D&D Monsters: Beholders

The beholder is, perhaps, the single most iconic monster in D&D - the one creature that, more than any other, says "this is D&D" rather than some other fantasy setting. That's largely due to its unique appearance, which is quite unlike anything that exists in myth or legend or, indeed, in prior fiction. It was created, not by Gygax, but by one of the players in his original campaign, first appearing in a supplement for 0E, and has successfully stood the test of time ever since.

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1E

As originally shown, the beholder is a spherical creature covered in irregular, flat, "chitinous" plates. A wide mouth occupies much of the lower half and is lined with small pointed teeth similar to those of reptiles. There is a single large lidless eye above the mouth and ten much smaller eyestalks arranged in a ring around the upper surface. The latter are protected by segmented chitin and have also have lidless eyes, similar to those of a snail or slug, although the eyestalks presumably aren't retractable. Severing the eyestalks doesn't otherwise hurt the creature, which suggests that it's able to shut off the blood supply to a severed stalk - or perhaps that it doesn't have blood. There are no other visible features, such as nostrils.

DW Monsters: Cybermen

Mk V

The Cybermen are surely second only to the Daleks as iconic Doctor Who monsters. It also seems to me that they are most significant such race that could be described as “humanoid”, and so are arguably overdue for an appearance here in my list of key races in that category.

This one, by the way, is going to be a long post. There’s a lot to cover!

Note: Since I started this series of posts, Cubicle 7 have announced a 5E version of their existing Doctor Who RPG. I'll continue posting my 5E interpretation of stats here, at least for the time being. Although it's likely they'll be very different from the "official" versions, not least because there will presumably be some difference in the fine details of the systems, these posts do at least include my reasoning.

Appearances

The Cybermen have the distinction of being the first “monster” other than the Daleks to appear in more than one story. They are also the oldest of the races in my pick of the top seven humanoid monsters, dating back all the way to the First Doctor’s era and his final story The Tenth Planet. Frequently re-invented since that first appearance, they appear no less than four times in the Second Doctor’s era (whereas the Daleks only appear twice). The Third Doctor is the only classic-era Doctor not to have a TV story featuring them, with Doctors Four to Seven having one major Cyberman story each, not counting their brief appearance in The Five Doctors. Skipping the Eighth and Ninth Doctors because of their short runs, every modern Doctor from Ten onwards has faced them. In total, that’s 23 stories featuring Cybermen as more than brief clips or mentions.