HEY!

FISHBOY!

YOU'RE DEAD! KILLED IN ACTION!

>>>/rs/book+aberrations&from=ALL

Aboleths are fucking scary.

So scary, that they scare the fuck out of mindflayers. THEY SCARE MINDFLAYERS.

Whole section of everything you'd need to know in said book posted above.

>Aboleths
>BBEG

NIGHT BELOW, MOTHERFUCKER. NIGHT BELOW.

Don't their slime like, turns you into a water-breather that will die out of water or something?

>aboleth
>bbeg

Eh... Not sure about the BIG BAD evil guy, but they can be used as a villian.

Mosts aboleths couldn't give less of a fuck about what goes on in the world, they just take slaves and chill out somewhere.

Although I recall some 3.5 fluff on them having an ancient empire.

>>10758132
Shit, that takes me back. Loved every minute of it.

>>10758159
Nope, slime stops you from breathing for...

Some amount of time, I dunno. Enough to suffocate though.

Aboleths are amazing foes, and vastly under-CR'd. Their dominate ability is terrifying, they have legions of slaves, and they turn the water around them into mind-altering viscous mucous. Oh, and they're also psions and frighteningly intelligent. And even if you take all that away, they're still super-strong squid-fish with multiple grappling tentacles.

>>10758109
>So scary, that they scare the fuck out of mindflayers. THEY SCARE MINDFLAYERS.

Dude, wrong way round. Mind Flayers scare Aboleths because Aboleths can't see the creation of the Illithid race in their racial memories.

To OP: Aboleths are very cool villains. Lords of Madness has loads of great hooks for them. Do yourself a favour and shift to the psionics rules so you can make them psions and stuff.

>>10758172
>Although I recall some 3.5 fluff on them having an ancient empire.
Many ancient empires. They periodically succeed in their schemes to subjugate the surface races and are overthrow over and over again. They aren't lazy or couldn't care less - they actively seek dominion over the world. One of their goddesses spawns Aboleths as she flits the divide between reality and irreality. Should she return to any given world, it indicates that creation is finite and thus, to the aboleths, that they can conquer all of it.

Seriously cool villains.

Arboleths. As villans.

Okay.

Put yourself in the mindset of a very efficient predator. A deep-sea predator that's more dangerous than a shark in chum filled water. Got that?

Now imagine your mind is what Steven Hawkings is to the average man. Now, imagine that you also remember everything Einstine knew. And Galileo, and Newton, and Turning. Not just everything they knew about math, but everything they /knew/ about anything. You can remember their entire lifetime in a few hours of thought, and you know their strengths, weaknesses, treasures, magical lore, secrets, and you remember when the world belonged to your kind.

Okay, got that?

Now. Your world is filled with these little creatures on land that refuse to deal with their betters and worship them, because you are as close to a God as a dragon is. Maybe more so, because while dragons are powerful, they don't have your racial memory. Sure, now and then you might find something more powerful, but, they still don't have your immortality, your memories, your treasures, lores, and history.

Illithids? Mindflayers? Liches? They are nothing compared to you. Your plots can last lifetimes - you are filling out and making plots that your descendants will fill, as you fill the desires of your elders.

Your plots? You send out thralls, and they do it. You have so many plots, that even if you were killed, they'll be carried out for generations to come.

THAT... is an Aboleth.

>>10758233

Well, they scare each other. Mind Flayers scare Aboleths, Aboleths scare Mind Flayers, and neither wants the other side to know that they're fucking terrified. Consequently, their dealings are almost cordial.

>>10758233
It's mutual scared the fuck of.

Aboleths are freaked out because mindflayers came out of nowhere.

And mindflayers are freaked out because the aboleths are so ancient and have been around forever.

>>10758132
Godtouched Aboleth - Grand Savant.

Colossal dude who doesn't afraid of anything and fucks up your shit. And if you kill him he's all like "ok, dawg, let's fucking go" AND NUKES HIS LAIR FOR A TPK -NO SAVE- IF YOU DON'T GTFO.

>>10758251
>>10758250
Where's the Mind Flayer attitude described? I don't remember it from Lords of Madness.

>>10758269
I believe it's in Lords of Madness.

>>10758248
>Illithids? Mindflayers?
To be fair, with these guys Aboleths are like HOLY SHIT WHEN DID THEY GET HERE. WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN.

They're mind controlling fish with superintellect that turn people into fish slaves.

They're great for BBEGs. When I had one as an antagonist when they players finally fought it, the most ambitious jumped on it and carved out one of his eyes. He managed to get away, however, and they have no idea that he's tracking them

>>10758288

>carved out one of his eyes.
>they have no idea that he's tracking them

...I can still see you, jackass.

And remember, any Aboleth should have a ton of dominated slaves.

They are one my absolute favourite villain races. Up there with Rakshasa, Mind Flayers, Yugoloths and Beholders.

>>10758311
I've been toying with the idea of him forcing some folks to make him a mobile aquarium wagon, but that might leave him too exposed if he gets caught, so he's just following them via extensive underdark waterways.

>>10758332

I'm of the opinion that Rakshasa are under-appreciated and Beholders are over-appreciated. Cool as they are, they're too paranoid, insane, and xenophobic to make truly epic villains. Good bosses, to be sure, but they're not quite BBEG material.

>>10758250
>>10758251
Do aboleths scare other aboleths?

>>10758248

Somehow, I find the idea of having the main villain not even alive during the time the campaign is happening is fascinating to me... suffering waves of mooks and monsters, mini bosses... only to get to the end and find... nothing's there. It'd be hard to make satisfying, I think, but done right it'd probably make the players feel like they got played, which would be really interesting.

>>10758333
Dude, it's an Aboleth. Wait until they end up in a city, and have him dominate the sewer officials and use the Skum he's been preparing during the hunt to divert a river into the sewers and flood the place, then begin the hunt.

>>10758361
One Beholder is excellent. Particularly an ancient one or a Hive Mother. They're super intelligent and perfectly capable of manipulating other creatures.

Of course, the actual Beholder monster is a little lame. I did some redesigning.

>>10758362
Aboleths don't care about other aboleths.

What most of them do is just... nothing.

They sit around and sift through their racial memory.

>>10758370

That would be an interesting twist. They get to the inner sanctum and find... nothing. A few glyphs recorded on the walls, a few bones from an old meal, maybe a wand with most of its charges missing.

What they don't know is that the Aboleth they've been tracking spawned decades ago, and now there are multiple Aboleths out there with its racial memories, all fulfilling its plans even though the original is long-dead.

>>10758370
Isn't it though? Conditions and situations cropping up for a lord that died and no one thought to check to see exactly what he was up to. Or even better, have it be someone they or their ancestors (prior PC's) killed generations ago, but is still fucking up kingdoms/empires/churches.

And they do reproduce. So killing one means little.

>>10758421
I don't know much about them, but the concept is brilliant. Cue a series of campaigns to try and wipe out the entire line.

>>10758421
Oh, that's the other thing:

Glyphs EVERYWHERE. Illusions EVERYWHERE.

I'm talking an illusion over an illusion over an illusion over twelve glyphs over forty illusions layered with glyphs over another illusion over the real thing.

Okay... This shit is nuts, man. I see so many cool D&D stories on /tg/, but I don't have anyone I can play with locally. Who do I need to annoy to get a web game of some kind going?

>>10758438
I mean, Aboleth art is probably a sequence of Far Realm styled illusions placed over each other. All together, it's gratifying but to those sufficiently perceptive to see past each successive illusion it's even more insightful and impressive. Or to your ordinary human, brain-fucking psychic nastiness.

>>10758435
And, after all that.

They still missed /one/.

And it starts over.

