The beholder could do a little better than that. He could put an antimagic field on the party to prevent them from gaining advantage. Or he could use his disintegration ray to collapse or create a tunnel, block line of sight, or destroy the floor in the area of magical darkness.
D&D 5E Beholders, concentration, antimagic fields
- Thread starter bleezy
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The beholder could do a little better than that. He could put an antimagic field on the party to prevent them from gaining advantage. Or he could use his disintegration ray to collapse or create a tunnel, block line of sight, or destroy the floor in the area of magical darkness.
FormerlyHemlock
Hero
Yes to almost all of these. No to the floor disintegration--it cannot disintegrate targets it cannot see. (Arguably the floor isn't a "Large or smaller nonmagical object or creation of magical force" in the first place and is thus an ineligible target, but as a DM I would waive that restriction in the same way I would waive the restriction that technically disallows Acid Splash or Eldritch Blast from damaging objects. I'd just let the beholder disintegrate a Large-sized section of flooring.)
flametitan
Explorer
I would argue (1) does not apply. The spells says things "cannot see through" it, rather than "cannot see into it," and even the latest wave of errata has not touched the darkness spell specifically, though it has touched on darkness generally.
Unless we can find a Sage Advice ruling that says otherwise (Crawford tweet or article) I'd say your party is also blinded.
Fair point, but I just remembered there's the dodge action anyway to at least grant advantage on DEX saves.
Unless that party gives it chase with the fly spell (and they'd have to know the direction it's going, and I'm pretty sure floating does not make noise), it will take (with no dashing): 4 rounds to leave light crossbow range without disadvantage (but about 16 to leave long range), 5 to leave Lightning Bolt, but it would admittedly take 30 to leave sharpshooter Range of a Longbow.
With dashing, we can roughly half that (Still a long time for a beholder to escape a sharpshooter). If the party tries to fly after it,then it can turn around and antimagic them to the ground temporarily.
Now, if your party's level 14, I'd say they've already got the ability to win the fight handily even without Darkness, so let's put them back to say, 8-10. Using your ASIs on your prime ability and the fighter taking Crossbow Expert/sharpshooter (as the three attacks seems to outweigh the +1 to hit/damage), the archer's got a +10 on AC 18, which is pretty good at about 65%, or a +5 with SS, which is roughly a 40% chance of hitting. The wizard, having spent their ASIs on INT, only has a +7, or a 50/50 shot of doing 8.5 damage.
Yeah, probably best not to float away.
That said, a beholder's not stupid. Arrogant, but not stupid. Odds are it can find somewhere else to lair, find new thralls to make, etc. It holds no personal attachment to where it lives. So it probably won't mind making a retreat if it's better to hold its skin than to stay there.
The validity of this tactic is still up in the air until I can find a proper ruling for shooting out of the darkness.
However, if something inside darkness is blinded when looking out, then it likely will have disadvantage on its perception, or a -5 to passive perception. With a 16 and proficiency at the level range I suggested, then your passive perception's about 12 (14 with a 20), so it's not going to hurt. I'd also imagine that a beholder's lair is made up of multiple passages, so if it hides, you end up having to look for the right tunnel corner it slipped around. With a character with expertise, this isn't so valid, as then the passive result bumps up back to 16.
And if your reading of the rules is RAW, then this discussion goes out the window.
FormerlyHemlock
Hero
If you're playing Darkness as opaque, then the party already has disadvantage (+advantage = nothing), so long range adds no additional penalty. They can keep shooting those light crossbow bolts for sixteen rounds, with no penalty, just as well as if they were all Sharpshooters.
I have a house rule to address this absurdity (http://bluishcertainty.blogspot.com/2016/08/5e-rule-variant-heavy-obscurement.html) but in a RAW game the beholder is toast.
flametitan
Explorer
Yes, I half note that calculating the full range gives the wizard more of an edge (I will admit I glossed it over more than I meant to). However, that wizard crossbow isn't going to do the job. The beholder can fly out of lightning bolt range quickly enough, and after that the wizard's doing a piddly 3.75 DPR. It's the sharpshooter that's going to get the job done. 16*3.75=60, so it's eh, a third of the beholder's health. It's at greater than zero, so the beholder lives.
It's going to be the sharpshooter that does the DPR needed to kill it, though I made some mistakes in my initial thought process. I went with Crossbow Expert for the extra attack, but gave the SS the range of a longbow. That doesn't work too well for calculating how much damage the beholder take before it leaves range, as the third attack comes from having a hand crossbow, or a range limited to 120 feet. It can be done, just not as handily as when I first looked at the numbers.
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If the beholder is in an area with a low ceiling (~20ft) he could lay his antimagic field over the darkness spell and disintegrate the area directly above or below himself (he can disintegrate a 10x10 cube per round). The party would only be able to attack with non-magic weapons and probably for only 1 or 2 rounds (and only 1 round without the beholder having significant cover) unless they left the area of the darkness spell, at which point the beholder would shut down his antimagic field and attack with eye rays.
There is no way the party would be able to attack for anything like 16 rounds, unless they were battling the beholder from miles up in the air from a zeppelin or something, in which case the beholder would disintegrate the zeppelin. It even says in the MM that the beholder can carve out tunnels with his eye rays.
This isn't the Tarrasque we're talking about- the beholder has some means to defend himself.
There is no way the party would be able to attack for anything like 16 rounds, unless they were battling the beholder from miles up in the air from a zeppelin or something, in which case the beholder would disintegrate the zeppelin. It even says in the MM that the beholder can carve out tunnels with his eye rays.
This isn't the Tarrasque we're talking about- the beholder has some means to defend himself.
flametitan
Explorer
Oh I know, but these white room analysises are pretty enjoyable, even if realistically the lair's going to do a good job of covering a beholder's attempt to keep away from the party (As I try to note when the beholder attempts to hide and wait it out).
FormerlyHemlock
Hero
This is what I meant by "it's surrendering the tactical initiative". If the beholder is forced onto the defensive by a simple Darkness spell, it's unable to hold a position against the PCs, so they can push into any location they want to (e.g. the treasure horde) while it... hides in a hole somewhere hoping for Darkness to drop. That's not the position you want to be in.
My solution to this at my table is simple: beholders preferentially empire-build and recruit minions. (Hence, "Eye-Tyrant.") To those who think a tribe of a hundred goblin warriors isn't fearsome: goblin warriors who cannot be Fireballed due to anti-magic support are pretty fearsome! All the more so if they're being led by a genius-level intellect backed up with magical disintegration rays, etc.
Goblins = hammer
Beholder = anvil
(They can also work with groups of lesser aberrations instead of humanoids, but that's more of a Hive Mother thing. Normal, individual beholders can't spawn their own aberrations and have to make do with humanoids.)
flametitan
Explorer
The only problem with that solution is not in its efficacy (I would also add some extra support to keep it from simply dying), but rather it feels a little too simple an answer. "Add more monsters" is almost always valid, but sometimes it's good to ponder "What would a beholder do if it were caught on its own against a party with darkness?"
FormerlyHemlock
Hero
Sure. But it's also good to know that "being caught alone" is an unusual situation for a beholder. That knowledge shapes its response: if it's caught in an unusually disadvantageous situation, of course it's going to retreat. The only question is whether it's going to retreat aerially or underground.
I'm interested in beholders from a DM/worldbuilding perspective, so plausibly modeling their habits and behavior is a big deal for me.
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