Playtesting My Murder Rakshasa ...
Playtesting my murder rakshasa versus the Fab Four in a ballroom blitz!
It feels like 20 long years have passed since I playtested my Emperor Shark Penguin — a Copper award winner in the 2021 edition of the RPG Superstar monster design competition — and wrote up the results for one of the first editions of this humble Pathfinder newsletter.
But it was only 20 months ago! Yep, time flies when you’re a bard who casts the Triple Time composition cantrip.
Oh, wait a minute. In my observation, life has been moving in a slow trickle. Which means the bard isn’t speeding up time, he’s actually …
A SHAPESHIFTING LEVEL 20 BBEG CASTING TIME STOP!!!
Well, anyways: as the latest edition of RPG Superstar gets set to announce its prize winners on November 8th, the fate of my submission is once again in the hands of an illustrious panel of judges. Which means it’s time to run my monster through a playtest encounter to make sure I haven’t accidentally broken the math and built an OP party wrecker.
(For a deeper explanation of what playtesting is and why it’s important to RPG design, see my previous post on this topic.)
The Adventuring Party
John (human rogue 5)
Paul (human wizard 5)
George (human fighter 5)
Ringo (human cleric 5)
The Enemy
Doctor Robert (kunthalaka 8)
The Setup
Our burgeoning heroes have been putting in their 10,000 hours of training in the Mana Wastes city of Alkenstar, slowly but surely gelling as a fearsome foursome. Their mysterious patron, a dapper and charismatic human named Doctor Robert, has hired them to police the rowdy crowds at a performance venue called the Aldivur Company Theater House, where nothing bad ever happens.
Late one night, after the patrons have been forcibly ejected and sent home to sleep off their hangovers, Doctor Robert offers Paul a glass vial of shimmering liquid. “To take the edge off,” the doctor says, winking.
Doctor Robert rolls a 3 on his Deception check to Lie (yes, I’m rolling actual physical dice!), for a total of 23. That beats everyone’s Perception DC, except for Ringo, who sees through the evil doctor’s ruse. “He’s trying to mess you up, Paul! Don’t drink it!”
Robert smashes the vial of shiver — a potent and highly addictive hallucinogen meant to incapacitate the party’s wizard — on the tile floor. “Damn you, Ringo. I liked it better when that dim fool Pete was in the band. Pity I’m going to have to find four new idiots to corrupt and defile after I murder you lot. Oh well … time to die!”
Using the Building Encounters rules in Chapter 10 of the Core Rulebook, I’m pitting a Lv 8 monster against the party of Lv 5 heroes, which makes this a 120 XP Severe encounter. Yikes! Bring your best performance, lads.
On the topic of doing your best, please earn yourself a Hero Point by smashing that heart button up top. I have no idea what it accomplishes, besides everything!
ROUND ONE
Doctor Robert wins Initiative and immediately Changes Shape to become a wasp-headed humanoid, his mandibles dripping with poison and tuxedo tails flapping behind like wings. He casts Haste and begins to move with preternatural speed.
“Help!” screams John, who fails his Recall Knowledge but activates his Bracelet of Dashing and splits out roguishly to the side.
Ringo, however, succeeds on his Recall Knowledge and knows that Doctor Robert is a kunthalaka rakshasa, resistant to 5 points of physical damage (except piercing) but vulnerable to good damage (still a thing until Pathfinder Remastered drops next month!). And Ringo’s hot dice run continues as his Searing Light spell hits the fiend for 18 fire and 25 good damage.
“Boy, that cleric really is something,” George says admiringly as he Draws his sword and shield and Strides bravely up to the kunthalaka.
Paul, ever the team player, quickens the fighter with a Haste spell and then, hearing from Ringo that the rakshasa is tough to hit, fires a one-action Magic Missile that strikes unerringly for a whopping 4 force damage.
“Here comes the sun,” mutters John, rolling his eyes.
