Metallic Beholders
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@dwarf Many moons ago drunk dwarf @ showme’s said he thought he had some notes/details sober dwarf had written down around the metallic beholders. Any chance we can reconstitute those details here?
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tap…tap…tap…this thing on…hello, anyone there.
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@halfgiant said in Metallic Beholders:
tap…tap…tap…this thing on…hello, anyone there.
Still reconstituting
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@daermadm said in Metallic Beholders:
@halfgiant said in Metallic Beholders:
tap…tap…tap…this thing on…hello, anyone there.
Still reconstituting
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@halfgiant said in Metallic Beholders:
@daermadm said in Metallic Beholders:
@halfgiant said in Metallic Beholders:
tap…tap…tap…this thing on…hello, anyone there.
Still reconstituting
You do realize how much beer has passed his system right? Reconstitution may not be fully possible.
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@daermadm said in Metallic Beholders:
You do realize how much beer has passed his system right? Reconstitution may not be fully possibl
Somewhere I believe there to be a neuron clinging to the last bit of information for the metallic beholders.
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not a neuron, but i DID find one of my notes files whilst hunting for your genspell data :
On the far-off world of Orbus (the beholder homeworld) several dozen new species of beholders were found to be living. Most were classed under the heading Greater Beholder, as they had powers that far outstripped their cousins. Seeming to be a normal, spherical eye-tyrant, Greater Beholders have evidenced bifocal eyebeams, giving them a “high” beam and a “low” beam. Low beams seem to be the standard, “known” powers of the beholders. Their “high” beams, which have twice the normal range as their low beams, are listed below :
charm - rays work by “fooling” the target into believing in a false reality (ie - a delusion where they see their friends as enemies)
sleep - ray works by projecting exhaustion at target, rendering it yawning and unable to stay awake
telekinesis - ray is enhanced, allowing it to lift an additional 25 lbs per wisdom point over 10, or telekinetically “punch” for d4 per lvl (hit dice) of the beholder
flesh to stone - ray works differently, at the second stage it becomes polymorphic, allowing them to change their opponents into other living creatures (or turn their statues into other objects). They can also use this beam on themselves, changing their outward appearance temporarily to that of another creature (typically for infiltration purposes). As would be imagined, they can drop this polymorphed form at will.
disintegrate - ray works by immediately stopping atomic motion, causing the creature to crumble into atomic particles (dodge or die).
fear - ray works by unlocking the victim’s own worst fear and playing it back for them (save at -4)
slow - ray actually works by altering the creature’s temporal frame rate, dropping its speed to 1/4 normal
cause serious wounds, predictably, upgrades at second stage to cause critical wounds. what’s not so predictible is that the wounds are magically prevented from healing unless dispelled first
death ray - second stage is an Undeath ray, returning people slain by the beholder to a form of life… they are totally devoted to fulfilling the beholders wishes, and cannot be swayed from this as long as the beholders energy animates them.
anti-magic cone - second stage is Dead Magic, projecting a dead magic cone at whatever they’re lookin at
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Soon thereafter, the malignant divinity Dysaroth (god of alchemists) and his misanthropic offspring - Ayla the Forsaken, rebred the Greater Beholders into BattleBeholders, and unleashed an all new nightmare into the world. Not content with bifocal beams, they altered the eyes installing trifocal lenses (trebling the range) and instilling nasty new surprises all their own. Behold ! (( ewww… i shouldn’ta said tha’…))
charm - third stage is mass charm and virus charm beams
sleep - third stage actually robs the creature’s muscles of electro-motive force, rendering the creature utterly unable to do anything until it rests itself (it cannot even move at that stage).
telekinesis - third stage cranks up the strength of the beam to 100 lbs per wisdom point and the punch to d12 per level or hit dice.
flesh to stone - beam turns prismatic, as spray
disintegrate - the most awesome power of this strain of beholders is the third stage - Sundering beam. this beam imbues the target creature or object with explosive kinetic force, turning it effectively into an explosive device. medium sized creatures explode immediately upon contact with this beam (larger take a bit to imbue), doing d6 damage per lvl/hit dice of the beholder (reflex save for half). the victim is killed by this, unless possessed of a metamorphic form (ie gangers and the like that can become goo - which still take the damage, no save). the explosion affects everyone in a radius equal to 3 times the creatures largest dimension (length, width, or breadth - so a 6’ human would be 18’ radius). the only known way to survive this attack is if the target has an ACTIVE kinetic control up, whereupon he can redirect the kinetic energy elsewhere.
fear - third stage acts as a phantasmal killer
slow - third stage actually causes target to “lock” inside time (as time stop).
