Should Skum have class levels?

[Nyaricus]

You might also consider using the aboleth grafts, as described in Appendix 2 of the Fiend Folio. Perhaps have the aboleth breed skum with merrow (half-ogre skum) or scrag (half-troll scum).

Both great suggestions Clockworkjoe

 

[humble minion]

Other possibilities could be (carefully!) using the Mob template from DMGII on a bunch of regular skum, or putting a high-level aboleth (or some allied race) cleric in there who specialises in buffing spells. A skum is just a skum, but a skum under the influence of mass bulls strength, mass cat's grace, haste, prayer, bless, and hero's feast is quite a bit nastier. Add a creepy tentacled bard of some description (with the Song of the Heart feat from Eberron, and the Inspirational Boost spell from Complete Adventurer) and you can stack a +4 or more to attack and damage on top of that. Sprinkle liberally with poisoned weapons and tanglefoot bags, and you're golden...

 

[clockworkjoe]

The graft idea is great. I'll start coming up with some twisted mutants.

One more question: are there any sourcebooks for aboleth besides Lords of Madness? I'd like to do a little reading up on them.

 

[humble minion]

The old 2nd ed Night Below campaign had a fair bit on aboleths, including a finale set in a subterranean aboleth city. Good luck getting hold of it though - it's been out of print for ages, and I'm fairly sure it isn't available for download.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=1119&

 

[humble minion]

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=1119&

But I could be wrong...

 

[clockworkjoe]

The old 2nd ed Night Below campaign had a fair bit on aboleths, including a finale set in a subterranean aboleth city. Good luck getting hold of it though - it's been out of print for ages, and I'm fairly sure it isn't available for download.

That name rung a bell and apparently for good reason. I just looked through my old stack of gaming stuff in the closet and found a copy of the boxed set collecting dust. Neat! I had forgotten I even owned it.

 

[Li Shenron]

What classes are you planning to give them?

If you just plan to make them fighters, you can do quite the same by just advancing them by HD.

If you want to give them some special bonus or ability, such as Favored Enemy (Humans) or Sneak Attack, you can simply add that on top of the base (or advanced) monster. This way you don't even have to take the other special abilities of the class.

If you want them to be spellcasters, then adding a real class is easier than anything else.

But really, what matters is only the final result, the final stat description if you want, but not how you got there.