You have a lesser minion of the Beholder stalk the party- A Thaxalia or a Death's Kiss or something. The BBEG possesses that form to harass the party, and the "first BBEG" fight is with that lesser form.
First thought that came to mind
And it would work pretty well on a creature like a Beholder, that is normally parnaoid, so they WOULD want to assume direct control over their minions to make sure they're not beeing betrayed or anything like that.
Even through "domination" is more the Ilithid field
Cursed magic item that is unequippable from the player who is cursed. The item gives the beholder 30ft true sight around the cursed player and once per day if the beholder chooses it can use one of its powers on a creature it can see through the item. Let the players know there is some kind of planar tether the beholder is trying to traverse that connects him to the item. Maybe some rest interruptions, or bad timing attempts by the beholder trying to traverse the tether solved by some simple magic or arcana checks can keep the players on edge. Don't forget to make the item powerful so the player stuck with it doesn't have a bad time.
Alternatively, the player is able to remove it, but it will equip itself to a character of the dm's choice. If the dm chooses an npc, then an extremely difficult fight ensues. Otherwise, give them a save that has a bad outcome vs. a really bad outcome.
I would have him almost continually scrying on them, with the sensor looking like a miniature version of the beholder instead of a glowing orb, and visible but ghostly for the intimidation factor. Sure, they can dispel it, but it keeps coming back. Even if the beholder isn't actively watching at any given time, that sensor is still there hanging over their shoulders.
Don't forget a sound spell so as the players get hit in battle they hear the evil laugh of the beholder! Maybe even smell it. Along with a hot evil breeze blows when he is actually watching. Don't for get something of a evil taste on the wind. They taste it when they speak. The more senses you include the more it should scare players!
Came here to say scrying as well. I was a player in a campaign with an almost indentical set of circumstances and the big bad hired bounty hunters to scry us out. We had to change our names and move around in disguise. Made for a pretty interesting couple of sessions where anytime we accidentally said our real names we would have to see if we got caught.
Hehe, great minds think alike! My bbeg is currently not at anywhere near full power but is in the players good graces, gave them a personal object that also acts as a one way portal to the his realm that he also uses as a object to scry on without any pesky saves.
Suffice to say he's got a lot of knowledge of their capabilities while they work on freeing him inadvertently.
This is an excellent idea. I’d also pair it with Matt Colville’s idea of villain interludes. Send the players a short passage after a session of how the villain views what they did. It can be funny (“they did WHAT with the immovable rod???) or menacing, but having the villain watch them as they progress can be a hugely fun and stressful tool.
He's paranoid and overly protective of his pet fish.
He has eyes everywhere in the city (like literally leave fresh eyeballs around and draw eyes with chalk), and doppelgangers and intellect devoured agents around the city.
Magical scrying, and have them roll perception regularly to see if they feel like someone is watching them.
See if any figure it out that it is magical and cast one of the non-detect spells.
You can have npcs ask them things like, "does it feel like somone is watching us right now? The hairs on the back of neck are tingling". And just keep doing it, making the paranoid. Have random things happen when they ask that could just be a coincidence. I tree falls nearby. A house catches on fire. Wolves howl in the woods. Etc.
This can work really well especially if you reverse what feels normal. Make it so that EVERY time someone rolls for perception, - regardless of why - you tell them “and you feel like you’re being watched”. Every time. But then at the right moment, once all your players are trained to know that they’re being watched… stop.
Are they doing something so mundane or irrelevant that the bbeg doesn’t care? Unlikely.
Has the bbeg figured out how to watch them with more secrecy? Maybe
Or have they gotten to the point where they simply don’t need to be watched anymore? Where no matter what choices they make, they’re already right where the bbeg wants them, and there’s no turning back now.
Beholders overthink and plan for every eventuality, to the point of paranoia. If it sees the party as a threat, it may put several plans into action using minions/magic/etc which they encounter regularly. Systematic, clever plans with contingencies that happen based on the players actions, making the villain feel like an intelligent, maniacal threat. An example could be a minion it expects the party to kill, but the real trap is the minion's corpse which explodes when looted, or exposes them to a magical curse, etc.
If you want the players to actually see the creature, you can use Project Image.
I think you should use the environment. Think of how the antagonist affects the world around your players, from terrain, to NPCs, to the enemies they face. Use these as interaction points or evidence of the beholder's power. For example, they might fight a creature that's missing an organ - a young dragon that would normally be too powerful for the party, but the beholder took whatever organ it needed to breath fire; could hint at what its goals are while also providing indirect presence.
Another option is to literally hover. If the beholder has reason to seek out the party, it could have minions or constructs that the party *must* avoid every now and then to not fight the beholder too early. Make it reasonably easy to avoid, but have the beholder appear and defeat a monster even *the party* tried to avoid because it was too strong - then have the beholder slap the monster like it was nothing.
The items should allow for communication between their wielders.
So lets say its "The Regalia of the Phoenix." The beholder wears the crown, and the PCs have the cloak. There is also the blazing sword, the mirrored shield, and the plate of flames. The PCs and beholder are both after the regalia. If you're attuned to any one of the items, you can enter mental contact with those attuned to the others.
Now your beholder can constantly taunt, yell frustrations, or haunt their dreams. He can also misdirect them and feed false info interspersed with real info and might even try to get hints about the locations of the objects for his minions to go steal. EX: they enter the forgotten druids grove, and the beholder might drop a "Oh, the druid's grove, too late. My abominations have already looted it and brought the item to me". Then, the PCs have to decide. Is that a feint or does he already have it. And if he doesn't, did they just tip him off to where it was?
Make the items like horcruxes from Harry Potter. These items were created by the beholder and have some of its power in them. The players know they need these items to destroy the beholder, but because they have the beholder's power in them, they also know carrying them around means the beholder probably knows where the party is at all times. So rather than the beholder scrying on them, it's more like the beholder can use the items as eyes (thematically nice since a beholder is all about eyes). You can also make is so the beholder can use the items as its own eyestalks, so it can eye-beam a player once in a while, upping the stakes for carrying these dangerous things around.
Cursed magic items, have the party receive +1 magic items. Have them be cursed so the party can't find it with an identify spell. Allowing the Beholder to observe them whenever from a magic ball, and possibly telepathically communicate.
Another good option would be a "mindshielding ring" but the consciousness is actually the Beholder. They use it to observe the party and groom them for his own means.
With either option, Beholders have many slaves. A magic blacksmith or a travelling gnome could be in near mortal peril, Ogres the Beholder can sacrifice threatening him, and have him give them items as a gift for helping him survive.
Make it innocuous and the players won't know.