>>10758438

What's more, they lack the overblown arrogance of Mind Flayers. They know they've lost before, and they know *how* they lost before. Unlike Mind Flayers, Aboleths are perfectly willing to make use of the lesser races' magicians, enslaving them and having them forge items, learning new spells. They prefer the old ways, to be sure, but they're not stupid. The Illithids, on the other hand, are uniquely recalcitrant in using anything that one of the slave races uses. And here the Aboleths have the advantage.

>>10758479
Well, that'd definitely serve as a hook to another campaign or two, but... using the same villain too much would get pretty dull. It'd work better if they only cropped up every once in a while in a huge scale campaign like that, so that the minions get plenty of time in the light--keep things varied. Right?

I had a campaign not long ago which involved an Aboleth, a Lich, and a Blue Dragon (the schemy McSchemer ones) locked in a deadly proxy-war within a proxy-war over a source of amber on a trade route that they all knew wouldn't be discovered and thus come to fruition for at least 300 more years.

Whoever wins, we... Might pay a slightly higher price for Amber in the unforeseeable future.

>>10758463

Not to mention they can weave psionic imprints into their artwork, such that only those with telepathy can truly appreciate it.

Oh, and unlike Illithids the Aboleths can eat brains but don't have to, and when they do they gain access to everything the deceased ever thought. For Mind Flayers brains are just a tasty meal, but Aboleths? Shit, if one eats a friend of yours suddenly it knows everything about you.

>>10758493

That's because they are Evil, but not DURREBIL!

>>10758497
Of course, of course. But it'd be fun to have them as the over-arching master-villan. When they hit epic levels, having wiped the entire line out - they might meet the goddess of them. ;)

In an amusing twist, it could be possible for the PCs to team up with Mind Flayers to take out an Aboleth. After all, they're competition.

>>10758497

Eh. If an Aboleth's been beaten by you once before, it probably won't seek revenge. After all, it can afford to have time assassinate you for it. It'll wait until you're dead and buried, and then resume its plotting.

>>10758530
Mind Flayers aren't DURREBIL either, they just have a racial arrogance.

Honestly, more of the Far Realms stuff isn't DURREBIL.

>>10758539
Plus, if it's a nice homemade-with-love-and-care setting, it could result in some player Illies... and that'd be interesting as hell. Not sure how the rules would work, but it'd be interesting.

>>10758530
Meeting the Goddess of the Aboleths is less fighting a deific Aboleth and more having your sanity condensed into snakes that devour the inside of your brain while your left arm extends to like, three miles long and the pain feedback causes your body to explode, forming creatures of pure pain that go on to kill your family while wearing your skin.

She's basically a condensed patch of Far Realm, after all.

>>10758543
Well, I didn't say it would find the players... I said the players would try to wipe out the entire line. either because they're just dicks, or because they know it's for the greater good. Whatever. :P

>>10758578

Of course, it is possible to survive and even thrive in the Far Realm. Only, don't expect to remain unchanged. Unlike other planes, the Far Realm is extremely unlikely to kill you outright. It will, however, alter you into something suited to living in the Far Realm but unsuited to reality. Just look at the Kaorti.

I am having these ideas for a family of Aboleth villains in a campaign slowly coming together. First arch ends with them finding an empty Aboleth lair after all the clues pointed to it, finding nothing but six empty egg sacs. Next six arcs have them fight the aboleth spawn, each subtly different from the others. One uses powerful magic in order to enact his part of the plan, wearing a ring on each tentacle. One is barley newly hatched and rides under the hat of a major political figure, keeping him constantly dominated.

I need more ideas for Aboleth villains. This may end up as my new campaign.

>>10758615
Good point. IIRC the Aboleth deities exist more like concepts than actual beings though - goddess in question is stated to be travelling across the veil of probability/irreality or something.

They don't even worship their gods, usually. Just respect them as creatures that could give the Aboleths a good drubbing if they wanted to.

>>10758627
Make an online campaign, damnit!

>>10758393
how is the beholder monster lame? I mean it looks silly, but it's a ball of magical destruction and eyeballs

>>10758109
The thing is, Aboleths are also scared of Mind Flayers, since they don't remember them forming, and Aboleth memories predate time itself. This is because Mind Flayers time paradoxed themselves into existence.

>>10758627

One is a gourmand, delighting in the flesh of living beings. While it still has its parent's racial memories, it has decided not to pursue its goals and instead live its own life. In this case, by eating everything, tasting the delicacies of the world. It has maximum ranks in Craft (Cooking) and Profession (Gourmond). So, right now it lives in the sewers and is setting up a crime ring that gets its hands in anything and everything, but especially slavery. Most of the slaves it funnels out to other countries to keep the illusion going, but some of the tastier ones it has sent down into its sanctum for consumption.

>>10758627

Have one that has devoted his life to the study of human pugilism! A boxing glove on each tentacle and a penchant for drinking human ale.

Imagine tracking down an ancient evil and having it want to throw down in fisticuffs with you. Greatest villain ever.

>>10758702
Still trucking with your Grell Gourmand idea?

>>10758717

I'm going to run it one day, just you wait!

Honestly, though, any aberration would work. I just happen to like Grells best.

>>10758707

That needs to be drawfagged.

I was thinking about some sort of melee Aboleth, wielding a different weapon in each tentacle as a Marlith would, but that just seemed.... Not Aboleth-y.

>>10758746

Why not? They're individuals, and have different proclivities. This one just happens to enjoy the visceral feel of melee combat.

>>10758731
I just always seem to run into you in aberration threads, for some reason. The rest of the time I can't tell which Alpharius is which.

>>10758746

Aboleths predate time itself, they have been in every single era and have interacted with everything that has ever been. So then, what exactly could possibly be described as un-abolethy? They can do pretty much anything their twisted minds dream up.

>>10758707
ONLY, only, ONLY if it had on a great coat, a top hat, and a monocle. And if you beat it at the dapper sport of pugilism, it would forever swear you a friend.

Because a story like this requires some outright comedy, doesn't it?

>>10758764

That's because I fucking love aberrations. I post in other threads as Alpharius, but I tend to blend in better because I'm not the only one. Sadly, none of the other Alpharii seem to care much about aberrant villains, and thus the illusion crumbles.

>>10758702
>>10758717
>>10758731

that actually seems like a really cool idea. If you get that campaign off the ground, I'll totally play in it.

>>10758775

This.

This SO MUCH.

If a DM would create such a villain for me, I would serve him mountain dew for the rest of his days.

>>10758788
Heh! To be fair, there have been one or two other threads too. I remember one about Bel and shit, but we ended up talking about aberrations there too.

>>10758746
I'll take that on, I suppose. Someone's seriously gotta get a game going online though.
And yes, I'm going to keep saying that until someone hooks me up with some D&D love here.

>>10758761
>>10758771

I guess mostly because it seems, at least with the pugoleth, just more goofy than anything else. I dunno. It's a difficult call.

>>10758746
Create aboleth weapons. A long, slimy electric-eel whip, poison spine shooters made of people. think tyranid, but slimier and softer

>>10758821

Devils are another big favorite of mine. Anything extraplanar, really. Not so fond of Demons, Yugoloths are kinda boring. Inevitables and Modrons kick all sorts of ass, as do Angels and Celestials. I can take or leave Eladrin, and the Rilmani and Slaadi are sort of lame. Chaos = Giant Frog, apparently.

>>10758856
I always preferred demons of the Abyss and Yugoloth over others. Slaad for chaos, they really should have gone more with the prismatic color scheme there.

I can't really run a game anytime soon, because I'm pretty busy with RL for, oh, the next three years or so. You'll have to count me out, unfortunately.

