Greywander
2021-06-08, 11:11 PM
A thread over on the 5e subforum about playing as an AL legal beholder reminded me of this old homebrew of mine (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YkL4b1hlmSHAPQYZ3IYltHc7qmv7oXJ7WPsI2QNIMdE/edit?usp=sharing). This might actually be one of the first races I homebrewed, and I've learned a lot about homebrewing since then, and thought I'd touch it up or rewrite it.
Some background about how this came to be (which explains some of the design choices): Originally, I was creating this for a specific character concept that was a GOOlock with a beholder patron. I was using the guide by James Musicus, and in order to optimize the race I made them small (warlocks don't care about being small) so that I could have more points to spend on other racial features. I then needed to justify why they were small, and decided that they would look children. So, while the thread title is a jest, it's actually an accurate description of the race. From there, the concept took on a life of its own, and I continued to tweak and refine it even after I had long forgotten the original build it was meant for.
Quick summary of the race: a beheld (plural beholden) resembles a normal humanoid child, and are often mistake for children of other humanoid races, especially humans or elves. They are created by a beholder's dream to serve as both a pet and as their agents in humanoid cities. Like their progenitors, they have one eye ray for each eye (two, in this case), and they have a large birth mark of an eye on their belly that can project a special field; the effects of these rays and fields vary from beheld to beheld. They can also float, but only very slowly, so they usually reserve their flight for when walking isn't an option (also, most humanoids can't float, so it would draw unwanted attention).
Here's a copypaste of the original lore fluff I wrote up for this, with a few tweaks. I think most of this is solid and doesn't need any further change.
Stuff of Dreams
When a beholder dreams, their imagination can manifest into reality. In fact, this is the primary way that beholders reproduce. But other beholders aren’t the only thing that a dreaming beholder can create.
Beholders are egotistical narcissists, believing themselves to be superior to all other races and even superior to other beholders. They view humans and such the same way we view animals. To them, humans are, at worst, dangerous vermin to be eradicated or slaves to be dominated, and at best, they are pets to be tolerated as long as they remain loyal. Sometimes, in the dreams of a beholder, they imagine the perfect humanoid pet, and when they awaken, there lies the beheld.
The beholden are the perfect beholder’s pet, a humanoid-beholder hybrid that is fiercely loyal to their creator. The beheld acts as an agent of the beholder in the realms of men and elves and dwarves, using their natural charm to manipulate others.
Although beholden resemble humanoid children, their appearance can vary considerably, and they often resemble the beholder that created them in the color of their skin, hair, or eyes. One notable feature is that each beheld has a large birthmark of an eye on their belly with the pupil centered on their navel, reminiscent of the central eye of a beholder.
Forever Young
Much as a human might wish for a pet cat that stays a kitten forever, or a dog that never grew beyond being a puppy, such is the beheld to the beholder that created them. When first spawned into existence, the beheld resembles a 2 year old human child (skipping past the messy diaper stage), and has a similar level of knowledge as a 2 year old human would, imparted to them during the dream that created them.
After this, the beheld matures physically at half the rate of a human for about 14 years, stopping when they resemble a 9 year old. At this point, the beheld stops growing physically, but continues to develop mentally. The beheld maintains a childlike temperament and demeanor their whole life, and often puts on a facade of a simple-minded child to fool others, but in reality they are devious and cunning, scheming to further the goals of their creator.
It’s not known if the beholden have a limit to their lifespan. Certainly they don’t seem to suffer any effects of old age, and may even outlive the beholder that created them. It is said that as a beheld grows older and becomes weary of life, they may dream of their own death, causing them to fade away in their sleep.
Friendly Faces
Unlike beholders, the beholden are quite social and friendly, a great asset to any beholder that creates one. Being physically smaller and weaker than many humanoid races, they rely on their charm to avoid confrontation and achieve their goals. Beholden are not any more malicious than a human, although they may do evil acts at the command of their creator.
Depending on how common beholden are, they may be viewed differently by the other races. If beholden are very rare, then most people aren’t aware of their existence and will presume them to be human or elf children. Beholden can recognize one another, however, and they are almost always the agent of a beholder, so a beheld will be extremely cautious of other beholden and may actively seek to kill them or interrogate them about their beholder master.
