How often have you used Beholders?

[Hussar]

Yeah, well, sorry about the lack of a 5th option. Just choose one that seems closest.

Looks like the Beholder isn't exactly the world's most popular monster in any case.

 

[DMH]

I never used the flying ball. I did have a nest of abominations set up, but the players never got to it.

 

[balterkn]

In published adventures

Never really added them to my home-brewed adventures.

Otherwise, there's the one in SCAP, one in the Star Cairns Greyhawk adventure, and maybe a few in other adventures from a long time ago.

Of course, my players at the time had the mantra:
"No dragons, no demons, no powerful undead - oh and beholders would be bad too"
since I usually play a creature to its full power (and in 2E that was quite a bit of power - a few are a bit better balanced now, but beholders are still vicious) - before they battled the beholder.

 

[Richards]

There's a couple of beholders in one of the adventures in Dungeon #141. I know, because I put them there. Those were the first beholders I've ever used in an adventure, published or not.

Johnathan

 

[paradox42]

There's a couple of beholders in one of the adventures in Dungeon #141. I know, because I put them there. Those were the first beholders I've ever used in an adventure, published or not.

Johnathan

That's a fun adventure setup Johnathan- and kudos for going with a truly three-dimensional environment instead of stacked-up 2-D layers as is usual for a dungeon! Even if it is a fairly short adventure by comparison with some, it's a unique and memorable encounter setup.

Oh, and the primary trap is just vicious. Nice idea

Spoiler

filling the boulder with Green Slime

. Kill two birds, and all that...

 

[el-remmen]

Not for anything that ever counted and not for 18 or 20 years.

I think my campaigns just never get high enough level for the party to reasonably expected to survive it.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

For my Forgotten Realms Campaign I just got done using a trio of heavily armored Hive Mothers, an Elder Orb Sorcerer, a Death Tyrant and a cadre of Directors against the Epic PCs my players run (with Sand Giants from MM III --who happen to make great meat shields/surprise and hack PCs to death <15-20 threat range, even within an Anti-Magic cone> peons for Beholders via the giant’s Statue and Meld Into Stone abilities).

FYI: Mix in two PC arcane casters that can themselves Shapechange into Beholders and things rapidly dwindle down to a game of ‘gotcha last’ with the Anti Magic cones.

Anyway, I used all these as part of an upgrade to the Beholder’s Lair mini-adventure from Mysteries of the Moonsea; with the lair itself changed to be an underground portion of Bane’s Temple at Zhentil Keep.

Prior to this I’ve pitted Beholders against my players at least twice that I can recall. On one of those occasions I ran a pair of mind-slaved Beholders against the PCs (beholders controlled by Muriel the Mad, himself zinged in the head by Halaster himself, thank you very much) in the depths of the Undermountain in a massive circular chamber with a false (illusionary) ceiling. All that work and the Beholders still managed to fail to surprise the PCs (curse you a thousand times over, oh biased and benevolent, all-seeing, loves PCs more than DMs God of Dice).

J. Grenemyer

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Quite honestly I have only DMed two encounters with Beholders and they went okay. They are cool monsters, but for some reason I feel a little fidgety about using them.

 

[Li Shenron]

Two or three times the basic Beholder from MM, and also a couple of variants from other books (most likely the adventure itself).

Generally I don't like the idea, it's quite a silly monster IMHO... but if the adventure has one, I don't necessarily take it away.

 

[glass]

I voted "once or twice," but my answer is really "a few times, but they aren't common."

What he said.


glass.