Infamous Many-Eyed Tyrant
Habitat: Underdark; Treasure: Arcana
Beholders—also known as eye tyrants—number among the most notorious inhabitants of the Underdark. Few creatures in the multiverse are as loathed and feared as these maniacal horrors.
A beholder’s distinctive, globular body is dominated by an oversize maw and a gigantic central eye. Ten stalks ending in smaller eyes crown its form. From each of these eleven eyes, a beholder can unleash a different magic power. The central eye can deactivate magic, while the smaller eyes emit rays that inflict various dooms—such as petrifying creatures, disintegrating them, slaying them outright, or other effects.
Beholders possess utterly alien minds. Most exhibit paranoid, narcissistic, and megalomaniacal tendencies, and they act on agendas beyond human reasoning. While some keep to themselves, others force weaker creatures into their service. Still others cultivate grand ambitions, creating networks of minions to manipulate groups, settlements, and whole nations in the Underdark and sometimes the surface world.
Few creatures loathe beholders more than other beholders. Every beholder views itself as the physical and intellectual pinnacle of its species. To them, all other beholders are aberrant rivals to be dominated or destroyed. Conflicts between beholders can last for decades and lay waste to vast subterranean realms.
Beholders are a particular threat to adventurers because both gravitate toward mysterious ruins and sites of great magic. Many beholders collect the magic items and petrified bodies of heroes they’ve defeated, displaying them as trophies.
Beholder Lairs
Beholders lurk in cavern complexes they’ve carved using their eye rays deep in the Underdark or in lairs created for them by their servants.
The region containing a beholder’s lair is twisted by its presence, creating the following effects:
- Scopophobia. Creatures within 1 mile of the lair feel as if they’re being watched. Any creature (excluding the beholder and its allies) that finishes a Short Rest while within 1 mile of the lair must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or gain no benefit from that rest.
- Warping Terrain. Minor warps in reality occur near the lair; any creature (excluding the beholder) within 1 mile of the lair that makes a D20 Test and rolls a 1 has the Prone condition.
If the beholder dies or moves its lair elsewhere, these effects end immediately.