If enough beholden are created, they might be able to take hold as their own race, independent of the beholders that first created them. In this case, they will likely be viewed as just another race, perhaps similar to halflings or gnomes. Most beholden will be created by their own kind instead of by a beholder, meaning it’s much less likely that they’ll be agents of a beholder (alternatively, a single beholder might have an entire tribe of beholden in their service). Even so, beholden are still trusting and loyal, and tend to attach themselves to stronger creatures who act as almost a parental leader. It’s unusual to see a group of beholden living independently.
Beholden are able to reproduce in a manner similar to how they were first created. Beholden are asexual, but still experience romantic attractions and will seek out a mate. If a male and female beheld dream together of having a child, then a new beheld will appear next to them when they awaken.
Beholder Slayers
Beholders are incredibly xenophobic, but the creature they hate the most of all is another beholder. They always consider themselves to be the purest example of their race, and view all other beholders as inferior, even disgusting and repulsive. As such, it is exceedingly rare for beholders to cooperate with one another, and the presence of another beholder represents a threat.
Beholders are also terrifying monsters, and can easily be the end of a career of even experienced adventurers. Beholders fortunate enough to spawn a beheld will often task them in assisting with bringing down rival beholders, their dream having blessed the beheld with abilities tailored specifically toward killing beholders. Though beholden are generally better suited to social intrigue than combat, their beholder masters expect unwavering loyalty and obedience, especially on the extermination of rival beholders.
Of course, this represents a risk to the beholder itself, as there is the possibility that the beheld might turn against them. This is perhaps why they are so insistent that their beholden pets use their abilities to slay rival beholders, as otherwise the gift is nothing but a liability. But as beholders are both cunning and paranoid, they will of course prepare for the betrayal of their beholden, and create suitable plans, traps, and countermeasures to deal with them should the need arise.
In most cases, however, this is unnecessary, but then so are most of the paranoid machinations of beholders. Beholden are almost always fiercely loyal to their creators, like a puppy to a human master. It generally takes years of abuse at the hands (eyestalks?) of their master, often combined with a fear for their life, for a beheld to turn against their master. The childlike demeanor of beholden generally results in a stunted sense of morality, so it is difficult for a beheld to perceive their master as evil, even when the beholder hurts people the beheld cares about.
Beholden are particularly susceptible to falling victim of cults or other groups or individuals that are themselves masters at manipulating people. If a beheld’s master is slain, or the beheld grew up without a beholder master, they will often seek out someone else to act as a parental figure to them. Even decades of experience with social intrigue will sometimes abandon them when they feel alone and lost, and they can walk into what would have been an obvious trap in order to find the stability their master once provided in their life.
Beheld Traits
Age. Beholden spawn with the appearance and psyche of a 2 year old human, and grow for around 14 years at half the rate of a human until they resemble a 9 year old human. After this point, they stop aging physically, but continue to develop mentally, although they retain the demeanor of a child. They have no known limit on their lifespan and don’t suffer any effects of old age, but will eventually dream of their own death and fade from this life.
Alignment. Beholden often have a stunted sense of morality, making it difficult to distinguish between evil and good. As such, they tend toward neutrality, and often see their master (or other parental figure) as being good. Regardless of alignment, they are almost always friendly, using subterfuge and manipulation to achieve their goals instead of brute force.
Beholden have three major racial traits; namely, their eye rays, their central eye cone, and their flight, and all of these have been written largely from scratch by me (which is why they're in desperate need of a rewrite now). They also have some other features, like darkvision and a free skill proficiency, those are pretty standard and so shouldn't need any rebalancing. Let's go over those three main traits first, and we'll see what we might be able to do to properly balance them, and then we can talk about some of those extra features.
Eye Rays
The eye rays are at-will abilities that act like a watered down version of a beholder's eye rays. My expectation is that they'd be roughly comparable to cantrips (and actually cantrips are among the options you can choose for your eye rays), perhaps a bit stronger due to being a unique racial feature. In actuality, the power level of my original eye rays seems to be all over the place, some of them looking more like 2nd level spells than cantrips. Obviously some work is needed here.
One example of where I screwed up with this is that I originally discarded the petrification ray because I (correctly) thought that permanent petrification was too strong for an at-will ability, but decided to keep the paralysis ray. At-will paralysis, even if it only lasts one turn, is still crazy strong. I tried to patch this by giving advantage on saves after they pass at least once, but I don't think that's a good design choice. Now, I'm leaning toward swapping out the paralyzing ray for a ray that causes temporary petrification. For non-combat use, both paralyzation and petrification achieve similar results (they stop an NPC from moving, allowing to you move past them or search the area without being disturbed), but in combat they are very different. Petrification actually makes the target more resilient, so while you can attack them while they're incapacitated, unlike with paralysis your attacks become less effective, so you're actually better off focusing on other targets until the petrification ends.