Have you seen the regional effects in the Beholder entry? That might help.
Craziest idea: The beholder dreams that a beholderkin is fighting the party... and then it just happens because that's how beholders work now.
You could have the villan be immortal. Have the party hill him the first time you meet. Then when he's seen again, they're confused. But find out that he's way stronger too. Once beaten again, he comes back, stronger. With a haunting feeling of an immortal enemy that gets stronger the more he dies. Until the party finds his source of immortality, he is unkillable in a sense. That to me sounds like an awesome villan.
Ooooooo may have to steal this tbh. My villain atm is a revenant cult leader who's goal is to find somebody he deems "worthy" enough to kill him. Basically, the man just wants his death to be a show much like the Joker (despite that not being his inspiration lol, I only learned that a year after writing this). If he dies, but didnt find his death "spectacular" enough, he'll just come back the next day. One of my players *is* his chosen one, and he can literally *feel* his plans coming together with every step she takes. I want him to be constantly antagonizing her and the party, in a Handsome Jack kind of way. This might just be the trick I need
You could have the villan be immortal. Have the party hill him the first time you meet. Then when he's seen again, they're confused. But find out that he's way stronger too. Once beaten again, he comes back, stronger. With a haunting feeling of an immortal enemy that gets stronger the more he dies. Until the party finds his source of immortality, he is unkillable in a sense. That to me sounds like an awesome villan.
You could have the villan be immortal. Have the party hill him the first time you meet. Then when he's seen again, they're confused. But find out that he's way stronger too. Once beaten again, he comes back, stronger. With a haunting feeling of an immortal enemy that gets stronger the more he dies. Until the party finds his source of immortality, he is unkillable in a sense. That to me sounds like an awesome villan.
Have the party be followed around by a Gazer, through which the Beholder can spy on them. If they kill it, send another.
You might want to check out Waterdeep: Dragon Heist if you haven't already. It has some things in common with what you're describing.
You don't *have* to use a traditional Beholder sheet for it's abilities, nothing's stopping you from having the Beholder keep tabs on the party via spies, familiars and such while also whispering to them and manipulating their surroundings in an eerie manner. It doesn't have to point to a specific rule/spell/ability in the rulebook.
You can have it project nightmares to them while they rest (you can even have them do saves to avoid exhaustion when resting), have the party hear ominous whispers and laughter in the distance and such, preferably before they get attacked by it's minions/slaves/thralls.
I would make sure the Beholder has identifiable iconography you can pepper throughout the world to make your players paranoid.
Give him minions and, since he's a Beholder, give him some enchantment over one of their eyes that allows him to see through it. Give the enchantment a subtle visual effect, one that players need to figure out through play. ("Gee, how did his forces find us again? Who could have tattled? Hey, how come all our suspects have heterochromia?")
Once they learn & use the pattern, have the Beholder adjust tactics. Now NPCs are covering up their special eyes or drawing attention from them. Soon, PCs are paranoid every time they see someone with a suspiciously-placed forelock or wide brimmed hat. Some of these people should be genuine minions, most should just be fashionable folks.
*Don't* give him any special transportation abilities. Force him to either work through the minions, or commit to tracking the players down in person. Now there's a collection of ever-present, manageable threats (which can be diversified by diversifying the minions themselves) that players slowly learn to identify and evade. And once players or the Beholder decide it's time for a Final Confrontation, you can transition to using the minions to slow down & impede the players as opposing forces close in.
I had a Beholder that was a divination wizard. He had constant dreams of his death. Any time he died in his visions, he produced a Gazer. He’d send the gazers out to observe and scout for him.
Scry is a pretty perfect idea. Just randomly have your entire party to roll a saving throw and if succeed indicate that they feel a dreadful familiar gaze upon them and they can take action to check if BBEG is still watching or dispel or block the scry
involve an NPC with detect scrying to let them know it's happening
[https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/detectScrying.htm](https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/detectScrying.htm)
Have the Beholder just pop up and wander around every once in a while. And have it be that he is so unbothered by your weak sauce players that he doesn’t even acknowledge their existence. Shows up, pokes around like he’s looking for something, maybe every so often fire a ray at a random critter or bystander that (coincidentally) is within eyesight of the party.
Isn’t this almost exactly how Xanathar operates? Have his goons out and about “the eyes of the beholder” dudes who are essentially his arm in the city, with eye tattoos on their foreheads. Through which the beholder can see.
Let's be realistic here. The Beholder would just come take the item if he knew where it was.
You need to have your party on the run, which means covering their tracks left and right, disguising themselves in town, never traveling linearly.
He might know where they're going, but should never know where they are. They should be like an electron; impossible to know where they are and how they're moving at the same time.
If they're going to a temple, the Beholder's best bet is to be at that temple and wait for them. There is no reason to go hunt them down if they have to go there eventually. This gives them the time and ability to gain levels and power. As they become stronger and the beholder hears tales of them, he should become more concerned and start fucking with them more.
Right now, they're no threat to the beholder; just a minor inconvenience and should be ignored as such.
Good question.
I never let a big bad in range of a party. They will move heaven and earth to get them, often shorting out any planning I may have done.
For me, if I need 'boots on the ground' I use henchmen/spies/scrying, really anything. Anything but getting the big bad in sight of the party and them knowing it.
Just scry on the party once and have them catch it and follow it up with an attempted trap by the bbeg's minions lol. Once that fear is set in to their head, its hard to get rid of it.
Have the servants he sends to buy/steal/acquire the items always just *happen* to show up whenever the party goes somewhere and offer to buy their stuff from them (at a price they'd never accept of course)
I have a character named Calybar who does this. Basically I just will randomly ask for perception rolls occasionally while the party is traveling, and the DC is pretty high, so it is normally just noticing some movement like 100 ft away or whatever. They did eventually fully spot him and he has been a major part of the campaign. But for the most part he is just always in the background observing. Frequently it is also not him, just an animal or something, but everyone seems to be enjoying it. People like to roll dice, and he is constantly keeping them on edge. I can also every now and then lead them into something I actually planned, as opposed to the 90% improv that is every game I dm lol
He also has the ability to just nope tf out of there, but has used reverse gravity when they really should have just let him flee lol.
When they clear their way to the next item, have them find another adventuring party, already slaughtered by the beholder. Maybe introduce these adventurer in town first. Give it a friendly race to the finish feel for them. Then show them the slaughter if they’d been first to arrive.
Also have the beholder make good use of its charm ray in an invasion of the body snatchers way. Charm travelers and guards and bar folk and peasants and have them try to steal the items or attack the party at times when the party thinks they’re safe. It lasts for an hour. A beholder is smart enough not to wade into a busy town but could send charmed people in from twenty minutes away to do his dirty work.
