D&D 3E/3.5 First encounter with a 3.5E Beholder as a player

[Ralif Redhammer]

I don’t get to play that often, but yes, I’ve had big fights end ridiculously quickly. Sometimes the dice give and sometimes the dice take. Sometimes the PCs use teamwork and are smart enough to put a good plan together.

And yet, there’s something so memorable about that time I got a one-hit kill from a lucky critical to the evil necromancer. Getting the balance right on combat encounters can be tough. Sometimes the ridiculously easy fight can be just as memorable (“Hey guys, remember that time we killed a Beholder in one round?!”)

The last time I used a Beholder as a DM, it was an undead one. I used a false BBEG to get the PCs to spend some of their fancy abilities, then the Beholder got the drop on them. Once they got it to half HP, the Behold blew up the cliff they were fighting on, sending the PCs plummeting into the river below, while the Behold descended, firing eye blasts at them. The PCs won the day, but it was a tough, also memorable fight.

 

[Greenfield]

Anti-magic ray is highly overrated. All it does nothing but suppress spells and items while it's on them. If it's planning to use its other eye effects, it can only target opponents outside of the AM effect, otherwise it shuts down its own attacks.

It also instantly dispells all magical buffs that the players might have prepared before the battle. That is a huge deal. It makes the players so much more vulnerable.

No it doesn't.

Anti-Magic, in any form, *suppresses* magical and supernatural effects in the area. They resume as soon as the Anti-Magic is gone.

Read the section on Antimagic, page 290 of the DMG.

ANTIMAGIC
The beholder opens its large central eye, and suddenly Lidda (who had been invisible) becomes visible, and Tordek (who had been flying) drops unceremoniously to the floor. The adventurers’ magic weapons are now no better than masterwork versions, and their layers of magical protections are gone. The fire giant working with the beholder hefts his axe, grins, and charges. An antimagic field spell or the main eye ray of a beholder cancels magic altogether. This spell-like effect is extremely powerful—the ultimate defense against magic. An antimagic effect has the following powers and characteristics.
• No supernatural ability, spell-like ability, or spell works in an area of antimagic (but extraordinary abilities still work).
• Antimagic does not dispel magic; it suppresses it. Once a magical effect is no longer affected by the antimagic (the antimagic fades, the center of the effect moves away, and so on), the magic returns. Spells that still have part of their duration left begin functioning again, magic items are once again useful, and so forth.
...

So the buffs are gone while the main eye is on them. They come back as soon as the Beholder shifts that ray or closes the eye, which he pretty much has to do in order to attack with anything else.

 

[Random Bystander]

So the buffs are gone while the main eye is on them. They come back as soon as the Beholder shifts that ray or closes the eye, which he pretty much has to do in order to attack with anything else.

The anti-magic field is in a 90 degree cone in front of the beholder. The other three quadrants remain open to attack.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I think many are correct in stating that the DM didn’t run the Beholder correctly in having him only attack 2 of the party with a since eye in his first round of attack (with the rest of the party in an Anti-Magic ray).

The encounter itself was from the 3E WotC adventure Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil.

The battlefield definitely was not a flat battlemat. The party was travelling down a 10ft wide corridor that led to a T-junction. The corridor itself was dropped down about 10ft, apart from a narrow ledge on either side of the corridor. On top of that, I think the ceiling in the room was a good 30ft high (not 100% sure, but it definitely wasn’t just a 10ft high ceiling).

So my Wizard PC cast Levitate on the PCs to help us walk down the corridor. Without the spell the PCs all had to make balance checks to avoid falling down into the “pit” area (as half the party discovered when the Anti-Magic ray hit).

The Barbarian made a Balance and Jump check in order to leap off the ledge and attack the Beholder. My Wizard also had to do the same in order to jump out of the Anti-Magic ray’s area of effect to get a spell off. I didn’t roll high enough to jump from one ledge to the other, but as soon as I got out of the Anti-Magic ray’s area of effect my Levitation spell kicked in again and I was able to cast Disintegrate from mid-air (killing the Beholder and ending the combat).

The very next round a Wizard and an (invisible) Assassin appeared from behind the party. The Spell Thief PC charmed the Wizard, which caused the Assassin to decide to run away while he still could.

If the Beholder had been able to survive a little longer it may have been a very different fight as we would have been fighting on 2 fronts and against one opponent that we wouldn’t have known was there until the Death attack went off.

 

[Greenfield]

Okay, want to make a Beholder a bit more broken?

Consider this fact: The eye stalk attacks are free actions.

So the Beholder starts the round with his main eye at the 45 degree cant with respect to the party. That lets him bring two quadrants to bear, one on the left side of the group and one on the right. He lets loose with everything he can.

Next. a move action to change facing: He turns around. That allows him to bring the rest of his attacks to bear, and since they're free actions he can fire after the move.

Finally, he uses his second move action to maneuver, if he chooses, but in the process he rotates again, back so his main eye is once again at that 45 degree cant, to split the party.

Rinse. Repeat.

This Dervish-style (or Gattling-gun if you prefer) lets him use everything, every round, no matter how the party is grouped or spread.

10 attacks per round on a group, with up to six of them on any individual he considers a real threat, is ugly, and delightfully efficient.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Assuming you're correct (and on the face of it, it does sound correct), that does sound like a pretty effective way of using a Beholder, especially if the battefield is set up so that he's floating over a large pit or something similar. It would limit the PC's to normal ranged attacks (as flying will see you anti-magic rayed into the pit).

I'm too lazy to be bothered actually reading the rules to confirm though!