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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Crimson Binome" data-source="post: 7515946" data-attributes="member: 6775031">The limited nature of the antimagic cone is one of the most important tactical aspects of a beholder fight. If the beholder was expected to shut down all magic, while also firing rays with impunity, then they would have just given it an aura or something. Instead, the beholder gets to decide who it wants to take out of the fight on any given round. If the wizard is annoying you, then you can put the cone on them, and fire your rays at a fighter. If the fighter is flying in your face, put the cone on them so that they fall, and then fire at the wizard. The PCs can choose to move out of the cone on their turn, depending on the local geography, but that opens them up to legendary attacks. If you want to make things interesting for the players, then the geography of the room is the big variable; instead of flooding the room with acid, which simply adds a time limit to the fight, I would strongly consider the placement of pillars and mirrors, and include at least one winding path that a fighter could run up if they wanted to avoid hazards (with the trade-off being that it gives the beholder more time to pick them off).The most disappointing aspect of running a beholder, at least from my perspective, is that their rays are so hit-or-miss. Most of them do nothing on a successful save, and most PCs will succeed in most saves (especially if there's a paladin nearby), which means most rounds pass without the beholder accomplishing much of anything at all. If I really wanted to make the fight exciting, I would change the effects of most rays to do something if they make the save. Maybe turn one or two of the rays into beams that sweep out a cone for fire/cold damage, with half damage on a successful Dex/Con save.</blockquote>

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