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11 months ago ::
Jul 15, 2012 - 8:39PM
#1
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Date Joined:
May 17, 2011
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I've been waiting for my players to get to a level where they could encounter a beholder. The time has arrived!
But I'm trying to wrap my head around how the beholder's powers will interact with our dwarf's Defender Aura. The beholder can attack twice per standard.(three times when first bloodied). So, this is one attack I'm guessing... so, as long as one attack is against the dwarf, the other's won't provoke OA's, right? But Defender Aura inacts -2 to beholders attacks against any other also. Does this effect attacks that happen in the beholder's aura 5 attacks on the PCs turn?
Also, any PC in aura 5 at start of turn, the beholder attacks. With a party of 6, that could be a lot of attacks provoked. The RC says one OA per turn, so, beholder attacks on every PC in aura's turn, dwarf and others OA's? Geesh... that really seems to cripple beholder's powers.
Defender aura is once per round. OAs once per turn. All this could really mute the beholder to nill really. I know that the beholder flies and could put his self out of reach, but I don't want to take the fun out of it for the players by not letting them in the fight at all.
I might be off on something here.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 15, 2012 - 8:51PM
#2
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For clarity's sake, which beholder are you using? The L9 solo?
As far as the first issue goes, those are two (or three) separate attacks; if any of them don't target the dwarf, it's a violation of the aura.
Another day, another three or four entries to my Ignore List.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 15, 2012 - 10:59PM
#3
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Date Joined:
May 17, 2011
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Yes... the L9 solo...
I'm sure that someone out there has run a beholder up against some PC's Defender Aura. How did it work out for you? It looks to me like just about EVERYTHING is going to provoke OAs from our dwarf PC.
I'd really like to hear from some of you about things you might have learned about your beholder encounter. My first impulse is to make sure that I use the "push" eye against that dwarf and try to keep him away from the monster. But just in case he gets locked down with the dwarf, I want to make sure that I am being fair according to rules.
So... the beholder uses two-eye attack. One against dwarf, one against something else, defying Defender Aura. Beholder provokes OA (here, called Battle Guardian). Or beholder shifts, also defies Defender Aura, so, OA either way.
Go down initiative order. Everything in aura 5 gets attacked, OAs provoked on every turn. OAs can happen every turn according to RC pg 196-197. So, in 6 second round, with 6 players, dwarf can get up to around 8 swings at the big eye in one round.
That's ok if that's what it is, I just wanted to make sure that I was running it efficiently to be a real threat. Any pointers from experienced beholder DMs?
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11 months ago ::
Jul 15, 2012 - 11:40PM
#4
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Date Joined:
Oct 18, 2007
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I saw the exact same thing happen with our party when our DM threw a beholder at us. Once our defender got in close to the beholder, the beholder's aura repeatedly triggered on our turns. Our defender got to make one reprisal per turn, but with the beholder attacks happening on separate turns, our defender was doing more damage then two strikers put together. With a debuff on the beholder making him vuln all for a round, the rest of the group put as many one round buffs on the defender all at once. The beholder went down fast. It was an interesting example of watching a monster's powers work hideously against it.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 15, 2012 - 11:55PM
#5
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It was an interesting example of watching a monster's powers work hideously against it.
No, it's an interesting example of a DM being a fool. Monsters can turn off their auras. Intelligent monsters should turn off their aura rather than letting it get them killed.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 16, 2012 - 1:00AM
#6
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Having to be adjacent to a target is part of the weakness of a Knight as a Defender, there's absolutely no reason why a creature with genius intelligence like the Beholder wouldn't instantly try the obvious tactic of "stay out of reach of the guys with swords". That's just part of the game and Melee Characters have the ability to deal quite a bit more damage than ranged to compensate for this. You should absolutely not baby your players by trivializing combats like that.
Keep in mind that the Knight is also going to get attacked at the start of his turn for starting in the aura, and since Beholders are smart it would recognize a Dwarf Fighter as being sturdy but not particularly nimble or strong of will, so it should be pretty trivial to Dominate or Blind with the triggered Random Eye Ray, and then Terror Ray on it's own turn as the 1st of the two Eye Rays attacks so the Dwarf can't attack it on the 2nd Eye Ray. You also can turn off his ability to Power Strike.
It's actually not an aura, it's just a triggered action which the Beholder always has the choice to not take, as Dusweaver pointed out there's absolutely no reason why the Beholder would trigger OAs (after the 1st time) unless it was already winning.
"Invokers are probably better round after round but Wizard dailies are devastating. Actually, devastating is too light a word. Wizard daily powers are soul crushing, encounter ending, havoc causing pieces of awesome." -AirPower25 Sear the Flesh, Purify the Soul; Harden the Heart, and Improve the Mind; Born of Blood, but Forged by Fire; The MECH warrior reaches perfection. My Guides
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11 months ago ::
Jul 16, 2012 - 1:36AM
#7
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The even-easier solution ... Solos, despite the name, should not actually be used solo. Give your beholder a partner or two (probably a Brute or a Soldier to complement his status as Artillery) to mix it up with the dwarf and other bruisers.
Another day, another three or four entries to my Ignore List.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 16, 2012 - 7:52AM
#8
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Date Joined:
May 17, 2011
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I thought about a wave of some sort of minions to go with it. I guess what could make the encounter swingy is if the dice allow the beholder to dominate the fighter. That would be my co-hort.
Long and short of it... if the beholder gets locked down, can't push the dwarf over a ledge and/or can't dominate the fighter, he could go down fast.
I guess my thought is this: In RAW the dwarf can swing at the beholder potentially up to eight or so times in this round of six seconds. In roleplay time, that seems like a lot of swinging of the great axe.
Too, for clarity of the random eye ray power that targets others on their turn. The power actually doesn't say anything about being an aura. Here is the stat block:
Triggered Actions: Random Eye Ray - At-Will
Trigger: The beholder is conscious and an enemy starts its turn within 5 squares of it.
Effect (no action): The beholder uses one random eye ray against the triggering enemy.
The power doesn't even say "can use" it says "uses". That sounds like it was intended to go off everytime the trigger is activated to me, but hat's a strict reading I suppose.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 16, 2012 - 10:05AM
#9
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Date Joined:
Sep 19, 2007
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The attack triggered by violating the D-aura is an opportunity action isn't it? Last I checked you only get 1 OA per enemy per round. A knight would only get 1 off-turn attack every round against the beholder, even if it focused all 3 attacks on the knight's allies, spent an action point, and did it again.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 16, 2012 - 10:25AM
#10
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Date Joined:
May 17, 2011
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The attack triggered by violating the D-aura is an opportunity action isn't it? Last I checked you only get 1 OA per enemy per round. A knight would only get 1 off-turn attack every round against the beholder, even if it focused all 3 attacks on the knight's allies, spent an action point, and did it again.
Yes... it is an opportunity action.
But according to the RC on page 196-197, an OA can be taken "once per turn, rather than once per round".
So the dwarf's great-axe is going to be spinning like an airplane propeller getting off so many hits in 6 seconds.
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