WoTC Rich: Beholder!

[Nebulous]

I shudder to think what happens when a beholder reaches "bloodied"...

Remember "Death Blossom" from The Last Starfighter?

 

[Dragonblade]

Remember "Death Blossom" from The Last Starfighter?

Seriously. I have to stop taking a drink when I browse these boards. I have to clean my monitor now.

 

[lukelightning]

Yep. It's called Armor Class.

I know you posted in jest, but armor class is not a balancing factor; it's just the parallel to saving throws in previous editions. D&D is rife with anti-magic effects; not always literally antimagic, but all sorts of effects and conditions that make spellcasting difficult or impossible. I hope there are similar ways to deal with other classes' special powers as well.

I don't want this to happen:

The entire party is in the anti-magic cone:
Wizard: "I cast fireball at the beholder"
DM: "the beholder's antimagic cone makes your spell fizzle."
Fighter: "I use thunder rain maneuver to teleport right next to him and explode him for 35 points of electrical damage."

 

[ruleslawyer]

Yes, lukelightning, but Bo9S maneuvers that accomplish anything truly significant allow saves anyway, so the double-jeopardy problem posed by overcoming SR and saves exists for them too (must hit AC and beat save). Moreover, many of them are supernatural abilities, and get shut off in an AMF. Finally, you need to be in melee to use all the good ones, meaning you're risking a lot more than the typical attacking spellcaster, who can pull off his tricks at range.

In any event, I highly doubt that AMFs will exist in 4e; it was a stupid mechanic to begin with.

 

[Surgoshan]

Why pick on the poor spellcasters? Now all classes are virtually spellcasters. Is there going to be some "anti-martial" aura that nerfs fighters' abilities too? This was one of my gripes about the Book o' Nine Swords things; D&D had all these built-in counters to magic (spell resistance, spell immunities, need for concentration checks, attacks of opportunity, verbal/somatic/material components, etc. — but martial maneuvers seemed to lack most of these weaknesses.

Creatures that can only be harmed by magic weapons.

 

[Mr. Patient]

I must say, I never used a beholder, in over 20 years of D&D.

Same with me, until a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't worth the wait, alas. The beholder actually surprised the party, but it got very unlucky. The PCs were all in the same arc, and I had the players roll randomly to decide which rays they were facing. They didn't get any of the SoDs, two of the three made their saves, and the third PC was barely injured. The beholder then rolled a really lousy initiative and was dead before it could act again. Sad, really.

 

[Plane Sailing]

and I had the players roll randomly to decide which rays they were facing.

I'm not surprised it did badly then! It really has to make optimum use of its powers to be a decent threat

(it vaguely reminds me of some adventures in OD&D days where the wizards spell books and hence memorised spells were determined via random rolls on the spell tables...)

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Which, I'd like to point out, is why even the most prepared wizard is meat to a beholder. If you weren't zapping the spellcaster, you weren't playing the beholder right.

If you're in the antimagic cone, you can't be zapped. When you leave the antimagic cone, your defensive spells reappear.

 

[Ipissimus]

Yup, Dr. Awkward's correct. It's this fact that makes Beholders very hard to run effectively without mundane minions, which is why I'm looking forward to a proper Solo boss monster style Beholder for 4E.

 

[JohnSnow]

If you're in the antimagic cone, you can't be zapped. When you leave the antimagic cone, your defensive spells reappear.

Ohhh...you're right. Sorry, I was thinking of the antimagic cone as working like a dispel magic attack. For example, if the Beholder could impose a condition on spellcasters that prevented them from getting the full benefit of their magic.

And yes, what's good for the goose (spellcaster) is good for the gander (warrior). The martial equivalent of an anti-magic attack is one that fatigues or weakens the fighter.