Draxar
2009-12-20, 06:53 PM
So, I have a desire to play a beholderkin.
Currently I'm playing in a post apocalytic Eberron game, we've recently taken over Kundarak Hold due to the dwarves inside all being dead. We've invited a couple of hundred refugees in, and we're currently dealing with a ghoul infestation down below. We're ECL 9, with a Warforged Soulknife/Swordsage, a Poison Dusk Lizardfolk Swashbuckler-Archivist, and a Brass Dragon Incarnate/Dragon Adept (Dragonfire adept adjusted to make it useful for dragons). I'm the most optimisation happy of the group, but I carefully keep an eye on that to not unbalance the game.
Eyebeasts... I'm going to lay out my general thoughts, what I'm after is feedback on them, further suggestions, and then a hand turning those thoughts into the crunch of a monster.
The two things to be considered from the start are the fluff – why is this creature entering the ranks of the beholders, and the crunch – I don't think any of the current beholders have an ECL, why don't they, and how can I make sure this creature is playable, not stupid.
The Fluff
In Eberron, as I understand it, the Beholders were created as living artillery for the Dalkyr. The usual "they're completely ****ing nuts, all think they're the only true beholder and everyone else is a mutant freak" seems to apply far less. They're probably still far from friendly though.
The friendliest of the beholderkin seems generally to be the spectator – as long as you're not going for what it's guarding, they're friendly and talkative. So, I see a Dalkyr notceing this, thinking it might be useful, and deciding to make something from the Spectator as a 'base' which is designed to wander around learning and experiencing anything it can. Then (via some means that I'm as yet not entirely sure on) the Dalkyr gets this information, and files it away for future use.
The Dalkyr are very patient – they've been thousands of years sealed underground without making any strong attempt to get out. So thus the extracting of information from the Observer (best name I've come up for it so far, but I'm open to other suggestions) doesn't have to interfere with the playability of the character. I think either when it reaches a certain age/level, it has to go and report in, or it does so every so often via long range telepathy/similar, or possibly, for added amusement and flavor, given the Dalkyr love of symbiotes, it generates symbiotes that contain its memories, it can use them to transmit information to friends based on what it's seen, but some of them also creep off and head down to report in.
So, that's the fluff – it should be an instatiably curious being, not necessarily intrinsically evil. Probably chaotic to neutral on the law to chaos, in that it wanders wherever it wants looking around and doing what it feels like, it doesn't build for others. On evil to good, it might have slightly less tendency to be good, but beyond that, good is possible, neutral and evil are both equally fully viable.
Now, the crunch...
Why are there no Beholders with a stated level adjustment? The 'bugnuts crazy' thing may be part of it, and some are just in scale above ECL 20, but I think it's primarily the multi-turret ability that they have – even the Spectator can throw 4 eyerays, one in each direction, whereas others go up to 13, 5 in any one direction. And on top of that, there's usually an always-on gaze.
Sure, some of the individual powers or combinations may be OTT, but I think as a broad thing, that's the issue. Their action economy is too good. Especially once you start adding class levels – because all the above are free actions (bar narrowing a gaze), you can do whatever your class lets you do and throw your eyes at them.
So, to make it playable, you need to reduce that action economy. Of course, the question becomes, how do you do that without losing what makes a beholder. While you could make it take actions to use the eyebeams, I think a more elegant method would be to make it so that the different eye powers do not create such an economy.
The thing's an Observer, rather than a fighter, so for a start, most of the eye powers can be non-combat, or only slightly combat. You probably still want at least one relatively direct damage effect, but you probably don't need more than that, and you don't need other fairly directly combat effects (such as sleep, Paralysis, exhaustion, stunning, Fear, Finger of Death, Flesh to Stone, spell turning, antimagic).
So, what eyerays should it get? If it's based on the Spectator, it has 4 eyestalks and a central gaze, which start off as Inflict Moderate, Hold Monster, Telepathy + Suggestion, and Fatigue, plus gaze of spell turning.
