D&D 5E Aboleths - what they're all about and how you can add them to your campaign!

[YOGZULA]

What's up guys i'm i'm creating a series reviewing each monster from A-Z and offering insight onto how to include them in a campaign.


I did Aarakocra a few days ago, so today is Aboleth! The first bit of the video is dedicated to its stats and abilities, the second half is dedicated to some lore and how it may exist in a world (my personal favorite)


https://youtu.be/3LTvuRA0jL4


Please let me know what you think I can do to improve this series or what else you would like to see! Thanks!

 

[Shadowdweller00]

For the record: The ability to create gods is not, by default, a special ability of the kuo-toa. It's how the default D&D cosmology has traditionally handled "faith" and faith-type magic. Essentially, if enough sentient beings believe in, pray to, and make offerings to some entity or concept then that entity or concept starts to develop divine power. So the deities are actually gaining power from ritual worship and proselytizing clerics. The kuo-toa are merely insane and more prone to starting cults and religions around random things than other creature types.

 

[YOGZULA]

For the record: The ability to create gods is not, by default, a special ability of the kuo-toa. It's how the default D&D cosmology has traditionally handled "faith" and faith-type magic. Essentially, if enough sentient beings believe in, pray to, and make offerings to some entity or concept then that entity or concept starts to develop divine power. So the deities are actually gaining power from ritual worship and proselytizing clerics. The kuo-toa are merely insane and more prone to starting cults and religions around random things than other creature types.

Well don't I feel foolish. Good info, wasn't' aware of that. I may have been mislead by the entry under koa-toa that describes them as "god makers" and specifically describes what you just did that I thought it was unique to them. Even still, koa-toa being especially naive and prone to worship makes them very fitting targets for an Aboleth regardless.

Is there nothing about koa-toa as a race that makes them especially potent at creating gods? I'll have to look into this more before I get to my koa-toa vid

 

[Dualazi]

Opening summary is needlessly long and I simply skipped it to get to the analysis. I think a better, short summary would be to quickly describe the archetype, environment, and/or role of the monster in question, then move on to the in-depth lore section later (which you do).

I feel like your analysis of the stat block also doesn’t match with mine. You consistently reiterate that the aboleth is a tough or frightening boss and it isn’t. It’s honestly one of the weaker legendary creatures and has counterintuitive design to boot. If you’re interested I can give a rundown of its stat block for now I think that’s unnecessary.

Some of your lore assumptions seem really off. I personally estimate a 0% of an aboleth charming a kraken. The kraken has a +11 wis save and the aboleth must be within 30 ft. to attempt the enslaving. If it doesn’t win initiative or fails to enslave, then it is dead, period. The Kraken literally cannot miss the aboleth outside of rolling a 1, and since aboleths are smaller in this edition (they are large) it is immediately consumed, which is fight over, since the aboleth doesn’t have enough damage to escape its stomach.

Similar story to a lesser degree with the dragon turtle. It has a +7 save against enslavement, which isn’t as dominating but is still formidable, and once again thrashes the aboleth in combat. Worse, if the dragon turtle is aware of the aboleth’s presence, it can use lightning breath before the aboleth can close in, worsening the scenario still.

Aside from the fact that this is highly unlikely to occur for mechanical reasons, making it happen outside those reasons is simply bad design. A kraken/dragon turtle will obviously smear any party even remotely close to the aboleth’s CR, and higher level parties will vaporize the aboleth if it even gives them 1 turn of knowing where it is, essentially making it an absent force in its own lair. Seriously, it has 135 hp. Look up how much damage a party can put out in later levels, it stands no chance.

Additionally, while your ideas of aboleths controlling towns and pirate fleets and such may have been correct in previous editions, it certainly isn’t in this one. Any agent the aboleth wants to keep reliably controlled has to fall into two categories: it has to be within 1 mile of the aboleth consistently, and it must not take damage reliably. Examples you give like pirates would not be under an aboleth’s control for long, since the distance alone would give them ample opportunities for the relatively easy DC 14 will save.