One of the design goals for the eye rays was to make sure I have at least one ray for each type of saving throw. You only get two rays, so you can't have an answer to everything, but you could pick the rays that target the saves you otherwise couldn't. Another aspect of the design that I wanted was the ability to shoot both eye rays simultaneously. Likely this means spending both your action and bonus action, and both rays must have the same target. Currently, this isn't available until 5th level, and if both your eye rays are cantrips then the BA cantrip is cast unscaled (as if you were 1st level).
Let's consider our options for cleaning this up. I don't particularly like giving advantage to the saves after a target succeeds once, it just seems like a finicky mechanic. I'd also prefer to avoid concentration, particularly as the central eye cone already uses concentration, and you should be able to use it and the eye rays simultaneously. I generally already give a save at the end of every turn, so that's a good start. I'm still undecided on how long durations should be; I've vacillated between 1 minute, 1 round, and 1d4 rounds. I'm not sure I like the idea of rolling a die to determine duration, but it seems like a decent middle ground. Question: If the duration is 1d4 rounds (or any other rolled amount), should the DM roll it in secret, or should the player roll it? I think I'll allow the player to refresh/extend the duration by using the eye ray again. Otherwise, I think we'll just need to water down the effect until it fits the power level we're going for. So, for example, instead of paralyzing the target, it might simply reduce speed to 0 and prevent taking any actions.
One last question: What color should each ray be? I generally assume that the eye rays are visible, so using them in public would be noticed. I do make an exception for the charm ray and telepathic ray, which are invisible (but can be seen by those who can see invisible things). I currently have colors assigned to each ray, but I'm curious what others would suggest.
Here's my current list of available eye rays (keep in mind they always get a save at the end of their turn, where applicable):
Banishing Ray. Sends the target to a harmless demiplane for 1 minute on a failed CHA save.
Charm Ray. Charms the target for 1 minute on a failed WIS save. If they pass the save, they know you charmed them, but you can end the effect early to avoid this. This ray is invisible.
Fear Ray. Frightens the target for 1 round on a failed WIS save.
Petrification Ray. Restrains the target if they fail the initial CON save, and petrifies them for 1 minute if they fail the next save at the end of their turn.
Revealing Cone. Projects a cone of bright/dim light out to 30/60 feet. You're made aware if there is anything concealed (illusions, transmutations, shapeshifting, etc.) within the bright light cone, but you don't know which effect you're detecting or were it is. Handy to pair with other detection spells and abilities to pinpoint/narrow down what you're detecting.
Sickening Ray. Poisons the target for 1 round on a failed CON save.
Sleep Ray. Puts the target to sleep for 1 minute on a failed WIS save.
Slowing Ray. Halves speed and the target can't take reaction for 1 minute on a failed DEX save.
Spell Ray. Replicates the chosen cantrip. Doesn't require spell components.
Telekinetic Ray. Moves a medium or smaller target 10 feet in any direction on a failed STR save. Can move (up to 30 feet) and manipulate objects weighing 10 lbs. or less.
Telepathic Ray. Read the target's surface thoughts until the start of your next turn on a failed INT save. If they pass, they know you tried to probe their thoughts. While reading their thoughts, you can speak telepathically to them. This ray is invisible.
As you can see, I already swapped out the paralyzing ray for a petrification ray, and made a few other minor tweaks, mostly to durations. I also added the sickening ray. What can I do to make this better? What are some other interesting rays I could add?
Central Eye Cone
Starting at 3rd level, beholden get access to their signature cone effect that emanates out of mark on their belly. All cones project out to 60 feet, last 1 minute, and require concentration. In every case, the cone's effect disappears once a target is no longer inside the cone. You need to finish a long rest to use the cone again. I don't think cones include the caster in the area of effect by default, leaving you exposed and susceptible to losing your concentration.
