My first question is. If its facing you with its main eye and you attack it with a slashing or piercing weapon, would or shouldn't you have a chance to blind that eye, or stop that eye from functioning for so many rounds? I could see blunt weapons working as well but in a different way.
Ok this question is alittle more slily but i can't help but wonder. How do Beholders reproduce? Do they even reproduce? Does one of its eye tenticals just pop off and form a baby Beholder and that grows into an adult? What would it look like. Would the baby's had just the main eye and slowly as it grows up the other eye stalks pop out of i ts body? I just cant help but wonder about this for some reason.
Self-fertilization according to Lords of Madness.
Self-fertilization according to Lords of Madness.
Well that answers some of the question.
Well that answers some of my question.
My first question is. If its facing you with its main eye and you attack it with a slashing or piercing weapon, would or shouldn't you have a chance to blind that eye, or stop that eye from functioning for so many rounds? I could see blunt weapons working as well but in a different way.
Ok this question is alittle more slily but i can't help but wonder. How do Beholders reproduce? Do they even reproduce? Does one of its eye tenticals just pop off and form a baby Beholder and that grows into an adult? What would it look like. Would the baby's had just the main eye and slowly as it grows up the other eye stalks pop out of i ts body? I just cant help but wonder about this for some reason.
Unless there is mechanics for taking out the main eye in the MM I description for beholders (which I don't think there is) then I would say noyou can't. 3.5 does not have a called shot mechanic that I can recall, so taking out the eye no matter how big or small is not possible. I understand this seems it should be an option, and the DM could house rule it as such, I think the fluff around a monster's AC includes some level of bobbing and weaving so your hit could hit just about any part of it's body.
Yeah there is a detailed (almost too detailed :) ) description in Lords of Madness. It also describes the some what survival of the fittest approach to parenting where they eat the younge that are the most flawed if I remember correctly.
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The 2e supplement "I, Tyrant" said they had both male and female reproductive organs and were capable of self-fertilization. It also went on to say that some would mate with others of their kind anyway (and sometimes mate with other beholderkin as well, creating "aberrant beholder breeds")...
"Beholders give birth to live young, three to six at a time, emerging from their progenitor's mouth in a flurry of activity..."
If you bash a human in the head with a hammer, shouldn't you have a chance of blinding the human?
If you want this level of detail in your game, that's fine, but it's going to require house rules in 3.x. The rules kind of assume that a creature twists or parries to protect the vitals spots, all in the name of keeping the game fun and keep it moving. If you put in rules for weapons blinding monsters, folks are going to ask why they don't blind PC's.
BTW, beholders have pretty good natural armor, perhaps its eyelid is like a slab of concrete and it blinks just enough to protect itself. And why is the beholder in melee range to begin with? They're way too smart for that.
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I think the real question is, can a beholder use an eye stalk to block an eye poke in classic 3 Stooges style.
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hey beholder knowledge-keepers.
I need to know before Monday, whether the beholder's anti-magic cone surpresses its own magic as well.
Tactically, this will cause me confusion in play next monday. I'm running the Hive Mother from Lords of Madness, and with a 260' antimagic cone, I'm not understanding whether its own eyestalk magic is immune against its anti-magic cone.
I've read two different versions on the web so far.
Any thoughts?
From what I understand, the tentacle eyes are behind the main eye and can aim in any direction. The beholder keeps it main eye on spellcasters and can aim the other eyes at opponents in a way that won't cross the main eye's aoe.
hey beholder knowledge-keepers.
I need to know before Monday, whether the beholder's anti-magic cone surpresses its own magic as well.
Tactically, this will cause me confusion in play next monday. I'm running the Hive Mother from Lords of Madness, and with a 260' antimagic cone, I'm not understanding whether its own eyestalk magic is immune against its anti-magic cone.
I've read two different versions on the web so far.
Any thoughts?
I have no idea about it being a "official" rule or not but the way my DM has always played it is that a beholders own rays are NOT immune to it anti-magic field, it either shuts the central eye and try's to blast what's in front of it OR it keeps the spellcasters in it's central eye and tries to blast everyone else around it.
The way around this for me is to play a cleric of Mystra in the Forgotten realms, take the feat Initiate of Mystra and not worry about anti-magic ever again. The granted power of that feat is that anti-magic or wild magic can be overcome with a spell-craft check.
Good Gaming hope this helps.
hey beholder knowledge-keepers.
I need to know before Monday, whether the beholder's anti-magic cone surpresses its own magic as well.
Tactically, this will cause me confusion in play next monday. I'm running the Hive Mother from Lords of Madness, and with a 260' antimagic cone, I'm not understanding whether its own eyestalk magic is immune against its anti-magic cone.
I've read two different versions on the web so far.
Any thoughts?
I'm not home, so I can't verify what the eye rays are, but I think the Gibbering Orb is based off of the beholder, which has its eye rays as supernatural.
