Aboleth Fight Style/Methods/Tactics

[DukeGurren]

So, I've been thinking of how an Aboleth would fight against a party (since one is coming up soon in a campaign I'm running) and As far as remaining submerged and messing with their heads, I can't really think of anything else. The story I sort of have for this Aboleth is that after the gods showed up and did things, this particular one was trapped inside a lake beneath a mountain, and after a couple thousand or so years, Lizardfolk found it and began to worship it, but it was still unable to leave [because plot] and now, a thousand years later, the cult s long dead and the adventurers are heading in discovering this place. So, I would like to ask anyone who can chip in strategies/tactics for using an Aboleth in combat against a party when need be, especially since I have looked and found nothing on this particular subject (there are however main Aboleth villain things about them pulling the strings of events through the campaign and stuff but that's not what I'm looking for). Thank you for reading and I hope this might also help someone else someday.

[Geddy2112]

Aboleths are very illusion and mind control focused. Most are also fairly egotistical, thinking themselves the pinnacles of creation and the natural rulers of the world. Since your aboleth is probably a bit miffed at the loss of his adorning worshipers, I believe it would be trying to capture and control the party, rather than just rip it to shreds. The aboleth is not going to fight the party head on-instead it will try to separate/trap/lure them with illusions and perhaps try and mind control a few. If it can observe the party, it might be able to customize illusions to lure them in, otherwise it might just throw out treasure/general bait. It could use illusion walls to hide pits in the floor to trap PC's, or programmed/projected images to throw out feints for the party to attack, maybe even making them believe they "killed" the monster. It could even disguise itself as a humanoid and try and join them, manipulating them from within. If it got caught with its pants down for a fight, it would probably try to vanish using illusion and/or make illusion based monsters to aid it in the fight. It is unlikely the aboleth will get out of the water unless absolutely needed.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Aboleth won't go mad with time, but a thousand years without company (not to mention the age before that) is bound to have an effect - this aboleth is not at all used to the common surface species. All of its ancestral memories are from before humans, dwarves, and so on had their current society, as it was trapped for thousands of years. Threaten the players with 'hideous secrets' that are either common knowledge, or completely forgotten. Offer them - in disguise - grand magicks, which either turn out to be basic spells, or spells of unimaginable power, that used to be average, back in the day.

When it comes to a fight, I agree with Geddy. Stay in the water, fight with illusions and mind control, don't engage directly, and don't fight to the death. Make the environment hostile with mucus, low temperatures and inhaled poisons. Try to get new thralls - after a thousand years, the last lizardfolk thralls are probably dead.

[Sredni Vashtar]

Do the PC's know the aboleth is still there? Perhaps it just hides itself from them, instead subtly influencing them and playing the long con. Perhaps the PC's get the idea that the dungeon in the mountain would make for an excellent base of operations. Perhaps they "find" a large sum of gold and "decide" to use it to hire dwarves or gnomes or someone to fix up their new digs. Perhaps some of those workers just seem to disappear every so often...

Aboleths embody the phrase "if you do something right, nobody will be sure you've done anything at all".

My point is that an aboleth should avoid combat as much as possible. If it's impossible, mind control, illusions, stay in the water, get the weaker willed PC's to drown the others and then themselves, etc.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Offer them - in disguise - grand magicks, which either turn out to be basic spells, or spells of unimaginable power, that used to be average, back in the day.

I love me some meta-humour! :smallbiggrin:

The most likely course of action for the aboleth would be to enslave the party if possible. Or at least force them to do its bidding at mucus-point.

It sounds like it wants to escape from its lake, so I guess it would try to get the party to attack whatever is keeping it there. Possibly tricking them into thinking they're doing something else.

And the lake itself should be a nightmarish deathtrap. Aboleths are an alien influence on the world and everything around them becomes toxic and corrupted. Pull out all the stops on 'hostile environment' before the party gets anywhere near the monster.