In fact, an eyedrake prefers to hang out in total darkness for this very reason.Īn eyedrake employs its Eye Rays the same way a beholder does: The rays fire at random, but the eyedrake chooses the best targets to aim those rays at. It does the same against light if the encounter location is completely dark, because its darkvision allows it to see through normal darkness, and its opponents wouldn’t be casting light if they didn’t need the illumination in order to fight back effectively. In round 3, it uses Antimagic Breath if it hasn’t already, and uses it a second time if it’s recharged and either its conditions are met or it’s at least moderately wounded.Īlso, because an eyedrake’s Eye Rays rely on being able to see, it uses Antimagic Breath to dispel darkness if that spell is cast on an object (unfortunately, as written, Antimagic Breath doesn’t work against darkness if it’s cast on a point in space). In round 2, it uses Antimagic Breath if its conditions are met or if it’s already moderately wounded (reduced to 83 hp or fewer). If the eyedrake is lucky enough to have its conditions met in round 1, it uses its Antimagic Breath immediately. To use Antimagic Breath in the first or second round of combat when no target is benefiting from a magical buff yet would be a waste of half this action’s functionality. Second, ideally, at least one of these opponents is buffed by a 1st-, 2nd- or 3rd-level spell. An eyedrake doesn’t rush to use it but rather waits for two conditions to be met: First, it must be able to aim the cone at three or more opponents. However, it recharges only on a roll of 6, not 5–6, which makes it less of an “always choose first” ability. Like a breath weapon, it’s not on all the time, it is limited by a recharge, and it deals beaucoup damage. In addition to their Bite, which is a solid attack but not on par with their Eye Rays, eyedrakes have Antimagic Breath, a cross between a dragon’s breath weapon and a beholder’s Antimagic Cone. Thus, once they’re engaged in melee combat, they’re not in as much of a hurry to get out of it, although they are smart enough to move out of reach of a melee opponent with Extra Attack. Unlike dragons, however, they’re not built for speed: their beholder heritage slows their flight down to a comparatively sluggish 30 feet per move. With expertise in Perception and Stealth, they’re also ambush attackers.

Perhaps because of the draconic influence upon their creation, eyedrakes are more brutish than beholders are, with very high Strength to match their Constitution and Charisma. ( Obviously, dragons’ mouths are in the wrong place. Its form resembles what a 6-year-old beholder might produce if asked to draw a dragon: a vaguely wyrmlike but also vaguely circular body, legless, with wings formed from webbed clusters of eyestalks and a big eye front and center, inside its jaws. The eyedrake is a quasi-beholder that pops into existence when an actual beholder can’t stop perseverating on its jealousy of a dragon rival. And since beholders and mind flayers contend with dragons for the title of Most Iconic Monsters of Dungeons & Dragons, it’s not surprising that Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons contains two creatures that represent the overlap between these creatures’ spheres of influence and that of dragons. Now we get into the real weirdies-the dragon-adjacent aberrations, elementals, constructs and oozes.

Beholder dragon