ROUND TWO
The rakshasa, stung by the cleric’s spell, conjures an illusion in Ringo’s mind of zombie Pete shambling into the ballroom moaning, “I WANT MY JOB BACK.” It’s a Phantasmal Killer! George’s attack of opportunity whiffs and Ringo fails his Will save, suffering 24 mental damage and becoming frightened 2 in the process.
Doctor Robert then makes a quickened mandible Strike against George, and having spent his Reaction, the fighter is unable to use Reactive Shield to negate the critical hit. George takes 40 piercing but rolls rocks on his Fortitude save to fend off the kunthalaka neurotoxin.
The rakshasa uses its final action to rub its mandibles together in Stridulation — and only George is able to resist the hypnotic tone, with Ringo’s hot dice run ending in a critical failure! That’s big, as the fascinated cleric won’t be able to assist any of his allies in trouble.
John Strides into a flanking position and Quick Draws his +1 striking rapier with a stabbing motion. It’s a hit, but only for 13 piercing as the rogue doesn’t get his sneak attack — the wasp-headed rakshasa’s Compound Eyes make it immune to flanking by lower-level foes! Thankfully the piercing bypasses its physical resistance. A second Quick Draw stab with an agile dagger misses.
Ringo, frightened yet utterly fascinated by the doctor, casts Guidance on himself to buff a Fire Bolt … which only misses due to his frightened penalty. Damn you, phantasmal Pete.
Now George lets loose with a Double Slice … and hits with both the longsword and the shield boss for a combined 26 damage! Thank you, doubling rings. His quickened Strike misses, but he’s got an action left to Raise a Shield. The fighter has taken the rakshasa below half his hit points.
Paul’s cursing his allies for getting into close quarters and ruining his chance to cast a fireball. With friends like these, eh? Instead, he’ll cast True Strike followed by Acid Arrow … and still miss by a mile.
“Whatever happened to ‘don’t let me down?’” John grumbles under his breath.
ROUND THREE
Now the rakshasa is mad. It can’t help taking a poisoned bite at George, which misses with a Nat 1, then another which can’t overcome the fighter’s shield bonus to AC. The tide is turning! Frustrated, it steps away from the fighter and sustains its mandibular stridulation, hoping to keep the cleric distracted from his allies even though the rest of the band has by now become utterly unfascinated.
John gets creative and decides to really use the space, Striding around the table so that he can gain some cover. Sadly, his attempt to Feint fails, but his desperation stab still hits for 8 piercing.
Ringo, still fascinated, is no help to his friends but can still Stride up to the kunthalaka and try to Trip it. And because he’s still frightened 1, that’s a critical failure and Ringo’s down on his arse! Nothing better to do with his third action than to Stand.
Suppressing a laugh at his mate’s misfortune, George will Stride into position and unleash another Double Slice. Two misses! Flustered, he’ll Raise a Shield.
Paul’s seen this miss-the-monster movie before. He’ll drain his arcade bond to recast a three-action Magic Missile, which strikes unerringly for 12 force damage. Hey, when the mushy love songs work, keep writing ‘em!
The kunthalaka is down to 26/132 hit points. George and Ringo are both at exactly half of their max hp. John and Paul are still best mates and worst enemies. Yoko is, thankfully, nowhere to be seen.
ROUND FOUR
Enough messing around: the rakshasa knows one AoO from the fighter could spell its doom, so it’ll Strike at George … and miss. Off the shield! Another bite misses, infuriating the fiend who only ever wanted to hook Paul on drugs and sap the wizard’s natural songwriting genius. Life’s not fair.
Throwing caution to the wind, Doctor Robert will cast a Phantasmal Killer at George, who whiffs on his AoO and fails his save to suffer 32 mental damage and become frightened 2. Hey, it’s scary to witness a vision of that vile goblin Eric hitting on your wife!
John kind of likes how dark this has all gotten. He’ll successfully Feint this time, and his stab against the flat-footed foe lands for 10 points of piercing (on 4d6+4 ouch). A desperation dagger misses badly.