Even if all the above is handwaved, however, I still found your lore section to really just reiterate what has already been printed about aboleths in the current MM and before. There’s really nothing innovative or creative that might invigorate veteran DMs, and new ones will see more or less what they’ve already read in the MM.

That said, I do hope you keep it up, and I’ll check out future videos of yours to see if I find them more agreeable.

 

[YOGZULA]

Why I assume an aboleth would enslave a kraken is because it has eternity to plan. It's not going to fight a kraken 1v1, nor is it going to expose itself to danger. It would approach the kraken with an army of minions to begin with, position itself cleverly such as in a large amount of cover where it wouldn't be seen, maybe in a sunken ship, a tight cave, etc. Same deal for the dragon turtle or other powerful creatures. The assumption wasn't in them engaging in a 1v1 fight, but instead engaging in a fight where the more powerful creature is being lured into a trap where there are many creatures fighting for the aboleth and the aboleth is well hidden.

As far as controlling towns and fleets, the idea has much more to do with the aboleth reading their minds, learning their greatest desires and manipulating them. All of this comes from the Aboleth being a creature that is thousands of years old and has no other goal other than gaining power.

That said, and in response to your last comment, this isn't a series targeted at veteran DMs who already have a firm grasp of every monster and are already using them in their world. It's more targetted toward DMs who might not have ever used the monster before and DnD fans who never really read up on the lore and would rather listen to it. A lot of each video is going to be explaining the abilities and lore of each creature for that reason. I understand that it won't be useful to everyone, and I'll be more conscious about trying to include some extra content that might be more appealing to people like yourself who are already fully knowledgeable. Ultimately, you'll be a lot harder to please than everyone else.

Thanks for your well thought out feedback.

 

[Dualazi]

Why I assume an aboleth would enslave a kraken is because it has eternity to plan. It's not going to fight a kraken 1v1, nor is it going to expose itself to danger. It would approach the kraken with an army of minions to begin with, position itself cleverly such as in a large amount of cover where it wouldn't be seen, maybe in a sunken ship, a tight cave, etc. Same deal for the dragon turtle or other powerful creatures. The assumption wasn't in them engaging in a 1v1 fight, but instead engaging in a fight where the more powerful creature is being lured into a trap where there are many creatures fighting for the aboleth and the aboleth is well hidden.

So, maybe you haven't gotten that far in the book yet, but krakens in 5e are basically as old as aboleths. Their lore entry depicts them as having existed since “the beginning of time”. Likewise, the kraken is also described as being heralded as a virtual god, and possesses minions and cultists of its own. This means the kraken is also not going to be a singular entity any more than the aboleth is. Lastly, the kraken is significantly smarter than the aboleth, clocking in at 22 int to the aboleth's 18, so its plans and schemes will be just as meticulous, if not more so. The aboleth is simply outclassed in every conceivable category here, both on the lore front and mechanically.

As far as controlling towns and fleets, the idea has much more to do with the aboleth reading their minds, learning their greatest desires and manipulating them. All of this comes from the Aboleth being a creature that is thousands of years old and has no other goal other than gaining power.

The mind reading to learn their desires is how it would have to do it, my point was more that direct enslavement wasn't viable for long-term obedience. It simply has too many easily met conditionals for breaking.

That said, and in response to your last comment, this isn't a series targeted at veteran DMs who already have a firm grasp of every monster and are already using them in their world. It's more targetted toward DMs who might not have ever used the monster before and DnD fans who never really read up on the lore and would rather listen to it. A lot of each video is going to be explaining the abilities and lore of each creature for that reason. I understand that it won't be useful to everyone, and I'll be more conscious about trying to include some extra content that might be more appealing to people like yourself who are already fully knowledgeable. Ultimately, you'll be a lot harder to please than everyone else.

I figured as much, and that's why I would like to see more forthcoming videos. One of the reasons my analysis is a bit harsh though, is I feel like you run close to steering novice DM's into making bad decisions. The kraken/dragon turtle is a good example of this, either it's a TPK or the aboleth goes down without so much as a whimper. In my opinion it would be far better to set up the aboleth to be fought around level 7-8, when its diseases aren't easily curable and it stands a better chance of surviving long enough to use its bag of tricks.