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The party was trying to sneak into a fortified city through a crypt and encountered a Beholder.
After finding out that the central eye is an anti-magic cone and inhibits the beholder's own eye stalks, the Dwarf Barbarian has come up with a plan:
2. Pry the central eye open and force it to remain open
3. Stay in anti-magic cone and bash beholder to death
I'm a very Yes-You-Can kind of GM, so I've got no problem with the plan. In fact, I thought it was so crazy/funny that it deserved a thread here on the forums.
My first reaction is that Step #2 could be handled by grappling contests. If the barbarian can "pin" the beholder, she can accomplish Step #2. I'm not sure if this is the right way to go.
Anybody have any suggestions on how to handle the mechanics of such a plan?
Sounds good to me.
I've always seen Pinning as being like twisting your opponent's arm behind its back, so I don't see why he couldn't pry the eye open with the same action.
We are completely within the realm of ad-hoc here, so there's no valid opinion.
That said, I'd say that your ruling is about what I'd go with. Specifically, I'd put it under 'things you can do when you succeed a grapple check' alongside dealing unarmed damage, pinning, etc.
I'd also say that your Barbarian player is awesome.
The party was trying to sneak into a fortified city through a crypt and encountered a Beholder.
** spoiler omitted **
After finding out that the central eye is an anti-magic cone and inhibits the beholder's own eye stalks, the Dwarf Barbarian has come up with a plan:
** spoiler omitted **
I'm a very Yes-You-Can kind of GM, so I've got no problem with the plan. In fact, I thought it was so crazy/funny that it deserved a thread here on the forums.
My first reaction is that Step #2 could be handled by grappling contests. If the barbarian can "pin" the beholder, she can accomplish Step #2. I'm not sure if this is the right way to go.
Anybody have any suggestions on how to handle the mechanics of such a plan?
I think you've got it right, treat it like a pin. 1st round grapple, 2nd round try to pin (in this case force the eye open), 3rd+ rounds bashy time. Good luck to the barbarian :)
I'm curious as to how the barbarian would grapple it though. I'd hope that the poor thing isn't floating along the ground. And with an antimagic eye flying up to it would be difficult.
interesting, this rules set doesn't have "facing".
Yet the eye has a cone.
IF the beholder was "facing" a different direction, the cone would effect a different area.
A loop hole in the lack of facing rules?
All the beholder would technically need to is turn 180 degrees, so the AM cone is not facing the barbarian and nail him with his other eyes.
Constantly turning would force the barbarian to constantly move to get back in the AM cone.
But if the beholders move action is to turn, his attack action is to pelt the PC with a ray, and as such, the "tactic" of forcing his eye open would be moot.
Not to mention two rounds of grappling makes for getting hit with two rounds of really lethal rays.
Pendagast: I'm assuming the barbarian is clinging to the monster, so that when it turns, he turns with it. The player did specifically state that they wanted to stay within the cone. Seems like a cheap shot to take that away on a supposed rules technicality, even though the GM fully understands his intent.
As for the cone emanation with facing rules? I think the behold just gets to pick a single direction each round.
Will the barbarian have to make grapple checks each round to maintain the pin condition?
Where will the other PCs be? Even if grappled and forced to keep its eye open, I see no reason the beholder[TM] couldn't turn and blast away at other PCs with its other eyes.
I'd go with this with the understanding that it's not an autokill, the grappling would have to be played out and if the beholder escaped the pin condition, the barbarian is going to be in a world of hurt.
Will the barbarian have to make grapple checks each round to maintain the pin condition?
Where will the other PCs be? Even if grappled and forced to keep its eye open, I see no reason the beholder[TM] couldn't turn and blast away at other PCs with its other eyes.
I'd go with this with the understanding that it's not an autokill, the grappling would have to be played out and if the beholder escaped the pin condition, the barbarian is going to be in a world of hurt.
This is exactly the way I am leaning. Pendagast pointed out this requires taking two rounds of ray attacks on the chin; that's a bit of a risk just to get started.
And then yes, I plan to have the barbarian make grapple checks to maintain the pinned condition. As long as she can maintain it, she'll be safe from direct fire from the eye beams. However, I plan to let the Beholder have its movement. I figure it's a sphere of 8-foot diameter, and she's a 4 foot tall Dwarf. This will be like car surfing, except the car is actively trying to kill the rider.
The Beholder will think in 3D. So a careful use of the disintegrate ray toward UP could bring rocks crashing DOWN. Then it's just a matter of positioning the rock catche.. err Barbarian.. under the rock. This is to say nothing of using the Telekinesis ray DOWN in order to bring a large rock UP ... >:-)
If the Beholder can tag one of the other PCs with Charm Monster, that might even the odds a little bit.
If she can maintain the pin, she can keep hammering away with her 1-handed weapon. If she loses the grapple completely (i.e.: the beholder becomes the controlling grappler), she may be in for some falling damage, in addition to the vengeance of an angry beholder.
I liked blackbloodtroll's suggestion of Dirty Trick. If the Barbarian was going for a one-off (shoving her bejeweled crowbar in the Beholder's eye) and expecting to use her two-handed weapons, I think that would be the best way to model it. Because she wants an ongoing effect and is willing to make grapple checks and risk life and limb, I'm going to go with grapple/pin.
Thanks for the feedback everybody. This is really cool; succeed or fail, the story of the barbarian who car-surfed a beholder is one that I'll be telling every future gaming group.
My party has been at me to post the outcome of their encounter with the Beholder.
After a failed negotiation (the Beholder wanted a new statue for its collection, but the party wouldn't give up their Catfolk), fighting ensued.
The Barbarian didn't get a chance to car surf the Beholder. The Wizard cast Baleful Polymorph on the Beholder to turn it into a Flying Squirrel. The Beholder failed both it's save against the spell and the second save to retain its abilities and mental scores.
The party waited for the flying squirrel to descend to the ground and then spent round after round (after round!) boot-stomping the flying squirrel (which still had a Beholder's hit points).
After the toughest flying squirrel in the history of Golarion was turned into tomato paste, the party celebrated their victory and continued sneaking into Highhelm.