"Fuuuu..." Aslain thinks. "If I don't get that mirror we're dead... It's useless to join against the Beholder without it".

"I'm done being polite..."

I throw my chicken bones towards the shadowy figure (maybe the wolf will fall for it) and shoot as many arrows with the +2 bow as I can towards the drow (maybe at least I'll hit the wolf too). Immediately afterwards I switch to my twin short swords of fire damage and effing pray with a column between the Beholder and my small body.

(I assume no one has a problem with me attacking the drow... even if we divide the forces between them and the Beholder we still have better chances WITH the mirror... or at least an elf has to believe in something, right?).

"That was unfortunate"

*Roosevelt knows his purpose is to defend the others from monstrosities like this, but he is perplexed how to defeat a foe wherein line of sight is nearly certain death.*

"Could we get it to come close, then bag it, making its eyesight worthless as a weapon? We must do something to negate its power!"

Well, here we go. Looks like the final battle alright. Time to give it all we have.

I have 5 spell casts remaining. Time for any spell casters nearby to go ham since we need to reach the portal before we are trapped in here forever.

With most of the party from downstairs seemingly managing to get here, do you have any suggestions as to our plan here? I will probably use all 5 spell casts for protective spells.

If the Beholder casts antimagic field, it will annull its eye powers, but at the same time our magic protections as well, and it will attack with its maw. If it doesn't, it will keep using it magic powers and maybe attacking head-on too? Ideally we should try to get some time for the other group to retrieve the magic mirror while moving along the room forward, hiding behind the pillars.

I'd recommend using Reflect Spells and/or Magic Shield. The question is whether RS can "soak up" and reflect more spells than MS would, if there is no difference other than that MS also protects against physical attacks, RS might be better, esp. if it hits the beholder back! :) If you avoid its physical attacks. And it doesn't reflect that back at us, which it shouldn't. Hopefully the Beholder won't try to Dispel, and if it will, it'll affect only one person and not many at once. And a turn "wasted" dispelling is better than a turn attacking! And if it casts its anti-magic shield, at least we'll just have to go around dodging its attacks.

My shield only protects from normal missiles, and I'm recasting my Protection Against Evil this turn (bonus save versus evil actions, so it shoudl work on all spells/stuff beholder throws at us), so with Roosevelt we should be able to protect all of us except 1 person now, since Roark died.

Right now it's me, Ereanar, Svartalf, Smarty and Roosevelt = 3 paladins and a 1 battlemage, 2 archers - Rudy, Zaid and one cleric, one mage and one thief. I have Magic Bubble, Smarty might still have his on? or has it expired by now?, and me and Roosevelt have PoE for 8 people including the two of us.

I'd suggest our group, buffed by PoE spells from me and Roosevelt, tries to engage the beholder from a distance while hiding behind the pilllars to avoid being hit, in order to gain time for the other party to try to find the magic mirror. Ideally some people could be buffed by Reflect Spells/Magic Shield and other spells our party has, and if Babark casts Globe of Protection again, it could help soak up the magic rays (if it works that way, so far it has stoped magic attacks). Everyone should pick whether they want to stay with Roosevelt or me while moving, as we can both protect up to 3 people each wiht our PoE, that gives bonus against saving throws/defense against evil attacks - ie. all beholder attacks. Someone should attack with the magical electric wand, ideally a melee fighter who can't engage the beholder from a distance. Let's go to the closest archway with pillars, so that we don't move much in the open. It should be the same one the other group took, so we're going to be basically switching places now, as they're moving ahead.

Ideally we could splitt into two groups of four (+1, and if Babark casts his Globe, the 1 could benefit from that), however it might be dangerous to try to run to the other side, so maybe we all should just form a line of 2-4 attackers/defenders who wait unless the beholder comes to attack us directly, and have our 3 ranged fighters (and anyone else with a bow - Max has one too now, right? So with Thras we could get 5) attack the beholder, with the rest of us standing guard in front and attacking only if the beholder tries to swoop on them and soak up any rays it might try to shoot at them. Svartalf, could you try passing the electric wand to someone else for this turn so they can attack the beholder with it, since if you're going to be casting spells, you're most likely not going to have enough actions to use it, which would be a pity?

I'm going to try this plan if everyone agrees, and since I'm recasting PoE, I might not have the time to use the wand. I stay in formation, and move forward with everyone to hide behind the pillars and allow ranged attackers target the beholder while protecting them if the beholder tries to attack them or us physically, but not breaking formation so that PoE works. If Reflect Spells is cast on me, I'm more bold and actively engage the beholder in combat without breaking formation (ie. having 3 people close to protect them with my PoE), instead of waiting for it to come near to us.

