(I'm fine with the notion that a party of five archers will simply stand there and shoot the beholder out of the sky like a balloon) For the purposes of this thread, I will assume the party will need to close to melee in order to win the encounter. ![]() On the other and, few parties feature more than one competent archer. Then it needs mirrors or portals or somesuch to bring its eye rays to bear despite the antimagic, or it simply won't present an actual threat. This means that beholder nests tend to feature a vertical shaft, with the beholder at the top so gravity works in its favor, and flying and spellcasting is negated. But as I said, I have never understood how it is supposed to work.Ī beholder absolutely must have the means to zap the heroes at the same time it keeps its antimagic cone squarely on most if not all heroes. As I see it no beholder can become truly exciting (as a solo encounter) unless in cheats with its rays, plain and simple. ![]() The first order of business is the antimagic cone itself. If you want an exciting multi-stage combat encounter, where the heroes desperately dodge and absorb eye rays as they slowly come closer to actually getting to the monster, how do you do it? The issue remains - once the adventurers arrive, they rush the beholder and either stunlock it or simply shred it to pieces. I must admit I have never fully understood how to utilize these monsters, and I have perused both power gaming and monster tactics blogs, and looked at my fair share of beholder lairs. Greater Barghest (9 HD) - they have a good reason to be on the Prime, since they need to feed.(Note: at the end of this post there are minor spoilers for Tomb of Annihilation) Hellcat (8 HD) - note that their Invisibility is (Ex), so it will work within the anti-magic cone. Chain Devil (8 HD) - add 4 levels of Fighter for extra fun (Weapon Focus (Chain), Power Attack, Weapon Spec (Chain)). Planar Minions - these will tend towards LE, due to the Dark Naga and Beholder's alignments also being LE: Retreat, Magic Missile, Shield, Shocking GraspĢ: Acid Arrow, Mirror Image, Resist Energy, Touch of Idiocy, False Lifeģ: Dispel Magic, Fireball, Fly, SuggestionĤ: Dimension Door, Greater Invisibility, Polymorph, Scryingĥ: Dominate Person, Persistant Image, Wall of ForceĦ: Chain Lightning, Planar Binding - look, ma, more minions! Of course, the classic charmable monsters - Ogre Barbarians, Bugbear Fighters, Goblin Rogues, Trolls - are also prime choices.Ĭonsider an alliance with a Dark Naga Sorcerer 7 - total Sorcerer caster level 14, CR 15, potential spell list:ġ: Alarm, Exp. So, your smarter Beholder - and that's all of them - will have a few Drow Fighters or Rogues in their service. Note that Eye Rays are (Su), so they work great on opponents with low Will saves even if they have SR. They fly and are easily disguised as fog or smoke. So I'm looking for any cool suggestions as to what he might have hired/charmed/bullied into protecting him.īelkers are great. When the group first encountered the beholder, he had three high level gargoyle rogues as servants, but the party defeated them. The party consists of six people of level 15: an evoker, a sorcerer/wild mage, a mystic theurge, a cleric, a rogue/duelist, and a paladin. The beholder is a third-level beholder mage, so his CR is 16. So my question is: what type of number of minions should the beholder have when the party confronts him? Now, he has researched the party extensively and knows their strengths and weaknesses. However, the beholder has not been idle in this month, and has hired new bodyguards and minions to protect him from the party. So they're ready to head back and beat him down. They decided to parlay and struck a bargain with it that basically promised that neither party would attack the other while they were in the area.Ībout a month has passed in game time, and the players can't stand the thought of the beholder still lingering in the area, making plans and whatnot. OK, here is the situation: A while back, my players encountered a beholder-mage in an abandoned observatory.
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