Mid Level Caster Vs Rakshasas advice

[draaen]

I am a lvl 2 Warlock Lvl 8 Sorceror and my group routinely encounters 2+ Rakshasa with some extra monsters sprinkled in. Typically this is in an ambush. Obviously none of my spells directly affect the Rakshasa so my general game plan for these encounters has been to cast dispel magic on my ally they try to cast dominate person on. Besides that I feel my contributions have been rather lackluster in the combats and their immunity to all my magic a little frustrating. I was hoping for some creative solutions people have come up with for dealing with this situation.

At the moment I think I have two things I can do. Cast disguise self so I look like their favorite target so they try to dominate me and not the ideal target. I could also take the aid other action to give our rogue advantage on his attack against the Rakshasa (He historically rolls poorly on to hits lol). We've been fighting these guys since level 5 so I am really hoping I can have something else to do besides dispel magic or a poor melee attack against them.

Can Rakshasa be fooled by illusions like disguise self or would their limited magic immunity prevent this too?

[Sigreid]

Will your DM let you use your spells to attack the environment and perhaps drop a building on them?

[draaen]

Will your DM let you use your spells to attack the environment and perhaps drop a building on them?

Yes. Typically the fights are in the woods. Although this time we should have a flying castle full of them.

[Dudewithknives]

Their immunity is only on spells that effect them with saves and things, so you could still cast like Darkness, wall of whatever, or in this situation I would be using a lot of counterspell.

[Wildarm]

I am a lvl 2 Warlock Lvl 8 Sorceror and my group routinely encounters 2+ Rakshasa with some extra monsters sprinkled in. Typically this is in an ambush. Obviously none of my spells directly affect the Rakshasa so my general game plan for these encounters has been to cast dispel magic on my ally they try to cast dominate person on. Besides that I feel my contributions have been rather lackluster in the combats and their immunity to all my magic a little frustrating. I was hoping for some creative solutions people have come up with for dealing with this situation.

At the moment I think I have two things I can do. Cast disguise self so I look like their favorite target so they try to dominate me and not the ideal target. I could also take the aid other action to give our rogue advantage on his attack against the Rakshasa (He historically rolls poorly on to hits lol). We've been fighting these guys since level 5 so I am really hoping I can have something else to do besides dispel magic or a poor melee attack against them.

Can Rakshasa be fooled by illusions like disguise self or would their limited magic immunity prevent this too?

Rakshasa is immune to spells you target it with. Buffs on your allies work just fine though - Twin Haste or Polymorph on your melee pals is nice. Enhance ability if you wanted to help saves on allies. Physical wall spells should work just fine in blocking line of sight and movement on a Rakshasa. Summons also work but I don't think you'd have access to anything. I'd lean towards haste. As a bonus, if one of your hasted team members gets dominated you can drop concentration on it to stun them.

[UrielAwakened]

By RAW no spell can affect a Rakshasa unless it wants it to.

Depending on how literal your DM wants to get that can include just targeted and AOE damage spells and effects or it can be as ridiculous as seeing through Darkness and passing through walls of stone.

The extra attack from Haste and the +1 AC arguably do not work as well per the ruling on Dragon's Breath.

[Keravath]

Just curious how you manage to deal with the Rakshasa's. They are a CR13 monster though they are vulnerable to piercing damage from magic weapons wielded by good aligned characters (and immune to non-magical weapon damage as well as any spells you can cast). So a good aligned rogue with a magic bow who can land a sneak attack could be extremely effective against one.

A magic user won't be getting much of anywhere.

Since they are immune to non-magical damage bludgeoning etc, I'm not sure that dropping a big rock on them would do anything ... probably a DM call. However, if you can manipulate the environment then using spells to create a pit or lift something heavy and drop it on them might work. Drowning them if you could immerse them in water and keep them there ... though they can always use plane shift to get out. Push them off a cliff might work since immune to bludgeoning damage from non-magical weapons doesn't make you immune to falling damage. In a similar vein, you could cast fly on yourself and then try to grapple the Rakshasa and fly it into the air and drop it. It would need to take an action to cast fly on its turn and that would break concentration on whatever it was using.

The only good thing is that although they are hard to kill, they only get two attacks at +7 every turn. So if you have enough magical weapons you can probably whittle them down ... but you will probably need counterspell available to actually finish them off and stop them escaping by plane shifting.

If you are good aligned, your best bet might be just wielding a magical crossbow .. and taking advantage of the vulnerability to piercing damage done by good characters.

[draaen]

By RAW no spell can affect a Rakshasa unless it wants it to.

Depending on how literal your DM wants to get that can include just targeted and AOE damage spells and effects or it can be as ridiculous as seeing through Darkness and passing through walls of stone.

