Let's take a look at their stats;
Now, let's take a look at the drow stats, a race which is not an award, and has +2 ECL.The Arelith Wiki wrote: Abilities:
+2 Dex
+2 Cha
SR 26
5/+2 DR
+8 Bluff
Skill Affinity: Listen
Skill Affinity: Spot
+10 to Seeing Track Details
+5 ECL
Drow get three +2 increases to stats, and the same spell resistance as rakshasa at level 30. They also get a major gift due to their ECL, which means that functionally a rakshasa, which costs a Major award, will have lower stats than an awardless race. Obviously, rakshasa get some extra goodies like +8 Bluff and some DR, but this really isn't that fantastic when you can achieve a much stronger character on a race you don't even have to spend an award on. It also means your character concepts as a rakshasa are a bit more limited than the average awardless race.The Arelith Wiki wrote: Retains all base racial abilities, except the stats change
DEX +2, CON -2, INT +2, CHA +2
Darkvision
Spell Resistance: 11+level (capped at 26)
Spell-Like Ability: Darkness with CL equal to Character Level (5 turns cooldown)
Bonus Feat: Rapid Reload
ECL +2
Obviously I don't think rakshasa should be the legendarily strong monsters that they are in actual 3.5e (immune to spells below 6th level, etc.) if they're going to be player characters on Arelith, but I do think some of the maluses on rakshasa are a little harsh and should be potentially lowered. Reducing the ECL on a rakshasa to at least give them one major gift would be a nice addition and give a little more range to someone looking to play a STR build on one (or something like that). Even giving a rak +2 INT as part of their base package (but keeping their ECL) would bump them up a bit.