Building Better Monsters | Beholders

Adding the egg shell to obscure the monsters form is very smart. It raises more questions than answers like, is this egg the creatures or did it crawl into it like a hermit crab and if so WHAT MASSIVE HORROR DOES IT BELONG TO??? good stuff

Looks like the Tripods from War of the Worlds. Also very appropriately scary for the spooky month.

This amount of deviation is great! Getting away from the original monster doesn't always land in a place I personally like, but it is so much more interesting than hearing about a slight variation on a done to death version of the monster. And even if I don't always vibe with the end result, a lot of the ideas are still super inspirational. Also, having your complete thought process there makes me realise at what point I might deviate from your thinking and that too leads me in very interesting places when thinking about these monsters. So I'd say, go wild with these variations on the monsters!

I had something of a beholder type encounter in one of my games that I think worked (sort of) well at not being goofy. Made the thing gigantic, subtracted the mouth, and had the various eyes capable of telescoping out to random points in the dungeon. Players would encounter these eyes poking out through cracks in the floor or walls, and they eventually found their owner floating near the entrance of the dungeon they were trying to escape. Even so, I think your version is vastly more creepy.

Gonna be honest I've run beholders before and it's hard for them to come off as anything but goofy. Even in the extended lore they seem silly, dreaming narcissistic copies of themselves into existence and fighting them to the death. Although this is one of the more extreme alterations you've done in this series, I think it pretty effectively changes a silly creature into a scary one!

I very much enjoy this de-goofification of the Beholder!

I’ve been trying to explain less about the monsters in my homebrew world because my first instinct as a dm and a worldbuilder is to create a massive amount of lore and reasoning for everything that exists in the world. Your videos have really helped me just let shit be weird for the sake of player enjoyment.

I love the idea of the defensive-offensive play with the anti-magic cone. It quite literally captures the idea of eye bosses. If its starring at you with the anti-magic, it technically cant attack you with the more "exploratory" rays, but if it isn't, well then they can cast fireball at your weird egg head

This was a great one! The imaginary asides to your players were hilarious and perhaps even too relatable for a forever-GM.

I love when cosmic horror monsters go the route of space insect-like creatures that are beyond our understanding. It's like something already creepy and adding a sort of uncanny valley feeling to it.

I thought my idea of the "Bee-holder" would still be my favorite interpretation, but you may have convinced me to prefer yours. Love these videos

I love this iteration so much! It feels very biological/organic in a way that is reminiscent of Lovecraft. I don't think you stayed too far from the source inspiration; in fact I would love to see more monsters in this vein. You maintained the silhouette, but players who know about beholders may not recognize it. Fantastic work!

This is easily one of my favorite designs of yours. These things are visually, mechanically, and conceptually horrifying!

Hey Kyle! Kyle here. Just wanted to say your videos and podcast have come in very clutch over the last week, as I've been Ill with a sinus infection and have binged all of your content. Great stuff as always!

this is exactly the kind of thing i love doing with dnd monsters. take the core tenants of the creature or just a bunch of smaller elements that you like and do a bunch of reflavoring to fit the game. i’ve loved all of your videos in this series but i think this one is my favorite; i really loved the emphasis on the stranger parts of cosmic horror in it :))

I absolutely love these beholders, that are basically dozens of eyes inside the pupil of a bigger eye. Really brought back the horror of "cosmic horror" into this monster! You continue to inspire me with every video Kyle

This really gave me Barlowe vibes, his book Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy in particular. He did his own interpretation of characters from fantasy literature. His take on the Nissifer for example informed the way I handle Thri-Kreen in my own game, along with a short story from Grr Martin (Sandkings, it's great). I don't think there's really a limit on how far you reskin or modify these beings. After a certain amount of time, you have fought basically everything in the standard manual at least twice, adding some variety makes such a huge difference. Likewise, letting the truly weird be actually weird is I think exactly what's needed to hook some players. And at the end of the day, that's the job. Hook as many as you can, however you can. It's all tools for the toolbox.

While the egg part of it threw me off a little bit at first, and I might rework it as a shell, I love the design overall! The multiple eyes staring out from inky blackness is a wonderful visual, and the egg/shell introduces an interesting combat dilemma, where the players have to choose to either try to chip away at the egg/shell, but be able to use magic, or try to go for the weak spot where there's no armor, but have to be in the antimagic field. I also loved your interpretation of cosmic horror, as I think beholders should behold, and as such the detached but invasive curiosity that is harmful to the players works perfectly!

it is finally here, the Beholder episode! Been looking forward to this one =)

It's the spooky bestiary month! Love your channel. I've been building up a beholder for a big antagonist and listening to your take on monsters is very cool and helpful. Beholders and cosmic horror together are really incredible.