>>10758856
Try not to think of just 'giant frog' as much as amphibian, one of the prominent life forms to change things altogether, sliding from our base roots of water to our (until space travel) farthest step on land, and keeping the ability to go back and forth.

>>10758835

It would be kind of goofy, but it would also be incredibly dangerous. If someone doesn't take the pugoleth seriously he may just find his block knocked off! All I'm saying is that there is no reason it CAN'T happen, and if you are running six different aboleths, you may as well have one comedic boss.

>>10758876
I've never seen Slaad as outright villans. Or even being evil. They are as likely to do good as they are wicked, they might save someones life one day, then go out and have a blood revelry the next. SOme might be more dedicated to the 'good' spectrum, others towards 'evil', but as a whole, they are CN.

They don't want to /hurt/ anyone exactly, and might even feel bad about it, but it happens. They might not even understand good and evil. They are the living embodiment of chaos.

>>10758886
Well that sucks. :(

>>10758856
I like the idea of Yugoloths, but not their execution. Scheming mercenaries who play off and outwit both demons and devils? Very cool. Dude with a big arm? Lame as hell.

Slaad can be fun, I think. Just use the more intelligent variants as your actual bad guy. Seconding you on pretty much everything else. And, also, obviously, dragons.

>>10758911
Yeah, and not the Warhammer version of chaos

>>10758905
Make it have the alignment of Dapper/Manly with a touch of Honorable/Awesome.

And the goal isn't to kill it. Boxing isn't about /killing/ it's about the honorable and manly sport of pugalism. Anyone who even just puts up a good fight and loses, will forever be a friend and ally of the Pugaboleth.

Is it serious? No. Is it funny? Yes. Because D&D isn't all SRS BZNS.

..though pugaboleth makes me think of an aboleth/pug mix. Oh god the cute.

>>10758840

Ok, THAT sounds awesome. Weapon Aboleth is a go. Pugoleth may also be a go. who knows. the mental image of an Aboleth with a monocle and just giant, club like tentacles is starting to appeal.

He'll of course also have some sort of tentacular handlebar moustache.

>>10758922
Yeah, I hate when dragons are portrayed as stupid. The only way I could see that is with a very young white dragon, and even then they're just not educated, but still naturally as cunning and powerful as any apex predator.

I didn't like giants for this reason, they seemed too primitive to be involved with enslaving what should be the most powerful creatures on the prime material (outside of deviants, like tarrasques and stuff).

>>10758941

This would mean that the encounter would have to be a sporting event of some sort. Would you have to beat him up using padded gloves? My god, how strong are aboleths?

Also, since the /rs/ link posted earlier seems to be down

http://rs113.rapidshare.com/files/40428436/A_Lords_of_Madness.pdf

>>10758973
Strong enough to tear a man in two with two tentacles. They don't really have a definite weakness.

>Set up to drawfag a Pugilist Aboleth
>Google images for references
>No two alike.

>>10758945
Maybe his ancestral memory somehow got tainted by a humans.

>>10758948
Dragons are a funny thing.

I've seen them done all over, and never quite agree with how it's done. See... where Aboleths are terrible and dangerous, dragons are as well - except a little more so. When the universe was created, the dragons were already there, like the Aboleth. Dragons are ancient and old, proclaimed the first creation - the most perfect creation. But they are also given to vanity and pride. For good reason, obviously. They alone are the most dangerous creature to have ever existed. Abominations? Let a dragon age a few centuries, and the abomination is fucked. Human armies can be crushed in a single battle, empires in weeks, at the most.

But they are also intelligent, on the scale of an Aboleth.

Hmm...

Aboleths and Dragons... two sides of the same coin? One is of the land, the other of the sea?

>>10758973

Pathfinder bestiary (since that's what I have handy) put the strength for your typical Aboleth at 20. Pretty respectable for a giant tentacle fish.

>>10758948

Are you kidding? The Frost Giants are based off the Jotun, the primordial beings predating the creation of the world when all was ice and they ruled. The Frost Giants may be inherently chaotic and given to division, but they're not primitive. They're extremely strong individually, easily strong enough to tame younger White Dragons. Just think of the Frost Giants as descendants of a primordial, but still material, Evil. They're unlike the Aboleths in that they are wholly material, don't have any of that fancy racial-memory stuff, and just aren't as smart or magically powerful. But they know that they once ruled the world, and are filled with icy resentment towards all else and want nothing more than to whelm the world with frost once again.

>>10758996
Well, assuming equal skill and CR, the dragon is probably going to take the aboleth to pieces.

Dragons are cool, but they suffer a bit of the Beholder malady, to a lesser degree.

>>10758996
the amorphous, unknowable sea of the far realm and the solid, known land of the prime material

>>10759010
>paper cut
>sharp rocks

...what!? that annoys me more then it should.

So uh... To repeat myself...
What version of the Aboleth is "correct"?
I find so many variations looking for a reference to draw from...

>>10759050

They all are. Aboleths are a race with many variants. Just choose the one you like best.

>>10758973
Inter-dimensional sporting event, set in the city of Dis. Creatures from everywhere are brought for sporting events, where they compete for cash, prizes, and magical items.

Track and field, race against centaurs, kobolds, and other long distance runners, avoiding the pitfalls and traps of the field!

Swimming: Can you outswim a dolphin? Mermaid? Aboleth?

Chess: Battle against the greatest minds to be the champion of battle-chess, where you move the pieces, and they do battle!

Boxing: The manly sport of padded gloves! Can you defeat the champion, six-punch Dapper Joe?

Wrestling: With bears. Seriously. Can you out-wrestle a bear?

Wasn't there a story a while back where a Wizard/Archivist gestalt dominated an aboleth through it's own psychic bond?

They only have 20 INT, with feat and optimization you can have like 24 at level 5.

>>10759058

No, no, no. You have to out-grapple a Dire Gelatinous Cube.

>>10759050

Here you will see your standard aboleth.

>>10759022
I was referring to all giants. And in dnd the frost giant was originally created to be that way, but after a point they stopped caring about nordic references, and the giants are just children of larger giants.

>>10759037
Oh god, that's almost terrifyingly what I was thinking.

And awesome.

Both are equally dangerous, just in different ways. In a one on one fight, you can't beat a dragon. In plotting, you can't beat an aboleth.

Oh ideas...

>>10759073

I'll stick with my fluff because I like Nordic references. Also, it's cooler that way.

>>10759073
Fire Giants are my favourite giants, followed by Stone Giants and then probably... Storm Giants? The evil ones, not the good ones. I hate the good ones.

But Alpharius' makes a good point. Giants aren't stupid. They might not match a dragon's intellect but they should be able to capture a young one without much effort. This is a race that can grapple with dragons, after all.

>>10759090

There is a man who looks like he would embrace the sweet, toothy embrace of death.

Reveal new pieces to the plot as the aboleths are tracked down, culminate with a gigantic aboleth-god-construct that the players must stop, pic related.

>>10759107

Storm and Cloud giants and general Neutral/Lawful giants alongside lesser giants like Veeberg or whatever you call them, respect warriors of all shapes as sizes as long they follow the code of a warrior and are honorful.

As an example, I was playing a dorf Warrior in a forgotten realms campaign. Instead of facing a veeberg, my dorf challenged him into a shouting constest.

And the dorf one, he got instantly respected by everyone at the giants tribe since he managed to outshout the second strongest giant in the trie, excluding the chieftain and killing some snowtroll pests in the process.

>>10758979
>>10759010
>>10759090
http://rapidshare.com/files/402609207/sea_bear___grizzly_shark_01__2010___minutemen-dts_.cbz

>>10759167
A plot doesn't need cthulhu to be a good story.
Just have the last one be particularly intelligent even for the species and you've got yourself a major freaking challenge.

