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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Riastlin" data-source="post: 5518880" data-attributes="member: 94022">Well, finally got to run the encounter yesterday.  Took a little longer to get to since the party got bogged down a bit in a previous fight.Anyway, I leveled the beholder up to level 12 and adjusted the damage to match.  I modified the beholder to allow it to make a free action (as a triggered action) to roll a save against any status effect other than a mark, quarry, etc. whenever said effect was applied.  Additionally, I allowed the central eye attack to have an alternate usage to allow the beholder to remove one status effect (again other than a mark/quarry/etc.).  My main reason for allowing those effects to remain was that I didn't want to mess too much with basic class features and potentially make a character feel useless.In addition to this, I gave the beholder the ability to gain phasing on a recharge since this was taking place in its tower, with each floor being 7 x 7 and 30 feet high.  I was looking for a way to give the beholder some mobility to spread the party out, etc.  Finally, I decided that part of the beholder's inherent insanity was that it desperately wanted to be a mother.  As a result, it had experimented on the previous parties and soldiers that had been sent to kill it and was able to use them to essentially hatch baby beholders with vaguely humanoid features.  By the time the party reached it, the beholder had created dozens of tiny baby beholders that formed into a level 12 swarm to help in the fight.The fight ended up being really fun I think.  It still lasted close to 2 and a half hours due to tactical discussions and the like, but it never really felt like it was dragging or a grind.  The pally missed the session so the swordmage had her mark on it the entire encounter, but still took plenty of damage and the rest of the party took plenty as well.  The ranger ended at about 15 hit points and no surges left (having spent 3 in the encounter) while the sentinel was also out of surges and had no healing left.  The party had to use tactics pretty carefully, including taking several actions to make heal checks to allow saving throws.  Both the sword mage and the ranger had times where they failed the first save on the Death Ray and the sentinel spent several rounds petrified.  The fight ended up on the roof and twice the ranger had to save to keep from falling (and was successful both times even without needed the bonus added by the crenallations).  By the end of the fight (the 4th of the day), just about everyone had been bloodied at some point and as stated two characters were without surges.  The funny thing was that it never had to use its free save action or its central eye on itself.  Only once was a status effect placed on it (and I forgot the save that time) but it only lasted a round.All in all it played out really well.  The players seemed to have fun and while they were grumbling about all the attacks it got, they were only half-hearted grumbles.  I have to say that this was a pretty dang successful solo.  I would still leave in the status effect saves and central eye variant, but otherwise, this is a really solid solo imho.</blockquote>

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