The author is on the Realms-L list. Here is his response when I put the original question to him.
"Thanks for the question. The short answer is I'm not sure because I don't have the print copy yet to see how it was changed from my submitted draft, but I suspect the person you quote is correct and it was a faux pas after the fact. Nevertheless, taking all of this with the appropriate grains of salt, here is a little more explanation that may help. Feel free to post this to the ENWorld boards, since I don't have a log on there.
The catoblepas is a monster from Ethiopian myth. It appeared in the 1E Monster Manual and 2E Monstrous Manual. There was also an "Ecology of" article in Dragon way back (which I largely ignored) and some information on their role in the Farsea Marshes in Elminster's Ecologies and an old Polyhedron magazine.
In both the 1E and 2E versions, the creature's gaze equaled a death ray. In addition, if you actually met its gaze (rather than it just looking at you) you were dead without any chance of a saving throw. In my write-up, I maintained this dual aspect death gaze.
Here's what I wrote in my submitted draft and the notes in brackets following:
Death Glare (Su): The catoblepas' stare is extremely deadly. Meeting the creature's gaze causes death instantly, range 60 ft., no save (see Gaze Attacks on page 77 of the Dungeon Master's Guide). However, even those who don't meet the catoblepas' gaze, but are simply caught in the creature's line of sight may perish (treat as a ray, +4 ranged touch attack, range 180 ft., Fortitude negates [DC 16] death). Catoblepas may "turn off" their death glare at will.
[The catoblepas in 1E and 2E exhibited this dual-use death glare as well. Compare to discussion of death attacks and gaze attacks in DMG and rays and the finger of death spell in the PH. Fortitude save equals 10 + equivalent spell level (finger of death is 7) + Charisma modifier. Ray attack is +6 magical beast -1 Dex -1 size = +4. I reduced the range of the instant death gaze to 60 ft. from 180 ft. because beyond that range true eye-to-eye contact is close to impossible, it is still quite far, and its still twice that of the medusa (whose range didn't change between editions). If you are unhappy with the no save gaze aspect (especially as gaze attacks are more deadly in 3E), you could give the gaze a high Fortitude save somewhere between 20 and 30.]
In regards to the grimlock idea, it's not mine. It's not necessarily a bad idea, though. Blindness should improve their chances of resisting the death glare up close at least. That said, I'm not sure about catoblepas as mounts for grimlocks per se. At first blush, grimlocks are not marsh creatures and catoblepas are not mountain or underground creatures, plus catoblepas are slow and have a hard time lifting up their heads (which was included in the submitted draft), making them poor mounts. Still, the fighting combination could be pretty potent.
Thomas M. Costa
THOMASC148@aol.com"
