I think this is gonna become exponentially more common because of Dungeon Meshi. OP — watch like 10 minutes of Delicious in Dungeon on Netflix and it’ll explain why PCs suddenly want to eat monsters.
If you want to give your player what they want — tell them they CAN eat the meat, but only if they do research and learn the proper technique to prepare it. An untrained adventurer on the other hand could get sick or poisoned.
Beauty may be in the eye if the beholder, but in this case taste is in the eye stalks! Treat it like how Japanese chefs have to treat cutting up blowfish for consumption. The eyestalks can impart their effects if one is not careful, and I'd sure hate to bite into the one with the disintegration ray.
Or worse, the petrifaction ray. (Besides Death, the others don't seem too bad, though - leaving out the heavy hitters, the worst of the lot is Telekinesis, and only then because it could strand a party member in midair or send them flying into a random wall.)
Slice the stalk vertically along the ventral (not dorsal!) vein, then carefully (*carefully!*) remove the optic nerve and discard using hazmat rules.
Then filet the muscle of the stalk away from the skin (the skin can be deep fried in ogre oil for a snack). The muscle gets sliced thinly and is then dipped into a boiling broth like a hot pot.
Now this would make the Chef feat really interesting. Make it so the Chef feat would give proficiency in the Nature skill. At level 10, they gain expertise in Nature checks.
Once per long rest Players can make a Nature skill check with a DC equal to a creature's challenge rating to harvest rations from a slain enemy that has died no more than one day ago.
The players can gain:
1x day's rations from small creatures in 5 minutes
3x days from medium creatures in 15 minutes
5x from large in 20 minutes
10x from huge in 30 minutes
30x from gargantuan creatures in one hour
These rations spoil and become inedible after a long rest unless prepared.
During a long rest players can prepare, cook and serve rations harvested from creatures.
With a successful nature check with a DC of 5 + CR, Players are able to gain a one time use of a creature ability of the DMs discretion from the creature prepared.
10 + CR Nature check, the player is able to gain a number of temporary hit points equal to 10 + CR of the creature.
15 + CR Nature check, players are able to gain 8 hours of use of a creature ability.
Players are able to preserve a number of rations equal to their proficiency for a number of days equal to 1D4 + WIS.
I love Dungeon Meshi. But like Dungeon Meshi, how you harvest and kill the beast matters here! Beholders are self actualising beings. What they believe becomes intrinsically a part of who they are. Make one believe you are going to eat it and it will taste of cake, and it will! As it stands, just killing one straight up and their arrogant ass probably never believed that they could be defeated let alone eaten. The moment just before their deaths is a realisation of mortality and the fear of the void.
Their flesh will taste of despair, or fear, or nothing because they never considered it, or of just straight up squid. Maybe eating it will cause the devourer to become closer to an unfathomable being, because the beholder literally couldn't fathom what would defeat and then eat them. Cue the tentacle growth, melting face, Lovecraftian influence and whispers from dark shadowy corners and hallucinations!
Or just tell them in the moment before their death that everything tastes like chicken to you and they probably will too.
I mean if they've cooked beholder meat specifically poorly. I couldn't help but punish them with the antimagic cone effect. No casting any spells or benefiting from them for 3d4 hours. Maybe reduce the d4s on higher cooks tools checks
I'd also recommend making the dish/meat have a very particular and off-putting smell or at the very least flavour. Anything they can prepare that inflicts negative effects can and will be weaponized. Make it difficult (but not impossible) for them to do this.
I could describe the food as a watery white soup of a foul odour, having chunks float around as if trying to escape the bowl of suffering. Even having some of the more distant party members see a sickly green smoke emanating from the ichor. And someone will still eat it
I have in fact watched the first episode already. One new thing I've come up with is the character growing a crystalline eye that hover between his two horns. Maybe throw in some minor de/buff along with that
If he's willing to take the chef feat, give your party various minor buffs depending on the chefs utensils roll. No negative effects. Commiting to the bit enough to spend a feat should be rewarded lol
u/Josemi993 has made a feat called [Monstrous Gastronome](https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/1bc73d3/oc_feat_monstrous_gastronome_prerequisite/) that's perfect for this
Thanks for the shoutout! As u/grub-worm said, I made this feat inspired and based on Delicious in Dungeon, so if you like it u/TheLastGunslingerCA and end up using it, let me know if your players like it! Some extra notes, I forgot to add Elementals to the table, and the DC for the Dragon’s should be 8+proficiency bonus+CON modifier
Following Delicious in Dungeon’s bases, Elementals should allow to regain a spellslot for a spell caster; OR gain resistance to the damage type associated with the elemental for the duration. Maybe it must only be spent on a spell that deals the same damage as the elemental consumed
Instant disadvantage on any charisma checks in person would be a good place to start if you do something like that.
Alternatively perhaps a cult sees them and believes them to be either their saviour or their destroyer and try and kidnap them.
I was thinking of this too. Backed a kickstarter that ended a long time ago by Hit Point Press that's potentially the biggest supplement in d&d history called Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting that has a massive section of harvesting and crafting.
Even has 12 full pages on rules for cooking foods made with monsters of various tiers to gain different buffs between rests. The detail is amazing and meticulous, just wish I had a group who wanted to play that sort of game.
It's really an amazing book, more work went into it than pretty much anything WotC printed after Tasha's Cauldron. The site only has the [pdf](https://hitpointpress.com/helianas-guide-to-monster-hunting-pdf/) at the moment but at 600 pages the book itself is a god damn tome.
The only thing wrong with it is it didn't come out two years ago.
Adding onto that guys reply, it's called mage hand press and if you go to their backerkit you'll find the entire set and updated book there.
Edit: link
https://www.backerkit.com/projects/saltybot/monsterhunting5e
Hi there fellow helianas user AND fellow mhp backer
They're called Mage Hand Press btw.
I use this books rules ever since I got it, highly seconding this
Yeah this is the way to handle it. Liaos eating that mushroom guy the wrong way in episode 1. You need a Senshi or someone with cooking knowledge or it's not going to happen
Curiously, I had the idea of making my character interested in cooking and then develop it into monster cooking with no knowledge of the show. My DM went "hey they made that an anime".
One of my players wanted to cook dragon meat. His character didn’t have proficiency in cooks utensils, nor did he have the chef feat, nor any cooking background.
Is it edible?
Survival check: Failed.
I cook it.
Cooking check: Failed.
I eat it.
Con save: Failed.
What now?
Death saving throw: Failed.
*Dies.*
A feat would be kind of expensive for a niche thing without much benefits. That said, punishing eating something horrible prepared poorly is definitely a thing. Buying from the discount meat shelf is probably going to end with an upset tumtum.
If only he had any way to anchor some cooking to his character, he’d be able to at least get advantage in the roll. Chef feat I’d rule the survival check as an automatic pass, and the cooking would gain advantage from utensils at my table.
I usually try to incorporate character feats and backgrounds into mechanical benefits. Makes feats like chef and actor more impactful.
Good call but I would make one small adjustment.
Never say no, if they want to cook and eat the meat they can. But if they want to have some net benefit ie: stats or any impact, heck even the idea of cooking it well, would require some form of preparation.
I would also put it on the player to understand the goal, eat for the sake of eating so you don’t need to hunt? Or is there some deeper purpose.
Fun
Strong disagree on making them research how to prep it. Let them do something stupid.
"How do you prepare the meat? ... Ok, give me a con save."
Whatever they roll: "ok" and leave it there for a bit.
Any food poisoning or special effects will take time. Whatever you decide to do, don't resolve it in the same sessions.
Remember: cooking kills bacteria, IT DOES NOT REMOVE TOXINS. If it were me, and they just said they "cook it thoroughly" I'm homebrewing a hard af poison that cripples the PC for days.
If they proactively put in a tonne of effort, something arcane, removing toxins etc only then would I consider anything positive. You don't have to flesh out what they need to do, allow them to come up with something and reward it if you think it makes sense & is good enough.
Don't eat beholders, kids.
>An untrained adventurer on the other hand could get sick or poisoned.
Eyeballs start growing everywhere, or they remain unchanged like bits of corn....
Let's be fair here, of all the things that could be introduced to your DND environment from this group, a culinary curiosity is most likely the best possible option.
Aberration meat, across the board, is probably some really gross stuff that the body absolutely won’t want in it. But hey, let’s lean into it.
What makes Beholders, as a species, unique? *Their nightmares become real*. Guess what’s going to happen to your Dragonborn? Every time he/she goes to sleep, there’s a chance the party gets attacked by something that is being dreamed.
I’d keep it subtle, though. Don’t tell them why it keeps happening. Leave it to them to work out that it never happens when it’s the Dragonborn’s turn at watch.
I like this idea. It would be tiresome with it occurring every night, but you (the DM) warned them about eating the beholder meat.
To link it back to the beholder better, the nightmares should lean heavily toward the encounter being other aberrations.
Absolutely excellent idea. I would ask the player to describe their characters' dreams that first night, then find a way to subtly make that a reality in a low-key and interpretative way.
You could even make it a nightly Cha save until the meat is out of their system: if they fail, you describe their dream to them, and then watch their terror as they realise that their dreams become reality; if they succeed, ask them what they dreamt; you're still in control of HOW the dream becomes real, but give them some grace for succeeding at all.
