Antimagic Cone. The beholder wrym’s central eye or mouth creates an area of antimagic, as in the antimagic field spell, in a 150-foot-cone. At the start of each of its turns, the beholder decides which way the cone faces and whether the cone is active. The area works against the beholder’s own eye rays.
Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the beholder wyrm fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
Multiattack. The beholder wyrm can use its Frightful Presence. It then makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its tail, or one with it's Eye Rays and one with Annihilation's Kiss
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (4d6) piercing damage.
Tail. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (2d8 + 8) bludgeoning damage.
Frightful Presence. Each creature of the beholder wyrm’s choice that is within 120 feet of the dragon and aware of it must succeed on a DC 19 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 dragon’s Frightful Presence for the next 24 hours.
Eye Rays. The beholder wyrm 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:
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Charm Ray. The targeted creature must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or be charmed by the beholder for 1 hour, or until the beholder harms the creature.
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Paralyzing Ray. The targeted creature must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or be paralyzed for 1 minute. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
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Fear Ray. The targeted creature must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened for 1 minute. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
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Slowing Ray. The targeted creature must succeed on a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, the target’s speed is halved for 1 minute. In addition, the creature can’t take reactions, and it can take either an action or a bonus action on its turn, not both. The creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
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Enervation Ray. The targeted creature must make a DC 16 Constitution saving throw, taking 36 (8d8) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
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Telekinetic Ray. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 16 Strength saving throw or the beholder moves it up to 30 feet in any direction. It is restrained by the ray’s telekinetic grip until the start of the beholder’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 beholder can also exert fine control on objects with this ray, such as manipulating a simple tool or opening a door or a container.
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Sleep Ray. The targeted creature must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or fall asleep and remain unconscious for 1 minute. The target awakens if it takes damage or another creature takes an action to wake it. This ray has no effect on constructs and undead.
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Petrification Ray. The targeted creature must make a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, the creature begins to turn to stone and is restrained. It must repeat the saving throw at the end of its next turn. On a success, the effect ends. On a failure, the creature is petrified until freed by the greater restoration spell or other magic.
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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.
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Death Ray. The targeted creature must succeed on a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw or take 55 (10d10) necrotic damage. The target dies if the ray reduces it to 0 hit points.
Annihilation's Kiss (Recharge 5–6). The beholder wyrm inhales over a 60-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 21 Wisdom saving throw, taking 63 (18d6) psychic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. If failed the creature(s) lose all magical ability.
Tail Attack. The beholder wyrm makes a tail attack per round.
The beholder wyrm 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 beholder regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Eye Ray. The beholder wyrm uses one random eye ray.
Detect. The beholder wyrm makes a Wisdom (Perception) check.
Tail Attack. The beholder wyrm makes a tail attack per round.
Description
The odor of sulfur and lavender surrounds a beholder wyrm. Eye stalks bobbing from the bulbous silhouette that is calls a head. With one huge central eye defining that face as it's serpentine body ungulate in the beholder wyrm's wake. Covered in rocky scales and oozing slime from a ragged maw, this aberration hovers eerily above the ground without the help of wings.
Lair and Lair Actions
A Beholder Wyrm's Lair
A beholder wyrm’s central lair is typically a large, spacious cavern with high ceilings, where it can attack without fear of closing to melee range. A beholder encountered in its lair has a challenge rating of 16 (15,000 XP).
Beholder wyrms lair in long forgotten ruins, dwelling in caverns, or within the deep halls of abandoned mines and dwarven strongholds. Caves with volcanic or geothermal activity are the most highly prized lairs, creating hazards that hinder intruders and letting searing heat and volcanic gases wash over a beholder dragon as it sleeps.
With its hoard well protected deep within the lair, a beholder wrym spends very little of its time outside the mountain. For a beholder wyrm, the great heights of the world are the throne from which it can look out to survey all it controls—and the wider world it seeks to control.
Throughout the lair complex, servants erect monuments to the beholder wrym’s power, telling the grim story of its life, the enemies it has slain, and the nations it has conquered.
Lair Actions
When fighting inside its lair, a beholder wyrm can invoke the ambient magic to take lair actions. On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the beholder can take one lair action to cause one of the following effects:
- A 50-foot square area of ground within 120 feet of the beholder wrym becomes slimy; that area is difficult terrain until initiative count 20 on the next round.
- Walls within 120 feet of the beholder wrym sprout grasping appendages until initiative count 20 on the round after next. Each creature of the beholder’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 beholder. One random eye ray of the beholder shoots from that eye at a target of the beholder’s choice that it can see. The eye then closes and disappears.
- Magma erupts from a point on the ground the beholder wyrm can see within 120 feet of it, creating a 20-foot-high, 5-foot-radius geyser. Each creature in the geyser’s area must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 21 (6d6) fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
- A tremor shakes the lair in a 60-foot radius around the beholder wrym. Each creature other than the beholder wyrm on the ground in that area must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or be knocked prone.
- Volcanic gases form a cloud in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on a point the beholder wyrm can see within 120 feet of it. The sphere spreads around corners, and its area is lightly obscured. It lasts until initiative count 20 on the next round. Each creature that starts its turn in the cloud must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the end of its turn. While poisoned in this way, a creature is incapacitated.
The beholder wyrm 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 beholder wyrm’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 beholder wrym’s lair sometimes feel as if they’re being watched when they aren’t.
- When the beholder wyrm 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.
- Water sources within 1 mile of the lair are supernaturally warm and tainted by sulfur.
- Rocky fissures within 1 mile of the dragon’s lair form portals to the Elemental Plane of Fire, allowing creatures of elemental fire into the world to dwell nearby.
- Small earthquakes are common within 6 miles of the dragon’s lair.
If the beholder wyrm dies, these effects fade over the course of 1d10 days.
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