The Tale of the Blinded Beholder

[yougi]

That makes for a derriere kicking title, doesn't it?

I posted last week about how to play a Beholder intelligently, and now I have a few questions regarding the beast.

First, the tale is quite interesting. The PCs have found that the cult they're trying to stop has a chapter leading the thieves' guild of the world's largest empire: they kill the apparent leaders, take the stairways down, and find another level, filled with images of the cult. They find two high level ones, who get agressive to those strangers, and then the wizard hastes the party, they kill the two enemies in about 4 rounds. The wizard yells: we're hasted, let's get to the next encounter. Open that door.

Well that door had a beholder behind it.

First round, sends the healer running away, scared out of his mind, and blasts the wizard to the other end of the room with telekinesis. The barbarian uses his winged boots to get to him, but AMF makes that much harder, and so the next round another nine rays: the bard becomes a pile of dust, the barbarian is slowed. The group decides to leave and go get their healer. The beholder is slow to fly behind them, but slowed barbarian ain't much faster. They find the healer, they decide to open a door to make the beholder think they went that way: two mind flayers are in that lab, working on some weird stuff. Party 'ports out. Half the party go on food errand while bard rerolls a dragon shaman (the guy likes to give others bonuses I guess). Bard realizes he had a ring of three wishes with one charge left. Party realizes the Beholder now has that. Party goes "oh crap".

So, here are my questions related to beholders:
1- Blinded beholders. The wizard cast blindness at the beholder, and while he made his save, I still wonder how that would have worked. Can a blinded beholder still use his eye powers? I mean, per RAW, I don't see anything, and that would be one incredibly large weakness for such a monster, but still, as a player, would you expect a blinded beholder to be unable to use either the rays or the AMF?

2- Beholder's AMF: It says it "suppresses" magic effects. I took that as meaning it dispels temporary effect (aforementioned haste, for example) and temporarily stops magic items and spells from being used, but now I'm not so certain... what does suppress really mean? My dictionary says "forcibly put an end to", yet I don't see the use of the "slow" ray if he's to dispel it everytime he puts his AMF on...

3- Beholders and magic items: Can a Beholder use magic items through his telekinesis? If so, what types? I mean, I know it can't use the ring, BUT what about wands or rods?

[Newoblivion]

I think that there's a lot of info about beholders and magic items at Lords of Madness. It's a great book also.

AMF is just what it is. A cone shaped AMF. So the same rules only the area is a cone and in order for the beholder to use his other rays he need to close the center eye, unless there's someone behind him.

I don't think that blindness will affect the rays. It will be the same if a blind wizard will try to use ray spells.

[supermonkeyjoe]

A blind beholder can still fire his rays, but first he has to figure out which square his opponents are in and then the attacks will have a 50% miss chance

[Venger]

1- Blinded beholders. The wizard cast blindness at the beholder, and while he made his save, I still wonder how that would have worked. Can a blinded beholder still use his eye powers? I mean, per RAW, I don't see anything, and that would be one incredibly large weakness for such a monster, but still, as a player, would you expect a blinded beholder to be unable to use either the rays or the AMF?

2- Beholder's AMF: It says it "suppresses" magic effects. I took that as meaning it dispels temporary effect (aforementioned haste, for example) and temporarily stops magic items and spells from being used, but now I'm not so certain... what does suppress really mean? My dictionary says "forcibly put an end to", yet I don't see the use of the "slow" ray if he's to dispel it everytime he puts his AMF on...

3- Beholders and magic items: Can a Beholder use magic items through his telekinesis? If so, what types? I mean, I know it can't use the ring, BUT what about wands or rods?

1- in order to guess what square enemies are in, he'd need to know they were there somehow (listen check, etc) then would roll vs. total concealment (50% miss chance)

2-it does not dispel anything. antimagic field (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/antimagicField.htm) turns off spells as long as they're in the area. once they leave the cone, their haste or other things come back on.