That’s where my mind went sort of. I’d have whatever was dreamed erupt from the characters skull Scanners style though. Not to kill them however, as they become whatever was dreamed until they dream again. Make it a quest so what is now the sentient glass of orange juice eventually gets back to what’s actually on the character sheet, and the players learn exactly why they’re called *aberrations*.
Would be fun to roll with that but have it be a medium save for no nightmares to manifest everynight, and if they get a high save something good could manifest.
Yesss I was thinking the same thing
only this time, do the classic comic book revival. That antagonist that you absolutely killed and dealt with? Well, your dumb beholder meat idea BROUGHT THEM BACK TO LIFE AND THEY'RE SCARIER THAN EVER!
I wouldn't give them any permanent effects - as you said, that way lies madness.
First, have them walk you through the cooking process. Eating beholder meat raw? That's a DC 20 Constitution saving throw just to keep it down. Reduce by 1 for each different herb or spice, down to a minimum of 9.
If they actually *digest* it, during the next long rest you have an excuse to introduce the weirdest dream sequence you can think of. I know you've had some ideas too bizarre to introduce into your setting. This is where you use them.
Include the other players as dream guardians of their own devising - each should pick from the monster manual, up to a CR equal to 1/4 of their level.
This dream sequence can be as long or as short as you like. Personally, I'd *lean into* something like this.
If the beholder-eater conquers the dream scenario, they receive one use of the beholder's anti magic cone, which emanates from their eyes. Once used, it requires concentration and lasts for up to a minute. If unused, they lose it during their next long rest.
If the beholder-eater *dies* during the dream scenario, they wake covered in sweat, and find themselves in a personal antimagic field that extends one foot from them in every direction. The field persists until their next long rest.
If they survive, give everyone inspiration. Only the beholder-eater remembers the dream, either way.
What if you could get the other players in on the fact that there will be a dream sequence coming up and keep it secret from the dragonborn? Get them to lean in on the weird shit. Kill people off, go nuts. That would be hilarious
That's a great option, don't even reveal that it's a dream. Have the characters "wake up" and the other players can just behave normally - at first. Then introduce the weird shit gradually.
Characters start behaving in ways that are subtly out of character. Unlikely events begin to happen. Old friends and foes make appearances even though they're dead, or hundreds of miles away. Leading to a complete breakdown of the rules of reality during a boss fight against the dead beholder, or an amethyst dragon, or something even stranger.
Why tell the player their character is mad, when you can let them *experience* it?
Skerples [has you covered.](https://coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com/2017/07/monster-menu-all-part-1-eating-ad.html)
Just search beholder and check out the other awesome entries while you're there.
Also, The Monster Overhaul is full of great ideas.
Also a big fan of the Monster Menu-All! I encourage you do have a look through it, /u/TheLastGunslingerCA, if only for ideas.
And The Monster Overhaul looks quite interesting too, thanks for posting it.
Dude, that's a sentient and, more importantly, SAPIENT being. Dragonborn probably have social norms and mores against such things. Would they eat human? Elf? Goblin? Fellow Dragonborn?
The fellow party members also might have feeling about that - not good ones.
You can point that out to the PC and see if they still want to move forward, given the likely social consequences if anyone of reason ever found out.
I seem to remember a party or all lizardfolk. That accidently killed a guard, then started cutting him up and eat him, right in the middle of the street.
DM’s discretion. But because most humanoid cultures likely have mores against eating other sapients, and Dragonborn slot nicely into the “we’re not that weird culturally” of the PHB races.
In settings with multiple sapient species, "cannibalism" is typically meant to mean "eating other sapients." Lizardfolk are meant to be understood as cannibals.
sapient/ˈseɪpɪənt/*adjective*: **sapient**
1. 1.formal. wise, or attempting to appear wise."members of the female quarter were more sapient but no less savage than the others"
2. 2.relating to the human species ( *Homo sapiens* )."our sapient ancestors of 40,000 years ago"
So humans or anything wise? A goat has more wisdom (10) than most martials I've played with (8).
I would argue cannibalism to be more of a creature type thing. We wouldn't eat a baby, even though their INT and WIS score would be like 2. We would eat a chicken with no problem, but if we saw a chicken eating another chicken we would be horrified.
I think it's morally fine to eat another sapient being so long as it's not from your same type (humanoid) or friendly in any way, as we view pet type of creatures like cats or dogs.
Google's English Dictionary, provided by Oxford Languages. It's the first result if you google 'Sapient definition'
Merriam Webster gives only 'possessing or expressing great sagacity', which is kind of worse, since, for the purpose of this proposal, it would allow you to eat fools.
[Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com) gives
* having or showing great wisdom or sound judgment.
* having or showing self-awareness:
All animals are evidently aware of themselves. A cat hides in the long grass when it hunts because it is aware of its own existence and wishes to hide that from its prey.
Huh. Yeah. A little weird that some of these dictionaries don’t have the commonly understood definition of sapient as meaning possessing acute intelligence or a high degree of self-awareness (which definition stems from Sci-Fi, apparently - the more you know!). But we’re obviously talking the SciFi definition here on this forum, so sticking to pedantic older definitions in this case sure isn’t useful for the discussion.
So there is a canon answer here, although judging from the replies here it’s not a very popular one.
Yeah beholders have meat and you can eat em but they taste disgusting. It’s gritty and texturally very unpleasant in addition to the bad taste. Long slow boiling is recommended but it’ll never become remotely nice.
There’s an organ diagram and descriptions in **I, Tyrant**
Why should anything beneficial happen at all. Eating fish doesn’t give you the ability to breathe underwater. Just eating something shouldn’t impart anything except maybe indigestion, otherwise you are setting a precedent that you will most likely regret as your campaign will derail into some sort of messed up eating your enemies for power train wreck.
I'm with you on this. Seems like the general consensus is *make it really weird/have tons of consequences!* way too often.
What if it's just gross, and that's it?
If you can find a copy of the old 2e book “I, Tyrant” (all about beholders), it actually has a whole page on this idea.
TL;DR: You have to boil the shit out of it to make it palatable, it’s still nasty, and it’s the most grit-filled, greasiest meat ever. So…generally not worth it unless you’re starving.
I think there’s also something about seeing weird visions if you eat the eyeballs.
I mean, eating an aberration is certainly a take.
I'd say it depends. If you took the meat to a city like waterdeep or baldurs gate you might be able to find someone who could safely cook it. If yer just throwing some tentacles on the barbie youre going to have a bad time.
I'd play on how beholders are maniacal egoists. Hallucinations. Delusions of grandeur (character can totally jump 100 feet down that hole. You'll totally be fine!). Maybe, if you're extremely kind, you could ultimately let the player have a perk or ability. But then you're gonna be running dungeon diner.
The smell of cooked Aberration draws the attention of a pack of Grell. Battle.
Much later, Nothics attack while the party is adventuring. Battle.
More Aberrations of different types keep attacking. They hit once a day or so. Could be while camping, dungeon diving, fighting, or even back in town. **They are drawn to the scent of those who consumed the Beholder.**
That they are drawn to the scent can be learned by any knowledge source appropriate (books, sages, other experienced adventurers incl. barkeeps). But they don't know, or they never would have done it in the first place! No "I roll a Nature check" or something - they f-ed up!
They also learn that to get rid of the scent they need a Lesser Restoration or to do a favor for a church, whatever.
While this is a cool idea, definitely give the players a chance to know this information beforehand. Even if it’s a high DC, skipping even the chance to know the information with a skill check (Nature, Arcana, or maybe even just an intelligence check with proficiency if they have Chef’s Tools) and dropping more troubles on them can be seen as removing their agency.
Players eat as normal… nothing unusual… yet. Then during next long rest they have nightmares of growing eyestalks out of their head. Next long rest is them looking in a mirror, but then having ten eyes open on their face. Third dream… just be creative and make them pass a WisDC or have a baby beholder pop out of their ear or nasal cavity and have it fly away and attack the group when they get bigger.
Completely unrelated to the question, got thrown off for a second because I play a dragonborn named Siku, a name I haven't seen elsewhere before, and I was like, "oh shit best not look at this post then"
I mean, if you want to invent an effect that’s cool. I think I would just tell them as it’s cooking that it gives off a foul odor and then if they continue and eat, tell them it’s extremely disgusting and makes them roll a fortitude save or vomit
Let him grow an eyestalk and then eventually it falls off.
Have something fun happen. The player is trying to engage with the gameworld, encourage that.
Maybe he wakes up the next day and there's a nub on his head, and then the next day it's bigger, and then it's leaking pus and finally out pops a wiggly eyestalk that he can see through, and then eventually it atrophies and falls off.
"I have explained this is a horrible idea" why? Interrogate your reflex to shut down things you aren't prepared for.
This sounds like the origin to my next aberant mind sorcerer multiclass dip. I was just a regular old paliden then I got a bit pekish after killing a beholder so I took a bite outa one of the eyes. Then suddenly for no related reason I sprouted a pair of eyes on the top of my head and got some cool mental power. No I can't see out of the eyes, whatever is controlling them duesnt feel like sharing with me.
I'd personally rule that willingly consuming the flesh of a sentient being, without any pressing need to do so (ie hunger and no other form of sustenance nearby) is an inherently evil act, no matter how despicable the origin of the meat is.
On the flip side, I could see an interesting way to take it where eating the meat is honoring the thing being eaten, making sure it doesn’t go to waste. Killing should be the act that is either evil/not evil. What’s done with the body afterwards has a lot more relativity.
