Converting Monsters from D&D Official Video Games

[Filby]

OK, I posted the stat block based on it being another variety of the basic beholder body shape. However, would it be cooler if we made this one an actual extracted eyeball, so that it is actually an "eye of the beholder"?

That would be pretty cool, but it does have nine eye rays, and having them all come out of the same eye kinda defeats the purpose of the beholder, ie, the monster that can attack from all angles.

Perhaps if it's, like, a beholder's central nervous system, ripped from its body, per se? Say... a shrunken little brain (less intelligent and thus more servile), the huge central eye floating in front of it, and eight long eye stalks writhing around in the air like a medusa with a bad hair day. How's that sound?

 

[Krishnath]

Hmm... Then we would have to change it size to small or perhaps even tiny, and we have an extracted eyeball allready, so I think we should go with the standard beholder shape for this one.

 

[Shade]

That would be pretty cool, but it does have nine eye rays, and having them all come out of the same eye kinda defeats the purpose of the beholder, ie, the monster that can attack from all angles.

Perhaps if it's, like, a beholder's central nervous system, ripped from its body, per se? Say... a shrunken little brain (less intelligent and thus more servile), the huge central eye floating in front of it, and eight long eye stalks writhing around in the air like a medusa with a bad hair day. How's that sound?

Ooh...I like that idea! We can just make it the eye and eyestalks connected by nerves, etc. We could have the stalks form a ring around the central eye, and thus It could still be Large, as its diameter from stalk to stalk could still be 8 feet. It would lack a bite attack, which is fine since it didn't have one in the game, and this would help account for its lower natural armor than a standard beholder.

See the picture of the gouger on the far left here http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/mof_gallery/MonFaePG23.jpg for an idea of how the stalks would be placed.

It's probably not appropriate to reduce the intelligence for this creature, as it was supposed to be slightly better than a beholder in the game. I noticed that all the beholders in the game had Int 13, except for the vigilant, which meant that it probably didn't have much of an impact on the game. But these creatures acted as intelligent as a regular beholder.

 

[Filby]

Oh, really? Alright then, med-high Int it is. Glad you like my idea, too.

 

[Krishnath]

Question: It they lack a mouth and digestive system, how do they feed?

 

[Shade]

An excellent question.

Should we keep the standard mouth, give it a small suckerlike mouth, or state that it feeds on something else supernaturally, like fear or somesuch?

 

[Krishnath]

if it was named anything other than "Eye if the Beholder" I would have suggested giving it a lamprey like mouth. But since it is named that, hmm.... perhaps it 'eats' spiritual energy, more specifically the spiritual energy released when creatures die... Not souls per se, but rather a by product created when souls are released from the dead....

 

[Shade]

I think you're on the right track. Maybe, since its ocular-oriented, it draws sustenance from the visual of the moment of death?

 

[Krishnath]

I've got it, it gains nourishment by draining the viscious fluids from the eyes of the recently deceased.

 

[Shade]

Gross! Immensely cool, and appropriate, but gross!