Because the cone projects out of the mark on your belly, that mark must be exposed when you use your cone. You can't use your cone if you are wearing armor unless that armor has been modified to leave your belly exposed, reducing the AC it gives you. Magic armor can adjust automatically when it is donned to either cover your belly or expose it. This restriction made sense to me, as covering your eyes would likewise prevent you from using your eye rays. If a beholder closes their central eye (i.e. "covers" their eye with an eyelid), their anti-magic cone also disappears. Also, this has interesting RP consequences. The mark on your belly is large and distinctive; anyone familiar with your kind would instantly know what you are, and even those who are completely ignorant would consider it unusual and might get curious and investigate. So you'd probably want to hide your mark when not using it, but using it requires revealing it. You wouldn't have to have it exposed all the time, a simple cloak would be sufficient to hide it while not in use while allowing you to open it up to use the cone.
These cones are all designed to aid in killing beholders, but can be applied to a variety of situations. Some of the write ups are a bit messy, but here's the current list of options available:
Assuring Cone. All creatures (friend and foe) in the cone add a d4 to any save they make. As a reaction, you can turn a failed save into a success, but this immediately ends the cone effect.
Blinding Cone. Creatures that start their turn in the cone, or enter it on their turn, must pass a CON save or be blinded. They get another save at the start of each turn.
Distorting Cone. Traps creatures inside a warped space, requiring an INT save to escape. The cone is also treated like a singular space, where everything is everywhere. This allows e.g. melee attacks to be made from much further away, or allows you to subject creatures to environmental hazards. AoE affects that include any part of the cone will also include all of it.
Gravity Cone. Prevents flying or jumping, increases fall damage, and requires a check for any climbing, and imposes disadvantage any time a climb check would have been required normally.
Obscuring Cone. Creatures in the cone become mostly invisible, appearing as distorted shadowy wisps. It's possible to tell that someone is there, but you can't tell how many or where exactly.
Spell-Eating Cone. Spells and magical effects with a range of at least 10 feet cast from inside the the cone or on a target inside the cone will be redirected to you or your location, even if you are out of range. If the attack roll misses or you pass the save, you completely nullify the spell or effect and regain a few HP.
Flight
Racial flight is a bit controversial. I, personally, think it's useful but that people overestimate its power. But it does change what sorts of challenges are appropriate, and requires more effort from the DM. I didn't just decide to give them flight out of thin air, though; safely navigating a beholder's lair practically requires it. Beholders themselves can fly, and being excessively paranoid they often construct vertical lairs that are difficult to navigate for landbound creatures, and fill the floor with various traps. If beholden are the beholder's pet, then they should be able to safely navigate the beholder's lair without requiring the beholder to reduce their defenses.
Now, beholders are actually pretty slow, with only a 20 foot fly speed. If a fight against one is going poorly, running away is an option (though watch out for the range on their eye rays). So for the beholden, I thought it might be sufficiently balancing to simply give them a really slow fly speed, in the realm of 10 feet. They have to Dash to keep up with their masters. This still trivializes certain challenges, and lets you solve certain puzzles easily (albeit slowly), but it does make it a lot less useful in combat at least.
Last time I posted a thread on this race, various solutions were discussed, but I didn't see anything that seemed like a good fit. Something like a climb speed just doesn't seem on brand for a beholderkin. One option proposed was to limit them to hovering a certain distance off the ground, but making the distance short enough to keep flight in check would probably render it unusual for its intended purpose, namely navigating the beholder's lair.
In the end, I think this is probably fine. It's definitely a lot weaker than the flight granted by the tiefling or aarakocra, although you don't need wings and can wear heavy armor. It might be an issue consider all the other racial features you get, but the excessively slow speed might make it a fair trade.
Other Features
Fun fact: beholden didn't originally get darkvision, which is why the revealing cone (eye ray) exists. Now they do. I'm also currently giving a choice of Perception, Insight, or Investigation proficiency, playing on the paranoia theme for beholders. I could axe either of these features, though. You also get Common, Undercommon, and Deep Speech as languages.
One negative trait I'm playing with the idea of adding is a sort of inverse to Powerful Build. Stunted Build, if you will. While other small races physically mature when they reach adulthood, beholden do not, forever having the physique of a child. As such, their muscles and bones aren't quite as strong as, say, a halflings. As for the effect of this, I'm thinking it would reduce carry capacity from 15 * STR to 12 * STR, so with a STR of 10 you'd have a capacity of 120 lbs. instead of 150 lbs. For variant encumbrance, this would correspond to 4 * STR for a light load, and 8 * STR for a heavy load, instead of 5 * STR and 10 * STR. Maybe this nerf is meaningless, having too negligible of an effect to be worth the effort of tracking it.
