So beholders.. The books tell us how deadly they are, how scary they are how they are one of the biggest threats to human safety and all civilization... Yet all they seem to do is take over cities and operate as crime bosses from the shadows... These guys are such a high CL they could literally kill entire armies alone, most attacks would bounce off of them from average soldiers and yet they take such petty lives living in sewers and being racists? Like... Everything i read about them makes them sound petty and lame for such dangerous menacing creatures. About how all they do is hate on other beholders for not looking like them.
Few questions.. how do they breed? Like do they lay eggs?
Second question. How can i incorperate one into my game and make it seem genuinely menacing... Like the heroes are basically legends at this point in the game traveling heroes who have saved hundreads of lives and rarely if ever are challanged, so i wanna stick this group of 7 or 8th level heroes into a situation with a Beholder and give it this presence of power and authority.
So beholders.. The books tell us how deadly they are, how scary they are how they are one of the biggest threats to human safety and all civilization... Yet all they seem to do is take over cities and operate as crime bosses from the shadows... These guys are such a high CL they could literally kill entire armies alone, most attacks would bounce off of them from average soldiers and yet they take such petty lives living in sewers and being racists? Like... Everything i read about them makes them sound petty and lame for such dangerous menacing creatures. About how all they do is hate on other beholders for not looking like them.
Few questions.. how do they breed? Like do they lay eggs?
Second question. How can i incorperate one into my game and make it seem genuinely menacing... Like the heroes are basically legends at this point in the game traveling heroes who have saved hundreads of lives and rarely if ever are challanged, so i wanna stick this group of 7 or 8th level heroes into a situation with a Beholder and give it this presence of power and authority.
Read Volo's Guide To Monsters.
What makes Beholders dangerous is that they have genius-level intellect and they're extremely paranoid. A beholder spends every waking moment considering all the ways it might be killed - no matter how farfetched or unlikely - and plans to counter such circumstances. If I remember correctly, they're still aware of their surroundings when they "sleep". Additionally, Beholders create lairs that are extremely difficult to traverse for anyone that doesn't have unlimited access to flight and antimagic like they do.
Imagine trying to find the Batcave and kill Batman in his own lair, except someone gave Batman superpowers. That's what you're up against.
Beholders don't reproduce sexually. Their dreams warp reality, and sometimes they dream a new Beholder into existence.
Beholders actually dream up other beholders, according to Volos. They don't really breed.
As for how to make them menacing. Don't think of them like your straight on deadly foe. Beholders are intelligent without peer, and extremely paranoid. If anyone built a doomsday bunker and stocked it with 50 years worth of provisions on the off chance of a zombie apocalypse, it would be a Beholder. So much so that they have planned for, well whatever plan the players have...literally. Just whatever your players come up with, the beholder has found a way to give itself advantage in that specific situation. And despite their paranoia, Beholders don't always work alone, they will attract followers who they know won't ever be able to overthrow them. So give the Beholder lots of minions the players have to cut through before ever getting to the beholder itself. And then don't put the Beholder on a standard playing field. The beholder if found in it's lair will have given itself every advantage. Large cavernous area, with plenty of space for it to fly around in, and lots of stalactites or artificial structures for it to gain cover behind in the air while the PC's try to assail it with ranged attacks. It need never use it's bite attack with those eye stalks.
Ultimately the beholder will also have the intelligence to know when it is defeated, and will either attempt to bargain with the PC's, or will have planned an escape route during the very early construction phases of it's lair.
I can't argue with many of your points, but I will say that you've hit the nail on the head when it comes to beholder personality. If you haven't taken a look through Volo's Guide to Monsters, they have an excellent section on Beholders. For some background, beholders are insane. They are self aggrandizing, vain, and cruel monsters. Personally, as someone who usually plays spellcasters, an antimagic field is the scariest thing in the world; also death rays, not fun. But to your questions.
Beholders are aberrations, they aren't from around these parts. They don't reproduce in any normal way. "Off-spring" are often exact replicas of beholders and well... they come form dreams, yes dreams. Because they dream about themselves so hard, they "duplicate".
A beholder is menacing because of its insane and untrusting nature. Of course, you can play a beholder however you want, but if you feel noncommittal about including a beholder, many dragons, giants, vampires, and particular fiends are of similar level and can appear menacing in a more predictable way.
"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett
I want to use the beholder in a interesting way... I have this plot ware the Dark elves have sailed across the sea from a long forgotten elven homeland. They are going to sacrifice an entire city of people to prevent a world ending cataclysm, not out of any sense of altruism but out of fear for there own lives. Although The heroes do not know about this and only the plan to sack the town and will inadvertently start the cataclysmic event.
