Editing Rao (section)

==Publication History==
Rao was first detailed for the [[Dungeons & Dragons]] game in the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting, by [[Gary Gygax]].

Rao was one of the deities described in the From the Ashes set, for the Greyhawk campaign.

Rao's role in the 3rd edition Greyhawk setting was defined in the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer. Rao's priesthood is detailed for 3rd edition in [[Complete Book Series|Complete Divine]].

Like all other Greyhawk deities, he appears in barest detail in the [[Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition]] [[Player's Handbook]]. He is mentioned again, with more detail this time, in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. Recently, the Crook of Rao was used in battle against Iggwilv, who managed to damage it and infect the staff with a curse. Now when the staff's Absolute Banishment ability is used, it has a 25% chance to open a portal to a random plane that closes after 5 minutes, a 65% chance to summon various fiends, and a 10% chance to trigger Iggwilv's Curse. That last one destroys the Crook of Rao as it explodes into a 50-foot-diameter portal functioning as a permanent gate spell, which then proceeds to summon ''every'' fiend that ever got banished by the staff. At the end of this eighteen year process, the gate then becomes a permanent portal to Pazunia, the very first layer of the Abyss. The good news is that the Crook of Rao ''can'' be repaired; the catch is this can only be done by washing it for 30 days in a tear from Rao himself (you could also destroy the staff by dissolving it in said tear, but not only does this take much longer, requiring a full year and a day, ''there's literally no benefit to this whatsoever'').

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