Whew, having gone back over this, I don't know that there's that much room to make big changes without changing fundamental aspects of the race. So mostly I think things just need a proper rewrite to make sure they're appropriately balanced.
Some background about how this came to be (which explains some of the design choices): Originally, I was creating this for a specific character concept that was a GOOlock with a beholder patron. I was using the guide by James Musicus, and in order to optimize the race I made them small (warlocks don't care about being small) so that I could have more points to spend on other racial features. I then needed to justify why they were small, and decided that they would look children. So, while the thread title is a jest, it's actually an accurate description of the race. From there, the concept took on a life of its own, and I continued to tweak and refine it even after I had long forgotten the original build it was meant for.
Quick summary of the race: a beheld (plural beholden) resembles a normal humanoid child, and are often mistake for children of other humanoid races, especially humans or elves. They are created by a beholder's dream to serve as both a pet and as their agents in humanoid cities. Like their progenitors, they have one eye ray for each eye (two, in this case), and they have a large birth mark of an eye on their belly that can project a special field; the effects of these rays and fields vary from beheld to beheld. They can also float, but only very slowly, so they usually reserve their flight for when walking isn't an option (also, most humanoids can't float, so it would draw unwanted attention).
Here's a copypaste of the original lore fluff I wrote up for this, with a few tweaks. I think most of this is solid and doesn't need any further change.
Stuff of Dreams
When a beholder dreams, their imagination can manifest into reality. In fact, this is the primary way that beholders reproduce. But other beholders aren’t the only thing that a dreaming beholder can create.
Beholders are egotistical narcissists, believing themselves to be superior to all other races and even superior to other beholders. They view humans and such the same way we view animals. To them, humans are, at worst, dangerous vermin to be eradicated or slaves to be dominated, and at best, they are pets to be tolerated as long as they remain loyal. Sometimes, in the dreams of a beholder, they imagine the perfect humanoid pet, and when they awaken, there lies the beheld.
The beholden are the perfect beholder’s pet, a humanoid-beholder hybrid that is fiercely loyal to their creator. The beheld acts as an agent of the beholder in the realms of men and elves and dwarves, using their natural charm to manipulate others.
Although beholden resemble humanoid children, their appearance can vary considerably, and they often resemble the beholder that created them in the color of their skin, hair, or eyes. One notable feature is that each beheld has a large birthmark of an eye on their belly with the pupil centered on their navel, reminiscent of the central eye of a beholder.
Forever Young
Much as a human might wish for a pet cat that stays a kitten forever, or a dog that never grew beyond being a puppy, such is the beheld to the beholder that created them. When first spawned into existence, the beheld resembles a 2 year old human child (skipping past the messy diaper stage), and has a similar level of knowledge as a 2 year old human would, imparted to them during the dream that created them.
After this, the beheld matures physically at half the rate of a human for about 14 years, stopping when they resemble a 9 year old. At this point, the beheld stops growing physically, but continues to develop mentally. The beheld maintains a childlike temperament and demeanor their whole life, and often puts on a facade of a simple-minded child to fool others, but in reality they are devious and cunning, scheming to further the goals of their creator.
It’s not known if the beholden have a limit to their lifespan. Certainly they don’t seem to suffer any effects of old age, and may even outlive the beholder that created them. It is said that as a beheld grows older and becomes weary of life, they may dream of their own death, causing them to fade away in their sleep.
Friendly Faces
Unlike beholders, the beholden are quite social and friendly, a great asset to any beholder that creates one. Being physically smaller and weaker than many humanoid races, they rely on their charm to avoid confrontation and achieve their goals. Beholden are not any more malicious than a human, although they may do evil acts at the command of their creator.
Depending on how common beholden are, they may be viewed differently by the other races. If beholden are very rare, then most people aren’t aware of their existence and will presume them to be human or elf children. Beholden can recognize one another, however, and they are almost always the agent of a beholder, so a beheld will be extremely cautious of other beholden and may actively seek to kill them or interrogate them about their beholder master.
If enough beholden are created, they might be able to take hold as their own race, independent of the beholders that first created them. In this case, they will likely be viewed as just another race, perhaps similar to halflings or gnomes. Most beholden will be created by their own kind instead of by a beholder, meaning it’s much less likely that they’ll be agents of a beholder (alternatively, a single beholder might have an entire tribe of beholden in their service). Even so, beholden are still trusting and loyal, and tend to attach themselves to stronger creatures who act as almost a parental leader. It’s unusual to see a group of beholden living independently.
