Why bother with a beholder miniature?
The beholder is one of the most iconic creatures from the Dungeons and Dragons universe, to the point where it is the featured monster on the cover of the 5th edition Monster Manual. If a monster is the featured creature on the Monster Manual, it’s a safe bet that you are going to need a miniature of it for the game. It’s pretty unlikely that they are going to put an obscure creature on their cover. This Aberration is ridiculously popular, and isn’t going away any time soon.
What about this mini?
It’s a nice sculpt, a really fun pose. This unpainted miniature is on a large base, like beholders are supposed to be, which makes me content. It is from WizKids‘ Nolzur’s Magnificent Miniatures range: Beholder #73196 and/or #90194. The two product numbers seem to be for identical minis, but the first number is the old one, and the second number is the newer one. It’s possible that there is a difference between them, but if there is, I couldn’t spot it. I have no complaints with this miniature- it is a great sculpt and is perfect for terrifying the party.
How useful is this mini, really?
Beholders are included in 20 published Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition books:
- Candlekeep Mysteries
- Deck Of Many Things
- Explorer’s Guide To Wildemount
- Ghosts Of Saltmarsh
- Journeys Through The Radiant Citadel
- Keys From The Golden Vault
- Monster Manual
- Out Of The Abyss
- Phandelver And Below: The Shattered Obelisk
- Planescape: Adventures In The Multiverse
- Spelljammer: Adventures In Space
- Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide
- Tales From The Yawning Portal
- Tasha’s Cauldron Of Everything
- Tomb Of Annihilation
- Van Richten’s Guide To Ravenloft
- Volo’s Guide To Monsters
- Waterdeep: Dragon Heist
- Waterdeep: Dungeon Of The Mad Mage
- Xanathar’s Guide To Everything
When a miniature is featured in nearly half of the published books, it’s a safe bet that you will be needing to get a copy of it, especially if you are playing the published campaigns. Even if you homebrew like I do, it is going to be a great villain. Beholders like to send spies and minions into areas to mess with the political systems of a region, so they make really good long-term baddies, where you don’t even realise that it is a beholder messing with things. They really are great creatures. So many good options with beholders.
But why are you doing this?
As usual for these videos, my aim is to provide good views of the miniatures featured along with accurate sizing information for them. As I already pointed out, the beholder miniature is on a large size base as it should be. In addition I would like to thank the wildlife artist Sherrie York, the reduction linocut artist extraordinaire, for graciously allowing me to use one of her reduction linocuts, Shivano Sunset, as the backdrop for my miniatures in the video. Check out her other reduction linocuts; she is probably the best linocut artist of our time.