Major populations of beholder mages in Faerûn were found in the Underdark beholder cities of Ooltul, where the phaerimm Triumvirate had forcibly converted two hundred beholders into mages, and Zokir, where wizardry among beholders was discouraged but not forbidden. The necessity of sacrificing the powers of their eyestalks to cast spells was generally abhorrent to beholders, so very few were eager to take up the path of a beholder mage. Normal beholders tended to shun beholder mages, although others saw them as disabled and worthy of pity rather than ostracization. Most beholder mages had been born blind, lost their central eye during battle, or were so ambitious that they intentionally put it out in order to study magic. The main prerequisite to becomeing a beholder mage was the loss of sight in a beholder's central eye. Beholder mages were also among the few beholders who could create magic items, such as the Crown of Eyes. In many cases, beholder mages developed their own spells to better suit their limitations, and many spells that looked familiar to normal wizards were in fact the product of efforts to duplicate those spells. The ancient and unique spellcasting techniques and traditions of the beholder mage were largely developed to overcome the innate physical difficulties of spellcasting without hands. If one of a beholder mage's spellcasting eyestalks was severed, the mage lost the ability to cast spells with it until the stalk could be regenerated. They took full advantage of their unique ability to cast multiple spells simultaneously. Combat ĭepending on how many eyestalks had been dedicated to spellcasting, a beholder mage fought with a combination of wizard spells and their own innate powers. Nevertheless, they were more willing to engage in diplomacy than the average beholder, although almost always with the intent to betray or undermine. Personality īeholder mages tended to be antisocial. Ībout one in ten beholder mages had psionic abilities. They also tended to struggle with spells that took more than one minute to cast. For instance, they were unable to learn spells that increased their capacity to memorize more spells-such as Rary's mnemonic enhancer-and some were unable to learn spells from more than one school of magic. In some ways, beholder mages' spellcasting skills were more limited than a normal wizard. There was no limit to the number of spells that a beholder mage could know or learn. That said, they were not as reliant on their spellbooks as normal wizards, and could "store" one spell in each sacrificed eyestalk to be memorized later. They needed either to have some form of telekinesis to manipulate it-and some developed the ability to freely use mage hand for such tasks -or they needed charmed servants to manage it for them. īeholder mages prepared spells in the same manner as a wizard, keeping track of their spells with a spellbook, although their physical limitations meant that they had to be mindful of how they handled this book. A beholder mage who had sacrificed all ten eyes could gain the ability to absorb magic with its dead central eye such that spells directed at the creature could be captured in the eye, which would glow red until the beholder mage made an effort to absorb and feed off of the energy. After it had sacrificed its third eyestalk, a behold mage gained the innate ability to summon a familiar, with some favoring the mini eyeball beholder. While they could sacrifice their eyestalks in any order they wished, most beholder mages chose to begin with their power to charm person and saved their most devestating powers-such as the ray to disintegrate-for their later sacrifices. Beholder mages were so innately gifted with magic that they could simultaneously cast spells with each eyestalk that had been dedicated to their arcane studies. Doing this not only granted it access to more powerful spells, but also negated the need for material components. To learn spells of a new level, a beholder mage had to convert an eyestalk to a spellstalk by permanently sacrificing the innate power of that eyestalk to dedicate to the new level. īeholder mages advanced their spellcasting by converting their eyestalks to "spellstalks". A beholder mage was able to sing songs of such complexity that they could juggle the verbal components of several spells simultaneously. Abilities Ī beholder mage used its dead central eye as a spellcasting focus, and was able to cast spells by wiggling and writhing its eyestalks and singing a spellcasting song. Most beholder mages were a bit smaller than the average beholder. While some made some effort to hide this deformity, others proudly displayed their eye, or the wound or disease which had rendered it useless. The distinguishing feature of a beholder mage was its blind, destroyed, or missing central eye.
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