Beholden are able to reproduce in a manner similar to how they were first created. Beholden are asexual, but still experience romantic attractions and will seek out a mate. If a male and female beheld dream together of having a child, then a new beheld will appear next to them when they awaken.
Beholder Slayers
Beholders are incredibly xenophobic, but the creature they hate the most of all is another beholder. They always consider themselves to be the purest example of their race, and view all other beholders as inferior, even disgusting and repulsive. As such, it is exceedingly rare for beholders to cooperate with one another, and the presence of another beholder represents a threat.
Beholders are also terrifying monsters, and can easily be the end of a career of even experienced adventurers. Beholders fortunate enough to spawn a beheld will often task them in assisting with bringing down rival beholders, their dream having blessed the beheld with abilities tailored specifically toward killing beholders. Though beholden are generally better suited to social intrigue than combat, their beholder masters expect unwavering loyalty and obedience, especially on the extermination of rival beholders.
Of course, this represents a risk to the beholder itself, as there is the possibility that the beheld might turn against them. This is perhaps why they are so insistent that their beholden pets use their abilities to slay rival beholders, as otherwise the gift is nothing but a liability. But as beholders are both cunning and paranoid, they will of course prepare for the betrayal of their beholden, and create suitable plans, traps, and countermeasures to deal with them should the need arise.
In most cases, however, this is unnecessary, but then so are most of the paranoid machinations of beholders. Beholden are almost always fiercely loyal to their creators, like a puppy to a human master. It generally takes years of abuse at the hands (eyestalks?) of their master, often combined with a fear for their life, for a beheld to turn against their master. The childlike demeanor of beholden generally results in a stunted sense of morality, so it is difficult for a beheld to perceive their master as evil, even when the beholder hurts people the beheld cares about.
Beholden are particularly susceptible to falling victim of cults or other groups or individuals that are themselves masters at manipulating people. If a beheld’s master is slain, or the beheld grew up without a beholder master, they will often seek out someone else to act as a parental figure to them. Even decades of experience with social intrigue will sometimes abandon them when they feel alone and lost, and they can walk into what would have been an obvious trap in order to find the stability their master once provided in their life.
Beheld Traits
Age. Beholden spawn with the appearance and psyche of a 2 year old human, and grow for around 14 years at half the rate of a human until they resemble a 9 year old human. After this point, they stop aging physically, but continue to develop mentally, although they retain the demeanor of a child. They have no known limit on their lifespan and don’t suffer any effects of old age, but will eventually dream of their own death and fade from this life.
Alignment. Beholden often have a stunted sense of morality, making it difficult to distinguish between evil and good. As such, they tend toward neutrality, and often see their master (or other parental figure) as being good. Regardless of alignment, they are almost always friendly, using subterfuge and manipulation to achieve their goals instead of brute force.
Beholden have three major racial traits; namely, their eye rays, their central eye cone, and their flight, and all of these have been written largely from scratch by me (which is why they're in desperate need of a rewrite now). They also have some other features, like darkvision and a free skill proficiency, those are pretty standard and so shouldn't need any rebalancing. Let's go over those three main traits first, and we'll see what we might be able to do to properly balance them, and then we can talk about some of those extra features.
Eye Rays
The eye rays are at-will abilities that act like a watered down version of a beholder's eye rays. My expectation is that they'd be roughly comparable to cantrips (and actually cantrips are among the options you can choose for your eye rays), perhaps a bit stronger due to being a unique racial feature. In actuality, the power level of my original eye rays seems to be all over the place, some of them looking more like 2nd level spells than cantrips. Obviously some work is needed here.
One example of where I screwed up with this is that I originally discarded the petrification ray because I (correctly) thought that permanent petrification was too strong for an at-will ability, but decided to keep the paralysis ray. At-will paralysis, even if it only lasts one turn, is still crazy strong. I tried to patch this by giving advantage on saves after they pass at least once, but I don't think that's a good design choice. Now, I'm leaning toward swapping out the paralyzing ray for a ray that causes temporary petrification. For non-combat use, both paralyzation and petrification achieve similar results (they stop an NPC from moving, allowing to you move past them or search the area without being disturbed), but in combat they are very different. Petrification actually makes the target more resilient, so while you can attack them while they're incapacitated, unlike with paralysis your attacks become less effective, so you're actually better off focusing on other targets until the petrification ends.
