Spectator

Source: Monster Manual (2024) p. 289

Spectator

Magic-Bound Beholder-Kin

  • Habitat. Underdark
  • Treasure. Any

Invoking mysterious rites involving four beholder eyestalks, a spellcaster can mold aberrant dreams into a beholder-like guardian. Called a spectator, the being summoned by such a ritual resembles a beholder with five magical eyes—a central eye and four on stalks arrayed around the crown of the creature’s spherical body.

A spectator serves its conjurer for 101 years by guarding something of the spellcaster’s choice—typically a treasure or location. The spectator is a reliable guardian and allows only its summoner access to what it protects. A spectator might converse with other creatures, openly discussing its orders and the magic-user who conjured it, but it has no ambitions of its own and won’t abandon its post. Should an intruder ignore its warnings, a spectator attempts to drive away the intruder with its magical eye rays.

At the end of its service, a spectator might discorporate back into nothingness or wander away, seeking to learn more of the multiverse.