In your opinion what is a monster that isn't used nearly enough or used to it fullest potential , either due to its lore, abilities, or aesthetic?
The Nothic has some amazing potential with its weird insight that allows it to learn a secret about a character, I mean just think of the black mail opportunities.
Pretty much anything with a high intelligence will go on that list. DMs often fall into the pattern of making monsters brutish, when they would actually be quite clever with their use of terrain, traps, and tools.
Nothics are great, but they're literally insane, so they probably wouldn't be up for much black mail. They're more "taunt and haunt".
Xorns. They have Average intelligence, can pop out of the ground, and hands but somehow can't attack anyway except by grabbing and biting? Shouldn't they be designing deadly traps that they themselves easily escape? And they can communicate with each other, so Xorn civilizations and spellcasters should also be a thing.
Aboleths I generally see them used as a generic monster. I am using one in an invasion of the body snatchers way, slowly enslaving the important members of a town, the players are starting to notice a change in personality already in some of them and are wondering what is going on.
Aboleths I generally see them used as a generic monster. I am using one in an invasion of the body snatchers way, slowly enslaving the important members of a town, the players are starting to notice a change in personality already in some of them and are wondering what is going on.
I can’t recommend this enough. An established Aboleth is POTENT. Consider:
1) If they have enough time, their pool should have tens if not hundreds of civilians floating down there with them. Each one is bonus HP every round for the Aboleth as it absorbs their life essences one by one. My last encounter had the bodies floating up as they were absorbed, and the PCs couldn’t but watch in horror as every round they wasted was another corpse…
2) Drag everything underwater and fight them there. Lots of PCs will have disadvantage on attacks down there. Once everyone is cursed, the Aboleth can go above water and wait for their charmed citizens to do all the damage.
3) Chuuls. Also great for killing things underwater.
Aboleths I generally see them used as a generic monster. I am using one in an invasion of the body snatchers way, slowly enslaving the important members of a town, the players are starting to notice a change in personality already in some of them and are wondering what is going on.
I can’t recommend this enough. An established Aboleth is POTENT. Consider:
1) If they have enough time, their pool should have tens if not hundreds of civilians floating down there with them. Each one is bonus HP every round for the Aboleth as it absorbs their life essences one by one. My last encounter had the bodies floating up as they were absorbed, and the PCs couldn’t but watch in horror as every round they wasted was another corpse…
2) Drag everything underwater and fight them there. Lots of PCs will have disadvantage on attacks down there. Once everyone is cursed, the Aboleth can go above water and wait for their charmed citizens to do all the damage.
3) Chuuls. Also great for killing things underwater.
I am tweaking the game slightly, Aboleth has been trapped underground for centuries. A wizard found the location, manipulated the miners working near to extend a shaft down. Wizard is protected from the enslave ability by magic item and is working with the Aboleth in return for trying to get information from it.
The wizard has developed a potion to enhance the enslave, it extends out the range and makes it harder to escape the effect (disadvantage on the wisdom saving throw and increases DC by 4). This means the Aboleth can take over far more people over a wider area with the help of this wizard.
The players so far have helped gather some of the ingredients for this potion, soon I will start hinting at the existence of the Aboleth maybe having them run into a dwarf who has escaped the mine and talks of how poor decisions are being made.
The Cloaker is also an interesting monsters considering it has an intelligence of 13, knows a 2 languages, and the cloaker conclave, you could use them as informants in the underdark giving information in exchange for information. Or if you want to use them as strait up monsters you could use them in a scenario where the players are trying to retrieve an item from a caravan and the cloaker when it is alerted it would grab the item use its phantasms and moan to swiftly get away with the item.
The problem with Aboleths is that they are just not fun for the party to face. I love the lore, and the idea of one, but mind control abilities that have no reasonable end point (e.g. a saving throw every turn) are dreadful in the game. The aboleth excels at min controlling players but it's so not-fun for players to lose their agency that I generally avoid these types of monsters, and find they're best left for novels.
I have to force myself not to just keep using Dybbuks over and over again. They're basically Deadites with cool body jumping abilities, some fun fear spells and some unique gameplay and story opportunities.
The problem with Aboleths is that they are just not fun for the party to face. I love the lore, and the idea of one, but mind control abilities that have no reasonable end point (e.g. a saving throw every turn) are dreadful in the game. The aboleth excels at min controlling players but it's so not-fun for players to lose their agency that I generally avoid these types of monsters, and find they're best left for novels.
there can a reasonable end point to the control, if the player takes damage, so if they are being controlled in order to spy on the party then any combat situation can lead to them escaping mind control. The moment one does then the party are aware and can find ways of dealing with it. also the limit is one mile, or the same plane if your party use a marvelous mansion then the link is broken the moment the player goes into it.
Depending on how you run the enslave the player can have agency, they are not a total puppet, at least the way I run aboleths, I talk to the player and allow them to roleplay and the few times I have run Aboleths and a player has been enslaved they have loved it.
