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Wizards did a Gamestoppers article that included a Beholder. It might be a useful thing to review, even if it is for 3.0.
GameStoppers - Part Ten: The Final Battle
GameStoppers - Part Ten: The Final Battle
Beware!!! Beholders a Head
- Thread starter Harmon
- Start date
Ridley's Cohort said:
Well, with a 26 AC, the bats need a 20 to hit (19 with flank). But they can just annoy the DM into paying undue attention to them.
Good points, though when it comes down to it, if you're gonna toss spells that hose the beholder on a failed save, go ahead and toss hold monster or baleful polymorph. I mean really, this is not the time to pull punches.
Andre said:
Exactly. Better a wall go "poof" than a party member.
We made it through the Beholder encounter. Three characters (of 7) were turned to stone, one of the four remaining fled and the other three faced Grimlocks and a half dozen other guys that dropped from the ceiling (they seemed to be made of stone, but took damage from Flanking).
None of the tactics that I discovered here were used, due to the AntiMagic Ray, which kept most of our mages out of the fight (which frustrated me to no end).
In the end the group won the day, the cleric had a Break Enchantment that saved two of the three (both the PCs- the 3rd was an NPC).
The GM did well and at least one of the Players should be commended for his actions and good role-playing, while I should have my hand slapped- "bad role playing, Harmon."
Thank you for your help and remember that these threads don't always help the Players as much as they help the GM.
Almost forgot- the GM did a great job (as always), even in the face of my pessimistic remarks (which I need to apologize for).
None of the tactics that I discovered here were used, due to the AntiMagic Ray, which kept most of our mages out of the fight (which frustrated me to no end).
In the end the group won the day, the cleric had a Break Enchantment that saved two of the three (both the PCs- the 3rd was an NPC).
The GM did well and at least one of the Players should be commended for his actions and good role-playing, while I should have my hand slapped- "bad role playing, Harmon."
Thank you for your help and remember that these threads don't always help the Players as much as they help the GM.
Almost forgot- the GM did a great job (as always), even in the face of my pessimistic remarks (which I need to apologize for).
Harmon said:
Funny you should say that...I was thinking the other day about giving a beholder a level or two of sorcerer. Then give it spells like mage armor, shield, true strike. Even magic missile could be useful, with the beholder firing its rays as a free action, then delaying to attack any spellcasters with a spell (forcing a Concentration check).
My only question is what happens if someone attacks the beholder while inside the AM cone? Would defensive spells such as mage armor and shield still protect the beholder? Adding both spells boosts its AC to 27, which is pretty significant, given its low hit points.
Just another thought for RB GM's.
Andre said:Funny you should say that...I was thinking the other day about giving a beholder a level or two of sorcerer. Then give it spells like mage armor, shield, true strike. Even magic missile could be useful, with the beholder firing its rays as a free action, then delaying to attack any spellcasters with a spell (forcing a Concentration check).
My only question is what happens if someone attacks the beholder while inside the AM cone? Would defensive spells such as mage armor and shield still protect the beholder? Adding both spells boosts its AC to 27, which is pretty significant, given its low hit points.
Just another thought for RB GM's.
Well, there are beholder mages in FR, but the assumption is that it's impossible to become a caster without putting out the anti-magic eye. That seems a little extreme to me--unless the antimagic is internalized in some way, keeping the eye closed during studies would serve just as well.
When the beholder's eye is open, the beholder is in front of the cone, and isn't in the area of effect, so those spells should stay up. Not sure why you say AC 27 though, since the beholder has a base AC of 26. Could be you're looking at the 3e MM beholder though, as this was one critter that got seriously boosted from 3 to 3.5.
Brief- Brief
As briefly as I can-
We trekked into the Underdark thinking that if we killed the Beholder we could seal the access behind us as we left, this would guard against further raids by the Beholder’s goon squad that had left a child family-less.
