Party of 6 level 5 characters vs 1 beholder and shadows??

[Drache64]

So, we might not actually be fighting a beholder, but last night our session ended as a shadowy figure emerged in front of us and took the form of a shadowy beholder and multiple shadows emerged around us.

This is a post asking about strategy:

1st, the DM: he likes to change the stats of creatures up or down and Homebrews a lot, so this is probably not a true beholder, but I expect it to have similar tactics in terms of antimagic Eye cone, and various bad-news eye rays.

2nd, the party: the DM had us roll 4d6 and keep all as long as our stats were below 18, as a result many of us have multiple stats at 18 or 20.
We have Lore Bard, Tempest Cleric, Moon Druid, Redemption Paladin (Aarikocra with permanent flying), UA revised Ranger Beast Master, and me, an 18 Dex, 20 INT Bladesinger Wizard.

3rd, my strategy:
Round 1: my thoughts are round 1 to focus on setting up a defensive strategy before going on the offense. BA (Bonus Action) Bladesong (add INT to AC, Concentration checks, advantage on dex save, +10 speed). Movement: use my 40 speed to move outside antimagic cone, Action Blink. Run back to antimagic cone.

Round 2: movement, run outside antimagic field. BA Shadow Blade at level 3 (+7 to hit with advantage, 3d8+4 damage per hit), Green Flame Blade (4d8+4 damage to beholder, 1d8+5 damage to a nearby shadow), move back to antimagic cone.

All other rounds: repeat this strategy.

Questions: will blink activate in the antimagic field? If not, is it better to take my chances outside the field and hope blink activates?

On the beholder's turn couldn't it simply turn away from me and blast me with an eye beam anyways?

[Lunali]

Questions: will blink activate in the antimagic field? If not, is it better to take my chances outside the field and hope blink activates?

On the beholder's turn couldn't it simply turn away from me and blast me with an eye beam anyways?

Blink won't activate inside the field, the spell will be suppressed until you leave.

Yes it can, the main benefit of standing in the antimagic field is avoiding legendary actions that come between your turn and the beholder's, but that means that those rays will be aimed at other people instead.

My personal favorite spell for beholders is darkness as it either blocks sight and protects from eye rays or gets suppressed and the AMF protects you instead. That might not be the best spell if the enemies are actually shadows though.

[stoutstien]

No idea how your game logic works with your table but when I think of shadow based NPCs I think bright light as a counter. Day light effects are even better.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

Blink won't activate inside the field, the spell will be suppressed until you leave.

Yes it can, the main benefit of standing in the antimagic field is avoiding legendary actions that come between your turn and the beholder's, but that means that those rays will be aimed at other people instead.

My personal favorite spell for beholders is darkness as it either blocks sight and protects from eye rays or gets suppressed and the AMF protects you instead. That might not be the best spell if the enemies are actually shadows though.
I agree.

If you don't have darkness use fog cloud.

If you have access to non magical smoke it will be better IMO.

It works the best when all your party is under out of sight.

[Drache64]

Yes it can, the main benefit of standing in the antimagic field is avoiding legendary actions that come between your turn and the beholder's, but that means that those rays will be aimed at other people instead

as it either blocks sight and protects from eye rays or gets suppressed and the AMF protects you instead. That might not be the best spell if the enemies are actually shadows though.
When it comes to the idea of taking damage or attacks from other creatures, I figure we have a moon druid, front line beast master, tempest cleric, and paladin. I figure my job is to let them tank and as the squishy wizard not to get hit (especially with a d6 hit die I don't want to get 1 shot).

My concern with darkness is this thing being a Homebrew shadow creature, it waited until dark to attack us. DM has a habit of negating things. It's possible this thing randomly gains devil sight if I do that. But also:


No idea how your game logic works with your table but when I think of shadow based NPCs I think bright light as a counter. Day light effects are even better.

