How do youfight beholders ?

[Dexxaan]

Send in the WF

That too!

[Strakeln]

I don't bother with Deathblock or silver flame necklaces or optic nerves (I usually have the DW spell on though).

I use the following tactic:

SPEED to the beholder's left side, make sure you have fire resistance on. Once you get used to doing this, you will be able to do it on most any character without getting your buffs dispelled. Then stay on any side but the front and beat him down with the best weakening/enfeebling gear you have.

If you do this right, by the time the rest of the party catches up, the beholder will be helpless and no longer casting (you can tell because your damage numbers suddenly are get large with lots of +'s since they're always crits). You probably won't get the kill since by the time you switch to good on-crit weaps the party will kill it... but you will be the reason the beholder was so easy.

It takes practice, but once you get used to the technique, it becomes second nature. I typically make it all the way to the hound without losing my buffs, but always being the person leading the charge to the beholders.

[baddax]

Send in the WF

With Weaking Enffebling weapons.

[Pwesiela]

Oh, also a favored tactic, if you have a caster in party, or are playing a caster yourself at some point, see if they have the feeblemind spell. Beholders have issues saving against it, and once hit with it, they are unable to cast any of their ray attacks. Feeblemind also doesn't generate aggro if they make the save, so if you watch it, you can keep attempting to cast it till they fail without getting noticed and attacked.

[Delacroix21]

What gear / weapons work against beholders ? I can paralyze them for a while but they come out fighting and first I love 3-4 negative levels and then death.

Any help would be appreciated.

Beholder fights are all about high saves, as well as quickly weakening/maldroit them to really pump your dps. If you can... Weaken them and then switch to twin picks and really lay into them.


If you are being held, stoned, level drained, etc. allot from them then your really need to up your saves or roll a WF.


Personally I love fighting beholders, but then again I am a monk!

[The10man]

My WF barbarian uses the rusted shamshir named item from waterworks it is iirc ml 4 keen cold iron lesser abberation bane. Off hand is chaos light pick of greater abberation bane in off hand for best numbers to hit and damage. Rage spell and barb rage and hasted and go.

[Ghoste]

Send in the WF

Daddy beholders and mommy beholders tell baby beholders about the big angry boogie-warforged who likes to prey on disobedient little beholder boys and girls who dont eat their vegetables.

[Pwesiela]

Daddy beholders and mommy beholders tell baby beholders about the big angry boogie-warforged who likes to prey on disobedient little beholder boys and girls who dont eat their vegetables.

Beholders eat vegetables?!?!?!

Who knew?

[Oreg]

I am a dwarf fighter (tank) and I have a grt aberration axe which does kill them eventually, but I always end up down 4 negative levels after killing them. Is there any short term protection from their rays until I can get close enough to finish them off ?

Sorry for the delay in answering Pappo. Like others said - negative absorption trinkets, beholder optics, Amulet of the Silver Flame (i'd try and get this )

[Depravity]

Beholders only have about 10 str, so it's a quick task to bring them down to helpless.

This is the key bit of information.

Arcane - ray of enfeeblement and anything with "exhaustion" in the name. One of the few places where the enlarge metamagic shines - exhaustion doesn't cause aggro, and iirc enfeeblement will make them "look around" but won't actually cause aggro if you're out of their detection range. Voila, big ugly pinata.

Also, if you don't have enfeeble/exhaust at hand, draw them through a [heightened] web. Reflex is their weakest save, and with their low strength, getting out of the web once they fail their save is just not going to happen. By the time they roll well enough to get out, they're usually already dead.

More info on the eyebeams can be found in MrCow's Beholder thread

[Shade]

Barb:
Silver flame talisman on.
Sprint boost.
Dodge anti magic ray by running fast.
Get behind them.
Stunning blow, hope they don't save
Stuned or not.. DPS the **** out of there backs - always stay behind
Dead beholder and still buffed.

Easy enough to do long as i'm the first one in... If others run in first the magic ray activates and their movement becomes often too erratic to predict and dodge it.

Sorc:
Get to maximum enervate cast range or, just around a corner where I can still cast but he can't anti magic me
Enervate
Finger of Death

Alternatively if there are allot of them at once, like in some areas of subterran - put lotsa webs first. Web works great on them.

[VKhaun]

...is not beauty in the eyes of the Beholder.

Just wanted to let you know this made me laugh and I'm totally stealing it.

