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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MostlyDm" data-source="post: 7011394" data-attributes="member: 6788973">I think you're mostly right about the fire aura, I still haven't had time to crunch the numbers to compare.  I'll try to spitball it out right now, but I'm still away from book so bear with me as I use open resources online.Key point: you are wrong about Death Burst, it still factors into the DPR calculation.  It spikes one round of the 3-round calculation.  It's AOE is 30 ft radius around the Balor.  If you look at AOE adjudication in the DMG, I think this means they are assuming that the AOE hits all 4 party members for 70 damage.So, 70x4=280, plus his normal DPR which is I think 56 (assume just a single person in fire aura, hitting once, so two pings. And then his two attacks), plus two more instances of his normal DPR (fire aura, attacks), 280+56+56+56=448, which gives us 448/3=149 DPR average.I'm still away from book.  But punching just his HP, AC, and the damage calculations above into <a href="http://1-dot-encounter-planner.appspot.com/quick-monster-stats.html" target="_blank">http://1-dot-encounter-planner.appspot.com/quick-monster-stats.html</a> gives me a CR 18 monster.  Not counting his immunities, resistances, and magic resistance, which probably nudges his defensive CR up one more point, putting him to CR 19.So yeah, fire aura only assumes 2 hits per round, per the example in the DMG calculation instructions (As I recall, they literally use Balor as an example.)It's the death burst that inflates his CR massively, as Hemlock said.  The Balor, as written, is a scary looking Gas Spore.Which, if you want the death burst, is required for it to be consistent with the way CR is determined.  If you didn't do it this way, and you ignored the Death Burst and made him CR 12 or whatever, then the casual DM and his casual party could inadvertently end up with a TPK when they all got hit in the death burst after being whittled down during the fight.Personally, I don't mind killing party members, and I prefer Balors to be scary, so if I ever run a Balor I'll make him a lot tougher, and telegraph to the party that he's gonna explode when he dies, and if they die in the explosion, that's on them.  But speccing out the monster that way would go against the existing design philosophies that 5e uses for CR, monsters, DM guidance, etc.  So I don't mind that much that they followed their math correctly, and ended up with an oddly balanced Balor.</blockquote>

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