Funny thing is my wizard has a daylight scroll and was going to add it to his spell book that night, but this thing attacked us before I could do that. Luckily our tempest cleric has daylight prepped and ready to go

[Chronos]

In any sort of fight involving any sort of beholderkin, your first priority is generally to protect yourself from it, and your second is to take it down permanently. Given shadowy creatures and a DM who likes to tweak things, they might well ignore or even benefit from magical darkness, but fog cloud will probably still work, and since you have a tempest cleric, you definitely have that available right now.

That said, if anyone other than the tempest cleric has Fog Cloud, it's probably better for them to cast it, and for the cleric to instead cast Bless. Yes, hopefully you won't have to roll any saves, thanks to the fog, but you don't want to bank on that, and having an extra 1d4 on saving throws helps a lot.

By the same token, it'd be really nice if you were just one level higher, so your paladin would have Aura of Protection, but not much to be done about that.

Once you have the beholder taken care of, then you can worry about any other shadow-things that might be present. One tip, Moonbeam absolutely shreds shadows. Which is another good reason not to use Darkness, because Darkness and Moonbeam can't coexist.

[Drache64]

I agree.

If you don't have darkness use fog cloud.

If you have access to non magical smoke it will be better IMO.

It works the best when all your party is under out of sight.


In any sort of fight involving any sort of beholderkin, your first priority is generally to protect yourself from it, and your second is to take it down permanently. Given shadowy creatures and a DM who likes to tweak things, they might well ignore or even benefit from magical darkness, but fog cloud will probably still work, and since you have a tempest cleric, you definitely have that available right now.

That said, if anyone other than the tempest cleric has Fog Cloud, it's probably better for them to cast it, and for the cleric to instead cast Bless. Yes, hopefully you won't have to roll any saves, thanks to the fog, but you don't want to bank on that, and having an extra 1d4 on saving throws helps a lot.

By the same token, it'd be really nice if you were just one level higher, so your paladin would have Aura of Protection, but not much to be done about that.

Once you have the beholder taken care of, then you can worry about any other shadow-things that might be present. One tip, Moonbeam absolutely shreds shadows. Which is another good reason not to use Darkness, because Darkness and Moonbeam can't coexist.

I personally only have darkness, not fog cloud, but being concentration I usually don't use it unless I'm stealthing. Our paladin has the wonderous item of prayer beads with bless on it I think.

I'm worried the shadow things are actually shadows. My character was a Mystic before I changed to wizard. I used to summon shadows all the time, the DM may be getting some pay back.

[Chronos]

Yeah, shadows are nasty, no doubt about that, and would usually be your first kill priority in a mixed enemy group. But beholderkin are usually even nastier. Kind of awkward to have an encounter against multiple glass-cannon type enemies.

[Lunali]

I agree.

If you don't have darkness use fog cloud.

If you have access to non magical smoke it will be better IMO.

It works the best when all your party is under out of sight.

Magical smoke is even better than non-magical vs beholders since you can move into their AMF area and attack unhindered without having to worry about eye rays.

[stoutstien]

My inner DM is screaming that this is a decoy encounter.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

Magical smoke is even better than non-magical vs beholders since you can move into their AMF area and attack unhindered without having to worry about eye rays.

Non medical one let you hide as a rogue from their minions instead of being attack in the fog.

If you have no bonus action hide the non magical one don't use concentration.

Anyway, my characters always try and get bottle of smoke, an infinite amount of magical smoke, work best with dagger of blindsight

[Misterwhisper]

Hopefully you are not in its lair, but they are pretty smart so you probably are.

Things to keep in mind:

Beholders are pretty slow, 20 ft movement, but they can fly and hover.

Your paladin is going to be your best shot considering how may of your group are casters. Smite still works in an antimagic field and they can fly. Hopefully they beat it on initiative.

The beholder will be shooting 6 rays a turn, some are just a hindrance, some are straight out deadly.

Blocking vision is vital. Fog cloud, smoke, darkness, whatever.
Your attack rolls will balance out but its eye rays won’t.

The other main part is mostly luck. You do NOT want it to go before you do.

Shadows suck, especially if they gang up on some one. You don’t need to see a target to aim an aoe.

[5eNeedsDarksun]

Run.
The site just said I need 10 characters, so I can't just write Run, so I'll elaborate:
Run, very fast.