One of the design goals for the eye rays was to make sure I have at least one ray for each type of saving throw. You only get two rays, so you can't have an answer to everything, but you could pick the rays that target the saves you otherwise couldn't. Another aspect of the design that I wanted was the ability to shoot both eye rays simultaneously. Likely this means spending both your action and bonus action, and both rays must have the same target. Currently, this isn't available until 5th level, and if both your eye rays are cantrips then the BA cantrip is cast unscaled (as if you were 1st level).
Let's consider our options for cleaning this up. I don't particularly like giving advantage to the saves after a target succeeds once, it just seems like a finicky mechanic. I'd also prefer to avoid concentration, particularly as the central eye cone already uses concentration, and you should be able to use it and the eye rays simultaneously. I generally already give a save at the end of every turn, so that's a good start. I'm still undecided on how long durations should be; I've vacillated between 1 minute, 1 round, and 1d4 rounds. I'm not sure I like the idea of rolling a die to determine duration, but it seems like a decent middle ground. Question: If the duration is 1d4 rounds (or any other rolled amount), should the DM roll it in secret, or should the player roll it? I think I'll allow the player to refresh/extend the duration by using the eye ray again. Otherwise, I think we'll just need to water down the effect until it fits the power level we're going for. So, for example, instead of paralyzing the target, it might simply reduce speed to 0 and prevent taking any actions.
One last question: What color should each ray be? I generally assume that the eye rays are visible, so using them in public would be noticed. I do make an exception for the charm ray and telepathic ray, which are invisible (but can be seen by those who can see invisible things). I currently have colors assigned to each ray, but I'm curious what others would suggest.
Here's my current list of available eye rays (keep in mind they always get a save at the end of their turn, where applicable):
Banishing Ray. Sends the target to a harmless demiplane for 1 minute on a failed CHA save.
Charm Ray. Charms the target for 1 minute on a failed WIS save. If they pass the save, they know you charmed them, but you can end the effect early to avoid this. This ray is invisible.
Fear Ray. Frightens the target for 1 round on a failed WIS save.
Petrification Ray. Restrains the target if they fail the initial CON save, and petrifies them for 1 minute if they fail the next save at the end of their turn.
Revealing Cone. Projects a cone of bright/dim light out to 30/60 feet. You're made aware if there is anything concealed (illusions, transmutations, shapeshifting, etc.) within the bright light cone, but you don't know which effect you're detecting or were it is. Handy to pair with other detection spells and abilities to pinpoint/narrow down what you're detecting.
Sickening Ray. Poisons the target for 1 round on a failed CON save.
Sleep Ray. Puts the target to sleep for 1 minute on a failed WIS save.
Slowing Ray. Halves speed and the target can't take reaction for 1 minute on a failed DEX save.
Spell Ray. Replicates the chosen cantrip. Doesn't require spell components.
Telekinetic Ray. Moves a medium or smaller target 10 feet in any direction on a failed STR save. Can move (up to 30 feet) and manipulate objects weighing 10 lbs. or less.
Telepathic Ray. Read the target's surface thoughts until the start of your next turn on a failed INT save. If they pass, they know you tried to probe their thoughts. While reading their thoughts, you can speak telepathically to them. This ray is invisible.
As you can see, I already swapped out the paralyzing ray for a petrification ray, and made a few other minor tweaks, mostly to durations. I also added the sickening ray. What can I do to make this better? What are some other interesting rays I could add?
Central Eye Cone
Starting at 3rd level, beholden get access to their signature cone effect that emanates out of mark on their belly. All cones project out to 60 feet, last 1 minute, and require concentration. In every case, the cone's effect disappears once a target is no longer inside the cone. You need to finish a long rest to use the cone again. I don't think cones include the caster in the area of effect by default, leaving you exposed and susceptible to losing your concentration.
Because the cone projects out of the mark on your belly, that mark must be exposed when you use your cone. You can't use your cone if you are wearing armor unless that armor has been modified to leave your belly exposed, reducing the AC it gives you. Magic armor can adjust automatically when it is donned to either cover your belly or expose it. This restriction made sense to me, as covering your eyes would likewise prevent you from using your eye rays. If a beholder closes their central eye (i.e. "covers" their eye with an eyelid), their anti-magic cone also disappears. Also, this has interesting RP consequences. The mark on your belly is large and distinctive; anyone familiar with your kind would instantly know what you are, and even those who are completely ignorant would consider it unusual and might get curious and investigate. So you'd probably want to hide your mark when not using it, but using it requires revealing it. You wouldn't have to have it exposed all the time, a simple cloak would be sufficient to hide it while not in use while allowing you to open it up to use the cone.