Ringo, freed of his fascination by the rakshasa’s failure to sustain its stridulation, notices the desperate condition of his close pal George and does what the cleric does best: Heals the fighter for 35 hit points and casts Guidance to boot.
George, shaken by illusion magic and running out of patience, growls a taunt — “Let me tell you how it will be!” — and manages to Demoralize the rakshasa who becomes frightened 1. The subsequent Double Slice (applying Ringo’s Guidance to the longsword Strike) is brutal and fatal, as George inflicts 25 damage and kills the kunthalaka!
“Hold on, can we try that once more from the top?” Paul complains from his position atop the stage. Nobody can tell whether he’s joking.
ENCOUNTER OVER
So, how’d that go from a design standpoint? Pretty well, I think. I loved how the stridulation was able to focus the cleric’s attention and keep him from healing any allies. The Compound Eyes ability really stymied the rogue’s sneak attack, but a Feint could still work so it wasn’t totally neutralizing.
The mandible attacks had a hard time landing against the fighter, but that was a combination of bad dice luck and poor target selection. Still, as a GM I regret that I didn’t get to see how my monster’s poison impacted the fight.
Was it worthy of a Severe encounter? Well, none of the heroes went down, but George was pretty close. And critical failure against either of the Phantasmal Killer spells could have been disastrous. Honestly, the good guys’ dice were pretty hot, and the fight still lasted four solid rounds which is pretty ideal for a mini boss fight.
All in all, no quibbles with my monster design! Even though your freaky rakshasa wrists bend backwards, dear kunthalaka, I’ll still say it: after that fine showing, I want to hold your hand.
THE MINI AND THE DICE
It’s a photographic face-off this month between some thematic friends from the Bestiary 1 pawn box: the giant stag beetle (large creature) and the flash beetle (small) are flanking the nefarious raja rakshasa (medium).
Which living beetle is Paul and which is Ringo? I’ll leave that for you to decide.
As for the dice, it’s always handy to have 10d4 on call if you want to do sonic damage in a 15-foot cone with a greater roaring potion.
This little barroom scene played out in the shadow of a delicious Paper Crane cocktail (Toki Japanese whisky, Aperol, Amaro Nonino, lemon) at 540 Rogues, which is already my go-to local dive bar in the new San Francisco neighborhood I’m moving to next week. Because yes, the use of “rogues” in the bar’s name is indeed inspired by the fact that the three owners all play D&D.
(There are rumors of a fourth unnamed owner, which makes sense given that every adventuring party needs an irrationally modest cleric.)
LISTEN TO THIS
I can’t in good conscience reference The Sweet’s 1973 glam rock earworm “The Ballroom Blitz” in this post’s subhead and not conspire to get the tune stuck in your head, mwahaha.
But hey, why share a music video of some cheesy longhaired Brits when there’s an even tastier cover version from the vault? The Shitty Beatles she is not:
PARTY DYNAMICS
Here’s your chance to be fab in the comments section below.
This month’s prompt:
What’s your favorite Beatles album? Answer correctly or be cast into the Gorge of Eternal Peril!
That’s it for this month, my Lonely Hearts Club Band. And so, as I say at the end of every Pathfinder module I run: this has been Ambush Tactics. I’ve been your Game Master. I hope you had a fun time.
Adventure!
I think Revolver remains under-rated by non-Beatles fans, but my personal favorite album has been and always will be The Beatles aka the White Album.
Yes it has Svaoy Truffle and Wild Honey Pie on it, but there are just So. Many. Good. Songs. While My Guitar Gently Weeps? Blackbird? Back in the U.S.S.R. still slays as an awesome Beach Boys send up.
To quote Macca himself: "It was great, it sold, it's the bloody Beatles White Album, shut up!"
And I suppose I should answer my own question, so here's the timeline:
1981-1995 = Blue Album (compilation)
1996-2001 = Sgt Pepper
2002-2005 = White Album
2006-2016 = Revolver
2017-2021 = Abbey Road
2022-2023 = Let It Be
What can I say? Tastes change ...