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Aboleth

CR 10 aberration • D&D 5e Homebrew Creature

Created by @LightReign

Aboleth

Large aberration, Lawful Evil

RARE
CHALLENGE
10
5,900 XP

Introduction

Ancient telepathic horrors that enslave minds and rewrite memories. Immortal, intelligent, and utterly malevolent—aboleths are the stuff of undersea nightmares.

Ability Scores

STR
21(+5)
DEX
9(-1)
CON
15(+2)
INT
18(+4)
WIS
15(+2)
CHA
18(+4)
ARMOR CLASS
13
HIT POINTS
150
20d10 + 40
SPEED
10 ft., swim 40 ft.
INITIATIVE
17
+7

Saving Throws

STR+5
Base modifier
DEX+3
Proficient
CON+6
Proficient
INT+8
Proficient
WIS+6
Proficient
CHA+4
Base modifier
Skills
History +8, Perception +6
Senses
Darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 16
Languages
Deep Speech; telepathy 120 ft.

Traits

Amphibious

The Aboleth can breathe air and water.

The aboleth can breathe both air and water — a creature of two worlds, though it treats the surface as beneath it in every sense. It hunts just as readily in flooded chambers and coastal shallows as in the crushing deep.
Eldritch Restoration

If destroyed, the Aboleth gains a new body in 5d10 days, reviving with all its Hit Points in the Far Realm or another location chosen by the GM.

Destroying an aboleth is not the end — merely an inconvenience. Its consciousness retreats to the Far Realm, reforming patiently over weeks in a new body, memories and malice fully intact. It has outlasted civilisations. It will outlast you.
Legendary Resistance

If the Aboleth fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead (3/Day).

Three times per day, the aboleth simply refuses to fail. Not through resilience or willpower — through sheer refusal to accept an outcome that doesn't suit it. A creature this old and this calculating did not survive the dawn of creation by leaving things to chance.
Probing Telepathy

If a creature the Aboleth can see communicates telepathically with the Aboleth, the Aboleth learns that creature's greatest desires.

A dangerous gift to offer an aboleth. The moment telepathic contact is made, it knows — not what you're thinking, but what you want most. And an aboleth that knows what you want most is an aboleth that owns you.
Mucous Cloud

While underwater, the Aboleth is surrounded by mucus.

Constitution Saving Throw: DC 14, each creature in a 5-foot Emanation originating from the Aboleth at the end of the Aboleth's turn.

Failure: The target is cursed. Until the curse ends, the target's skin becomes slimy, the target can breathe air and water, and it can't regain Hit Points unless it is underwater. While outside a body of water, the cursed target takes 6 (1d12) Acid damage at the end of every 10 minutes unless moisture is applied to its skin before those minutes have passed.

The water around it isn't just water. A thick, invisible slick radiates from the aboleth's body at all times — and anything that swims too close doesn't just get wet. The mucus rewrites the victim's biology on contact, turning skin translucent and fragile, bound forever to submersion. Step into the open air and the transformation becomes a slow death sentence, the body desperately craving water it can no longer survive without.

Actions

Multiattack

The Aboleth makes two Tentacle attacks and uses either Consume Memories or Dominate Mind if available.

It doesn't rush. Two tentacles move with the unhurried precision of a creature that has done this ten thousand times — seizing, crushing, holding. Then the real work begins.
Tentacle

Melee Attack Roll: +9, reach 15 ft.

Hit: 12 (2d6 + 5) (bludgeoning) damage. If the target is a Large or smaller creature, it has the Grappled condition (escape DC 14) from one of four tentacles.

Fifteen feet of reach and the grip strength of something that has never once lost what it caught. The tentacle doesn't just grab — it claims. Four of them, each capable of pinning a grown warrior against the stone while the aboleth turns its attention elsewhere.
Consume Memories

Intelligence Saving Throw: DC 16, one creature within 30 feet that is Charmed or Grappled by the Aboleth.

Failure: 10 (3d6) (psychic) damage.

Success: Half damage.

Failure or Success: the Aboleth gains the target's memories if the target is a Humanoid and is reduced to 0 Hit Points by this action.

The aboleth doesn't want your life. It wants what's inside it. Pressing into a grappled mind, it peels back decades of experience — childhood, love, terror, knowledge — draining it all into itself with clinical detachment. The victim may survive the encounter. They won't survive it whole.
Dominate Mind

2/Day. Wisdom Saving Throw: DC 14, one creature the Aboleth can see within 30 feet.

Failure: The target has the Charmed condition until the Aboleth dies or is on a different plane of existence from the target. While Charmed, the target acts as an ally to the Aboleth and is under its control while within {controlRange} feet of it. In addition, the Aboleth and the target can communicate telepathically with each other over any distance. The target repeats the save whenever it takes damage as well as after every 24 hours it spends at least 1 mile away from the Aboleth, ending the effect on itself on a success.

The subtlest weapon in its arsenal and the cruelest. No violence, no pain — just a quiet rewriting of loyalty. The target doesn't feel controlled. They feel certain, devoted, willing. The aboleth can be on another plane entirely and the leash holds, fraying only with distance, damage, and time. Most never manage all three.

Legendary Actions

Legendary Action Uses: 3
The creature can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. The creature regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Lash

The Aboleth makes one tentacle attack.

Even at the edge of its turn, the aboleth isn't done. A single tentacle snaps out between heartbeats — opportunistic, almost casual. A reminder that there is no safe moment in its presence.
Psychic Drain

If the Aboleth has at least one creature Charmed or Grappled, it uses Consume Memories and regains 5 (1d10) Hit Points.

While a charmed thrall stands glassy-eyed or a grappled victim struggles uselessly, the aboleth reaches in and takes — memories, consciousness, life force — converting suffering directly into sustenance. The more it has broken, the harder it becomes to kill.

Creator Notes

Official D&D 5th Edition creature from the System Reference Document 5.2. Stats, abilities, and descriptions are faithful to the original SRD text. Extracted and formatted for Rolling Realm to provide a comprehensive library of official monsters as templates and references for homebrewers.

Created by @LightReign
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