7th lvl Party vs. Beholder

[Broken Fang]

Try having them run into a roving group of Formians. The warriors are only CR 3 but are pretty potent (sting +7, 2 claws +5, poison...STR loss, immune/resistances to lots of spells, SR 18). Throw in a Task Master (Dominate person as 10th lvl Sorcerer...SR 21) is CR 7. To really beat on them add a Myrmarch! CR 10 (28 AC, 100 HP, SR 25, fast healing, poison, TELEPORT W/O ERROR at WILL!!!).
I had the my PC's run into a hive of them. Run away, come back, run away...Formian strike team hits village the stay at...village in shamble two PC's captured. The rescue should be fun this weekend.

 

[Richards]

Of course, there's nothing saying that any beholder you use must necessarily be at "full power." How about a battle-damaged beholder missing a few eyestalks? (Don't think the PCs will last long against the beholder's disintegration ray? Then that eyestalk was ripped out during a recent battle.) You could even have its central eye poked out if necessary to get rid of the anti-magic ray; the beholder's not going to be too happy about that, but it'll have plenty of other eyes on its eyestalks to still allow it to see. You can even use this "downgrading for CL reasons" explanation to tie directly into the battle: perhaps the beholder received its recent battle damage from a group of adventurers, and now holds a grudge and isn't too keen on differentiating between those that wounded it and any other adventurers that happen along...

 

[dagger]

This is actually a really good idea!

Of course, there's nothing saying that any beholder you use must necessarily be at "full power." How about a battle-damaged beholder missing a few eyestalks? (Don't think the PCs will last long against the beholder's disintegration ray? Then that eyestalk was ripped out during a recent battle.) You could even have its central eye poked out if necessary to get rid of the anti-magic ray; the beholder's not going to be too happy about that, but it'll have plenty of other eyes on its eyestalks to still allow it to see. You can even use this "downgrading for CL reasons" explanation to tie directly into the battle: perhaps the beholder received its recent battle damage from a group of adventurers, and now holds a grudge and isn't too keen on differentiating between those that wounded it and any other adventurers that happen along...

 

[James McMurray]

If they screw with him too much, he might just decide to kill them anyway.

Always expect your players to do the stupid thing, and you'll rarely be disappointed. Putting in an encounter that is sure to lead to combat and then expecting it to get roleplayed out of is not always a good thing. It frequently leads to TPKs. Of course, you are the only one who can judewge the likelihood of that with your group.

 

[Victim]

Battles with Beholders are scary, but not tough. A Beholder has 60 HP and 20 AC. If it doesn't protect itself with the antimagic ray, then it lasts about a round against a 13th level party in a straight up fight. Our group or 9th to 11th level characters just fought one; the beholder acted twice, although it did kill our wizard, who admittedly made a stupid move. And if it splashes the group with the antmagic ray, in a position where the antimagic isn't deadly (flying, underwater, etc) then it can't really fight either so it loses to normal attacks. Even at 7th level, the beholder can still go down very fast.

However, it forces the group to make up to 10 saves a round, most of which are incapacitating effects. So the beholder can probably really screw over one or 2 people, but then get wasted. At 7th level, the group's saves would probably be such that DC 17 saves are a pretty substancial threat.

Finally, some of the effects, if they kill a character, make them hard to raise, or undo, and thus can make a bad encounter even worse.

 

[dagger]

Most beholders are smart enough to fly up out of melee reach though. And to keep certain people in the anti magic ray while blasting the others.

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

HA! Not a bad idea at all.

Also located in the cave is a dead dwarf with an intelligent shield and a magical short sword. He was an adventurer who was killed and never found. He could be the one who wounded the beholder.

Perfect. They'll find the beholders desintegration and finger of death eyes laying beside the corps.

Should drop it down to about CR:10. You think?

 

[Victim]

Most beholders are smart enough to fly up out of melee reach though. And to keep certain people in the anti magic ray while blasting the others.

While it requires coordination (the bane of most players in my experience), the group can take a close packed formation so that either all characters are in the antimagic and thus protected by the ray they shoot arrows, or so that they're all out, and thus hit the beholder really hard.

In this case, the beholder is pinned down by a low ceiling. In other cases, several members a group will probably be flying. Fly lasts a fairly long time, and is both effective and cool, so spellcasters usually have a few. Also, it's good to have on items for warrior types. I've fought a battle in which every hero and villain was flying, so it's not that great of a defense by the levels one would normally expect to fight a beholder.

 

[Geoff Watson]

The beholder isn't really pinned down by the low ceiling, as it can disintergrate a 10' cube per round, just using one of it's eyestalks.

Geoff.

 

[Squire James]

This particular beholder is missing the pertinent eyestalk for making its own passageways, but it may have prepped a few before losing it. Still, the beholder will have to be a bit stupid to lose to a level 7 party.

I've found that simple arrow slits (eyestalk slits?) do wonders for making it an actual CR 13 monster! It could probably only fit 1-2 eyes in to shoot out of it, but that 9/10 cover is worth it IMO. A well-prepared one might even block off all passages to it with petrified corpses.

I guess I shouldn't be talking about ways for the beholder to play smart, though. Try 2 ogres with 4 fighter levels and 1 Order of Bow Initiate level with huge mighty composite longbows behind those arrow slits. That's an EL 9 encounter that many parties have trouble with, and will at least make the wizard blow a lot of his spells before they meet that paraplegic beholder!

I guess if you wanted to kill a 7th level party with an encounter that's technically EL 7, send a half-fiend troll after them... better known as The Fireball Test (resist fire/acid 20 remember!). The best way to kill it would be to knock it out with subdual damage, and declare a Fireball as a coup de grace (about the only thing most parties have that can cause real damage to such a monstrosity).