In a forum thread about difficult-to-run monsters, some people expressed difficulty with beholders. However, it occurs to me that, aside from the superficial differences in appearance, they make good daleks. Or the Martians from War of the Worlds.
I mean, they hover and they shoot rays out of their eyes and they hate other creatures. I think turning them into secret masterminds is almost a mistake. They're called "eye tyrants", so they should TYRANNIZE!
You're not the first person to make the Dalek comparison.
ReplyDeletehttp://brunos-geek-reviews.tumblr.com/post/33882741498/of-beholders-and-daleks
They even look sort of alike if you turn your head and squint.
I think I've seen other people compare beholders to daleks, but I haven't seen anyone suggest using them like daleks: have a beholder actually rampaging and exterminating its way through an area. For some reason, everyone seems hung up on "masterminds" directing minions, but otherwise waiting in their lair for a "boss battle".
DeleteI suspect it's because they have a very high intelligence score and a great ability to control other people and monsters with their charm rays. As well as other rays that help make and shape lairs. So it feels a little odd that a monster with serious "mastermind" abilities is just trucking around shooting the place up.
DeleteAt least on a regular basis - I think that would work as a one-off (this is how beholders start taking over an area - shoot it up and then settle in). But who knows, maybe they should do it more often. Make them very intelligent but capricious and impulsive. You'd probably want to make the CE instead of LE in that case.