Spotlight Cone. The watcher's central eye creates a 60-foot-cone of bright light. Any creatures caught within the cone have disadvantage on stealth checks, attempts to hide, and checks that rely on sight.
At the start of each of its turns, the watcher decides which way the cone faces and whether the cone is active.
Retractable Eye Stalks. The watcher can extend and retract its eye stalks at will (no action required).
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (4d6) piercing damage.
Grabby Tongue. Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 30 ft., one target. Hit: 4d6 bludgeoning damage and target is restrained. Target may use 1 action to make a DC 18 Strength check, allowing them to escape on success. Each turn a target is restrained in this way, it will take another 4d6 bludgeoning damage.
Only Large or smaller creatures can be grabbed.
Only one creature can be grabbed at a time.
Eye Rays. The watcher shoots three of the following magical eye rays at random (reroll duplicates), choosing one to three targets it can see within 120 feet of it:
1. Flash Bang Ray. The targeted creature must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or be blinded and deafened by the beholder for 1 minute.
2. Telekinetic Ray. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 16 Strength saving throw or the watcher moves it up to 30 feet in any direction. It is restrained by the ray’s telekinetic grip until the start of the watcher’s next turn or until the beholder is incapacitated.
If the target is an object weighing 300 pounds or less that isn’t being worn or carried, it is moved up to 30 feet in any direction. The watcher can also exert fine control on objects with this ray, such as manipulating a simple tool or opening a door or a container.
3. Disintegration Ray. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw or take 45 (10d8) force damage. If this damage reduces the creature to 0 hit points, its body becomes a pile of fine gray dust.
If the target is a Large or smaller nonmagical object or creation of magical force, it is disintegrated without a saving throw. If the target is a Huge or larger object or creation of magical force, this ray disintegrates a 10-foot cube of it.
4. Freeze Ray. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw or take 3d8 cold damage. A creature hit by this has its speed reduced by 5 feet until it takes a short or long rest (this effect stacks). If a creature's HP and/or speed is reduced to 0 by this attack, it is frozen in a block of ice and suffers the same effects as if it were petrified.
5. Electrocution Ray. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw or take 7d8 lightning damage. The creature is paralyzed for 30 seconds.
6. Laser Ray. This can be used in one of two ways (as determined by the watcher):
a) Any creature within a 15 ft line within 15 ft of the watcher must succeed on a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw or take 8d8 fire damage.
-or-
b) The watcher's AC is increased by 3 until the start of its next turn.
7. Stun Ray. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or take 5d8 force damage, be thrown 1d10 x 10 feet backward, land prone, and get stunned for 2 rounds.
8. Poison Ray. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or take 4d8 poison damage and become poisoned.
9. Thunder Ray. Each creature in a 15-foot-radius sphere centered on the selected point must make a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or take 5d8 thunder damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
10. Exhaustion Ray. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or gain 1 level of exhaustion.
The watcher can take 3 legendary actions, using the Eye Ray option below. It can take only one legendary action at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. The watcher regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Eye Ray. The watcher uses one random eye ray.
Lair and Lair Actions
A watcher's central lair is typically a large, spacious cavern with high ceilings, where it can attack without fear of closing to melee range. A watcher encountered in its lair has a challenge rating of 14 (11,500 XP).
Lair Actions
When fighting inside its lair, a watcher can invoke the ambient magic to take lair actions. On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the watcher can take one lair action to cause one of the following effects:
- A 50-foot square area of ground within 120 feet of the watcher becomes slimy; that area is difficult terrain until initiative count 20 on the next round.
- Walls within 120 feet of the watcher sprout grasping appendages until initiative count 20 on the round after next. Each creature of the watcher’s choice that starts its turn within 10 feet of such a wall must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or be grappled. Escaping requires a successful DC 15 Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check.
- An eye opens on a solid surface within 60 feet of the watcher. One random eye ray of the watcher shoots from that eye at a target of the watcher’s choice that it can see. The eye then closes and disappears.
The watcher can’t repeat an effect until they have all been used, and it can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row.
Regional Effects
A region containing a watcher's lair is warped by the creature’s unnatural presence, which creates one or more of the following effects:
- Creatures within 1 mile of the watcher’s lair sometimes feel as if they’re being watched when they aren’t.
- When the watcher sleeps, minor warps in reality occur within 1 mile of its lair and then vanish 24 hours later. Marks on cave walls might change subtly, an eerie trinket might appear where none existed before, harmless slime might coat a statue, and so on. These effects apply only to natural surfaces and to nonmagical objects that aren’t on anyone’s person.
If the watcher dies, these effects fade over the course of 1d10 days.
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