I don't like how the eye ray is determined randomly. That doesn't seem to keep with the lore and I've had encounters where the beholder does no damage the entire boss fight and one where it used the disintegration ray 5-6 times. As a dm, I never throw a beholder against anyone below level 15 but I control the eye rays, balancing it out and not just grinding death or disintegration.
I had 6 level 8 PC's wipe the floor with my Beholder along with half a dozen giant spiders due to a couple of exceptionaly bad saves on my part. With only 1 enemy, it's really easy for it to swing either way unless you're going to fudge dice.
It's notable that beholders have no Legendary Resistance, unlike most legendary monsters out there. That can make the outcome (literally) much more dicey.
It also depends hugely on the environment - Taking on a beholder in it's lair with followers/servants and a complex vertical layout can be devastating even for an experienced group - no matter what the CR calculations say. In and open field it stands very little chance, but then a beholder would not really engage in that type of environment (it would probably not go there to begin with given their general levels of paranoia) .
My group: five PCs level 10-11, Cleric Warlock Fighter Blood Hunter Barbarian
The enemy: one, singular beholder
The encounter calculator said this fight is hard, but not deadly and certainly not impossible. But me looking at the beholder's abilities leaves me uncertain. Opinions?
So, the stat block for Beholders is quite underwhelming. To make the Beholder more challenging, pick which eye ray to use. However, do NOT use both the disintegration and death ray on the same turn, and only use either one of those every 2-3 turns. When attacking the PCs, use eye rays targeted at specific PCs who will most likely fail the save. This is because Beholders are extremely intelligent and by the time they battle the PCs, they will certainly know the PCs almost inside out. For example, a Beholder wouldn't target the Fighter or the Barbarian with the Telekinetic ray, as it requires a strength save, but probably the Warlock. At this point of the campaign, your PCs probably won't get one shot by even a death ray, but it will drop them to a critical condition. Also, only use layer actions once every 3-4 turns, as you don't want a TPK. Right before the fight, let the PCs see the Beholder use its Disintegration Ray on a powerful monster(and actually kill the monster), to let them know exactly what they're up against.
You can use the following list to determine the attacks, but you can change or just entirely ignore the following. Ignore lair actions if the Beholder is not in its layer. Also, I did not include Legendary Actions because they are extremely versatile and should not be limited to just one specific ray. Use legendary actions as you see fit. Lastly, let the PCs hit the Beholder for 4 turns, but use all 3 damaging rays on turn 5(different targets if possible). Remember to target all the rays meant for the Blood Hunter at the Fighter if the Fighter is a ranged attacker.
Turn 1: Charm Ray(On the PC with the lowest or second lowest wisdom score), Fear Ray(On the PC with the lowest wisdom score that was not affected by the Charm Ray), Telekinetic Ray(on the Warlock, and chuck it as far away as possible on a failed save. Try to keep the Beholder out of range from the warlock's spells)
Turn 2: Enervation Ray(On the PC with the lowest constitution score), Telekinetic Ray(chuck the Cleric this time), Slow Ray(use it on the Cleric if it got chucked by the Telekinetic Ray, if not, use the Sleep Ray on the Cleric)
Turn 3: Paralyzing Ray(Target the Blood Hunter this time), Disintegration Ray(Use it on the PC with the lowest health), Sleep Ray(target the Cleric)
Turn 4: Telekinetic Ray(chuck the Cleric), Personification Ray(Keep the Warlock restrained), Enervation Ray(the ideal target is the PC with the lowest health), Lair Action(Shoot an eye ray at the target with the lowest health, but the random ray cannot be the Death Ray)
Turn 5: Enervation Ray(the target should be the Blood Hunter or the Cleric), Disintegration Ray(target the PC that was damaged by the Enervation Ray, or the Cleric if the target made a successful save), Death Ray(KILL. THE. WARLOCK)
Those are the first five turns of what I would personally do if I was the DM, hope I helped!
I don't like how the eye ray is determined randomly. That doesn't seem to keep with the lore and I've had encounters where the beholder does no damage the entire boss fight and one where it used the disintegration ray 5-6 times. As a dm, I never throw a beholder against anyone below level 15 but I control the eye rays, balancing it out and not just grinding death or disintegration.
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It's notable that beholders have no Legendary Resistance, unlike most legendary monsters out there. That can make the outcome (literally) much more dicey.
It also depends hugely on the environment - Taking on a beholder in it's lair with followers/servants and a complex vertical layout can be devastating even for an experienced group - no matter what the CR calculations say. In and open field it stands very little chance, but then a beholder would not really engage in that type of environment (it would probably not go there to begin with given their general levels of paranoia) .
So, the stat block for Beholders is quite underwhelming. To make the Beholder more challenging, pick which eye ray to use. However, do NOT use both the disintegration and death ray on the same turn, and only use either one of those every 2-3 turns. When attacking the PCs, use eye rays targeted at specific PCs who will most likely fail the save. This is because Beholders are extremely intelligent and by the time they battle the PCs, they will certainly know the PCs almost inside out. For example, a Beholder wouldn't target the Fighter or the Barbarian with the Telekinetic ray, as it requires a strength save, but probably the Warlock. At this point of the campaign, your PCs probably won't get one shot by even a death ray, but it will drop them to a critical condition. Also, only use layer actions once every 3-4 turns, as you don't want a TPK. Right before the fight, let the PCs see the Beholder use its Disintegration Ray on a powerful monster(and actually kill the monster), to let them know exactly what they're up against.
You can use the following list to determine the attacks, but you can change or just entirely ignore the following. Ignore lair actions if the Beholder is not in its layer. Also, I did not include Legendary Actions because they are extremely versatile and should not be limited to just one specific ray. Use legendary actions as you see fit. Lastly, let the PCs hit the Beholder for 4 turns, but use all 3 damaging rays on turn 5(different targets if possible). Remember to target all the rays meant for the Blood Hunter at the Fighter if the Fighter is a ranged attacker.
Turn 1: Charm Ray(On the PC with the lowest or second lowest wisdom score), Fear Ray(On the PC with the lowest wisdom score that was not affected by the Charm Ray), Telekinetic Ray(on the Warlock, and chuck it as far away as possible on a failed save. Try to keep the Beholder out of range from the warlock's spells)
Turn 2: Enervation Ray(On the PC with the lowest constitution score), Telekinetic Ray(chuck the Cleric this time), Slow Ray(use it on the Cleric if it got chucked by the Telekinetic Ray, if not, use the Sleep Ray on the Cleric)
Turn 3: Paralyzing Ray(Target the Blood Hunter this time), Disintegration Ray(Use it on the PC with the lowest health), Sleep Ray(target the Cleric)
Turn 4: Telekinetic Ray(chuck the Cleric), Personification Ray(Keep the Warlock restrained), Enervation Ray(the ideal target is the PC with the lowest health), Lair Action(Shoot an eye ray at the target with the lowest health, but the random ray cannot be the Death Ray)
Turn 5: Enervation Ray(the target should be the Blood Hunter or the Cleric), Disintegration Ray(target the PC that was damaged by the Enervation Ray, or the Cleric if the target made a successful save), Death Ray(KILL. THE. WARLOCK)
Those are the first five turns of what I would personally do if I was the DM, hope I helped!
Honestly I can't tell you for sure .