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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Justin Bacon" data-source="post: 3144052" data-attributes="member: 3795">Mearls is right that the rules for Eye Rays are unnecessarily complex. I've also never understood the "only X number of eye rays can be looking in one direction" rules -- those eyes are at the end of extendable stalks that can clearly point in any direction (except, possibly, directly below the beholder). The way to model the eye rays is simple: The beholder can target any creature within range once per round.If you want to limit the number of rays which can be turned on any given character simultaneously, just do it directly: "The beholder's eye rays interefere with each other, however. The beholder can only hit a single target with X number of rays in a single round."The Antimagic Cone doesn't need any change at all. The beholder determines the direction the cone is facing as a free action on its turn and can turn the cone on or off as a free action. Changing the cone so that it doesn't interfere with the beholder's eye-stalks is a fundamental and completely unnecessary change to the beholder.The only other problem with the beholder are the save-or-die effects. Personally, I don't like save-or-die effects at all, for exactly the reasons that Mearls talks about. But the solution there is not to change the beholder, it's to fix the save-or-die effects. (In my house rules, save-or-die effects cause 3d6 points of Constitution damage. Any special effects -- such as being reduced to a fine powdery dust or having your soul trapped in a gem -- only occur if the Con loss results in your death. If I was actually redesigning those effects wholesale, I'd have more powerful save-or-die spells deal more Con damage -- but this makes for a convenient, easy-to-remember, and easy-to-apply rule.)(Charm and fear, however, are not save-or-die effects. You'll notice the complete lack of dying in those effects, Mike. Flesh to stone probably does qualify, since there's no way to recover without outside assistance if you fail the saving throw.)And once you've fixed the save-or-die effects, you probably should crank up the save DCs like Mearls suggests.</blockquote>

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