Different types of beholder.

[Traab]

Can someone help me out here? ive been trying to get a list of the various types of beholders in 5e such as the death tyrant and their stat blocks as I was curious to see how many different types there are and to try and come up with interesting and unique encounters and lairs for each. Im not looking for homebrew, just the official types already out there. It sure would be a lot easier if they all had the word beholder somewhere in their name but thats clearly not the case lol.

[gloryblaze]

1. Beholder
2. Death Tyrant
3. Spectator
4. Gazer
5. Death Kiss
6. Mindwitness
7. Zombie Beholder

I'm pretty sure that's all of them. Split between the MM and VGtM.

[Tvtyrant]

1. Beholder
2. Death Tyrant
3. Spectator
4. Gazer
5. Death Kiss
6. Mindwitness
7. Zombie Beholder

I'm pretty sure that's all of them. Split between the MM and VGtM.

Just in case older editions count: Eyeballs (tiny beholders), Eye of the Deep (medium sized deep sea crab beholders), Beholder Mothers (big beholders that mind control other beholders), Examiner (Beholder riding a centipede), there are a few more I think.

[Kvess]

If you use D&D Beyond, all of the beholderkin are indexed with the Beholder tag (https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters?filter-type=0&filter-search=&filter-cr-min=&filter-cr-max=&filter-armor-class-min=&filter-armor-class-max=&filter-average-hp-min=&filter-average-hp-max=&filter-is-legendary=&filter-is-mythic=&filter-has-lair=&filter-tags=71).

The list currently includes all of the beholders listed by Gloryblaze plus Gauth, and a few custom unique beholders from Dungeon of the Mad Mage, Dead in Thay, and Out of the Abyss.

Edit: Oh! And gas spores? Those are also loosely related to beholders, right?

Edit 2: Volo's Guide to Monsters also includes a list of variant abilities that you could use to customize beholders in your campaign, like replacing the antimagic cone with power word stun.

[gloryblaze]

Ah, forgot about gauths. I don't think I've ever used a gauth in a game before (although, I don't think I've ever used a mindwitness or death kiss, either).

[Millstone85]

Just in case older editions count: Eyeballs (tiny beholders), Eye of the Deep (medium sized deep sea crab beholders), Beholder Mothers (big beholders that mind control other beholders), Examiner (Beholder riding a centipede), there are a few more I think.The most terrifying beholder-like creature I know of is the gibbering orb. It is just like a mouther, but it levitates as a ball, has eye rays, and under all the cacophony is actually smarter than any beholder.

For something more comical, there is the lensman. It resembles a humanoid, but with a tentacle where the head would be, and a single big eye and mouth on the "chest". Possibly inspired by the mythical Blemmyes.


The list currently includes all of the beholders listed by Gloryblaze plus Gauth, and a few custom unique beholders from Dungeon of the Mad Mage, Dead in Thay, and Out of the Abyss.So Waterdeep: Dragon Heist did not give a statblock to Zushaxx? That's a shame.

[Unoriginal]

In 3.X's Lords of Madness, there was a Beholderkin that looked like a flesh tentacle tree and had mind-control powers. Don't know their name in English.


There were also Ancient Orbs, who are sorcerous and immortal (age-wise) Beholders, and Beholder Mages, who remove their central eye for advanced arcane powers.



So Waterdeep: Dragon Heist did not give a statblock to Zushaxx? That's a shame.

The current Xanathar? He has a statblock.

[Emongnome777]

It's obviously not 5e, but for more information on their lairs and such, I, Tyrant (2e) (https://www.dmsguild.com/product/17444/Monstrous-Arcana-I-Tyrant-2e) could be a good read.

