Help Our DM has gone Rat Bastard on us

[Lord Pendragon]

From what I remember, beholders have very few hp. Move to the light source, if you know where it is. The beholder must have his central eye focused on that spot to negate the daylight spell in his antimagic cone. When the beholder closes his central eye to zap you with his eye stalks, everyone will be able to see for the round. Charge the beholder. Hopefully you can kill it in that one round. You'll take 3 eye rays in that round, though. Hopefully you guys' saves will hold.

Wish I could be more help, but the beholder isn't in the SRD.

 

[RangerWickett]

What kind of kooky DM stops a session mid-combat.

I like Pink Floyd. Try to make the beholder go insane. Point out to it that it's a big head with lots of eyes. I know that if I saw I was a big head with eyes, I'd flip.

Good luck, even though you're screwed.

 

[Algolei]

Oh, the horror!! Doesn't anyone use fire for their light sources anymore?

 

[diaglo]

We broke at the start of round four. Initiative order:

Fiddle
Darian
Alya
The Beholder
Sully
Calrom
Grishelm
Vlad

Good luck, guys!

yeah it was a good session. and i'm still updating the story hour. probably after the weekend before i get to this part of the game. there was a lot that happened.

entered the chamber. fiddle shines light around. sees 2 drow females.

they scream Sekkar.

roll for init.

fiddle throws a dagger and hits one of them for sneak attack damage. darian casts sunlight over the lake blinding the drow. alya pulls her bow and fires away. the drow cower under their cloaks and try to cast darkness.. but it fails. sully casts invisibilty sphere. calrom uses his elf bane bow vs drow.. ouch. grishelm rides his companion lizard to circle around the lake. vlad charges into combat with the drow.
misses.

round two.

fiddle advances around drow to get closer for flank with vlad. darian searing lights one drow. alya fires away. one drow down. the lights go out. and everyone becomes visible again. a beam strikes near fiddle, one near grishelm, and one on vlad. the last drow attacks fiddle and hits. sully moves to the fiddle's light and fires off a scorching ray.. crit but fails caster lvl check vs. SR. calrom fires at drow. misses multiple times. grishelm yells Eye Tyrant and rides off. vlad attacks drow.

round three

fiddle flanks with vlad.. hits 4 times on drow... mush left. darian advances to fiddle's light. alya fires at beholder. beholder shifts eye. light goes out again. fires beams at sully and fiddle. sully tosses light coin near beholder. calrom fires at beholder. grishelm is no where around. vlad charges beholder.

start of round four.

fiddle did toss and hit with his dagger. but since we had to break up the session... we decided to hit reset. darn video game editions.



edit: messed up one of Sully's actions.

 

[diaglo]

I didn't realise you actually played 3rd ed. So what's with all the 'OD&D (1974) is the best thing ever and what's more it can cure cancer' bolloks?

haven't you read the story hour in my sig?

i've been playtesting the newer editions since 1979. when the guys in my group wanted to play 1edADnD instead of just OD&D.

and i've been playing the 2000ed since 2000. and discussing it since 1997.

what do you think i've been doing??

when you love the game. you play with whomever you can. up until only a few months ago... i could only find 3et...2000ed players to game with...

i am currently refereeing an OD&D campaign.

 

[howandwhy99]

i am currently refereeing an OD&D campaign.

I know it doesn't always come across, and that there is a good chance some will not believe me, but Diaglo is really a very kind person.

I think it might be the 10+ years looking for players open-minded enough to even "try" playing OD&D, let alone believing their games as inately superior.

He is also one the best Dungeonmasters I have met in my 17 years of playing. And I believe almost anyone willing to try an OD&D game in Atlanta would be welcome at the table.


- my D.02 cents

 

[fafhrd]

I know it doesn't always come across, and that there is a good chance some will not believe me, but Diaglo is really a very kind person.

I believe it. I particularly appreciated his comments the other day on giving the new editions a chance to breathe and find their pace. I think I'm up for a trip to the steam tunnels.

 

[el-remmen]

What kind of kooky DM stops a session mid-combat.

I do it fairly often.

One it build suspense and two when the next session starts instead of the usual 20 to 30 minutes of warming up and "what is going on again?" everyone is forced to jump right into it.

On the topic of fighting the beholder, if your PCs have never faced one before and perhaps do not know the ins and outs of the creature I don't see how any advice from thise source can help you - they should act like people ignorant of the creature should act. . . thus either running away or getting killed or getting lucky. . .

 

[takyris]

One nice thing to remember is that if you can get out of the beholder's antimagic cone, you can use spells that affect the environment -- a "Rock to Mud" spell cast on the ceiling is going to dump a whole bunch of nonmagical mud on the beholder -- or, if I'm wrong, and that can be suppressed, it'll start as mud and then, when the beholder eye-rays it, it turns back to rock, whereupon it doesn't just pin him, it damages him.

Side note: A truly RBDM wouldn't put the beholder in a lit area to begin with. Beholders have darkvision. They should hang out in pitch-black rooms, suppress people's magical lights, and then telekinetically throw large rocks at the people with low non-magical AC bonuses.

 

[diaglo]

On the topic of fighting the beholder, if your PCs have never faced one before and perhaps do not know the ins and outs of the creature I don't see how any advice from thise source can help you - they should act like people ignorant of the creature should act. . . thus either running away or getting killed or getting lucky. . .

unfortunately, all of us are veterans of D&Ds past.

trying not to recall stuff is harder than fighting the darn beholder.

i'm looking for ideas along these lines mostly.

fiddle is crazy and kender enough to leap on the eye stalk ball.