I got some intel telling me our DM is gonna send one of these fucking things our way in a couple of sessions

Aboleths use lots of mind control, so swarm them with mindless undead. Don't fight them in melee because they can turn party members.

One on one they're not that dangerous - you can overwhelm them before they turn most of the party pretty easily. With minions (the way they're supposed to be played) they're very dangerous. You need a good controller to keep those people from holding up the party long enough for the Aboleth to turn everyone into mind slaves.

The worst type of aboleth to fight has slaves, underwater advantage and utilizes swarms of minions coming at you paired with hit and run tactics to turn party members into slaves. So prepare for that. Get vision spells, unbrainwashable mindless undead minions and focus on a way to pin it down out of water so you can basically gang up and beat it to death.

Mostly the challenge just depends on your DM. If they run them smart they're basically a nightmare to fight. If they run them out of water alone they're a pushover.

What edition? Because if it's 5e then everything published for it is utter dick and you're going to have an easy time with it.

A true Aboleth is behind numbers of slaves, Scum, in a cave riddled with fucking Insanity-confusion/Madness inducing Glyphs, Non-euclidiean geometry (So dungeon is a terrasact) A shitload of fuck-you-PCs layered illusions, water breather only issued sections grafted experimental thralls, slave holding chambers, and those to be 'bred by scum' chained up somewhere.

Also, if in Aboleth settlement, this shit get's taken up a notch to "WELCOME TO R'LYEH FUCCBOI" with the beacons they use to charm prey to swim towards the cities, dedicated sentry Oozes for lair claeaning/Possible awankened Oozes Aboleth Savants, and possibly Aboleth Variants in addition, various clews of aberrations, and Far Realm Fuckshit.

Also, to note, the traditional Aboleth fight is usually illusions + Scum + Slaves + Chained slaves + and you're usually fighting a young Aboleth.

Older Aboleth? don't, their lairs are effectively roll or go loony death traps. They're also fond of enslaving PCs and just whisking them out of play to an Aboleth Settlement, but later editions forgot about that little gripe.

>Any pro-tips for it?

Stop reading the GM's notes, fucknut.

Metagaming thread?

Scum? I don't recall those.

The Aboleths literally have their own custom fucking Deep ones made from selective breeding. Are you literally telling me, that like so much else of 5e the nu-males writing that shit forgot about one of the most BASIC monsters that accompany those fucking Primordial fish?

Holy fuck it's even worse than I thought.

No. I have read earlier editions, but it's been a while. An aboleth clearly mind wip

Average Lairs for atypical PC Aboleth encounters are as follows-
Sewers
Swamps
Submerged caves in beaches or any other area-
Moderate-difficult Aboleth Lairs-
Underdark settlements
Some extraplanar bullshit
Custom Dungeon with extraplanar water supply
Cult complexes dedicated to the Far Realm, Tharizdun, and abberant deities
Lower Planes (Fiendish Aboleth)
Please fuck my ass till I lose my mind senpai-
Ocean based lairs, the more deep, the less likely anything is to survive a trip
TPK Tier-
Aboleth's hidden capital city home to the "Eldest"- AKA !notCthulhu/ Grand Aboleth all the way from 1e
The DM hates you tier -
Aboleth + Illithid Team up (Actual fucking scenario for this in Dragon Magazine with an Aboleth accompanied by two Illithid with the breathe-underater modifications the Aboleths give thralls)
The DM Is the devil tier-
The Illtihid put an Aboleth through Cerebromorphis
The Elder Brain was Grafted into an Aboleth Savant
The Elder Brain polymorphed into an Illithid Tadpole and was implated into an Aboleth Saant
The Tadpole was an Ulitharid Tadpole
The DM is Nyralathotep tier-
The Aboleth and an Illithid Concalve have teamed up, done the above and have a fully functional Illithid Conclave/Aboleth Settlemtn with the DM is the Devil tier content inside as various cross-breeding experiments loaded with the full arsenals of both species

Personally, I think you should do what your character would do and not be a metagaming bitch. But hey that's just my opinion

Don't worry, they're balanced like an underwater nation and can't leave the water. Watch out for Burdens of Time though. They live thousands of years so it doesn't mean jack to them.

>yfw OP is so bad at TTRPG's he goes to /tg to ask help to defeat an upcoming monster

Don't metagame.
If you must metagame read the monster entry, look what defenses its attacks target, protect those targets.
Then look what special attacks it has and defend against those as well.

Been a while since i played 3.5 (or any D&D), but for Aboleth's that's will saves, protections against mind-affecting, illusions and poison(?, don't remember if Aboleth Mucus is blocked by poison immunity) iirc.

So depending on your level get Protection from Evil, True Seeing, Mind Blank, various saving throw boosters and don't get into melee range to avoid getting slimed.
And don't go into the water.

They probably litter the place with grease traps, and other "Works well for water combat" traps to fuck Players over.

