Memorable Beholder solo encounters?

Great ideas folks!

I'll definitely make the room a full sphere instead of a half sphere. Which is extra fun since the descriptive text actually calls out the floor giving the appearance of an illusory sphere... it just happens to be... not an illusion

I'll also make the magnet non-magical (magnetism being unaffected by magic is not a totally new idea), so the Beholder have one less thing to worry about. I can explain it hovering in the middle of the room by magnetic repellance - it opposes the coating on the sphere walls in all directions. The draping is a nice Hammer Horror flair.

I'll have to think about how to add mirrors to the encounter. It definitely is thematic for a dungeon level called "Vaults of reflection". There are niches on the map, which I can describe as holding mirrors (the treasure can still be there too). Furthermore, since the map is two-dimensional I can describe these mirror niches being spaced out all over the upper half-sphere. Say 9 niches at the widest part, then 7 above, them, 5 above them and 3 above them for 24 total. The easiest solution is for the mirrors to provide a mechanical "Mirror Image" (that I don't believe I have to explain too closely). My players will def be aboard the idea that the mirrors must be destroyed for the real Behold to show itself.

With 24 mirrors, say three mirrors per extra Image, so there's initially eight Beholders. (With three mirrors destroyed, there's seven, and so on). Images otherwise behave per Mirror Image, except two rather important things: you can't "pop" an Image by attacking it (you only know it's fake until the end of your round, so you do gain the benefit of having less targets for subsequent attacks of your action, but as soon as you're done they blur together again), and this setup can't be trivially be bypassed by spells (Faire Fire, True Sight etc). Area attacks will still damage the real Beholder of course. (Using area attacks as single-target damage is a fair exchange)

Mirrors should break by any targeted attack. They should not all break from a single Fireball. (At level 5 that would be entirely reasonable, but now area attacks are cheap) Not sure how to phrase this in rulesy language. Especially inventive PCs might not have to spend 24 attacks to destroy the mirrors, but they sure should need to spend more than just one or two character rounds.

The candles doesn't seem to do anything (it's not that I can find anything needing their light), so I think they can remain. (I was thinking about how a good storm or wind spell would snuff them all out, but if all that this does is create darkness beyond the Beholder's darkvision, maybe to create a semi-safe space at the bottom of the sphere for recuperating heroes, that's okay)

As for "cheating" eye beams, the adventure already has set precedent - the team will definitely start burning away the patches of purple mold that thankfully can be seen in the dome room. This will be my way to zap heroes without having to move away the central eye.

Hit point will def be beefed up. Probably both Beholder and magnet. Each of my characters can easily nova a hundred points of damage per character turn, so 100 hp won't do in my case. (The Sorcerer and Paladin are especially scary in this department) Tripling the hp of Belchorzh as well as the magnet is the instant quick-fix, but I will have to consider if that will be enough to prevent the fight from being ended as soon as it starts. Maybe I'll go with that Healing Ray idea. (The other ray upgrades are nice too)

*) question re stuck weaponry moved to separate post for visibility

With the purple mold and mirrors the party will definitely have their hands full, unless they find a way to take the fight to the beholder while it is still protected by mirrors, the magnet, the frictionless coating using no magic...

Hopefully this means the fighters get stuck to the magnet and needs to spend a round or three to wreck it, while the others kill mirrors and purple mold during that time.

In other words, if I can make the party waste three rounds before they start to whale on the Beholder I will have to consider that "mission accomplished"

I hope I can report back afterwards with a summary of my tweaks.

PS. The Beholder will probably not want to be Invisible for the mirroring to work. In fact, if my adventurers cast Invis on it (disadvantage on a single target is much better than 7/8ths miss chance) I will def be impressed!

Any suggestion for another buff to give Belchorzh in place of invis?

While the magnetic field is active, any attack made against the
sphere with a metal weapon automatically hits, though
the weapon becomes stuck to the sphere after impact.

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I can't find any mechanic for how you pry lose your weapon.

Saying "you can't get free" or "it's impossible" is not what high-level D&D is about

I'll probably add the following:

Escaping the magnetic pull is a DC 25 Strength (Athletics) check, and each foot moved away counts as three feet's movement. If the magnet is still enabled at the end of the round and you have nothing to hold on to, you fall back against its surface at the end of each combat round (suffering full falling damage, up to 5d6 if you're right at the sphere's edge). (Doffing metal armor takes at least one minute per the DMG so that's probably not an option) Yes, heroes do impossible jumps and runs - and I imagine level 12 heroes will want to jump up and take a swipe at the beholder! That said, this is probably still hopelessly restrictive, but I know my players will appreciate the difference between "you can't do it" and "you just need to roll really well lotsa times"

If one character is secured at the edge and throws the trapped character a rope, they can both pull, meaning that one can spend its action to help the other.

