Balor Down!

[Obryn]

This Balor was stupid enough to stand toe to toe and just attack with something that has got it weakened and dazed.

Yep, that's my read on it, too.

-O

 

[OchreJelly]

I'm actually curious on what was supposed to happen. Given the GM knew the fight was supposed to be unwinnable, were the PCs supposed to surrender to the Balor for the plot? IME as a GM, that has never worked as planned. Sounds like it was a fun encounter though.

 

[OchreJelly]

I really like this as an idea. I'm running a one-shot game in the near future and I think I might use this...

Heck if you like that approach, just make 1 hit = bloodied minion, and the second hit = dead minion. That way you get to keep the bookkeeping low too (assuming you use minis and bloodied markers).

 

[Phaezen]

My group had a similar situation, 7 level 12 characters against an aspect of Orcus (level 24), it was a long titanic battle which kept us all enthralled for the duration. Party composition (all pHB1 only) was 2 Wizards (1 wand, 1 orb), 2 Fighters (1 hammer and shield, 1 2 handed axe), 1 Cleric, 1 Rogue and a Starpact Warlock.

The highlight of the battle was the Aspect using a action point and 3 movement actions to get out of a 2 fighter and rogue sandwhich, recieving crits from all 3 in the process, and my warlock critting with the Summons of Khirad sustain to teleport him right back (The look on the DM's face was priceless).

Tactically, my warlock teamed up with the 2 wizards as a third controller, using thier walls and area effects to enhance my powers. The cleric kept up a spiritual weapon, giving us all combat advantage for the entire fight, and the fighters worked with the rogue to try and keep the Aspect as stationery as possible.

 

[avin]

Well, that kind of attributes Fighter has explain a lot about this fight.

 

[Stalker0]

I think the definite key in this fight was the balor didn't use his flame whip to pull the party out of the healing zone. Once the balor is bloodied, assuming he is going to hit with all his attacks (and with those attack bonuses its a decent assumption), a player would take 39 damage + ongoing 5 fire do to the attacks and the aura. I don't see the paladin taking that for too long if he's pulled out of the zone, and once he's down certain justice wears off, and the rest of the party is mincemeat.

 

[Elric]

You'd THINK so, but no. No one died. Iron Sky forgot to mention the cleric having a zone up that healed each party member 18 hit points at the end of their turn. Because of the mark from the paladin the Belor definitely focused fire on him but, combined with the cleric's healing and the Belor being weakened the paladin only went bloodied about 2 times during the fight. The damage to everyone else was negligible.

You'd THINK so, but no. No one died. Iron Sky forgot to mention the cleric having a zone up that healed each party member 18 hit points at the end of their turn. Because of the mark from the paladin the Belor definitely focused fire on him but, combined with the cleric's healing and the Belor being weakened the paladin only went bloodied about 2 times during the fight. The damage to everyone else was negligible.

Just noticed these in combination. Consecrated Ground only heals bloodied allies. If you're running it as any ally, it's significantly more overpowered than the actual, and overpowered, version. If you had been playing this correctly, the Balor's Aura would have bloodied most of the characters on its own, and the Paladin would have been bloodied essentially the whole fight.

Now, as long as the Paladin stayed in the Consecrated Ground zone this wouldn't have really mattered, because he regains HP when unconscious at the start of his turn, so he can just get up and attack every round. While weakened, the Balor can't outright kill him from 18 HP without an action point (which it might have already used early in the fight) or a lucky critial.

I think the definite key in this fight was the balor didn't use his flame whip to pull the party out of the healing zone. Once the balor is bloodied, assuming he is going to hit with all his attacks (and with those attack bonuses its a decent assumption), a player would take 39 damage + ongoing 5 fire do to the attacks and the aura. I don't see the paladin taking that for too long if he's pulled out of the zone, and once he's down certain justice wears off, and the rest of the party is mincemeat.

This is a good point. I had assumed that the party could have avoided this by backing the Balor against a wall/other obstacles and then surrounding it so it couldn't pull the Paladin out of the zone, but since the Balor is size Huge that wouldn't work (there would still be plenty of open squares).

You're both forgetting the action economy...

It's all about the economy, really.

You have two quotes from the same poster. It's not just about the action economy. If the Paladin had taken Astral Weapon instead of Champion of Order, the Cleric had taken Spiritual Weapon (itself quite strong) instead of Consecrated Ground, the Ranger hadn't power-swapped for Rain of Steel, and we lower the PC stats to 22 point buy, the Balor will probably win this fight if it uses decent tactics.

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

4e = WoW; and that's awesome!

You'd THINK so, but no. No one died. Iron Sky forgot to mention the cleric having a zone up that healed each party member 18 hit points at the end of their turn. Because of the mark from the paladin the Belor definitely focused fire on him but, combined with the cleric's healing and the Belor being weakened the paladin only went bloodied about 2 times during the fight. The damage to everyone else was negligible.

WoW. That sounds EXACTLY like a WoW boss encounter. I don't mean this as criticism, but it totally justifies people saying 4e is "video-gamey". I love 4e, and I think the "video game" aspects are a good thing.

Anyhow, here's the tank (paladin) holding threat (Balor focused on paladin 100%) while the dps (rogue and ranger) pour on the damage over a long period of time. The healer (cleric) provides AoE heals to take care of the dps and focuses his big heals on the tank to take care of damage spikes from the boss.

Awesome!

 

[avin]

WoW. That sounds EXACTLY like a WoW boss encounter.

Except this looks like some lv 60 using AQ gear fighting some Ulduar boss. I don't know, the more I read about (no offense guys) the more I think that would only happen under certain circumstances such as attributes bigger than usual and, maybe, some unclear interpretation of rules.

 

[Obryn]

Except this looks like some lv 60 using AQ gear fighting some Ulduar boss. I don't know, the more I read about (no offense guys) the more I think that would only happen under certain circumstances such as attributes bigger than usual and, maybe, some unclear interpretation of rules.

Along with some questionable tactics, to boot!

(Although, as a quick note, I might do something similar as a DM, if the situation warrants. And it looks like it'll be fun.)

-O