5e a level 1 “AL legal” Beholder character build

[BerzerkerUnit]

I know there’s no AL legal beholder race or class. I wrote a class on the homebrew forum for a design contest using pact magic as a chassis and it won. But thats not AL legal, so here I want to discuss costing character options that can evoke a Beholder’s style.

Here we go:
Custom Lineage: +2 Charisma, Darkvision, and Telekinetic feat (charisma).

ArchFey Patron Warlock 1. Charm Person and Sleep spells. Eldritch Blast and Mindsliver Cantrips.

This creature does not fly (yet) instead walking around on eyestalks. The stalks are multijointed and oriented making it seem like a spider but when it orients itself and reveals a central eye in the “abdomen” the joints bend back revealing eyes in the joints.


I think this starts strong. Could definitely swap Custom Lineage for a race with a flying speed off the bat. Fairy seems like a solid contender, but it’s currently UA so not valid for this build. Aarakockra could work but they have such a clear aesthetic in my mind I wouldn’t want to ignore it.

The dreamlike associations of the archfey grant some of the Beholder’s mad creative dreams, using a dm reward for a Gazer familiar makes Paft of chain appealing.

Any thoughts on how to build over all are appreciated. Presently warlock 20 seems like it could do a fine job. As could a Sorlock build.

[chiefwaha]

Honestly, a very interesting idea, but a beholder walking around on its eyestalks just doesn't do it for me.

Since you have Telekinetic, maybe flavor it as you're using the ability to fly, using it to push off the ground, but only for a couple of feet? You're not going to be able to fly over a pit because the ground drops away, and you're exerting downward force so it'd be mechanically like walking?

Not really sure, but the walking on eyestalks is really not doing it for me.

EDIT: Thinking about this, there would need to be a ton of handwaving for this. Equipment is problematic, so you'd want a class that doesn't really need much(your warlock idea should be fine). I suppose you can activate things telekinetically... But carrying things gets weird.

[ftafp]

AL doesn't allow you to play a sidekick does it? Gazers are CR 1/2.

[BerzerkerUnit]

Honestly, a very interesting idea, but a beholder walking around on its eyestalks just doesn't do it for me.

Since you have Telekinetic, maybe flavor it as you're using the ability to fly, using it to push off the ground, but only for a couple of feet? You're not going to be able to fly over a pit because the ground drops away, and you're exerting downward force so it'd be mechanically like walking?

Not really sure, but the walking on eyestalks is really not doing it for me.

EDIT: Thinking about this, there would need to be a ton of handwaving for this. Equipment is problematic, so you'd want a class that doesn't really need much(your warlock idea should be fine). I suppose you can activate things telekinetically... But carrying things gets weird.

If I were to sit at a table with it I’d probably say I’m like a custom reborn in that I’m a spectator or gazer sewn to the neck stump of another creature’s body. Possibly a mindflayer or other underdark race.


AL doesn't allow you to play a sidekick does it? Gazers are CR 1/2.
I don’t believe it does.

[Ogun]

I think the idea of playing a Beholder is interesting.
I had already considered that a fairy could easily be played as a ball of light like a willow wisp or a mass of wings and eyes like a biblically accurate cherub.
Telekinesis would really fit the bill wouldn't it?
It's kind of too bad that the spells are already chosen for the fairy.

[Greywander]

A long while ago (2017, according to the revision history), I had a character concept that was a GOOlock with a beholder patron. I think I was just getting started with homebrewing my own stuff, and I had somewhat recently discovered James Musicus's race building guide (a precursor to Detect Balance; both have their pros and cons), so I set about trying to build a custom race that was optimized for the build. For example, warlocks don't really care if they're small, and according to the Musicus guide, being small refunds some points, allowing you to get more race traits while keeping your total score low. Eventually, the thing took on a life of its own, and I kept tweaking it and writing flavor text even after I forgot the specific build.

The end result was a humanoid beholder that gets created by a beholder's dream as its pet. They're permanently stuck as children (this is the justification for why they're small), which helps keep them passive and obedient to their beholder masters, and also gives them a lot of leeway to infiltrate humanoid cities. In addition to getting two eye rays (one for each eye), they also have a birth mark in the shape of a large eye centered on their belly button that can project a special cone. There were several you could choose from, all designed to make fighting rival beholders easier, though also flexible enough to be useful in other situations.

I kind of want to go back and touch this up, now that I have more homebrewing experience under my belt. One point that was always an issue, though, is that safely navigating a beholder's lair practically requires flight (beholders themselves can fly, and are obsessively paranoid, so they riddle the floors of their lairs with traps, and often construct vertical lairs to make traversal more difficult), so as a beholder's pet they really do need a racial flight ability, on top of everything else they got. There are other possible solutions to this issue, such as climb speeds, but I didn't feel like any of them fit with the beholder theme. The best I could think of to do was to just give them a really slow speed, as in 10 feet, so it's often faster to just walk, or even climb.