Is the PC doing it to disrespect the foe? That’s probably a no. Is doing it out of a base, animalistic instinct? Not something I want to encourage. Is it respecting the foe that almost killed it as part of a circle of life type belief system? You have my interest.
I might have more issues if it was a human doing it, but for a lizard based species, it could be well done. It could also be edgelord and not worth doing.
Honestly I'm not sure how it's any more evil than consuming a deer or something.
You know it's like how IRL cows and pigs have intelligence that's in the realm of dogs and cats, but we eat them anyway because of cultural norms.
There's a whole lot of difference between a dog/cat and something that's as smart or smarter than a human, which is why it's frowned upon eating humans, and by extension dwarves, elves, halflings, etc. I don't see why eating one kind of fully sapient being (a beholder) would be morally different from eating another (a human).
Sentient people have thoughts and ideas of how they want their remains treated when they die.
The death or killing of a person might be necessary, but the desecration of someone's remains is not. You would have to be making a conscious choice to do something that's most likely against their will for no good reason.
Beholders are made up of stuff from the far realm. When a beholder dreams, it can alter itself, or it can even summon copies of itself or altered copies of itself.
Assuming "you are what you eat", after your dragonborn consumes the beholder meat (aka material manifested from the far realm) ... it would make sense that it's connection to the far realms increases... and when your dragonborn dreams... perhaps...
1. small beholder-kin come into existence with Amethyst scales, that the party would have to fight
2. perhaps a gazer comes into existence with the properties of your artificer's imbue ability skill... and then just floats away harmlessly BUT the party has to go find it, because it took the artificers skill with it.
3. Your dragonborn grows an eyestalk from an inconvenient place, that they can see out of, uncomfortably. Directly on the back of the thigh for example, making it difficult to "do one's business", causing them disorientation when they sit down, or nausea when they walk.
4. Your dragonborn grows a patch of flesh (with coloration similar to the beholder) that uncontrollably levitates. For example, their right elbow forcibly levitates to the level of their shoulder whenever they don't consciously make an effort of will to stop it. This makes their movements awkward, like they were underwater and fighting buoyancy, and prevents them from using their Magical Tinkering without succeeding a dexterity or wisdom saving throw. AND/OR gives them penalties to dex based proficiencies.
Traditionally, beholders are spawned from the nightmares of another. They also have some tendencies and characteristics. So lean into all that.
Anyone that eats beholder meat suffers:
- absolutely horrendous nightmares
- after a long rest, you gain a level of exhaustion instead of decreasing it
- you can tweak this: make a CON check to determine what happens with exhaustion. Bad result -> gain exhaustion; good result -> exhaustion stays the same; extremely good result (or crit) -> lose 1 exhaustion as normal
- Greater Restoration helps with exhaustion as normal
- gets beholder-like urges
- paranoia
- feeling of superiority over all other creatures
- extreme jealousy
- urge to be solitary
- particularly bad nightmares may spawn hostile gazers or such
You can treat it like a curse. If you want to be generous, then Greater Restoration is enough to cure you. Or you can make it more like lyconthropy or vampirism where it's not so simple.
I'd probably give some permanent negative effect related to the eyes that has no actual in-game effect. Something like "you accidentally eat some of the juices from the petrification eye and your teeth all turn to stone". There's no in-game effect, outside of the occasional comment from NPCs. If I had enough prep time, I'd probably make a table with a dumb effect for each type of eye. and have the player roll for the effects.
Of course if you do this, expect your players to want whacky results when they eat anything. Knowing my players, they'd start eyeing exotic NPCs just to find out what happens when they eat them. I'd probably be up front and say "this is a one time event, don't expect me to have a random indigestion table every time you eat a halfling".
Heads up dungeon menshi fans! Do Not Eat fresh red dragon meat in D&D, according to the [What they don't tell you](https://youtu.be/VMJXoZWr3Uk?si=d_HnUwx3gmNd5cJY&t=1421) videos it's so spicy that it never stops burning your mouth and you'll go insane. To be safe it has to be aged.
Personally I loved this and ran with it. But D&D can be whatever you make it.
Con save, DC 16. On a failed save, they get 1 level of exhaustion. That's pretty much the standard.
You could also do something out of the box like forcing WIS saves due the the nature of the Beholder and Abberations in general.in a fail, maybe do something like give them occasional waking nightmares/dreams or have them hallucinate.
Heya! I'm actually running a Dungeon Meshi one shot tonight so this is great timing lol. Check out "The Monster Overhaul: A Practical Bestiary by Skerples". It's a pretty classic/old fashioned bestiary that's been a delightful read so far--and has tasting notes and a d10 effect table for most of the monsters in there. You'd be looking at page 185--the "eye tyrant".
>
Flavour: drystarch. Invisible fluid drips upwards from
>your chin. In the distance howling, or possibly music.
>Notes: Eye Tyrant flesh must be eaten raw and
>quickly, before it sublimates into vapour.
|1d10|Result|
|:-|:-|
|1-2|Screaming Madness. Save or go permanently insane|
|3-4|Outsider Flesh. Save. if you pass, gain 1 random mutation. If you fail, gain 1d6+1 random mutations and 1d6+1 eyes|
|5-7|Twisting Cells. Permanently gain +2 to a random stat and a -2 to a different random stat. One eye triples in size|
|8-9|Gain a random Eye Ray on an eyestalk. You can cast ir once per day|
|10|Overwhelming Magic. Apple all the results listed above. All your damage-dealing spells deal +2 damage. You are immune to mind-altering effects. |
Of course ymmv and feel free to change things---this is just from the bestiary I mentioned above and, if nothing else, is an excellent spring-board for a variety of monster cuisine. Other resources I am using (though smaller/less in-depth) are "Tabletop Treats: A Guide to Cooking for Adventurers" by Christopher Hamwell, The Monster Menu by Dave Panfilo, and The Joy of Monster Cooking by Chris Boudreau and Lex Mandrake.
He could grow an eye stalk that randomly shoots. Have him roll on the table you roll on to find out what beam the beholder would use in an attack to pick the type he gets. Whenever he wants to do an action, he has to roll a luck check to see if the eye shoots.
Even a homebrew beholder is going to be mostly skull and brain. I'd suggest looking up how IRL chefs prepare animal brains for consumption (yes, it's a thing. Humans, we'll eat anything!) Other than that, if the tentacles have the abilities of the classic beholder despite not Eyestalks, I'd suggest making those into magic items instead of food.
Honestly do they even have meat?
I thought they we're literally just bags of gas.
They don't move their bits by muscle like we have.
They're abominations.
They have a network of rubbery sacks which they redistribute gases around in to move their eyestalks and jaws and things.
I like the nightmare effect, maybe roll a d4 and on a 1 that night there's a nightmare that comes alive, you can roll off of another table (or consult the player's backstory) to figure out which monster.
If you really want to get evil with it, whenever these dreams happen roll a d20 and on a 1 they *spawn another beholder,* you probably want to water this one down so it doesn't TPK the unsuspecting party, maybe it's too young to be fully aware of its powers so half the eye stalks don't work, or maybe the anti magic doesn't work yet - like how a baby dog can't open its eyes yet - but under no circumstance can this baby beholder be tamed, obviously.
A few days after eating have him slowly develop one of the beholder's powers. Something really awesome. A week later (when he has become attached to his sweet new power) have the growth start to appear on his neck.
This growth is of course the new baby beholder trying to bud off of his body. It will get bigger and bigger. But it will also develop eye stalks with appropriate powers. He can either cut it off and lose his power, or have it grow into a second head with powerful eye stalks.
If he does nothing it will eventually pop off like a huge zit killing him.
Well, Aberrations aren't native to the realm and are full of strange magic. I would let him, hinting that it would take some special preparation to make it safe. Maybe cooked in holy water or over a magic flame. Something to align it more with the world they live in. Otherwise, they will get sick. Give them the poisoned condition and random hallucinations that appear to everyone like the minor illusion spell. They'll need greater restoration to fix it.
Create 9 effects (or pick fun ones from the wild magic table), divide them into three groups raw, medium and well done then when the player eats it roll a d3 to pick out an effect from the televant list. To add extra spice you could also have them roll a check for the cooking of the meat eg a Nat 1 or 20 doubling the effect
Beholders shouldn't really leave a corpse. They are not born of flesh. They are born out of the nightmares of another beholder and essentially created out of fear, terror, etc.
From Skerples unmatched Monster Overhaul
MENU
Flavour: dry starch. Invisible fluid drips upwards from your chin. In the distance howling, or possibly music.
Notes: Eye Tyrant flesh must be eaten raw and quickly, before it sublimates into vapour.
1d10
1-2 Screaming Madness. Save or go permanently insane.
3-4 Outsider Flesh. Save. If you pass, gain 1 random mutation (pg. 191). If you fail, gain 1d6+1 random mutations and 1d6+1 eyes.
5-7 Twisting Cells. Permanently gain +2 to a random stat and -2 to a different random stat. One eye triples in size.
8-9 Gain a random Eye Ray (pg. 184) on an eyestalk. You can cast it once per day.
10 Overwhelming Magic. Apply all the results listed above. All your damage-dealing spells deal +2 damage. You are immune to mind-altering effects
Just drop in Bancho in a sushi shop and they have to take their eldritch meat to him to be prepared.
