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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nyeshet" data-source="post: 2483095" data-attributes="member: 18363">The Balor has INT 24, not INT 12It was more luck than tactics. Also, I think the DM poorly ran the event in favor of the players. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing. Perhaps he thought the players needed a bit of an edge considering the ~4 level difference in encounter level. Somethings I didn't like / thought were off: 1) A Knowledge check grants knowledge of all the spell-like abilities of the Balor, and a Greater Spell Immunity is used to negate most of them. I can see a Knowledge check of 40 - 45 (note he says it approached 45, not that it was) granting quite a lot, but that seems a bit much. Myself, I would have considered rolling a d4. I would have told them about the Unholy Aura, Teleportation (self), and Blasphemy, and 1d4 other at will powers. Once per day powers are not likely as well known as at will powers, after all. 2) The Balor never summoned another demon. The ability to summon other demons is part of the reason balors have the CR they do. 3) Teleport only as a means of escape. It is clear in the tactics description accompanying the Balor in the SRD that the Balor uses Teleport for battlefield manueverability, not just a swift means of escape. The Balor should have been teleporting every second or third round, behind the party and a bit to the left or right side (to make things less predictable). After being wounded by the Manyshot, he should have appeared every other round or so such that there would have been a less clear shot (probably not an issue anyway, with Precise Shot, but appearing directly behind the archer would have made another archery attack less likely, and allowed for an AoO if the archer actually tried for another shot). 4) Flying only to move back faster?! The Balor should have taken to the air immediately, the round immediately after it appeared. Flight is worth more than a pair of nice wings! They should have been used!5) Quickened Telekinesis. The Balor spends one of its rare feats upon this ability, and yet I see it not once used in battle. Combining this with Teleport and Fly could have made a much more dangerous encounter. 6) Powerword Stun was perhaps the worst choice spell the Balor could have used at that time. It is excellent to deal with weaker foes and foes that have taken damage in prior rounds, but the Balor seemingly uses it early on, and against a foe that had taken little if any damage. A Dwarven combative of high level is likely to have at least a Con of 18 or 20 (and likely more, after buff spells) - enough to effectively double its hp and place it near or beyond the 150 hp mark. Unless the dwarf was particularly wounded it would not have been serious effected - if at all - by Powerword Stun. A Balor has Int 24. It should know this. Personally, I would have tried Insanity upon whichever looked to have the lowest Will save. Were he not raging, the Barbarian would be an excellent choice. It might still be a good choice, especially if the Bbn turns on its allies in its confusion. 7) Where was the whip? When things started looking dicy, the Balor used its sword instead of its whip. This time it worked (sort of; it should have worked better, but Revivify was misinterpretted), but what about its whip? The damage would have been potentially nice, and the opposed Strength check would likely have gone the way of the Balor. - - -Sigh. Anyway, the Balor was run as if it had an Int of 12 instead of 24. It ignored many of its signature and exemplary abilities, it practiced poor tactics, and its foes were unusually lucky. And this is not even taking into account the fact that several spells used by the party should not have worked as they did or when they did.All in all, this was not a good example of a high level significant challenge. It could have been, but it was not.</blockquote>

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