So the party is going to have to fight and aboleth. The party consits of a LVL 6 pack lord, a LVL 6 guide, a LVL 1 cleric/1 Oracle/4 Hospitaler, and a LVL 5 transmuter. I read up on the fluff of the aboleth and some of the other aquatic creatures and this is what i've come up with.
Aboleth=BBEG
Skum=aboleth's warriors
Gillmen= Aboleth's slaves
When the party enters the underwater cave they will eventually come to a spot where they can surface. When they do they will see a handfull of skum watching over the gillmen working. (Expanding the cave) The party will obviously see the party and try to keep the fight in the water.
the skum will regular guys with a few that have levels here and there.
The gillmen will keep working, ignoring the party as they are being controlled. The gillmen are also inoccent bystanders.
As they progress through the cave system having to regularly go back into the water and suprise more skum.
When the party finally reaches the main chamber the aboleth will be there with a few leveled henchie skum and some slaves working.
The fight is taken into the water. The aboleth attempts his mind control bit on the party and if it doesn't work he resorts to violence.
When he gets to half health he commands the innocent gillmen slaves to dive in and try to hinder the party(i.e. grapple them, get in the way etc...)
while he recoups and tries some more mindplay. Should he be dropped to 1/4 health he attempts to flee.
Is this a suitable aboleth encounter for the party's APL and would an aboleth fight this way. As a relatively new GM I have never used an aboleth nor have i fought one as a player. If you have advice please share!
Skum are CR2
Aboleth is CR 7
unusual terrain (i.e., underwater) artificially inflates the CR of the encounter as well. underwater especially inhibits spellcasting, gives penalties to both melee attack and damage, and greatly hinders movement. for a 6th level party that doesn't have a swim speeds, i'd guess it increases the CR by 3 or so.
so effectively, you have a level 5.75 party, and about a CR 10 encounter (not counting the skum warriors).
I would say the aboleth, being incredibly intelligent and having a ton of at-will illusion abilities, would probably hide underneath the water and use Illusory Wall to conceal his presence. the PCs probably don't want to go into the water to start with, and would have to interact with the illusory floor at the bottom of the water to even get a will save to disbelieve it (they would have to actually swim down, touch the floor or drop a pebble on it, and then they get a will save). I think a cooler encounter would be to use that trick, and have 7 or 8 Skum and a few of the Gillmen slaves fight the party while the aboleth looks on from beneath his illusionary floor. Once the party defeats them, maybe they look for the aboleth, maybe they don't..... the aboleth could very well live to thwart them another day!
(or get smushed if the party is intent on exploring the room, find the aboleth, and a heyday of a fight ensues)
the above suggestion would be closer to a CR 6-7 fight followed by a CR 7 fight, which would be more manageable in my opinion, plus closer to how an intelligent, underwater, subtle creature like aboleths would fight if i had to guess
well the gillmen aren't the to fight. They are all commoners. they are mining a tunnel big enough for the aboleth to get further inland. so i'll scrap the scum for the aboleth fight, saying as that does make a hard encounter harder. They gillmen are only there to hinder via grapple and such when the aboleth commands it. should I scrap the hinderance as well and make the aboleth a solo?
it's really up to you. Personally I find encounters that have a mix of different monster types to be more dynamic. The aboleth probably knows that if the gillmen help in combat, they will probably be targeted with attacks. As a PC, i know anyone who tries to grapple me in combat is a fair target, and your players will probably think the same thing and overlook anything else that may make them look innocent.
If you want the PCs to fight the aboleth, I think using Illusory Wall to make a "fake bottom" to the floor that the aboleth hides beneath is a cool idea. If you want the PCs to certainly fight the aboleth after the Skum, you can just have one of the Skum's corpses fall into the water at the end of the fight, slowly sink and then clearly disappear when it goes through the fake floor. That should raise the PCs' suspicion, get them to investigate, and directly lead them to fighting the aboleth.
The scenario you laid out initially is very cool, but a very high CR for the party. A CR 6 fight followed by a CR 7 fight will test them to the limits, be very memorable, and should not be a guaranteed TPK. Combining the aboleth and the skum and the underwater component all at the same time boosts it to a CR 10-12 encounter, which is almost certainly a TPK for a 6th level party.
Thanks for the advice! I'm gonna use some of your ideas and it should make for an interesting encounter.
If you want to emphasize the gillen's innocence, include women and children with them. Tactically, rathe than rolling dooed attack rolls, have them aid te skum trying to attack, grapple, or whatever.
Aboleth a are incredibly intelligent with at-wil illusion abilities. Play that up,be tricky, be unexpected. Think about how to run illusionsandwhat it will do,and don't make obvious illusions -- the aboleth doesn't even want the PCs thinking it's there.