Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast

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

If you’re following this series mostly through Octopus Carnival, you might not know I’m posting it on the RPG.net forums as well. The Aboleth entry sparked some discussion over there, and someone told me there were a few more aboleths detailed in Dungeon Magazine 170. Since I have that issue with me, I took a small detour to talk about those aboleths before moving on to the next Monster Manual entry.

City of Aboleths was published in Dungeon 170, which came out in September 2009. Despite the grandiose name, it’s not actually a adventure, just a pair of combat encounters and a skill challenge. Written by Bruce R. Cordell, it’s a tie-in for a Forgotten Realms novel, also by Cordell.

The Lore

Yes, there’s more aboleth lore here. There’s the classic bit about each aboleth containing the racial memory of its whole lineage, which is always welcome. They don’t die of old age and never stop growing, which is nifty.

Then there’s a bit about how they’re all p-zombies without a sense of self, and another about there being a city called Xxiphu which is the oldest aboleth settlement filled with all sorts of special “superior” aboleth and ruled by the oldest aboleth ever. Both of these I’m willing to discard as being novel tie-in dross.

The Numbers

The new monsters from this adventure are all those special “superior” aboleths from the novel. All except the hatchlings have a fly speed of 8 in addition to their land and swim speeds, and instead of the plain old Mucus Haze each gets a specialized “haze” aura. The increased damage their tentacles do to dazed targets has been separated into an ability called Mind Bore, which deals psychic damage when the aboleth hits a dazed or dominated target with a tentacle. These are the new monsters:

First we have the Aboleth Hatchling, a Small level 16 Minion Skirmisher. It appears aboleths are born with Int 15 and an evil alignment, due to the weight of all those memories. Their tentacle attack does increased damage to dazed targets, as usual, and their haze is an Aura 1 that causes a cumulative -2 penalty to saves against daze or domination. Yes, if you’re surrounded by 4 hatchlings you get a -8 penalty to your saves.

The Aboleth Suffocator is a level 16 lurker with 124 HP. Its tentacles daze, and it has a recharge 3-6 psychic blast called a Brain Lash that also does ongoing 5 psychic damage. When damaged, it turns into a pillar of slime which can’t attack, counts as insubstantial and can shift its full speed. The suffocator can end this as a free action, so it’s useful for repositioning. Its mucus aura gives enemies caught in it a -2 penalty to defenses and saving throws. Fight a suffocator and a bunch of hatchlings and you’re going to dang well stay dazed.

The Aboleth Perceptor is a level 17 soldier with 168 HP. Its mucus aura allows it to ignore all concealment and partial cover when attacking anyone in the aura. The tactics text says the aura also works for its allies, but the stat block disagrees with that. The perceptor’s tentacles pull the target 3 squares and mark it, and it also has an Eye of Madness ranged psychic attack (recharge 5-6) that dazes and marks. Anyone who flouts the mark gets punished by a psychic blast that also makes them vulnerable to further psychic damage. Lastly, the perceptor can shift 5 squares to chase marked targets, as a move action (recharge 5-6).

The Aboleth Behemoth is a Huge level 19 Elite Controller with 362 HP. Its mucus haze works as usual and gives enemies in it a further -2 penalty to saves against daze and domination while the behemoth is bloodied. It makes 2 or 3 tentacles attack per turn, each of which grabs and dazes on a hit. Twice per fight it can whip its tentacles around to hit everyone on a close burst 3 and slide them 3 squares. Its Mind Bore deals ongoing 10 psychic damage instead of just increasing the damage of a single attack by that amount. It also has threatening reach, allowing it to make opportunity attacks against people up to 3 squares away. It fights much like its less special cousin, the Lasher, only it takes up more space.

And lastly, we have the Aboleth Master, which doesn’t appear in the provided encounters and is probably meant to be the “Eldest” aboleth everyone in the novel is so intent on killing. It’s a level 22 Elite Controller with 418 HP. Its haze makes enemies take a -2 penalty to Will against charm and psychic attacks, and pretty much all of its attacks are psychic. It has the Overseer’s Dominate, and Enslave, and can command dominated targets to use any power against their friends, not just at-will ones like usual. Its Mind Bore does ongoing damage, and it has a couple of neat tricks it can use as minor actions. Body Puppet is a ranged attack that does psychic damage and slides the target 5 squares, but ironically it targets Fortitude and so doesn’t benefit from the master’s own aura. Mind Snap does target will, and also dazes.

Fun fact: all new aboleth here have a lower Int than the ones from the Monster Manual. Even the epic Master has an Int of 22, smaller than the 23 of its supposedly “inferior” brethren. The Behemoth has a 5.

Final Impressions

These monsters bring increased variety to an all-aboleth dungeon, but there’s an air of “these are from my novel so they’re extra-special” that bothers me a little. Giving all aboleths a fly speed would be worth it just to see the look on the player’s faces, though. The complementary haze auras thing could also work well.

Still, there are a few weird things here, mostly the stuff that penalizes saves. I’ve yet to see that anywhere else. There’s also the perceptor’s aura doing one thing in the stat block and another in the description, and the master’s aura not helping one of its own powers.

The two provided encounters are level 18, and take place in an “egg cyst”, a cave lined with aboleth eggs and their hibernating guardians. The article recommends adding it as a “side chamber” in a larger Underdark-themed adventure.

The first encounter happens as the party enters the cyst and consists of the classic combo of 2 Aboleth Lashers and 1 Aboleth Slime Mage, only this time they have an entourage of 15 Aboleth Hatchlngs. The second one happens after they cross a stream in the middle of the egg cyst, which wakes up 2 Suffocators, one Behemoth and one Overseer from hibernation. If the PCs wade in the stream while fighitng the first group, it will trigger the second, making them fight against two encounters at once. I’ve had that happen with other monsters in my own adventures, and it was always loads of fun… for me!