- For other Beholder & Beholder-kin, see Beholder & Beholder-kin.
The beholder is the stuff of nightmares. This creature, also called the sphere of many eyes or the eye tyrant, appears as a large orb dominated by a central eye and a large toothy maw, has 10 smaller eyes on stalks sprouting from the top of the orb. Among adventurers, beholders are known as deadly adversaries.
Equally deadly are a number of variant creatures known collectively as beholder-kin, including radical and related creatures, and an undead variety. These creatures are related in manners familial and arcane to the traditional beholders, and share a number of features, including the deadly magical nature of their eyes. The most extreme of these creatures are called beholder abominations.
The globular body of the beholder and its kin is supported by levitation, allowing it to float slowly about as it wills.
Beholders and beholder-kin are usually solitary creatures, but there are reports of large communities of them surviving deep beneath the earth and in the void between the stars, under the dominion of hive mothers.
All beholders speak their own language, which is also understood by all beholder-kin. In addition, they often speak the tongues of other lawful evil creatures.
Combat[]
The beholder has different Armor Classes for different parts of their body. When attacking a beholder, determine the location of the attack before striking (as the various Armor Classes may make a strike in one area, and a miss in another):
| Roll | Location | AC |
|---|---|---|
| 01-75 | Body | 0 |
| 76-85 | Central Eye | 7 |
| 86-95 | Eyestalk | 2 |
| 96-00 | One smaller eye | 7 |
Each of the beholder's eyes, including the central one has a different function. The standard smaller eyes of a beholder are as follows:
- Charm person (as spell)* Charm monster (as spell)
- sleep (as spell, but only one target)* Telekinesis (250 pound weight)* Flesh to stone (as spell, 30-yard range)
- Disintegrate (20-yard range)
- Fear (as wand)
- slow (as spell, but only a single target)
- Cause serious wounds (50-yard range)
- Death ray (as a death spell, with a single target, 40-yard range)
The central eye produces an anti-magic ray with a 140-yard range, which covers a 90 degree arc before the creature. No magic (including the effects of the other eyes) will function within that area. Spells cast in or passing through that zone cease to function.
A beholder may activate the magical powers of its eyes' at will. Generally, a beholder can use 1d4 smaller eyes if attackers are within a 90 degree angle in front, 1d6 if attacked from within a 180 degree angle, 1d8 if attacked from a 270 degree arc, and all 10 eyes if attacked from all sides. The central eye can be used only against attacks from the front. If attacked from above, the beholder can use all of the smaller eyes.
The beholder can withstand the loss of its eyestalks, each eyestalk/smaller eye having 5-12 hit points. This loss of hit points is over and above any damage done to the central body. The body can withstand two thirds of the listed hit points in damage before the creature perishes. The remaining third of the listed hit points are located in the central eye, and destroying it will eliminate the anti-magic ray. A beholder with 45 hit points will have a body that will take 30 points of damage, a central eye that will take 15 points, while one with 75 hit points will have a body that will withstand 50 points of damage, and a central eye that takes 25 hit points to destroy. Both beholders would have smaller eyestalks/eyes that take 5-12 (1d8+4) points of damage to destroy, but such damage would not affect the body or central eye. Slaying the body will kill the beholder and render the eyes powerless. Destroyed eyestalks (but not the central eye) can regenerate at a rate of one lost member per week.
Habitat/Society[]
The beholders are a hateful, aggressive and avaricious race, attacking or dominating other races, including other beholders and many of the beholder-kin. This is because of a xenophobic intolerance among beholders that causes them to hate all creatures not like themselves. The basic, beholder body-type (a sphere with a mouth and a central eye, eye-tipped tentacles) allows for a great variety of beholder subspecies. Some have obvious differences, there are those covered with overlapping chitin plates, and those with smooth hides, or snake-like eye tentacles, and some with crustacean-like joints. But something as small as a change in hide color or size of the central eye can make two groups of beholders sworn enemies. Every beholder declares its own unique body-form to be the true ideal of beholderhood, the others being nothing but ugly copies, fit only to be eliminated.
Beholders will normally attack immediately. If confronted with a particular party there is a 50% chance they will listen to negotiations (bribery) before raining death upon their foes.
Ecology[]
The exact reproductive process of the beholder is unknown. The core racial hatred of the beholders may derive from the nature of their reproduction, which seems to produce identical (or nearly so) individuals with only slight margin for variation. Beholders may use parthenogenic reproduction to duplicate themselves, and give birth live (no beholder eggs have been found). Beholders may also (rarely) mate with types of beholder-kin.
The smaller eyes of the beholder may be used to produce a potion of levitation, and as such can be sold for 50 gp each.
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