A quick look at the cover of the Monster Manual will tell you all you need to know about the popularity of beholders in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons. These alien creatures believe themselves the pinnacle of evolution and date back to the earliest editions of the game. They even make a good show of giving dragons a run for their money as far as the game's most famous monsters are concerned. Floating flesh meatballs covered in tentacles and eyes, beholders are truly grotesque monsters to behold, especially when you consider the fact that each beholder is uniquely shaped.
While one beholder might be covered in dough-like, sagging skin, another might sport tentacled appendanges more akin to a crustacean than anything that lives on land. Appearances aside, beholders challenge you and your party through the use of their antimagic cone and various eye rays capable of petrifying, paralyzing, or outright killing adventurers on the spot. Let's see what precautions we might take in order to give our heroes a better chance at success.
6 🌜 Mobility Is Keꩵy
As is the case with many high level enemies, beholders have access to flight. The difference here is that beholder flight comes in the form of hover, making them immune to the literal downfall of the proned condition and other status effects knocking them out of the air. In other words, beholders cannot be knocked out of the air. This fact, combined with beholder lairs often being smooth bored tunnel systems of varying elevations, makes 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:access to mobility very important.
Specifically, you should have access to climbing speeds, flight, and other means of v🐓ertical travel in order to make sure you can stay within threatening range of the beholder. Otherwise, an intelligent beholder will use the varying levels of elevation in its lair alongside its eye beams to divide and conquer the party.
5 Bri𒐪ng Greater Re♔storation
One of the beholder's many eye rays has a chance of petrifying anyone struck with it given they fail two Dexterity saving throws in succession. In case you've never dealt with petrification before, it's pretty much equivalent to death in the large majority of cases. However, a party with access to the fifth level spell Greater Restoration can restore any character that has been petrified.
Long story short, you're going to want to have access to greater restoration in case someone gets unlucky with their Dexterity saves. Otherwise, you're relying on the DM throwing you a bone to save any character that ends up petrified. In our experience, not all DMs like to throw bones.
4 Use Bless
The beholder's greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. Instead of regular attacks, a beholder uses its eye rays to force repeated saving throws from party members in order to deal damage, inflict status effects, and deal killing blows. While this is a huge pain for characters that focus on increasing their AC (Armor Class), in order to avoid harm, there are ways to protect your party from saving throws.
Namely, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the first level spell Bless. While this concentration spell is active, a minimum of three targets get to add another d4 to all of their attack rolls and saving throws. This is a huge buffer towards helping yourself and other characters succeed their saving throws against the beholder's eye rays. Beholders besides, Bless is also one of the best spells in the entirety of the game, and is used commonly by veteran players.
3 Avoid Terrain Hazards 🌸
You might be surprised to learn that only three of the beholder's ten eye ray options actually inflict damage. However, the beholder does also have access to a telekinetic ray which can move a target that fails a Strength saving throw 30 feet in any direction the beholder wishes. If terrain hazards such as pitfalls, acid pools, spikes, and more are present nearby, you can bet your bottom gold piece that the beholder will throw you into them.
Consequently, it's a good idea to stay at least 30 feet away from any terrain hazards present at all times. This goes doubly true for especially dangerous terrain like lava, as a character standing nearby such terrain essentially provides the beholder with an additional damaging eye ray option.
2 Stay Close To Bards And P🔯aladins
Aside from Bless, Paladins and Bards also provide a level of protection against eye rays, thanks to some of their class abilities. Bards are capable of providing their namesake bardic inspiration to aid saving throws with anywhere from a d6 to a d12 die depending on the bard's level. Meanwhile, standing within ten feet of a Paladin, who's at least sixth level, will provide you with the benefits of their aura of protection.
While standing in the aura, you gain a bonus to your saving throws equal to the Paladin's Charisma ability modifier. This bonus is likely to be anywhere from +2 to +4. By combining the benefits that your Paladin or Bard offers, along with the Bless spell, you'll have to have abysmally bad luck in order to fail multiple eye beam saving throws.
1 ꦆ Beware The Antimagic Cone
While all of the previous tips mentioned are key to giving you an edge against beholders, these alien aberrations still have a silver bullet in the form of their antimagic co🍸ne. This is a 150 foot cone 🌳extending from the beholders central eye that is subject to the effects of an eighth level Antimagic Field spell. Basically, no magic aside from magic caused by an artifact or a deity works inside this space.
This includes magical class abilities, spells, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:even magic items. However, the good news is that it also includes the beholder's own eye rays. As a result, the beholder will have a hard time hurting anyone inside of its antimagic cone. The big thing to watch out for here is making certain no character puts themselves in a situation where the deactivation of their magic will lead to devastating results. For example, no one should be using the Fly spell to stay a hundred feet above the beholder.