>>10759195

Aboleth Savants are pretty terrifying. 'Couse, that might be overkill.

>>10758993

How is the drawfaggotry going?

>>10759226
Slowly!

>>10759172
Then I meant Cloud Giants, sorry. The ones that are often Neutral Evil. I really don't like the Good Giants man, sorry.

I'm now having the idea of the eldest "brother" being an almost direct copy of the parent aboleth, using it's powerful and ancient psionics to have been basically scrying on the party through the entire game. Very much a "just as planned" BBEG.

I made the mistake of using aboleths as the BBEG. Two of them, living in a tank at a freak show, were running a criminal empire. That lasted right up until the team's tardbot Warforged threw a bucket of powdered lye into the tank.
Ever see what happens when lye starts to dissolve a fish?
Ha ha. Doesn't tickle.

>>10759315

Ouch. Full immersion in acid is, what, 20d6 per round?

>>10759332
>acid

>>10759315
I have to imagine that never happened. Why would you let there be lye right next to the bbegs, knowing it could kill them?

>>10759344
Every good adventurer is never without a bag of lye.

>>10759332
Yep. A two-round kill for the BBEG.
Not my best day as a DM.

I think the fluff now states that they managed to survive the END OF THE LAST GALAXY

Have them be unstopable walls of fishy carnage is damn well how!

>>10759338

Yeah, yeah, it's a base, but honestly the acid rules approximate lye just as well.

>>10759344
The tardbot had grabbed it during a supply run; he was the circus' errand boy. Ostensibly, it was going to be used for soap-making (as the owners [read: pawns of the aboleths]) were excessively cheap.

>>10759315
Fair enough, assuming the lye gets past the Aboleth's mucus cloud fast enough to damage them.

Why didn't they use their Fly spell? Or their Wall of Force spell? Hadn't they prepared any Energy Resistance spells?

>>10759388
Hell, why didn't they just enslave the dude before he threw the Lye in?

You know... I think that's one of those times where I, myself, would be able to accept a DM stretching logic a little to make things a little harder. To kill the big final bosses so fast would kinda suck. :P

>>10759388
Sorry, read that as Aboleth Mages. N/m.

Hm. You can easily run an eldritch abomination game with simply using aboleth grand savant in place of Cthulhu and it's thraws in place of the frog/fish men. Just have big port city as the setting with the Grand Savant living in a cave beneath it.

>>10759388
why didn't their tanks have lids? why did they both share the same tank? why didn't they have illusions set up?

New idea for Aboleth offspring as I flip through lords of madness. He's a man, at least mostly. Basically a cleric or something with a shit ton of abberant feats. He runs a cult in the same city as the one controlling the king. Between the two of them, both the nobility and the underclass are working towards the completion of the master plan.

I just had a thought.

Given that the racial memory of the Aboleth is so all-encompassing and easily recalled, would they not know every human on the planet? In the sense that if they saw you, they would likely remember your ancestors and facial features?

>>10759452
No...

But if you gave them enough time, they could probably work it out. Not all of them have all the racial memories.

>>10759452
As D&D stands at the moment, maybe. Probably not, they don't get out much.

In a world like ours, they might even find gainful employ as a 'face checker', able to identify people.

>>10759460

I just thought it would be creepy to encounter an aboleth BBEG and have him recall your bloodline back to the founding days of mankind, tell you all about your ancestors as a means of psychological mindfuckery.

>>10759480
Just have him capture and eat their parents, suddenly he knows all about their childhood.

>>10759388
They were busy the round he went from "I am a chump walking by the tank" to "I am throwing lye into the tank". Specifically, they were making the team's cleric arrange to have them "sold" to another circus, to expand their empire.

>>10759433
They had just gotten fed. Lids were open. Like I said: not by best work.

>>10759501
Ah well. Such is gaming.

Neat idea, though. I might pinch it for an information broker. Circus of freaks run by a fleshwarper Aboleth. It moves from city to city, putting on shows and getting paid to root out spies in organisations and governments. It guarantees it'll capture the spy, but only on the condition it gets to eat his or her memories once you're done with them.

Don't let this thread die on me while I'm working! I'll feel stupid if I have to post another thread and be like "uh, hey, remember that other thread..."

>>10759557
Frankly this comes out to sound like a truly terrifying villan; o,r even worse, an ally to be wary of.

It doesn't want gold, except to further it's plans. Thus, it might pay generously those whom it cannot outright dominate.

It doesn't care for power, because it has all the power it needs, extending it's long, slimy tendrils anywhere it wants to, getting information for the sake of information. And holding that information, until someone needs it. Then, it's got any information it wants to sell, for sale.

Need to know the childhood nickname of a great wizard for a powerful spell?

You owe it a favor and some piddly amount of gold.

You want to know your family lineage back before the arrival of the great kings?

Sure. But when you claim your family treasure, it is due 5% of it, and a choice of any one item it wishes.

It's rates are low, it can give you anything you ask. All it requires is a favor, in the future. Failure to respond to the favor request is a very, very bad thing.

Because it can tell every dirty secret.

>>10759668
Don't worry, I don't think it will. I'm having too much fun with Aboleths. They were always my favorite 'abberant' creature.

So terrifying, and so awesome.

I'll be done enough to show a progress snap in juuust a min~

>>10759675
Yep, pretty much what I'm thinking of. Hell, if you give it a plan and make it properly evil you could have it funnel the gold to criminal organisations, which then infiltrate governments or guilds. The guild hires the aboleth to uproot them, it fakes that the spy is a real official and gets some tasty information.

The spies infiltrating to give it an excuse don't even have to know. They could be genuine spies the aboleth absorbs as collateral, and to check the criminal organisations it is secretly funding don't guess what their real purpose is.

>>10759754
Some of them don't even have to eat the brain to get the knowledge. They are powerful psychics, after all. I mean, say it gets a high up official. It keeps it trapped for a few days, reading every thought and memory, then wipes it. Put it somewhere, where it's found, with a few tankards of expensive alcohal, maybe some other... stuff.

It's a nightmare. A dream. They were fucking drunk off their ass, right?

If they remember?

"I was mind-raped by a monster!'

Yeah. And you just happen to have some halucinagenics, alcohal, and smell like you've been on a 3 day bender...

I never even really realised how much potentiol these giant fish had. they were always just the big fish monster that came first in the monster manual to me.

Keep the ideas flowing guys!

>>10759818
I was thinking about doing something like this already, actually - a group of draconic mercenaries who occupy a ferocious fortress constructed by a since-overthrown kingdom. The idea is they operate the thing like a giant prison. They'll take any prisoner, no questions asked. They use most of them to mine silver out of the depths of the fortress, but you can pay extra to have them spared labour or kept in certain conditions.

A twist on the premise and an aboleth have given me a circus of terror. Maybe I'll keep both, have them both run by the aboleth - or have the circus be run by one of the spawn of the master of the castle.

>>10759849
We are /tg/, where we will outfluff any monster manual, out OCD any power-gamer, out crazy chaos, and find any type of monster fuckable.

>>10759879
Well... I do need to practice my anatomy skills. Anthropomorphic D&D monster girls next, maybe?
Sketch is done in a tick.

>>10759875
Circus of the Mad.

They appear on the outskirt of town one day, cloaked in fog and shadow. They have small sounds, hidden laughter coming from somewhere. It's also bright and colorful, where lights flicker everywhere, and inside the radius of the camp is a carnival atmosphere - dancers, singers, musicians. A place amazing and bright, like being drunk while sober.

Tests for strongmen, illusionary mazes of the mind, and fortune tellers, a place that is energetic, almost madening in its intensity and fire. You enjoy it, it's damn fun, and even get some small trinkets, a ring that is said to give luck, or a token of protection from a fortune teller. It's fun, it's enjoyable, it's...