Now under the city of bellwall they have entombed a ancient creature named Kavaal a beholder. A creature so powerful it was locked away but not killed, a being I want to build up almost like a Souran figure, watchful and locked away, waiting its moment of freedom. I want the players to fear the release of the beholder, I want any interaction with it to come across as slow and insidious and intimidating with its every word emanating a aura of power and destruction. It was his dreams that called the dark elves to this place, fearing himself for what would happen if the cataclysm happened. But he needs to come across as nearly lovecraftian and scary and i am not quite sure how to give that presence to a beholder. Any tips for how to present or roleplay a powerful entity like this? And do you see any issues with building up a beholder like that?
I want the players to fear the release of the beholder, I want any interaction with it to come across as slow and insidious and intimidating with its every word emanating a aura of power and destruction. It was his dreams that called the dark elves to this place, fearing himself for what would happen if the cataclysm happened. But he needs to come across as nearly lovecraftian and scary and i am not quite sure how to give that presence to a beholder. Any tips for how to present or roleplay a powerful entity like this? And do you see any issues with building up a beholder like that?
A good place to start is actually reading (or re-reading) some lovecraft, look at the words used and the mood given. If the Beholder is communicating through dreams they will likely be dark confusing and very unsettling. This is an alien mind trying to communicate with 'lesser' creatures and it has not had a whole lot of people to talk to during its imprisonment. Maybe something to do with the impending disaster has weakened his bonds. Perhaps when the Beholder is interacting with your players make them perform Wisdom saves or take some psychic damage just due to the beholder's mental presence being overwhelming. Something of a minor note, there is a good deal of variety in how each Beholder looks (aside from the large eye and 8 stalks format) perhaps this one is all sinuous eye stalks that are reminiscent of some tentacled beast from the depths of the ocean. It could look like a cave fish or something similarly disturbing/disgusting and eel like.
During its discussions with the players it will talk from a position of superiority, perhaps these humanoids should be thankful for his interest in them. They are lucky to have the assistance of a being as great as I am, type of mentality. When it speaks the players can hear 'whispers' of some sort around him, maybe it is very disconcerting and at times the whispers almost form words, terrifying words, words that will crush a persons soul. Whispers of a darkness so vast and uncaring, and yet it seems something is watching you from this darkness, and it is hungry. Sometimes whispers have teeth.
Find some movies that are really creepy scary, like Event Horizon or just have an unknowable enemy like in Fifth Element. Aside from the Lovecraft books another one I would suggest is "Seventh" by Heath M Pfaff. Short story, would be good to give you ideas for creepiness and otherworldlyness.
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"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
One other thing to think of, when you get close to the point of conflict between the player characters and the beholder - how to play that super-intelligence.
The posters above have done an amazing job of summing up the way a beholder prepares, but here's the thing...
You have to recognise that you, the DM, are not as intelligent as a beholder.
When the players do something that you didn't expect, didn't plan for and you're impressed with their ingenuity ..... the beholder thought they would do that, it planned for it and it isn't impressed with them in the slightest.
This means you will need to ad-lib, make stuff up as you go along to counter their plans.
Don't reward them for clever ideas in the way that you would normally - instead crush them with the counter that the beholder has already prepared.
Stuff like - dodging much of the Beholder's lair via travel on the ethereal plane? That's why it has a nest of Phase Spiders in the lair.
Someone else mentioned Lovecraft, and I think that's the way to go. Full on insanity on the surroundings. In Out Of The Abyss, the demon lords drove the creatures around them crazy. Do the same thing here.
The beholder isn't a terrifying thing because its a combat monster. So, don't play it as one. Play it as a puppet master that's controlling everything else. Make the players afraid of being mind controlled or losing themselves when confronted by it. Dont be afraid to use intrigue or call-of-cthulhu tactics.
I like the idea of madness entering the realm. If you are not using it already, maybe the incorporation, and subsequent loss, of the Sanity stat for each character would show them how dangerous the Beholder is. You could also rip off something like a Dragon's Frightful Presence ability and apply it to the Beholder:
Frightful Presence. Each creature of the Beholder choice that is within 120 feet of the Beholder and aware of it must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature's saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to the Beholders Frightful Presence for the next 24 hours.
