Every Angel is Terrifying...

Reskinning the Beholder

This is an attempt to reskin Dungeons & Dragons classic weird and terrifying monster the Beholder in a way that works for less generic fantasy settings… Instead of a floating arcane eye with stalks that each shoot magical rays, I’ve written the creature up as a Galagalim, the strangest of the order of angels… The “wheels within wheels” of biblical tradition.  Angels in RPGs are best if they are the angels of Rilke … “Every angel is terrifying […] almost deadly birds of the soul, [who] perilous, from behind the stars, [takes] even one step down toward us:  our own heart, beating higher and higher, would beat us to death.”

I don't hate beholders as a monster - they are incredibly charming, but like most of the original D&D monsters they are themselves a meme, or at least iconic enough to be very well-known, and so more likely to create furious flights of metagaming rather then wonder among players who encounter them. This is itself an interesting theory question - "what do we want players to experience from monsters?" On the one hand there is the excitement and fear of the novel ... and on the other there is the joy of learning the game, of players able to develop a set of knowledge about creatures and their abilities, because D&D monsters are shared and known phenomenon.

I still remember many of the statlines (or at least the special abilities, weakness, HD and AC ranges from pouring over the 1E monster manual as a child, and having this sort of knowledge was valued as part of player skill by some parts of the OSR and continues to be in the POSR, especially among those aiming for "revival", or playing RPGs as closely as possible to the RAW or the the playstyle "intended" in the 1970's or 1980's. This is an interesting exercise, and an interesting approach to player skill - where knowledge of the game's rule text is essential for character survival and player success. I suspect it is very close to the way that old games were played in the first few decades of the hobby (at least it is similar to how we played them as children), and it does offer an interesting approach to challenge, where player knowledge of monsters (also magic items and spells) acts as a sort of substitute for character knowledge of the game world. Personally though I have always followed the other OSR approach, the idea that challenge should be novel and unknowable to the players without their characters' observing, scouting, listening to rumors , guessing and trying out schemes. Monsters should inspire fear and wonder, with the limitation that their special abilities and weaknesses should be discernible, or at least not contrary, to their description and appearance. In the case of "Biblically accurate angels", they make good stand-ins for the more terrifying and dangerous D&D creatures. In this case the weirdest o these, Ezekiel 1:15–21's "ophanim" or "galagalim " the beholder is ideal.

Below are the stats and description of a Galagalim, a celestial wheel or sphere, written up for OSE or similar B/X D&D clones.

Galagalim (Celestial Wheel)
A servant of the Celestial Thrones, pulled from the eternal choir to serve the Imperial war machine. This divine being has escaped its entrapment, but it remains here - lost in the painfully protean terrestrial universe. To approach it is to inflict pain on it through change and disorder. It will respond in kind, sating its hunger for beauty through destruction.

HD 12 (48 HP)(1)  AC 3(16)(2)(3) [16], ATK x1 Searing Lash (1D8) + 3 x Beam (special)(4), MV 60’/180’ (float)(5), SV CL12(6) ML 10

(1) Wheels Within Wheels: Damage can only be inflicted on the central burning eye at the center of the Celestial. To do so attacks must be specifically directed at it, requiring an attack roll of 26 or greater, that is reduced by one each time one of the Galgalim’s surrounding rings is destroyed. Strikes that are not directed at the central eye, or miss but still hit its base AC of 3[16] strike and damage the wheels of lesser eyes that circle the Galgalim’s core. Each of the 10 wheels can take 10 HP of damage before breaking, denying the Galgalim its associated power and reducing the number needed to hit the central eye by 1 (See Table). Any single attack can only destroy a single wheel. Broken wheels will reform the next session (or within two weeks). Each shattered ring weighs 100 cn, with a value of 1,000 GP, and can be recovered if the Celestial is destroyed or flees.

(2) Flames of Pure Fire: A cloud of pure white flame that consumes all impurity, surrounds the Galgalim. In addition to rendering the creature immune to all fire, it both destroys weapons used against the Galgalim and injures melee attackers. Any regular weapon striking at a Galgalim will be consumed and reduced to white ash. It is immune to normal missiles, which are annihilated prior to contact. Only truly magical weapons (ranged or melee) work as normal against the Celestial. Melee attackers will suffer 1D6 damage in magical burns each time they attack unless they are immune to magical fire, attack with a spear or pole weapon, or are under the effect of a Bless spell (or similar).

(3) Aura of Perfect Order: The light of the Galgalim’s flames cast a 30’ wide shadow before it for 200’ feet (or long range). Any magic cast within this shifting shadow will fail, including spells or spell-like effects cast by magical items. Only magical weapons and armor will function, and then only to provide basic bonuses.  The aura can be temporarily canceled for 1D6 Rounds by magical Darkness or for 1D6+2 Turns by Dispel Magic that is effective against the spells of a 12th level wizard. 

(4) Annihilating Rays: Each round, in addition to striking with a whip of magical fire, the Galgalim can shoot rays from its outer three rings. Divine magic the rays from a Galgalim ignore most magical defenses (except spells over 4th level or natural abilities of outsider entities or creatures with more than 8HD). However, the rays are narrow, each can target only one enemy, and can be dodged with a Save vs. Wands. 

Ring	Effect	AC
1st	Burning Ray - 3d6 damage	26
2nd	Annihilating Beam - Destroyed utterly	25
3rd	Paralyzing Beam - Hold for 1d6 Turns	24
4th	Force Beam - telekinesis/2d6 damage	23
5th	Entrancing Beam - Fight for the Galagim for 1D6/2 rounds	22
6th	Beam of Hideousness - Permanently drain 1d6 CHR (transform to hostile wight at 0 CHR), and heal Galagim for 3xCHR  loss	21
7th	Beam of Marble - Flesh to stone	20
8th	Beam of Time - Destroys non-magical equipment and enfeebles (STR and DEX reduced to 6)	19
9th	Beam of White Fire - 4D6 damage, stuns for 1 round	18
10th	Beam of Creation - Polymorph into hostile (and hideous) creature of equal HD.	17

(5) Floating Fire: The Galgalim can float 5’ to 40’ above any surface, including liquids.
 

(6)Arch Outsider: Immune to normal fire, sleep, charm, and mind affecting spells. Can be turned by clerics and effected by protection from evil/good or other such spells.