Some beholders manage to channel their xenophobic tendencies into a terrible despotism. Even slight differences of coloration in hide can turn two beholders into lifelong enemies.Įye Tyrant. Some have eyestalks that writhe like tentacles, while others’ stalks bear crustacean-like joints. Some beholders are protected by overlapping chitinous plates. Beholders vary greatly in their physical forms, making conflict between them inevitable. Each beholder believes its form to be an ideal, and that any deviation from that form is a flaw in the racial purity of its kind.

The disdain a beholder has for other creatures extends to other beholders.

Beholders always suspect others of plotting against them, even when no other creatures are around. Beholders are convinced that other creatures resent them for their brilliance and magical power, even as they dismiss those lesser creatures as crude and disgusting. Enemies abound, or so every beholder believes. When a beholder sleeps, it closes its central eye but leaves its smaller eyes open and alert. Aggressive, hateful, and greedy, these aberrations dismiss all other creatures as lesser beings, toying with them or destroying them as they choose.Ī beholder’s spheroid body levitates at all times, and its great bulging eye sits above a wide, toothy maw, while the smaller eyestalks that crown its body twist and turn to keep its foes in sight. One glance at a beholder is enough to assess its foul and otherworldly nature.

Beholder 5e