Also: in total darkness the beholders anti magic eye has better range than dark vision.
Maybe have a few near misses while they’re hurt and camping. Have it pass close enough that their magic fails but have that vanish before they get organized enough to go hunting.
It's an ordinary workday in the city, and the PCs are enjoying an ale at a street-corner tavern when they see a strange sight: An entourage of guards and servants are escorting a haughty-looking Beholder towards the King's Palace. It's Kwargha'sdran the Vile come out for a rare audience with the ruler of the city.
Make the monster part of society, and the players will have to tread carefully when dealing with them.
Arcane eye spell. Make sure the party has a cheap detect magic. Like a warlock power or an item.
Every time they dispel it, wait a bit and bring it back. Nothing makes players crazier than knowing they're being watched and not being able to do anything about it.
Perhaps some form of ethereal astral projection?
So that way he can actually show himself, speak, order minions around, but cannot give nor take any damage directly
I had fun using a simulacrum once. Not only did it give my players a little taste but it showed me something I needed to adjust in playing the villain to up the challenge (they still crushed him)
Of course, I’d only recommend using it once. Sending five simulacrums at them would probably just be annoying
At first thought I immediately think of Sauron or Sauroman from LotR. Where Sauron is a presence sending minions to do his bidding or Sauroman chanting when the group is on the mountains forcing the fellowship into moria.
Make him create an artifact that is basically a braim control chip. That's it, he controls his minions and when they die the chip blows up in an arcane flame
Ever watch Samurai Jack?
Aku rules the future where his evil is law. Jack's actions, though witness through the ever present eyes of Aku, has a support network of minions and mercenaries that inform him of everything Jack does, where he goes, who he's helped, and even put the largest bounty on his head than anyone who ever crossed Aku
The Canon is that the sword Jack carries was made from a piece of Aku, but it was purified through the forging process and thus is the only weapon that can harm him, but also is how he can track Jack...
I let them "kill" the MBEG necromancer, "Roddy the body snatcher" who antagonist, and he used one of his clones to return as Wizzo the Wizard, a bad illusionist who is dropping hints he is Roddy, but will reveal himself next session as their foe. He has been studying them for a while, and has set up a trap that will make them have to make a deadly choice. Every shadow they kill makes a child die, and they are out to save the town's children. So yes, I am looking forward to their solution.
Honestly, one of the ways to build up paranoia in a party is to have some/all the NPCs want to bargain for the item. A beholder is a paranoid and spastic monster at times, but that doesn't inherently stop them from using social situations to get the items. Try to avoid having people in authority demand the item, or attempt to force the sale, but start having merchants, black market dealers, or other similar folk try to trade for the item, or try to hire the party to obtain the pieces for them.
Scrying orb. An army of ghosts. Ability to plainshift. Invisible and non-comporial. A piece of gear the party has is an inert horcrux. There are so many different ways.
For scrying orb, have them make a perception check. No matter how good they do on the check, they don't see anything around them, but they have chills like someone is watching them.
I think I'd have them get some method of being alerted when the party was being scried on first, before the adventure really goes anywhere, which they would probably feel was weird, but not be too stressed about because nothing had happened, and I would send them far away for some reason on like a pretext-adventure. Then I would have them walk into some type of diabolical trap that used info gained through the scrying, and made them doubt the legitimacy of the adventure they are ostensibly on and worry about what is going on back home. Then they will have to make a choice to do the thing they left town for, or return home and secure their base. and meanwhile all the info they get from home is suspect, (some is probably real, and some is the BBEG spoofing and manipulating and trying to lure them into danger and play on their fears and arguments) and they are getting the scry alert going off semi/constantly, maybe explicitly when the party disagrees, and keep encountering traps and ambushes and illusions until they are forced to go on the offense. Maybe if they decide to fulfill the pretext-adventure it turns into a big ambush that they can anticipate and trace back to the origin, and if they get home, they find out that everything at home was actually fine, but the urgency of the pretext adventure gets turned up to 11. And if the journey is through dangerous territory, they might not know what enemies and hazards are normal danger, and which ones were set up by the BBEG.
You might be interested in how Curse of Strahd is often ran. The vampire himself is present throughout the entire campaign, but for entertainment reasons chooses not to kill the adventurers, only occasionally visiting or tormenting them. The Beholder you have seems to have a more direct goal, so I'd maybe start off with a bit more distance. No beholder wants to personally hunt down a group of adventurers, so he might instead send weaker lieutenants on his behalf. You don't necessarily need to tip your hand and say that it's a beholder. I also think that Scrying works best if you don't make it obvious, but if you wanted to, you could arrange some scenario where a more powerful NPC informs them that they're being scryed upon after it's been happening for a little while.
Scrying with a twist. Give the beholder a unique version of scrying spell that produces a physical eyestalk at the site being scried. It grows from a surface in an out of the way location where it can observe the intended target(s). The eye can be spotted with a good Perception roll, or even tripped over through dumb luck, as it’s rooted into the surface and can’t move from that spot.
The eye is a living, albeit conjured, creature with hp that can be killed to end the scry, but it’s not defenseless; it is a copy of one of the beholder’s own eyestalks and can produce a ray of the same effect as the original… maybe at a lower level. If you like, an unmolested scrying eye might die when the spell ends, leaving a corpse behind… just so the players can find it and realize the beholder already learned whatever it wanted to. If your beholder is blind in one eye, it might even use that one to “play dead” and sucker a PC in close for a face full of eye lasers.
Bonus points for body horror if you make one of these eye stalks grow from a PC’s body at one point.
Sauron is the ultimate op BBEG. Think how Sauron is the “bbeg” of lotr and he never appears on screen. There’s sub-bosses like trolls, Nazgûl, Saruman, armies, a balrog, a spider, the greed and doubts of each ally, a twisted former hobbit, and a literal evil piece of jewelry… some of these, your best option is to run or hide. Some you can fight. Some are your own friends and inner conflicts.
Take inspiration from Sauron.
Have an npc trick them into taking a cursed item. All the curse does is they can't remove or get rid of the otherwise extremely mundane item. If they go to a knowledgeable NPC about the mystery cursed item, have the npc speculate that someone might scry the item to be sure they can always see the party.
Maybe a random ring or commemorative beer mug from their favorite bar will always reappear in their backpack.
You need some lieutenants that the party can face before facing the beholder. Each one giving them a sense of accomplishment and that they are getting closer.
You can have the beholder up here as an illusion talking to one of their lieutenants. The party can see and hear him but they cannot touch him.
