Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast

This article is part of a series! Go here to see the other entries.

Our first monster is the Aboleth, everyone’s favorite fishy masterminds. Background information on them here is a bit sparse if compared to previous editions, though this was remedied later in 4e’s lifetime. They’re only on the Monster Manual.

The Lore

The book says Aboleths are hulking amphibious creatures that originally hail from the Far Realm, but now live in the Underdark, swimming its lightless depths and creeping through its tunnels while leaving a slimy trail. Sometimes they make their lairs closer to the surface, though. Aboleths are telepathic and may live together as broods, attended by willing Kuo-Toa servants or by slimy servitors created through a ritual from humanoid victims.

Peeking at the stats we can see all aboleths are Evil and highly intelligent (Int 23), so they retain their story roles as fishy masterminds. The two new things here, as far as I know, are making them amphibious and explicitly linking them to the Far Realm. The amphibious thing is really welcome in actual play, since it gives the GM lots more options for evil plans they can enact, and for how the PCs can confront them.

The Far Realm thing is interesting because it provides us with a link between aboleths and the other pseudo-Lovecraftian monsters in this edition. Basically, anyone with the aberrant origin in 4e has some tie to the Far Realm.

Future books for 4e would elaborate on the Aboleths a bit more - they’re actually survivors from a previous universe, escaping its destruction by hiding in the Far Realm and then migrating to the current world after it was created. I like that a lot! If you combine that with the “ancestral memory” thing they had in previous editions, this means they have access to staggeringly ancient and eldritch secrets. “Why yes, I just sold a copy of Summon Azatoth to this dapper gentleman that came in here just before you. Why am I packing my bags? No reason, really.”

The Numbers

We get three aboleth stat blocks here. While they’re pretty different from each other, they all share a few signature traits.

First, all of them have a swim speed of 10 and a land speed of 5. That means they’re as fast on land as a dwarf or an armored man! They attacks work just as well in and out of the water, of course.

Second, they all have an ability called Mucus Haze, an Aura 5 which makes enemies treat the affected area as difficult terrain. Aboleths aren’t just slimy, their slime is this almost sentient thing that pollutes the air and clings to any who dare oppose them, slowing them down.

And third, their basic melee attacks (tentacles!) all cause increased damage against Dazed targets. We’ll see how each aboleth variant exploits this.

Our first monster in this entry is the Aboleth Lasher, a level 17 Brute. Defensively it has 200hp and average AC for its level and role (29), but his other defenses are lower than I would expect (27/25/25). Its tentacle attack does Brute-level damage and Dazes, and it gets to make two against targets that grant it combat advantage. A simple and direct creature with a simple and direct strategy: charge someone and keep tentacling them until they die. Bonus points if that someone is the wizard or another equivalent squishy. “Simple and direct” doesn’t mean “dumb”, though. The Lasher has Int 23, so even he is qualified to be a sinister mastermind and to fight smart. And as a Regular monster, he won’t be alone.

The Aboleth Slime Mage is the Level 17 Artillery variant. It has better defenses (AC 31, others 28/28/29), but only 128 HP to its name. This one is going to open up with a Slime Burst that selectively targets enemies in an Area Burst 4, which pretty much means “all the PCs”. It does okay damage and immobilizes with a Slow after-effect. Then it’s going to use an at-will Dominate on the PC with the lowest Will defense, and proceed to chuck Slime Orbs (that damage and Slow) at the squishies (or anyone who managed to dodge the opening salvo). It can only dominate one PC at once, but there’s a good chance someone will be dominated at any one time. Anyone who attempts to engage the slime mage in melee has to get through the Mucus Haze while slowed, so good luck with that. If they do manage it, they will only have to contend with the mage’s lackluster tentacles, and will be able to make opportunity attacks if it tries to use any of its other powers.

Finally we have the Aboleth Overseer, a Level 18 Elite Controller (Leader). Its defenses are the expected for its level, with Reflex being a little weaker. Its Psychic Slime attack will likely catch the whole party in its area of effect and Daze everyone it hits so the Lasher (above) can start doing increased damage from the start. Fortunately, it can be used at most twice per fight. It has the same Dominate attack as the Slime Mage, but it can follow that up with Enslave, dealing obscene psychic damage to a dominated creature and making the domination permanent if it reduces the victim to 0 HP. It can also make itself and one ally temporarily invisible once per encounter, so it pairs well with a lurker. Its tentacle attack does okay damage and Dazes as well.

Now, Enslave is a bit confusing. Does the victim get some HP back when its enslaved, or do they just drop as normal? I’m inclined to go with the first option, giving them a healing surge’s worth so they can keep being a nuisance in the fight. In any case, the “permanent” domination ends if the rest of the party manages to kill the Overseer. Should the Overseer manage to escape along with the enslaved victim, it can use a special ritual convert them into an Aboleth Servitor, which is actually for-reals permanent.

Aboleth Servitors are humanoids whose skin has been turned into transparent slime. They have a swim speed and breathe underwater, but suffer greatly if they get too far away from their aboleth master. The average servitor is a Level 16 Minion, but I imagine the GM could custom-build a “named” Regular or Elite minion for those times when the aboleths manage to make off with an enslaved PC. You can also make any other appropriate monster into a servitor by giving it a swim speed and the Aboleth Devotion trait from the minion (and possibly increasing its level to somewhere around 16 if it’s lower).

Suggested encounters are a level 17 composed of 1 Slime Mage and 2 Lashers alongside a troop of Kuo-Toa minion guards, or a level 18 composed of 1 overseer with 8 minion servitors plus a Nabassu Gargoyle and a Savage Minotaur, which I guess would be those custom-built servitors I conjectured about.

These are “Final Battle” material for a level 13 or 14 party, or the sort of patrol a level 17-19 party might expect when raiding the fortress of a large aboleth brood.

Final Impressions

I never gave aboleths much thought before, but these are quite nifty! I think it helps a lot that they can go on land now. Your players might not find then as nifty as I do, though, since they’re quite liberal with distributing the Dazed condition. 4e players hate Dazed and Stunned, since they sharply limit their actions during combat and can be actually harder to get rid of than being at 0hp or less. Domination is a bit worse, because you’re both Dazed and playing for the other team.

Aside from being highly intelligent, all the aboleths presented here are trained in Arcana, Dungeoneering and Insight, so you can still have a scenario where the party needs to negotiate for an aboleth’s services as a sage. Dungeoneering in 4e also includes knowledge about aberrant creatures, so it’s also a good proxy for knowledge about the Far Realm.