Are there beholders in Dark Sun?

[the Jester]

Well, the deep deserts are full of beholders, but nobody ever survives to tell about them.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

As someone who restricts what monsters and races appear in Dark Sun, I'd say use them.

Picture each eye defiling the land per use.

 

[Jhaelen]

Picture each eye defiling the land per use.

My gut reaction would be to not use beholders in Dark Sun, since the whole point of the setting originally was to create setting without any of the usual 'classic' D&D monsters.

An approach that would be true to Dark Sun might be to create a beholder mutation that has adapted to this harsh environment. I would never use a standard beholder as written, though.

Edit: Question to the OP: Why did you, as a player agree to play in a Dark Sun campaign?
If I was your DM and had asked if my players were interested in playing a Dark Sun campaign I'd be pretty annoyed, if one of the players then came to me with a frigging Forgotten Realms book, telling me he wanted to play Elminster, Drizzt or whatever else haunts this dreadful setting. I'd much rather the players telling me in advance they'd prefer playing a FR campaign.

 

[jonesy]

An approach that would be true to Dark Sun might be to create a beholder mutation that has adapted to this harsh environment. I would never use a standard beholder as written, though.

A group of preserver beholders? Who have become almost nice decent folk, and are trying to restore the land? And kill intruders.

 

[Mark Hope]

If I was your DM and had asked if my players were interested in playing a Dark Sun campaign I'd be pretty annoyed, if one of the players then came to me with a frigging Forgotten Realms book, telling me he wanted to play Elminster, Drizzt or whatever else haunts this dreadful setting.

Dude, have you seen the hat in question?! It's amazing!!! If one of my players came to me asking to have a character who wore that kind of hat, I wouldn't hesitate a moment.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

To all,
Thanks for the responses and insight, I appreciate the help! As an update, I've given the idea to the GMs and asked what their impression is, so we'll see what happens next!

The DM should be honour-bound to allow it, simply because it would mean your PC got to wear an awesome hat. Take a look at any of the pictures of Dark Sun NPCs (City State of Tyr is a great example, as are any pictures by Baxa) - 90% of them are wearing totally outrageous hats. The beholder-cultist hat would fit right in. Your PC would be the talk of the town based on his hat alone.

Still, maybe you can work things out with the GM? You need the hat.

Whatever else, this remains true. Dark Sun is worthless without a decent hat.

Dude, have you seen the hat in question?! It's amazing!!! If one of my players came to me asking to have a character who wore that kind of hat, I wouldn't hesitate a moment.

I know!!! If that hat isn't an indication for awesome roleplaying potential, I don't know what is!

Edit: Question to the OP: Why did you, as a player agree to play in a Dark Sun campaign?
If I was your DM and had asked if my players were interested in playing a Dark Sun campaign I'd be pretty annoyed, if one of the players then came to me with a frigging Forgotten Realms book, telling me he wanted to play Elminster, Drizzt or whatever else haunts this dreadful setting. I'd much rather the players telling me in advance they'd prefer playing a FR campaign.

I agreed to play in a Dark Sun campaign for the same reasons I play most D&D campaigns: I love playing D&D, I've heard good things about this specific game, and the campaign sounds like it could be fun. Plus I've never played in DS before, so it'll be a new gaming experience.

That said, I wasn't insidiously subverting the DS campaign to turn it into a FR campaign. I'm getting general setting information to see if it can be incorporated into my character because I'm not very familiar with the setting.

To use your analogy, I'm not coming to the GM and demanding that I be allowed to play Drizzt and all of the setting fluff that rides on his coattails. I'm coming to the GM and saying, "I found this picture of a black elf who fights with two scimitars and a panther that I thought I could base a character around. Would that work in your campaign?"

Instead of getting pretty annoyed the GM should simply explain: "Sorry Wednesday Boy, there aren't those black elves or panthers in Dark Sun." So I'll note that information and develop a different character.

Or the GM could go further and offer some constructive help: "But what you could do is have him be a regular elf with the-next-closest-thing-in-DS-to-a-panther." Or if they like the idea and it's not disruptive they can give the player leniency: "Heck, you can take a panther--it's not going to ruin the setting." And again I'll note that info and either make my character within the GM's restrictions or develop a new character.

