Pesky little Balor

[Leviticus]

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.

What is this!?!? A sign of hope? Yes! I sure do hope so. I will definitely let all of you know how this goes down next week.

Please, by all means, continue with the suggestions...or clever ways that I might die.

 

[welby]

Yes, it seem obvious that your successful completion of the task of four stones should put winning the battle within reachable limits, although you'll still have your work cut out for you I'm sure. Sounds very fun. I'd love to hear a round by round breakdown of how this goes.

 

[Derriphan]

One thing that helped out our party greatly was a druid (which I notice you guys don't have). The CR 9 earth elementals are only 3 points behind a balor in a grapple. Sure, they are going to lose their first grapple attempt to the balor's AoO, but they get two attacks per round. We managed to completely lock down a balor with three of these CR 9 elementals. If you can hire on a druid or find some other way to pick up these elementals, I'd recommend it.

 

[kolikeos]

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.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how, if at all possible, we can go about making this a winnable fight.

I am open to any suggestions.

Thanks,
Soon to be burnt to a crisp or decapitated adventurer

3 15th lvl loozers vs. a balor? you're most likely gonna die in a 'fair fight' against a balor. but then, i did see a group of 3 11th lvl loozers defeat a 9th lvl mind flayer sor, so i wouldn't say it's not possible to win such a fight. and then, they had everything planned ahead of the fight, they new all about mind flayers and had some very powerful magic items.

some advice: the balor is most likely going to underastimate you, use this to your advantge.

2 lvls is not very soon at all... at least with the dm i play with

 

[Toras]

Your GM is setting you up with the stones so look for some manner of weakening or help. After all it is prophecied, and if he is reacting with scorn at the very thought of it, it can't be a clever plan to increase his own power disguised as a prophecy. (Stupid Loths)

The problem with a Astral Deva, is that it is hardly the Balor's equivalent. If you could find a solar willing to give you the time of day that would be something, but unfortunately all you have right now is another body in the fight, fortunately one that will be a prime target.

A question about where you have to do the deed so to speak. Are there any springs or rivers you could divert. (Spells can replicate as well) perform the rite even waste deep in water, it would be childs play for a cleric of moderate power (you) to cast a couple bless waters. Even better would be to do it under water under the same circumstances and simply surrond the stones + blood in a water proof container of some sort (force bubble, etc.). Water breathing means your fine, but your opponent is going to be having a bad day.

Now the Balor has to face off with you while at least waist deep in something that burns him like alchemist fire, and still have to deal with you guys.

 

[Eccles]

The only ideas that spring to mind are:

a) Get someone else to trigger the circumstances that set the Balor on you.
b) Collapse something really, really heavy on the balor (they dropped a moon on Chewbacca, after all).
c) Go back to that damn wizard and either tell him to get lost, or demand help.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

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

Friday Night, Firefight?

I wish you luck.

Some notes: Summoning Creatures is a good idea if you want to avoid taking damage. The bigger, the better, I should add. If you have some creatures that can grapple the balor (like the afromentioned ELementals), he might be in some trouble - he loses his Dex bonus to AC, making it easier to hit (and hit hard, in case of rogues).

 

[Eccles]

Yeah, but if you're grappling (rather than grappled by) the Balor, would you still take the fire damage?

 

[WizarDru]

Are you sure it's truly a Balor, and not just a dretch with big dreams?

Seriously, consider the possiblity that it's another denizen of the abyss that's using trickery and magic to fool those he's dealing with. A better question would be: how do you know you'll be fighting him in 'two levels', as opposed to two weeks or six months?

From a metagame perspective, I would guess that if the Balor's power is tied to the Elemental stones, then you might have a chance if working on the task makes him weaker.

But you still have to ask yourself: if completing the task threatens him, why isn't he stopping you? If it was important enough to kill the mage, why then did he challenge you? How much did you really know about the mage, for that matter? I think you're being had, chad. You need a few divination spells to suss out the right track, methinks.

 

[Leviticus]

But you still have to ask yourself: if completing the task threatens him, why isn't he stopping you? If it was important enough to kill the mage, why then did he challenge you? How much did you really know about the mage, for that matter? I think you're being had, chad. You need a few divination spells to suss out the right track, methinks.

Very interesting, I had not thought of that. I allowed my greed for lots of booty get in the way of common sense or it could be the fact that I want to go back to Krynn so bad that I just run in and kill everything instead of thinking first...

I have used Divination a couple of times, but never to ask why or what the stones do.

I love this forum, it's amazing how many different tactics I have heard.