Become the Stuff of Nightmares!

Beholders are some of the strangest creatures in existence—capable of reproducing both biologically and by dreaming a copy or variant of themselves into being. When their dreams are focused on trying to understand humanoids, a bizarre mixture of forms can manifest. If they are to survive, these hybrid beings must first escape from their beholder parent, since beholders hate and destroy variation.

These half-beholders vary in appearance, but most have a round head about one to two feet in diameter that resembles a small beholder—with either one or two close-set eyes in front and six to ten eyestalks sprouting from their skull. Their mouths usually contain many sharp, triangular teeth, but can also have uncannily human grins. Their proportionally small-framed humanoid body dangles from beneath their head—some gaunt, others sporting wiry muscles. While they can touch the ground when they choose, their beholder origin grants them the natural ability to hover inches above any stable surface indefinitely.

Half-beholders retain a sliver of their progenitor’s magical abilities, casting cantrips from their eyestalks. With time, they can also learn to use their main eye or eyes to counter a caster’s spell, but the powerful antimagic cone remains outside their ability.

Half-beholders may be born from the chaotic minds of the eye tyrants, but their thoughts are surprisingly humanoid. A half-beholder can become anything they set their mind (and their many eyes) toward, whether villainous or heroic. Document includes a table of half-beholder motivations to help characterize your PC. Also included is a brief sample half-beholder NPC backstory for DMs to use or to help inspire your role-playing.

If you like this, also check out my Giff Expanded, Illithid, Rogue Modron, and Poriferan playable PC species! I'm currently releasing a new one every Tuesday.

You might also enjoy my Smoke & Thunder series of guides to firearms, explosives, and other technology in D&D!

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