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Memorable Beholder solo encounters?
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<blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 7515247" data-attributes="member: 12731"><p>Once again the adventure I'm running is setting up a solitary Beholder as a set-piece encounter.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>(Note: at the end of this post there are minor spoilers for Tomb of Annihilation)</em></p><p></p><p>I must admit I have never fully understood how to utilize these monsters, and I have perused both power gaming and monster tactics blogs, and looked at my fair share of beholder lairs.</p><p></p><p>The issue remains - once the adventurers arrive, they rush the beholder and either stunlock it or simply shred it to pieces.</p><p></p><p>If you want an exciting multi-stage combat encounter, where the heroes desperately dodge and absorb eye rays as they slowly come closer to actually getting to the monster, how do you do it?</p><p></p><p>The first order of business is the antimagic cone itself. As I see it no beholder can become truly exciting (as a solo encounter) unless in cheats with its rays, plain and simple. But as I said, I have never understood how it is supposed to work...</p><p></p><p>A beholder absolutely must have the means to zap the heroes at the same time it keeps its antimagic cone squarely on most if not all heroes. Right?</p><p></p><p>This means that beholder nests tend to feature a vertical shaft, with the beholder at the top so gravity works in its favor, and flying and spellcasting is negated. Then it needs mirrors or portals or somesuch to bring its eye rays to bear despite the antimagic, or it simply won't present an actual threat.</p><p></p><p>On the other and, few parties feature more than one competent archer. (I'm fine with the notion that a party of five archers will simply stand there and shoot the beholder out of the sky like a balloon) For the purposes of this thread, I will assume the party will need to close to melee in order to win the encounter. That is, that the beholder will outgun the party at range (assuming party spellcasters can't escape antimagic).</p><p></p><p>A complicating factor is that my party is 12th level. At low levels, a "plain" Beholder might be enough on its own and that's totally fair. It might even get away with playing around with the antimagic cone and play "fair". Not so at double-digit levels - the second the antimagic cone isn't there, any single monster not of epic CR will simply be dead.</p><p></p><p>Increasing monster hit points and upping the DC of the eye rays is one thing. I'm also massively ignoring the limits on legendary actions, so the Beholder can shoot one ray after each and every adventurer's action without limits. Monster upgrades I can handle. <u>What I'm asking for here is encounter design</u>: what the lair looks like, any nifty traps or features to add, what monster tactics to use...?</p><p></p><p>But I'm looking for more. Are you aware of any especially clever encounters featuring a BBEG Beholder?</p><p></p><p>Where the encounter design allows us poor DMs to actually stage a fight that reasonably extends long enough for the party to get "worn down" before they finally reach the Beholder for a final desperate showdown, trying to kill it before they all fall prey to its attacks? <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>Please note: the one piece of advice I am <strong>not</strong> soliciting is "add more monsters". This thread is exclusively for enworlders that agree that D&D should be able to handle a good solo monster BBEG fight! <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>Thanks muchly,</p><p></p><p></p><p>Zapp</p><p></p><p>PS. Bonus question: are you aware of any good attempts to "upgrade" the beholder's set of eye rays. I'm afraid too many of the default rays are "low level" effects. Things like Charm and Fear doesn't cut it anymore. Articles and ideas from all editions welcome! </p><p></p><p>PPS. The specific Beholder I need to "juice up" is <em>Belchorzh the Unseen</em> from Tomb of Annihilation if that helps. This also means that at least in this case it's far too late to replace the monster with something else. They stand outside the mirror door and have all ten eyeballs. If you are familiar with the adventure (pages 146-), you know it basically must be a Beholder.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="CapnZapp, post: 7515247, member: 12731"] Once again the adventure I'm running is setting up a solitary Beholder as a set-piece encounter. [INDENT][I](Note: at the end of this post there are minor spoilers for Tomb of Annihilation)[/I][/INDENT] I must admit I have never fully understood how to utilize these monsters, and I have perused both power gaming and monster tactics blogs, and looked at my fair share of beholder lairs. The issue remains - once the adventurers arrive, they rush the beholder and either stunlock it or simply shred it to pieces. If you want an exciting multi-stage combat encounter, where the heroes desperately dodge and absorb eye rays as they slowly come closer to actually getting to the monster, how do you do it? The first order of business is the antimagic cone itself. As I see it no beholder can become truly exciting (as a solo encounter) unless in cheats with its rays, plain and simple. But as I said, I have never understood how it is supposed to work... A beholder absolutely must have the means to zap the heroes at the same time it keeps its antimagic cone squarely on most if not all heroes. Right? This means that beholder nests tend to feature a vertical shaft, with the beholder at the top so gravity works in its favor, and flying and spellcasting is negated. Then it needs mirrors or portals or somesuch to bring its eye rays to bear despite the antimagic, or it simply won't present an actual threat. On the other and, few parties feature more than one competent archer. (I'm fine with the notion that a party of five archers will simply stand there and shoot the beholder out of the sky like a balloon) For the purposes of this thread, I will assume the party will need to close to melee in order to win the encounter. That is, that the beholder will outgun the party at range (assuming party spellcasters can't escape antimagic). A complicating factor is that my party is 12th level. At low levels, a "plain" Beholder might be enough on its own and that's totally fair. It might even get away with playing around with the antimagic cone and play "fair". Not so at double-digit levels - the second the antimagic cone isn't there, any single monster not of epic CR will simply be dead. Increasing monster hit points and upping the DC of the eye rays is one thing. I'm also massively ignoring the limits on legendary actions, so the Beholder can shoot one ray after each and every adventurer's action without limits. Monster upgrades I can handle. [U]What I'm asking for here is encounter design[/U]: what the lair looks like, any nifty traps or features to add, what monster tactics to use...? But I'm looking for more. Are you aware of any especially clever encounters featuring a BBEG Beholder? Where the encounter design allows us poor DMs to actually stage a fight that reasonably extends long enough for the party to get "worn down" before they finally reach the Beholder for a final desperate showdown, trying to kill it before they all fall prey to its attacks? :) Please note: the one piece of advice I am [B]not[/B] soliciting is "add more monsters". This thread is exclusively for enworlders that agree that D&D should be able to handle a good solo monster BBEG fight! :) Thanks muchly, Zapp PS. Bonus question: are you aware of any good attempts to "upgrade" the beholder's set of eye rays. I'm afraid too many of the default rays are "low level" effects. Things like Charm and Fear doesn't cut it anymore. Articles and ideas from all editions welcome! PPS. The specific Beholder I need to "juice up" is [I]Belchorzh the Unseen[/I] from Tomb of Annihilation if that helps. This also means that at least in this case it's far too late to replace the monster with something else. They stand outside the mirror door and have all ten eyeballs. If you are familiar with the adventure (pages 146-), you know it basically must be a Beholder. [/QUOTE]
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