My highest character is nine. I've only encountered beholders a few times, and every time the group handled it one of two ways. Either a spellpen'd up caster went in and used a spell called Phantasmal Killer to drop it in one shot, or the tanks rushed it and the group nearly wiped right there on the spot.

I'm not saying this as fact, but I SUSPECT, that it's bad advice to tell a tank tactics against a beholder.
You probably really should be sending the casters to deal with these.

[Ghoste]

Beholders eat vegetables?!?!?!

Who knew?

They eat vegetarians, so I figure that's like eating vegetables.

[Shade]

I don't bother with Deathblock or silver flame necklaces or optic nerves (I usually have the DW spell on though).

I use the following tactic:

SPEED to the beholder's left side, make sure you have fire resistance on. Once you get used to doing this, you will be able to do it on most any character without getting your buffs dispelled. Then stay on any side but the front and beat him down with the best weakening/enfeebling gear you have.

If you do this right, by the time the rest of the party catches up, the beholder will be helpless and no longer casting (you can tell because your damage numbers suddenly are get large with lots of +'s since they're always crits). You probably won't get the kill since by the time you switch to good on-crit weaps the party will kill it... but you will be the reason the beholder was so easy.

It takes practice, but once you get used to the technique, it becomes second nature. I typically make it all the way to the hound without losing my buffs, but always being the person leading the charge to the beholders.

Yea thats the best way to do it. I do the same but just skip the weakining part alltogether and go for the dps.. More my style heh.

[ShaeNightbird]

Way too complicated (sorry Shae)

Or simply Farm the Cursed Crypt (3 upgrade procedure) and get an Amulet of the Silver Flame which protects you vs 10 Failed-Save Charges from Beholders, Deathblocks and even gives you permanent Prot from Evil and CHARGE!!!!

Eye of Beholder Ring / Beholder Optic Nerve are excellent choices, and Belt of Thoughtful remembrance will do somewhat also.

Weapons I use (that I remember off hand)

Drow Evasion Tank - I use +4 Acid Khopesh of Greater Aberration Bane or Pos x 3 Greensteel.

Dwarf Intimi-Paladin - +2 HolyBurstDwarven Axe of Greater Aberration Bane.

Halfling Tempest Acrobat +2 Cursespewing Rapier of Greater Aberration Bane

and so forth...
Just get your best DPS'r and slaughter em....

You do realise, of course, that the op might be relatively new, as in NEW not NOOB, and it's more than possible that they don't have access to gobs of plat, or the uber gear that you're tossing off so blithely?
I understand that to some people, shooting the beast with arrows must seem devastatingly complex.

[QuantumFX]

There are 3 things you need to think about defensively when fighting beholders:

1) Enervation: This is the absolute worst effect a beholder can throw at you. The best defense against this in DDO is a Tier II or Tier III Silver Flame Amulet. I hope you’ve managed to find a friendly guild. They can help you acquire one. Tier I is ML: 5 and will only protect you from 1 zap per rest. Tier II is ML: 9 and will protect you from 5 zaps per rest. Tier III is ML: 11 and will protect you from 10 zaps.

2) Disentegrate: Really, your only defenses are an undispellable Spell Resistance or a Good Fort save and plenty of Hit Points. Personally, I recommend the fort save/HP combo.

3) Scorching Ray: Really it's more annoying than anything but a solid Scorching Ray + Disintegrate = Death. Wearing a fire resist item will mitigate a lot of this damage.

Offensively you have a bunch of options:

1) Beholders are Lawful Evil Abberations. This means they’re vulnerable to Holy Burst, Holy, Pure Good, Anarchic Burst, Anarchic, True Chaos, Abberation bane and most elemental damage types (Fire, shock, etc.)

2) Stat Damage. Beholders don't have much in the way of physical stats. They're VERY vulnerable to STR damage. When their STR hits 0 they actually stop spamming the ray effects. So a rogue with crippling strike and some weakening/enfeebling weapons can really do a number on them. Beholders also don't have a very high CON score so wounding/puncturing weapons do a number on them as well.

3) Insta death. Generally speaking, beholders have a sucktacular fortitude save. So any spell or ability (Finger of Death, Assassinate, Quivering Palm, etc.) that requires a fort save is very effective on them.

[Lorien_the_First_One]

With Weaking Enffebling weapons.

That's for weakling fleshies to use. WF just beat the **** out of them the old fashioned way, the beholders don't stand a chance.