Memorable Beholder solo encounters?

[Sadras]

I once ran a beholder encounter...except it occurred after the PCs had already lost the initial fight (deemed to be part of the background of the adventure). So the initial encounter had not actually been run, and the PCs now found themselves at a disadvantage.
i.e. - one was asleep, another was pinned/restrained against the wall via telekinesis, another was charmed and busy revealing information to the creature, and another was unconscious due to the many wounds inflicted on him, another had managed to escape. All rolled randomly to see where they ended up, except the for unconscious PC as he had his full resources except for hp as the player had missed the last session which included the journey of getting to the temple where the beholder resided and so the character was at an advantage compared to the other PCs who had used up resources along the journey.

The "second" encounter with the beholder started when the PC that had escaped enacted a massive dispel magic in the area thanks to an ancient artifact hidden within the bowels of the temple. This immediately freed the restrained PC against the wall, shattered the charm and sleep spells. The only one still unaffected by the dispel magic was the one unconscious from the wounds.
The beholder had also lost his disintegration stalk from when part of the temple had collapsed and trapped it in there.

It was a tough fight - but the PC's were successful in the end.

 

[dave2008]

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.

You could just raise the DC as well. Though I think a mix would be good. Also, maybe some should be spell attacks instead of PC saving throws.

 

[pemerton]

I've sblocked an account of a beholder fight in 4e. It was pretty good. I don't know how easy it would be to replicate in 5e.

[sblock]

As the PCs continue through the tunnels, I described them coming to a cleft in the floor, and got them to describe how they would cross it. The drow sorcerer indicated that he would first fly over (using 16th level At Will Dominant Winds) and then . . . before he could finish, I launched into my beholder encounter, which I had designed inspired by this image (which is the cover art from Dungeonscape, I think):

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I'm not sure exactly what the artist intended, but to me it looks as if the central beholder is hovering over a chasm, with uneven rocky surfaces leading up to it (archer on one side, flaming sword guy on the other). I drew up my map similiarly, including with the side tunnel (behind the tiefling) which on my version ran down into the chasm, and the columns, stalactites, etc.

I didn't use four beholders, only 2 - an eye tyrant (MV version) and an eye of flame advanced to 17th level and MM3-ed for damage. And also a 15th level roper from MV, introduced on a whim when the player of the wizard asked, before taking cover behind a column, if it looked suspicious. (Response to result of 28 on the Perception check before adding the +2 bonus for knowing what he is looking for - "Yes, yes it does!")

Anyway, the terrain was pretty awesome, though hugely punishing for the PCs. I managed to get both ranged strikers down the 200' drop into the stream below early in the encounter - the drow sorcerer made it back up (Dominant Winds again, using his Acrobatics to land on ledges on the cliff at the end of each movement) but the ranger-cleric, after getting about 120' back up on his flying carpet, got knocked back down to the bottom. He still ended up being pretty effective, though, shooting up at long range with Twin Strike.

I failed in my attempt (as an eye tyrant) to use my TK ray to impale the dwarf fighter on a stalactite, and then the PC invoker did that to me instead - twice - using a slide effect from his zone of darkness and cold (Shadowdark Invocation; I resolved the stalactite as 2d8+8 and immoblised (SE), which seemed OK for a 17th level situational but multi-use option). But I did get to petrify one PC (the drow sorcerer) and at one stage had 3 or even 4 PCs taking ongoing 2d20 from my disintegrate ray (paladin, fighter, sorcerer and invoker - all very close together, but maybe only 3 overlapped at once).

Besides reinforcing my fondness for the tactical mobility that 4e generates, it also taught me that 4e beholders are pretty brutal (and play more like control than artillery - especially in combination with the terrain, a lot of action denial). The player of the fighter, in particular, got rather hosed in the fight - moving in close, and therefore vulnerable to the central eye, which is a vs Will attack that limits attacks to At Wills (his Will is not terrible, but his AC and Fort are both better). Which meant he didn't get to use some of his more funky immediate actions, and took a long time, and some effective use of cover while the beholder was trapped in the zone, to get off his close burst that also triggers AoE healing and thereby kept both himself and the invoker in the fight.

This was a level 21 encounter overall, and got the PCs up to 18th.

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[Ilbranteloth]

The lair shouldn’t resemble anything that we would consider inhabitable. Other than natural caverns, the only way a beholder could build a lair is that somebody else builds it (charm, taking over something existing, etc) or disintegration. In addition, it has no need for a flat floor or passages. Everything is not just difficult terrain, but requires climbing, flying, or levitation.

The beholder should have means of detecting intruders long before they detect it. This could magic items, along with traps and mundane alarms.

Telekinesis and disintegrate should be used liberally to drop stone down shafts that intruders must navigate to get to them, and the passages and shafts should be a maze of passages running in all different directions.

Larger caverns should exist with patches of natural light where the beholder can stay well out of range of dark vision and natural light sources but still see creatures in the lighted areas. Again, from a location that they can continue to drop rocks (portions of the ceiling), acid, flood rooms or passages, and other prepared hazards.

