Recap of how it played out...
I apologize to the community for resurrecting such an old thread, but I promised Mark I would post a reply with the results of this encounter. Our group disbanded last year before I got a chance to run this and a new group of players has recently picked up the module where it previously left off (this is tough, but the players seemed game so we're trying it).
Summing it up:
My changes and your changes seem close enough (drop the CR, HD between 12 and 15, reduced ray damage), so I think that they seem reasonably for a CR 13 monster. I haven't actually tried to pull out any appropriately level character to run it against, but would definitely be interested in hearing how it works for your group.
I ran the CR13 elemental beholder. The EB had a lair which consisted of a pit shaped like an inverted "T" that was filled with acid to a depth of 15 feet. (Easy enough given his acid ray, right? Even if the acid boils or evaporates off, he can replenish it constantly.) I gave the stagnant acid a damage of 2d6 and expected the party to stay out of the way of the acid, but perhaps the EB's force ray would be able to knock one in? In my previous posts I said I was going to try for some low-level mooks to use arrows at the same time, but I eventually decided against this as I couldn't fit them into the overall theme for this encounter.
One thing which I would definitely recommend is that you give your players knowledge checks as soon as they see it, just so their expectations aren't based off of those in the MM. Even if they don't recognize it for the differences, I would point out that the fangs drip with what appears to be a poison and that the eyestalks have 5 differently colored eyes.
Unfortunately, those with Knowledge (arcana) (used for aberrations) failed miserably! But I told them that this creature didn't look anything like beholder's they've heard of in the past. Also, it had known they were coming and had submerged itself into the acid (allowing it's resistance to absorb most of the damage) so that it could pop up and surprise the group. So they saw it rise from the acid and it caught the
entire group flat-footed and began to blast away! I had to hold back a little though as it might've been a TPK right then and there.
When I ran the beholder, I actually pulled out 11 20-sided dice.
That's a great idea! As mentioned previously, I had copy/pasted the eye ray effects into
MapTool macros. That let me click the button and see the results of the attack and damage rolls, along with a description of the particular effects. If the attack roll was a potential crit, it rolled again and then displayed the critical information in case the crit confirmed. (I wasn't checking against the target's AC with these macros.)
Okay, now for the complete recap.
The party spots the acid pit and turns the corner. The EB knows they're coming and is hiding under the acid at the junction of the "T". The pit is surrounded by a 2.5-ft ledge covered in rubble, requiring a Balance check or a fall into the pit (with a Reflex save to turn the fall into a jump to the other side of the pit). So investigation is left to the two party members with
spider climb abilities (the rogue with slippers and a mage with a cloak of arachnidia). As the other 4 party members wait, the mage and rogue move along the walls and into the side chambers. No one spots the two eye stalks that break through the surface of the acid to keep an eye on things. When the two party members are in the side chambers, the EB stops holding itself below the surface of the acid and pops up to immediately begin firing its eye rays!
The mage takes two hits, one electricity and one fire, but thankfully it's a dwarven mage with a huge Con + Toughness (over 100 hp at 11th level!). The rogue on the other side is hit once with fire. The party members at the base of the "T" are each targeted and one cleric is crit'd with acid and takes tremendous ability score damage! The other cleric is hit with electricity. The remaining mage is hit with fire, but the damage is reduced due to energy resistance. Still, the mage is close to dead. The paladin was around the corner so isn't targeted.
All of that happened as the surprise round. Now we roll for initiative and the EB beats
all of the PCs! Ouch! This time, the dwarven mage is only hit once, ditto the rogue. The other mage at the base of the "T" is put down with a burst of electricity (since fire didn't work well the previous time) and the cleric hit with acid last time is hit again, this time with fire. (At this point, I had to pull punches and give the players time to regroup and decide on actions. This is also when I had the party roll their Knowledge checks and I gave them basic information about beholders with the caveat that "this isn't like anything you've ever heard of".)
The rogue uses a full move to get out of the side chamber and back with the rest of the party, but can't go far enough to get to the safety around the corner. The dwarven mage steps out and casts
wall of fire, but fails against the SR of the EB.
The paladin has acid resistance and knows he'll fail the Balance check and fall into the pit, so he decides to just wade in -- maybe it's not very deep and he can walk over and hit the EB? After he's in, he finds out that he's completely submerged! His gear has to make saves, but nothing fails. His acid resistance absorbs all damage from the pool. (On the following rounds he spends time trying to climb out!)
The cleric with ability damage heals himself and moves out of the line of fire. The other cleric heals the downed mage and moves back, around the corner. (We play with a house rule that once you drop below -10, the rest of the party still has a chance to get to you and heal you. On your next turn, you die if you haven't been brought back above -10. This is to simulate the simultaneity of combat. And since I'm tracking the hp of the PCs, when they are dropped below 0 the player is not told what his hit point value is -- the rest of the party simply sees the PC slump to the ground. This is a bit more realistic and adds suspense to having a PC drop below 0.)
The mage is healed and back up, so they use their turn to stand and move around the corner. Now the party is ready to actually fight.
Over the next few rounds, the EB moves slightly forward (towards the base of the "T") in order to see around the corner. The rogue goes down (to about -16, I think) and is brought back by a cleric. Another cleric steps back into the fray close enough to reach the Large creature, but not to the edge of the pit where the Balance check is required. He reaches out and casts
slay living on the EB. Unfortunately, they make the touch attack, get past the SR, and the EB fails it's Fort save!! ARGH! So the EB goes down and that's where the game session ended.
Things I screwed up
I could've just continued using eye rays during the surprise round and first round while all party members were flat-footed. But I would've killed 3 party members right away and they wouldn't have had clerics nearby where they could be healed back up before their next turn.
I could've used the "readied action" technique discussed on page 1 of this thread to target mages who began casting.
A couple of times PCs went down and the EB stopping firing eye rays as there were no targets. A truly evil creature without targets would've hit the downed PCs again, to truly finish them off. (Some of my true villains in this campaign have done just that.)
I also forgot completely about the
Quick Spin ability -- the cleric casting
slay living would have had the anti-magic beam targeted on him had I remembered. (Sigh) As it was, the encounter lasted a total of 3 rounds, IIRC.
I really liked this beastie -- much easier to run than the original beholder and with some exciting abilities. Since the party is battling an evil cult of clerics, I might even bring back the EB and have him fight again, this time motivated by vengeance! (I don't use save-or-die spells against the party unless they use them first. But they did that previously and we instituted a house rule that
raise dead and the like still work on creatures killed with "death magic". So I
could bring back the EB. I'm still considering it; the acid and force abilities are very useful to the cult in excavating their old ruined temple, so they just might bring him back.)
Thanks again, Mark. This was a
very memorable encounter!
