Pesky little Balor

[Kaji]

While I'm generally in agreement with all those who said "Goodbye, hope you enjoy the afterlife", here's some helpful thoughts.

Find a sage who can tell you everything there is to know about Balor's. The types of spells they use, the types of attack they prefer, the vanities they are prone too. Fire protection was already mentioned, and you'll want plenty of it, but the problems hardly end there. Someone mentioned Freedom of Movement to avoid the entangle whips. If you had rounds and rounds to prepare, and then met the Balor, whour party might swing it. But negotiating still might be the best deal for you, buff Charisma, Bluff, Diplomacy as high as you can, and see if talking your way out will work.

Without knowing the campaign, maybe the DM expects this to be a killer battle unless you do something smart, like the figure out the puzzle of blah blah blah, or go on a quest you've been neglecting to get the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch . Feel him_her out a bit, maybe do some communing or other divination to get some "guidance" from above.

 

[rrealm]

So, my group, which is made up of a 11th lv Cleric/2nd lv Ranger, a 7th lv Rogue/6th lv Ranger and a 13th lv Monk, are very soon (w/in 2 levels or so) going to be fighting a Balor.

Welby: Whoo hoo! I win! *rubs in face*

For those that are standing around confused -
Last night Welby and I were sitting around the game table talking about how doomed this party was. Welby said the party was 11, fighting at 13. I said they are 13, fighting at 15

 

[Gez]

1°) Hope it's a 3.0 Balor, not a 3.5 Balor.
2°) Hire/Summon/Otherwise get all the help you can.
3°) Buff yourself with all the protection spells you can. Spell immunity to Blasphemy is a good investment, so indebt yourself for 50 years if you need, but get the scroll.
4°) Remember, you don't need to run faster than the Balor, just faster than all the "friends" you brought in.
5°) Well, if you disabled the Balor's teleport-at-will ability. Dimensional anchor.

 

[Piratecat]

1°) Hope it's a 3.0 Balor, not a 3.5 Balor.

Heck, hope it's a 2e Balor.

 

[welby]

Welby: Whoo hoo! I win! *rubs in face*

bastard

 

[drothgery]

Remember that money is of no use to a corpse, so feel free to spend all you've got, sell off any assets that won't help you fight a balor, and borrow what you can.

Single-use magic items and charged magic items with charges left on them are also useless to a corpse, so if you've got something that might be useful, figure out how to use it. If not, sell it and buy something that will be useful.

Stall for time. Each level you gain makes the fight much more winnable.

Take Leadership ASAP. Three well-chosen cohorts could go a long way in keeping you alive.

 

[Leviticus]

WOW! That is a lot of info. Unfortunately, most of it confirmed my greatest fear...death. Here is some more info to help clarify some of the questions.

First off, the party will be 15th level by the time we fight the Balor on next Friday the 30th (Death day?).

Ranger 2/Cleric 13, Monk 15, Rogue 5/ Ranger 6 / Horizon Walker 4(I made a mistake last time, I forgot that he took a prestige class), AND MOST IMPORTANTLY...our newest player a Rogue 6 / Sorcerer 6 / Arcane Trickster 3!!! Yeah spells!


Thanks for the extensive help Jolly Giant; I especially liked the True Strike idea.

Jolly Greens suggestions are very good. I applaud the tactical thinking.
Another possible reasons is that your GM is used to 3.0 and not thinking about the 3.5 bumped Balors.

Whimper...it is a 3.5 Balor...whimper...

My Ranger/Cleric uses a Holy War hammer +2 in his off hand! So that may help.

I already negotiated with an Astral Diva to help out for the small price of helping him in the afterlife if I should fail...call me Diva Bitch right now from the looks of it.

Blasphemy at will would be a real killer against your group, so you'll desperately need a Silence spell - probably one on each PC as well as a higher level spell on each too (to make it impossible for one area dispel to take them all out). Without the Silence spell you're toast.

