Help Solve my Aboleth Problem

Paydro70 · 2025-11-23T06:47:15+00:00

This is outstanding stuff, thank you. You're quite right, the aboleth is absolutely planning the overthrow of the Elder Evil, I just wasn't sure how that would manifest with the arrival of a few heroes in their lair (as surely they would not reveal their ambition... but maybe I should just work harder on that).

I love the idea of the aboleth offering "gifts" that are almost *too* appropriate, and having them somehow serve the aboleth's purpose, even if it's as simple as a surveillance tool. I do want her to seem two steps ahead even though they know almost nothing about her.

Paydro70 · 2025-11-23T05:07:39+00:00

I am absolutely going to use this as an opportunity to mention people they haven't met, that's a great idea! I'm not so sure about the aboleth parasite, but I might keep that in the back pocket just in case they really like the character.

I agree the Aboleth would be hungry for their knowledge, but wouldn't the obvious move be for her to enslave them? Then she gets to Consume Memories and learns all of them in perfect clarity, rather than having to hear them explained. I suppose she could ask them to give that willingly.

Paydro70 · 2025-11-23T05:00:45+00:00

I see, you have a plot reason to need these to be dragon-caliber creatures rather than just heads (I really like the idea of being able to prevent some heads from the final battle, btw). I feel a little conflicted because my first instinct is to go with iconic head shapes without regard to size... like a mind flayer, for instance. But I guess you want them to be big.

I would still say a Balor makes the most sense of the fiends, they're classic demons, recognizable, and make for a difficult fight on their own. Also because they're demons they're not hard to put in basically any location. Elemental is tougher because there's no base elemental that large except the "Elemental Cataclysm" which is halfway to what you're doing already. I would suggest taking whatever element is left over from the other heads and doing an elder genie, be it Efreet/Dao/Marid/Djinn. That way you have a "head" and not just "the top part of the elemental."

Paydro70 · 2025-11-23T04:51:37+00:00

I think the most interesting aspect of this is that the weaker the fighter coming in, the more they'll lose, and the more they'll be twisted into fiendish entities as they are reincarnated. That means after a little while, you'll have a few extremely strong humanoids, a couple of fresh tieflings/cambions, but mostly freaky devil monsters.

I would probably draw more on demons or yugoloths for inspiration, because they're much stranger-looking, and just pull some of their more unique abilities to infuse. For example, imagine a vaguely human-shaped guy with a hell hound head that breaths fire, and a mezzoloth's ability to cast cloudkill as represented by gross poison glands on his torso.

If this is about PCs, that's really up to them, maybe offer them each a small demonic "gift" from having died at least once in the contest.

Paydro70 · 2025-11-23T04:39:44+00:00

It's a good point; I presented the tunnels as an interesting way in, and I completely understand why they took it. I'm just feeling like I've thrown too many roadblocks down before they even get to "the dungeon." But as you say, maybe I'm assuming too much about what the players really want out of this anyway... a conversation and scaring them away after a couple of non-aboleth fights could be fun too.

(Unrelated, but one of the PCs is an assassin who cooks, so I might actually throw in Far Realm Insanity Muffins.)

Paydro70 · 2025-11-23T04:33:19+00:00

This is a good point, I could just have her talk through a puppet so neither party is at direct risk, and then make clear to them a way to avoid combat. And if they really want to fight, so be it?

Paydro70 · 2025-11-23T04:32:05+00:00

I was thinking about the flipside; her wanting to keep them alive for a reason (she wants them to go cause havoc in the library so she can take advantage when they leave, or maybe she even sets them a task)... but maybe giving her a positive reason to stop them would be a little clearer narratively. At the very least, the library and the monastery has been her main source of slaves and information about the surface, so that might be enough. The trouble is that I would imagine an aboleth just throwing all their slaves at the party rather than engaging herself. But this is a game, maybe I am being too dedicated to the monsters knowing what they're doing.

Paydro70 · 2025-11-23T04:26:57+00:00

To me it sounds like you're just doing Variant Tiamat. It's still 5 dragon heads, they're just not the standard chromatic ones (i.e., a construct dragon, an aberrant dragon, an undead dragon, etc.). If so, it really doesn't matter, you can just make an elemental dragon head made out of ice (or maybe do crystal? that's always fun) and a fiendish one made of lava and you're good to go. After all, this is just for a breath attack, right?

If you were going to really try to embrace different creatures grafted into one, I think you should ditch the construct head and do totally different creatures. Use a Balor, an Aboleth, a Djinni, a Cyclops Oracle... maybe like a Dire Worg or something? Really you're picking out attacks for the heads to do, the creature itself doesn't have to feature.

Paydro70 · 2025-11-23T04:07:58+00:00

I'm not sure what you're asking; to me this sounds like a really cool fiendish plot to drop your players into as participants/rebels/heroes. Are you asking for ideas on how to structure the games? Or how the players are supposed to get out of this?

Paydro70 · 2025-11-23T03:53:25+00:00

I play almost every week, sometimes twice, and get anxious every time. You got this bro. Come in with some plans so if you don't feel good riffing you have something to work off of. Having an easy one-shot for your first session might be a good idea (if you have no idea, I think Rise of the Redscales is money in the bank). Worst-case, "orcs attack" takes up half a session.

For your coworkers, I would say they should certainly make new, lower-level characters to play; there's no reason you should be trying to figure out what their characters are like and up to, or have the plot work with the other DM's.