When you leave, you feel like you are hung-over. Your mind feels exhausted, like it's been streched open and turned inside out. Tired, tired enough to sleep for a week. All that fun, excitement, joy!

Why do you feel like you should have noticed something? Why can't you remember the entirety of the big show in the great center of the circus?

Oh well, must not be important.

And that token? Well, it's cute, got this cute reprensentation of a monster on it. It'll look great over the mantle, where it can give luck to the entire house.

Because you don't want to throw it away.

No, that would be bad.

>>10759943
I'd be all for that, if you feel comfortable with it. :) But, Aboleths are awesome. Maybe a mindflayer?

Nice. Not OP here, thanks for the new campaign everyone.

Aboleths: plot hooks.
- they've taken to adopting adventuring parties; they know where to buy supplies cheap, ask for only a few captives to be kept for intel purposes and don't give moral judgments.
- they're fully capable of generating small empires of criminal scum (see also: adventurers/armed hobos), and provide insight into business matters (see also: psychic fu), making them invaluable aide-de-camps to kings, nobles, guildmasters...
- they make great pets.

>>10759993

>>10759993
That's awesome. Not only is the circus a cover, the aboleth uses it to drain thoughts, drain emotions and plant psychic foci in every household in the city.

>>10760007
Dude, I've got gigs. I'm skeptical of my own anatomy skills, but, I'm still learning.

Hokay, sketch...
I have questions for you guys. Four boxing gloves or just two? I heard something about a hat and a stache in here too, I think... Also, should we try for a detailed and fleshed out (but kinda messy) sketch, or some bold-but-flat lines?
Direct me, my elegan/tg/entlemen. <3

Also... based mostly on OP's post because, fuck year, blue/yellow-green/white

>>10760075
Four and a pipe. The hat and mustache would just be silly.

>>10760075
4 gloves, top hat, mustache, monocle.

>>10760055
It's like Vegas.

You don't know why you went, but you had fun, and you can't remember everything. You have a strange token to remind you of it. You wouldn't want to throw it away, because it reminds you of other things.

P.S.: you all have no idea how hard it is to put boxing gloves on a creature without hands. Seriously. It's daunting.

>>10760075
'Stache and 4 gloves definitely.

>>10760101
>>10760099

Oh god, cannot please everybody.

>>10760075
Boxing is done with two arms, you use two arms. Even if they are on tentacles, only two, otherwise it's unmanly.

Dapper hat, dapper monocle, and perhaps a type of long coat. Maybe a cane in one hand and a pistol in the other, even if they don't do that sort of thing?

>>10760101
And a cup of tea. And party must fight him like gentlemen.

>>10760127
Then please me! The first one!

Also, human boxing is done with 2 gloves only because there are 2 arms! Aboleth boxing has 4 gloves, and is twice as manly because of it.

>>10760141
Cup of tea, and a cigar as well? Top hat is a must. He must be as dapper as possible.

Really, go with what sounds most amusing for you. That's what's important.

>>10760138
I'm sorry, but, a coat is impossible... it's just not feasible.
How the devil do you put a coat on a fish?

Okay, so the total of everyone in compromise seems to be four gloves, 'stache, and monocle... This can be done.

>>10760162
Also top hat. Okay.
I'll get back to work in juuust a min. Something else is calling my attention.

>>10760156
No. If his fighting humans, he must use two gloves. He is, after all, a gentleman.

>>10760211
Just because he has four gloves, wouldn't mean he has to use all of them. It'd be... ungentlemanly.

>>10760241
Sure, its a mindraping illusion-throwing fleshwarper, but it will not use an unfair advantage with its extraneous limbs.

>>10760267
Boxing is gentlemanly. To do anything but boxing while boxing is not gentlemanly.

You guys are so unruly... For this, I'd better get to be the board mascot or something, yeesh.


I kid, of course. Mostly.

Idea: Party are the city's freaks. (All have to take at least a flaw, check with GM.) Some of them with higher charisma might be regarded as that lovable hobo, but they're mostly scorned. The Circus of the Mad comes along, and are ready to recruit.

>>10760400
This idea is amazing and fits the character concept I've already had planned.
Please, by god, this must happen. It must.

>>10760400
Video is relevant to this idea.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWBy3O_JuQQ

>>10760400
In a situation like this, it'd be rather appropriate. The circus of the damned, he might be... a little on the distant side, but he'd be a good patron for the players.

Stability, family, and a place to be.

>>10760354
Fuck being a /tg/ meme, your image is going to supplicate my BBEG in my campaign!

>>10760400
I'd run this, but I can't say I'm extremely familiar with Aboleths, and I've only ran D&D once previously.

>>10760509
Aaactually, YC is a character herself...

She looks like this.

>>10760588
She's kinda hot, you know.

>>10760601
Yes indeed. I think she's cuter with her recognizable hood up, though.

>>10760620
>>10760588
Not a Top-Hat. Not interested.

>>10760620
Hmm. When you finish the Arboleth, would you feel up to taking a request? :)

>>10760400
Other idea: Party are Aboleth siblings forming something of an Aboleth syndicate, wheeling and dealing, making and breaking alliances with other Aboleths and mighty creatures. Also possible, playing by proxy, so to speak; sessions where players use other, non-Aboleth characters as, basically, extensions.

>>10760787
>Aboleth: the Abolething.
Fund it.

>>10760657
Oh, be patient.
Plus, you know, drawfags work harder, faster, and produce better when we get an ego stroke now and again, so be nice you craven douche.

>>10760739
Only if it's awesome! I'm adding some colors underneath the Aboleth sketch right now, actually... Give him a little more pop, a little more life. I'll be done soon, I think... I feel like it'd lose it's "life" if I tried to give it solid lines, so we're going to splash some color on it nice and loose.

>>10760830
Actually by refusing to do hard lines, you would give it a 'out of focus' or 'dream focus' sort of appeal, like you are seeing it through an illusion, or there's an illusion where you aren't seeing everything.

You know why Aberrations make the best villains.? Because starting with the monstrous arcana books (pic related), Firestorm Peak, and continuing to Lords of Madness, aberration books have always been some of the most well written fluff D&D has had to offer.

WotC seems to have listened somewhat and are including more fluff and less bear lore in their books. Hopefully the tradition will continue.

>>10760856
Maybe... I do tend to sketch with heavy lines though. It might not work out that way. xD

Glad some people picked up on my circus idea. Thanks to the Anon who helped flesh it out.

>>10760896
..actually, I had the aboleths in the tank at the circus first. So, there's that.

>>10760927
Yep. Hopefully this one won't die by lye though.

New house rule: Aboleths are immune to Lye.

>>10760974
Cloud of mucus. It stops a lot of things.

>>10760942
..ouch. Yes, still not my best DM achievement.

Aboleths are great villains. Even better than mind Flayers in some respects. Mind flayers are MENTAL CONTROL. No fighting it. But Aboleths? They're BODY HORROR. Oh, look, some adventurers. BAM hit them with that special slime that takes away their ability to breathe air. You want to survive? Do as we telepathically command and we'll let you breathe water, as long as you stay close by, where we can easily screw with your perceptions, emotions, and then mind control your dumb ass subtly. They're all sorts of dickery. Having players wake up one morning with amphibious or grotesque lovecraftian mutations is always a good way to motivate them, or break their spirits.

>>10760986
Sorry, I didn't mean to be harsh. I am stealing the shit out of your idea, after all. Take the imitation as a compliment?

>>10760820
I love that name

>>10761018
How about...