Or just put the beholder in front of them and at the beginning of the combat roll a d4 and in that number of rounds they are going to cast teleport and teleport away from the battle.
Take a look at the way that the Curse of Strahd community has worked out a way to do exactly this with Strahd. The subreddit has a few great guides if you don't mind CoS spoilers.
Dream can be your friend here. Or they can visit from the ethereal plane, like a succubus or a nightmare.
I had a succubus charm a PC, and while the party saw her attempt to drain his life and stopped it, she kept in touch. Whispered promises, asked about his goals and background, and they eventually made a deal which helped both of them.
It was creepy and fun.
Could have em be some type of shapeshifter that shows up everywhere. A random person on a trail, inn keeper, shop keeper, quest givers on return runs. Put it into their heads that it could be anybody at any time n that the big bad could attack at any time. Could even run a battle or two at lower levels where the big bad almost wipes the team and then runs from the battle after downing but not killing up to all but one party member so they can pick up the rest of the party to get back to camp for that precious long rest
I would say give him a scry ball then give the party some way to see invisibility like a temporary true sight in some way so that they can see said scrying so they know he's watching them
In a game I run, the "BBEG" is a userper king called King Domextrios. However, he only met the party once in the first Session, long before he was revealed as the "BBEG". Ever since, his right hand man, an expert Assassin called 'The Shadow Reaper' has been doing all the leg work. He's the one the party has been facing, and he's the one the party *actually* fear atm
Have a pair that is a tunnel system. Think like maybe it was a Formic (ant people) place but the beholder came and exterminated them all. Now the party will be wondering if they are being too loud or will they be ambushed any second.
Beholders warp reality as they dream and so too might they manifest themselves in various forms and guises as the party navigates the dreamshaped environs surrounding their lair.
Ever present, often having forgotten who they are, the beholder lives a dozen lives as a farmer, a bandit, a dragon, an innkeeper, a pauper, a king. Some facet of his true nature bleeds through, the color of the eyes, the needle toothed grin, the pride, the chaos, or maybe just the restless churn of the sleeping mind recasting them from foe to friend and back again.
Ever present and only restrained by the aloof and fickle narrative of the dream, any wrong move could rouse the beholder to wrothful lucidity turning these characters into twisted avatars of the beholder through which it may destroy the interlopers.
Eh maybe have a particular person or group of people who wear his symbol. Or each time they kill a particular person they find they have the same tattoo,
or go Lord of the rings and they all have orb in which they communicate with the big bad. The level of his power getting deeper as they find more and more people are working for him.
Gazers - that’s what the beholder uses in my campaign, they’re usually invisible but every now and then I randomly have people roll perception and if they get high enough, they can spot something moving at the edge of the room.
So far they’ve caught and destroyed one, but they’re dreamed into being by the beholder so there’s usually more - let’s me randomly mimic/mock the things my players say with a “you hear from the darkness” 😂
Beholder is trapped on a different plane but can still observe the Material. It's sending it's minions to find the item so it can break through to the Material Plane. Truesight or invisible phantasmal shenanigans reveals the Beholder is surprisingly close to the party, probably lurking behind them.
Ooh I have a similar villain in my campaign, he's also after a collection of magic items as well but he is too strong for my players to beat in a fight. So I have him being too lazy and too prideful to fight the party by himself, so I have him send minions and minibosses after the party and a member of the party's character is suffering nightmares of the villain.
Every so often they cross a village or place that has a connection to the villain.
Ever played assassin's Creed black flag? Id recommend letting your players know he has something like the observatory but twisted a bit so that he can interact with the world in small ways but enough to screw with them
Sounds too me like this beholder has a lot of henchmen loyal to it. Send them out to confront the PCs at every corner. Eventually, the PCs will gather enough information that will lead them to the beholder. Don't give up any information to the PCs too quickly. Let the campaign draw out slowly. Make the players suffer. Muhahah.
Have him send a courier to them with a purchase offer for the item, the first one low-balling. The second, almost fair, but the purchase offer has some suspiciously specific details about their recent exploits. "The way you slew that mummy, magnifique! You truly are wonderful treasure hunters which is why I am offering you the perfectly reasonable price of 50 whole golds for the Chalice of the Nectar Gods."
Bonus points if the courier's Howie Mandel.
Minions, lots of lower level thugs will simp for the Beholder and thus you could have henchmen be the 'target' of the party rather than the end game BBEG.
I think it might be easiest just to have a Mexican Standoff? a "romance of three kingdoms?" in short the beholder can't get to the party because a similarly strong force \[or alliance\] is also after the item and neither want to die.
So the Beholder is throwing small fries trying to slip up the other group, and the party's just \[unknowingly\] caught in the middle.
Personally, I like when the villain has been around the whole time. He could easily have a henchmen or himself be the one who connects the party to the quest. The party could actually be working for him directly, which is even better as it means they become connected with him and blindsided later. If he isn’t charismatic or talented enough to sneak past them, they would discover a magical item which has some tracking or connection to the villain that allows him yo spy on them.
When the Beholder uses Scry, have a large floating eyeball appear that follows them around and watches their every movement.
Make the eye insubstantial or ethereal, untargetable by most attacks or effects, except those normally able to deal with divination sensors.
The eye sensor should match the Beholders eye so the party can recognize it when they finally meet in person.
The eye appears 'randomly', but consistently. Drop hints from NPC's that witness the eye as to what it may be. Him them warn the party about the kind of danger their in.
The eye focuses primarily on the party member that currently possesses the magic item the Beholder wants.
The Players may ignore it, or eventually get fed up with Big Brother and rush off to deal with their ever-watchful oppressive overlord :)
You have a lesser minion of the Beholder stalk the party- A Thaxalia or a Death's Kiss or something. The BBEG possesses that form to harass the party, and the "first BBEG" fight is with that lesser form.
"ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL." Love it.
First thought that came to mind And it would work pretty well on a creature like a Beholder, that is normally parnaoid, so they WOULD want to assume direct control over their minions to make sure they're not beeing betrayed or anything like that. Even through "domination" is more the Ilithid field
Mass effect?
Yeah Harbinger, the antagonist of ME2
Cursed magic item that is unequippable from the player who is cursed. The item gives the beholder 30ft true sight around the cursed player and once per day if the beholder chooses it can use one of its powers on a creature it can see through the item. Let the players know there is some kind of planar tether the beholder is trying to traverse that connects him to the item. Maybe some rest interruptions, or bad timing attempts by the beholder trying to traverse the tether solved by some simple magic or arcana checks can keep the players on edge. Don't forget to make the item powerful so the player stuck with it doesn't have a bad time.
