Beholder Racial Class

The deadly spawn of the Great Mother are often considered insane due to their overwhelming xenophobia and paranoia, but beholders are, above all, rational and coldly logical beings. On a racial level, they seek to empower themselves through domination and assimilation of lesser beings, and to do this on the Outer Planes, they must learn of and interact with these lesser beings, however distasteful that may be. This unpleasant task is usually left to younger beholders, not yet fully developed and eager to earn their place among the elders. These creatures explore the planes, whether as agents of dominant eye tyrants or of their own volition, always hungry for power and knowledge that could elevate them to what they see as their rightful position. Though not a particularly common sight in any planar hub, young beholders can sometimes be found wandering the Land, usually with a band of like-minded planewalkers or thralls. Typically inquisitive and manipulative, planewalking beholders have no moral compulsions keeping them from claiming what and whom they want to further their goals, and often have the strength to support their murderous attitude. However, they can also be extremely useful allies, provided one does not mind lying, hateful, greedy, backstabbing allies.

Beholder Racial Traits: Beholder characters have the following racial abilities and characteristics.

• +2 Dex, +2 Int
• Medium Aberration: As a Medium creature, beholders have no special modifiers related to size. However, they eventually grow to size Large (see class table below).
• Base land speed 5 feet. A beholder also has a flight speed of 20 ft., with average maneuverability.
• Darkvision 60 ft.
• Natural armor bonus +2
• Natural Attack: Bite, 1d6 points of damage.
• Skills: Beholders have a +4 racial bonus on Search and Spot checks.
• Feats: Beholders have Alertness as a bonus feat.
• Home Plane: Beholders are usually native to the Realm of a Million Eyes, the 6th layer of the Abyss, and have the extraplanar subtype when not on their home plane. However, many beholders are native to the Prime Material Plane, and thus never have the extraplanar subtype.
• Automatic Languages: Beholder, Planar Trade. Bonus Languages: Abyssal, Infernal, Prime Common.
• Favored Class: Beholder. A typical multiclassing choice for a beholder is the wizard class.
• Level Adjustment: A beholder that has progressed through its racial class has 11 Hit Dice and a level adjustment of +6, making it effectively a 17th-level character.

Class Skills: Hide (Dex), Knowledge (Int), Listen (Wis), Search (Wis), Spot (Wis).

Table: Beholder Racial ClassLevel BAB Fort Ref Will HD Skill Points Feats 1st +0 +0 +0 +2 1d8 (2 + Int mod) x4 Feat 2nd +1 +0 +0 +3 2d8 2 + Int modifier - 3rd +1 +0 +0 +3 2d8 - - 4th +2 +1 +1 +3 3d8 2 + Int modifier Feat 5th +3 +1 +1 +4 4d8 2 + Int modifier - 6th +3 +1 +1 +4 4d8 - - 7th +3 +1 +1 +4 5d8 2 + Int modifier - 8th +3 +1 +1 +4 5d8 - - 9th +4 +2 +2 +5 6d8 2 + Int modifier Feat10th +5 +2 +2 +5 7d8 2 + Int modifier -11th +6 +2 +2 +6 8d8 2 + Int modifier -12th +6 +2 +2 +6 8d8 - -13th +6 +3 +3 +6 9d8 2 + Int modifier Feat14th +7 +3 +3 +7 10d8 2 + Int modifier -15th +7 +3 +3 +7 10d8 - -16th +8 +3 +3 +7 11d8 2 + Int modifier -17th +8 +3 +3 +7 11d8 - -Level Special 1st +2 Dex, +2 Int; natural armor +2; bite attack; eye rays 2nd +2 Cha; natural armor +4 3rd +2 Dex; flight; eye rays 4th Natural armor +6 5th +2 Wis; eye rays 6th +2 Int; natural armor +9 7th Large size, +4 Con; eye rays 8th All around vision 9th +2 Con; eye rays10th +2 Cha; natural armor +1111th +2 Con; eye rays12th Antimagic cone (1 minute/day, 90-ft. cone)13th +2 Int; eye rays14th Natural armor +1315th +2 Wis; eye rays16th Antimagic cone (continuous, 150-ft. cone)17th Eye rays; natural armor +15

Armor and Weapon Proficiency: Beholders are proficient with their natural weapons. They are not proficient with manufactured weapons or armor.

Bite attack: At 1st level, a beholder has a natural bite attack that deals 1d6 points of damage. At 7th level, when the beholder grows to size Large, its bite deals 2d4 points of damage.

Eye Rays (Su): Each of the beholder's ten small eyes eventually becomes able to produce a magical ray once per round as a free action. However, the creature develops these eye rays gradually as it progresses through its racial class, as detailed in the table below. During a single round, a beholder can only aim up to three eye rays in any one 90-degree arc. The remaining eyes, if any, must aim at targets in other arcs or not at all. A beholder can tilt and pan its body each round to change which rays it can bring to bear in any given arc. Each ray's effect resembles a spell, but follows the rules for a ray (see page 175 in the PHB). The effective caster level equals 3 + the beholder's racial Hit Dice.

Level Eye rays 1st At will - mage hand; 1/day - charm person, sleep 1 3rd At will - mage hand; 3/day - charm person, sleep; 1/day - inflict moderate wounds 5th At will - charm person, mage hand, sleep; 3/day - inflict moderate wounds, slow 7th At will - charm person, inflict moderate wounds, mage hand, sleep, slow; 1/day - charm monster, fear 1 9th At will - charm person, inflict moderate wounds, mage hand, sleep, slow; 3/day - charm monster, fear11th At will - charm monster, charm person, fear, inflict moderate wounds, mage hand, sleep, slow; 1/day - telekinesis 213th At will - charm monster, charm person, fear, inflict moderate wounds, mage hand, sleep, slow; 3/day - telekinesis; 1/day - disintegrate, finger of death, flesh to stone15th At will - charm monster, charm person, fear, inflict moderate wounds, sleep, slow, telekinesis; 3/day - disintegrate, finger of death, flesh to stone17th At will - charm monster, charm person, disintegrate, fear, finger of death, flesh to stone, inflict moderate wounds, sleep, slow, telekinesis

1 This works as the spell, but affects only one creature (of any Hit Dice). 2 The same eye is used to produce the mage hand ray and the telekinesis ray; when telekinesis becomes usable at will, the mage hand becomes obsolete, and is thus removed from the table.

Flight (Ex): At 3rd level, the beholder's flight maneuverability rating improves from average to good, and it gains a permanent personal feather fall effect due to its natural buoyancy.

Large size: At 7th level, the beholder grows to size Large. It suffers a -1 size penalty on Armor Class and attack rolls, and a -4 size penalty on Hide checks, but it gains a +4 bonus on grapple checks.

All Around Vision (Ex): At 8th level, a beholder becomes so alert and circumspect that it can no longer be flanked.

Antimagic Cone (Su): At 12th level, a beholder's central eye can project a 90-ft. cone of antimagic for a total duration of one minute (10 rounds) per day. This functions as the antimagic field spell (caster level 2 + the beholder's racial Hit Dice), suppressing all magical and supernatural powers and effects within the area including the beholder's own eye rays. Once each round, on its turn, the beholder decides whether the antimagic cone is active or not (the beholder deactivates the cone by shutting its central eye). At 16th level, the beholder's central eye can continually produce the antimagic cone, without a daily limit. Also, the effect's area increases to a 150 ft cone.