| SPCDRI |
I'd like a community fix to the Beholder beast. Just does not jive with 3.5 anymore, much less 2013 Pathfinder. It really needs a kick in the pants. I'll outline some problems and potential solutions.
Problems to Pathfinderize.
HP:
93 with an 18 Constitution, no Damage Reduction, Fast Healing, Regeneration, SR or nothing.
AC: In the 20s approaching 30. Not too shabby and in line with the Suggested AC 28 to 30 suggested in Pathfinder Bestiary charts. Furthermore, it can fly so that gives it a little defensive umph, too.
This is probably fine as-is and shouldn't go much higher, if any higher.
Saves, Spell Resistance and Stat Line: It has no SR. The highest save is 11, the lowest is single digits. Not acceptable at CR 13. The creators tried to patch it mechanically with save boosting feats but it also has shockingly low stats with not a single one over 20 as a CR 13 monster. The ironic thing is this: A typical Pathfinder Party of 4 to 5 players will Behold the "Eye Tyrant," at least one Caster is going to beat its 6 Initiative and try to drop a 5th or 6th level spell on it. Even just given the minimum Ability Score to cast a 5th or 6th level spell, the Monster will fail his saves 40 to 70 percent of the time!
Feats: Only one I will keep is the Perception boosting one and Improved Initiative. The others are Save Boosters which I think can better be boosted with Racial Hit Dice and Ability score boosts.
Speed: Too slow. Gonna double the speed.
HD: Fewer HD than CR as a CR 13. Way too low. Probably needs another
6 to 8 HD.
Offense: Eye Rays are admittedly touch attacks, and 10 of them to boot. However, single digits seems too low.
Skills: You know something? This is every single bit the problem that the offensive capabilities are. Beholders are not Random Room in the Random Dungeon Randy McRandersons. They are Evil Mastermind and Kingpin bosses. What are they known as? Eye tyrants. Yet the game makes them EYE!!!!!!! tyrants and gips them utterly on social skills.I always thought of the Beholder as the Charming, Debonair sort of Aberration that would keep a court. It is Lawful Evil after all and called the EYE TYRANT. You'll quickly see (get it?) however, that it has ZERO SKILL INTERACTION ON A SOCIAL LEVEL.
No Sense Motive, No Bluff, nothing related to social Knowledge skills, Diplomacy is missing and this total badass mofo that is meant to strike fear in the hearts of all who "behold" it doesn't have Intimidate!
Gonna definitely be jacking those skills up in my fix. This is a CR 13 monster that could legitimately be ruling a kingdom and its whole schtick is Charismatic, Sorcerous Magic
Anti-Magic Cone: See, this is so cool, one of the major abilities of the Monster and something that does indeed make it iconic. However, it interferes with the Beholder's raison d'etre of Eye Rays and is a total pain in the balls to adjudicate in combat. I think it is counter-productive and more hassle than fun but if you wanna keep it as is, get down. I've got a few proposed alternates and variants to it, lets see what you think. Get it, lets see what you think? Only my 9th eye-related joke so far, only 29 left to go!
Eye Rays: Charms are redundant. Inflict ability doesn't do enough damage. Disintegrate and Finger of Death are the Iconic "OH !@#$ Its A Beholder! Get in the Car!" abilities but I question if they should be kept. I love Flesh to Stone and the Beholder/Gorgon/Medusa mythology thing of a Beholder turning people to stone and keeping them as slowly dying trophies in his Regal Throne-Room or whatever is just too pimpin' to take away. Furthermore, people will know about the Beholder and be ready to deal with that status condition, hopefully. It stays.
Sleep, Slow, Telekinesis are cool and I got no problems with 'em.
Proposed Beholder Abilities at Caster Level 15ish: Lightning Bolt as Force damage, Inflict Critical Wounds, Slow, Confusion, Charm Monster, Hold Monster, Sleep, Flesh to Stone, Blindness/Deafness (Blind and Deafen at the same time), Bestow Curse at Range, Telekinesis as a Racial ability apart from Eye Rays
So, what do you think?