We traveled for about six hours or so, and I (the leader and Wizard) of the group mentioned that if we did not find the Beholder soon then we would leave, sealing the entrance behind us. Well that caught his attention, our magical light went (I had been using Sunrods from the get go, so that was little concern there) and Mr. Beholder spoke up. We talked to him trying to discover the plot of the campaign. Fairly quickly things went down hill after that- generally we don't do well with the talking to the villian and have learned its best not to try to discover anything from them while they are alive (they generally learn more then we do).
Our fighter type used the darkness and the battle to circle the battle, then his cloak of some spider like thing to climb up above the Beholder. By then my character had released a Lightning Bolt, the Druid (turned to stone by then) had place some fairy fire on the creature, the archer plinked a couple of arrows into it before she panicked and fled, and lastly our Lore Master dumped a Lighting-ed Fireball on the Beholder before she too got stoned- I mean turned to stone.
Grimlocks showed as well as some semi stone guys that had been hanging on the ceiling. The Cleric, rogue, the Druid’s wolf, and… emm- that’s about it, held the line against the minions.
Our fighter type leaps from the ceiling and crits on a cut with his scimitar, that’s 30 odd points of damage, enough to drop it to negative hp, he then rejoined the battle with the minions and was critical in the clean up.
It was by far not our worst ass whipping, but when three of our characters dropped to the Stoner ray in the first four turns I knew it was a TPK- because it was about then that the minions showed and the GM is not known for using minions with 1 HD.
The good role-playing, well timed actions of one character saved the day.
(Special note here- the characters Player and I are on the outs. He and I are no longer friends, I have little positive to say about him, so you know that when I say he did a good job, he did a good job.)
The bad rolls from myself for about the last three months ruined the night for me, that and I figure that my favorite character was dead and not recoverable.
Hope that was enough details there, I have to get back to work. Hope you all had fun in your last session, hope you have fun in your next.
As briefly as I can-
We trekked into the Underdark thinking that if we killed the Beholder we could seal the access behind us as we left, this would guard against further raids by the Beholder’s goon squad that had left a child family-less.
We traveled for about six hours or so, and I (the leader and Wizard) of the group mentioned that if we did not find the Beholder soon then we would leave, sealing the entrance behind us. Well that caught his attention, our magical light went (I had been using Sunrods from the get go, so that was little concern there) and Mr. Beholder spoke up. We talked to him trying to discover the plot of the campaign. Fairly quickly things went down hill after that- generally we don't do well with the talking to the villian and have learned its best not to try to discover anything from them while they are alive (they generally learn more then we do).
Our fighter type used the darkness and the battle to circle the battle, then his cloak of some spider like thing to climb up above the Beholder. By then my character had released a Lightning Bolt, the Druid (turned to stone by then) had place some fairy fire on the creature, the archer plinked a couple of arrows into it before she panicked and fled, and lastly our Lore Master dumped a Lighting-ed Fireball on the Beholder before she too got stoned- I mean turned to stone.
Grimlocks showed as well as some semi stone guys that had been hanging on the ceiling. The Cleric, rogue, the Druid’s wolf, and… emm- that’s about it, held the line against the minions.
Our fighter type leaps from the ceiling and crits on a cut with his scimitar, that’s 30 odd points of damage, enough to drop it to negative hp, he then rejoined the battle with the minions and was critical in the clean up.
It was by far not our worst ass whipping, but when three of our characters dropped to the Stoner ray in the first four turns I knew it was a TPK- because it was about then that the minions showed and the GM is not known for using minions with 1 HD.
The good role-playing, well timed actions of one character saved the day.
(Special note here- the characters Player and I are on the outs. He and I are no longer friends, I have little positive to say about him, so you know that when I say he did a good job, he did a good job.)
The bad rolls from myself for about the last three months ruined the night for me, that and I figure that my favorite character was dead and not recoverable.
Hope that was enough details there, I have to get back to work. Hope you all had fun in your last session, hope you have fun in your next.
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