Medium undead (beholder), neutral evil

Armor Class 14 (natural armor)
Hit Points 93 (10d8 + 40)
Speed 0 ft., fly 15 ft. (hover)

Proficiency Bonus +3
Proficiency Bonus +5 (5th Edition Advanced Mode)

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
14 (+2)	14 (+2)	18 (+4)	14 (+2)	10 (+0)	15 (+2)

Saving Throws Int +5, Wis +3, Cha +5
Immunities necrotic, poison
Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Condition Immunities  charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned, prone
Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages Deep Speech, Undercommon
Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)

Antimagic Cone. The beholder’s central eye creates an area of antimagic, as in the antimagic field spell, in a 150-foot cone. At the start of each of its turns, the beholder decides which way the cone faces and whether the cone is active. The area works against the beholder’s own eye rays.

ACTIONS

• Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (4d6 + 2) piercing damage.
• Deathcharm Eye. The beholder’s central eye emits a magical ray in a 150-foot line that is 5 feet wide. Each creature in that line must succeed on a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw or be affected as follows, depending on the creature’s type:
  • Humanoids and beasts that can be charmed are charmed by the beholder for 1 hour, or until the beholder harms the creature. The saving throw is made with disadvantage.
  • Other creatures that are not immune to necrotic damage take 55 (10d10) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The saving throw is made with disadvantage.

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Kasharin: The Undead Beholders

The kasharin, or beholder-mummies, are beholders who have contracted a disease known as the Blinding Rot, and who have survived long enough to seemingly die from the disease and not from beholder retaliation. They are undead creatures that retain their central eye, but lose their eye stalks and most of their flesh. They are feared and hated by living beholders, but also cared for by some of them in the hope of turning them into servants for their leader, the Gray Eye.

DESCRIPTION

The kasharin appear to be blackened, burnt beholders, their scales curled and separated, apparently from some intense heat. Their eye stalks are charred and useless, but their central eye still remains intact and usable. Their mouths are filled with sharp teeth, and they can still bite their enemies with considerable force. They have no need for food, water, or air, and they do not age.

The kasharin are intelligent and evil, but their personalities are warped by their undead state. They retain their xenophobic hatred, but the hatred is now focused on all surviving living beholders. The kasharin’s new state has, curiously enough, made them more forgiving toward the denizens of the undead, but these feelings occur only if the undead cannot otherwise affect the beholder-mummies.

Only beholders that have passed completely through the transformation caused by the Blinding Rot are considered “true” beholders by the kasharin. To them, the beholders of any subrace that have passed “the test” are now considered brethren, while any former (and living) relations are not, regardless of whether they were once the same subrace. The xenophobic hatred that drives multiple subraces apart in the world of the living beholder has been simplified to simply living versus unliving in the beholder-mummy world. The transformation to undead may prove to be a blessing in disguise for the strife-ridden beholder factions.

COMBAT

The kasharin’s main form of attack is their central eye. It retains the range it had when alive, but the eye now has a two-pronged attack. The eye acts as a powerful charm person/monster to those characters or creatures who are affected by such spells; to those who are not, it acts as an equally powerful ray of death magic.

Any who encounter the kasharin make their saving throws with disadvantage. If they can be charmed and fail their first saving throw, they continue to make all successive saving throws to shake off the charm with disadvantage as well. Creatures and characters that cannot be charmed because of inner magic resistance or immunity must make a saving throw versus death magic with disadvantage, with failure indicating immediate death.

Beholder-mummies can be turned or destroyed if confronted with sufficient clerical power. They are treated like ghosts or other powerful undead.

HABITAT / SOCIETY

The kasharin are mostly found in the Spelljammer, a massive ship that travels through the wildspace. They live in a tower that is guarded by living beholders who hope to use them as servants for their leader, the Gray Eye. The kasharin have no interest in serving the living beholders, but they tolerate their presence for now, waiting for an opportunity to escape or rebel.

The kasharin are the result of a disease that has transformed them into their present state. They are changed both in body and mind, yet they retain many of their natural beholder tendencies. The Blinding Rot was originally developed as an ultimate unifier of the beholder race. The philosophy behind its development is that it brings the beholders – every race, subrace, and sub-subrace – together in a single, unifying death. Rising from the ashes of that death is a new race, a single race of beholder-mummies. All creatures of space must fall to the beholders, and now all the undead must fall to the beholder-mummies.

The beholders kept within the tower have now been metamorphosed into beholder-mummies, but the plague itself originally came from beyond the decks of the Spelljammer. It may be that there are colonies (and perhaps even entire planets) of beholders so infected somewhere in the Known Spheres.

ECOLOGY

The kasharin are undead creatures that have no need for food, water, or air. They do not age or reproduce, and they are immune to most forms of damage. They are vulnerable to holy magic, silver weapons, and fire.

The kasharin have a negative impact on the ecology of the Spelljammer, as they consume its magical energy and spread their disease to other beholders. The Blinding Rot is a highly contagious and incurable disease that affects only beholders. It causes their eye stalks to wither and decay, and eventually fall off, leaving the beholder severely disabled, if not dead. The disease does not kill the beholder, but instead places it in a state of living death, turning it into a kasharin.

The kasharin are hated and feared by living beholders, who see them as abominations and traitors. The living beholders often try to kill the kasharin, or use them as cannon fodder or slaves. The kasharin, in turn, despise the living beholders, and seek to destroy them or free themselves from their control.