a long campaign, that's a quest: lure or follow it home. Don't count on Dispel Evil and Good or Banishment to send it there; both use a Charisma save, which the 2024 rakshasa automatically passes.

Rakshasa Encounter Ideas

The magistrate who never sleeps. A city's chief magistrate has served for forty years without aging, reads every petitioner's intent and has never lost a case. Players investigating corruption find that every truth spell and detection spell they try on him returns nothing unusual. Under the 2014 rules that's Limited Magic Immunity. The tell is mundane: his court clerk has three different signatures for him in the archives.

The quarantine. A dozen adventurers in the same town have collapsed from exhaustion: none of them can benefit from rest. They were all hired by the same patron, and all shook her hand at the contract signing. The patron is a rakshasa assembling a list of whoever could threaten her, and she has curses on all of them. The party is the next hire.

The tiger in the menagerie. A noble's private zoo has a caged tiger that the keepers swear talks at night. It isn't the rakshasa. It's the noble, magically transformed and imprisoned, while the rakshasa wears his face upstairs. The party can learn this only by talking to the tiger, and the rakshasa has already arranged for them to be invited to the hunt where it will be "put down."

A villain who changes faces is hard to track across sessions. Loreify records the session and keeps the notes, including every NPC the party has met and which ones turned out to be the same fiend.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a rakshasa in 5e?

A rakshasa is CR 13 (10,000 XP) in both the 2014 and 2024 rules. The 2014 version has AC 16 and 110 hit points; the 2024 version has AC 17 and 221 hit points.

What level spells is a rakshasa immune to?

In the 2014 rules, Limited Magic Immunity means spells of 6th level or lower can't affect or detect a rakshasa unless it chooses, and it has Advantage on saves against everything else. In the 2024 rules it has Greater Magic Resistance instead: it automatically succeeds on saves against all spells, and spell attack rolls automatically miss it, whatever their level.

What is a rakshasa weak to?

Piercing damage: from magic weapons wielded by good creatures (2014), or from weapons wielded by a creature under the Bless spell (2024).

Can Magic Missile hurt a rakshasa?

Not a 2014 rakshasa, because Magic Missile is a 1st-level spell and Limited Magic Immunity blocks spells of 6th level or lower. Against a 2024 rakshasa, yes: Magic Missile has no attack roll and no saving throw, so Greater Magic Resistance doesn't stop it.

How does the rakshasa's curse work?

A creature hit by its claws (2014) or Cursed Touch (2024) is cursed and gains no benefit from finishing a short or long rest. Remove Curse ends it in both editions.

Can you permanently kill a rakshasa?

In the 2024 rules, only in the Nine Hells: Fiendish Restoration revives it there with all its hit points if it dies anywhere else. The 2014 SRD stat block has no such trait, so a 2014 rakshasa that dies stays dead unless your campaign says otherwise.

Stat blocks: System Reference Document 5.1 (2014) and 5.2.1 (2024), Wizards of the Coast, CC-BY-4.0. Tactics, encounter math and ideas are Loreify's own.