Maybe as the PC's spend more time near the Beholders lair they begin to have nightmares, so each morning when they wake they have to make a Wisdom saving throw (or Sanity if you choose to go that route) and if they fail they have some sort of condition applied to them that day due to the nerve wracking fear.
The beholder block definitely talks about folks in the area of effect of the Beholders lair feeling like they are being Watched. This generates a great sense of paranoia that you could play with in the town(S) surrounding the Beholders lair. Some may have been driven mad by the effects of the Beholder, so maybe the characters have to deal with a a group murderous cultists who have sprung up and are killing people and collecting their eyes for the great one Kavaal. They attach them to their faces in aberrant rituals to emulate their leader, and the folks around town have began calling them BadEyes because as part of that same ritual they put out one of their own eyes to emulate the singular forward facing and large eye of their great leader. Those who have witnessed the cult at work and lived say the cultists emanate a sickening red glow from their one working eye, their BadEye. These cultists could be suped up to provide a suitable challenge for your players.
A lot of what you're describing that you want is reminiscent of an Aboleth. Maybe read up on them, and try to take some ideas for your Beholder from Aboleth lore
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
That shows that the CR: 13 beholder is an appropriate challenge for a party of 6 adventurers of 9th level.
You could easily build the story up, so they gain a couple of levels along the way before facing the beholder - they are a monster that shouldn't be something that a party just run into and kill.
Party of four Level 7 characters? I have to agree with the above poster - That's a bit low to take on a beholder. To illustrate:
An average wizard at level 7 and Con 14 has 44 hp. An average cleric of the same Con has about 55hp. The beholder's Death Ray deals an average of 55 damage on a failed Dex save. You can one-shot half the party here. And the beholder gets up to SEVEN eye beams per round; granted, the ray choices are random, but still. That gives you about a 68% chance of firing off a Death Ray per round, with the ability to kill a party member in one shot. Meanwhile, you also have Petrification Rays, Disintigrate Rays, Charm Rays, Enervation Rays, etc going off. That's enough potential damage in a round to kill off anyone but a Bear Barbarian in a rage. And, even then, you need to worry about being petrified or charmed.
You basically need to have casters present, because while the Eye Tyrant has decent saves against mental effects, it can't afford to miss even one of those Save or Die spells. So, it needs to have an anti-magic cone up. That provides the ONLY cover you have - without it, you will die - or be Charmed and be worthless in the fight, etc. End your turn outside the cone, you'll likely suffer the same fate. You can't make a single mistake here, or its all over for you. Get close enough to dodge in/out of the anti-magic field, you're close enough for the beholder to shift just enough to hit you with its eyebeams on its turn, while still covering the rest of the party. And its not going to be easy to run in and out of that anti-magic field; the beholder can create difficult terrain with its Lair Actions. Or grappling appendages.
One mistake. Just one. And your party is good as dead.
Hmm I am thinking of having the beholder be asleep and the risk is that the villain will try to wake it. so theres a chance the players will not have to face the slumbering beholder, but if it does waken i could establish its power quickly by having it target the NPC ( a necromancer elf and brother of the wizard Awlin ) and a few of the other heroes allies showing off its incredible power before turning its rays on the players giving them plenty of time to either formulate a plan or get out. Or even if it wakes have it not decide to kill them immediatly, have it try to dominate or humiliate them.
If it's an ancient foe that has been contained by goodly sorts, it may try to convince the players to let it out, and when it can't then it will try to charm them, or scare them into doing it.
The big bad guy is tapping into the creative powers of the Beholders dream to create monstrous creatures, and aberrations. If a beholder can dream another beholder into reality, what else can it do.
I will say this, I don't think the beholder would be interested in immediately killing the party. It may want to just escape so it can rebuild its powerbase. They are mastermind types, face to face confrontation is the very last thing a beholder wants to deal with. But if it does it should have a plan to deal with the party without its direct involvement.
Why the barbarian hate, what did he ever do to you. He doesn't have to kill his companions, just put them in a position that they become no threat to the beholder. Like keeping you busy while the beholder flees.
This is all based on the Beholder having been imprisoned in some way.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Ooo, or maybe they meet and NPC who gains their trust and then later they find out that it's an extension of the Beholders mind, created in a dream. The NPC basically leads them down the wrong path until the players finally figure it out right before it's too late (or maybe right after *evil DM laugh*)
Hmm I am thinking of having the beholder be asleep and the risk is that the villain will try to wake it. so theres a chance the players will not have to face the slumbering beholder, but if it does waken i could establish its power quickly by having it target the NPC ( a necromancer elf and brother of the wizard Awlin ) and a few of the other heroes allies showing off its incredible power before turning its rays on the players giving them plenty of time to either formulate a plan or get out. Or even if it wakes have it not decide to kill them immediatly, have it try to dominate or humiliate them.