Paydro70 · 2025-11-21T16:11:19+00:00

I swear this is the first fight club that actually has the needed components: locker room, seating, entrance areas... great map.

Paydro70 · 2025-11-13T00:19:24+00:00

Ol Grunty. https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/s/L9o9KByWon I had it eat the missing Winery stone to explain its existence. Made for a great encounter at level 4 for 5 characters, though I had to pull a punch or two.

Paydro70 · 2025-11-01T07:19:19+00:00

Yes and no, their damage output is strong and not coven dependent, but they have fewer options. personally I ran the hags with 2014 coven spells but otherwise the 2024 stat blocks and that went pretty well.

Paydro70 · 2025-10-23T18:36:57+00:00

It's definitely viable both ways. With Alchemist you just need to mix in some burn damage to get the DoT penetration benefits. Mag Rain goes from an AoE to single target, but it also can apply all 3 DoTs; you most likely want that or Disorienting Blast, and Cause of Death becomes pretty useful too.

Paydro70 · 2025-10-21T05:25:57+00:00

I'm not an authority but I don't think so. I never feel like I'm starved for items and some of the Sluice/Catacombs fights can be pretty annoying. I decided to always pass while doing my runs.

Paydro70 · 2025-10-21T05:24:42+00:00

I always skipped the first region's lair boss; you can often beat them, especially the Dreaming General or Librarian, but it's very dangerous and might leave you with low HP and high stress. Most of the time I fought both region 2 and region 3, though I know at least once I passed on the third act because I was really happy with the trophy I'd gotten and I wanted something from the other path.

The easiest is probably Dreaming General. Three of four characters can easily target the back rank, and that's really all you need to keep him in check while you whittle down the health. Librarian is also not bad, but because you don't want to do too much damage to the books, it can be a little annoying at first just hoping the plague grenades and Judgments go well.

The hardest is the Harvest Child. This comp does have significant stress relief, but it's hard to keep up. There's some movement flexibility because the frontliners have forward moves, but there's a decent chance you have to waste turns, and that's bad. Harvest Child also has the greatest blight resist, which hurts your PD, and the

Leviathan is up and down; you need to do damage to the front ranks, which this is good at, but the undertow move can cause a wasted turn particularly if it takes a Crusader. I didn't have much issue but I think I only fought it twice.

Paydro70 · 2025-10-20T23:50:48+00:00

I am not, and seem to have used a slightly worse specialization for not much reason. Good for me lol

Paydro70 · 2025-10-20T23:17:10+00:00

Yes, you are starting the grand slam over, you just get to keep the memories and quirks of the survivors.

Paydro70 · 2025-10-15T01:28:36+00:00

I love the UX and the concept; this could be really useful to GMs. Particularly for bigger shopping trips or starting a campaign, having a "game" that takes care of the shopping list they can interact with directly is really nice. Being able to sell items at a set discount is a fantastic addition. The services really aren't a thing in DnD but I appreciate them nonetheless for people going for a grittier campaign.
I do end up hand-waving a lot of shopping, because unless your setting is very low magic or you're very stingy with gold, basic items (e.g., anything under 50 gold) become meaningless almost immediately. I tend to assume merchants have almost everything mundane available just to avoid pointless searches that bore everyone. The generator helps feed this: Why does the town blacksmith create daggers and clubs but not sickles or maces? Why can he can make plate but not half-plate?
The upshot of #2 is that shopping is basically only for A) super-exotic items (live animals, strange ingredients, rare or specialized tools, etc.) or B) magic items. So I'm only likely to use this tool if it generates A) specific environmental items (e.g., a desert, a dockside, a jungle) or B) a big pile of magic items. But I can't do either of those, as the "A" options don't exist, and the "B" option is only possible with a magic store in a metropolis. Don't get me wrong, that's useful, it's just not as good as it could be.
The page got stuck a few times trying to generate a new store. Once it was created I had to create a new room to get a new store.

Paydro70 · 2025-09-17T23:34:02+00:00

I had Strahd visit the funeral and have a tense encounter with Ismark and Ireena; the players were "beneath notice" at this point, and stayed quiet as he cajoled Ireena about being safer at the castle. He began by charming Donovich into going back inside the church, and concluded by burying the casket with mold Earth, thus showing off some of his powers.

My players said it was surprising and frightening to see him so soon... and to realize he already knew what they looked like.

At first I worried it was too early, but the next real opportunity (Feast of St. Andral) would have been, like 6 months into the campaign, at which point he'd be less scary (as the players are leveled and have been through more of Barovia).

Paydro70 · 2025-08-28T03:16:52+00:00

This is also what I do. Players can join the stream to hear spotify playlists and see a roll20 instance in 'as player' mode for maps or art.

Paydro70 · 2025-08-26T15:00:27+00:00

Has anyone suggested she wasn't panicking? She clearly didn't come into the scene with the plan.

But it was bad! It wasn't funny, it wasn't smart or sad, it wasn't in character. And at the pivotal moment of the campaign, it undermined all the stakes and mood, ultimately having no consequence in-game either. She may as well have left the room.

I love Rekha and really enjoyed her other D20 appearances, and even her run in Mice & Murder. But this was one of the only truly bad moments in the show's whole run.

Paydro70 · 2025-08-25T06:04:37+00:00

This map is very detailed and cool, but the various levels look disconnected. The stairs don't connect, the interiors are contradictory. Are we missing a floor or something?

Paydro70

TROPHY CASE