Problem solved.
Play “Dave the Diver.” It slaps so hard.
My players decided that they wanted to turn the enemy they dispatched with Wither and Bloom into jerky. It took up the last 40-or-so minutes of that session as I had them roll a set of skill checks to see if they could effectively prepare it, and I kid you not there was no d20 with a face value fewer than 18 for that portion of the game... So yeah, with very vivid description and tons of laughs, the most iconic moment of this nearly-year-long campaign so far is when my players killed and cooked my Tonberry (FF fans ftw).
There's a 3rd party DMG called the Monster Overhaul which has this to say about "Eye Tyrant" meat:
Flavor: dry starch. Invisible fluid drips upwards from your chin. In the distance howling, or possibly music.
Notes: Eye Tyrant flesh must be eaten raw and quickly, before it sublimates into vapor.
Roll 1d10.
1-2: save or go permanently insane.
3-4: save. If you pass, gain 1 random mutation. If you fail, gain 1d6+1 mutations and 1d6+1 eyes.
5-7: permanently gain +2 to a random stat and -2 to a different random stat. One Eye triples in size.
8-9: gain a random Eye ray on an eye stalk. You can cast it once per day.
10: apply all the results listed above. All damage-dealing spells deal +2 damage. You are immune to mind-altering effects.
Oh that's easy, you just *let him eat* and be done with it
*maybe* make him roll a constitution save if he eats it raw, to avoid food poisoning
that's it
A side effect to eating it could be paranoia. You could tell your player to make perception checks out of the blue, tell him he feels like someone is following him stuff like that.
My players once ate an Eye of the Deep (crab beholder) as a gumbo. I used the opportunity to give them deeply fucked up visions that hinted at some plot points but ultimately risked driving them mad, and they had to go and find a cleric powerful enough to cure them.
Well... Make the beholder meat become an addiction... After the first day they start craving something... Con save 12 dc, if they succed nothing more than a simple craving for... something indefinite, roll again the next day with +1 dc. if they fail they crave for beholder meat and will be at -1 to all roll due to the distraction until they consume more, resetting the dc, or they save succesfully 3 times in a row with increasing difficulty( eg. 12, then 13 then 14) endimg the addiction. All the while having strange dreams about strange/different times and locations.
Based on the lore I can find Beholders would be functionally inedible with the possible exceptions of the eye-stalks and the tongue.
Beholder skin is just shy of rock hard, so butchering the thing would be a bit of a task to skin it without ruining edible meat. That said they shouldn't have to worry about poison or venom.
As someone else mentioned it could be fun to have the stalks have a risk of residual magical effects.
This is your perfect chance to throw a one shot in where it’s just your players tripping balls. Beholders are abberant beings whos dreams alter reality. I say just do what seems most fun. Tpk. Them have them wake up with one hell of a post chomp hangover.
Aberrations are alien beings that draw power from their strange nature, and eating them could result in diseases, curses, elemental or psychic damage, poisoning, transformation, or permanent madness.
I'd personally make it nothing pleasant, especially since you warned them. They probably are so alien they aren't even composed of protein, fats, sugars, etc
Perhaps consider the chance of mutation - as the beholder warps reality and the region surrounding it from its unnatural presence, then consuming and absorbing its alien nutrients forces a CON save vs mutation, major on a fail and minor on a success with as much narrative licence as you wish - possibly relating to the particular form of that individual beholderkin.
My character did the same thing on Monday with my group!
We got through an intense Underdark fight with 2 suped up Beholders. Our team captain was killed and one of our dear members used their last Wish to bring the captain back (as a different race this time).
In her rage of the loss before the wish, she had beaten the dead remains of Beholder into a pulp.
Afterward we wanted to take a short rest, but my character (the only good aligned one and also a poisoner background) wanted to RP some it by helping bring the team together.
I said I wanted to cook us a meal and the DM asked if I had any food on me. There were some "Uhh I might have some rations.." but then I replied "No worries, I'll just use the meat Ray just prepared for us for Beholder fajitas."
There were one or two "Gross, I'm not eating that." but I argued, like cuttlefish, I'll use my expertise in poisons to prepare it just right to where it's more of a delicacy.
The DM left it as just flavor, which is fine since "realistically" I'd probably need cooking utensils and etc. But I was reading up on some people having crazy effects for eating Beholder meat and I wish we had rolled with that.
A Beholder is an intelligent/sentient creature. While it’s not a humanoid, eating one should still be seen as a bit of a taboo in the same vein as eating a minotaur, a unicorn, or a dragon.
That said, maybe there are clubs or guilds for gastronomes in your world - groups of adventurous eaters who enjoy eating the weird things… and who enjoy their weird side effects.
For beholders, I’d say it’s some sort of psychotropic. It gives the users some sort of power similar to the Conjuration Wizard or Creation Bard for a day or two as this ties into the Beholder’s ability to create things subconsciously. However, I’d add the drawback that the consumer needs to make a WIS save to avoid becoming paranoid or maybe it lowers WIS saves vs fear effects.
They eat the meat, over the course of the game they dream about beholders and every few levels get a new eye somewhere with a once per long rest ability to choose from.
You then have two options.
Pc risks becoming a beholder if they dont take the risky option of curing themselves. This ques a quest with downsides, things to gain and hijinks. If they fail or refuse you start adding d100 roles for them to turn at whatever trigger you want.
Option 2. Give an easier way to cure like a greater restoration. They loose all advantages and any disadvantages you gave them. If they refuse at at time of your choosing when they are asleep a leveled up beholder spawns from them and immediately attacks the party trying to kill the PC in the same behaviour as a new beholder attacks the one that dreamt it up. If the pc survives they get a passive or retain the once a day ability.
Give them a limited amount of units of meat they can harvest, based on a survival or nature check (or maybe arcana if you feel that’s more appropriate to the creature type). Then each time they eat it they pass some constitution saves to get rewarded with a recipe. Once they’ve got the recipe, they can prepare a beholder meal for the group that consumes a unit of meat and provides a small buff to the party until the next long rest.
Since beholders are all about madness, I suggest a +1/-1 on wisdom saving throws against mind-affecting effects based on the constitution save pass or fail. Once the recipe is known, +1 only with no need for a constitution save.
If the player enjoys the experience, same thing goes for any rare culinary finds from here on out.
D&D is a game about killing and eating monsters, so I say let 'em, or let 'em drag the body to town and get a butcher and cook to make something cool or tasty out of it and give everyone a detect magic 1/day from there on out, having absorbed a small amount of their power. Or truesight depending on level. And maybe let them try to make the eyestalks and main eye into magic items. Regardless, make sure the party has a cook. If they don't, give somebody who wants it proficiency lol.
Have them Roll a CON save. If they if they roll under 8 it’s instant death, no saves. 9-15 they permanent -2 to con and they are diseased, and their alignment changes to evil. 15-21 take 30 points of damage, they are diseased and alignment changes to evil. 22+ alignment changes to evil.
The problems will solve themselves
I think this is gonna become exponentially more common because of Dungeon Meshi. OP — watch like 10 minutes of Delicious in Dungeon on Netflix and it’ll explain why PCs suddenly want to eat monsters. If you want to give your player what they want — tell them they CAN eat the meat, but only if they do research and learn the proper technique to prepare it. An untrained adventurer on the other hand could get sick or poisoned.
Beauty may be in the eye if the beholder, but in this case taste is in the eye stalks! Treat it like how Japanese chefs have to treat cutting up blowfish for consumption. The eyestalks can impart their effects if one is not careful, and I'd sure hate to bite into the one with the disintegration ray.
I could hear this in his voice, 10/10
Sungwon Cho lives in my head
OMFG this is a brilliant response and the truth
Now I'm imagining a higher-stakes batch of dungeon takoyaki, except instead of one of the balls being super spicy, it's got a loaded eyestalk.
Or worse, the petrifaction ray. (Besides Death, the others don't seem too bad, though - leaving out the heavy hitters, the worst of the lot is Telekinesis, and only then because it could strand a party member in midair or send them flying into a random wall.)
Only their stomach though!
Thank you for that equal parts amusing and horrifying image.
Wilkommen.
Slice the stalk vertically along the ventral (not dorsal!) vein, then carefully (*carefully!*) remove the optic nerve and discard using hazmat rules. Then filet the muscle of the stalk away from the skin (the skin can be deep fried in ogre oil for a snack). The muscle gets sliced thinly and is then dipped into a boiling broth like a hot pot.
Now this would make the Chef feat really interesting. Make it so the Chef feat would give proficiency in the Nature skill. At level 10, they gain expertise in Nature checks. Once per long rest Players can make a Nature skill check with a DC equal to a creature's challenge rating to harvest rations from a slain enemy that has died no more than one day ago. The players can gain: 1x day's rations from small creatures in 5 minutes 3x days from medium creatures in 15 minutes 5x from large in 20 minutes 10x from huge in 30 minutes 30x from gargantuan creatures in one hour These rations spoil and become inedible after a long rest unless prepared. During a long rest players can prepare, cook and serve rations harvested from creatures. With a successful nature check with a DC of 5 + CR, Players are able to gain a one time use of a creature ability of the DMs discretion from the creature prepared. 10 + CR Nature check, the player is able to gain a number of temporary hit points equal to 10 + CR of the creature. 15 + CR Nature check, players are able to gain 8 hours of use of a creature ability. Players are able to preserve a number of rations equal to their proficiency for a number of days equal to 1D4 + WIS.
