Ravanna, King of the Rakshasas

[Helinon]

So, I have searched all over the internet for this, and all can find are small descriptions of Ravanna and no stat block. In the book Deities and Demigods, they have statblocks for all of the gods in D&D, except Ravanna. Does anyone know where I could find anything to help build his statblock from scratch?

[Urpriest]

So, I have searched all over the internet for this, and all can find are small descriptions of Ravanna and no stat block. In the book Deities and Demigods, they have statblocks for all of the gods in D&D, except Ravanna. Does anyone know where I could find anything to help build his statblock from scratch?

This is a blatantly absurd statement, you do realize that, right? Deities and Demigods' Greyhawk section contains the core rulebook gods, plus Bahamut and Tiamat. That's it. It's not as if anyone expects it to contain stats for every obscure god to come out of some random sourcebook. Heck, I'm not even sure which sourcebook introduced Ravanna, he's not in Complete Divine which has many of the monster deities.

As for building the statblock from scratch, most deities have twenty outsider hit dice and forty class levels. I'd say the first step would be to pick what class levels you want him to have. Wikipedia says Ravanna is a lesser deity, so pick a divine rank in that range. Ravanna supposedly has ten heads, so you could use the multiheaded template from Savage Species for that.

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This is a blatantly absurd statement, you do realize that, right? Deities and Demigods' Greyhawk section contains the core rulebook gods, plus Bahamut and Tiamat. That's it. It's not as if anyone expects it to contain stats for every obscure god to come out of some random sourcebook. Heck, I'm not even sure which sourcebook introduced Ravanna, he's not in Complete Divine which has many of the monster deities.

As for building the statblock from scratch, most deities have twenty outsider hit dice and forty class levels. I'd say the first step would be to pick what class levels you want him to have. Wikipedia says Ravanna is a lesser deity, so pick a divine rank in that range. Ravanna supposedly has ten heads, so you could use the multiheaded template from Savage Species for that.

I'm not sure why his statement was absurd considering he said "in the book Dieties and Demigods". Not disagreeing with your obscure gods comment though.

[Roguenewb]

Do your gods *really* need stats? Are players going to be involved in actual, tactical combat with the full stats of the god? I can imagine TO god-slaying, or macguffin powered god-fighting, but really using the monster as a normal entry? Seems unlikely.

[Yora]

I would Ravanna rather stat as a demon lord.

[Alefiend]

I don't think it's fair to call Ravanna an obscure god. He's a major figure in the Hindu Mythos, the central villain of the Ramayana. Basically, you can't talk about demons in an India-based culture without talking about Ravanna.

I believe the 1st Ed. Deities and Demigods had him, but I could be wrong about that—and the stats would be hopelessly out of date anyway.

[The_Snark]

I don't think it's fair to call Ravanna an obscure god. He's a major figure in the Hindu Mythos, the central villain of the Ramayana. Basically, you can't talk about demons in an India-based culture without talking about Ravanna.

He's not necessarily obscure in the real world, but I wasn't aware he was present in D&D. (It's not terribly surprising, given D&D's penchant for snagging real-world gods, but I hadn't run across any mention of him before.)

[ThiagoMartell]

Deities & Demigos has rules to stat gods, it's a good start.

[Malroth]

after reading the myths, Outsider 40, Cloistered cleric 20, Swordsage 20 seems like a good fit

[silverwolfer]

swordsage is non cannon,gesalt battle sorcrer , with paliden of tyrannay :P

[Cieyrin]

You may wish to poke about the Eberron setting, I'm sure someone has statted some of the Rakshasa rajas of the Lords of Dust. A lot of good sources are covered here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=140692) for what you want as a starting point and building from there.

[Helinon]

Thank you, everyone who has posted here! I've got a lot to look at with your suggestions, and I plan on checking over everything. But first, to respond to a few of the posts I found really helpful/intriguing.


This is a blatantly absurd statement, you do realize that, right? Deities and Demigods' Greyhawk section contains the core rulebook gods, plus Bahamut and Tiamat.

I probably should have worded my statement better, and I apologize for that. What I meant to say was that they've got Kurtulmak and Lolth, both deities of a single race because they are races that are often encountered by adventurers at some point. Because they were there, it surprised me that Ravanna wasn't there because Rakshasas were designed from the start to be high level boss monsters, so I thought he would have been included there.


As for building the statblock from scratch, most deities have twenty outsider hit dice and forty class levels. I'd say the first step would be to pick what class levels you want him to have. Wikipedia says Ravanna is a lesser deity, so pick a divine rank in that range. Ravanna supposedly has ten heads, so you could use the multiheaded template from Savage Species for that.

I'll be sure to check out Savage Species then. I wasn't even aware there was a template like that.


I would Ravanna rather stat as a demon lord.

That....... is an interesting idea, especially considering his origin in RL mythology. I'll probably make a version of him as a demon lord and see how the it compares to the deity version.



Do your gods *really* need stats? Are players going to be involved in actual, tactical combat with the full stats of the god? I can imagine TO god-slaying, or macguffin powered god-fighting, but really using the monster as a normal entry? Seems unlikely.

Yes, the stats are necessary because the players will be involved with the fight, and because I like to have nice hard facts about any encounter when it happens. But its not like I'm going to stat ALL the gods in the campaign. Only when they actually get into combat with the players.


You may wish to poke about the Eberron setting, I'm sure someone has statted some of the Rakshasa rajas of the Lords of Dust. A lot of good sources are covered here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=140692) for what you want as a starting point and building from there.

Thank you very much for the link! I've already found a few places to start.