Another great idea! Now that we have a magic user, yes!

Without knowing the campaign, maybe the DM expects this to be a killer battle unless you do something smart, like the figure out the puzzle of blah blah blah, or go on a quest you've been neglecting to get the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch . Feel him_her out a bit, maybe do some communing or other divination to get some "guidance" from above.

True enough, maybe I should tell you all about the lovely predicament that my group is in...

Our group was commissioned by a mage to hunt down and destroy a powerful Balor that was terrorizing his world. The story goes...There are four elemental stones that, once connected and soaked in the blood of a specific Ancient Dragon, will bring the downfall of the Balor. So, we being the cocky "Dragonslayers of Boremium" , which is what the locals now call us after killing two mildly weak dragons in our home town of Boremium on Krynn, agreed to help this mysterious mage. He then whisked us away to god knows where and was subsequently annihilated the moment we appeared back outside of his hometown by none other than...the Mighty Balor, who proceeded to laugh at us and dared us to try and complete the task. So we wandered into town and got some directions and off we went.

We have since found all 4 stones and combined them. Last night we actually fought the Ancient Dragon and with the assistance of my buddy, Sam the Astral Diva, a lot of luck (A polymorphed monk=a bad ass treant) and being well prepared with healing and protective spells...we won.

We are under the impression that once we put the blood on the stones, the Balor will die. I don't believe that at all. I do hope that it at least weakens him.

So hear we stand in the dragons cave with the stones and the blood, ready to fight "Big Nasty".

Like I said above, the party will be 15th level by the time we fight the Balor on next Friday the 30th (Death day?).

Ranger 2/Cleric 13, Monk 15, Rogue 5/ Ranger 6 / Horizon Walker 4, Rogue 6 / Sorcerer 6 / Arcane Trickster 3

So, once again, now that you have more info, I ask for any last minute tips.

If we fail, at least I can have a tale to tell future adventurers..."Think things out before you agree to help a mysterious mage kill nasty things, especially if those nasty thing are not even on your plane of existence!"

 

[Chimera]

4°) Remember, you don't need to run faster than the Balor, just faster than all the "friends" you brought in.

Ah yes, the old tried-and-true Buddy System (tm).

"When the shark comes, you feed him your buddy..."

 

[The Serge]

WOW! That is a lot of info. Unfortunately, most of it confirmed my greatest fear...death.

Yeah... Pretty much.

My Ranger/Cleric uses a Holy War hammer +2 in his off hand! So that may help.

Nope, not unless the hammer's made from cold iron. Otherwise, get ready to shave off 15 points from all damage achieved by this hammer. Balors are affected only by cold-iron, good-aligned weapons.

I already negotiated with an Astral Diva to help out for the small price of helping him in the afterlife if I should fail...call me Diva Bitch right now from the looks of it.

One blasphemy from the balor and the deva goes bye-bye.

Unless you have something the balor really wants and it can't just take it from you, I don't see this working out well for you at all. Of course, this depends on how your DM handles balors. IMC, a balor's very unlikely to bother with negotiating with beings from which it needs nothing. It's likely to either immediately kill them, leave them alone, maul and maim them, or simply ignore them until they do something to warrent its attention (they are Chaotic afterall). Now, if you have something it needs (like information related to who's asked you to kill it) and it decides not to torture you for the information it needs, then perhaps you can get out of this for the time being. You're not dealing with a pit fiend that may be amused in chatting with you while it considers three dozen ways to ruin your lives for the next fourty years; you're dealing with something that's the personification of violence, misery, and pain.

Good luck!

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Actually, hearing the full story does lead me to believe that you guys stand a chance. It seems pretty safe to assume that if the four-stones deal doesn't kill the Balor outright, it will alter the encounter in such a way that the battle is winnable. Suppressing some of its spell-like abilities (such as the Blasphemy) would make a huge difference alone, let alone any other weakening to BAB or AC, etc. etc.