Thread by @hexcrawl

Hypothesis: The beholder's mouth gets larger with each new edition.

Let's start with the original 1975 appearance on the cover of Supplement I: Greyhawk.

Okay, let's compare AD&D 1E (Tom Wham) to AD&D 2E (Jeff Easley).

Here I think you could argue that the 1E beholder has a wider mouth, but I definitely think the 2E has more maw.

Now AD&D 2E (Jeff Easley) to D&D 3E (Scott Fischer).

Bigger teeth. Bigger mouth.

D&D 3E (Scott Fischer) to D&D 4E (Raven Mimura).

This one is interesting because D&D 4E used the same design.

So it's just holding steady.

D&D 4E (Raven Mimura) to D&D 5E (Raymond Swanland).

Clearly a bigger mouth!

And, last but not least (certainly not in mouth size!), D&D 5E (Raymond Swanland) to D&D 2024 (Tyler Jacobson).

I think the teeth are actually the same size, they just look much smaller in that ENORMOUS MOUTH.

Some may be wondering why beholders' mouths keep getting bigger.

This is actually evolutionary pressure: Adventurer miniatures have increased from 20mm to 25mm to 28mm to 30mm scale.

Beholder mouths need to get bigger so that they can keep swallowing their primary prey.

Cool video of Scott Fischer, the artist who created the D&D 3E beholder, painting a beholder.

muddycolors.com/2020/04/fische…

Thinking about starting a new campaign with the new edition of D&D?

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thealexandrian.net/so-you-want-to…