Even before I knew anything about D&D, I think I knew what beholders were. They’re iconic. I probably could have picked out which game it went to, even when my game knowledge was zero. They just feel alien. But for me they always just lived in the land of imaginary monsters. I don’t remember seeing anything quite like them in any game I’ve played, and I’d remember if I’d fought them in Dungeons and Dragons. I had thought I just might not remember, but after doing a little research, no. I would definitely remember.
There is just so much to them. I asked Thor (resident DM) which book I could find it in and he said, “Two pages in the Monster Manual. Or like ten in Volo’s.”
So I picked up Volo’s and turned to the first entry, labeled: Beholders: Bad Dreams Come True.
Super genius. Super paranoid. Super powerful.
“The mind of a beholder is powerful and versatile enough that it can envision literally any possibility, and it prepared accordingly, making it virtually impossible for any invaders to catch it unawares.” The more I read, the more I was just boggled. How do you kill this thing?! “A beholder sees in all directions.” Okay, giant eye monster, got it. “Even when it sleeps,” because when they sleep, they remain conscious, “its smaller eyes remain open, scanning its lair for threats.” IT’S CRAZY SECURED LAIR. Which we’ll get to later. “If a human acted this way, the constant vigilance and lack of truly peaceful rest would lead to a dangerous level of psychosis, but a beholder’s mind accepts this attitude as normal and necessary.”
Every beholder thinks it is the epitome of perfection, so it has no love even for other beholders. They believe itself superior to every other creature. “Unintelligent foes are regarded as food or pets. An intelligent creature is seen as food or a potential minion. A beholder’s true rivals are other beholders, for only another beholder has the intellect, power, and magic to threaten another of its kind.” You may be wondering, how does one of this kind come into this world? If a beholder dreams of another beholder, voila, new beholder. Luckily for the peons of the world, they generally fight to the death upon this happening. “On extremely rare occasions when a beholder dreams of another beholder, the act creates a warp in reality–from which a new, fully formed beholder springs forth unbidden.”
The book goes through the several types of beholders, starting with solitary beholders, and that’s where we get our start with their minions. First of all, they’re exactly what they sound like, living alone in a lair “of its own making or a place the creature took over after killing or driving off the beholder that gave it birth.” Though by all accounts it seems death is more likely, but it gives way to something more useful to us. “A solitary beholder gathers (or inherits) inferior creatures that it uses as minion. These creatures help defend the lair and also serve as shock troops if the beholder vacates its lair to prey on the inhabitants of the surrounding area.” More on minions later.
Now on to eye tyrants. “An eye tyrant is solitary beholder that has suppressed its xenophobia and paranoia and chooses to live as the leader or ruler of a community or an organization.” They can rule over multiple races, setting aside its prejudices while not bothering with respect or understanding of others. They simply tolerate for their own purposes, like the Xanathar Guild, one of the most fascinating aspects to me. In short, “The Xanathar Guild is a thieves’ and slavers’ guild operating underneath the city of Waterdeep in the Forgotten Realms setting.” A beholder seems like a TERRIFYING guildmaster. Read more about the Xanathar on pages 17-18 of Volo’s.
The last type is a beholder hive. Exactly what it sounds like–when its dream-birthing works to create a small army of beholders. When the dreamer awakes and doesn’t feel like killing right off the bat, it can create a batch of beholders that don’t necessarily have a hive mentality, but their “personalities and goals are so similar that they can predict and assume each others’ behavior.” They gather in groups of three to ten beholder, as well as any of their minions.
Then there’s beholder-kin, which is so interesting I will let the book tell you about them. “The lesser creatures known as beholder-kin bear a superficial resemblance to true beholders in that each has a floating spherical body with eyes. . . . A death kiss is usually the result of a nightmare about blood, such as what a beholder might experience after an encounter with a vampire of after being severely wounded in battle. Gazers are “born” out of a poisoned or ill beholder’s feverish dreams, in which its sense of perspective and scale is warped. A spectator is a kind of lesser beholder summoned from another plane of existence to watch over something, such as a treasure hoard. A gauth hails from the same plane as spectators, or one that overlaps is enough that they can take advantage of a flawed attempt to summon a spectator.” Yikes. That’s several flavors of deadly.
The book goes on to describe rolls for everything from skin color and texture, to eye size and body diameter. Then we reach battle tactics, which includes its ability to fly and staying in the dark with its 120 feet dark vision. which for the uninitiated means it can see in the dark as of it were dim light, and of course its cone of antimagic, which is exactly what it sounds like.
Then it gives stats and tactics for DMs, which I dearly hope he never gets to utilize. It also goes through all the rays it can shoot from its eyes, like its charm ray, paralyzing ray, fear ray, slowing ray, death and enervation ray, telekinetic ray, sleep ray, petrification ray, and disintegration ray, and all the variants thereof.
It carves out a lair with its eye rays. It will create spaces for its minions to live, cook and eat, sleep, and places for its trophies and prizes, but will keep tunnels and passages only barely enough to let it’s own body squeeze through, and will keep them winding, so intruders can not get a good shot at it.
Oh yes, minions. It collects people and creatures, and “establishing control over these creatures usually involves the use of its eye rays, but eventually the minions come to understand that the beholder can kill them whenever it wants and it is in their best interest to stop resisting and just obey the beholder’s orders. Minions build walls in the beholder’s lair, distribute food to other residents, and carve out new living spaces for themselves and other minions–tasks that the beholder considers beneath its personal attention. Some even worship the beholder as an angry, capricious deity.” They are also used for defense, even a kind of army. They can also be used to construct intricate traps, mostly it seems on the ground that the beholder can simply fly over. Volo’s dedicates a fair bit of real estate to describing the various traps a beholder might set, so it’s serious business.
Beholders. Terrifying. So how to defeat one? Give me your tactics! My friendly household DM says that “the hard part is finding one, and getting into it’s lair, and past its deadly traps. Give yourself as much advantage and buffs you can on saves, so Bless, or anything that can enhance your saving throws.”
For a beholder in action, check out Wizards of the Coast Stream of Annihilation, and watch a battle with a spectral beholder!
Any questions for a DM, or any research I should do on a topic particularly interesting to you? Let me know in the comments!
My quest for D&D knowledge continues!
Dungeons and Doodles | Tales from the Tabletop 