Beholder's Eye Beams

[D'nemy]

Question:

Does a beholder get to use all their eyes as a full attack action, or just one each round? I get the whole anti-magic thing... that it's continuous so long as the middle eye is open and the beholder can't fire its beams into the area affected by the anti-magic cone.

Also, if someone provokes an attack of opportunity from a beholder, are they victim to all the eye stalks... or just a bite... or just one beam...

The 3.5 MM rules are unclear.

Any insight?

Thanks!

 

[shilsen]

The 3.5 MM says that each of the small eyes can produce a ray once per round as a free action. So using any or all of the eyes is a free action.

And since the eye beams are ranged attacks, they don't threaten an area and the only thing a beholder can use on an AoO is its bite.

 

[Kurotowa]

However, it's important to note that a Beholder can only aim 3 eye rays at a single 90 arc (front, back, right, left, up, and down) per round. So if the party is smart and stays in a tight group the Beholder has to pick 3 eye rays for the whole party.

 

[freebfrost]

However, it's important to note that a Beholder can only aim 3 eye rays at a single 90 arc (front, back, right, left, up, and down) per round.

Unless your evil DM allows the beholder to float upside down on the ceiling...

 

[Infiniti2000]

However, it's important to note that a Beholder can only aim 3 eye rays at a single 90 arc (front, back, right, left, up, and down) per round. So if the party is smart and stays in a tight group the Beholder has to pick 3 eye rays for the whole party.

But fortunately for the beholder, he can fly, tilting and panning. And, since the eye rays are a free action, the beholder can in fact fire all of them at the same target (though the tilting and panning consumes fly speed).

 

[Question]

I thought the beholder would be limited to 2 move actions per round?

 

[Sithobi1]

You can take a free action while moving, though. Thus, you turn (costs 5 ft of movement) and unleash another set of eyes.

 

[azhrei_fje]

Nice twist

Cool! I hadn't thought about the "free action while moving" aspect. My players are coming up against a beholder in the not-too-distant future, so they'll be surprised by this tactic, I'm sure!

 

[PallidPatience]

I disagree. The tilting and panning of a Beholder isn't possible, because the Eye Rays entry says "During a single round, a creature can aim only two eye rays (gauth) or three eye rays (beholder) at targets in any one 90-degree arc (up, forward, backward, left, right, or down).

That's why the clustering tactic (reaffirmed as a sound tactic in Lords of Madness) is a good one. Any alteration to that is fine, of course, but would make beholders much more powerful than they normally are supposed to be, thereby increasing the CR by at least +1 (and probably more, since you're allowing him to, as a free action, cast ten spells.

 

[Kurotowa]

You can take a free action while moving, though. Thus, you turn (costs 5 ft of movement) and unleash another set of eyes.

Does that really work in 3.5? There's no facing and no turning. Me, I'd consider it a dubious reading of the rules and definately against their intent.