A beholder, sometimes called a sphere of many eyes
or eye tyrant is a large aberration normally found in the Underground. These
large, orb-shaped beings have ten eyestalks and one central eye, each
containing powerful magic. Powerful and intelligent, beholders are among the
greatest threats to the world.
Type: Monster
Setting: Any
Era: Any
Physical Traits: Beholders
are immediately identifiable, essentially a floating head with one single,
cyclops-like eye surrounded by ten smaller eye stalks. Other than this, the
main feature of a beholder’s anatomy is its massive, gaping maw. Because of
these features, beholders are occasionally known as "spheres of many eyes"
or "eye tyrants," although the latter also refers to a specific type of
beholder. Because their entire body is covered in eyes, beholders have the
capacity to see in all directions at once, making it nearly impossible to
ambush them while also giving them an unusually high degree of perceptive
ability. Additionally, beholders have the ability to perceive in even the
most darkened environment, although without the capacity to see colour under
conditions in which a human or similar creature would be rendered blind.
Height: 1-2 metre
diametre
Weight: 300 lbs
Mobility: Levitation
Sensory Organs:
Visual
Communication: Vocal
Reproduction:
Beholders have male and female reproductive organs, so
they can self-fertilize. They give birth to 3-6 live young out of their
mouths only once in its life. The womb is below the back of the tongue. When
it gives birth the parent observes its young and decides which look most
like itself. The others are eaten by the ravenous parent, along with the
discarded womb, and the surviving young are forced from the parent’s lair
within the hour to fend for themselves.
INT: 4D6, WIS:
4D6, STR: D6, DEX: 3D6, CON: 3D6, CHA: D6,
MR: 3D6, HPs: 13D6, AC: 0 (main body)
and 2 (each eye stalk), Thac0: 5
Abilities:
Beholders are also capable of flight, in spite
of their lack of wings or similar physical features, simply hovering above
ground effortlessly. The effects of this flight resemble those of the wizard
spell levitation. Beholders are not particularly strong but are inherently
magical creatures, each of their eyes possessing an innately magical nature.
Beholders, who often attack for seemingly no reason, will often try to end a
battle as quickly as possible, unleashing their terrifying abilities all at
once. Among the most basic of these attacks is their deadly ability to
project magical power from their eyes, in varying forms such as instilling
fear within, charming, knocking out, petrifying, disintegrating, slowing, or
killing their enemies. Any combination of these is possible, although they
often use only two at a given time. Many, but not all, beholders also have
the capacity to use their central eye to project a field of antimagic, which
cancels the effects of all supernatural abilities within a small cone of 150
feet in length. In addition to enemy spells, prayers, or similar effects
this also affects a beholder's own eye rays, suppressing their power.
However, the lack of the ability to cast its eye rays at full strength is
hardly a hindrance, as turning to face its enemies in this manner also
allows a beholder to attack them with its large, toothy maw.
Each of the beholder’s eyes, including the central
one has a different function. The standard smaller eyes of a beholder are as
follows:
Charm person (as spell)
Charm monster (as spell)
Sleep (as spell, but only one target)
Telekinesis (250 pound weight)
Flesh to stone (as spell, 30-yard range)
Disintegrate (20-yard range)
Fear (as wand)
Slow (as spell, but only a single target)
Cause serious wounds (50-yard range)
Death ray (as a death spell, with a single target, 40-yard range)
The central eye produces an anti-magic ray with a 140-yard range, which
covers a 90 degree arc before the creature. No magic (including the effects
of the other eyes) will function within that area. Spells cast in or passing
through that zone cease to function.
A beholder may activate the magical powers of its eyes’ at will. Generally,
a beholder can use D4 smaller eyes if attackers are within a 90 degree
angle in front, D6 if attacked from within a 180 degree angle, D8 if
attacked from a 270 degree arc, and all 10 eyes if attacked from all sides.
The central eye can be used only against attacks from the front. If attacked
from above, the beholder can use all of the smaller eyes.
The beholder can withstand the loss of its eyestalks, each eyestalk/smaller
eye having 5-12 hit points. This loss of hit points is over and above any
damage done to the central body. The body can withstand two thirds of the
listed hit points in damage before the creature perishes. The remaining
third of the listed hit points are located in the central eye, and
destroying it will eliminate the anti-magic ray. A beholder with 45 hit
points will have a body that will take 30 points of damage, a central eye
that will take 15 points, while one with 75 hit points will have a body that
will withstand 50 points of damage, and a central eye that takes 25 hit
points to destroy. Both beholders would have smaller eyestalks/eyes that
take 5-12 (D8+4) points of damage to destroy, but such damage would not
affect the body or central eye. Slaying the body will kill the beholder and
render the eyes powerless. Destroyed eyestalks (but not the central eye) can
regenerate at a rate of one lost member per week.
Feeding Habits:
Omnivore. Despite its awesome power and magical might,
a beholder remains at its core a physical being. It must eat and drink, and
often these are its only vices and indulgences — apart from the intellectual
pursuit of magical knowledge or the domination of lesser races. A beholder
is omnivorous and can gain sustenance from anything organic. A typical
beholder must consume about 10 pounds of food and drink and at least 2
gallons of water per day. For beholders, the act of feeding and drinking is
their greatest physical pleasure, and as such, they often consume far more
than they need. For example, a beholder could eat a large fallen foe,
consisting of up to 200 pounds of meat and several pints of blood, in one
sitting. While this far exceeds what the creature needs for that day, it
won’t turn down any additional offers of food or drink that happen to
present themselves. Because a beholder’s sense of taste is so atrophied, it
finds satisfaction in the texture and visual qualities of the food. To a
beholder, desirable food has an interesting texture (the combination of soft
flesh and crunchy bones found in living creatures is considered a delicacy)
or an interesting shape or colour, since it can observe its food with its
front eyestalks as it eats. For this reason, a beholder prefers colourful
food over drab food. Beholders find wine especially pleasing. Alcohol is one
of the few tastes that beholders can experience, and this, combined with the
colourful varieties of wine, make it an ideal beholder drink. A beholder’s
body processes alcohol very efficiently, so the quantity of wine required to
intoxicate a typical beholder usually exceeds the amount available to drink.
As a general rule, a beholder can imbibe well over 10 gallons of wine before
getting drunk. Since beholders often overeat, their bodies are capable of
dealing with sudden gluts of food. A beholder’s digestive system can store a
large amount of material (600 pounds or more) inside the various folds of
its stomach. The creature can process this stored food at the rate of about
20 pounds per day, during which time it need not eat (although it must still
drink normally). Food in excess of this simply cannot be swallowed. Although
a sated beholder might chew on food simply for the texture and enjoyment of
eating, it allows the chewed food to drop from its mouth when the texture is
gone. A beholder’s favourite foods include small live mammals, exotic
mushrooms and other fungi, gnomes, beef, pork, colourful leafy vegetables,
leaves, flower petals, insects, and birds.
Lifespan: 100 years