I'd say keep the Inflict Moderate as its one attack form, possibly keep the telepathy (not sure if it should keep the suggestion), then lose Hold Monster, Fatigue, and Spell turning.
I'm not entirely sure what to replace them with; discussing with a friend we thought Minor Image (which the Director gets), but I'm currently drawing a blank as to other appropriate powers for the stalks.
For the central eye, I've had lots of different thoughts – arcane sight, X ray vision, and detect thoughts as a cone being the main three. I'm open to other suggestions though. And to the weird idea of more than one central eye, given its observation fixation.
Beyond that, other mechanical features for it...
Small or Medium size (Spectator is Medium)
Give it some ability of illusion (or possibly alternate form) to make it look like humanoids, and possibly animals (maybe just those of its size, maybe small and medium), because that way it can wander around looking at stuff without everyone going "Arrgh! Beholder! Kill it!"
It needs some kind of sensory boost over that of the average beholderkin, but I'm not sure exactly what.
The Future
Now, we're currently level 9, and I'd like something I could play at 9 or 10, and find reasonably interesting. It doesn't need to be strong twinked – it needs to be able to do its thing, hold its own when combat does happen, but the group I'm in are really not that heavily optimised.
I've had a look at the Savage Species level adjustment devising guide, but I think, once we've worked out the powers, the stats, and so forth, I could use some help working out how many hit dice and what LA it should have.
Assuming it doesn't die super-fast, I'll then need to advance the thing. The question is, of course, as what? I can't initially think of any character classes that really fit it, and I don't know if there'd be any prestige classes it'd qualify for. Suggestions on that would be welcome, but I'd also be interested in making a monster class/savage progression that took it all the way to 20, with its powers increasing as you go. Given that it's a product of Dalkyr warping, it could continue to mutate as it aged, gaining additional eyestalks or (as mentioned above) additional central eyes.
So, can anyone offer some suggestions on that rather rambling bit of creation/
Currently I'm playing in a post apocalytic Eberron game, we've recently taken over Kundarak Hold due to the dwarves inside all being dead. We've invited a couple of hundred refugees in, and we're currently dealing with a ghoul infestation down below. We're ECL 9, with a Warforged Soulknife/Swordsage, a Poison Dusk Lizardfolk Swashbuckler-Archivist, and a Brass Dragon Incarnate/Dragon Adept (Dragonfire adept adjusted to make it useful for dragons). I'm the most optimisation happy of the group, but I carefully keep an eye on that to not unbalance the game.
Eyebeasts... I'm going to lay out my general thoughts, what I'm after is feedback on them, further suggestions, and then a hand turning those thoughts into the crunch of a monster.
The two things to be considered from the start are the fluff – why is this creature entering the ranks of the beholders, and the crunch – I don't think any of the current beholders have an ECL, why don't they, and how can I make sure this creature is playable, not stupid.
The Fluff
In Eberron, as I understand it, the Beholders were created as living artillery for the Dalkyr. The usual "they're completely ****ing nuts, all think they're the only true beholder and everyone else is a mutant freak" seems to apply far less. They're probably still far from friendly though.
The friendliest of the beholderkin seems generally to be the spectator – as long as you're not going for what it's guarding, they're friendly and talkative. So, I see a Dalkyr notceing this, thinking it might be useful, and deciding to make something from the Spectator as a 'base' which is designed to wander around learning and experiencing anything it can. Then (via some means that I'm as yet not entirely sure on) the Dalkyr gets this information, and files it away for future use.
The Dalkyr are very patient – they've been thousands of years sealed underground without making any strong attempt to get out. So thus the extracting of information from the Observer (best name I've come up for it so far, but I'm open to other suggestions) doesn't have to interfere with the playability of the character. I think either when it reaches a certain age/level, it has to go and report in, or it does so every so often via long range telepathy/similar, or possibly, for added amusement and flavor, given the Dalkyr love of symbiotes, it generates symbiotes that contain its memories, it can use them to transmit information to friends based on what it's seen, but some of them also creep off and head down to report in.
