Oh, hey. Updated Balor in Demonomicon

[Obryn]

First off, I'm loving Demonomicon. It's probably my favorite 4e book to-date, unseating Underdark from the previous top spot. It feels like they kept faithful to a lot of the demonic lore going into it, and I'm getting some serious nostalgia. Whether it will live up to the high standards of Fiendish Codex I for 3.5 remains to be seen.

Second, while it's not much, there's a Balor with MM3 damage on p. 99. Lightning Sword damage got upped from 2d10+10 to 6d10+11. Whip went from 2d8+9+Ongoing 5 (wtf?) to 2d10+10+ongoing 15. Death Burst actually got downgraded a little.

Kinda cool. I'm looking forward to more updates like this one.

-O

 

[sappire07]

wow that is a massive damage boost for the balors lightning sword

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

First off, I'm loving Demonomicon. It's probably my favorite 4e book to-date, unseating Underdark from the previous top spot. It feels like they kept faithful to a lot of the demonic lore going into it, and I'm getting some serious nostalgia. Whether it will live up to the high standards of Fiendish Codex I for 3.5 remains to be seen.

Second, while it's not much, there's a Balor with MM3 damage on p. 99. Lightning Sword damage got upped from 2d10+10 to 6d10+11. Whip went from 2d8+9+Ongoing 5 (wtf?) to 2d10+10+ongoing 15. Death Burst actually got downgraded a little.

Kinda cool. I'm looking forward to more updates like this one.

-O

Sounds about right. Compendium seems to be a bit confused about Balors though, lol. In any case there are apparently quite a few slightly different balors in different modules/adventures. I think the concept of standard monsters is rapidly disappearing.

 

[Nifft]

That's a huge relief. I was very disappointed by the old Balor in play.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Jack99]

First off, I'm loving Demonomicon. It's probably my favorite 4e book to-date, unseating Underdark from the previous top spot.
-O

You are such a copycat

 

[keterys]

The old Balor really wasn't all that bad, unless you had fire or lightning resistance. Already had normal attack bonus and an improved elven accuracy, and two swings so it could do almost 40 damage with its normal attack, plus another almost 200 auto-damage between the aura and death burst. Course, it's a bit disappointing when its death burst does half its expected damage and, in fact, does more damage on its own than half of the other creatures that level in MM1... but eh

New Balor can do its double attack for about 80 damage... add in its action point and initiative and it can probably fly up and drop a squishy in the first round. At least, one without a full load of interrupt 'nuh-uhs'. Oh well, there goes that plan Still, good stuff.

 

[Runestar]

Momma! That's double its original damage output on average!

I always thought the original balor seemed a tad weak, but was MM1 really that off the hook?

 

[Drammattex]

First off, I'm loving Demonomicon. It's probably my favorite 4e book to-date, unseating Underdark from the previous top spot. It feels like they kept faithful to a lot of the demonic lore going into it, and I'm getting some serious nostalgia. Whether it will live up to the high standards of Fiendish Codex I for 3.5 remains to be seen.

Credit where it's due, Brian R. James is a sacred vault of D&D lore. His knowledge and reverence for the most minute details is beyond impressive. Combined with Mike Mearls's fondness for 1st Ed, this book is packed with oldschool.

 

[Joshua Randall]

You... shall not... pass!

(That's the first thing I think of whenever Bal(r)o(g)rs come up.)

 

[MrMyth]

The old Balor really wasn't all that bad, unless you had fire or lightning resistance. Already had normal attack bonus and an improved elven accuracy, and two swings so it could do almost 40 damage with its normal attack, plus another almost 200 auto-damage between the aura and death burst. Course, it's a bit disappointing when its death burst does half its expected damage and, in fact, does more damage on its own than half of the other creatures that level in MM1... but eh

I had one PC with just fire resist 5 who was really worried when he got grabbed by a Balor... and then discovered how low its damage was.

"It's cool, guys. I'll just chill here, on fire. Gives me a nice, warm, tingly feeling. You guys do what you have to do, I'll just hang out with this guy for a while."

Really... not the result one is going for with an Elite 3 levels above the party.

The new numbers are much more impressive. Pair them with their pet demons added in the Demonomicon (Zythars?) and I can imagine PCs really learning to fear these guys once again.