Minor Psuedonatural wolves would work because tripping is a bitch

What motivates an Aboleth?

Not really basic, I'm not sure what scenarios they actually appear in. It's only 3e where they were principle monsters after all.

I mean, the Night Below doesn't feature them at all, and it's probably THE Aboleth campaign.

Advanced Eldritch bullshit and being the D&D equivalent of Deep Ones/Minor-moderate Star-Spawn

Oh, goddamnit they figured out how to use the inte

Well mostly the desire for existence to return to what it was when they were in charge, before all these gods and other races turned up. Back when it was them, the Jermalaine, Myconids, and Cloakers bumming around the Underdark.

Have someone play as this guy.

Are we referring to the man or the fish?

cause I would play as a magic fish......

Why does he always look disgusted in every picture?

Accidentally roll a golddwarf paladin of freedom and stand between it and the party for 10 rounds.

...

He's always surrounded by plebeians.
There was one time in Africa when his boatman, who did absolutely nothing. Demanded that he hand him that fish instead of doing his usual catch and release. The tension got pretty tense and it seemed like machetes are about to be drawn. He gave it up and when they returned to the village the damned ape paraded the fish like he's the one who caught it.

We've hit our construction goals, you fucking elf. Just you wait.

I always thought the way Aboleths are expected to just mindrape you into being their devoted servant forever with no possible save was bullshit design.

More bullshit DMing.

The Enslave ability is always mentioned as having a saving throw.
1st - Save vs Spells
2nd - Save vs Spell
3rd - DC 17 Will Save
4th - A big complex thing, but involving saving throws.
5th - DC 14 Wisdom Save.

I got a really lucky fucking break and when an Aboleth attacked our ship because it was influenced by an elder god I managed to polynorph it into a jellyfish. It was the luckiest roll of my life and nothing will ever measure up as far as RNG goes

So if an Illithid colony cerebromorphed an aboleth does that mean the colonies elder brain would just absorb all of the aboleth's racial memory nonesense? Is that like an infor overload?

I meant in the sense of "There is zero way for you to be rescued"

Which episode?

There is a way, though. Some group of intrepid adventurers may come to save you. You wouldn't happen to know anybody like that, would you?

Senpai saving you from an Aboleth city, especially THE Aboleth city, is basically impossible even for high level adventurers.

Especially considering the fact that the slime eventually mutates you so you need it to live.

In 3rd ed. Magical Circle against X and Protection From X spells block Dominate style effects.

Aboleths are some of the best fucking "boss monsters" in the entire game for three reasons: they can make traps easily, they can make minions easily, and there are some pretty important treasures that a party can only get from an aboleth.

Firstly, traps. Aboleths are one of the best illusionists in the game. They can produce permanent, multi-sense, multi-layered illusions several times a day, and you can expect every inch of an aboleth's lair to be covered in these illusions. You'll be walking into disguised spike-traps, swimming through acid that looks like water, and being ambushed by skum from behind illusory walls. Tread carefully through it's lair, and double-check everything you find; few things are as they appear.

Secondly, minions. Aboleths have lots of them. They can cast Domiante Person on a fairly regular basis, and grant water-breathing to their controlled minions. This water-breathing also takes away the minion's land breathing, which can then be used to force an uncontrolled minion to stay in the aboleth's lair and work for it.
And if that doesn't work, aboleths have bred a servitor race of CR2 fishmen called skum. They tend to be about as strong as Gnolls, so they're not something that can just be swept through like goblins or kobolds. If skum have any weakness, it's their abilities on land. Skum are significantly more mobile and tactical in the water, and a lot easier to sneak by on dry land. Use this to your advantage.

Finally, treasure, or why you're going after an aboleth in the first place. Aboleths have an intriuging ability: they keep the memories of any creature they have eaten, including other aboleths. This mean that your average aboleth likely has a few memories dating back to the creation of the world, or whatever important macguffin your party needs to find. This also means that the aboleth has any number of tricks and/or magic items up his sleeve that you can't prepare for. Not much you can prepare for that.

Do NOT make it obvious that you are preparing for it. If the DM knows you know, then he might change some shit up. If you start stocking up on items or magic that is specific to it's weaknesses, you'll give it away, so just have what you need sprinkled in with a bunch of other stuff that could potentially be useful for other situations. Act like you're trying to be a boy scout, but really be the Batman.

If you're going to rescue Aboleth slaves, having a 7th level or higher Cleric makes sense. Cure Serious Wounds and Remove Curse/Dispel Magic can rescue your comrades quite well.

(In 3e, an 11th level cleric's services will be required. Of course this is only if you're rescuing them. Otherwise a remove disease spell will halt the transformation)

>all these DMs butthurt at "metagaming"
Maybe if you didn't blubber out every little thing you intend to do to the only girl in the group the rest of us wouldn't be in on your shit