Hi everyone, I've had a doubt regarding beholders. Recently my 3rd level party encountered a beholder (CR 13), because they were going somewhere I didn't want them to go. This way I forced them to come back with an epic fight. The only problem is that my players have little knowledge of monsters and believed they could defeat the beholder. One of the players wanted to spray ink into the beholder's main eye, to blind him so that he could no longer use his anti-magic cone. His roll was successful, so the beholder could no longer use his anti-magic cone. as a DM I decided that the beholder could still use his eye rays. the characters then ran away. now, after a few days, I had a discussion with that player, who said that in his opinion by blinding the main eye the beholder should have a disadvantage in attacks and the players an advantage against eye rays ST. what do you think? who is right? (I'm sorry for my english, I tryed my best...)
Nonsense. The eyes are eyes - they can see just fine.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Nonsense. The eyes are eyes - they can see just fine.
It is what I said to him. But he replied with: the main eye is his best eye. Without it he can't see well, because the others are not so good as the main.
Really, there's nothing in a beholder's stat block to suggest blinding their central eye would do anything at all other than annoy it, or maybe force it to use one of its three eye beams for the turn on its telekinetic ray to wipe the ink away. The anti-magic effect isn't tied to sight, and there's no way to turn it off short of killing it
As an excuse to give the party an opening to get out of there though, it was a good call
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Uh the player already negotiated a (reasonable) breach of RAW, and now they're arguing that they should have had more? Chutzpah, I say. You made the right call.
.. turn on its telekinetic ray to wipe the ink away..
Or just blink, even.
Now, if they'd obscured vision - a Fog Cloud spell, or a bellows full of flour maybe - that might be different, but squirting ink shouldn't be effective unless the GM is feeling generous. And no more effective than the GM says. So yea, good call =)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Nonsense. The eyes are eyes - they can see just fine.
the main eye is his best eye.
"Says who?"
Eye stalk number 6: "Size isn't everything, y'know!"
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Beholders can already choose to close their main eye (since it interferes with their own eye beams) and their description says nothing about suffering disadvantage or other penalties as a result of that beyond shutting off the AM field it generates.
One person answered: "All of the eye ray effects require the Beholder to target creatures it can see. Because of that, the Blindness/Deafness spell, magical darkness, or any way to inflict the Blinded condition on a Beholder renders it essentially harmless apart from its bite attack."
One person answered: "All of the eye ray effects require the Beholder to target creatures it can see. Because of that, the Blindness/Deafness spell, magical darkness, or any way to inflict the Blinded condition on a Beholder renders it essentially harmless apart from its bite attack."
This is correct. However, the original question was about what happens if only the main eye is temporarily obscured, asking if the eye stalks could also see normally.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hi everyone, I've had a doubt regarding beholders. Recently my 3rd level party encountered a beholder (CR 13), because they were going somewhere I didn't want them to go. This way I forced them to come back with an epic fight. The only problem is that my players have little knowledge of monsters and believed they could defeat the beholder. One of the players wanted to spray ink into the beholder's main eye, to blind him so that he could no longer use his anti-magic cone. His roll was successful, so the beholder could no longer use his anti-magic cone. as a DM I decided that the beholder could still use his eye rays. the characters then ran away. now, after a few days, I had a discussion with that player, who said that in his opinion by blinding the main eye the beholder should have a disadvantage in attacks and the players an advantage against eye rays ST. what do you think? who is right? (I'm sorry for my english, I tryed my best...)
Nonsense. The eyes are eyes - they can see just fine.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
It is what I said to him. But he replied with: the main eye is his best eye. Without it he can't see well, because the others are not so good as the main.
But I agree with you...
Really, there's nothing in a beholder's stat block to suggest blinding their central eye would do anything at all other than annoy it, or maybe force it to use one of its three eye beams for the turn on its telekinetic ray to wipe the ink away. The anti-magic effect isn't tied to sight, and there's no way to turn it off short of killing it
As an excuse to give the party an opening to get out of there though, it was a good call
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Uh the player already negotiated a (reasonable) breach of RAW, and now they're arguing that they should have had more? Chutzpah, I say. You made the right call.
Or just blink, even.
Now, if they'd obscured vision - a Fog Cloud spell, or a bellows full of flour maybe - that might be different, but squirting ink shouldn't be effective unless the GM is feeling generous. And no more effective than the GM says. So yea, good call =)
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
"Says who?"
Eye stalk number 6: "Size isn't everything, y'know!"
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Beholders can already choose to close their main eye (since it interferes with their own eye beams) and their description says nothing about suffering disadvantage or other penalties as a result of that beyond shutting off the AM field it generates.
Thx you all, I'll tell him what you told me... May Lathander light up your way!
When a player asked me about casting Blind on a Beholder, I searched for a similar topic and found this thread, as well as a post on Reddit discussing it: Can beholders just be blinded? Does it even effect their rays?
One person answered: "All of the eye ray effects require the Beholder to target creatures it can see. Because of that, the Blindness/Deafness spell, magical darkness, or any way to inflict the Blinded condition on a Beholder renders it essentially harmless apart from its bite attack."
This is correct. However, the original question was about what happens if only the main eye is temporarily obscured, asking if the eye stalks could also see normally.