3- beholders can wear 1 hat, 3 goggles/glasses, 3 necklaces, 1 belt, 1 bracers, and 3 rings. they can't wear any other kinds of items. (lords of madness 45)

[Lapak]

The barbarian uses his winged boots to get to him, but AMF makes that much harder, and so the next round another nine rays: the bard becomes a pile of dust, the barbarian is slowed. This jumped out at me for two reasons (and I know that the encounter is over and done and you've moved on, but just for future reference): there are two things that make beholders slightly more manageable that may have been overlooked here.

- First, the beholder can't blast eye-rays into an area he's currently hitting with the AMF eye, and even its own ongoing effects are suppressed just like every other spell while it's using that eye. So if it's keeping the barb slowed, it can't suppress his boots (and vice versa.) EDIT: Once it hits him with slowness, it can alternate between the two by hitting him with the AMF eye or not until the Slow expires, though. :smalltongue:

- Second, beholders can only use a limited number of eyes in any given 90-degree arc, so unless the party surrounded it or was directly above it, it shouldn't get off 9 ray-blasts a round.

Good job to the party on their misdirection, though!

[Derpldorf]

The beholder has a free wish? I foresee many more eyestalks in its future. After all, what better thing for it to wish for than more rays?

[yougi]

This jumped out at me for two reasons (and I know that the encounter is over and done and you've moved on, but just for future reference): there are two things that make beholders slightly more manageable that may have been overlooked here.

- First, the beholder can't blast eye-rays into an area he's currently hitting with the AMF eye, and even its own ongoing effects are suppressed just like every other spell while it's using that eye. So if it's keeping the barb slowed, it can't suppress his boots (and vice versa.) EDIT: Once it hits him with slowness, it can alternate between the two by hitting him with the AMF eye or not until the Slow expires, though. :smalltongue:

- Second, beholders can only use a limited number of eyes in any given 90-degree arc, so unless the party surrounded it or was directly above it, it shouldn't get off 9 ray-blasts a round.

Good job to the party on their misdirection, though!

Well I had that discussion in my previous thread: what kind of action does it take to turn on AMF? I figured it was kind of opening the eye, and that would be a free action, wouldn't it? The Beholder's room was filled with tunnels going out from the main room and was fly-by-ing in and out, basically coming out, blasting, coming in another one: two rounds off, then coming out, blasting, coming in. The Barbarian had readied an action to charge the beholder when he came out of his hiding hole, and so I ruled the Beholder came out with its eye open, would close it to blast, and then open it again to go back into his hole.

About the number of rays, is there a fix limit? I must admit I didn't think of that.


1- in order to guess what square enemies are in, he'd need to know they were there somehow (listen check, etc) then would roll vs. total concealment (50% miss chance)

2-it does not dispel anything. antimagic field (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/antimagicField.htm) turns off spells as long as they're in the area. once they leave the cone, their haste or other things come back on.

3- beholders can wear 1 hat, 3 goggles/glasses, 3 necklaces, 1 belt, 1 bracers, and 3 rings. they can't wear any other kinds of items. (lords of madness 45)

Thank you for all those answers.


The beholder has a free wish? I foresee many more eyestalks in its future. After all, what better thing for it to wish for than more rays?

Well, I gave them this ring so they'd get a "get out of sh** for free" card. Now their enemy has one! :)

[Lapak]

Well I had that discussion in my previous thread: what kind of action does it take to turn on AMF? I figured it was kind of opening the eye, and that would be a free action, wouldn't it? The Beholder's room was filled with tunnels going out from the main room and was fly-by-ing in and out, basically coming out, blasting, coming in another one: two rounds off, then coming out, blasting, coming in. The Barbarian had readied an action to charge the beholder when he came out of his hiding hole, and so I ruled the Beholder came out with its eye open, would close it to blast, and then open it again to go back into his hole.

About the number of rays, is there a fix limit? I must admit I didn't think of that.Both answers are in the 3.5 Monster Manual:

- 3 eye-rays per 90 degree arc is the hard limit (up, forward, back, left, right) but it can choose any three eyes per arc.
- Antimagic Cone is either on or off, the beholder gets to choose once per round on its own turn (which does not take an action.)