EDITED:
Duwnward the human mage hides behind closest pillar and casts Detect Secrets.
Adventurers it looks like we need to create a plan to deal with the Beholder.
If you would like me to create the “Steam Cloud” using area of effect spells and then, use it as protection to engage the beholder together at once, let me know. IF you have other ideas I am open for suggestions.

I would need some distraction to cast the spells also I do not wish to harm anyone so the area needs to be clear – we would need to cooperate.
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That wouldn't really work, since they'd be puddles of water - they reflect light, yes, but not magic spells. A magic mirror might reflect a beholder's spells, but water will just be evaporated by a death ray or whathever he casts. And since beholders are not stupid, but intelligent, he most likely will not be shooting at his own - or someone else's - reflection in a puddle. They also have a very good perception, although lacking in colours,so they'd know it's a puddle.

However casting a spell at him could work, especially if you try to hit him when he's not facing any allies.

Does anyone have a poison gas or other gas cloud they can cast to obscure the thing's line of sight? Even if temporarily, we need to distract it or blind it. Its eyestalks are very vulnerable but small. We could blind them with arrows or amputation, but that's a risky prospect. I'm not afraid of it's mouth or Anti-magic ray, since I'm mostly a physical fighter. But we need to do something to take it's other deadly eyes out of the equation before I try to manhandle it or anything.

Everybody is assuming the Beholder has an anti-magic field but we have absolutely no confirmation. Yes, if we go by the usual D&D tropes, it could have it, but we have no idea of knowing what Doc's Beholder has or doesn't have.

Another difference should be that the Reflect Spells should actually send the spells back on the caster. But from the previous interaction, it seems it is subject to a roll on whether it is successful or not.

It seems that casting spells does not count towards the limit of actions you can take per turn. But I will gladly give the wand to anyone lacking ranged attacks, under the condition that they can actually use it. Can everybody use wands, or are there class restrictions like that wands are usable by mages only? Or are non-mage classes more likely to misuse it like missing etc?

Yes, getting behind the pillars should be priority so we don't give him any easy targets. I think that Reflect Spells is going to be the better choice for this situation. I feel like that is the only thing, that might actually be able to deal with the rays. So first, I make my way towards the nearest pillar in the 4 man group with Eranear to break line of sight with the Beholder. Then I cast Reflect Spells on myself and the 2 group leaders, Eranear and Roosevelt.

That leaves me at 2 spell casts. I could try casting Ice Lance on the Beholder and see it it has any effect (it worked on the magic resistant Hags below). But hitting a floating target with it would probably be difficult unless I am very close.

Here is my available spells just so everybody knows: Reflect Spells, Magic Shield, Dispel Magic, Fireball, Ice Lance

Allright. Let's try that. @Doc: do I have a clear shot where I don't endanger any group members?


We can use multiple spells per round, right? I still have lots of casts left. So:
Magic Shield on myself,
Lightning bolt on the Beholder (if I have a clear shot)
Acid Bolt on the Beholder
Another Lightning bolt on the Beholder for good measure (if I still have a clear shot)

Then I use my invisibility ring and move sidewards to be somewhere else when the Beholder retaliates.

Agreed with Eranear that puddles of water won't have much effect, but given his love for Divinity: Original Sin, I suspect Doc would love for us to somehow use combined elemental effects here! Maybe somehow you could cause a steam cloud to block the Beholder's gaze? (Also see Roosevelt's suggestion for the usefulness of that.) Fireball in particular seems to be a somewhat dangerous spell to be experimenting with for such an effect, but if you come up with a logical application of spells, maybe Doc is willing to confirm to you if you have the necessary "finesse" with the spells to reach the desired effect?

I'm also wondering if anyone has any spells to cause the ceiling to collapse on top of the Beholder? Or get the many, many spikes below the Beholder to be flung toward it? (With momentum carrying them on when the antimagic field takes effect?)

Doc confirmed its existence to me by explaining it's not on automatically, but comes into being by the Beholder targetting someone with its central eye.

Do please confirm with Doc if the gaze attacks count as "spells" that can be reflected!

Darrim stops for a moment to show respect to Kyp and continues running towards the door.

Hmm, Ice Storm is cast in a 40 foot high cylinder. If you could turn the hail to steam as it's falling (rather than afterward), that should result in a 40 foot high steam cloud. Is the hall really higher than that? (The archway was about 18 feet high, assuming a 6 foot tall drow.)

True, but if Beholder will float higher, you are not going to reach it in melee. Furthermore it can always move sideways. It would be great if we can keep it near the ground in one place. Also if we will fail the dice roll we will be dead anyway, but the cloud could give us some chance and buy a bit of time.

EDIT:
Maybe we could levitate something above the Beholder, to disallow him movement in vertical plane. but he could run away sideways, unless we surround him.