It goes with the body-horror idea. They wake up, one day. Last thing they might remember is being at a fishing village, investigating the disappearance of some members of the nobility, when they wake up, miles and years away. They don't remember much, of anything, but each has a strange... mutation to them. Gills, a tentacle, slippery fish-like patches, shark teeth. Something small, easy to hide but noticable if shown.

They can't remember WHAT happened. But they are feared, and have detailed plans and outlines for the movements of some evil cult that's spreading through the nation...

>>10761028
This is /tg/, where if an idea is put up, it's there for everyone, including the Circus of the Damned.

My only request for using it: Tell me how it works.

I like feedback on how others use my ideas, or ideas in general.

>>10761028
That would be cool. If possible, add in:
- the Shaven Lady! (Dwarf chick with no hair; induces gagging in Dwarfs)
- man eating chicken! (old carnie joke.. not so much a joke anymore.)
- Wanda and the Wand o' Wonders! (for a small fee, will use a "Wand of Wonders" on paying customers; what is this i don't even)

I had an aboleth as a BBEG once. Worked out well because the team was shit in the water. I left stuff all over that was meant to help them figure out how to kill and trap the thing. They succeeded in crushing it underwater with a giant trap of falling boulders.

>>10761113
Prismatic cotton candy, where as you eat it, it gives off ripples of light, like prismatic spray or 'color spray'.

"Freaks", or hybrids of two species, like a elf-dwarf, or a half-lizardman, or a wemic-griffon hybrid.

A performing troupe of halflings, or kobolds or something: who juggle, toss, and perform athletic tricks. High wire, or low stage, all are excellent.

Combat pits, where elementals battle one another for the amusement of the crowd.

>>10761193
Riiiiide the Ferris Wheel!
- gigantic disk with seats, held aloft by Bigby's Huge-Ass Hand.
Visit the Hall of Mirrors!
- ... actually, this has potential...
Go into the Tunnel of Love!
- ..and be replaced by the Circus' team of Doppelgangers.

>>10761248
Hall of Mirrors.

When you go in, you encounter not a hundred mirrors, but only a small handfull.

But three of them are set off, to the side, like they shouldn't be looked at.

When you look into them, you see three different things, depending on which one.

In one, you see yourself as a failure, a glimpse into the very worst that your life could bring you at this point. Everything is ruins, destroyed, your touch makes the world bleaker. From this view, it is horrible - the thing you love the most is gone. Because of you. Something simple.

The second shows what appears to be another world - your life, full of joy and mirth, things you could aspire to, to be, to do, to understand, to make right, to make proper. It's subjective, but within these gudielines.

The third one is covered in a sheet. When it's lifted, the sheet covers the one looking. They are pulled to, into the mirror. And here, they are on the other side of it. The world of illusion, of seeing things from the other side of the world. It's cold, but not enough to shiver, it's dark, shadowy. And there's something coming for them. When they run to return to the portal, they fall backwards, out of the sheet, which falls to cover it again.

They were wondering why they just stared at it. They were quiet, and they can't quite remember what was chasing them.

But from now on, they can feel something watching them from the edge of a mirror, or any reflection. They are quickly hurried out before they can investigate.

Hope it's not too lame.

Someone save this goddamn thread.

>>10761370
Why don't you do it? Just go to Sup /tg/ archive.
>>10761359
It's alright, yeah. Would be good as a 'disused' exhibit. Shades of Harry Potter though.

>>10761407
Oh...hey. That's how you do it. Thanks!

>>10761359
Alternatively, when you reveal the unused mirror, another 'you' attempts to jump free from the mirror and throw you in. Roll a d20. 1-10 means it's a dimensional portal to the existence in which your life is a failure, and that 'you' is trying to get a better life. On 11-20, it's the you from the happy life, who also attempts to switch with you. Why? They're both the same terrible life, one's just got you fooled.

>>10761489
That's the garnish it needs! Pretty awesome.

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/10758050/

Archive'd!

>>10761513
>sees name
>remembers incident
>my face

>>10761489

Maybe it's a portal to the Plane of Mirrors? It was a kinda lame background plane in the appendix of the Manual of the Planes, but it could be fluffed out considerably.

>>10761607
Seems like the kind of curiosity the Ringmaster might collect, anyway.

That should be the Aboleth's name. Just "The Ringmaster".

>>10761698

Well, it's not like he's going to put "Urgblursdfaxintntch, Devourer of a Thousand Souls" on his business card.

>>10761607
Why should we limit ourselves? Some are illlusionary, some link to the plane of mirrors, some might lead to a world in which everything is reversed, and there might also be the there previously discussed.

>>10761718

That's a fair point. I imagine that this particular Aboleth would consider himself something of a collector. He collects magic items, secrets, knowledge, people, dreams, emotions. He pins them to the wall, killed and preserved for all eternity. He has no real plan. He doesn't care about restoring the ancient Aboleth empire. He just wants to collect.

>>10761756
This was pretty much the proposed theme, yeah. He collects information, collects freaks, extending it to a collecting mania where he collects well, everything is a nice touch.

I figure he might well distill down the emotions of the carnival he drains into bottled thought. 'Hope' is a currency in hell, isn't it? He has bottles of 'disappointment', 'happiness' and 'hope'. Maybe he even engineers strange emotions just so he can collect them.

>>10761800
Whenever my group comes across an awesome idea, we turn into Shouting Engineer During the Tour of the Plant. You grab a clipboard, don goggles and then go into "all caps mode", speaking as if over a group of loud machinery and years of partial deafness.
>WE HERE AT ABOLETH INDUSTRIES HAVE ONE OF THE LARGEST COLLECTIONS OF HUMANOID EMOTIONS EVER MADE. WE HAVE SOME OF THE MORE OBSCURE EMOTIONS SEALED IN THOSE CASKS, OVER THERE. SOME OF THEM ARE SO OBSCURE AND RARE, THEY'VE ONLY BEEN EXPERIENCED BY ONE SENTIENT BEING.

>OVER HERE, WE HAVE THE PLANT'S REFLECTING POOL, WHERE WE GO TO REFLECT ON OUR CONCERNS, TROUBLES AND ISSUES, EASING OUR MINDS THROUGH A PATH TO BALANCE AND INNER PEACE.

>pic related

Fought against an Abotleth as a BBEG as a PC... had to fight through about 2 hours of Nightmares and flashbacks to gain enough info on the thing in order to fight it proper.

How to win? Activate the dead cities defense grids, fight it on both dreamscape and physical planes, have it toss a quickened fireball at its feat hoping to kill our sorry 4th level party asses, then tank the Concentration check needed to cast teleport in the same round...

Die by glorious pummeling following round. Cheers ensue, entire city of ghost wizards beholden to us: amazing.

>>10762476
The thing is I'm pretty sure hope and despair and stuff are used as actual currency by certain planar beings, including devils. Maybe that was just in Trollman's Tomes, I'm not sure...

I liked the idea anyway. It had nice touches like 'No matter how much hope you carry, it never weighs you down...'

...Uh... I may have totally been finished 40 minutes ago and forgot to put it up here...
I mean, there was a thread of traps... then there was a thread of like, trap traps... And... yeah.

>>10763553
Not my thread, but I feel compelled...

>>10763601
You should be ashamed of yourself.

>>10763553
Completely awesome.

>>10764241
Thank you.
I need a lot more practice though.

Fun fact: three of the four gloves are right-handed.

>>10764317
Thank you for providing me with my next BBEG

the Aberran/tg/entleman!

>>10764614
Not a problem! After visiting this board for a few days, I've decided to make it my new home. I'm a bigtime PnP geek and rulesfag, but... I'm the only person within a ludicrous distance who is, as far as I know. All the comic and game shops within like 40 miles of me closed down with that whole "economic crisis" thing... Here's hoping that I can get me some PnP-by-web love.

