I'm prepping Lords of Oblivion and am wondering if there are mistakes in the stat blocks for Tarterian Gauth and perhaps any other floating eye tyrants.
There is Monster Manula errata regarding Gauths and Beholders which says to increase their Bite Attacks by +5. So in the MM the Gauth should have a +3 melee bite instead of -2. Our Tarterian version which has higher strength has a -1 melee bite but I think it should be +4 and while raging +6. And by the way exactly how long does their rage last?
Next we have our advanced beholder version of bad guy. Beholders in the MM are listed as +2 melee bite but with the errata that become +7. The advanced version has been advanced 4HD and is listed at +5 melee bit but I believe should be +10.
And so on for the other beholder versions.
Also, the errata mentions the use of eye rays as a free action. So does that mean they can perform full-round actions doing whatever they want (moving, flyby attacking, using spell-like abilities, etc) and still at any time during thier round get off all of their eye rays?
Lastly, I have had trouble adjudicating Gaze situations. In this case, for the Gauth it is a special attack so just looking at the gauth in the eye doesn't mean anything right? The gauth has to use his stunning gaze on a foe during its round. So when the gauth uses his gaze, does a character automatically meet it unless they specified something during thier turn to avoid such a thing? I'm thinking the first round the gauth uses it someone will just have to make a save as it was not expected. In subsequent rounds players can specify they avoid eye contact. Now, exactly what impact does that have in the game?
Thanks,
Eric.
Creative Director
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There is Monster Manula errata regarding Gauths and Beholders which says to increase their Bite Attacks by +5. So in the MM the Gauth should have a +3 melee bite instead of -2. Our Tarterian version which has higher strength has a -1 melee bite but I think it should be +4 and while raging +6. And by the way exactly how long does their rage last?
I'm not sure the errata was available at the time we were creating the stat blocks for the beholders; originally, the beholder was built so that its eye rays were its primary attack and its bite was a secondary attack, thus reducing its bite attack by 5. Since a beholder or gauth's bite is, in the end, pretty meaningless when compared to its eye rays; personally, I kind of like the fact that their bites were secondary attacks. Feel free to adjust the attack up by 5 points, but it's not gonna make a HUGE difference in light of all those eye rays.
As for the rage, I can't recall the exact mechanics, but if it follows the barbarian rage method, their rage lasts for 1 round per point of Constitution modifier.
Also, the errata mentions the use of eye rays as a free action. So does that mean they can perform full-round actions doing whatever they want (moving, flyby attacking, using spell-like abilities, etc) and still at any time during thier round get off all of their eye rays?
Yes. Think of it this way; a beholder does everything he wants in a round, and then once he's done, he gets his eye rays as well. So he can move up to someone and use a spell-like ability or bite and THEN use all his eye rays.
Lastly, I have had trouble adjudicating Gaze situations. In this case, for the Gauth it is a special attack so just looking at the gauth in the eye doesn't mean anything right? The gauth has to use his stunning gaze on a foe during its round. So when the gauth uses his gaze, does a character automatically meet it unless they specified something during thier turn to avoid such a thing? I'm thinking the first round the gauth uses it someone will just have to make a save as it was not expected. In subsequent rounds players can specify they avoid eye contact. Now, exactly what impact does that have in the game?
The thing to remember about beholders is that their eye powers aren't gaze attacks. They roll to hit with them, or they just look in a direction and things happen. THe antimagic ray doesn't care if you're averting your eyes, and the eye rays themselves just make attack rolls; if they hit, bad things happen regardless of where the target was looking. The gauth's stun gaze might work different... can't remember if it's a gaze weapon off the top of my head...
Best way to handle gaze attacks is to assume the PCs aren't averting their gaze and to just roll with it. Once a player catches on and says "I'm averting my gaze!" they can just avoid the eyes (looking at the creature's body) which, I believe, gives a +4 bonus on saves against the gaze attack. Or they can avert their gaze entirely, which prevents the gaze attack entirely (except when the creature actively directs its gaze at a target as a standard action), but gives the monster total concealment and a 50% miss chance against attacks against it.
I knew the eye rays were free actions and ranged touch attacks but didn't see the 2 for gauth and 3 for beholder limit in a round to a 90 degree arc. I assume the creature can always choose any combination of rays it wants to bring to bear in a given 90 degree arc. So each round I will use tactics to determine which it would use and whether it would move to a more advantageous spot in order to target multiple enemies with various eyes.
My main question was about the gauth's single stunning gaze special attack. I'll go with the if you look at the gauth on your turn make a save, if you try to avert your eyes on your turn you have 50% chance of not needing to make a save and the gauth gets concealment, or you can close your eyes and not have to make any save but the gauth gets total concealment
If the gauth actively uses its stunning gaze on a foe then another save may need to be made on the gauth's turn by the targeted foe. The target gets the same modifiers as above if they were averting or covering thier eyes.
As for the traterian stuff, since the gauth is a farastu and thereby gets rage I will make the rage the same length as a farastu demodand, 7 rounds.
I agreee that the whole bite thing is minor especially given the small damage it can do. But I will go ahead and raise the to hit mod by 5. With the farastu version having adhesive slime and the Kelubar version acidic slime they become a bit more effective in melee.
One more question, this one about the Kelubar tarterian SA of Stench (Ex): A while back, the party ran into something on Occipitus with stench and I had a player try to avoid making a save by holding his breath. I didn't allow it at the time since I envisioned the Stench as being almost radiation like, assaulting the character in more ways than just through inhalation. What do you think?
Eric.