D&D 5E Replacement for Aboleth?

[SilverBulletKY]

I'm planning on running a adventure from Dungeon magazine where an Aboleth that has been corrupted by the Spellplague is causing the citizens of Neverwinter to murder people. This was written for levels 3-5 and in my group there are 6 level 3 characters. In 5e an Aboleth is CR10 so way too high for my group. I'm thinking of using a sea hag coven or lizard king in replace? What do you think would be a good replacement? Also I'm assuming that the Aboleth is casing 'dominate person' but because of the Spellplague corruption, it is able to cast it much farther. What would be a good alternative to this? I'm not going to use the Spellplague as that is not happening in my game but the creature should be affected by something to be able to control people like that at a low level.

 

[Astrosicebear]

You could still use the aboleth, but after the PCs find and stop whatever is "enhancing" the aboleths abilities, it weakens it tremendously.

In 5E AC doesnt really scale that much out of their range... its more about the CR10 having more HP and doing more damage. So either breaking the "magic" deals half damage, or you lower the over all HP of the creature, and you can even lower its damage and make the abilities a bit weaker, maybe lowering their saves.

In 5e its really easy to adjust these things on the fly.

 

[Nebulous]

What Astrosicebear said, you can still use the Aboleth.

A long time ago in 4e i used an aboleth that was far too high level for the PCs, but i deliberately weakened it by saying it had been in a fight with a dragon turtle and was injured and recuperating. It still had all of its psychic powers present but not combat (it was in like a coma but it's mind was alive).

Ultimately, once the party wasn't stunlocked anymore (god, that was a mistake on my behalf), they just nailed it from range; it was helpless without its minions they'd already slaughtered. Tactically it was a good fight, but i went overboard with the Stun saves.

 

[SilverfireSage]

Level them up. A single Aboleth is a "Hard" but not "Deadly" encounter for 6 level 4 characters. CR can be very misleading, but EXP is not.

 

[SilverBulletKY]

Level them up. A single Aboleth is a "Hard" but not "Deadly" encounter for 6 level 4 characters. CR can be very misleading, but EXP is not.

Oh really.. what's the XP for an Aboleth? I'm at work and don't have the MM with me.

 

[Ahrimon]

CR is more of a warning flag in 5e than a measure of a creatures power. CR compared to character level let's you look at a creature and decide if it's appropriate. Otherwise encounters are built solely on XP budgets. You can easily lower the CR of the Aboleth by restricting/eliminating abilities or lowering HP. Since you aren't using the spellplague you just need to come up with an internal justification of why it is weaker. Your players never even need to know, but it's always good to give them a few hints.

 

[Quartz]

At 3rd level PCs are still rather fragile. How about the villain be an item, not a creature? Say an evil magic staff or wand that is doing the dominating and has a minion that carries it.

 

[SilverBulletKY]

CR is more of a warning flag in 5e than a measure of a creatures power. CR compared to character level let's you look at a creature and decide if it's appropriate. Otherwise encounters are built solely on XP budgets. You can easily lower the CR of the Aboleth by restricting/eliminating abilities or lowering HP. Since you aren't using the spellplague you just need to come up with an internal justification of why it is weaker. Your players never even need to know, but it's always good to give them a few hints.

Sounds like to me the Aboleth has been in contact with a cursed magical item that has increased it's spell power significantly but in return reducing it's health and attack powers. Great time for me to introduce a cursed item into the game to see how they handle it.

 

[Nebulous]

Right, that's how I use CR - at a glance I can know if it's Easy, Average or Hard.

 

[Nebulous]

Sounds like to me the Aboleth has been in contact with a cursed magical item that has increased it's spell power significantly but in return reducing it's health and attack powers. Great time for me to introduce a cursed item into the game to see how they handle it.

It will be a cursed aboleth they have to drag around by the tail