My group has just invaded House Vhalantru and highly suspects he is a beholder. To that effects, the bard/sorcerer in the group has taken antimagic field as his next spell and is planning on using it walking all through the house and dungeon below. They already fought the tarterian gauths and kicked their butts with the antimagic field. Now I'm a bit worried that they'll encounter Vhal with the antimagic field and make it a cheesy and very anti-climatic battle.
Any suggestions on what to do?
I'm already planning on making the Oblivion doors throughout the dungeon become totally inert while in a antimagic field, so they can not open the door at all.
Anything else that may help?
Also important to note that I'm using the new variant beholder put up at the WotC site...
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dd/20061028a
Not a problem for Vhal, infact it will play into his hands. His paralysing spit is an extraordinary ability and is thus unaffected by the antimagic. Thus the bard/sorcerer will find himself making a save without his beautiful save boost magic items.
On the matter of the variant beholder. I really like it, the problem is you then need to explain why Thrifane has an inflict wounds grafted on her forehead, why there are so many petrified statues around and why the doors require spells like charm monster and finger of death.
Thanks I forgot about the paralyzing spit.
I plan on having a tome called the Arcanus Beholdrin in the same area they party find the tome that Vhal used to give himself the tarterian template. It will be basically a way to transform a beholder into a "Arcane Beholder" that will explain his newfound powers.
The paralyzing spit is a powerful tool. Later in the series, the wizard in my group's party was flying and invisible when he was hit and failed his save. He ended up bumping another character until that character cast see invisibility and helped him out! I would hope the caster used all his am fields before meeting Val, but smart play is smart play. My party used the am field to advantage in the soul pillars, when confronting a mage in a small room. The sorcerer cast the field, and the paladin joined him in interviewing the trapped caster.
I think the alternate Beholder is an interesting build, and while I agree with most of the changes, I think the Telekinesis power can be extxremely useful, specifically in the case you're worried about. V can use the ray to hurl anything he can get his eys on at the PCs. I would argue the momentum of the the throw is not cancelled by an Anti-Magic Field.
Other possible strategies include, if he's not too keen on the keeping his digs in good shape, using Disintgrate to drop the roof on the PCs, lighting his couch on fire with Scorching Ray and hurling it at the PCs. Or he could blast a series of holes in the floor, creating a ditch that the PCs have to cross to get to him. When they start tring to jump (because they can't fly), he can start knocking them out of the air.
Huh, a Beholder Tactics thread... Any other ideas?