The whole "drow lich with a phylactery in a golem" didn't impress me, mostly because I'd seen it before. Did that give anyone else flashbacks to the lichdrow Dyrr from the War of the Spider Queen novels? He followed almost the exact same strategy. Likewise, in a similar venue, Chris Perkins had (in a Dungeon a few years back) a vampire that had it's coffin in a stone golem in the Underdark.
For me, the beholder swashbuckler was just a more original concept, and I like the idea, silly as it may be. He got my vote.