Beholder, Mutant Wanderer

Description

The wanderer is a rare, mutant form of beholder typically found in mountainous areas or underground. Needless to say, their larger cousins attack them on sight, which helps explain an unusual personality quirk common among wanderers: they do not like to stay in one place for more than one or two days. This is how they got the name "wanderers". Consequently, wanderers have no lairs nor treasure. Those few that settle down for any period of time rarely stay put for more than a year or so. All wanderers hate the beholders for the persecution they have suffered from them.

Combat

Wanderers are not as powerful as the larger beholders. Good and neutral wanderers will avoid combat with beholders, but the evils will readily rush to near certain destruction. Wanderer can bite for 2-5 hit points of damage, but their most powerful attacks, as with their larger kin, is their magical eyes.

A wanderer's central eye can emit a powerful disintegration ray with a range of 100 yards. The effect is exactly the same as the disintegrate spell. This power may be used three times a day; charges are recovered at a rate of one every 8 hours. The central eye is covered with a tough, clear chitinous lens which gives it the same armor class as the rest of the body. If the eye sustains more than 1/3 the wanderer's hit points, it is blinded and cannot be used until 1 day per hit point sustained has passed.

Wanderers have 8 to 15 eyestalks, each of which can cast a single magic missile inflicting double damage (2d4+2) three times per day. A stalk is severed if it sustains more than 5 hit points and will grow back in one month. Eye stalks are extremely agile, and have the same armor class as the rest of the body. The central eye has 120" infravision, and all eyestalks have 60".

Wanderers have ESP and can become invisible at will. In addition they have a special form of telekinesis: it can be used at will, but is quite weak, providing only the equivalent of a strength of 6 or 7, and only operates at ranges of 5 feet or less. It's real advantage is in it's extreme precision: it gives the wanderer the equivalent of one arm with a 20 dexterity. They have a maneuverability class of A in flight. Wanderers are extremely cunning in combat, and can be very dangerous opponents. Due to their hard, chitinous shells, they take no damage from falls of less than 20 feet, and a common trick is to remain invisible and drop on a victim, inflicting 1d6 hit points and getting a free bite at +4 (if a successful hit is made on the drop).

Habitat

Wanderers are almost by definition chaotic beings, and can be of any chaotic alignment. They are solitary and rarely is more than one encountered. Evil wanderers are exceptionally vicious and fight as if they were two levels higher. Wanderers are often confused with the much feared beholder, and other beings will typically attack or flee on sight.

Evil wanderers blame all intelligent life for the outcast status of the wanderers, and will usually attack on sight any creature they feel they can defeat. Evil wanderers have no desire for power, they only wish to torment and kill other beings, especially beholders. This extreme, and often foolish agression is the reason they are the rarest of the wanderers.

Neutral wanderers are survivers above all else. The world is harsh, and for them there is only one law: stay alive as long as you can. They tend to be sullen creatures and rarely deal with other beings; their outlook on life is decidedly nihilistic. Unlike their evil kin, they are not very agressive; they go out of their way to avoid danger and are very cautious when dealing with creatures obviously more powerful than themselves. Neutral wanderers will always flee from true beholders. This is not to say they are cowards, as they will fight ferociously when given no choice. Nor are they paranoids; they are only careful about what risks they are willing to take in life. Their caution helps explain the reason they are the most common of the wanderers.

Good wanderers are flighty and mischievious creatures who love practical jokes and making a general nuisance of themselves. They are, however rather good natured, and their pranks are never meant to cause harm (intentions and reality, however, don't always mesh). Good wanderers are (usually) not foolhardy, however, and (most) choose their friends carefully. They are quintesential free spirits who love life and all it has to offer. Good aligned wanderers are more likely to settle down for a few months at a time than their neutral and evil cousins.

Ecology

Wanderers are a subspiecies of the Beholder, and like their more powerful kin, have only one sex, but cannot reproduce alone. They only meet to mate, and seperate afterwards. Upon mating, an extra stalk, similar to an eyestalk begins to grow from the creature's underside. A small capsule at the end grows to 1/2 the parent's diameter and breaks breaks open in 6 weeks, revealing a small wanderer with 1/4 the parents hit points. It grows to full size in 4-6 months. Offspring typically stay with their parent for a few months then strike off on their own. Good and neutral wanderers do not impact their environment, but the highly aggressive evils enjoy ravaging everything in their paths. Evils often drive off or devour their young, as the parental instinct wears off soon after the capsule bursts. This bad parenting may also explain their smaller numbers. Wanderers live for about 200 years.