Variants and Kin
Information about beholder variations and related creatures has been made available in Dungeons & Dragons publications.
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Elder Orb | A rare variant of the traditional beholder. These creatures have a long lifespan and are more powerful than traditional beholders. |
| Hive Mother | These are even rarer than elder orbs. Although their name implies a feminine gender, these beholders are as gender-neutral as typical members of their species. Their name stems more from the fact that they have the ability to magically dominate other beholders. |
| Death Tyrant | A Death Tyrant is an undead beholder that has retained some magical ability. |
| Death Kiss | This creature’s eyestalks are replaced with blood-draining tentacles, and its body roils with a powerful electric aura. |
| Director | A director is often found dwelling in a beholder community led by a hive mother or an overseer. It has six eyestalks and three clawed tentacles with which it bonds with monstrous vermin mounts. |
| Eye of the deep | An eye of the deep rarely comes into conflict with true beholders, for this aquatic variant dwells deep underwater. It has only two eyestalks, but its massive pinchers make it a dangerous combatant. |
| Eyeball | An eyeball is a Tiny beholderkin with four eyestalks; they are popular familiars in some wizardly and sorcerous circles. |
| Gauth | A gauth is a beholder-kin that feeds on magic as well as flesh. A gauth has six eyestalks (one of which is used to drain magic from items) and four feeding tendrils. The most obvious feature of a gauth is that its central eye (which affects the viewer's mind) is surrounded by a ridge of flesh and many small eyes used for sight. |
| Gouger | A gouger’s ten eyestalks are magically useless. Its central eye retains the antimagic properties of true beholders, and four small legs hang from the creature’s underside. A gouger’s most hideous feature, though, is its long, barbed tongue, which is adept at temporarily neutralizing beholder eyestalks. |
| Overseer | An overseer is the most dangerous of the known beholderkin. Rivaling the power of a hive mother, an overseer resembles nothing so much as a large, fleshy tree with mouths on its trunk and eyes on its branches. |
| Spectator | A spectator is an extraplanar beholderkin with four eyestalks. Somewhat mild and even-tempered, spectators have even been known to form friendships with other creatures, a trait that no other beholderkin or true beholder ever displays. |
| Umbrascarred | Once a proud member of the infamous race of Eye Tyrants, these Beholders were captured by the Umbragen and immersed within the writhing pits of shadow. This cruel and vicious process warped their very flesh, amputating eyestalks and tearing out their central eye, and transforming them into feral beasts who no longer seek their own ends but instead tirelessly pursue the destruction of all that lives. |
Read more about this topic: Beholder
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