So, that's the fluff – it should be an instatiably curious being, not necessarily intrinsically evil. Probably chaotic to neutral on the law to chaos, in that it wanders wherever it wants looking around and doing what it feels like, it doesn't build for others. On evil to good, it might have slightly less tendency to be good, but beyond that, good is possible, neutral and evil are both equally fully viable.
Now, the crunch...
Why are there no Beholders with a stated level adjustment? The 'bugnuts crazy' thing may be part of it, and some are just in scale above ECL 20, but I think it's primarily the multi-turret ability that they have – even the Spectator can throw 4 eyerays, one in each direction, whereas others go up to 13, 5 in any one direction. And on top of that, there's usually an always-on gaze.
Sure, some of the individual powers or combinations may be OTT, but I think as a broad thing, that's the issue. Their action economy is too good. Especially once you start adding class levels – because all the above are free actions (bar narrowing a gaze), you can do whatever your class lets you do and throw your eyes at them.
So, to make it playable, you need to reduce that action economy. Of course, the question becomes, how do you do that without losing what makes a beholder. While you could make it take actions to use the eyebeams, I think a more elegant method would be to make it so that the different eye powers do not create such an economy.
The thing's an Observer, rather than a fighter, so for a start, most of the eye powers can be non-combat, or only slightly combat. You probably still want at least one relatively direct damage effect, but you probably don't need more than that, and you don't need other fairly directly combat effects (such as sleep, Paralysis, exhaustion, stunning, Fear, Finger of Death, Flesh to Stone, spell turning, antimagic).
So, what eyerays should it get? If it's based on the Spectator, it has 4 eyestalks and a central gaze, which start off as Inflict Moderate, Hold Monster, Telepathy + Suggestion, and Fatigue, plus gaze of spell turning.
I'd say keep the Inflict Moderate as its one attack form, possibly keep the telepathy (not sure if it should keep the suggestion), then lose Hold Monster, Fatigue, and Spell turning.
I'm not entirely sure what to replace them with; discussing with a friend we thought Minor Image (which the Director gets), but I'm currently drawing a blank as to other appropriate powers for the stalks.
For the central eye, I've had lots of different thoughts – arcane sight, X ray vision, and detect thoughts as a cone being the main three. I'm open to other suggestions though. And to the weird idea of more than one central eye, given its observation fixation.
Beyond that, other mechanical features for it...
Small or Medium size (Spectator is Medium)
Give it some ability of illusion (or possibly alternate form) to make it look like humanoids, and possibly animals (maybe just those of its size, maybe small and medium), because that way it can wander around looking at stuff without everyone going "Arrgh! Beholder! Kill it!"
It needs some kind of sensory boost over that of the average beholderkin, but I'm not sure exactly what.
The Future
Now, we're currently level 9, and I'd like something I could play at 9 or 10, and find reasonably interesting. It doesn't need to be strong twinked – it needs to be able to do its thing, hold its own when combat does happen, but the group I'm in are really not that heavily optimised.
I've had a look at the Savage Species level adjustment devising guide, but I think, once we've worked out the powers, the stats, and so forth, I could use some help working out how many hit dice and what LA it should have.
Assuming it doesn't die super-fast, I'll then need to advance the thing. The question is, of course, as what? I can't initially think of any character classes that really fit it, and I don't know if there'd be any prestige classes it'd qualify for. Suggestions on that would be welcome, but I'd also be interested in making a monster class/savage progression that took it all the way to 20, with its powers increasing as you go. Given that it's a product of Dalkyr warping, it could continue to mutate as it aged, gaining additional eyestalks or (as mentioned above) additional central eyes.
So, can anyone offer some suggestions on that rather rambling bit of creation/