Copyright 2009 Wizards of the Coast

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Behirs first appear in AD&D 1st Edition, and are one of the game’s many “not-quite-dragon” monsters.

The Lore

Behirs are giant reptilian creatures with serpentine bodies, many legs (8 or 12, depending on edition), and innate electrical powers. They’re sapient but anti-social and uninterested in the trappings of civilization. They don’t even tolerate each other’s presence for longer than absolutely necessary. A behir mother will eject her young from the lair shortly after they’re born, forcing them to fend for themselves.

Though a behir makes lairs in pretty much the same places you’d expect to find dragons, it accumulates neither treasure nor servants. All it wants is to hunt and be left alone. Like a lot of D&D super-predators it doesn’t usually care about the sapience of its victims, but it can be reasoned with or bribed if you can get it to listen to you. Behirs can communicate both in Common and Draconic.

This means that some people try to recruit behirs into service. Though this can end badly if the behir’s terms are not met, a successful negotiation will allow the foolhardy employer to obtain the services of a formidable monster.

The Numbers

Behirs are Huge Natural Magical Beasts, and have Tremorsense 10 and Resist Lightning 15. They fight with a combination of natural weapons and lightning attacks, which vary per stat block. They’re Unaligned, and have a typical Int score of 7.

Behir

This represents the typical specimen found in the wild. It’s a Level 14 Solo Soldier with 564 HP. Their ground speed is 7, and they have a climb speed of 5. In combat they project a Lightning Storm aura (5) that causes 5 lightning damage to anyone caught inside.

The behir fights with its claws and bite, both of which are Reach 3 and do the same damage. The claw is a basic attack, and the bite does a mix of physical and lightning damage.

It can also Devour a Medium or smaller victim (Reach 3 vs AC), doing bite damage and swallowing it whole. This counts as a grab! While it lasts the victim only has line of sight and effect to the behir, and no one else has line of sight or effect to the victim. A creature can escape the grab by the usual means, appearing adjacent to he behir, and can also automatically crawl out of a dead behir as a move action. With a minor action, the behir can sustain the grab and deal an automatic 15 damage to the victim. Only one victim at a time fits in its gizzard.

The monster can also use a Lightning Breath (close blast 5 vs. Reflex; recharge 5-6), which does “high” lightning damage and dazes (save ends), and does half damage on a miss. Its Thunderleg Stomp (close burst 3 vs. Fortitude) does “low” physical damage and knocks targets prone on a hit.

The damage on all of these is too low due to the math bugs: the basic attacks do an average of 15 damage when they should be doing 22. The tactics section says behirs begin by swallowing a squishy even if they have to eat a few opportunity attacks to do it, and then favoring their area attacks unless sorely pressed by a single character. With a damage upgrade across the board, these tactics are quite sound, since the Stomp becomes a more viable option.

Being solo monsters, behirs have a neat initiative trick: they don’t roll initiative at all! Instead, Lightning Reflexes gives them three turns per combat round at initiative counts 30, 20, and 10. This means that the poor swallowed victim might be looking at 45 automatic damage per round if they fail to escape the grab on their own turn. Using that first action on Swallow is definitely a worthy investiment.

Behir Bolter Whelp

A young specimen, not yet fully grown. It’s merely Large, and a Level 8 Solo Soldier with 352 HP and Resist 10 Lightning. It’s standard damage is 12, and it should be around 16 with the update. It has a ground speed of 8 and a climb speed of 5.

The bolter is going to start the fight by targetting a squishy Knockdown Rush (Reach 2 vs. AC; minor action; recharge 4-6), which allows it to charge and knock the target prone on a hit. Then, since this was a minor action, it’s going to follow that up with a claw or bite, which work the same as the adult’s with smaller numbers and Reach 2.

When the PCs inevitably surround it, the bolder will emit a Lightning Shock pulse (close burst 2 vs. Reflex; recharge 5-6 and when first bloodied) which does “high” lightning damage, half on a miss. When hit by a melee attack, it can respond with a claw as a reaction (Rip-Claw Response).

Despite being young, the bolter already displays Lightning Reflexes, acting on initiative counts 20, 15, and 5, so with enough luck on those recharge rolls it can keep bouncing between PCs for a while.

Behir Stormsteed

This “domesticated” behir was recruited and trained as a mount by storm giants. It’s a Level 24 Soldier with 229 HP. It has Resisnt Lightning 15, a ground speed of 8, and replaces the usual climb speed with a Fly speed of 8 (hover). This is explained as the creature having the ability to walk on the lightning it generates.

The math bug affects the stormsteed particularly hard since it’s an epic creature. Its standard damage is a woeful 18, and it should be 32!

Its basic attack is a bite that does a mix of physical and lightning damage, and it can also use its Lightning Breath (close burst 3 vs. Reflex, recharge 4-6) to deal lightning damage all around itself. I wonder if that was meant to be a blast.

When mounted, the stormsteed can use Ride The Lightning, which grants the rider a +2 to attack with lightning powers, and allows the steed itself to use Lightning Breath once per turn as a minor action indepentently of the recharge counter. Perfect for storm giants or someone like a bluespawn godslayer.

Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

We get two sample encounters: a level 8 one with a bolter whelp and three bugbear wardancers, and a level 14 one with an adult, a medusa, and a yuan-ti incanter. If something even remotely looks like a snake, Zehir has an interest in it.

Behirs are one of those monsters I never really got into in previous edition. A closer reading of this MM2 entry does give me a few ideas of how to use them, but I still can’t say I’m pumped about them.