Using a Beholder for the first time.

[Whimsical]

One thing that has thrown off the DMs I know is the fact that Beholder is a subspecies of Beholder. Most DMs turn to the page in the monster manual with the picture and the "complete" description of the Beholder, not realizing that there are rules on the previous page that govern the Gauth and the Beholder. Important rules for how the eye rays work in combat get missed.

The eye rays use the free action to use and the antimagic ray takes a standard action to turn off and on. But I would say that it would take a move action to reposition the anti magic cone. So, a beholder on its turn could move the cone off of the PCs as a move action, hit all of the pcs with eye rays as a series of free actions, then move the cone back on the PCs as it's standard(move) action.

 

[frankthedm]

The eye rays use the free action to use and the antimagic ray takes a standard action to turn off and on. But I would say that it would take a move action to reposition the anti magic cone. So, a beholder on its turn could move the cone off of the PCs as a move action, hit all of the pcs with eye rays as a series of free actions, then move the cone back on the PCs as it's standard(move) action.

The beholder can fire it's eyes mid move or mid run.

 

[Venator]

I wouldnt put a party of four 8th or 9th level PC's up against a beholder at all, never mind one they dont know about or arent prepared for... Its instant death if the beholder is done any justice at all.

Also, cant a beholder pivot on its axis up to 90 degrees for 5 ft. of movement (fly speed 20 on beholder)? This allows it to bring down all eye rays on the party each round...

 

[frankthedm]

I wouldnt put a party of four 8th or 9th level PC's up against a beholder at all, never mind one they dont know about or arent prepared for... Its instant death if the beholder is done any justice at all.

Also, cant a beholder pivot on its axis up to 90 degrees as a free action? This allows it to bring down all eye rays on the party each round...

Using all the rays can be done only if the behoder is dangererously close, otherwise 9 beams on 3 targets is all that can land if they are bunched up. The rays fire in unison as a free action so repositioning while firing is not an option, though catching 3 fools where forward, right and down meet can be done

Eye Rays (Su): Each of a beholder's ten small eyes can produce a magical ray once per round as a free action. During a single round, the creature can aim only three eye rays at targets in any one 90-degree arc (up, forward, backward, left, right, or down). The remaining eyes must aim at targets in other arcs or not at all. A beholder can tilt and pan its body each round to change which rays it can bring to bear in any given arc.

http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/500/3dbeholdingjh3.gif

 

[Venator]

Are you sure the rays all fire in unison?

The way i read it it seems as if he can fire each ray once per round, as a free action. Its true he can only fire 3 rays at targets in any one 90 degree arc, but what leads you to believe that it must be in unison? What im wondering is if he can use his fly speed to pivot and change which arc his target is currently in, then fire up to three of his remaining rays at that target as a free action? Sure the targets might be in the same place, but the arc they are currently in would certainly be different, no?

 

[NilesB]

We have a gentlemans agreement about save or die spells

It seems to me that a Beholder constitutes an inherent violation of this agreement. Is it too late to rewrite the adventure (and your campaign world) to include no beholders?

 

[MarkB]

Are you sure the rays all fire in unison?

The way i read it it seems as if he can fire each ray once per round, as a free action. Its true he can only fire 3 rays at targets in any one 90 degree arc, but what leads you to believe that it must be in unison? What im wondering is if he can use his fly speed to pivot and change which arc his target is currently in, then fire up to three of his remaining rays at that target as a free action? Sure the targets might be in the same place, but the arc they are currently in would certainly be different, no?

Except that the rules text for the eye beams which Frank quoted states that the beholder can pan or tilt its body each round to change its firing arcs - not several times each round.

The only good reason for having the firing-arcs text in there at all is if you assume the beholder can only change those arcs on a round-by-round basis at most, regardless of the normal flight manoueverability rules. And for consistency's sake, it's simplest to assume that it fires all its eye-beams either before or after that change.

 

[Quartz]

Of course, it could be a Projected Image or an illusion of a beholder <hehehehe>

 

[moritheil]

Uhm, what level are the players? Beholders are an all or nothing fight.

Agree. Usually someone's going down hard in the first couple of rounds.

Btw, it's usually a good idea for beholders to get altitude on the group. It gives them an easier angle to fire their eye beams from.

 

[Oryan77]

So people are suggesting not running a combat with the Beholder. What if I use Gauths instead? How many should I throw at the party to make a fairly tough fight but not one that's really hard? I will just have to think of a reason for the Beholder to leave without attacking but still have Gauth appear and fight instead.

I'm assuming you can't really gauge these things on CR alone since people seem to think a Beholder is a TPK even though my CR calculator says otherwise.