Summoning a specific Balor

[Tyrrell]

Wednesday night my character's party encountered a Balor , a Balor with extra hit dice, better SR, quickened spell like ability: blasphemy, and probably a few other neat tricks that we didn't get to see.

It was there to deliver a message to the party. My (chaotic) character, not one to give chaotic evil things of this power an opportunity to ...well do anything, threw an otto's irresistible dance on it and the party went to town on the rest of the encounter (cloud giant stats reskinned as super sahaugin) with the paladin smiting the bejesus out of boogie balor. When the Balor was put past 0 hp with subdual damage for the last bit (the paladin has the ability to see how close things are to death) my character threw out a many jaws and the party hid behind 20' of stone and the sorcerer's wall of force as the beast's death throws made a heck of a big blast.

The issue is that summoned demons don't actually die when they're slain on the material plane and this one through dirty looks made it clear that he was not at all happy with me ("dude, I was just the messenger").

I'm not fond of the thought of my character (5 wizard/ 10 incantatrix/ 3 archmage he's got a big spell book and probably the ability to learn any spell additional that he needs) getting jumped by this thing when he's on the toilet.

My original plan was to use planar binding then Otto's irresistible dance, I'd use metamagiced up enervations to give it negative levels and therefore it saving throw penalties until the warpreist manages to plane shift it to the negative material plane to be consumed to nothingness.

Of course planar binding doesn't work on critters with more than 18 hit dice.

Is there a way to get this thing gone for good?

Notes:

* It is clear that this Balor is not the main story and we're not going to mess up the narrative by dealing with it in a calculated and coldly efficient manner.
* The DM has a fondness for calculated and coldly efficient
* Other party members include a cleric 12/ war priest 5,
* 13 rouge/4 fighter,
* level 17 goliath barbarian,
* paladin 7/hunter of the dead 10,
* sorcerer 8/ elemental savant 10(elemental savant was house ruled to be full caster level)
* (and possibly a level 18 half orc monk who is exceedingly well optimized, and a level 4 war wizard, level 4 favored soul, level 10 mystic theurge but the theurge player is away from the game for a few weeks and the Monk's story is about to reach its completion allowing the character to find his deserved rest)

 

[Empirate]

Cast Gate, obviously. The spell description says: "...you may then call a particular individual or kind of being through the gate." So this should fit your bill. Since OID worked so well the first time, you shouldn't have any kind of trouble, should you?

 

[jefgorbach]

Wednesday night my character's party encountered a Balor , a Balor with extra hit dice, better SR, quickened spell like ability: blasphemy, and probably a few other neat tricks that we didn't get to see.

It was there to deliver a message to the party. My (chaotic) character, not one to give chaotic evil things of this power an opportunity to ...well do anything, threw an otto's irresistible dance on it and the party went to town on the rest of the encounter (cloud giant stats reskinned as super sahaugin) with the paladin smiting the bejesus out of boogie balor. When the Balor was put past 0 hp with subdual damage for the last bit (the paladin has the ability to see how close things are to death) my character threw out a many jaws and the party hid behind 20' of stone and the sorcerer's wall of force as the beast's death throws made a heck of a big blast.

The issue is that summoned demons don't actually die when they're slain on the material plane and this one through dirty looks made it clear that he was not at all happy with me ("dude, I was just the messenger").

I'm not fond of the thought of my character (5 wizard/ 10 incantatrix/ 3 archmage he's got a big spell book and probably the ability to learn any spell additional that he needs) getting jumped by this thing when he's on the toilet.

My original plan was to use planar binding then Otto's irresistible dance, I'd use metamagiced up enervations to give it negative levels and therefore it saving throw penalties until the warpreist manages to plane shift it to the negative material plane to be consumed to nothingness.

Of course planar binding doesn't work on critters with more than 18 hit dice.

Is there a way to get this thing gone for good?

Notes:

* It is clear that this Balor is not the main story and we're not going to mess up the narrative by dealing with it in a calculated and coldly efficient manner.
* The DM has a fondness for calculated and coldly efficient
* Other party members include a cleric 12/ war priest 5,
* 13 rouge/4 fighter,
* level 17 goliath barbarian,
* paladin 7/hunter of the dead 10,
* sorcerer 8/ elemental savant 10(elemental savant was house ruled to be full caster level)
* (and possibly a level 18 half orc monk who is exceedingly well optimized, and a level 4 war wizard, level 4 favored soul, level 10 mystic theurge but the theurge player is away from the game for a few weeks and the Monk's story is about to reach its completion allowing the character to find his deserved rest)

Generally speaking, summoned creatures return whence they came either when the spell expires or when death occurs, so summoning to you isnt a viable solution ... because plane-shifting it elsewhere, using a bag-of-hold/portable hole combination, etc would simply return it back to the Abyss even more annoyed, basically leaving two options:

1) chances are its still tasked to deliver the message so might appreciate being summoned to fulfill that task; esp if you provide a forgive-n-forget bribe to overlook the prior misunderstanding.