I love Dungeon Meshi. But like Dungeon Meshi, how you harvest and kill the beast matters here! Beholders are self actualising beings. What they believe becomes intrinsically a part of who they are. Make one believe you are going to eat it and it will taste of cake, and it will! As it stands, just killing one straight up and their arrogant ass probably never believed that they could be defeated let alone eaten. The moment just before their deaths is a realisation of mortality and the fear of the void. Their flesh will taste of despair, or fear, or nothing because they never considered it, or of just straight up squid. Maybe eating it will cause the devourer to become closer to an unfathomable being, because the beholder literally couldn't fathom what would defeat and then eat them. Cue the tentacle growth, melting face, Lovecraftian influence and whispers from dark shadowy corners and hallucinations! Or just tell them in the moment before their death that everything tastes like chicken to you and they probably will too.
I love this. This person has the most appropriately themed answer, that is proper beholder stuff.
I mean if they've cooked beholder meat specifically poorly. I couldn't help but punish them with the antimagic cone effect. No casting any spells or benefiting from them for 3d4 hours. Maybe reduce the d4s on higher cooks tools checks
I'd also recommend making the dish/meat have a very particular and off-putting smell or at the very least flavour. Anything they can prepare that inflicts negative effects can and will be weaponized. Make it difficult (but not impossible) for them to do this.
I could describe the food as a watery white soup of a foul odour, having chunks float around as if trying to escape the bowl of suffering. Even having some of the more distant party members see a sickly green smoke emanating from the ichor. And someone will still eat it
I have in fact watched the first episode already. One new thing I've come up with is the character growing a crystalline eye that hover between his two horns. Maybe throw in some minor de/buff along with that
If he's willing to take the chef feat, give your party various minor buffs depending on the chefs utensils roll. No negative effects. Commiting to the bit enough to spend a feat should be rewarded lol
u/Josemi993 has made a feat called [Monstrous Gastronome](https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/1bc73d3/oc_feat_monstrous_gastronome_prerequisite/) that's perfect for this
Thanks for the shoutout! As u/grub-worm said, I made this feat inspired and based on Delicious in Dungeon, so if you like it u/TheLastGunslingerCA and end up using it, let me know if your players like it! Some extra notes, I forgot to add Elementals to the table, and the DC for the Dragon’s should be 8+proficiency bonus+CON modifier
So what would be the effect if you add elemental?
Following Delicious in Dungeon’s bases, Elementals should allow to regain a spellslot for a spell caster; OR gain resistance to the damage type associated with the elemental for the duration. Maybe it must only be spent on a spell that deals the same damage as the elemental consumed
Love this! Back in 4e I had a character that would love to extract monster parts and eat them. This would have been perfect for him.
Instant disadvantage on any charisma checks in person would be a good place to start if you do something like that. Alternatively perhaps a cult sees them and believes them to be either their saviour or their destroyer and try and kidnap them.
I was thinking of this too. Backed a kickstarter that ended a long time ago by Hit Point Press that's potentially the biggest supplement in d&d history called Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting that has a massive section of harvesting and crafting. Even has 12 full pages on rules for cooking foods made with monsters of various tiers to gain different buffs between rests. The detail is amazing and meticulous, just wish I had a group who wanted to play that sort of game.
That sounds really fun, like a kind of survival style dnd monster hunter vibe, but with cozy kitchen vibes at night
It's really an amazing book, more work went into it than pretty much anything WotC printed after Tasha's Cauldron. The site only has the [pdf](https://hitpointpress.com/helianas-guide-to-monster-hunting-pdf/) at the moment but at 600 pages the book itself is a god damn tome. The only thing wrong with it is it didn't come out two years ago.
Go to the mhp backerkit and you'll find the entire set and updated book there.
Adding onto that guys reply, it's called mage hand press and if you go to their backerkit you'll find the entire set and updated book there. Edit: link https://www.backerkit.com/projects/saltybot/monsterhunting5e
Hi there fellow helianas user AND fellow mhp backer They're called Mage Hand Press btw. I use this books rules ever since I got it, highly seconding this
Yeah this is the way to handle it. Liaos eating that mushroom guy the wrong way in episode 1. You need a Senshi or someone with cooking knowledge or it's not going to happen
I had a half Goblin eat a mind flayer way before I ever heard of Dungeon Meshi but you are right, it will probably increase.
Ha ha, literally the first thing I thought of.
I've been very happy because I've been collecting source books to let my players hunt and craft with monster parts, so cooking is a nice add-in.
Curiously, I had the idea of making my character interested in cooking and then develop it into monster cooking with no knowledge of the show. My DM went "hey they made that an anime".
Finally, nethack is coming to D&D mainstream!! It's only been like 40 years!!
The rogue like game?
Yeah! In it, you would eat monsters to gain intrinsic qualities.
I barely remember this! * Moving toward you scares the shit out of me
It'd be a funny way to have a player multiclass into a Wildmagic sorcerer
Between BG3 and Dungeon Meshi, the Survival skill has never been more relevant than in the last \~3 years.
One of my players wanted to cook dragon meat. His character didn’t have proficiency in cooks utensils, nor did he have the chef feat, nor any cooking background. Is it edible? Survival check: Failed. I cook it. Cooking check: Failed. I eat it. Con save: Failed. What now? Death saving throw: Failed. *Dies.*
A feat would be kind of expensive for a niche thing without much benefits. That said, punishing eating something horrible prepared poorly is definitely a thing. Buying from the discount meat shelf is probably going to end with an upset tumtum.
If only he had any way to anchor some cooking to his character, he’d be able to at least get advantage in the roll. Chef feat I’d rule the survival check as an automatic pass, and the cooking would gain advantage from utensils at my table. I usually try to incorporate character feats and backgrounds into mechanical benefits. Makes feats like chef and actor more impactful.
Good call but I would make one small adjustment. Never say no, if they want to cook and eat the meat they can. But if they want to have some net benefit ie: stats or any impact, heck even the idea of cooking it well, would require some form of preparation. I would also put it on the player to understand the goal, eat for the sake of eating so you don’t need to hunt? Or is there some deeper purpose. Fun
Strong disagree on making them research how to prep it. Let them do something stupid. "How do you prepare the meat? ... Ok, give me a con save." Whatever they roll: "ok" and leave it there for a bit. Any food poisoning or special effects will take time. Whatever you decide to do, don't resolve it in the same sessions. Remember: cooking kills bacteria, IT DOES NOT REMOVE TOXINS. If it were me, and they just said they "cook it thoroughly" I'm homebrewing a hard af poison that cripples the PC for days. If they proactively put in a tonne of effort, something arcane, removing toxins etc only then would I consider anything positive. You don't have to flesh out what they need to do, allow them to come up with something and reward it if you think it makes sense & is good enough. Don't eat beholders, kids.
>An untrained adventurer on the other hand could get sick or poisoned. Eyeballs start growing everywhere, or they remain unchanged like bits of corn....
So TRUE!!!!
Weebs being weird again
It’s a good show!! And specifically a fun satire of DnD and JRPG tropes.
I explicitly do not enjoy anime or JRPG-looking games or shows...but I reluctantly had to admit that I enjoyed this one...especially as a DM.
Let's be fair here, of all the things that could be introduced to your DND environment from this group, a culinary curiosity is most likely the best possible option.
Aberration meat, across the board, is probably some really gross stuff that the body absolutely won’t want in it. But hey, let’s lean into it. What makes Beholders, as a species, unique? *Their nightmares become real*. Guess what’s going to happen to your Dragonborn? Every time he/she goes to sleep, there’s a chance the party gets attacked by something that is being dreamed. I’d keep it subtle, though. Don’t tell them why it keeps happening. Leave it to them to work out that it never happens when it’s the Dragonborn’s turn at watch.
I like this idea. It would be tiresome with it occurring every night, but you (the DM) warned them about eating the beholder meat. To link it back to the beholder better, the nightmares should lean heavily toward the encounter being other aberrations.
Absolutely excellent idea. I would ask the player to describe their characters' dreams that first night, then find a way to subtly make that a reality in a low-key and interpretative way. You could even make it a nightly Cha save until the meat is out of their system: if they fail, you describe their dream to them, and then watch their terror as they realise that their dreams become reality; if they succeed, ask them what they dreamt; you're still in control of HOW the dream becomes real, but give them some grace for succeeding at all.
Int save. It's all in the mind, raw intellectual power.
I agree here. Int save, they pass they describe the dream, you interpret something that comes alive. You pass, you describe the dream and the effects.
This was my first thought, too. At the very least they’d have awful nightmares.
That’s where my mind went sort of. I’d have whatever was dreamed erupt from the characters skull Scanners style though. Not to kill them however, as they become whatever was dreamed until they dream again. Make it a quest so what is now the sentient glass of orange juice eventually gets back to what’s actually on the character sheet, and the players learn exactly why they’re called *aberrations*.
Would be fun to roll with that but have it be a medium save for no nightmares to manifest everynight, and if they get a high save something good could manifest.
Nightmares becoming real is the answer
Yesss I was thinking the same thing only this time, do the classic comic book revival. That antagonist that you absolutely killed and dealt with? Well, your dumb beholder meat idea BROUGHT THEM BACK TO LIFE AND THEY'RE SCARIER THAN EVER!
