Beholder's Eye Beams

[Solarious]

Don't forget they can rotate in the air as they move, due to their good manuverability... 90 degrees per 5' of movement. So Beholders can drift lazily in the air, 40' a round, while blasting opponents with the nine most dangerous eyes it has all the while maintaining anti-magic superiority while the initiative ticks down.

Alternatively, a spellcaster Beholder can move 20', blast with 9 eyes, and cast a spell in the middle, made entirely possible by the Flyby Attack feat, which I think all Beholders get as a standard feat. And still have antimagic superiority.

I'm such a cruel person.

 

[PallidPatience]

I hope you give extra XP for your uber-beholders, Solarious.

 

[TheGogmagog]

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).

I would think that unless you are using the (PHII?) variant facing or some house rule, this wouldn't apply. Even if you are, it still wouldn't as it doesn't overrule the explicit limitation of only being able to focus three eyes in any given direction no matter what your facing is.

At best you could move the beholder around a single target so that they are exposed in multiple directions, starting to the northeast of the beholder, then the north, then the northwest as the beholder moves west to east just below the target.

 

[Question]

I think the whole 9 rays vs one target thing seriously gets past the spirit of the ruling. If the designers wanted beholders to be able to target one target with 9 rays, they would do so. Its likely they put a limit to rays per target precisely to limit the amount of damage a beholder can deal out. Otherwise you are nearly assured at least one death per beholder encounter.

 

[Solarious]

I hope you give extra XP for your uber-beholders, Solarious.

Believe me, I hand it out when I exploit party tentions with Invisible Illithids and their insidious Suggestions.

Step 1: Soften up bickering party members.
Step 2: Psychedlic Madness!!!
Step 3: ...
Step 4: Profit!



EDIT: I remind people that if you use my interpetation of Beholders, while the central eye is turned away, it is an equal opportunity to blast away with readied actions themselves. I reccomend Fortitude based save-or-dies, like Flesh to Stone, Disintegrate (ironicly two of a Beholder's deadliest rays) or possibly Destruction, targeting their typically weakest saves. Since they are CR13(?), most parties would have those spells available at that stage. They also don't have that many HP, and a Maximized Fireball (better yet, Maximized Scorching Ray), puts them at serious risk of becoming a flambed gasbag.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I would think that unless you are using the (PHII?) variant facing or some house rule, this wouldn't apply. Even if you are, it still wouldn't as it doesn't overrule the explicit limitation of only being able to focus three eyes in any given direction no matter what your facing is.

At best you could move the beholder around a single target so that they are exposed in multiple directions, starting to the northeast of the beholder, then the north, then the northwest as the beholder moves west to east just below the target.

Notice that the arcs are not defined in terms of cardinal directions; they are defined relative to the beholder's facing: forward, backward, left, and right. Not north, south, east, and west.

He is facing north, and unleashes 3 rays in the forward arc; then he turns to face west, and unleashes 3 rays in his right arc... which is pointing north. The arcs don't prevent more than 3 rays aimed to the north; they prevent more than 3 rays aimed forward.

-Hyp.

 

[Stalker0]

I think the whole 9 rays vs one target thing seriously gets past the spirit of the ruling. If the designers wanted beholders to be able to target one target with 9 rays, they would do so. Its likely they put a limit to rays per target precisely to limit the amount of damage a beholder can deal out. Otherwise you are nearly assured at least one death per beholder encounter.

I agree, if it was that easy for a beholder to fire all of his rays at a person, they would have just said it in the first place, or something to the effect of "If a beholder consumes X amount of speed, it can fire all of.... or "If a beholder uses a move action, it can fire all of its rays at one target...etc."

 

[Infiniti2000]

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).

So, why can't a beholder set it up so that a single creature is encompassed in more than one 90-degree arc in a single round? You haven't explained why that isn't possible.

Whether this interpretation is based on the intent or beyond the beholder's CR is open to interpretation at best, but largely irrelevant. IME, and I run beholders like this, it is not beyond the beholder's CR of 13. In fact, without it, a beholder is a chump.

I would think that unless you are using the (PHII?) variant facing or some house rule, this wouldn't apply. Even if you are, it still wouldn't as it doesn't overrule the explicit limitation of only being able to focus three eyes in any given direction no matter what your facing is.

I explain this above, but trying to allude to requiring a variant facing rule is a red herring. Based on this idea, then beholder's can't exist by the rules because their 90-degree arc "rule" is a paradox. And then there's the whole flying "facing" that joins the quagmire.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

So, why can't a beholder set it up so that a single creature is encompassed in more than one 90-degree arc in a single round? You haven't explained why that isn't possible.

The quote seems sufficient to establish the spinning trick does not work. In fact, the quote seemed worded to purposefully disallow such tactics.

Of course, none of this makes any sense, given the normal movement rules. But Beholders never made much sense in any edition FWIW.

From a literalist rules perspective, the "Free Action" that the Beholder uses for the rays is limited by these special rules for those rays. Otherwise a DM should call them effectively the same asQuickened spell-like abilities and allow only 1 per round. The Beholder has special rules to get around this rule of thumb.

(Not disagreeing with your take on Beholders, mind you. Just looking at the evidence on hand, as I do not have a MM handy.)

 

[PallidPatience]

Beholders shouldn't be chumps, even against PCs using good tactics against them (which is what I would call acting on a creature's weakness). After all, when is a party going to fight a Beholder outside of its lair, especially in any kind of open place? They can fly. They have antimagic cones. They have a pretty nasty bite. They can eliminate the ground from under people, and the structural integrity of the ceiling over them. They'll have charmed minions to back them up.

Giving them the ability to unleash 10 spells as a free action every round takes them from "Oh, that's pretty challenging" to "Well... they were a fine bunch of adventurers..."