Official clarifications are hoped for . . . .
All info requested is version 3.5
Monster Manual, page 25, says the beholder's caster level is 14; page 26 says the caster level is 13.
Monster Manual, glossary, page 315, says if no caster level is specified, the caster level is equal to the creature's Hit Dice.
Okay, here are my first two questions.
1) Is the beholder's caster level 13 or 14? I didn't see this addressed in the MM errata.
2) If I'm advancing a beholder, what do I do about its new caster level? It would stand to reason that since its caster level is already higher than its Hit Dice, that its advanced caster level should continue to improve--but there's no info on this in the monster manual (either in the glossary, the monster description, or the Advancing Monsters section).
Next issue: when advancing the beholder from 16 Hit Dice to 17 Hit Dice, its size changes, and its Dex decreases. As a result, it's Eye Ray attack bonus actually decreases at this point. Given that increasing the size and Hit Dice of a monster should make it more dangerous and not less dangerous, does anyone have any good ideas about dealing with this? (I mean, Ability Focus (eye ray) and Weapon Focus (eye ray) are obvious, but neither directly addresses the issue of the size change as the monster advances at this point.) My original thought was to scrap the -2 Dex penalty in this case, because the Dexterity in question is the Dexterity of the eye ray. Or, I thought about saying that when the creature becomes Huge it gains a racial bonus to its eye ray attack, but that seemed really contrived.
Dave
All info requested is version 3.5
Monster Manual, page 25, says the beholder's caster level is 14; page 26 says the caster level is 13.
Monster Manual, glossary, page 315, says if no caster level is specified, the caster level is equal to the creature's Hit Dice.
Okay, here are my first two questions.
1) Is the beholder's caster level 13 or 14? I didn't see this addressed in the MM errata.
2) If I'm advancing a beholder, what do I do about its new caster level? It would stand to reason that since its caster level is already higher than its Hit Dice, that its advanced caster level should continue to improve--but there's no info on this in the monster manual (either in the glossary, the monster description, or the Advancing Monsters section).
Next issue: when advancing the beholder from 16 Hit Dice to 17 Hit Dice, its size changes, and its Dex decreases. As a result, it's Eye Ray attack bonus actually decreases at this point. Given that increasing the size and Hit Dice of a monster should make it more dangerous and not less dangerous, does anyone have any good ideas about dealing with this? (I mean, Ability Focus (eye ray) and Weapon Focus (eye ray) are obvious, but neither directly addresses the issue of the size change as the monster advances at this point.) My original thought was to scrap the -2 Dex penalty in this case, because the Dexterity in question is the Dexterity of the eye ray. Or, I thought about saying that when the creature becomes Huge it gains a racial bonus to its eye ray attack, but that seemed really contrived.
Dave
