What's your favorite aboleth design?
>>98888870I really like the lamprey mouth of the newer ones, but I enjoy the old ones too
>>98888870Pathfinder's looks awesome, but I really like D&D 2e's
>>98888926I can't get over the vertical eyes, myself.
>>98888870Definitely not that one, aboleths are cooler if they predate jawed fishes.
I like 3.5's a lot
>>98889090nta but that makes me like it more because it adds to the uncanny vibes
>>98888926I like the Pathfinder ones too.
>>98888870Yeah this one >>98888926. 2e was the first D&D I ever played, and this design has stuck with me ever since.Though >>98892367 is quite nice, too.
I've always liked the colors on this one.
>>98889126>that part about them being hermaphroditesWhy was 3.5 so woke?
Anything that gives aboleth's bit dumb shark faces or lamprey mouths is retarded. They're threatening because they're super intelligent and fuck with your brain, not because "oh no they might bite you watch out"
>>98893496Yes exactly. The lack of mouth makes them look so much more alien and strange. The stupid mouth actually makes them look much less threatening.>>98892489This one is great, it actually gives the idea that it is an intelligent being staring at your soul, reading your thoughts and all.
>>98893481mindbroken
>>98893496>>98893521What are your thoughts on this mouth here - >>98889126 ?I remember Lords of Madness actually said they're terrible at biting and it's not how they fight
>>98893544I mean, I suppose they need to have a mouth somewhere to eat and all, so it's best that it is sort of hidden, tucked away like in that pic. I just don't think it should be its main feature, since it is not the reason why they are fearsome in the first place.
Does anyone have advice on running an aboleth as an overarching villain? I feel like they're really suited to the role, but I almost never hear of it being done.>>98893544Are they bottom-feeding scumsuckers? I always thought that was some of their charm, that they feed in a way that we interpret as lowly and debasing.
>>98893568Makes sense>>98893658Kinda! Lords of Madness has a whole chapter, super cool stuff
>>98893658>Does anyone have advice on running an aboleth as an overarching villain? I feel like they're really suited to the role, but I almost never hear of it being done.Forgot to reply to this part. They are. Someone on /tg/ like 10 years ago was writing about how in their setting, aboleths are the final boss of the Underdark. "Why haven't Beholders and Mind Flayers taken over the world?" Because the Aboleths are still around to keep them in check.The psionic aboleth is an interesting sidegrade if you're playing 3.5: better at combat, worse at manipulation. I would personally combine them.
>>98888870>What's your favorite aboleth design?Either no mouth or some kind of bottom feeding/inferior mouth. Like how we see here: >>98888926 >>98889126 The lack of mouth is important, as other Anon's have already stated, because it makes them look more psionic and more "alien, but not because they're from another planet, but because they're from such an unfathomably distant/earlier time period." To that point, that if I were required to design an Aboleth, I would probably borrow a lot from the Vetulicolids: completely unrecognizable, pre-cambrian "test" organisms. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBzlkPS7ZUw To better accentuate their position as a "highly sophisticated, but ultimately failed branch, of early evolution."
>>98893496>>98893521Any art that gives an Aboleth a shark/lamprey mouth, or honestly ANY jaw is completely missing the point of what an aboleth IS. They aren't meant to be physically intimidating, despite being honestly quite large. Rather, their strength comes entirely from being advanced, alien intelligences with immense psychic might. They don't need any physical weaponry since their psychic powers and minions can do that work for them. At their core, abloleths are basically just an amalgamation of parts of the natural world that are nigh-incomprehensible to humans, the deep past and the deep sea, plus a few other bits and bobs here and there, given an incomprehensibly alien intellect. 3.5's interpretation captures that the best, since the anatomical drawings in Lords of Madness make it clear that they're supposed to be the result of an extremely early branching of the vertebrate family tree, where one group of jawless fish started to evolve bigger brains instead of getting jaws>>98893544Lords of Madness aboleths don't even HAVE a bite attack. It's an unarmed strike. Specifically a full round action that provokes an attack of opportunity, can't be used at the same time as their tentacles, and deals 1D4 damage plus half strength. On a huge creature.
They should look like gigantic, tentacled plecostomus.
>>98892367This is cool.Honestly most DnD monsters and lore I find boring and lame but I like Aboleths. Only other thing I like is Codricuhn and some of the Elder Evils
>>98894923Don't they already? Isn't that what these (>>98888926 and >>98889126) are?
>>98893532It's a joke, dingus
>nooo, that’s not the correct mouthWhat a retarded threadGod forbid some creature looking alien enough
>>98905420>t. retard who doesn't understand symbolism or subtlety.The reason people complain about aboleths having scary mouths filled with lots of teeth is because that's not the kind of monster they're supposed to be. Their strength is supposed to lie in their intellect and escoteric abilities, not in physical might. Giving an aboleth a fearsome set of teeth is the equivalent of a bodybuilder who's jacked as fuck as the wizened old sorceror or mage.