cause serious wounds - third stage is upgraded to Harm (with previous notation about being unable to heal it magically unless dispelled first)
death ray - this eye’s third stage is the dreaded Annihilation Beam, which as you might imagine, destroys anything that comes in contact with it.
anti-magic cone - third stage is Disjunction - which the beholder uses to incinerate it’s targets in spellfire explosions
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Silver - As with the gold beholders, silver beholders tend to spend their time in biped form when around humanoid creatures (typically by using their polymorphic beam on themselves, which alters their outward appearance only). Silver beholders are naturally psionic in nature (native psp power pool +25%), and are racially gifted with Telepathy. Silver beholders tend to be mathematical geniuses, and take to any task involving mathematics (especially spatial geometry) with the glee of a dwarf finding beer.
Silver beholders have also developed a trick using their natively reflective carapace. By making an intelligence check, a silver beholder can bounce beam attacks directed at himself at other opponents (or even back at it’s source). It can also use this to “split” its own rays, striking two opponents instead of one, but with a slightly weaker effect (targets get save bonuses of +3).
Finally, they have an additional “ray” power they can use from any of their eyes - Project Mirror. This power enables them to temporarily “silver” any surface, allowing them to bounce rays hither and yon. Needless to say, encountering a silver beholder in her lair will be frought with peril, as reflective surfaces abound. Remember what the dwarves say “Bright lights may save the day, but 'tis better by far to run away.”
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Very cool writeup, love the home world name Orbus. So there are Greater Beholders, and Battle Beholders… then there was the Silver write-up. Are Metallic Beholders considered their own category or part of the Greater Beholders?
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they’re an offshoot of Greater Beholders. metallic were the race of nobility on Orbus - their biology was quite different than “typical” beholders - and by ingesting gems and rare metals along with typical food, eventually their eyestalks would develop hard crystalline plating.
much like dragons, metallic beholders grew stronger and more intelligent as they aged
because they were the only species to eventually develop tri-faceted eyes, they were used as the blueprint for Battlebeholders -
@dwarf said in Metallic Beholders:
they’re an offshoot of Greater Beholders. metallic were the race of nobility on Orbus - their biology was quite different than “typical” beholders - and by ingesting gems and rare metals along with typical food, eventually their eyestalks would develop hard crystalline plating.
much like dragons, metallic beholders grew stronger and more intelligent as they aged because they were the only species to eventually develop tri-faceted eyes, they were used as the blueprint for BattlebeholdersDid they progress in age categories the same way Dragons did? I assume the dual and tri-faceted eyes was something the evolved with age categories.
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age, yes… categories, no. MOST beholders don’t live long enough to experience the later stages of life - being xenophobic and twisted toward evil doesn’t engender many friendships or partnerships, which is likely the cause for early demise.
the second stage “bifocal” beams show up after the first century of life - as the beholder successfully absorbs and devours enough magical creatures/items, the dweomerlobes of its brain push the physical shell to adapt and evolve more abilities they can use. the default movement speed increases while the maneuoverability decreases, and the beholder becomes more prone to bumping into things. some actually learn to BOUNCE
(which is why Dreg’s offspring fly around V’ral like tennis balls… “Hey ogre, i’m headed to the forge - hit me THATTA way !!”the third stage (age 200+) is where they turn into grumpy old codgers - physical adaptation increases the strength of their eyes and organs, but slows their reaction and memory to an annoying level (to the point where they often forget which setting they left each eye switched to and sometimes blast apart things they’re working on by accident - then blame innocent passerby for sabotage).
metallic beholders were able to avoid many of the negative repercussions of aging because metals age so slowly compared to biomatter - so with the regular infusions of rare metals and gems to keep natural cell regeneration working, they can theoretically live to be thousands of years old (assuming they’re clever enough to survive, obviously).
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So based upon the last game I had realized there was no fly speed included in the Metallic Beholder thread, which is largely the only place I think it exists. With that said the 3.5 beholder (found here: https://www.realmshelps.net/monsters/detail/Beholder)
3.5 Beholder has a speed of: 5 ft., fly 20 ft. (good)
Was the intention for the Metallic Beholder to have the same fly speed?
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in 2e, base beholders had a fly speed of 3(B) - which was good maneouverability at 30’ round… as you might imagine, i based all of my monster designs on 2e
in play, i always figured that given a beholder’s natural buoyancy and nonmagical levitation, any other magical movement effect would be ADDITIVE to their natural movement rate - so, for example, they could get a little speed bump to 40’ round using their telekinesis beam as a bonus thruster…