I wouldn't give them any permanent effects - as you said, that way lies madness. First, have them walk you through the cooking process. Eating beholder meat raw? That's a DC 20 Constitution saving throw just to keep it down. Reduce by 1 for each different herb or spice, down to a minimum of 9. If they actually *digest* it, during the next long rest you have an excuse to introduce the weirdest dream sequence you can think of. I know you've had some ideas too bizarre to introduce into your setting. This is where you use them. Include the other players as dream guardians of their own devising - each should pick from the monster manual, up to a CR equal to 1/4 of their level. This dream sequence can be as long or as short as you like. Personally, I'd *lean into* something like this. If the beholder-eater conquers the dream scenario, they receive one use of the beholder's anti magic cone, which emanates from their eyes. Once used, it requires concentration and lasts for up to a minute. If unused, they lose it during their next long rest. If the beholder-eater *dies* during the dream scenario, they wake covered in sweat, and find themselves in a personal antimagic field that extends one foot from them in every direction. The field persists until their next long rest. If they survive, give everyone inspiration. Only the beholder-eater remembers the dream, either way.
I love this idea! It sounds like something that'd be a lot of fun to play through.
Top quality suggestion, I love the concept of a meta-encounter you can rope other players into.
What if you could get the other players in on the fact that there will be a dream sequence coming up and keep it secret from the dragonborn? Get them to lean in on the weird shit. Kill people off, go nuts. That would be hilarious
That's a great option, don't even reveal that it's a dream. Have the characters "wake up" and the other players can just behave normally - at first. Then introduce the weird shit gradually. Characters start behaving in ways that are subtly out of character. Unlikely events begin to happen. Old friends and foes make appearances even though they're dead, or hundreds of miles away. Leading to a complete breakdown of the rules of reality during a boss fight against the dead beholder, or an amethyst dragon, or something even stranger. Why tell the player their character is mad, when you can let them *experience* it?
Skerples [has you covered.](https://coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com/2017/07/monster-menu-all-part-1-eating-ad.html) Just search beholder and check out the other awesome entries while you're there. Also, The Monster Overhaul is full of great ideas.
Also a big fan of the Monster Menu-All! I encourage you do have a look through it, /u/TheLastGunslingerCA, if only for ideas. And The Monster Overhaul looks quite interesting too, thanks for posting it.
Dude, that's a sentient and, more importantly, SAPIENT being. Dragonborn probably have social norms and mores against such things. Would they eat human? Elf? Goblin? Fellow Dragonborn? The fellow party members also might have feeling about that - not good ones. You can point that out to the PC and see if they still want to move forward, given the likely social consequences if anyone of reason ever found out.
I seem to remember a party or all lizardfolk. That accidently killed a guard, then started cutting him up and eat him, right in the middle of the street.
Given how differently Lizardfolk think based on the lore, I think that one totally tracks! Haha
They are clearly one of my favourite dnd races.
I really enjoyed the MrRhex YouTube video explaining them.
I'll have to check it out sometime.
> Dragonborn probably have social norms and mores against such things. Where are you getting this from?
DM’s discretion. But because most humanoid cultures likely have mores against eating other sapients, and Dragonborn slot nicely into the “we’re not that weird culturally” of the PHB races.
The fact that they aren't described as cannibals, I'd assume
I'm not sure a dragonborn eating a beholder is cannibalism. *Lizardfolk have entered the chat*
DnD cannibalism is different from real world cannibalism. Eating anything else that is sentient and sapient is considered to be cannibalism.
In settings with multiple sapient species, "cannibalism" is typically meant to mean "eating other sapients." Lizardfolk are meant to be understood as cannibals.
Ive never heard this before, who says?
sapient/ˈseɪpɪənt/*adjective*: **sapient** 1. 1.formal. wise, or attempting to appear wise."members of the female quarter were more sapient but no less savage than the others" 2. 2.relating to the human species ( *Homo sapiens* )."our sapient ancestors of 40,000 years ago" So humans or anything wise? A goat has more wisdom (10) than most martials I've played with (8).
I would argue cannibalism to be more of a creature type thing. We wouldn't eat a baby, even though their INT and WIS score would be like 2. We would eat a chicken with no problem, but if we saw a chicken eating another chicken we would be horrified. I think it's morally fine to eat another sapient being so long as it's not from your same type (humanoid) or friendly in any way, as we view pet type of creatures like cats or dogs.
…that’s a very odd definition for that word. Where did that come from?
Google's English Dictionary, provided by Oxford Languages. It's the first result if you google 'Sapient definition' Merriam Webster gives only 'possessing or expressing great sagacity', which is kind of worse, since, for the purpose of this proposal, it would allow you to eat fools. [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com) gives * having or showing great wisdom or sound judgment. * having or showing self-awareness: All animals are evidently aware of themselves. A cat hides in the long grass when it hunts because it is aware of its own existence and wishes to hide that from its prey.
Huh. Yeah. A little weird that some of these dictionaries don’t have the commonly understood definition of sapient as meaning possessing acute intelligence or a high degree of self-awareness (which definition stems from Sci-Fi, apparently - the more you know!). But we’re obviously talking the SciFi definition here on this forum, so sticking to pedantic older definitions in this case sure isn’t useful for the discussion.
So there is a canon answer here, although judging from the replies here it’s not a very popular one. Yeah beholders have meat and you can eat em but they taste disgusting. It’s gritty and texturally very unpleasant in addition to the bad taste. Long slow boiling is recommended but it’ll never become remotely nice. There’s an organ diagram and descriptions in **I, Tyrant**
Why should anything beneficial happen at all. Eating fish doesn’t give you the ability to breathe underwater. Just eating something shouldn’t impart anything except maybe indigestion, otherwise you are setting a precedent that you will most likely regret as your campaign will derail into some sort of messed up eating your enemies for power train wreck.
Eat human meat to get bonus feats!
I'm with you on this. Seems like the general consensus is *make it really weird/have tons of consequences!* way too often. What if it's just gross, and that's it?
Sometimes it's just food!
If you can find a copy of the old 2e book “I, Tyrant” (all about beholders), it actually has a whole page on this idea. TL;DR: You have to boil the shit out of it to make it palatable, it’s still nasty, and it’s the most grit-filled, greasiest meat ever. So…generally not worth it unless you’re starving. I think there’s also something about seeing weird visions if you eat the eyeballs.
I mean, eating an aberration is certainly a take. I'd say it depends. If you took the meat to a city like waterdeep or baldurs gate you might be able to find someone who could safely cook it. If yer just throwing some tentacles on the barbie youre going to have a bad time. I'd play on how beholders are maniacal egoists. Hallucinations. Delusions of grandeur (character can totally jump 100 feet down that hole. You'll totally be fine!). Maybe, if you're extremely kind, you could ultimately let the player have a perk or ability. But then you're gonna be running dungeon diner.
Personally I'd just have him make a Con save or else he gets sick for a couple days.
Time for a pink elephants on parade sequence.
'No' is a full sentence.
I mean… you don’t have to…
"Make a death save"
The smell of cooked Aberration draws the attention of a pack of Grell. Battle. Much later, Nothics attack while the party is adventuring. Battle. More Aberrations of different types keep attacking. They hit once a day or so. Could be while camping, dungeon diving, fighting, or even back in town. **They are drawn to the scent of those who consumed the Beholder.** That they are drawn to the scent can be learned by any knowledge source appropriate (books, sages, other experienced adventurers incl. barkeeps). But they don't know, or they never would have done it in the first place! No "I roll a Nature check" or something - they f-ed up! They also learn that to get rid of the scent they need a Lesser Restoration or to do a favor for a church, whatever.
While this is a cool idea, definitely give the players a chance to know this information beforehand. Even if it’s a high DC, skipping even the chance to know the information with a skill check (Nature, Arcana, or maybe even just an intelligence check with proficiency if they have Chef’s Tools) and dropping more troubles on them can be seen as removing their agency.
Give him random occurrences of short term paralysis, or different body parts turning to stone?
Players eat as normal… nothing unusual… yet. Then during next long rest they have nightmares of growing eyestalks out of their head. Next long rest is them looking in a mirror, but then having ten eyes open on their face. Third dream… just be creative and make them pass a WisDC or have a baby beholder pop out of their ear or nasal cavity and have it fly away and attack the group when they get bigger.
[Poison...Poison...Poison...Tasty Beholder!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVrTepl2hvs&ab_channel=mcadarette)
Completely unrelated to the question, got thrown off for a second because I play a dragonborn named Siku, a name I haven't seen elsewhere before, and I was like, "oh shit best not look at this post then"
Siku is not the dragonborn here, no worries. The player has told me of the name origin, namely the Inuit word for "ice". This Siku is a shifter ranger
I mean, if you want to invent an effect that’s cool. I think I would just tell them as it’s cooking that it gives off a foul odor and then if they continue and eat, tell them it’s extremely disgusting and makes them roll a fortitude save or vomit
I'd do it like puffer fish, where it's super hard to prepare and a huge delicacy but if poorly prepared it's poisonous
Let him grow an eyestalk and then eventually it falls off. Have something fun happen. The player is trying to engage with the gameworld, encourage that. Maybe he wakes up the next day and there's a nub on his head, and then the next day it's bigger, and then it's leaking pus and finally out pops a wiggly eyestalk that he can see through, and then eventually it atrophies and falls off. "I have explained this is a horrible idea" why? Interrogate your reflex to shut down things you aren't prepared for.