>>10764763
Note to self: More sleep, less stimulants. That was such an off-topic ramble...

>>10764777
It is fair enough.
Where do you live btw?
I usually have a spot open in the groups i GM for new people to try out a character for a few sessions

You are totally awesome, man. VERY well done.

>>10764849
Western Massachusetts. I can't really get around though--can't even afford a bus pass, I'm utterly broke.

>>10764862
(I'm so sick of repeating this already...)
YC is short for Yellow-chan. I'm a girl.

Oh my god, /tg/.

I started this thread just to get some advice and you've taken it to a magical land of awesome.

I mean, Aboleth Lutefisk? An aboleth gentleman pugilist? A circus of madness and horror?

You really went above and beyond, /tg/. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

>>10765804
I am proud for the small part I played in this.
Now I just want to meet these critters in a game.

Guys. Guys.

Seriously guys.

You do realizes that Aberrant Bloodline is possible for a sorcerer in Pathfinder, right?

This is the ultimate setup for the most mind-breaking-ly awesome horrible 'Luke I am Your Father' moment.

Only in this case, LITERALLY mind-breaking, as one of its psychic attacks is to assail the character's mind with the very act of conception that brought them into being. And 6 angles of the act. Coupled with the most excruciating details of how not only their mother enjoyed it, but brought others to him that they might know his touch as a devoted and in love slave should appropriately do, with the intent of attempting to bridge the gap from its icthyoid form to a new iteration of its existence, perhaps spawned upon its own offspring.

Regardless of the offspring's gender.

(side note; why did icthyoid have McCarthyism as a spell-check correction?)

>>10766382

I imagine that everyone has been inspired to use these beasties in their campaigns. Often neglected, Aboleths make amazing villains. Maybe we here on /tg/ should make a series out of that. Maybe we should look at Rakshasa or Naga next. Hmm...

Anyways, your sex is irrelevant on /tg/. Unless proven otherwise, it's assumed that you're an amorphous blob of fat and neckbeard with a comprehensive knowledge of rules-systems and a love of orange-colored snack foods and Mountain Dew.

>>10766712
>why did icthyoid have McCarthyism as a spell-check correction

Because COMMUNISTS

>>10766720

I vote Naga, tbh. I've yet to find a use for Naga besides "There's a treasure vault. A naga guards it. Roll for initiative"

>>10763175

Wait. Your DM had you fight an Aboleth at level 4? Does he hate you?

>>10767269

The key to building good villains based on existing monsters, I believe, lies in taking the paragraph of existing fluff, looking at it's mechanical abilities to determine exactly what it's capable of, and extrapolating from there. First, let's examine the Spirit Naga, the most powerful of the evil Nagas.

Looking through the fluff, most of it's generic BadGuy EvilSnake stuff, but here's something: they enjoy gathering in covens and establishing cults. That's something to keep in mind for later.

The mechanics offer a lot more, story-wise. All Spirit Nagas have a Charming Gaze, meaning that if you look at one, instead of turning to stone, you have to pass a DC 20 check or else turn into its best friend indefinitely. You know what this means? If it looks at any random schmo commoner, it has a 95% chance of turning it into a fast friend. From there it can easily set up a cult or criminal organization within any city. Furthermore, they can all turn invisible up to seven times per day and has a fairly massive Sneak bonus, so if it doesn't want to be seen you're not seeing it. It can worm its way into any court and sway even the mightiest to its cause. The Spirit Nagas are the kingmakers and kingbreakers, and they slither around the heart of the land and poison it slowly.

>>10767740

Furthermore, Nagas have a unique mechanic that, as far as I know, is replicated in no other creature. They cast spells as a seventh level sorcerer, but in addition *they get all the spells on the Cleric spell list*. This is huge. This means that, if a Naga levels up in the Sorcerer class, they have access to a metric fuckton of cleric spells that they can cast at will, on the fly, without having to prepare. Holy shit. It can set up cults, and if you question its divine authority? It can create food from nothing. It can heal wounds. It can consecrate the dead. It appears in a blighted town as a harbinger of hope, slowly turning the community to worship of itself and increasingly cruel practices until the end they're offering virgin sacrifices to feed its ego.

>>10767798

Now, just looking at the basic ability scores, Nagas aren't very bright. Intelligence 12 means they're smarter than the average human, but they're not super-geniuses like Mind Flayers, Aboleths, Dragons, and the rest. However, they have Charisma and Wisdom both at 17, which means they're possessed of incredible personal magnetism and no small amount of common sense. They're perfect demagogues, essentially. They have honeyed tongues and poison fangs, and entrance all in serpentine deceptions.

Now let's examine what they look like. These are not small snakes. These guys are Anaconda-big, with a human face on the end. Big snakes are pretty terrifying. Big poisonous snakes are extra terrifying. Big poisons snakes with the faces of men that wield arcane fire as naturally as breathing? That's a heart attack. The Charming Gaze naturally helps, of course.

So, I hope that this has given some people ideas to percolate on about Nagas. I rather hope for some feedback or someone else to jump into the discussion.

>>10767798

According to the SRD, only Guardian/Spirit Nagas get the cleric list. Regular Nagas don't.

Is this correct, or am I missing something?

Now let's examine the Dark Naga. They're pretty similar to the Spirit Naga, but there are a few key differences. First, they're inclined towards law rather than chaos and are more organized and less likely to indulge in petty evil at a whim. Next, they can't cast Cleric spells. They don't get the charming gaze. This is looking pretty bad for the Dark Naga, right? Wrong! First, they're a lot smarter than your average Spirit Naga, weighing in at 16 Int, meaning they can device plans more easily and can carry them to fruition more effectively. Second, and more interesting, they're completely immune to all forms of mind-reading. You never know what they're thinking. Third, and most importantly, they automatically and passively Detect Thoughts as per the spell on everyone within radius. This, combined with the natural Intelligence of the Dark Naga, is what make them such excellent villains. Even more than Mind Flayers, the Dark Naga know your secrets in moments of meeting you without having to actually do anything, and you won't realize it. It won't necessarily call you out, but it'll keep it in mind. It's lawful nature makes it a cinch for criminal organizations, and it will always be five steps ahead. Even a thought of sedition can be weaseled out as soon as it enters your head. Doesn't matter that it's not charming; people serve it out of fear rather than adoration.

>>10768145

Sorry; I was referring to Spirit Nagas.

>>10767798

Also, based on the examples given in the SRD, it has access to the Cleric spells, but has to learn them as a Sorcerer. That is, it can learn from the Sorcerer or Cleric (or the domains it gets) lists but still only has its limit of spells known. It doesn't get Sorc spells known + the whole of all cleric spells ever.

RAW, though...

oh hi

>>10768216

I'm basing it off the Pathfinder Bestiary, so there may be some discrepancies. The wording in both the Monster Manual and the Bestiary are somewhat vague, but reading through it both initially and double-checking, the wording in the Bestiary seems to support my interpretation.

>>10768222

Um. Yes?

>>10768293

Ah, okay. The SRD lists the example Spirit Naga spells known as including Cure Minor Wounds, Divine Favor, and Shield of Faith, which are Cleric spells, which is what's leading me to believe that the intention is that Spirit Nagas can select from the Cleric list when learning spells.

>>10768293

Though regardless I think that makes nagas pretty cool as a possible BBEG and I may use one in my next game. I wasn't aware that they were essentially Sorcerer-Cleric hybrids.

>>10768326

Well, regardless of the "correct" version, it still means a spellcaster with a greatly expanded spell-list that can masquerade as a servant of the divine, which is all it really needs. Overall, the Sorc/Wiz spell-list is better, but there are a few real gems on the Cleric list that are worth learning.