Beholders are fully aware of their surroundings even while they "sleep".
I will say this, I don't think the beholder would be interested in immediately killing the party. It may want to just escape so it can rebuild its powerbase. They are mastermind types, face to face confrontation is the very last thing a beholder wants to deal with. But if it does it should have a plan to deal with the party without its direct involvement.
A Beholder wouldn't escape; not immediately. Every Beholder believes all other creatures (including other Beholders) are inferior to them, so it has no reason to think it's going to lose. Also, because every Beholder thinks the world revolves around them, they're going to interpret the party's presence as proof of a conspiracy to kill them. If they're aware of other Beholders, they're going to think one of them's finally made a move. A Beholder would only flee after it becomes apparent it can't win the fight.
Not only does it know it's superior to the party, it's not going to fight fair. The first thing it's going to do is fly out of 60' darkvision range and if anyone follows with magical flight, it'll open its antimagic cone on them. If fighting fails, it'll have a backup plan. Maybe it built its boss room under an artificial lake or dam and it disintegrates a hole in the ceiling so it floods. Maybe it's rigged the ceiling to collapse when it disintegrates the support pillars. Maybe there's a pit under the floor and it disintegrates the floor out from under your feet. After that, it would try to escape.
I would argue if they are somehow magically imprisoning the beholder then there is the likelihood that all of his eye stalks are closed (which is why they are aware while sleeping, when the main eye closes there are always some eye stalks watching) and at the very least groggy.
You are describing a beholder in its peak of power where it has complete control over the circumstances. This would be more like a beholder that just woke up, hasn't had a cup of coffee, and needs to stretch a little bit. A beholder would probably not prefer to fight any party in anything less than the time and place it chooses. Would it just run right off the get go after escaping its magical imprisonment? Nope, I think it would bluff its way through the situation being as big and scary to discourage them attacking before he can recover. Like an animal with its hackles up to discourage confrontation.
The fleeing would be in regards to a somehow weakened beholder outside of its comfort zone, and not in its lair.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
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So beholders.. The books tell us how deadly they are, how scary they are how they are one of the biggest threats to human safety and all civilization... Yet all they seem to do is take over cities and operate as crime bosses from the shadows... These guys are such a high CL they could literally kill entire armies alone, most attacks would bounce off of them from average soldiers and yet they take such petty lives living in sewers and being racists? Like... Everything i read about them makes them sound petty and lame for such dangerous menacing creatures. About how all they do is hate on other beholders for not looking like them.
Few questions.. how do they breed? Like do they lay eggs?
Second question. How can i incorperate one into my game and make it seem genuinely menacing... Like the heroes are basically legends at this point in the game traveling heroes who have saved hundreads of lives and rarely if ever are challanged, so i wanna stick this group of 7 or 8th level heroes into a situation with a Beholder and give it this presence of power and authority.
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Beholders actually dream up other beholders, according to Volos. They don't really breed.
As for how to make them menacing. Don't think of them like your straight on deadly foe. Beholders are intelligent without peer, and extremely paranoid. If anyone built a doomsday bunker and stocked it with 50 years worth of provisions on the off chance of a zombie apocalypse, it would be a Beholder. So much so that they have planned for, well whatever plan the players have...literally. Just whatever your players come up with, the beholder has found a way to give itself advantage in that specific situation. And despite their paranoia, Beholders don't always work alone, they will attract followers who they know won't ever be able to overthrow them. So give the Beholder lots of minions the players have to cut through before ever getting to the beholder itself. And then don't put the Beholder on a standard playing field. The beholder if found in it's lair will have given itself every advantage. Large cavernous area, with plenty of space for it to fly around in, and lots of stalactites or artificial structures for it to gain cover behind in the air while the PC's try to assail it with ranged attacks. It need never use it's bite attack with those eye stalks.
Ultimately the beholder will also have the intelligence to know when it is defeated, and will either attempt to bargain with the PC's, or will have planned an escape route during the very early construction phases of it's lair.
I can't argue with many of your points, but I will say that you've hit the nail on the head when it comes to beholder personality. If you haven't taken a look through Volo's Guide to Monsters, they have an excellent section on Beholders. For some background, beholders are insane. They are self aggrandizing, vain, and cruel monsters. Personally, as someone who usually plays spellcasters, an antimagic field is the scariest thing in the world; also death rays, not fun. But to your questions.