2) slay it within the Abyss -- keeping in mind advanced balor such as you describe are quite often tied to a specific sublayer, reforming there after a short duration (sources vary, presume 366-days). [Note, depending upon its position, it may have sub-contracted its vengence vs your party]

3) Convince its superior to order a cease-n-desist on its presumed vendetta vs your party.

 

[pawsplay]

Ordinarily, I'd say Gate, but when a demon discorporates it's actually not available for a long period of time.

 

[jefgorbach]

Gate would be a good solution.

Open the Gate once they know that particular balor's name/location and step thru to the Abyss to slay it ... hopefully while its on its home sublayer to ensure permanent death.

Having multiple Banishments ready would ensure leaving without the risk of stragglers tagging along. (The PCs are outsiders to the Abyss so subject to being Banished back to their native Prime Material plane without the risk of bringing stragglers along for the ride)

 

[Tyrrell]

Thanks for the replies.

My thought was that If I shoved the fellow on to the negative material plane he'd be obliterated rather than merely slain so I wouldn't need to worry about him any more. Is this thinking in agreement with the default D&D cosmology or will throwing the Balor to the negative material plane only serve to annoy him further as jefgorbach says? (meaning that slaying the Balor on the Abyss is the way to go.)

Also, we've already received the message I'm sufficiently skeptical that an apology and a get well soon gift is going to cut it that I'm disinclined to spend game time playing out the attempt.

 

[Jack Simth]

Thanks for the replies.

My thought was that If I shoved the fellow on to the negative material plane he'd be obliterated rather than merely slain so I wouldn't need to worry about him any more. Is this thinking in agreement with the default D&D cosmology or will throwing the Balor to the negative material plane only serve to annoy him further as jefgorbach says? (meaning that slaying the Balor on the Abyss is the way to go.)

Also, we've already received the message I'm sufficiently skeptical that an apology and a get well soon gift is going to cut it that I'm disinclined to spend game time playing out the attempt.

In 3.5 D&D, summoned critters reform if killed, called critters don't. So you Gate it in (a calling effect), kill it, and you're done. It'll cost someone in the party 1,000 xp, though.

 

[jefgorbach]

For what its worth, I agree exposing the balor to the Negative Energy Plane will inflict a number of negative levels, reducing its effectiveness and ultimately killing it provided you can trap it there long enough. The SRD states “A character with negative levels at least equal to her current level, or drained below 1st level, is instantly slain.” and since Balors are typically CR:20 encounters, its safe to presume you’ll need to trap it there for at least 20 rounds; likely longer since your foe was advanced.

Your foe's HD also presents a serious problem because although my initial comments regarding Summoning are valid, rereading the lists reveals the standard variants are insufficient for your needs as even SM9 is limited to Bebilith (CR:10) and Herzo (CR:11) whereas Balor are typically CR:20 creatures.

Planar Ally resolves not only the duration and auto-return problems inherent with Summoning spells, but also prevents the balor from Dispelling the summons to return sooner, since “A calling spell transports a creature from another plane to the plane you are on. The spell grants the creature the one-time ability to return to its plane of origin, although the spell may limit the circumstances under which this is possible. Creatures who are called actually die when they are killed; they do not disappear and reform, as do those brought by a summoning spell (see below). The duration of a calling spell is instantaneous, which means that the called creature can’t be dispelled.”
However the 4th level Planar Ally Lesser is limited to 6hd, 6th level Planar Ally is 12hd, and 8th level Planar Ally Greater caps at 18hd so you’ll need at least a 10th level variant to summon your foe.

Gate might be a viable solution, for while still requires learning specifically which Balor you're seeking, it lacks Planar Ally's HD limit, but is subject to being blocked by the demonic rulers, so success becomes dependent partly upon where he's at when you make the attempt.

Demon :: d20srd.org
Planar Ally, Greater :: d20srd.org
Spell Descriptions :: d20srd.org
Spell Descriptions :: d20srd.org
SRD:Energy Drain, Negative Levels, and Level Loss - Dungeons and Dragons Wiki

 

[the Jester]

Hmmm... if you could somehow make it undead, your hunter of the dead ally could finish it for good with final death.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

I really like the idea of shoving him into the Negative Energy Plane! As he loses HD and powers, does he sort of wither away into a dretch or something?

On the topic of using Gate, I'm going to play devil's advocate (or demon's advocate, in this case):

Gate might be a viable solution, for while still requires learning specifically which Balor you're seeking, it lacks Planar Ally's HD limit, but is subject to being blocked by the demonic rulers, so success becomes dependent partly upon where he's at when you make the attempt.

Since it's a specific balor, doesn't it get the option of not coming through the Gate? According to the text of the spell:

Deities and unique beings are under no compulsion to come through the gate, although they may choose to do so of their own accord.
(emphasis mine)

And a bit further down:

If you choose to call a kind of creature instead of a known individual you may call either a single creature (of any HD) or several creatures.
(emphasis mine)

Together, these excerpts suggest to me that a specific outsider isn't required to answer the calling. That's probably up for interpretation, though.