"Tactics in Action"--maybe I'm just getting too old, but this sounded boring as hell.

[ThirdWizard]

I think its less monday morning quarterback and more the papers announcing "Best game ever: 35:0" in the morning paper that people are rolling their eyes over. Plus the obvious "buy the splatbooks" subtext.

 

[S'mon]

I think its less monday morning quarterback and more the papers announcing "Best game ever: 35:0" in the morning paper that people are rolling their eyes over. Plus the obvious "buy the splatbooks" subtext.

Yep. To my eyes it's more the ridiculous stupid splatbook spells that annoy me, rather than the GMing of the Balor. Obviously a bunch of munchkin PrC'd PCs buffed up & using spells far more powerful than those in the PHB won't have much trouble with a CR 4 above party level.

 

[BWP]

It's obscure. The Balor doesn't actually have "Summon Monster", he has "Summon Tanar'ri", so it uses regular rules.

I'm not sure that this is correct. Most spell-like abilities are only a standard action to use, but the MM Glossary says that it's pretty much just like Summon Monster, which implies that it's a full-round action.

The Rules of the Game articles on Spell-like Abilities from the WOTC website indicate that the use of a spell-like ability is a standard action, unless specified otherwise by the ability description. So, is the Glossary specifying otherwise, or not?

I'll grant you that making it a standard action makes it more dramatic ... which almost always enhances game play.