Aboleth Magic

Illus. by R. Sardinha

Special: When on land, this ability affects only nonaboleth (or nontransformed creatures) that walk through the mucus puddle; fl ying creatures are not affected. An aboleth must replenish its mucus constantly to maintain the poisonous qualities. Samples taken from the aboleth retain their toxic qualities for only 1 minute.

ABOLET H M AGIC

Aboleths constantly search for new magic items, fi nding them to be among the few objects that lesser races are any good at producing. An aboleth that enslaves a spellcasting creature that has Item Creation feats fi nds itself the owner of a potent commodity. A slave who can create new magic items is perhaps the most valued of resources in an aboleth city and is rented out to other aboleths for extensive payments of additional slaves or favors. Aside from specialized glyphs, aboleth spellcasters also spend their resources on creating new magic items for themselves. Although only a rare few aboleths take levels in divine spellcasting classes, they have no compunction against utilizing magic items created by divine magic. An aboleth’s tentacles can wield objects like wands, staffs, rods, and other held magic items. An aboleth can even wield magic weapons, although most prefer to use their tentacle attacks in combat because they are not naturally profi cient with any form of weapon. Additionally, an aboleth that wields a weapon in one tentacle must make any other tentacle attacks as secondary attacks (at the standard –5 penalty). It can wield multiple weapons in its tentacles if it takes the Multiweapon Fighting feat; otherwise, the penalties it suffers for using more than one weapon are severe. Although an aboleth could theoretically wear armor, the armor would have to be sized and built to conform to the creature’s body shape. Additionally, the fact that armor check penalties count double against Swim checks means that aboleths fi nd the prospect of wearing armor illogical and self-defeating. Armor is thought of as something that lesser races wear in a futile attempt to protect themselves from a dangerous world in which they should not rightfully exist. Due to their unusual anatomy, aboleths use magic items differently than humanoid-shaped creatures do. An aboleth can wear:

• One headband or phylactery on a tentacle. • One pair of eye lenses or goggles on or over one eye. Because aboleth eyes are considerably larger than human eyes, one eye can hold both lenses of a pair without having to stack them. • One belt, cloak, cape, or mantle about the tail just behind the fl ukes. • One amulet, brooch, medallion, necklace, periapt, or scarab embedded in the slimy fl esh on top of its head. • Two pairs of bracers or bracelets on two pairs of tentacles. • Up to three rings on the ends of its tentacles.

Aboleths cannot wear hats, helmets, vests, vestments, shirts, robes, gloves, gauntlets, boots, or shoes.

MASTER GLYPHS

Aboleths that learn the Craft Aboleth Glyph feat can use their knowledge of magic to create powerful magic glyphs. Most of these glyphs merely duplicate the effect of a glyph of warding spell. Aboleths that have the knowledge and power can learn to craft much more potent, powerful glyphs known as master glyphs. Each master glyph is a unique glyph with specifi c effects. Several sample master glyphs are detailed here; you can use these master glyphs as guidelines for creating new master glyphs. Master glyphs affect a creature upon its initial entry into the glyph’s range. Benefi cial glyphs apply their effects immediately. Hostile glyphs typically grant a saving throw to negate or reduce their effects; in this case, a creature need only make the save upon entering the glyph’s range. The effect of a glyph ends

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PSIONIC ABOLETHS

This chapter assumes that you utilize the version of the aboleth from the Monster Manual. If you have the Expanded Psionics Handbook, you should instead use the psionic aboleth variant detailed there. This version of the aboleth is identical to the one presented in the Monster Manual, except that it does not possess the same spell-like abilities or the enslave ability. It instead possesses a large array of similar psi-like abilities, including psionic dominate. If you wish to use psionic aboleths in your campaign, you can do so with a few adjustments to the rules in this chapter. In particular, you should make the following minor adjustments to the new rules introduced in this book: The savant aboleth monster prestige class no longer has an entry requirement of “ability to cast 3rd-level arcane spells.” Rather, it must be able to manifest 3rd-level psionic powers as a psion or wilder.

A savant aboleth does not gain new spells per day as it gains levels. Instead, it gains increased power points and access to new powers as if it had gained a level in whatever manifesting class it belonged to before it added the prestige class. A savant aboleth’s spell-like ability to cast the various glyph spells is now a psi-like ability that duplicates the effect of the spell in question. A 2nd-level savant aboleth’s psionic dominate psi-like ability is now enhanced as if by the Enlarge Power metapsionic feat for free; the savant need not expend its psionic focus to use the Enlarged psionic dominate psi-like ability. The Craft Aboleth Glyph feat requires the aboleth to be at least a 5th-level manifester rather than a 5th-level spellcaster. Likewise, the glyphs created by this feat are considered to be psionic in nature, not arcane magic; this includes all master glyphs. pqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqrs

immediately after a creature leaves the glyph’s area of effect, but the creature must make a new saving throw immediately upon reentering the glyph’s range. The effects of multiple master glyphs do not stack. In a case where more than one master glyph would have an effect on a specifi c area, the master glyph with the highest caster level suppresses the other glyphs. In the case of multiple glyphs of the same caster level overlapping, the most recently created glyph suppresses the older glyphs. A master glyph always suppresses the effect of a glyph of warding, greater glyph of warding, or elder glyph of warding.

Glyph of the Deep: Any air-breathing creature that approaches within 20 feet of this glyph must make a DC 19 Fortitude save to avoid having its lungs instantly fi ll with water. A creature whose lungs fi ll with water immediately begins to drown. On the fi rst round, its hit points drop to 0, and it falls unconscious. On the following round, its hit points drop to –1, and on the third round, it dies. Any effect that returns a drowning character to positive hit points wakens the creature and allows it to cough up the water in its lungs. Otherwise, only a DC 15 Heal check can empty the creature’s lungs of water and save it from a watery death. MASTERS THE DEEP CHAPTER 2

An aboleth city is the stuff of nightmares