As for building one that that is AL legal, are you actually playing in AL, or do you just want one that conforms to RAW? Let's go through a quick checklist of what a beholder really needs: Eye rays, anti-magic cone, and flight (and possible a natural weapon to simulate their bite). A quick note: no two beholders are alike, and there's a lot of variation between beholders, so you don't necessarily need to try and replicate the beholder stat block exactly. Spells can be refluffed as eye rays pretty easily. Anti-Magic Field can be used for the anti-magic cone, though not being at will does kind of make it less fun to use (instead of being a fun toy to play with, it's a tactical tool with a high cost to use). You could also eschew the anti-magic cone and instead have your central eye produce any other AoE effect. Flight is tricky, as you'd ideally want permanent flight, but that's going to shoehorn you into a few specific classes/subclasses, or require you to pick a race that doesn't necessarily fit well.

Custom lineage with the Telepathic feat seems like a good start, though I'd look at other races to see if you can pick something up you wouldn't otherwise be able to get (e.g. from your class). You can always grab Telepathic later if you need to. Permanent flight is probably the important one, but there's only a couple of flying races so far, and neither is a good fit mechanically. Aarakocra could work if you don't mind being a lot faster than most beholders, and they even come with a natural weapon for your bite attack. I don't know if AL lets you refluff a race to that extent, though.

Warlock is great for at-will effects, but falls a little short when it comes to spellcasting. You could replace the anti-magic cone with an illusory cone (Misty Visions). Alternatively, perhaps your at-will effects are your eye rays, and your spells cast using spell slots are all coming from your central eye. EB invocations allows you to shoot multiple rays that can do different things (e.g. shove one target back, pull another target toward you, slow another target down). Warlock would work pretty well if you wanted to lean on the at-will aspect, but unfortunately there's not as much variety as I would like here. As it stands now, there aren't enough invocations to choose from, so you might end up taking something like Misty Visions just because there isn't anything better to take, even though it doesn't quite fit the concept.

Sorcerer is another great option, moving away from at-will and more towards spellcasting. Sorcerers get a limited number of spells known, which corresponds to the limited number of eye rays a beholder has. Perhaps you grow a new eye stalk each time you learn a new spell. You also have plenty of slots to cast with, and metamagic lets you do some interesting things with your spells. Some sorcerer options can also get you flight.

Bard and wizard would work well for similar reasons to sorcerer, but offer their own spin on the concept. If you want to specifically fluff cantrips as eye rays (being at-will), then perhaps you might dip into a couple different classes. If you weren't already a sorcerer, then dipping into sorcerer will net you four more cantrips. Wizard and cleric give you three, bard, warlock, and druid each give two. You do probably want to make sure you use the same spellcasting ability score.

As for pre-flight locomotion, how about instead of walking on your eye stalks, you just tuck and roll everywhere? Alternatively, you might have tendrils on the underside of your body that can act as legs or hands, sort of similar to what a mindwitness, death kiss, or gauth has. For flight, I think your best bet is to try and get permanent flight from your race or class, but a magic item might be another option. The Broom of Flying is only uncommon and doesn't require attunement. Just... integrate it into your body or something.

[BerzerkerUnit]

I settled on this guy (https://ddb.ac/characters/51961199/bUXCwv) as the build.

Officially, he's a nobody whose family was killed during a gang war on Waterdeep. He blamed the Xanathar Guild and prepared to go on a quest for revenge. He came upon a mysterious shop and the shopkeep sold him several things he would need but slipped in a bottle as a bonus. Upon opening it, a Djinni came out. After the standard musical number he eschewed the notion of wishing for the Xanathar's end, he wanted to be personally responsible for the criminal's fall and wished to instead become the Xanathar's nemesis. He reinvented himself as Berholde Het Rathanax and now travels to and fro, thwarting the Xanathar's schemes wherever he can.

Unnofficially, it's just a young Beholder. It carries a dreamstone, an artefact of its creation that allows it to enter a tiny dreamworld like that from which it was spawned.

While I liked Archfey as a patron for the sleep spell, I felt the later level abilities were just terrible. Genie grants that concentration free flight at level 6 and a "lair" at level 10. The Eyebite spell can cover a few eye rays on its own. Dispel and Counterspell (which are criminally inefficient on a warlock) will still fill the Antimagic quota for me and I can always Wish for Antimagic Field or a Globe of Invulnerability. Other than that, Hold Monster, Limited Wish feature, Flesh to Stone, etc will cover all the bases I want.