Post/Author/DateTime	Post
sicsemperjohn 04-26-07, 07:08 PM	First of all, Forrest, stay out of this thread if you're reading this. At least none of my other players believe in the WotC forums, but now I've got one in here... So, I'm running a psionics-heavy campaign, and my players shall soon be investigating this large tower-hive-thing on their way across the desert. They've never been outside of their little desert village before, and it's been mashed flat recently by some villains they won't be getting back to for a long time. There are four PCs... A variant Thri-Kreen (made him an LA+1 equivalent) PsiWar who uses his multiattack to utterly slaughter, and uses inertial armor to make his AC somewhere around 20 or 22. A dromite egoist who mostly lays down mind thrusts and ectoplasmic entanglement. He also stays way out of the way. A variant Goblin (made into a +1 LA race) ranger-type thing, who either snipes with his shortbow or assists the other PCs. A half-giant Psionic Rogue (from the Mind's Eye columns) / Soulknife, who is the skillmonkey/utility dude. They're all ECL 3. One of the main things about this setting is that there is no arcane magic in the world whatsoever -- it was burnt out completely about forty years before the setting started. This tower that my players will be investigating is going to be a kind of illustration of this, in some ways, because it's ruled over by a beholder. His eye rays don't work, and his antimagic eye doesn't work on Psionics, and basically he's a floating target with a subpar bite attack. He's become obsessed with survival, and may or may not still imagine that he has magical powers. He's here to really punch my PCs with the facts of this campaign setting -- I mean, they're going to run into him and then crap their pants, until they discover that he's almost totally helpless. There are libraries of spellbooks that don't work in this tower, and magical research laboratories that can't do anything anymore. However, the beholder's enslaved humanoids are now all zombies, and wander the upper levels of the tower. The lowest level is occupied by wandering gnolls, and the second level is trapped heavily, which has kept out any other investigators. The thing here is, what can I do to the encounter with the beholder to make it actually difficult? The beholder itself can't really pose the challenge, and I don't just want him to be surrounded with a mob of zombies. There's got to be some kind of good boss-fight dynamic I can throw in here that the beholder can have prepared for invaders.
CryoSilver 04-26-07, 07:10 PM	Lords of Madness has mouthpick weapons; essentially, weapons that a beholder can hold in its mouth. Maybe it could also drop things on them? And traps. Lotsa traps.
Another_Poet 04-26-07, 07:34 PM	Wow, that is a brilliant campaign setup. Very nice! What I would do is give them Beholder some class levels. If he has survived without his magical abilities in a tower full of zombies and traps then he seems pretty clever. A couple levels of rogue should do. Those are exactly the kinds of skills he would pick up trying to eke out a living. Definitely give him some interesting tools/weapons. There has to be some way he can wield them in his mouth as mentioned above. Maybe there are still some vertical shafts in the tower from when he was able to use his rays and everything? He could have an elaborate tunnel system in the walls, full of traps. Or he could do the same thing with the chimneys. Last, he can't be the only monster who is fearing for his life without his SLA's. You could always give him a few cohorts to help him out.
Scribbler 04-26-07, 07:50 PM	I'd count the bite as a primary attack, since he's been using it as his only attack for a while (so +7 instead of +2) and won't be using any eye rays. Without his magic, he's pretty weak offensively, but still has all-around vision, flight, and better AC, saves, and hp then third-level characters are probably used to dealing with. So the fight might be difficult without being that dangerous. That works for the mood you want to establish, I think, but you might want your "boss" fight to have some teeth, so maybe add a wilder level or two?
sicsemperjohn 04-26-07, 08:15 PM	The mouthpick weapons are a good idea, I forgot those. This tower definitely has a lot of vertical shafts, and a couple shortcuts for the beholder to use. I'm not sure if I should necessarily give the beholder any rogue levels, though it's a good concept -- it's mostly because of what Scribbler said, considering the guy's HP already. This guy is just the preface to something much further down the line in this campaign, anyway. I'm gonna make a psionic-variant beholder whose eyes have been replaced with crystals, with an antipsionic central eye, who gets to eye-ray Mindwipe instead of Disintegrate, and Ego Whip, and other lovely powers.
rmccowen 04-26-07, 08:52 PM	I second the congratulations; that sounds like a fun campaign to play in. Other than the suggestion of making his bite a primary natural attack, I'd quickly adjust the beholder's feats. Use Improved Natural Attack to make him a little more fearsome as a melee combatant, and make sure he has Flyby Attack (AFB right now, not sure if beholders have it by default). Unless he is under the delusion that his eye rays still work, he's not going to want to face the PCs head on. Have the beholder play hit-and-run with the party, and use his movement to emphasize the alien architecture of the tower. Load up the bottom levels with some simple traps that only affect walking creatures, and have him lead the party through them. (In addition to deadfalls and snares the beholder might have constructed, a poorly-maintained forty-year-old tower might have a lot of fragile floors and shaky staircases.)