Wrenching loose a metal weapon (perhaps to make another attack) is a DC 20 Strength (Athletics) check each time. Trying and failing means the attack is lost. I'll probably grant advantage if the character is smart and draws a dagger or something. (The Barbarian is wielding an oversized Galeb Duhr two-handed hammer, that just might get disadvantage for being so ridiculously good otherwise )

Once the magnet is "bloodied" (have lost half its hit points) the DC is at -5 as the magnetic strength is considerably lower. Each foot moved counts as two, not three, feet.

To make it less obvious for the non-metal heroes to use the magnet as a platform, it too will be coated in the impossibly reflective material. Smart ones will procure a smaller metal item that can be used to stay at the sphere without having to make an excessive Athletics check. Even smarter characters will just procure a new item each time they wish to change position...

Impossibly smooth still means you can climb, you just need to make a DC 25 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check. I will def not allow the Monk to auto-climb this, but might give him advantage on the check.

With the alcoves, you can still use ropes and such, or just jump from niche to niche. Hmmm- I probably need to make the mirrors flush with the sphere's edge so it doesn't become entirely trivial to reach the Beholder... (destroying a mirror reveals its treasure and provides space to crouch)

PS. I'll probably change metal weapon attacks to give out advantage rather than automatic hit. Rolling is fun, and advantage is something the PCs could gain anyway, so it appears to be a "realistic" concession without actually giving much of a bonus anyway. (Yet another advantage of advantage over systems with lotsa +1 bonuses!)

My game had a beholder that was giving the party fits until he got pushed over a well. His hover power worked fine until the party members started dropping stuff on him. The 'monster bomb' has largely faded from history with the limits on summoning things into environments where they could live but then the parts emptied the bag of holding onto his head, then they summoned an obsidian steed which obeying it's summoner jumped in. Then they used a Marble Elephant and dropped it. I could go on.

Have a beauty contest. No-one better to judge.

Well, Beauty is in the eye...

Have the encounter be in a large shaft with platforms that criss cross it, or floating platforms, etc (better yet if they are magical platforms). The beholder can disintegrate or turn it's anti-magic ray on them to drop characters. Have flying creatures assisting the beholder, not as high end monsters, but as distraction creatures that suck up attacks. Even things like giant bats are enough. Allow the ability for the beholder to easily get behind cover for move-zap-move attacks.

CapnZapp said:

But I'm looking for more. Are you aware of any especially clever encounters featuring a BBEG Beholder?

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The Tomb of Annihilation module has a very memorable solo fight with a beholder.

Edit: Maybe I should have read the whole post.

Karazikar in the Vast Oblivium is a pretty decent beholder encounter within "Out of the Abyss"

CapnZapp said:

The first order of business is the antimagic cone itself. As I see it no beholder can become truly exciting (as a solo encounter) unless in cheats with its rays, plain and simple. But as I said, I have never understood how it is supposed to work...

A 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. Right?

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The limited nature of the antimagic cone is one of the most important tactical aspects of a beholder fight. If the beholder was expected to shut down all magic, while also firing rays with impunity, then they would have just given it an aura or something.

Instead, the beholder gets to decide who it wants to take out of the fight on any given round. If the wizard is annoying you, then you can put the cone on them, and fire your rays at a fighter. If the fighter is flying in your face, put the cone on them so that they fall, and then fire at the wizard. The PCs can choose to move out of the cone on their turn, depending on the local geography, but that opens them up to legendary attacks. If you want to make things interesting for the players, then the geography of the room is the big variable; instead of flooding the room with acid, which simply adds a time limit to the fight, I would strongly consider the placement of pillars and mirrors, and include at least one winding path that a fighter could run up if they wanted to avoid hazards (with the trade-off being that it gives the beholder more time to pick them off).

The most disappointing aspect of running a beholder, at least from my perspective, is that their rays are so hit-or-miss. Most of them do nothing on a successful save, and most PCs will succeed in most saves (especially if there's a paladin nearby), which means most rounds pass without the beholder accomplishing much of anything at all. If I really wanted to make the fight exciting, I would change the effects of most rays to do something if they make the save. Maybe turn one or two of the rays into beams that sweep out a cone for fire/cold damage, with half damage on a successful Dex/Con save.

If they toss out a Fireball on a group of mirrors, consider having the mirrors partially melt, distorting the images. That way the action isn't totally wasted, and the mirrors aren't totally destroyed in one fell swoop.