[Millstone85]

Beholder family photos!

http://dedpihto.narod.ru/games/Monsters1/behold1.gif
From left to right:

Beholder
Death Kiss
Eye of the Deep
Gauth
Spectator
Undead

http://dedpihto.narod.ru/games/Monsters1/behold2.gif
Top, from left to right:

Hive Mother
Director (that's the one on a centipede, Tvtyrant)
Watcher
Overseer (the tree Unoriginal was looking for)

Bottom, from left to right:

Examiner
Lensman

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/mof_gallery/MonFaePG23.jpg
On the left, a more intimidating death kiss.
On the right, from top to bottom:

Mage
Gouger
Gazer

[Tvtyrant]

Right right, examiners were the ones that had humanoid bodies.

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/forgottenrealms/images/b/bf/Beholderkin.gif/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/360?cb=20191003192613

[Millstone85]

Right right, examiners were the ones that had humanoid bodies.No, that's the lensmen. The examiner is the one at the bottom left of the picture.

[Traab]

Huh, interesting, it seems like the cr doesnt rise higher than a death tyrant who I assume is slightly tougher than a normal beholder because his central eye actively damages anything caught in it and removes the ability to ignore the eye beams by standing in the anti magic area of effect. I mean, the hive mother has a higher cr but thats probably more because you will be fighting several beholders at once rather than her actual personal threat. God thats a lot of saving throws to deal with.

[Tvtyrant]

No, that's the lensmen. The examiner is the one at the bottom left of the picture.

Dang, I never even heard of the Lensmen. I used Eye of the Deeps a lot though.

[Millstone85]

The current Xanathar? He has a statblock.Ah, good. Then it is the list on D&D Beyond that is not quite complete.


I mean, the hive mother has a higher cr but thats probably more because you will be fighting several beholders at once rather than her actual personal threat.Is that how CR is/was calculated? That doesn't seem right.


Dang, I never even heard of the Lensmen.Honestly, I wish D&D had an alternate take on the concept of a humanoid beholder-kin. Something like a medium-sized cyclop, with eyestalks sprouting either from their head, medusa-style, or from their back.

https://i.imgur.com/zvfxqXcl.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/kZbFpfVl.png
And I think the ideal number of eyestalks would be six. Much like the gauth and the mindwitness each possess six eyestalks and four tentacles, the humanoid beholder-kin would have six eyestalks, two arms and two legs.

Of course, part of the motivation for this is, well, eye candy. :smalltongue:

[Tvtyrant]

There was also a giant beholder that acted as a ship for smaller beholders that had siege gun eyes in Spelljammer. There's so many Beholders we could make a whole setting out of them!

[Unoriginal]

Ah, good. Then it is the list on D&D Beyond that is not quite complete.

I mean he has the statblock of a Beholder with specific magic items and advice to RP him.



Is that how CR is/was calculated? That doesn't seem right.


It isn't and wasn't, to my knowledge.

[SharkForce]

There was also a giant beholder that acted as a ship for smaller beholders that had siege gun eyes in Spelljammer. There's so many Beholders we could make a whole setting out of them!

that wasn't a beholder, it was an artifact-level custom-built spelljamming ship designed to allow the beholder nation that bought it to exterminate all other beholders.

edit: unless you mean the standard beholder ships, which usually didn't look much like beholders and were different for each nation, but did have something in place that allowed a beholder hive mother to link together a circuit of regular beholders to create a very powerful but relatively short range (in ship battle terms) beam.

[Millstone85]

I mean he has the statblock of a Beholder with specific magic items and advice to RP him.

It isn't and wasn't, to my knowledge.Thank you.


that wasn't a beholder, it was an artifact-level custom-built spelljamming ship designed to allow the beholder nation that bought it to exterminate all other beholders.

edit: unless you mean the standard beholder ships, which usually didn't look much like beholders and were different for each nation, but did have something in place that allowed a beholder hive mother to link together a circuit of regular beholders to create a very powerful but relatively short range (in ship battle terms) beam.I imagine the big one looked like the Death Star, and most of the others looked like dalek flying saucers.

If they didn't, then they should.