Beholder's Central Eye: Problems and Alternatives

[Hawk Diesel]

So we all know about how a normal Beholder's central eye creates an antimagic zone, and death tyrants create a zone where healing is impossible. But I was trying to think of something new for the beholder my players are about to encounter. I mean, the antimagic effect is powerful, sure. But nothing is more frustrating to a player than not having access to their abilities. It's one thing to prevent magic items from functioning. But when the player or players are spellcasters, it makes them largely ineffective in combat. And with how smart a beholder is, they aren't likely to allow a spell caster out of that antimagic zone.

So I was wondering how others might deal with this issue, or what your experience has been. Have you created any unique central eye effects that make combat more fun or interesting?

I was thinking instead of antimagic, the central eye could be a zone of magic bane. Those attempting to cast spells take damage (save for half). Passive magic items don't function, and magic items that require activation could function but risk being destroyed. I see this as more fun for players since they have access to their abilities, and still can use them strategically, but it doesn't completely hamstring them.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I was thinking instead of antimagic, the central eye could be a zone of magic bane. Those attempting to cast spells take damage (save for half).

How much damage would it do? As I see it, the damage is either so little that the spellcasters won't care (in which case it doesn't change their choices, relative to the field not being there, and there was no point in your designing the thing); or it's so much that the spellcasters will do anything to avoid triggering it (in which case they're effectively in an antimagic field, and there was no point in your changing the design).

What kind of gameplay are you trying to encourage here?

Edit: Instead of offering a save, you could scale the damage by spell slot. If spellcasters took 2d6 damage per spell slot, then they would have to make interesting decisions about which spells to cast.

 

[Leatherhead]

Use a cone of Slow instead. A watched pot never boils, after all~
It's slightly more impactful, because it effects more kinds of targets. But it only partially shuts down everything instead of totally shutting down some things.

 

[Hawk Diesel]

I thought I was pretty clear in my goal. I want gameplay where the encounter is challenging without being too frustrating or too severely hampering. I know as a player, if I'm playing a wizard and I'm suddenly in an antimagic field, then I would just feel demoralized and like I could not contribute. Yes, wizards can technically do things other than magic. But magic is what defines them and the reason a player plays that class. I don't want to take away my players' favorite toys. But I also want to challenge them, encourage them to use strategy, and yes maybe cause them to make a sacrifice by choosing to cast a spell at the possible cost of hit points.

I was recently in a game where my character got stunned by a mind flayer and due to unlucky rolls remained stunned for all but the final round of combat. It was very hard to remain engaged, and it kinda sucked. Sure, being in an antimagic field isn't as extreme as that because a player could still act, but its like playing an archer with no arrows or a barbarian with no beat-stick.

So if you went with a magic bane central eye, want amount of damage would get into that nice middle ground of not being too great while also not being neglible?

Or, what might you suggest instead? Clearly I'm still designing the encounter, so suggestions are welcome. As are the experiences people have had either fighting a beholder or running a beholder encounter.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

Why don't you keep it anti-magic - so it suppresses magic items but, instead of canceling out spell casting, it forces magic users to make a Concentration check. If they fail, the spell is ruined. You can set the DC. So, it's basically, the spell caster's force of will against the beholder's. Feats like War caster would help against this check.

The slow idea was a good one because it affects everyone and not just the spell casters.

(just throwing out random ideas now)

A cone of magical darkness could be enough to hamper spell casters and ranged attackers.

Maybe the beholder's central eye is like a mirror and it reflects spells the same way a tarrasque's hide works. You run it as a cone emanating out of the beholder's eye but the descriptive fluff is when you target it with spells while it's looking at you with it's central eye, the spells reflect off the eye and bounce back.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I'm not sure I'm seeing the same problem as you are. An antimagic zone is to a wizard what a large pit in front of your opponent is to a melee combatant, or a windwall is to a ranged character. It makes it so they need to use strategy if they want to bring their best effects to bear, but it is nothing like a stun lock unless there is no possible way to get around it.

In all of those cases the solution is the same--get your character to a different part of the battlefield. Now, sure, if the creature was on a 5' platform hovering over a void, entirely surrounded by high wind, or surrounded by a large anti-magic field, then I can understand the issue. But simply having a big cone they can use to hit you with antimagic shouldn't totally shut you down. At most it means you need to get behind some sort of cover and cast spells that can influence the battle in less direct ways. More likely, you do something like hide and then pop out from behind and shoot your big guns before it can turn its central eye towards you. And remember, when the beholder is looking at you, it can't use its attacks on you either. If you appear as the biggest magical threat you could use that to draw its cone, getting your allies out of it.

 

[Eltab]

Pick any spell that inflicts status effects (rather than damage) for the eye cone zone.
- Confusion, Sleep come to mind immediately.
- Guards and Wards might be hard to adjudicate but could simulate being drawn into a hallucinatory land of your own dreams.
- Rock to Mud will bog down the PCs in quicksand rather than nerfing them.
- Fear could be refluffed to create a Turn Undead -like effect on natural life: the beholder thinks he is a cleric of the Far Realm.

 

[Oofta]

In general I agree with the "not being able to contribute sucks", but put me in the "I'm not sure this is a problem" crowd, but it does vary significantly from campaign to campaign and encounter to encounter. Is this a high magic world where the non-spellcasters rely heavily on magic? Or are magic items as rare as hen's teeth?

In addition, while I frequently set up the terrain to benefit team monster (especially on their home terrain) this might be one of those places where I would make an exception. Set it up so the spell casters can move around, or so the fighter types can move around forcing the beholder to chose who should be targeted. In addition, you may want to foreshadow the encounter so they know they're going to have to have a different approach.

Another option (or an addition) is to throw in some low level mooks to harass the spell-casters while the fighters take on the beholder. Make them strategize and figure out who needs to focus on what. You don't want to make it too easy.

 

[GMMichael]

I want gameplay where the encounter is challenging without being too frustrating or too severely hampering. I know as a player, if I'm playing a wizard and I'm suddenly in an antimagic field, then I would just feel demoralized and like I could not contribute.

The anti-magic ray isn't an anti-magic aura. All it does is force the wizard to run around a little more, or to cast Mirror Image and keep the beholder guessing.

But if you still want a new ray, try this one:

Millimeter-wave ray features:

High Throughput
A quick scan (1.5 seconds) provides the data needed to confidently pass an individual through a checkpoint (dungeon).

- Less than six seconds total processing time including scan and automatic decision
- Scans 200 - 300 people per hour depending on the application
- Reduces need for time-consuming and intrusive pat-down searches
- Superior detection, high throughput, outstanding quality and reliability

Safe Technology

- Uses safe millimeter radio wave (MMW) technology
- Does not use X-rays or any ionizing radiation

Preserving Privacy

- Automatic target detection (ATD) technology ensures passenger privacy by highlighting threats and anomalies using a generic mannequin that resembles a human outline. No images are generated.
- Eliminates the review of images as data is privately processed by software without human intervention to determine if any threats are present.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

From the description of Antimagic Cone: "this area works against the beholder's own eye rays". I.e if the beholder decides to antimagic someone it can't use any of it's other extremely powerful eye-rays against them! This makes using anti-magic a pretty major tactical decision on the beholder's part. Add to that effective tactical positioning by the party and it's far from certain spellcasters will be nullified.

However, beholder lore indicates that variant beholders whose central eye has different effects are not uncommon.