Am I making it too hard for my players with this?
So I'm making a homebrew campaign atm and an idea I had was to have a npc join my party from the beginning, the npc will get "kidnapped and killed" and at the end turns out he was alive and omg they're the BBEG. Pretty normal imo, if I roleplay it subtle enough I think it could be a fun twist.
But when i was browsing through some books I came across a Rakshasa which I find a pretty cool concept as a villain, only thing is they're a challenge level 13 and pretty overpowered considering we're starting from lvl1 characters.
Is it still a viable option if I just explain him as a veteran while they're "allies" and just don't directly attack with them on the frontline when enemies. Or is there a way I can scale them down to fit better for some lower levels can actually do something?