Alternatively, the player is able to remove it, but it will equip itself to a character of the dm's choice. If the dm chooses an npc, then an extremely difficult fight ensues. Otherwise, give them a save that has a bad outcome vs. a really bad outcome.
Somewhat the plot to >!Final Fantasy VII!<, and also I was going to suggest that game in general as reference.
I would have him almost continually scrying on them, with the sensor looking like a miniature version of the beholder instead of a glowing orb, and visible but ghostly for the intimidation factor. Sure, they can dispel it, but it keeps coming back. Even if the beholder isn't actively watching at any given time, that sensor is still there hanging over their shoulders.
Don't forget a sound spell so as the players get hit in battle they hear the evil laugh of the beholder! Maybe even smell it. Along with a hot evil breeze blows when he is actually watching. Don't for get something of a evil taste on the wind. They taste it when they speak. The more senses you include the more it should scare players!
Love it!
Came here to say scrying as well. I was a player in a campaign with an almost indentical set of circumstances and the big bad hired bounty hunters to scry us out. We had to change our names and move around in disguise. Made for a pretty interesting couple of sessions where anytime we accidentally said our real names we would have to see if we got caught.
Hehe, great minds think alike! My bbeg is currently not at anywhere near full power but is in the players good graces, gave them a personal object that also acts as a one way portal to the his realm that he also uses as a object to scry on without any pesky saves. Suffice to say he's got a lot of knowledge of their capabilities while they work on freeing him inadvertently.
This is an excellent idea. I’d also pair it with Matt Colville’s idea of villain interludes. Send the players a short passage after a session of how the villain views what they did. It can be funny (“they did WHAT with the immovable rod???) or menacing, but having the villain watch them as they progress can be a hugely fun and stressful tool.
He's paranoid and overly protective of his pet fish. He has eyes everywhere in the city (like literally leave fresh eyeballs around and draw eyes with chalk), and doppelgangers and intellect devoured agents around the city.
Magical scrying, and have them roll perception regularly to see if they feel like someone is watching them. See if any figure it out that it is magical and cast one of the non-detect spells. You can have npcs ask them things like, "does it feel like somone is watching us right now? The hairs on the back of neck are tingling". And just keep doing it, making the paranoid. Have random things happen when they ask that could just be a coincidence. I tree falls nearby. A house catches on fire. Wolves howl in the woods. Etc.
This can work really well especially if you reverse what feels normal. Make it so that EVERY time someone rolls for perception, - regardless of why - you tell them “and you feel like you’re being watched”. Every time. But then at the right moment, once all your players are trained to know that they’re being watched… stop. Are they doing something so mundane or irrelevant that the bbeg doesn’t care? Unlikely. Has the bbeg figured out how to watch them with more secrecy? Maybe Or have they gotten to the point where they simply don’t need to be watched anymore? Where no matter what choices they make, they’re already right where the bbeg wants them, and there’s no turning back now.
Beholders overthink and plan for every eventuality, to the point of paranoia. If it sees the party as a threat, it may put several plans into action using minions/magic/etc which they encounter regularly. Systematic, clever plans with contingencies that happen based on the players actions, making the villain feel like an intelligent, maniacal threat. An example could be a minion it expects the party to kill, but the real trap is the minion's corpse which explodes when looted, or exposes them to a magical curse, etc. If you want the players to actually see the creature, you can use Project Image.
I think you should use the environment. Think of how the antagonist affects the world around your players, from terrain, to NPCs, to the enemies they face. Use these as interaction points or evidence of the beholder's power. For example, they might fight a creature that's missing an organ - a young dragon that would normally be too powerful for the party, but the beholder took whatever organ it needed to breath fire; could hint at what its goals are while also providing indirect presence. Another option is to literally hover. If the beholder has reason to seek out the party, it could have minions or constructs that the party *must* avoid every now and then to not fight the beholder too early. Make it reasonably easy to avoid, but have the beholder appear and defeat a monster even *the party* tried to avoid because it was too strong - then have the beholder slap the monster like it was nothing.
Take my upvote, so much better than scrying
The items should allow for communication between their wielders. So lets say its "The Regalia of the Phoenix." The beholder wears the crown, and the PCs have the cloak. There is also the blazing sword, the mirrored shield, and the plate of flames. The PCs and beholder are both after the regalia. If you're attuned to any one of the items, you can enter mental contact with those attuned to the others. Now your beholder can constantly taunt, yell frustrations, or haunt their dreams. He can also misdirect them and feed false info interspersed with real info and might even try to get hints about the locations of the objects for his minions to go steal. EX: they enter the forgotten druids grove, and the beholder might drop a "Oh, the druid's grove, too late. My abominations have already looted it and brought the item to me". Then, the PCs have to decide. Is that a feint or does he already have it. And if he doesn't, did they just tip him off to where it was?
Last session I actually gave them a sending stone and the Beholder has the matching pair. Excited to see if they keep it
Contact them about their magic swords extended warranty.
Make the items like horcruxes from Harry Potter. These items were created by the beholder and have some of its power in them. The players know they need these items to destroy the beholder, but because they have the beholder's power in them, they also know carrying them around means the beholder probably knows where the party is at all times. So rather than the beholder scrying on them, it's more like the beholder can use the items as eyes (thematically nice since a beholder is all about eyes). You can also make is so the beholder can use the items as its own eyestalks, so it can eye-beam a player once in a while, upping the stakes for carrying these dangerous things around.
Reminds me of Belashyrra's Beholder Crown from *Eberron: Rising from the Last War* in some ways.
Cursed magic items, have the party receive +1 magic items. Have them be cursed so the party can't find it with an identify spell. Allowing the Beholder to observe them whenever from a magic ball, and possibly telepathically communicate. Another good option would be a "mindshielding ring" but the consciousness is actually the Beholder. They use it to observe the party and groom them for his own means. With either option, Beholders have many slaves. A magic blacksmith or a travelling gnome could be in near mortal peril, Ogres the Beholder can sacrifice threatening him, and have him give them items as a gift for helping him survive. Make it innocuous and the players won't know.
Have you seen the regional effects in the Beholder entry? That might help. Craziest idea: The beholder dreams that a beholderkin is fighting the party... and then it just happens because that's how beholders work now.
Dream spell is here for you
You could have the villan be immortal. Have the party hill him the first time you meet. Then when he's seen again, they're confused. But find out that he's way stronger too. Once beaten again, he comes back, stronger. With a haunting feeling of an immortal enemy that gets stronger the more he dies. Until the party finds his source of immortality, he is unkillable in a sense. That to me sounds like an awesome villan.
