How the Monsters Have Changed in the 2025 Monster Manual: Aboleth

Aboleth New Monster Manual.jpg


Are you wondering how the monsters have changed in the 2025 Monster Manual? Well, one way of showing this is to make side-by-side comparisons of the 2025 monsters to their 2014 equivalents. Today, we're looking at the aboleth.

The aboleth has received a major visual redesign, transforming the fish-like aberration into a hulking, tentaculed....thing. It's possible that the aboleth has retained its fish-like body, but the artwork shows the aboleth lumbering over a cultist, its mouth agape with mandibles and tentacles splayed out. I loved the original fish design, but I'll admit that this aboleth looks a lot more intimidating and eldritch than past depictions.

One major change in the 2025 Monster Manual is that regional effects now have mechanical effects to them. The aboleth fouls all water within a mile of its lair and any creature that drinks the fouled water must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or gain the Poisoned condition for an hour. The aboleth can also cast Project Image with a range of a mile while inside its lair, and the aboleth can use its natural telepathy from the image as if it were in the illusion's space.

As for the stats themselves, the aboleth has 15 more HP in the 2025 Monster Manual. It also has received a significant boost to its Initiative bonus - instead of a -1 to its Initiative, it has a +7 Initiative bonus. The aboleth also now has proficiency on Dexterity saving throws, raising its -1 Dexterity saving throw bonus to a +3. All other ability scores and saving throws are the same.

The aboleth now explicitly has an eldritch restoration ability that allows it to reform in the Far Realm 5d10 days after its body is destroyed. I feel like this was present in past aboleth lore/statblocks, but was missing from the 2014 Monster Manual. The aboleth now has legendary resistances as well. The aboleth's mucous cloud effect has also changed. Instead of preventing the affected creature from breathing air, the creature now takes 1d12 acid damage every ten minutes while outside of water unless the creature has moisture applied to its skin. Instead of being diseased, the affected creature is now cursed, which means that the effects can be removed by a Remove Curse spell instead of a disease.

In terms of attacks, the aboleth's multiattack allows it to now use two tentacle attacks and either Dominate Mind (a renamed version of the aboleth's enslave ability) or the new Consume Memories ability. The tentacle no longer inflicts the aboleth's disease, but grapples a target instead. The tail attack is gone from the new statblock and the Dominate Mind ability now only can be used twice a day instead of three times a day. Additionally, Dominate Mind has a higher saving throw DC (16 instead of 14) and its effects are slightly changed, as the aboleth can now only control the creature while its within 60 feet (although the creature remains charmed outside of this range).

The aboleth has a new "Consume Memories" action that targets a creature within 30 feet of it and forces them to make an Intelligence saving throw. On a success, the aboleth deals 10 points (3D6) of Psychic damage and half-damage on a failure. On either a success or a failure, "the aboleth gains the target’s memories if the target is a Humanoid and is reduced to 0 Hit Points by this action." I feel like this means that the aboleth's Hit Points are reduced to zero, but the wording is a bit wonky. Update - Consume Memories only gains the target's memories if the target's Hit Points reach zero. Thanks to those who pointed this out!

The aboleth's legendary actions are changed, with Detect removed, the tail swipe changed to a single tentacle attack, and Psychic Drain now targeting a creature either a grappled or charmed by the aboleth with the Consume Memories action, with the aboleth automatically regaining 5 HP.
 

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Christian Hoffer

Christian Hoffer


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Am I the only one who doesn’t like that it’s initiative bonus is a full 8 points higher than its dexterity modifier with no explanation given in the stat block? Does it, like, have expertise in initiative? What’s going on there?
I am, in general, supportive of removing some of this information from the stat block, particularly if it is hinted at in the monster entry text.


The initial green dragon stat block included a trait, battle ready, that explained why it had high initiative (that was missing from the gold dragon so I assume it has gone away). That took up too much space on the stat block for me, but others may feel differently.
 

The initial green dragon stat block included a trait, battle ready, that explained why it had high initiative (that was missing from the gold dragon so I assume it has gone away). That took up too much space on the stat block for me, but others may feel differently.
Yeah I do not want to go back to 3e where every monster had to justify every out of the box stat with some thrown in ability to make the math all work out. It has a big bonus to initiative because its a legendary creature...why....I mean why does it get LAs and LRs and have lair abilities and XYZ....because its a legendary creature. You don't need to know anymore than that.
 


I like the big recharge psychic blast and the full healing from the slime drain. I also appreciate the slime px writeup for being mor complete than the other two. Plus the art is really great.
I agree with the recharge, but, to use a word I know you like, I would prefer a more concise slime px write up. I also am not found of the art, but that has nothing to do with the monster design.

I actually thought you wouldn't care for it with how much you talk about want concise writing. But I will concede that is hard with an aboleth. I prefer getting riding of the slime, but that is probably just me.
 

I agree with the recharge, but, to use a word I know you like, I would prefer a more concise slime px write up. I also am not found of the art, but that has nothing to do with the monster design.

I actually thought you wouldn't care for it with how much you talk about want concise writing. But I will concede that is hard with an aboleth. I prefer getting riding of the slime, but that is probably just me.
Yeah, it is specific to that ability because it is both flavorful and complex. But I get that it feels out of character -- I thought the same thing when I wrote the answer!
 


Yeah for the full comparison with 3 LAs included (I didn't include the 4th LA nor the OG lair actions):

2014: 81 damage
2024: 60 damage
ToV (we assume psychic torrent hitting 2 creatures on the first round as the normal for CR damage calcs): 73 dmg

So a pretty notable difference
Thought I'd add to your conversation as I'm deep into the MM right now.

First, the new statblock does 70 dpr, not 60. Multiattack for 12 x 2 (tentacles) +10 (consume memories) = 34 on turn, then 3 x 12 (tentacles) =36 for LAs. That's 70 total.

The 81 damage of the 2014 block looks higher, but in practice, the 2025 will do just as muuch since it sacrifices 10 damage to use Dominate Mind instead of the 36 sacrificed in 2014 for Enslave. And speaking of Dominate Mind, it's DC 16 now instead of 14. So no real loss of damage, and it's better at taking control of PCs.

Also, in practice, higher initiative might also mean an extra round of attacks since it probably won't act after all the PCs anymore. That's not even considering increased staying power from slightly better HP, DEX saves (proficient now) and Legendary Resistance.

The new Aboleth is a significant step up in power, and at the same CR as 2014. 💪
 

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