Using a Beholder for the first time.

[Oryan77]

The Beholder was sent to investigate a strange occurance that affected a nearby Beholder dwelling. He's been roaming around looking for answers and killing whatever it finds useless to it. He'll start off asking the PC's questions.

We left off right when everyone spotted the Beholder. Everyone is freaked out about it. The adventure calls for the Beholder to attack them when he's finished questioning the PC's, but I might let the PC's avoid the encounter if they treat it with respect because...

For one, they average ECL 8 (more like 9 though) so it would be a very hard fight.

They've been 'killing first, using speak dead second' a lot for a long time now. So I also saw this as a chance to humble them and remind them that they can't just attack everything they see. So fighting it isn't a must.

I'm also worried that one of the players went directly home and pulled out his MM so he can read up on the Beholder and it's stats. I'm not the only one in the group that thinks he might have done this. So if I throw a Beholder at them some other time, that metagaming knowledge might be forgotten.

Maybe I can twist things around and make him question them, then leave. But then some Gauth minions come floating down from behind the hills to do what their master didn't feel like doing.

 

[Nail]

Have you considered adding some class levels to the beholder? Try "Ranger", for some non-assosicated class CR goodness.

 

[Brother MacLaren]

If you ever suspect that a player is going to use player knowledge that his character does not have, ALWAYS tweak the monster to ruin that tactic. Make rust monsters look like carrion crawlers, make trolls' regeneration bypassed by silver rather than fire/acid, that sort of thing.

A few suggestions for your beholder:
The revised beholder from WOTC: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dd/20061028a
Beholder feats from Lords of Madness
Change the eye beams to attacks of comparable effectiveness
Change the central eye from an antimagic cone to an all-around deflection and resistance bonus equal to the creature's Cha modifier

 

[Raven Crowking]

The Beholder was sent to investigate a strange occurance that affected a nearby Beholder dwelling. He's been roaming around looking for answers and killing whatever it finds useless to it. He'll start off by removing any threat the PCs represent and then asking the PC's questions from a position of strength, probably destroying any PC who fails to answer to its satisfaction as a means of intimidating the others.

FIFY

 

[Oryan77]

I actually did swap out Finger of Death & Disintigrate for Ray of Entropy & Avasculate. We have a gentlemans agreement about save or die spells. Disintigrate was a 'maybe' though because it can be a good utility spell (like the whole landslide idea).

 

[Brother MacLaren]

Disintegrate isn't Save-or-Die anyway, it's Save-or-Massive-Damage.
Enervation could be a good ray to add.

 

[Oryan77]

Disintegrate isn't Save-or-Die anyway, it's Save-or-Massive-Damage.

Yeah, but at their level and total HPs, it would be a save or die
After a few more level I will definately keep Disintegrate because it's such a cool spell

 

[frankthedm]

Yeah, but at their level and total HPs, it would be a save or die
After a few more level I will definately keep Disintegrate because it's such a cool spell

Uhm, what level are the players? Beholders are an all or nothing fight. You might be better off using a pack of Gauths rather than one Beholder. The Fight can last longer, more beams can get flung and less chance of the player's winning or dying in round one.

 

[Oryan77]

Uhm, what level are the players? Beholders are an all or nothing fight. You might be better off using a pack of Gauths rather than one Beholder. The Fight can last longer, more beams can get flung and less chance of the player's winning or dying in round one.

They average ECL 8 (more like 9 though) so I expected it to be a really tough fight. But as I said earlier, I was also using it because they've been attacking first, using Speak with Dead later a lot recently (once they realize they might have wanted to talk). So I took this opportunity to humble them a bit to remind them there's things out there more powerful than them and they can't just attack everything in their path...a little roleplaying would be nice once in awhile. The adventure I'm running called for this Beholder...I didn't make up the encounter but I can always change it.

 

[frankthedm]

Giants with class levels may be a better choice. Or a pair of CR 11 green dragons. Beholders are a monster you HAVE to jump first, pray your saves hold up and speak with dead later.