#Dungeons and dragons beholder types manual#
#Dungeons and dragons beholder types free#

That’s assuming that no other opponent engages it in melee-or comes within reach of it. Once it has three tentacles wrapped around a victim, it will use its entire Multiattack for three uses of Blood Drain. Each time it hits with a new tentacle, it will use Blood Drain an additional time. It will then attack that target with one tentacle if that tentacle strikes and grapples, it will use Blood Drain next, then finally attack with another tentacle.

Therefore, I’d say, it’s going to try to pick off the weakest member of the herd first, although if it can’t get at the weakest, it’ll settle for the weakest within its movement range. Also, the death kiss is capable of sizing up opponents. I think the modus operandi of a predatory creature is more likely to involve attacking one victim and sucking it dry as quickly as possible. It can attack multiple opponents at once, but I’m not sure it will, necessarily. The death kiss is a compulsive hunter, but one without stealth it relies on overpowering its prey. (At 20 feet of altitude, it can reach only creatures directly below it.) If any opponent has a polearm, it hovers 15 feet up instead and can strike opponents only in adjacent squares or hexes. Having it hover about 10 feet off the ground is optimal, as long as none of its opponents wields a polearm: this lets it reach two squares or hexes away on a 1-inch-equals-5-feet map grid. With no ranged attack, the death kiss has to close to melee range with its opponents however, its reach is 20 feet, so it can still hover well out of its opponents’ reach while it flails at them with its tentacles.

If it has an enemy grappled, it follows up with Blood Drain, which not only damages the enemy but also heals the death kiss.

#Dungeons and dragons beholder types free#

The combination is obvious: With a free tentacle, it swipes at an enemy. It has a Multiattack that includes three tentacle attacks, and it can substitute Blood Drain for any of these, once per grappled opponent. This is important not because a restrained target attacks with disadvantage, while attacks against a restrained target have advantage-the usual reason-but because the death kiss can use its Blood Drain feature against an opponent it’s grappled. Here’s the important part: Its tentacle attacks grapple and restrain. Proficiency in Perception, of course immunity to lightning damage, of course immune to the prone condition, of course, because it hovers. Average Intelligence, slightly above-average Wisdom: unsophisticated tactics but somewhat selective about its targets and not reckless. extra-high Strength, extra-high Constitution, merely above-average Dexterity, so this is a melee-fighting brute we’re looking at. I mean, I can almost buy the flavor text explanation, “A death kiss survives solely on ingested blood, which it uses to generate electrical energy inside its body,” with the usual suspension of disbelief that Dungeons and Dragons demands, but to suggest that the death kiss’s blood itself is what carries the stored electrical charge, and not some other organ in the death kiss’s body. This is ridiculous even for an aberration. That’s right: Its blood is electrically charged. It has the extremely silly feature Lightning Blood (which I can’t even type without laughing ruefully), which inflicts lightning damage against any opponent that strikes it with a piercing or slashing weapon. In lieu of ray-projecting eyestalks, its body is covered with long, waving tentacles that end in spines and toothy mouths. The death kiss is the most powerful of the three, though not as powerful as a standard beholder. Together, these are referred to as “beholder-kin.” All three variants are evil. Volo’s Guide to Monsters lists three: the death kiss, the gauth and the gazer.

#Dungeons and dragons beholder types manual#

The Monster Manual lists two variants of the beholder: the death tyrant, a more powerful, undead variant and the spectator, a less powerful, not-really-evil variant.