The extra attack from Haste and the +1 AC arguably do not work as well per the ruling on Dragon's Breath.

So spells like fireball which include the rakshasa have not worked. Spells like catapult which move a physical object do work when I asked him if they did. Shield works to defend me but the damage from armor of agathys does not apply to him when he hits me although he hits the temp hp. Counter spell is out since it targets the caster who is casting a spell and the Rakshasa is immune to spells. Counter spell and dispel magic are a tough gamble for me too with 7 int. At least I am trained in Arcana!

Buffs sound like the way to go. I have a 1/day haste I can cast from a magic item but I've been hesitant since my con is only 10 and I'm the off tank now since our tank was killed. The Rakshasa have fought us so much they know our names and would be intelligent enough to know to attack me when I cast haste so that they stun the ally I've buffed.

Here's my spell list for reference.

Sorceror (Runechild) Spells
Cantrips: Message, Prestidigation, Light, Mending, Shocking Grasp
Lvl 1: Silent Image, Magic Missile
Lvl 2: Misty Step, Suggestion, Detect Thoughts
Lvl 3: Counter spell, Dispel Magic, Lightning Bolt
Lvl 4: Dimension Door

Warlock (Heaxblade) Spells
Cantrips: Eldritch Blast, Blade Ward
Lvl 1: Hex, Unseen Servant, Armor of Agathys
Lvl 1 (Prepared): Shield, Wrathful Smite

Magic Item Spells
1/ Long Rest: Blink, Haste, Slow

I'm thinking polymorph and animate objects would be the best way to go when I level up.

[draaen]

Just curious how you manage to deal with the Rakshasa's. They are a CR13 monster though they are vulnerable to piercing damage from magic weapons wielded by good aligned characters (and immune to non-magical weapon damage as well as any spells you can cast). So a good aligned rogue with a magic bow who can land a sneak attack could be extremely effective against one.

A magic user won't be getting much of anywhere.

Since they are immune to non-magical damage bludgeoning etc, I'm not sure that dropping a big rock on them would do anything ... probably a DM call. However, if you can manipulate the environment then using spells to create a pit or lift something heavy and drop it on them might work. Drowning them if you could immerse them in water and keep them there ... though they can always use plane shift to get out. Push them off a cliff might work since immune to bludgeoning damage from non-magical weapons doesn't make you immune to falling damage. In a similar vein, you could cast fly on yourself and then try to grapple the Rakshasa and fly it into the air and drop it. It would need to take an action to cast fly on its turn and that would break concentration on whatever it was using.

The only good thing is that although they are hard to kill, they only get two attacks at +7 every turn. So if you have enough magical weapons you can probably whittle them down ... but you will probably need counterspell available to actually finish them off and stop them escaping by plane shifting.

If you are good aligned, your best bet might be just wielding a magical crossbow .. and taking advantage of the vulnerability to piercing damage done by good characters.

Well the first time at level 5 I think we would have lost but he forgot they had spell immunity vs cantrips. It was his first time running the monster so he just made a mistake.

We essentially ignore the Rakshasa and save them for last. Their damage output isn't too good and our current main tank has some pretty high AC and built himself to be VERY survivable. So the Raksasha try to dominate the tank and someone else. I try to have a dispel magic readied to cast on the tank when they target him and use my lucky feat if I get a bad roll. If that still fails we try to ping the guy for a small amount of damage so that he gets to retry his Wisdom save. Once he is back online we ignore the Rakshasa , focus on bringing down their allies and then deal with the Rakshasa. We've had a group of 5/6 people for these fights and they've always been tough. We've been lucky and only had one guy fail their save/dispel attempt at once. Sometimes we just have to run away as well. That DC 18 Wisdom save is tough to make though so I think we've gotten lucky. I know my dispels have gotten better then average results so we've probably been getting abit lucky tbh.

[MaxWilson]

I'm thinking polymorph and animate objects would be the best way to go when I level up.

Polymorph and Animate Objects won't provide magic weapons, so can't be used to kill the Rakshasa. Also Polymorph would leave someone very vulnerable to Dominate/Plane Shift. But Animated Objects could Help other PCs with attacks, maybe even grapple/prone the Rakshasa.

Are Rakshasas the primary monster type you fight, or could you focus on killing some other type of monster in the encounter while someone else fights the Rakshasas? Specialization of labor and all that. Otherwise, yeah, Haste on your allies with piercing weapons is probably the way to go here.



The only good thing is that although they are hard to kill, they only get two attacks at +7 every turn. So if you have enough magical weapons you can probably whittle them down ... but you will probably need counterspell available to actually finish them off and stop them escaping by plane shifting.


They can also Plane Shift you to the Negative Material Plane or somewhere equally nasty. Watch out.