| Beholder Mage Ability Score Adjustments: +1 to Intelligence, -2 to Charisma Ability Score Ranges Ability Min Max Strength* 4 18 Dexterity* 3 18 Constitution 6 18 Intelligence 8 19 Wisdom 3 17 Charisma 2 15 *Ability score notes: The strength score is the Beholder Mages jaw strength, the eyestalks and tongue are four points lower than the jaws strength. The dexterity score is how good the Beholder Mage is at manipulating things with it’s tongue, eyestalks and telekinesis. Class Restrictions Class Max level Mage 15 Hit Dice: Beholder mages start with 45 hit points, plus con bonus, and gain 1d4 hit points plus con bonus every 2 levels starting at second level. Starting at 11th level the Beholder Mage gains one hit point, no con bonus, per level. When a Beholder Mage gets 75 hit points it has reached it’s maximum and can gain no more hit points. The smaller eyes/eyestalks have 1d8+4 hit points each. Alignment: Beholder Mages tend to be Lawful Evil. PC Beholder Mage can be any Alignment but tend toward True Neutral and Lawful Neutral. Natural Armor Class: The Beholder Mage AC depends on where it’s being attacked as follows: Body: 0 Eyestalk: 2 One smaller eye: 7 Background: Beholder Mage look exactly like other beholders of it’s breed except their large central eye has been blinded, either in combat or on purpose. They can turn up to 9 of their eyestalks into spellstalks, they will NEVER turn their telekinesis eyestalk into a spellstalk. The Beholder Mages appearance depends on where it’s from: Forgottenrealms: These Beholders average 6 feet in diameter. Their coloration is usually a cool color -such as purple or blue- on top, graduating down to earth tones -such as brown and yellow- on the bottom. Their skin is pebbly and they have visible nostrils. They have jointed and articulated eyestalks. Greyhawk: These Beholders average 5 feet in diameter with wrinkled, pinkish flesh with clearly visible blue veins. Their central eye is slightly smaller and their mouth is wider than average. Their eyestalks are short and unjointed, resembling simple extrusions of the Beholders skin. The eyes at the end of the of the eyestalks are oversized. Ravenloft: These Beholders are jet-black with metallic silver markings and their eyes look like swirling gray smoke. Their silver markings and eyes flash with light when the Beholders are angry. Beholder Mages are accepted as special members of Beholder society. Some Beholders pity the Beholder Mages because of their blindness and some of the Beholder Mage dislike this pity while other love it. Beholder Mages tend to be more tolerant towards non-Beholders but will never be anything but violent towards Beholders of other breeds. Beholders possess both male and female reproductive organs and at the age of 30 they decide to reproduce giving birth to 3 to 6 live young. Beholders are not accepted as full adult members of Beholder society until they have reproduced so most will reproduce as soon as they get a chance. Beholders need about 10lbs of food and 2 gallons of water per day. Unlike humans a Beholder can eat a large meal and then go for days or even weeks with out food or water. Thus a Beholder that just ate a 170 pound adventurer can go for about 17 days without eating though it will still have to drink because the body didn’t have enough liquids to fit the Beholders needs. Languages: Beholder is known without cost. Common, Drow, Elven, Dwarven, Goblin, Orcish, Gnomish, Hobgoblin. Role-Playing Suggestions: Strangely non-Evil Beholder Mages aren’t treated any different than other Beholder Mages of the same breed. The average Beholder doesn’t know much about the Beholder Mages and thinks that this is just a normal thing for them. Even the most tolerant PC Beholder Mage can’t block out all of it’s racial memories and will be some what xenophobic and greedy. They will trust those they consider friends (a very rare thing for a Beholder to have.) but will not trust anyone that they don’t know and will be very cautious and in a constant state of waiting for betrayal. Beholder Mage are great as night watchmen because they only need about 3 hours of sleep so the Beholder Mage could get it’s sleep while someone else takes watch then it can watch for the rest of the night giving it’s human companions a good amount of sleep. Beholders are nearly impossible to sneak up on because of their excellent sight and most things wouldn’t attack a group that had a Beholder in it anyway. Remember Beholders are really not well liked or trusted and it will be very difficult for a party to get it into a city. Eventually they should be able to work something out with the city guardsmen and they will be able to bring the Beholder in. When they do they will have a group of guardsmen watching the Beholder very closely and they might even have some of the cities most powerful wizards watching them too. It’s party members will also be made to take full responsibility for it’s actions while in the city. Special Advantages: Beholder Mages have four options in combat: 1. they can cast a spell, 2. they can bite (2d4 damage) and use any remaining eye powers, 3. they can bite and wield a melee weapon with telekinesis or 4. they can use any remaining eye powers and wield a melee weapon with telekinesis. They can start with as many spellstalks as they want at first level, but remember they will never convert their telekinesis eyestalk. If they choose not to take all 9 spell stalks at first level they can change one eyestalk per 2 levels (2nd, 4th, 6th....). Spell memorization: They can memorize one spell per spellstalk each day of any spell level they can cast. Thus a 5th level Beholder Mage with 9 spellstalks can memorize and cast 9 3rd level spells each day if it chooses or any combination of 1st, 2nd and 3rd level spells up to 9 spells. (My suggestion is to take 8 spellstalks and keep cause serious wounds in addition to telekinesis so that the beholder has a ranged attack if it has run out of ranged spells.) Because of the Beholders shape and makeup they get their strength bonuses to their bite attack. Beholder Mages (if the DM allows) start with a Patroller Beholder Mount. (at end) Special Disadvantages: Because of what they are and their sever xenophobia a beholders party gets a -6 on their reaction roles with NPCs. Most noticeably they have a hard time picking up and manipulating objects, especially if they have lost the use of their telekinesis eyestalk. ( The sight of a frustrated Beholder pushing a child’s toy across the floor with it’s tongue is almost as pitiful as it is humorous.) If they choose to keep any one of these powers, flesh to stone, disintegrate or death ray, they require 50% more experience if they keep two they require 100% more and if they keep all three they require 150% more exp. Weapon Proficiencies: Any melee weapon! Nonweapon Proficiencies: Danger sense, hiding, looting, observation, patroller riding, read/write, spellcraft. Average Beholder Statistics Diameter: 4 feet to 6 feet Weight: 575 lbs to 625 lbs Length of eyestalks: 2 feet to 3 feet Number of teeth: 56 Tongue length: 3 foot protrusion, 6 feet total Age and Aging Effects Starting age: 29 + 1d6 Maximum age: 120 + 3d10 every 10 years after 90 they lose a -1 to strength and constitution as they weaken. Patroller Beholder Mage Mount Patrollers are created from basic trollish stock and they look like a headless, hairy troll with an oversized torso. It has a deep depression in it’s chest that the Beholder Mage settles into to control it. They do need to eat and have a mouth deep in their chest depression that the Beholder Mage drops food into using telekinesis. They can not act on their own without the Beholder Mage controlling them. AC: 4 MV: 12 HD: 8+8 Thac0: 13 # Att: 2 or one weapon Damage: 1d4+4/ 1d4+4 or by weapon +8 SD: regeneration SZ: L (8’) ML: fearless (20) Int: non (0) AL: N Patrollers possess the trollish ability to regenerate, 3 rounds after first being injured it regenerated 3HP/round. A combined Beholder Mage and Patroller can combine their attacks with one limitation, the Beholder Mage can’t bite while in the Patroller. |
