D&D 5E Forcecage and Beholders

[Baron Opal II]

What happens when a beholder is "forcecaged"?

It should be able to blast it's way out, right?

Absolutely. Or, use the anti-magic ray to slip through it and use it as cover, should it desire.

 

[Staffan]

That's what I thought this thread was going to be about, but at first I didn't think that would work. The anti-magic field is projected from the eye, so once the eye is outside the force field/bars would return with the beholder caught in them. But reading the spell, it says that if a creature is caught partially in the spell's area, it is forced outward until it is entirely outside, so that sounds like what would happen.

Absolutely. Or, use the anti-magic ray to slip through it and use it as cover, should it desire.

Come to think of it, I'm back in the corner of "anti-magic eye won't work". The eye projects a cone of anti-magic, so when the beholder is right next to the forcecage wall, the hole made by the anti-magic would be too small to get through.

 

[CleverNickName]

While we're on the subject of capturing and disabling beholders, what about the Blindness spell? Does this blindness also disable the eye rays and anti-magic cone?

 

[James Gasik]

As I recall, it's like the medusa. She doesn't have to see you, you have to see her eyes.

 

[Staffan]

The beholder's eyes are basically dual-purpose sensory organs and lasers. Making the beholder blind would make it harder for it to hit with its eye beams, but would not disable them.

 

[Jer]

Come to think of it, I'm back in the corner of "anti-magic eye won't work". The eye projects a cone of anti-magic, so when the beholder is right next to the forcecage wall, the hole made by the anti-magic would be too small to get through.

I mean, that's only if the caster thought to make the box exactly the size of the beholder.

 

[Staffan]

I mean, that's only if the caster thought to make the box exactly the size of the beholder.

Ehrm, no. The anti-magic cone is continuously projected from the central eye. As the beholder moves closer to the wall, the cone will cover a smaller area.

 

[Jer]

Ehrm, no. The anti-magic cone is continuously projected from the central eye. As the beholder moves closer to the wall, the cone will cover a smaller area.

Oh I see what you're saying. yes that makes sense.

 

[Lyxen]

I mean, that's only if the caster thought to make the box exactly the size of the beholder.

Note that the forcecage is exactly the size of the beholder anyway, it's a 10 foot cube and the beholder is large.

After that, it's clear that the antimagic suppresses effects only in the cone, which would leave a beholder stuck if he only had his antimagic ray, but fortunately, he has disintegrate...

 

[jgsugden]

While we're on the subject of capturing and disabling beholders, what about the Blindness spell? Does this blindness also disable the eye rays and anti-magic cone?

Blindness absolutely stops all eye rays (except the central eye).

Eye Rays. The beholder shoots three of the following magical eye rays at random (reroll duplicates), choosing one to three targets it can see within 120 feet of it:

As con is one of the weaker saves of a beholder, a 2nd level blindness spell is often a reasonable way to shut it down for a round or two and let it be crushed.

As for the Forcecage, I believe the correct ruling would be that there is no rule basis under either the Disintegration effect of the Beholder or the Forcecage spell that would make it vulnerable to disintegration.

With regards to what happens when the Beholder approaches the Forcecage wall with the central eye open and starts to try to pass through: This is not a situation covered by the rules. The 'partially within the spell' language applies only when the spell is cast. Accordingly, the adjudication of this interaction is up to the DM.

In my campaigns, I'd have the spellcaster roll an Arcana check to see if their spell is cast well enough to counter it. I'd set a DC of 15, but that is a DC set by my personal judgment on how difficult it would be to create a Forcecage capable enough to withstand this tactic.

Side Note: I highly encourage DMs to replace at least half of the eye rays with different effects. For example, the Beholder I recently threw at a party had a Central Eye that created a line of Anti-gravity, and then eye rays that Banished, Phantasmal Forced, Bestowed Curse (8 hours), Confused, Finger of Deathed, Teleported, Polymorphed (into standard frog), Entangled, Power Word Stunned, and Firstormed (Dex Save, 8d10 fire damage, incinerated to ash if reduced to 0 or less). If you consider how that might function in combat, it ends up quite different than an off the shelf beholder. It took two hits, then disabled 3 PCs with Polymorph, PW: Stun and Phantasmal Force - with the other three PCs flung 100 feet in the air by the anti-gravity.