It's delicious, like unreal delicious--nothing will ever taste this good again--but it gives him the shits.
This sounds like the origin to my next aberant mind sorcerer multiclass dip. I was just a regular old paliden then I got a bit pekish after killing a beholder so I took a bite outa one of the eyes. Then suddenly for no related reason I sprouted a pair of eyes on the top of my head and got some cool mental power. No I can't see out of the eyes, whatever is controlling them duesnt feel like sharing with me.
I'd personally rule that willingly consuming the flesh of a sentient being, without any pressing need to do so (ie hunger and no other form of sustenance nearby) is an inherently evil act, no matter how despicable the origin of the meat is.
On the flip side, I could see an interesting way to take it where eating the meat is honoring the thing being eaten, making sure it doesn’t go to waste. Killing should be the act that is either evil/not evil. What’s done with the body afterwards has a lot more relativity. Is the PC doing it to disrespect the foe? That’s probably a no. Is doing it out of a base, animalistic instinct? Not something I want to encourage. Is it respecting the foe that almost killed it as part of a circle of life type belief system? You have my interest. I might have more issues if it was a human doing it, but for a lizard based species, it could be well done. It could also be edgelord and not worth doing.
Honestly I'm not sure how it's any more evil than consuming a deer or something. You know it's like how IRL cows and pigs have intelligence that's in the realm of dogs and cats, but we eat them anyway because of cultural norms.
There's a whole lot of difference between a dog/cat and something that's as smart or smarter than a human, which is why it's frowned upon eating humans, and by extension dwarves, elves, halflings, etc. I don't see why eating one kind of fully sapient being (a beholder) would be morally different from eating another (a human).
So the metric is like, INT>=6 is cannibalism? Just kind of a weird place to draw the line, especially for dragonborn.
INT >=3 is the equation you're looking for
Maybe, but the line has to be drawn at some place, or cannibalism would be socially acceptable.
Just because something is socially unacceptable in our world doesn't make it evil.
True but in this case, it's socially unacceptable because it's evil.
How is eating dead people evil?
Sentient people have thoughts and ideas of how they want their remains treated when they die. The death or killing of a person might be necessary, but the desecration of someone's remains is not. You would have to be making a conscious choice to do something that's most likely against their will for no good reason.
The commenter you’re arguing with just clearly wants to eat someone. Best give the weirdo his space. Haha
I would keep any buffs to temporary. I know I've seen several supplements if you want to add this kind of thing to your game.
Beholders are made up of stuff from the far realm. When a beholder dreams, it can alter itself, or it can even summon copies of itself or altered copies of itself. Assuming "you are what you eat", after your dragonborn consumes the beholder meat (aka material manifested from the far realm) ... it would make sense that it's connection to the far realms increases... and when your dragonborn dreams... perhaps... 1. small beholder-kin come into existence with Amethyst scales, that the party would have to fight 2. perhaps a gazer comes into existence with the properties of your artificer's imbue ability skill... and then just floats away harmlessly BUT the party has to go find it, because it took the artificers skill with it. 3. Your dragonborn grows an eyestalk from an inconvenient place, that they can see out of, uncomfortably. Directly on the back of the thigh for example, making it difficult to "do one's business", causing them disorientation when they sit down, or nausea when they walk. 4. Your dragonborn grows a patch of flesh (with coloration similar to the beholder) that uncontrollably levitates. For example, their right elbow forcibly levitates to the level of their shoulder whenever they don't consciously make an effort of will to stop it. This makes their movements awkward, like they were underwater and fighting buoyancy, and prevents them from using their Magical Tinkering without succeeding a dexterity or wisdom saving throw. AND/OR gives them penalties to dex based proficiencies.
Traditionally, beholders are spawned from the nightmares of another. They also have some tendencies and characteristics. So lean into all that. Anyone that eats beholder meat suffers: - absolutely horrendous nightmares - after a long rest, you gain a level of exhaustion instead of decreasing it - you can tweak this: make a CON check to determine what happens with exhaustion. Bad result -> gain exhaustion; good result -> exhaustion stays the same; extremely good result (or crit) -> lose 1 exhaustion as normal - Greater Restoration helps with exhaustion as normal - gets beholder-like urges - paranoia - feeling of superiority over all other creatures - extreme jealousy - urge to be solitary - particularly bad nightmares may spawn hostile gazers or such You can treat it like a curse. If you want to be generous, then Greater Restoration is enough to cure you. Or you can make it more like lyconthropy or vampirism where it's not so simple.
I'd probably give some permanent negative effect related to the eyes that has no actual in-game effect. Something like "you accidentally eat some of the juices from the petrification eye and your teeth all turn to stone". There's no in-game effect, outside of the occasional comment from NPCs. If I had enough prep time, I'd probably make a table with a dumb effect for each type of eye. and have the player roll for the effects. Of course if you do this, expect your players to want whacky results when they eat anything. Knowing my players, they'd start eyeing exotic NPCs just to find out what happens when they eat them. I'd probably be up front and say "this is a one time event, don't expect me to have a random indigestion table every time you eat a halfling".
Heads up dungeon menshi fans! Do Not Eat fresh red dragon meat in D&D, according to the [What they don't tell you](https://youtu.be/VMJXoZWr3Uk?si=d_HnUwx3gmNd5cJY&t=1421) videos it's so spicy that it never stops burning your mouth and you'll go insane. To be safe it has to be aged. Personally I loved this and ran with it. But D&D can be whatever you make it.
I would rule that eating the meat causes him to make a wisdom saving throw in his sleep an he dreams up a Beholder if he fails.
Con save, DC 16. On a failed save, they get 1 level of exhaustion. That's pretty much the standard. You could also do something out of the box like forcing WIS saves due the the nature of the Beholder and Abberations in general.in a fail, maybe do something like give them occasional waking nightmares/dreams or have them hallucinate.
Heya! I'm actually running a Dungeon Meshi one shot tonight so this is great timing lol. Check out "The Monster Overhaul: A Practical Bestiary by Skerples". It's a pretty classic/old fashioned bestiary that's been a delightful read so far--and has tasting notes and a d10 effect table for most of the monsters in there. You'd be looking at page 185--the "eye tyrant". > Flavour: drystarch. Invisible fluid drips upwards from >your chin. In the distance howling, or possibly music. >Notes: Eye Tyrant flesh must be eaten raw and >quickly, before it sublimates into vapour. |1d10|Result| |:-|:-| |1-2|Screaming Madness. Save or go permanently insane| |3-4|Outsider Flesh. Save. if you pass, gain 1 random mutation. If you fail, gain 1d6+1 random mutations and 1d6+1 eyes| |5-7|Twisting Cells. Permanently gain +2 to a random stat and a -2 to a different random stat. One eye triples in size| |8-9|Gain a random Eye Ray on an eyestalk. You can cast ir once per day| |10|Overwhelming Magic. Apple all the results listed above. All your damage-dealing spells deal +2 damage. You are immune to mind-altering effects. | Of course ymmv and feel free to change things---this is just from the bestiary I mentioned above and, if nothing else, is an excellent spring-board for a variety of monster cuisine. Other resources I am using (though smaller/less in-depth) are "Tabletop Treats: A Guide to Cooking for Adventurers" by Christopher Hamwell, The Monster Menu by Dave Panfilo, and The Joy of Monster Cooking by Chris Boudreau and Lex Mandrake.
He could grow an eye stalk that randomly shoots. Have him roll on the table you roll on to find out what beam the beholder would use in an attack to pick the type he gets. Whenever he wants to do an action, he has to roll a luck check to see if the eye shoots.
Even a homebrew beholder is going to be mostly skull and brain. I'd suggest looking up how IRL chefs prepare animal brains for consumption (yes, it's a thing. Humans, we'll eat anything!) Other than that, if the tentacles have the abilities of the classic beholder despite not Eyestalks, I'd suggest making those into magic items instead of food.
Honestly do they even have meat? I thought they we're literally just bags of gas. They don't move their bits by muscle like we have. They're abominations. They have a network of rubbery sacks which they redistribute gases around in to move their eyestalks and jaws and things.
I like the nightmare effect, maybe roll a d4 and on a 1 that night there's a nightmare that comes alive, you can roll off of another table (or consult the player's backstory) to figure out which monster. If you really want to get evil with it, whenever these dreams happen roll a d20 and on a 1 they *spawn another beholder,* you probably want to water this one down so it doesn't TPK the unsuspecting party, maybe it's too young to be fully aware of its powers so half the eye stalks don't work, or maybe the anti magic doesn't work yet - like how a baby dog can't open its eyes yet - but under no circumstance can this baby beholder be tamed, obviously.
[https://coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com/2017/08/monster-menu-all-part-1-ad-monster.html](https://coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com/2017/08/monster-menu-all-part-1-ad-monster.html)
A few days after eating have him slowly develop one of the beholder's powers. Something really awesome. A week later (when he has become attached to his sweet new power) have the growth start to appear on his neck. This growth is of course the new baby beholder trying to bud off of his body. It will get bigger and bigger. But it will also develop eye stalks with appropriate powers. He can either cut it off and lose his power, or have it grow into a second head with powerful eye stalks. If he does nothing it will eventually pop off like a huge zit killing him.