Beholders are aberrations, they aren't from around these parts. They don't reproduce in any normal way. "Off-spring" are often exact replicas of beholders and well... they come form dreams, yes dreams. Because they dream about themselves so hard, they "duplicate".
A beholder is menacing because of its insane and untrusting nature. Of course, you can play a beholder however you want, but if you feel noncommittal about including a beholder, many dragons, giants, vampires, and particular fiends are of similar level and can appear menacing in a more predictable way.
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"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett
I want to use the beholder in a interesting way... I have this plot ware the Dark elves have sailed across the sea from a long forgotten elven homeland. They are going to sacrifice an entire city of people to prevent a world ending cataclysm, not out of any sense of altruism but out of fear for there own lives. Although The heroes do not know about this and only the plan to sack the town and will inadvertently start the cataclysmic event.
Now under the city of bellwall they have entombed a ancient creature named Kavaal a beholder. A creature so powerful it was locked away but not killed, a being I want to build up almost like a Souran figure, watchful and locked away, waiting its moment of freedom.
I want the players to fear the release of the beholder, I want any interaction with it to come across as slow and insidious and intimidating with its every word emanating a aura of power and destruction. It was his dreams that called the dark elves to this place, fearing himself for what would happen if the cataclysm happened. But he needs to come across as nearly lovecraftian and scary and i am not quite sure how to give that presence to a beholder.
Any tips for how to present or roleplay a powerful entity like this? And do you see any issues with building up a beholder like that?
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
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D&D Beyond FoundersOne other thing to think of, when you get close to the point of conflict between the player characters and the beholder - how to play that super-intelligence.
The posters above have done an amazing job of summing up the way a beholder prepares, but here's the thing...
You have to recognise that you, the DM, are not as intelligent as a beholder.
When the players do something that you didn't expect, didn't plan for and you're impressed with their ingenuity ..... the beholder thought they would do that, it planned for it and it isn't impressed with them in the slightest.
This means you will need to ad-lib, make stuff up as you go along to counter their plans.
Don't reward them for clever ideas in the way that you would normally - instead crush them with the counter that the beholder has already prepared.
Stuff like - dodging much of the Beholder's lair via travel on the ethereal plane? That's why it has a nest of Phase Spiders in the lair.
Pun-loving nerd | Faith Elisabeth Lilley | She/Her/Hers | Profile art by Becca Golins
If you need help with homebrew, please post on the homebrew forums, where multiple staff and moderators can read your post and help you!
"We got this, no problem! I'll take the twenty on the left - you guys handle the one on the right!"🔊
Someone else mentioned Lovecraft, and I think that's the way to go. Full on insanity on the surroundings. In Out Of The Abyss, the demon lords drove the creatures around them crazy. Do the same thing here.
The beholder isn't a terrifying thing because its a combat monster. So, don't play it as one. Play it as a puppet master that's controlling everything else. Make the players afraid of being mind controlled or losing themselves when confronted by it. Dont be afraid to use intrigue or call-of-cthulhu tactics.
I like the idea of madness entering the realm. If you are not using it already, maybe the incorporation, and subsequent loss, of the Sanity stat for each character would show them how dangerous the Beholder is. You could also rip off something like a Dragon's Frightful Presence ability and apply it to the Beholder:
Frightful Presence. Each creature of the Beholder choice that is within 120 feet of the Beholder and aware of it must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature's saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to the Beholders Frightful Presence for the next 24 hours.
Maybe as the PC's spend more time near the Beholders lair they begin to have nightmares, so each morning when they wake they have to make a Wisdom saving throw (or Sanity if you choose to go that route) and if they fail they have some sort of condition applied to them that day due to the nerve wracking fear.
The beholder block definitely talks about folks in the area of effect of the Beholders lair feeling like they are being Watched. This generates a great sense of paranoia that you could play with in the town(S) surrounding the Beholders lair. Some may have been driven mad by the effects of the Beholder, so maybe the characters have to deal with a a group murderous cultists who have sprung up and are killing people and collecting their eyes for the great one Kavaal. They attach them to their faces in aberrant rituals to emulate their leader, and the folks around town have began calling them BadEyes because as part of that same ritual they put out one of their own eyes to emulate the singular forward facing and large eye of their great leader. Those who have witnessed the cult at work and lived say the cultists emanate a sickening red glow from their one working eye, their BadEye. These cultists could be suped up to provide a suitable challenge for your players.