>>10768381

Agreed.

So. Any more monsters?

We haven't covered Rakshasa, yet

>>10768875

Funnily enough, nearly everything I said about the Dark Naga applies, except that Rakshasa can change shape at will so they can move more easily in humanoid society. They can even Detect Thoughts at will. The main differences are basically cosmetic. I do suppose, though, that they have way better skills, and have frankly absurd ranks in Bluff and Diplomacy. Everything that the Dark Naga is, the Rakshasa is more so, and it adds a refined elegance mixed with brutality.

>>10768975

Well, then I pose the question of why I would ever use a naga when I could just use a Rakshasa

Also, the pathfinder campaign Curse of the Crimson throne apparently makes use of Rakshasa as a pretty prominent sub plot, so a ok in my book.

I basically use Rakshasa whenever I want a really awesome mob boss, who is also a tiger man.

I've been wanting to ask this for a while in this thread, what the fuck does lye do to an aboleth?

>>10770336
Same thing it does to any fish. Have a lye inside your gills and you're pretty much screwed.

I bring you two gifts.

First, is this: Palindromes beautifully fluffed Far Realm piece. http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZZ9KZ5HF

Second is this: An outline for a game I am running.

>>10774038
First there were the Outsiders, and their infinite planes. They existed to do as their natures demanded, no more, no less. an invasion came, from somewhere, somewhen, someelse. Gods descended, and infected, infested the many layers of the planes. Though they were unique and limited in number, in power not even the mightiest of the outsiders could match them, much less destroy them.

Gods made or opened the ways to the material planes, where they created varied beings to power their own nature through worship. The outsiders learned that by corruption these living creatures, they could add to their own number and infuse greater power to the soul stuff of the realms they inhabited.

And then someone let humans loose on the universe. Humans were even more potent a commodity than the made races - their free willed nature and unique potency were remarkably useful. Except....the number of human souls compared to the number of dead humans was not matching up. The humans were somehow recycling their own souls, growing in power. Worse, their nature started to infect the other races - dwarves, elves, orcs, goblins....their souls were giving greater power, and then becoming lost if they were not corrupted or worshiping.

>>10774079
So the gods and the outsiders made an uneasy truce. Control or destroy mankind and you could continue with the war on an even footing, for as the free willed races grew, so did their power, until it was obvious even to the gods that unchecked free will could lead to their destruction - or worse, their replacement.

So let loose were the beasts of the far realm. Aboleths, beholders, beasts of stranger methodolgy and madness that destroyed without corrupting or accepting worship, a weapon against humanity. Yet, the illithids came. From after time, they emerged, and becan preying upon the free willed. With them came the advent of psychioc powers....which slowly warped and corrupted the flesh and minds of the free willed.

Until it became obvious that the illithids were not merely a race form the end of time - they were the progenitors of their own kind, through the corrupting influence of psionic powers and their aberrant bloodlines and mental infections. Mankind had coem from elsewhere - a stunted, larval form of life that was slowly becoming what it had always meant to be through the influence of others - the ethergaunts.

But that was not the worst part.

>>10774129
A brain pool failed, the Elder Brain dying, and the homeless, brain-less tadpoles consuming each other...until one lived. And grew. and learned....it became a neothelid, the first of it's kind. And it looked, not merely at the universe as seen by gods, outsiders, free willed mortals and the enthralled, duped mindflayers controlled by the ethergaunts.

It looked through time, dimension, and reality, until it saw that there was only one way to resolve the dilemma that would eventually lead to it's own destruction. It must alter the free willed races, and make them immune to the blandishments of gods, the corruption of outsiders, the depredations of illithids and the resulting slow poison that would cause mortals to become the illithid through the poisonous touch of psychic power....

It reaches back, before time, and spawned a race that would not die - time would be meaningless to them, the march of aeons little more than the slow growth of their race. They were born of muck and strange primordial soup, but they thought, and had power to control, mutate, and remake life. The aboleths would serve it's purpose. And through the abolths, the enemies of the illithidae would be born: the angry, hateful Gith who would do war; the strange Synads, able to reach to their communal subconscious and through time to gather knowledge just as the aboleth and neothelid could; and the immortal, undying Elan, more human than human, able to shrug off the mental control and survive damage that would kill normal humans.

Pick a plot, any plot.....

>>10773657

Just stumbled upon this thread, so I couldn't respond in time.

Aboleth aren't fish. They don't even breathe water. The slime they secrete turns water into a form they can breathe. Lye, a bucketful in a tank large enough to hold a 4000-pound organism, would not be concentrated enough to kill the thing immediately, and most likely the aboleth would order all of its servants to (1) break the tank so the lye gets out (aboleth can survive on land for hours) and (2) murderize the tard.

Bump to put /tg/ back on the front page.

Also, Far Realms, fuck yeah!

>>10769546

Well, you might never use a Dark Naga, but a Spirit Naga is another thing completely. It's all about setting up dark cults and religions rather than criminal rings, is a lot more randomly violent and chaotic, and has the unique "Cleric Spells as Sorcerer Spells" ability.

>>10775214
Don't Dragons get that ability too?

Aboleths in my game (and Illithids and all the other weird monsters you get with D&D) are from the alien world of Zeticula. All the gods of Zeticula are long dead. The Aboleth were driven off Zeticula by the Empire of Probokk and fled to the desert world of Eridu where they plagued the native Lammasu, Sphinxes and Lizardmen. The only ocean on Eridu was disintegrated by Probokk Water Destroying Facilities #1 thru #7. From Eridu, the Aboleth fled to the Underdark of Earda (my campaign's fantasy world). They left Earda over ten thousand years ago, fleeing the armies of Probokk for an unknown world. Currently, the Aboleth have regained some of their former strength and are probing the dimensions searching for signs of the Empire of Probokk and hoping that it has fallen. But of course... it hasn't; Probokk and Friends are merely much harder to discern these days.

>>10775231

Only if they take a specific Dragon-only prestige class, as far as I'm aware, and then they're unable to cast Sorcerer spells. As far as I know, only Spirit and Guardian Nagas have access to both the Sorcerer and the Cleric spell lists without multiclassing.

>>10775231
Actually, Gold and Silver dragons get clerical spells as sorcerer castings in Pathfinder.

It makes turning them into enemies really dangerous for your party.

"The dragon casts Heal....on itself."

Cue jaw drops.

>>10775787
Now which is worse, that or a dracolich that can nail itself with Harm?

Aboleth can also be played like the Reapers from Mass Effect. That's right, big fish that warp their minions to the point that they can assume direct control.

>>10775839
In Pathfinder? Tough call. Depends on how old the dragon the dracolich is based of of is. Lich is only a +2 CR adjustment (which is a pretty hefty boost in Pathfinder, all things considered).

>>10775839
All you need is a single cleric or paladin.

Channel energy is a pretty nasty bit of business.

>>10767578
We were an Evil party, and I think we were meant to cut a deal with it / team up... but we ended up turning against it near the end.

>>10776039

Huh. Even evil people aren't stupid, though, and any dealings with Aboleths are pretty suicidal.

>>10775839

I'd go with the Dracolich. Unlike regular Dragons, these guys self-resurrect so killing them once means nothing unless you find their phylactery.

Perhaps we should start a Pathfinder monster discussion? This thread was about Aboleths.

>>10776137

And now it's not. Discussions flow naturally and need not adhere to a single premise for the entire duration. That said, I would like a bit more feedback on my Naga writeup. I am curious to see if anyone spotted something I didn't or has an idea for them that I didn't mention.

>>10775884
Going to use this!

>>10776081
That's why they tend to use mind control their minions. Those cutting deals with the Aboleth don't really have a choice.