These cones are all designed to aid in killing beholders, but can be applied to a variety of situations. Some of the write ups are a bit messy, but here's the current list of options available:
Assuring Cone. All creatures (friend and foe) in the cone add a d4 to any save they make. As a reaction, you can turn a failed save into a success, but this immediately ends the cone effect.
Blinding Cone. Creatures that start their turn in the cone, or enter it on their turn, must pass a CON save or be blinded. They get another save at the start of each turn.
Distorting Cone. Traps creatures inside a warped space, requiring an INT save to escape. The cone is also treated like a singular space, where everything is everywhere. This allows e.g. melee attacks to be made from much further away, or allows you to subject creatures to environmental hazards. AoE affects that include any part of the cone will also include all of it.
Gravity Cone. Prevents flying or jumping, increases fall damage, and requires a check for any climbing, and imposes disadvantage any time a climb check would have been required normally.
Obscuring Cone. Creatures in the cone become mostly invisible, appearing as distorted shadowy wisps. It's possible to tell that someone is there, but you can't tell how many or where exactly.
Spell-Eating Cone. Spells and magical effects with a range of at least 10 feet cast from inside the the cone or on a target inside the cone will be redirected to you or your location, even if you are out of range. If the attack roll misses or you pass the save, you completely nullify the spell or effect and regain a few HP.
Flight
Racial flight is a bit controversial. I, personally, think it's useful but that people overestimate its power. But it does change what sorts of challenges are appropriate, and requires more effort from the DM. I didn't just decide to give them flight out of thin air, though; safely navigating a beholder's lair practically requires it. Beholders themselves can fly, and being excessively paranoid they often construct vertical lairs that are difficult to navigate for landbound creatures, and fill the floor with various traps. If beholden are the beholder's pet, then they should be able to safely navigate the beholder's lair without requiring the beholder to reduce their defenses.
Now, beholders are actually pretty slow, with only a 20 foot fly speed. If a fight against one is going poorly, running away is an option (though watch out for the range on their eye rays). So for the beholden, I thought it might be sufficiently balancing to simply give them a really slow fly speed, in the realm of 10 feet. They have to Dash to keep up with their masters. This still trivializes certain challenges, and lets you solve certain puzzles easily (albeit slowly), but it does make it a lot less useful in combat at least.
Last time I posted a thread on this race, various solutions were discussed, but I didn't see anything that seemed like a good fit. Something like a climb speed just doesn't seem on brand for a beholderkin. One option proposed was to limit them to hovering a certain distance off the ground, but making the distance short enough to keep flight in check would probably render it unusual for its intended purpose, namely navigating the beholder's lair.
In the end, I think this is probably fine. It's definitely a lot weaker than the flight granted by the tiefling or aarakocra, although you don't need wings and can wear heavy armor. It might be an issue consider all the other racial features you get, but the excessively slow speed might make it a fair trade.
Other Features
Fun fact: beholden didn't originally get darkvision, which is why the revealing cone (eye ray) exists. Now they do. I'm also currently giving a choice of Perception, Insight, or Investigation proficiency, playing on the paranoia theme for beholders. I could axe either of these features, though. You also get Common, Undercommon, and Deep Speech as languages.
One negative trait I'm playing with the idea of adding is a sort of inverse to Powerful Build. Stunted Build, if you will. While other small races physically mature when they reach adulthood, beholden do not, forever having the physique of a child. As such, their muscles and bones aren't quite as strong as, say, a halflings. As for the effect of this, I'm thinking it would reduce carry capacity from 15 * STR to 12 * STR, so with a STR of 10 you'd have a capacity of 120 lbs. instead of 150 lbs. For variant encumbrance, this would correspond to 4 * STR for a light load, and 8 * STR for a heavy load, instead of 5 * STR and 10 * STR. Maybe this nerf is meaningless, having too negligible of an effect to be worth the effort of tracking it.
Whew, having gone back over this, I don't know that there's that much room to make big changes without changing fundamental aspects of the race. So mostly I think things just need a proper rewrite to make sure they're appropriately balanced.