The problem with Aboleths is that they are just not fun for the party to face. I love the lore, and the idea of one, but mind control abilities that have no reasonable end point (e.g. a saving throw every turn) are dreadful in the game. The aboleth excels at min controlling players but it's so not-fun for players to lose their agency that I generally avoid these types of monsters, and find they're best left for novels.
there can a reasonable end point to the control, if the player takes damage, so if they are being controlled in order to spy on the party then any combat situation can lead to them escaping mind control. The moment one does then the party are aware and can find ways of dealing with it. also the limit is one mile, or the same plane if your party use a marvelous mansion then the link is broken the moment the player goes into it.
Depending on how you run the enslave the player can have agency, they are not a total puppet, at least the way I run aboleths, I talk to the player and allow them to roleplay and the few times I have run Aboleths and a player has been enslaved they have loved it.
You know what’s funny? I played an Aboleth with the utter intent of killing my whole party and didn’t pull any punches - healing each round by sacrificing village captives, underwater, Chuul allies… everything but the kitchen sink really.
*Countercharm*. I was able to charm literally one person, and after I did they succeeded their next saving throw the second they were nicked with an attack. I had never seen Countercharm used in the game so flawlessly hahaha. I had forgotten it existed.
In your opinion what is a monster that isn't used nearly enough or used to it fullest potential , either due to its lore, abilities, or aesthetic?
The Nothic has some amazing potential with its weird insight that allows it to learn a secret about a character, I mean just think of the black mail opportunities.
Pretty much anything with a high intelligence will go on that list. DMs often fall into the pattern of making monsters brutish, when they would actually be quite clever with their use of terrain, traps, and tools.
Nothics are great, but they're literally insane, so they probably wouldn't be up for much black mail. They're more "taunt and haunt".
Xorns. They have Average intelligence, can pop out of the ground, and hands but somehow can't attack anyway except by grabbing and biting? Shouldn't they be designing deadly traps that they themselves easily escape? And they can communicate with each other, so Xorn civilizations and spellcasters should also be a thing.
I'm not sure how the Gargoyle is used in water deep dragon heist, but I barely see them used with their stealth.
Aboleths I generally see them used as a generic monster. I am using one in an invasion of the body snatchers way, slowly enslaving the important members of a town, the players are starting to notice a change in personality already in some of them and are wondering what is going on.
I can’t recommend this enough. An established Aboleth is POTENT. Consider:
1) If they have enough time, their pool should have tens if not hundreds of civilians floating down there with them. Each one is bonus HP every round for the Aboleth as it absorbs their life essences one by one. My last encounter had the bodies floating up as they were absorbed, and the PCs couldn’t but watch in horror as every round they wasted was another corpse…
2) Drag everything underwater and fight them there. Lots of PCs will have disadvantage on attacks down there. Once everyone is cursed, the Aboleth can go above water and wait for their charmed citizens to do all the damage.
3) Chuuls. Also great for killing things underwater.
I am tweaking the game slightly, Aboleth has been trapped underground for centuries. A wizard found the location, manipulated the miners working near to extend a shaft down. Wizard is protected from the enslave ability by magic item and is working with the Aboleth in return for trying to get information from it.
The wizard has developed a potion to enhance the enslave, it extends out the range and makes it harder to escape the effect (disadvantage on the wisdom saving throw and increases DC by 4). This means the Aboleth can take over far more people over a wider area with the help of this wizard.
The players so far have helped gather some of the ingredients for this potion, soon I will start hinting at the existence of the Aboleth maybe having them run into a dwarf who has escaped the mine and talks of how poor decisions are being made.
The Cloaker is also an interesting monsters considering it has an intelligence of 13, knows a 2 languages, and the cloaker conclave, you could use them as informants in the underdark giving information in exchange for information. Or if you want to use them as strait up monsters you could use them in a scenario where the players are trying to retrieve an item from a caravan and the cloaker when it is alerted it would grab the item use its phantasms and moan to swiftly get away with the item.
The problem with Aboleths is that they are just not fun for the party to face. I love the lore, and the idea of one, but mind control abilities that have no reasonable end point (e.g. a saving throw every turn) are dreadful in the game. The aboleth excels at min controlling players but it's so not-fun for players to lose their agency that I generally avoid these types of monsters, and find they're best left for novels.
I have to force myself not to just keep using Dybbuks over and over again. They're basically Deadites with cool body jumping abilities, some fun fear spells and some unique gameplay and story opportunities.
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there can a reasonable end point to the control, if the player takes damage, so if they are being controlled in order to spy on the party then any combat situation can lead to them escaping mind control. The moment one does then the party are aware and can find ways of dealing with it. also the limit is one mile, or the same plane if your party use a marvelous mansion then the link is broken the moment the player goes into it.
Depending on how you run the enslave the player can have agency, they are not a total puppet, at least the way I run aboleths, I talk to the player and allow them to roleplay and the few times I have run Aboleths and a player has been enslaved they have loved it.
You know what’s funny? I played an Aboleth with the utter intent of killing my whole party and didn’t pull any punches - healing each round by sacrificing village captives, underwater, Chuul allies… everything but the kitchen sink really.
*Countercharm*. I was able to charm literally one person, and after I did they succeeded their next saving throw the second they were nicked with an attack. I had never seen Countercharm used in the game so flawlessly hahaha. I had forgotten it existed.