Have you seen an Aboleth in game?

[avin]

Pretty simple question, forked from here.

 

[Sir Brennen]

I have seen them used in an adventure as a player and used them myself as a DM.

 

[the Jester]

Yes, both as player and dm.

 

[justanobody]

Unfortunately yes, but it was already too late at the time.

 

[Dragonbait]

Yes on both. I used them and their kick butt illusion powers to great effect in 2E. They became a great alien mastermind race in 3E and 4E, and there was an aboleth BBEG using illusions and mental domination to control a village in a 3E game I played in.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

Answered "yes", but I hope I never see one again:

We start a new game (3.5). We're 5, level-5 characters. Rumor has it caravans coming in and out of town have been attacked by bandits who are an aboleth's mind slave. We track them back to the Aboleth's lair, in a cavern. At this point we don't know what we're facing. I think we get surprised by the aboleth's illusions, someone gets dominated, all in all, everyone dies except the bard.

The bard goes back to town and tries to recruit new adventurers to help him defeat the aboleth (ie our new characters). We head back to the aboleth's lair, prepared, but we need to flee the scene to avoid another near-TPK. We get jumped by wandering Displacer Beasts during the night. Only the bard escapes. And runs back to town. To recruit new adventurers.

3rd party, the game starts to derail as the players really want to get that aboleth, and we thus try to make characters specifically for this task. The fight starts well, but goes sour really quick. Again, only the bard escapes.

The bard imagines that suspicions might arise in town as he's come recruiting new adventurers a couple of times now. Maybe he's working for the aboleth? To be safe, he goes to another town and recruits new adventurers, but the players decide that they're never attempting to get that bastard and the DM scambles to find something else for us to do...

All in all, fun was had by all.

AR

 

[avin]

answered "yes", but i hope i never see one again:

We start a new game (3.5). We're 5, level-5 characters. Rumor has it caravans coming in and out of town have been attacked by bandits who are an aboleth's mind slave. We track them back to the aboleth's lair, in a cavern. At this point we don't know what we're facing. I think we get surprised by the aboleth's illusions, someone gets dominated, all in all, everyone dies except the bard.

The bard goes back to town and tries to recruit new adventurers to help him defeat the aboleth (ie our new characters). We head back to the aboleth's lair, prepared, but we need to flee the scene to avoid another near-tpk. We get jumped by wandering displacer beasts during the night. Only the bard escapes. And runs back to town. To recruit new adventurers.

3rd party, the game starts to derail as the players really want to get that aboleth, and we thus try to make characters specifically for this task. The fight starts well, but goes sour really quick. Again, only the bard escapes.

The bard imagines that suspicions might arise in town as he's come recruiting new adventurers a couple of times now. Maybe he's working for the aboleth? To be safe, he goes to another town and recruits new adventurers, but the players decide that they're never attempting to get that bastard and the dm scambles to find something else for us to do...

All in all, fun was had by all.

Ar

hahahahahahahahahaha

 

[Treebore]

Not since before 3E, but yes.

 

[Nebulous]

All in all, fun was had by all.

AR

I have to know...how the hell did just the bard survive all those fights? Pure Luck Goddess?

 

[Serendipity]

No, not since, sometime in 1e.
Which is kind of surprising really. If it matters, I haven't played with miniatures *also* since 1e, so I doubt the notion that the lack of a mini had anything to do with it.