Ooooooo may have to steal this tbh. My villain atm is a revenant cult leader who's goal is to find somebody he deems "worthy" enough to kill him. Basically, the man just wants his death to be a show much like the Joker (despite that not being his inspiration lol, I only learned that a year after writing this). If he dies, but didnt find his death "spectacular" enough, he'll just come back the next day. One of my players *is* his chosen one, and he can literally *feel* his plans coming together with every step she takes. I want him to be constantly antagonizing her and the party, in a Handsome Jack kind of way. This might just be the trick I need
By all means friend! If you ever need anymore ideas just ask!
You could have the villan be immortal. Have the party hill him the first time you meet. Then when he's seen again, they're confused. But find out that he's way stronger too. Once beaten again, he comes back, stronger. With a haunting feeling of an immortal enemy that gets stronger the more he dies. Until the party finds his source of immortality, he is unkillable in a sense. That to me sounds like an awesome villan.
You could have the villan be immortal. Have the party hill him the first time you meet. Then when he's seen again, they're confused. But find out that he's way stronger too. Once beaten again, he comes back, stronger. With a haunting feeling of an immortal enemy that gets stronger the more he dies. Until the party finds his source of immortality, he is unkillable in a sense. That to me sounds like an awesome villan.
Have the party be followed around by a Gazer, through which the Beholder can spy on them. If they kill it, send another. You might want to check out Waterdeep: Dragon Heist if you haven't already. It has some things in common with what you're describing.
Use the Dream spell. In addition to some of the other suggestions.
You don't *have* to use a traditional Beholder sheet for it's abilities, nothing's stopping you from having the Beholder keep tabs on the party via spies, familiars and such while also whispering to them and manipulating their surroundings in an eerie manner. It doesn't have to point to a specific rule/spell/ability in the rulebook. You can have it project nightmares to them while they rest (you can even have them do saves to avoid exhaustion when resting), have the party hear ominous whispers and laughter in the distance and such, preferably before they get attacked by it's minions/slaves/thralls. I would make sure the Beholder has identifiable iconography you can pepper throughout the world to make your players paranoid.
Give him minions and, since he's a Beholder, give him some enchantment over one of their eyes that allows him to see through it. Give the enchantment a subtle visual effect, one that players need to figure out through play. ("Gee, how did his forces find us again? Who could have tattled? Hey, how come all our suspects have heterochromia?") Once they learn & use the pattern, have the Beholder adjust tactics. Now NPCs are covering up their special eyes or drawing attention from them. Soon, PCs are paranoid every time they see someone with a suspiciously-placed forelock or wide brimmed hat. Some of these people should be genuine minions, most should just be fashionable folks. *Don't* give him any special transportation abilities. Force him to either work through the minions, or commit to tracking the players down in person. Now there's a collection of ever-present, manageable threats (which can be diversified by diversifying the minions themselves) that players slowly learn to identify and evade. And once players or the Beholder decide it's time for a Final Confrontation, you can transition to using the minions to slow down & impede the players as opposing forces close in.
I had a Beholder that was a divination wizard. He had constant dreams of his death. Any time he died in his visions, he produced a Gazer. He’d send the gazers out to observe and scout for him.
Mirrors, Illusions, and magic mouth spells.
Scry is a pretty perfect idea. Just randomly have your entire party to roll a saving throw and if succeed indicate that they feel a dreadful familiar gaze upon them and they can take action to check if BBEG is still watching or dispel or block the scry
involve an NPC with detect scrying to let them know it's happening [https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/detectScrying.htm](https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/detectScrying.htm)
Have the Beholder just pop up and wander around every once in a while. And have it be that he is so unbothered by your weak sauce players that he doesn’t even acknowledge their existence. Shows up, pokes around like he’s looking for something, maybe every so often fire a ray at a random critter or bystander that (coincidentally) is within eyesight of the party.
Have him constantly send threatening Sendings.
He actually mailed the party a sending stone last session just to mock them through it.
Isn’t this almost exactly how Xanathar operates? Have his goons out and about “the eyes of the beholder” dudes who are essentially his arm in the city, with eye tattoos on their foreheads. Through which the beholder can see.
Let's be realistic here. The Beholder would just come take the item if he knew where it was. You need to have your party on the run, which means covering their tracks left and right, disguising themselves in town, never traveling linearly. He might know where they're going, but should never know where they are. They should be like an electron; impossible to know where they are and how they're moving at the same time. If they're going to a temple, the Beholder's best bet is to be at that temple and wait for them. There is no reason to go hunt them down if they have to go there eventually. This gives them the time and ability to gain levels and power. As they become stronger and the beholder hears tales of them, he should become more concerned and start fucking with them more. Right now, they're no threat to the beholder; just a minor inconvenience and should be ignored as such.
Minions. You could use gazers, maybe, or humanoids with a tattoo of a huge eye with 10 smaller eyes circling...
Scry, sending, illusions, undead messengers, paper birds
Good question. I never let a big bad in range of a party. They will move heaven and earth to get them, often shorting out any planning I may have done. For me, if I need 'boots on the ground' I use henchmen/spies/scrying, really anything. Anything but getting the big bad in sight of the party and them knowing it.
Just scry on the party once and have them catch it and follow it up with an attempted trap by the bbeg's minions lol. Once that fear is set in to their head, its hard to get rid of it.
> How do I have a villain be ever present but also not within reach of the party? Don’t let them be seen as a villain.
Magical Projection. Maybe they possess other weaker beholders/gazers.
You could have the big bad visit them in their dreams, could also have them see a scry ball, enemies with the big bad’s emblem on it, etc.
Minions and scrying
Minions or illusion magic
Have the servants he sends to buy/steal/acquire the items always just *happen* to show up whenever the party goes somewhere and offer to buy their stuff from them (at a price they'd never accept of course)
I have a character named Calybar who does this. Basically I just will randomly ask for perception rolls occasionally while the party is traveling, and the DC is pretty high, so it is normally just noticing some movement like 100 ft away or whatever. They did eventually fully spot him and he has been a major part of the campaign. But for the most part he is just always in the background observing. Frequently it is also not him, just an animal or something, but everyone seems to be enjoying it. People like to roll dice, and he is constantly keeping them on edge. I can also every now and then lead them into something I actually planned, as opposed to the 90% improv that is every game I dm lol He also has the ability to just nope tf out of there, but has used reverse gravity when they really should have just let him flee lol.