No harm, no foul. There really should be no annoyance on either side of the question and decision. If character creation would be that adversarial, I hate to think what the actual game would be like.

(Sorry if that rant came off as adversarial itself. It's just that I think what I asked of my GM was at most a miniscule inconvenience and at least a good opportunity for the GM and player to weigh-in on a character. Now let's revel in the hat again! Aaaaaa...)

 

[coyote6]

Heck, I don't think there have to be extant or actual beholders for your character to be from a beholder-worshipping cult, and have the hat of awesome eye stalkiness. They worship the Great Beholder or whatever; that no one has seen it in living memory is merely because they have not learned to see the Great Eye Himself. But who but the blind could not see the Mighty Beholder's influence in the world!

Whether the history of the cult involves now extinct beholders, some sort of weird world-hopping beholder, or some kind of freaky eyeball-and-eyestalk toy they once found and decided was a divine idol, could be immaterial to the modern day cultists.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

Heck, I don't think there have to be extant or actual beholders for your character to be from a beholder-worshipping cult, and have the hat of awesome eye stalkiness. They worship the Great Beholder or whatever; that no one has seen it in living memory is merely because they have not learned to see the Great Eye Himself. But who but the blind could not see the Mighty Beholder's influence in the world!

Whether the history of the cult involves now extinct beholders, some sort of weird world-hopping beholder, or some kind of freaky eyeball-and-eyestalk toy they once found and decided was a divine idol, could be immaterial to the modern day cultists.

Good thoughts! I had a similar one. I first imagined he would meet a beholder in the desert and swear fealty to it. But since it's a desert world, he could have had terrible heatstroke, dehydration, and exhaustion that led to hallucinations. Maybe the many-eyed thing that he now worships was a figment of his imagination.

 

[Dragonbait]

Good thoughts! I had a similar one. I first imagined he would meet a beholder in the desert and swear fealty to it. But since it's a desert world, he could have had terrible heatstroke, dehydration, and exhaustion that led to hallucinations. Maybe the many-eyed thing that he now worships was a figment of his imagination.

I felt like jotting down an idea for this, combining some of the things other people have mentioned and intentionally leaving a LOT of wiggle room for a DM to play with:

Maybe it was a remnant of an ancient god that some ancient culture worshipped in their ancient ways? You character was lost in the desert and suffering from the effects of heat stroke, dehydration, starvation and the like. He finds a cave and stumbles inside. The caves are actually ruins and the first thing to greet your character is a carving on a stone wall is the beholder. Skeletons lay strewn about the place, but most surround the carving. Terror gripped your character as the shock of the discovery mixes with the horror of madness. Seeping from the base of the stone wall was murky, tainted water. Thirst overrode any other emotion and your character crawled to the tiny pool of water and drank. That night in fever dreams and hallucinations the thing visits him. It declares that it saved him by giving him water and has chosen him as its new vassal. Your character awakens, feeling (semi) refreshed and in a different area of the cave. Lying in the corner is a skeleton adorned with the robes seen in the picture earlier in the thread. You realize that you were guided here and you are now the new vassal of this nearly-forgotten deity.

Was it really a god?
Were you really guided to the robes? Or did you stumble across them while mad with fever and hunger?
What was the story behind the cave?
Did the god represent an actual god or some long-lost monster?

 

[BluSponge]

Just like the title says: Are there beholders in Dark Sun? Thanks!

The correct answer to this question (and all others like it) is simply "Do you want there to be beholders in Dark Sun?"

If it's your game and you want to work them in, then yes, there are beholders in Dark Sun.

This answer is correct. However, they were not "officially" part of the setting in 2nd edition days. The monstrous compendium checklist published when the setting was originally previewed back in Dragon Magazine (and written by Tim Brown no less) did not include a beholder.

If I was going to include a beholder, I would mutate the hell out of it. Like perhaps make it a weird variation on a silt horror – or an undead creature ala Dregoth. But as for some hyper-intelligent orb with death ray eyes? Doesn't really fit (my vision) of Athas.

Tom