They should have the means to target one passage from another with their anti magic field to drop creatures flying through the use of magic.

A network of teleportation circles and/or portals with keys or command words to allow it to jump around the lair at will.

The most common trap would be to drop tons of stone down a winding passage, and blocking it off from whoever survives. Or a winding shaft that can be flooded.

The use of lesser rays through murder holes from adjacent passages to put a magically flying creature to sleep with a 400’ fall, for example.

Lots of side passages and dead ends, again with the means to seal them off, or use murder holes. Tracking a levitating creature should be nearly impossible.

A thorough knowledge of the acoustical nature of the lair, knowing where it can speak to the creatures from a different passage, great distance, etc.

They will always have means of escape, only sticking around to fight to the death when the intruders have found some way to thwart all of those means.

I don’t envision a direct assault/encounter with a beholder to happen except under extraordinary circumstances engineered by the party. They will have built an extensive network of minions and through them magical and mundane traps and many, many contingencies to avoid coming face to face with anything dangerous. At most, once the lair is breached, the PCs might get one chance to glimpse the beholder and perhaps get an attack before it’s gone and they have to start the procedure again. If it can’t actually escape the lair, then it will be a long game of cat and mouse, with the beholder staying out of range, and wearing down the resources of the PCs.

Essentially, the lair itself is both it’s best defense and primary attack. By the time it is face to face with hostile creatures it’s almost certainly too late.

 

[Ymdar]

I have never DMed a beholder. How do you stunlock and kill a monster that can fly and blast you with rays from far away?

 

[Baron Opal II]

I don't know how relevant all of these are, but I'll mention them in case 5e beholders are really different. I also forget what is house rulings or not. This was for originally 2e, but upgraded easily to 3e. This was for mid-level adventurers, so 9-12. I’m sure I’m not remembering everything.

The beholder can fire three eye beams a round plus the central eye. Targets in the central eye are safe from the other eyes. The rays can be any of the powers, but only one at a time (e.g. cause wounds, TK, and disintegrate, not disintegrate x3). They have 360 deg vision coronally, 270 deg vision sagittally. They can rock forward to look straight down, but it's uncomfortable for them much like looking straight up for us. Their cause serious wounds ray is a cutting force. Best on soft flesh, but can harm objects similarly (sectumsempra). Lastly, an aspect of my campaign is that obsidian mirrors can reflect magic. This is why obsidian flakes are incorporated into protective talismans.

Setting: cave complex under a forest. A stream is nearby.

The outer ring was mostly natural caves and tunnels. There were a number of noise traps, pits and deadfalls. A few gas spores* drifted about. After a short time, it became obvious that this section was to scare away nuisances and animals. The noise traps and trip wires didn't tie to anything else, just made noise to make intruders think that the inhabitants were warned. Higher level PCs figure things out pretty quick.

The middle ring is also just traps, but serious ones. This is where the beholder, having scared away things not worthy of its time, takes care of the stupid threats. The first set of traps is right after a set of the irritant traps. Hopefully the intruders will be sufficiently frustrated with the dumb trap to charge into the lethal one. This is also a narrow ring, compared to the first. If they don't get nailed by the first one or two death traps, that isn't going to work. All of the traps in the middle ring have some way of alerting the beholder.

The inner ring is the fun one. The way in was a broad avenue with a trapped ceiling. Many timbers are in the ceiling, poised to fall down vertically when a restraining beam was disintegrated. These are scattered along the avenue, not just in a line. The purpose is not actually to squash invaders (although that would be nice), but to convert a comfortably wide avenue into a narrow one that disallowed archers having a line of sight. Another block restrained water from the stream. When disintegrated, the water flows down one or two channels, depending if you want both to fire or just one at a time. The water flushes intruders down the avenue, and makes going forward slower.

Some of the water flows forward, however, and flushes some into a pit trap. There is an obsidian mirror mounted in the ceiling that allows the beholder to reflect a ray into the pit trap. Fear can be useful, as if they panic they may eventually drown.

Farther on, you have the 3D maze with obsidian mirrors. Every once in a while, the beholder will fire off the CSW ray, or maybe the charm, and bounce them along the maze to rattle the invaders. The beholder wants the invaders edgy, so that they charge at the right time (for it). Once they get to the main cavern, there is a wide depression, almost bowl-like, with the beholder a bit behind the center. It is slightly filled with water. The bottom has a timber plug, and when disintegrated anyone standing in the pool gets flushed. The tunnel leads to a cavern that drains to an underground river. The slow ray works well here.

For the most part, I don’t think this is really clever. I thought about how to use flowing water to its advantage, and to use gates, plugs, and timbers harvested from the nearby woods. It does use the disintegrate and telekinesis rays heavily as construction tools. I also used the ray mirror idea for the maze.

I also had the ice box, where invaders successfully grabbed by the telekinesis ray were thrown through an opening. The doorway was a stone slab that crashed down when the support was disintegrated. If you can’t teleport or tunnel through stone, you better have a lot of food.


*They're such a minor threat at this level, I don't really consider them "extra monsters". But, do as you wish.