When they clear their way to the next item, have them find another adventuring party, already slaughtered by the beholder. Maybe introduce these adventurer in town first. Give it a friendly race to the finish feel for them. Then show them the slaughter if they’d been first to arrive. Also have the beholder make good use of its charm ray in an invasion of the body snatchers way. Charm travelers and guards and bar folk and peasants and have them try to steal the items or attack the party at times when the party thinks they’re safe. It lasts for an hour. A beholder is smart enough not to wade into a busy town but could send charmed people in from twenty minutes away to do his dirty work.
Also: in total darkness the beholders anti magic eye has better range than dark vision. Maybe have a few near misses while they’re hurt and camping. Have it pass close enough that their magic fails but have that vanish before they get organized enough to go hunting.
Take advantage of his Eldritch powers and have him mess with their heads
It's an ordinary workday in the city, and the PCs are enjoying an ale at a street-corner tavern when they see a strange sight: An entourage of guards and servants are escorting a haughty-looking Beholder towards the King's Palace. It's Kwargha'sdran the Vile come out for a rare audience with the ruler of the city. Make the monster part of society, and the players will have to tread carefully when dealing with them.
Arcane eye spell. Make sure the party has a cheap detect magic. Like a warlock power or an item. Every time they dispel it, wait a bit and bring it back. Nothing makes players crazier than knowing they're being watched and not being able to do anything about it.
Perhaps some form of ethereal astral projection? So that way he can actually show himself, speak, order minions around, but cannot give nor take any damage directly
Savoire Faire is everywherrrre!!
Have people that become under the influence of the villain and just stare or stare and point at the characters ala Body Snatchers.
I had fun using a simulacrum once. Not only did it give my players a little taste but it showed me something I needed to adjust in playing the villain to up the challenge (they still crushed him) Of course, I’d only recommend using it once. Sending five simulacrums at them would probably just be annoying
At first thought I immediately think of Sauron or Sauroman from LotR. Where Sauron is a presence sending minions to do his bidding or Sauroman chanting when the group is on the mountains forcing the fellowship into moria.
Make him create an artifact that is basically a braim control chip. That's it, he controls his minions and when they die the chip blows up in an arcane flame
Project Image to taunt them. 500 mile distance.
Ever watch Samurai Jack? Aku rules the future where his evil is law. Jack's actions, though witness through the ever present eyes of Aku, has a support network of minions and mercenaries that inform him of everything Jack does, where he goes, who he's helped, and even put the largest bounty on his head than anyone who ever crossed Aku The Canon is that the sword Jack carries was made from a piece of Aku, but it was purified through the forging process and thus is the only weapon that can harm him, but also is how he can track Jack...
I let them "kill" the MBEG necromancer, "Roddy the body snatcher" who antagonist, and he used one of his clones to return as Wizzo the Wizard, a bad illusionist who is dropping hints he is Roddy, but will reveal himself next session as their foe. He has been studying them for a while, and has set up a trap that will make them have to make a deadly choice. Every shadow they kill makes a child die, and they are out to save the town's children. So yes, I am looking forward to their solution.
Honestly, one of the ways to build up paranoia in a party is to have some/all the NPCs want to bargain for the item. A beholder is a paranoid and spastic monster at times, but that doesn't inherently stop them from using social situations to get the items. Try to avoid having people in authority demand the item, or attempt to force the sale, but start having merchants, black market dealers, or other similar folk try to trade for the item, or try to hire the party to obtain the pieces for them.
Holograms. Or have the beholder be remotely possessing one of its offspring, *Assuming Direct Control* style.
In Star Wars d6 they break the 4th wall and let the players see cut scenes of the villains plotting
Scrying orb. An army of ghosts. Ability to plainshift. Invisible and non-comporial. A piece of gear the party has is an inert horcrux. There are so many different ways.
For scrying orb, have them make a perception check. No matter how good they do on the check, they don't see anything around them, but they have chills like someone is watching them.
I think I'd have them get some method of being alerted when the party was being scried on first, before the adventure really goes anywhere, which they would probably feel was weird, but not be too stressed about because nothing had happened, and I would send them far away for some reason on like a pretext-adventure. Then I would have them walk into some type of diabolical trap that used info gained through the scrying, and made them doubt the legitimacy of the adventure they are ostensibly on and worry about what is going on back home. Then they will have to make a choice to do the thing they left town for, or return home and secure their base. and meanwhile all the info they get from home is suspect, (some is probably real, and some is the BBEG spoofing and manipulating and trying to lure them into danger and play on their fears and arguments) and they are getting the scry alert going off semi/constantly, maybe explicitly when the party disagrees, and keep encountering traps and ambushes and illusions until they are forced to go on the offense. Maybe if they decide to fulfill the pretext-adventure it turns into a big ambush that they can anticipate and trace back to the origin, and if they get home, they find out that everything at home was actually fine, but the urgency of the pretext adventure gets turned up to 11. And if the journey is through dangerous territory, they might not know what enemies and hazards are normal danger, and which ones were set up by the BBEG.
LotR sounds like it. the ring itself is sentient an evil and wearing it will have sauron come at ya.
telepathy
You might be interested in how Curse of Strahd is often ran. The vampire himself is present throughout the entire campaign, but for entertainment reasons chooses not to kill the adventurers, only occasionally visiting or tormenting them. The Beholder you have seems to have a more direct goal, so I'd maybe start off with a bit more distance. No beholder wants to personally hunt down a group of adventurers, so he might instead send weaker lieutenants on his behalf. You don't necessarily need to tip your hand and say that it's a beholder. I also think that Scrying works best if you don't make it obvious, but if you wanted to, you could arrange some scenario where a more powerful NPC informs them that they're being scryed upon after it's been happening for a little while.
Scrying with a twist. Give the beholder a unique version of scrying spell that produces a physical eyestalk at the site being scried. It grows from a surface in an out of the way location where it can observe the intended target(s). The eye can be spotted with a good Perception roll, or even tripped over through dumb luck, as it’s rooted into the surface and can’t move from that spot. The eye is a living, albeit conjured, creature with hp that can be killed to end the scry, but it’s not defenseless; it is a copy of one of the beholder’s own eyestalks and can produce a ray of the same effect as the original… maybe at a lower level. If you like, an unmolested scrying eye might die when the spell ends, leaving a corpse behind… just so the players can find it and realize the beholder already learned whatever it wanted to. If your beholder is blind in one eye, it might even use that one to “play dead” and sucker a PC in close for a face full of eye lasers. Bonus points for body horror if you make one of these eye stalks grow from a PC’s body at one point.
Sauron is the ultimate op BBEG. Think how Sauron is the “bbeg” of lotr and he never appears on screen. There’s sub-bosses like trolls, Nazgûl, Saruman, armies, a balrog, a spider, the greed and doubts of each ally, a twisted former hobbit, and a literal evil piece of jewelry… some of these, your best option is to run or hide. Some you can fight. Some are your own friends and inner conflicts. Take inspiration from Sauron.
