A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Monster Menagerie: Horrors of the Aboleth

Monster Menagerie: Horrors of the Aboleth by Sam Hing is a role playing game supplement published by Rogue Genius Games for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result. This is part of the Monster Menagerie series of themed bestiaries, in this case covering aboleths.

The supplement is available from DriveThruRPG as a 27-page PDF for $3.99, as a softcover colour print on demand book for $9.99 or as both PDF and softcover for $10.99. The PDF is the version reviewed although it was purchased at a greatly reduced price as part of a special bundle. Two pages are the front and rear covers, one page is the Credits and two pages the Open Game License.

The single page introduction talks about the aboleth and how this smaller Lovecraftian horror has little options for expanding it, perhaps because they are supposed to be unknowable mysteries, perhaps because underwater adventures are a pain to run or perhaps because a CR 7 monster isn’t that much of a threat to a party capable of underwater campaigns (in fact, probably the only other attempt at expanding the aboleth was for AD&D back in Dragon #131). It explains that a race known for manipulating and transmogrifying other races is going to have other creatures around.

First is the Behemoth Aboleth, a huge monster far more dangerous than its creators, but less intelligent, used as a living siege weapon.

Next is the Engulfer Aboleth, which acquires slaves and transports them between aboleth cities.

The Manipulator Aboleth has four humanoid arms and focuses on magical research.

The Slime Aboleth – also called the Slime Golem in the stat block – is a construct created from the slime of several aboleths.

The Livyathan is an aboleth-dragon cross, and is a dangerous experiment that got totally out of hand and tends to dominate aboleth cities.

The Muculent Husk is an undead creature believed to originate from a failed attempt at immortality.

The Protoaboleth is a primordial creature that is the forebear of the modern aboleth.

Cetacean Skum are skum formed from dolphins, self-loathing creatures whose creation does not make merfolk or tritons happy.

Larval Aboleth Swarm are the spawn of aboleth, two or three of which will eventually become full-grown aboleth.

The Tentacle Crab is an early form of servitor created by the aboleths.

There are three new items, one hardens flesh affected by slime, another is a bomb made from mucus and a third allows aboleth slime to be squirted around. New magic items include a ring that allows aboleth to walk on and a staff that has part of an aboleth tentacle. There are three new feats, one allowing skum to change back to their previous form, another aimed at those fighting aboleth and a third related to an aberrant bloodline. Finally, there are three new spells (which are not in alphabetical order) that create sharp waves, curse creatures to become skum and create an inverted whirlpool

Monster Menagerie: Horrors of the Aboleth in Review

The PDF is well bookmarked for the length, with major and minor sections linked, although one points to the wrong page. It’s not obvious, because they aren’t marked in any way, but some of the terms are hyperlinked to D20PFSRD. Unfortunately, they aren’t necessarily hyperlinked to anywhere useful, rather undermining their utility. Navigation is decent, but it was supposed to be better. The text maintains a two-column full colour format, and by full colour that means every monster not only has a full colour illustration but it’s also on a full-page background. Appearance is superb, but this is undermined by formatting mistakes. Still, the images are excellent, especially for a supplement that is so inexpensive for the artwork.

This supplement does add some new options for the aboleth, and the new options, including the servants, are, in the majority of cases, more dangerous than the basic aboleth. Which does suggest that perhaps something that was done in the Dragon article should have been added – more powerful normal aboleth. The standard aboleth looks rather puny compared to many of their servitor creatures. The new monsters are decent, but perhaps not much more than that. Monster Menagerie: Horrors of the Aboleth is a beautifully illustrated supplement that gives the impression that more time was spent on presentation than content and it can be found by clicking here.