A lot of what you're describing that you want is reminiscent of an Aboleth. Maybe read up on them, and try to take some ideas for your Beholder from Aboleth lore
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Do you think a party of 7th level players could take on a beholder? I definitally want it to be a scary fight. one that pushes them to there limits.
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D&D Beyond FoundersPun-loving nerd | Faith Elisabeth Lilley | She/Her/Hers | Profile art by Becca Golins
If you need help with homebrew, please post on the homebrew forums, where multiple staff and moderators can read your post and help you!
"We got this, no problem! I'll take the twenty on the left - you guys handle the one on the right!"🔊
Party of four Level 7 characters? I have to agree with the above poster - That's a bit low to take on a beholder. To illustrate:
An average wizard at level 7 and Con 14 has 44 hp. An average cleric of the same Con has about 55hp. The beholder's Death Ray deals an average of 55 damage on a failed Dex save. You can one-shot half the party here. And the beholder gets up to SEVEN eye beams per round; granted, the ray choices are random, but still. That gives you about a 68% chance of firing off a Death Ray per round, with the ability to kill a party member in one shot. Meanwhile, you also have Petrification Rays, Disintigrate Rays, Charm Rays, Enervation Rays, etc going off. That's enough potential damage in a round to kill off anyone but a Bear Barbarian in a rage. And, even then, you need to worry about being petrified or charmed.
You basically need to have casters present, because while the Eye Tyrant has decent saves against mental effects, it can't afford to miss even one of those Save or Die spells. So, it needs to have an anti-magic cone up. That provides the ONLY cover you have - without it, you will die - or be Charmed and be worthless in the fight, etc. End your turn outside the cone, you'll likely suffer the same fate. You can't make a single mistake here, or its all over for you. Get close enough to dodge in/out of the anti-magic field, you're close enough for the beholder to shift just enough to hit you with its eyebeams on its turn, while still covering the rest of the party. And its not going to be easy to run in and out of that anti-magic field; the beholder can create difficult terrain with its Lair Actions. Or grappling appendages.
One mistake. Just one. And your party is good as dead.
Hmm I am thinking of having the beholder be asleep and the risk is that the villain will try to wake it. so theres a chance the players will not have to face the slumbering beholder, but if it does waken i could establish its power quickly by having it target the NPC ( a necromancer elf and brother of the wizard Awlin ) and a few of the other heroes allies showing off its incredible power before turning its rays on the players giving them plenty of time to either formulate a plan or get out.
Or even if it wakes have it not decide to kill them immediatly, have it try to dominate or humiliate them.
If it's an ancient foe that has been contained by goodly sorts, it may try to convince the players to let it out, and when it can't then it will try to charm them, or scare them into doing it.
That is a good idea. have it charm the barbarian into killing his allies and letting him out of his containment.
The big bad guy is tapping into the creative powers of the Beholders dream to create monstrous creatures, and aberrations. If a beholder can dream another beholder into reality, what else can it do.
I will say this, I don't think the beholder would be interested in immediately killing the party. It may want to just escape so it can rebuild its powerbase. They are mastermind types, face to face confrontation is the very last thing a beholder wants to deal with. But if it does it should have a plan to deal with the party without its direct involvement.
Why the barbarian hate, what did he ever do to you. He doesn't have to kill his companions, just put them in a position that they become no threat to the beholder. Like keeping you busy while the beholder flees.
This is all based on the Beholder having been imprisoned in some way.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Ooo, or maybe they meet and NPC who gains their trust and then later they find out that it's an extension of the Beholders mind, created in a dream. The NPC basically leads them down the wrong path until the players finally figure it out right before it's too late (or maybe right after *evil DM laugh*)
The Forum Infestation (TM)
I would argue if they are somehow magically imprisoning the beholder then there is the likelihood that all of his eye stalks are closed (which is why they are aware while sleeping, when the main eye closes there are always some eye stalks watching) and at the very least groggy.
You are describing a beholder in its peak of power where it has complete control over the circumstances. This would be more like a beholder that just woke up, hasn't had a cup of coffee, and needs to stretch a little bit. A beholder would probably not prefer to fight any party in anything less than the time and place it chooses. Would it just run right off the get go after escaping its magical imprisonment? Nope, I think it would bluff its way through the situation being as big and scary to discourage them attacking before he can recover. Like an animal with its hackles up to discourage confrontation.
The fleeing would be in regards to a somehow weakened beholder outside of its comfort zone, and not in its lair.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."