Cleon
Legend
So, should that be possible, in D&D Next, or in Pathfinder, or other RPGs? Maybe not just eyestalks, but how about knee-capping a giant so he can't move as fast, or chopping off the snake tail of a chimera? How should it work, mechanically?
In older editions of D&D you already could hit a Beholder's eyestalks - in the OD&D and Master's version of the monster an attacker would announce whether they were aiming for the body, central eye, or an eyestalk, and roll to hit against that body part's AC. If they aimed at an eyestalk the attack would be against a random stalk - you couldn't pick an eyestalk with a particular power.
Each body part had separate hit points, and if you brought an eye down to 0 hp the beholder lost the use of its power, and it'd die if you brought the body down to 0 hp.
In AD&D (both 1st and 2nd edition), the beholder had similar attack locations, but the attacker would roll d% to randomly determine which body part was being struck at, and the attack table included the ten smaller eyes as well as the body, central eyes, and eyestalks.