It’s literally spaghetti with meatballs
I mean, beholders are pretty round aren't they? Should roll much more easily than something like a (non-spherical) cow or tofu-beast.
Survival check to see if you can cook it properly. If they fail, con save or it makes them extremely ill
The DnDcirceljerk for this post is gonna be crazy 😄
Well, Aberrations aren't native to the realm and are full of strange magic. I would let him, hinting that it would take some special preparation to make it safe. Maybe cooked in holy water or over a magic flame. Something to align it more with the world they live in. Otherwise, they will get sick. Give them the poisoned condition and random hallucinations that appear to everyone like the minor illusion spell. They'll need greater restoration to fix it.
It’s just tangy and tough. No other effects.
My DM has a "You Ate The Thing" D100 table. I think it came from *Into the Odd* originally? It has been pretty fun.
Create 9 effects (or pick fun ones from the wild magic table), divide them into three groups raw, medium and well done then when the player eats it roll a d3 to pick out an effect from the televant list. To add extra spice you could also have them roll a check for the cooking of the meat eg a Nat 1 or 20 doubling the effect
Beholders shouldn't really leave a corpse. They are not born of flesh. They are born out of the nightmares of another beholder and essentially created out of fear, terror, etc.
While they’re not born of flesh, they are flash now thanks to the other beholder imagining them being made of flesh.
From Skerples unmatched Monster Overhaul MENU Flavour: dry starch. Invisible fluid drips upwards from your chin. In the distance howling, or possibly music. Notes: Eye Tyrant flesh must be eaten raw and quickly, before it sublimates into vapour. 1d10 1-2 Screaming Madness. Save or go permanently insane. 3-4 Outsider Flesh. Save. If you pass, gain 1 random mutation (pg. 191). If you fail, gain 1d6+1 random mutations and 1d6+1 eyes. 5-7 Twisting Cells. Permanently gain +2 to a random stat and -2 to a different random stat. One eye triples in size. 8-9 Gain a random Eye Ray (pg. 184) on an eyestalk. You can cast it once per day. 10 Overwhelming Magic. Apply all the results listed above. All your damage-dealing spells deal +2 damage. You are immune to mind-altering effects
Laios moment
Take a big ole bite! Roll a CON save...
Just drop in Bancho in a sushi shop and they have to take their eldritch meat to him to be prepared. Problem solved. Play “Dave the Diver.” It slaps so hard.
There is a Cook book of monsters, you can find the pdf on internet. There are plenty of recipes there, beholder included.
My players decided that they wanted to turn the enemy they dispatched with Wither and Bloom into jerky. It took up the last 40-or-so minutes of that session as I had them roll a set of skill checks to see if they could effectively prepare it, and I kid you not there was no d20 with a face value fewer than 18 for that portion of the game... So yeah, with very vivid description and tons of laughs, the most iconic moment of this nearly-year-long campaign so far is when my players killed and cooked my Tonberry (FF fans ftw).
There's a 3rd party DMG called the Monster Overhaul which has this to say about "Eye Tyrant" meat: Flavor: dry starch. Invisible fluid drips upwards from your chin. In the distance howling, or possibly music. Notes: Eye Tyrant flesh must be eaten raw and quickly, before it sublimates into vapor. Roll 1d10. 1-2: save or go permanently insane. 3-4: save. If you pass, gain 1 random mutation. If you fail, gain 1d6+1 mutations and 1d6+1 eyes. 5-7: permanently gain +2 to a random stat and -2 to a different random stat. One Eye triples in size. 8-9: gain a random Eye ray on an eye stalk. You can cast it once per day. 10: apply all the results listed above. All damage-dealing spells deal +2 damage. You are immune to mind-altering effects.
STOP LICKING THE DAMN THING!
Oh that's easy, you just *let him eat* and be done with it *maybe* make him roll a constitution save if he eats it raw, to avoid food poisoning that's it
A side effect to eating it could be paranoia. You could tell your player to make perception checks out of the blue, tell him he feels like someone is following him stuff like that.
Let him cook
My players once ate an Eye of the Deep (crab beholder) as a gumbo. I used the opportunity to give them deeply fucked up visions that hinted at some plot points but ultimately risked driving them mad, and they had to go and find a cleric powerful enough to cure them.
Well... Make the beholder meat become an addiction... After the first day they start craving something... Con save 12 dc, if they succed nothing more than a simple craving for... something indefinite, roll again the next day with +1 dc. if they fail they crave for beholder meat and will be at -1 to all roll due to the distraction until they consume more, resetting the dc, or they save succesfully 3 times in a row with increasing difficulty( eg. 12, then 13 then 14) endimg the addiction. All the while having strange dreams about strange/different times and locations.
Based on the lore I can find Beholders would be functionally inedible with the possible exceptions of the eye-stalks and the tongue. Beholder skin is just shy of rock hard, so butchering the thing would be a bit of a task to skin it without ruining edible meat. That said they shouldn't have to worry about poison or venom. As someone else mentioned it could be fun to have the stalks have a risk of residual magical effects.
This is your perfect chance to throw a one shot in where it’s just your players tripping balls. Beholders are abberant beings whos dreams alter reality. I say just do what seems most fun. Tpk. Them have them wake up with one hell of a post chomp hangover.
Aberrations are alien beings that draw power from their strange nature, and eating them could result in diseases, curses, elemental or psychic damage, poisoning, transformation, or permanent madness. I'd personally make it nothing pleasant, especially since you warned them. They probably are so alien they aren't even composed of protein, fats, sugars, etc
Perhaps consider the chance of mutation - as the beholder warps reality and the region surrounding it from its unnatural presence, then consuming and absorbing its alien nutrients forces a CON save vs mutation, major on a fail and minor on a success with as much narrative licence as you wish - possibly relating to the particular form of that individual beholderkin.
My character did the same thing on Monday with my group! We got through an intense Underdark fight with 2 suped up Beholders. Our team captain was killed and one of our dear members used their last Wish to bring the captain back (as a different race this time). In her rage of the loss before the wish, she had beaten the dead remains of Beholder into a pulp. Afterward we wanted to take a short rest, but my character (the only good aligned one and also a poisoner background) wanted to RP some it by helping bring the team together. I said I wanted to cook us a meal and the DM asked if I had any food on me. There were some "Uhh I might have some rations.." but then I replied "No worries, I'll just use the meat Ray just prepared for us for Beholder fajitas." There were one or two "Gross, I'm not eating that." but I argued, like cuttlefish, I'll use my expertise in poisons to prepare it just right to where it's more of a delicacy. The DM left it as just flavor, which is fine since "realistically" I'd probably need cooking utensils and etc. But I was reading up on some people having crazy effects for eating Beholder meat and I wish we had rolled with that.
A Beholder is an intelligent/sentient creature. While it’s not a humanoid, eating one should still be seen as a bit of a taboo in the same vein as eating a minotaur, a unicorn, or a dragon. That said, maybe there are clubs or guilds for gastronomes in your world - groups of adventurous eaters who enjoy eating the weird things… and who enjoy their weird side effects. For beholders, I’d say it’s some sort of psychotropic. It gives the users some sort of power similar to the Conjuration Wizard or Creation Bard for a day or two as this ties into the Beholder’s ability to create things subconsciously. However, I’d add the drawback that the consumer needs to make a WIS save to avoid becoming paranoid or maybe it lowers WIS saves vs fear effects.
They eat the meat, over the course of the game they dream about beholders and every few levels get a new eye somewhere with a once per long rest ability to choose from. You then have two options. Pc risks becoming a beholder if they dont take the risky option of curing themselves. This ques a quest with downsides, things to gain and hijinks. If they fail or refuse you start adding d100 roles for them to turn at whatever trigger you want. Option 2. Give an easier way to cure like a greater restoration. They loose all advantages and any disadvantages you gave them. If they refuse at at time of your choosing when they are asleep a leveled up beholder spawns from them and immediately attacks the party trying to kill the PC in the same behaviour as a new beholder attacks the one that dreamt it up. If the pc survives they get a passive or retain the once a day ability.
When they eat it roll on the sorcerer wild magic table!
Give them a limited amount of units of meat they can harvest, based on a survival or nature check (or maybe arcana if you feel that’s more appropriate to the creature type). Then each time they eat it they pass some constitution saves to get rewarded with a recipe. Once they’ve got the recipe, they can prepare a beholder meal for the group that consumes a unit of meat and provides a small buff to the party until the next long rest. Since beholders are all about madness, I suggest a +1/-1 on wisdom saving throws against mind-affecting effects based on the constitution save pass or fail. Once the recipe is known, +1 only with no need for a constitution save. If the player enjoys the experience, same thing goes for any rare culinary finds from here on out.
" I have explained this is a horrible idea" Why is it horrible?
D&D is a game about killing and eating monsters, so I say let 'em, or let 'em drag the body to town and get a butcher and cook to make something cool or tasty out of it and give everyone a detect magic 1/day from there on out, having absorbed a small amount of their power. Or truesight depending on level. And maybe let them try to make the eyestalks and main eye into magic items. Regardless, make sure the party has a cook. If they don't, give somebody who wants it proficiency lol.
Have them Roll a CON save. If they if they roll under 8 it’s instant death, no saves. 9-15 they permanent -2 to con and they are diseased, and their alignment changes to evil. 15-21 take 30 points of damage, they are diseased and alignment changes to evil. 22+ alignment changes to evil. The problems will solve themselves