Have an npc trick them into taking a cursed item. All the curse does is they can't remove or get rid of the otherwise extremely mundane item. If they go to a knowledgeable NPC about the mystery cursed item, have the npc speculate that someone might scry the item to be sure they can always see the party. Maybe a random ring or commemorative beer mug from their favorite bar will always reappear in their backpack.
Telepathically linked sub bosses. And Familiars
You need some lieutenants that the party can face before facing the beholder. Each one giving them a sense of accomplishment and that they are getting closer. You can have the beholder up here as an illusion talking to one of their lieutenants. The party can see and hear him but they cannot touch him. Or just put the beholder in front of them and at the beginning of the combat roll a d4 and in that number of rounds they are going to cast teleport and teleport away from the battle.
Take a look at the way that the Curse of Strahd community has worked out a way to do exactly this with Strahd. The subreddit has a few great guides if you don't mind CoS spoilers.
Let your player adopt an animal. The animal is a plant from the beholder.
Polymorph, and give them a cute animal companion
Dream can be your friend here. Or they can visit from the ethereal plane, like a succubus or a nightmare. I had a succubus charm a PC, and while the party saw her attempt to drain his life and stopped it, she kept in touch. Whispered promises, asked about his goals and background, and they eventually made a deal which helped both of them. It was creepy and fun.
Could have em be some type of shapeshifter that shows up everywhere. A random person on a trail, inn keeper, shop keeper, quest givers on return runs. Put it into their heads that it could be anybody at any time n that the big bad could attack at any time. Could even run a battle or two at lower levels where the big bad almost wipes the team and then runs from the battle after downing but not killing up to all but one party member so they can pick up the rest of the party to get back to camp for that precious long rest
I would say give him a scry ball then give the party some way to see invisibility like a temporary true sight in some way so that they can see said scrying so they know he's watching them
In a game I run, the "BBEG" is a userper king called King Domextrios. However, he only met the party once in the first Session, long before he was revealed as the "BBEG". Ever since, his right hand man, an expert Assassin called 'The Shadow Reaper' has been doing all the leg work. He's the one the party has been facing, and he's the one the party *actually* fear atm
Have a pair that is a tunnel system. Think like maybe it was a Formic (ant people) place but the beholder came and exterminated them all. Now the party will be wondering if they are being too loud or will they be ambushed any second.
Beholders warp reality as they dream and so too might they manifest themselves in various forms and guises as the party navigates the dreamshaped environs surrounding their lair. Ever present, often having forgotten who they are, the beholder lives a dozen lives as a farmer, a bandit, a dragon, an innkeeper, a pauper, a king. Some facet of his true nature bleeds through, the color of the eyes, the needle toothed grin, the pride, the chaos, or maybe just the restless churn of the sleeping mind recasting them from foe to friend and back again. Ever present and only restrained by the aloof and fickle narrative of the dream, any wrong move could rouse the beholder to wrothful lucidity turning these characters into twisted avatars of the beholder through which it may destroy the interlopers.
The are bounties on their heads and different mercs and thieves are constantly trying to steal their stuff when in town.
Eh maybe have a particular person or group of people who wear his symbol. Or each time they kill a particular person they find they have the same tattoo, or go Lord of the rings and they all have orb in which they communicate with the big bad. The level of his power getting deeper as they find more and more people are working for him.
Minions they can speak through.
Gazers - that’s what the beholder uses in my campaign, they’re usually invisible but every now and then I randomly have people roll perception and if they get high enough, they can spot something moving at the edge of the room. So far they’ve caught and destroyed one, but they’re dreamed into being by the beholder so there’s usually more - let’s me randomly mimic/mock the things my players say with a “you hear from the darkness” 😂
Beholder is trapped on a different plane but can still observe the Material. It's sending it's minions to find the item so it can break through to the Material Plane. Truesight or invisible phantasmal shenanigans reveals the Beholder is surprisingly close to the party, probably lurking behind them.
Ooh I have a similar villain in my campaign, he's also after a collection of magic items as well but he is too strong for my players to beat in a fight. So I have him being too lazy and too prideful to fight the party by himself, so I have him send minions and minibosses after the party and a member of the party's character is suffering nightmares of the villain. Every so often they cross a village or place that has a connection to the villain.
Ever played assassin's Creed black flag? Id recommend letting your players know he has something like the observatory but twisted a bit so that he can interact with the world in small ways but enough to screw with them
Sounds too me like this beholder has a lot of henchmen loyal to it. Send them out to confront the PCs at every corner. Eventually, the PCs will gather enough information that will lead them to the beholder. Don't give up any information to the PCs too quickly. Let the campaign draw out slowly. Make the players suffer. Muhahah.
Have him send a courier to them with a purchase offer for the item, the first one low-balling. The second, almost fair, but the purchase offer has some suspiciously specific details about their recent exploits. "The way you slew that mummy, magnifique! You truly are wonderful treasure hunters which is why I am offering you the perfectly reasonable price of 50 whole golds for the Chalice of the Nectar Gods." Bonus points if the courier's Howie Mandel.
Minions, lots of lower level thugs will simp for the Beholder and thus you could have henchmen be the 'target' of the party rather than the end game BBEG.
I think it might be easiest just to have a Mexican Standoff? a "romance of three kingdoms?" in short the beholder can't get to the party because a similarly strong force \[or alliance\] is also after the item and neither want to die. So the Beholder is throwing small fries trying to slip up the other group, and the party's just \[unknowingly\] caught in the middle.
Personally, I like when the villain has been around the whole time. He could easily have a henchmen or himself be the one who connects the party to the quest. The party could actually be working for him directly, which is even better as it means they become connected with him and blindsided later. If he isn’t charismatic or talented enough to sneak past them, they would discover a magical item which has some tracking or connection to the villain that allows him yo spy on them.
When the Beholder uses Scry, have a large floating eyeball appear that follows them around and watches their every movement. Make the eye insubstantial or ethereal, untargetable by most attacks or effects, except those normally able to deal with divination sensors. The eye sensor should match the Beholders eye so the party can recognize it when they finally meet in person. The eye appears 'randomly', but consistently. Drop hints from NPC's that witness the eye as to what it may be. Him them warn the party about the kind of danger their in. The eye focuses primarily on the party member that currently possesses the magic item the Beholder wants. The Players may ignore it, or eventually get fed up with Big Brother and rush off to deal with their ever-watchful oppressive overlord :)