Assume they are supernatural, then ...
Supernatural Abilities (Su)
Supernatural abilities are magical and go away in an antimagic field but are not subject to spell resistance, counterspells, or to being dispelled by dispel magic. Using a supernatural ability is a standard action unless noted otherwise. Supernatural abilities may have a use limit or be usable at will, just like spell-like abilities. However, supernatural abilities do not provoke attacks of opportunity and never require Concentration checks. Unless otherwise noted, a supernatural ability has an effective caster level equal to the creature’s Hit Dice. The saving throw (if any) against a supernatural ability is: 10 + ½ the creature’s HD + the creature’s ability modifier (usually Charisma).
So, no it doesn't appears as they are immune to the anti-magic cone. Thus the creature probably saves using its anti-magic cone for those that it has trouble dealing with due to magic.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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Does the 260' foot cone begin the same way all template cones do, except that it extents far out to 260?
Can I assume for short distances any cone template should do to track the Hive Mother's central eye?
If not, what should it look like?
Rules answer: Yes.
DM answer: Whatever you like. I like to keep all my beholders different. I'd give her a feat or ability that lets her narrow it to a line, then blast the PCs on either side too :-)
I also recommend adapting some of the abilities that Mike Mears talked about in an old Dragon web-article. (No link on the telephone but it was Monster Makeover)
Stat damaging rays that stack (eg: first strike 1d6 Dex. Second time 1d6 Dex and slowed. Third time 1d6 Dex and petrified (also petrification if Dex hits 0 through damage)
Int damage can daze or stun or confuse, Str damage can also slow... whatever you fancy.
Ranged touch elemental eye-rays doing 6 or 8d6 no save.
Rolling two initiatives, and having a full round for one and, say, 1d4 rays on the other.
Unluck ray (reroll all d20s and miss chances. take worst.)
Ray of counterspelling every round as immediate action
the list is endless :-)
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Last night the Hive Mother rained havoc upon the party.
I sculpted a 15' beholder, complete with 10 google-eye stalks, painted it, and released it on the party entreating upon her innermost lair.
Round 1 Kill Count: 1
lol
As I am a GM who rarely if ever manages to kill characters... this was a night to remember. The beholder was up in her lair about 90 feet up... party was in an adjoining hallway, after spending 2 sessions of dungeon crawling through the Lords of Madness mini dungeon.
The fighter turns the corner, blows a horn of blasting against some chaos beasts, and the beholder layed into him with 4 eyestalks. First turning him to stone, then using disintegration ray 145hp dmg, then causing serious wounds 45hp dmg.
The player, who had played this character since 2008, was quite gracious. We all saw his death as valorous, and maybe its not the end of the road for him.
How should I handle all of his equipment? Destroyed?
Last night the Hive Mother rained havoc upon the party.
I sculpted a 15' beholder, complete with 10 google-eye stalks, painted it, and released it on the party entreating upon her innermost lair.
Round 1 Kill Count: 1
lol
As I am a GM who rarely if ever manages to kill characters... this was a night to remember. The beholder was up in her lair about 90 feet up... party was in an adjoining hallway, after spending 2 sessions of dungeon crawling through the Lords of Madness mini dungeon.
The fighter turns the corner, blows a horn of blasting against some chaos beasts, and the beholder layed into him with 4 eyestalks. First turning him to stone, then using disintegration ray 145hp dmg, then causing serious wounds 45hp dmg.
The player, who had played this character since 2008, was quite gracious. We all saw his death as valorous, and maybe its not the end of the road for him.
How should I handle all of his equipment? Destroyed?
Against that kind of a massive assault unless he dropped something that was held in his hand then yes his equipment should go as well. Normally a disintegration spell leaves the equipment but by turning him into an object first(IE a statue) then everything would be lost. IMO.
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by turning him into an object first(IE a statue) then everything would be lost. IMO.
I would agree...
The spell Flesh to Stone states that:
The subject, along with all its carried gear, turns into a mindless, inert statue. If the statue resulting from this spell is broken or damaged, the subject (if ever returned to its original state) has similar damage or deformities.
That last sentence speaks volumes to me as to what would happen to his equipment...
I suppose you could; but generally te repulsion eye pushes you away from the central eye so you can pretty much only attack it with ranged and spells to its front.
The thing that always bothered me was; if that repulsion eye was working; how the heck does it bite you?
My first question is. If its facing you with its main eye and you attack it with a slashing or piercing weapon, would or shouldn't you have a chance to blind that eye, or stop that eye from functioning for so many rounds? I could see blunt weapons working as well but in a different way.
Ok this question is alittle more slily but i can't help but wonder. How do Beholders reproduce? Do they even reproduce? Does one of its eye tenticals just pop off and form a baby Beholder and that grows into an adult? What would it look like. Would the baby's had just the main eye and slowly as it grows up the other eye stalks pop out of i ts body? I just cant help but wonder about this for some reason.