What can a 3rd level psion aboleth do?

[Nich_Critic]

Hey all,

I'm a DM, and I'm planning on sending a (psionic) aboleth Psion 3 against my party. How the aboleth abilities work and play seems fairly intuitive, but I'm at a loss as to which psion powers I should pick to synergize with the abilities already given. Obviously, I don't want many mind affecting powers, since the aboleth has lots of those.

Also, I'm wondering what feats would go nicely to replace the silly alertness/toughness/iron will ones that the MM gives it. I want the Aboleth to be a CR 10, and with minions, a credible threat to a 12th level party.

[AslanCross]

Note: Even though the aboleth does have psi-like abilities, it does not have innate psionic power manifestation like the psionic mind flayer does. You can actually stack six levels of Psion onto it and it would still only be CR 10, thanks to non-associated class level shenanigans.

That said, it's up to you how you want to handle that. (Yeah, I don't know why they counted wizard levels as associated for the aboleth mage in the MM.)

In any case, more offensive powers is the immediate answer:
Mind thrust and energy push are the ones that come to mind first. You can also get Inertial Armor.

As for feats, Psionic Meditation, and Speed of Thought, and perhaps a Metapsionic feat or two.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Practiced Manifester should be the first thing you give it.

It's an ambush monster, it should have illusions and dominated minions already set up to distract its victims, then use its Hypnotic Pattern ability and then Dominate anyone it didn't affect (i.e. the strongest opponents). If the illusions can be used to make its minions appear to be innocent victims of an ambush it would be even better.

For Psion 3 I'd make it an Egoist and give it Vigor, Thicken Skin, Force Screen, Inertial Armor, Crystal Shard, Chameleon, and Energy Stun.

[Nich_Critic]

Hmm. I'm strongly considering counting the psion levels as non-associated (even though by the rules, they pretty clearly would be). Psion 6 gives the Aboleth some interesting new tools.

I'm struggling between using the standard, or psionic Aboleth. The standard one has nice illusion abilities, most notably mirage arcana and veil, while the psionic Aboleth has less powerful, but more varied abilities.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Psionic Dominate has a duration of Concentration, so the nonpsionic Enslave ability is far more powerful. If you use the psionic version, give it Quicken and Maximize Spell-Like Ability for Ego Whip, and definitely give it Psion 6.

[KillianHawkeye]

Psionic Dominate has a duration of Concentration, so the nonpsionic Enslave ability is far more powerful. If you use the psionic version, give it Quicken and Maximize Spell-Like Ability for Ego Whip, and definitely give it Psion 6.

Actually, the psionic aboleth's psionic dominate PLA has a duration of 24 hours (due to the oft-overlooked fact that PLAs are auto-augmented up to the capacity of their ML). And it can affect creatures of any Type.