Beating the balor

Sorry for thread necro, but FYI, Protection From Evil makes you immune to the Balor's Fear and IIRC also to his charm spell (Dominate Monster). Note that Magic Circle Against Evil does NOT work, you have to Protection From Evil everyone individually.

-Max

 

Protection from Evil
Abjuration [Good]
Level: Clr 1, Good 1, Pal 1, Sor/Wiz 1
Components: V, S, M/DF
Casting time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Target: Creature touched
Duration: 1 min./level (D)
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)
Spell Resistance: No; see text

This spell wards a creature from attacks by evil creatures, from mental control, and from summoned creatures. It creates a magical barrier around the subject at a distance of 1 foot. The barrier moves with the subject and has three major effects.
First, the subject gains a +2 deflection bonus to AC and a +2 resistance bonus on saves. Both these bonuses apply against attacks made or effects created by evil creatures.
Second, the barrier blocks any attempt to possess the warded creature (by a magic jar attack, for example) or to exercise mental control over the creature (including enchantment (charm) effects and enchantment (compulsion) effects that grant the caster ongoing control over the subject, such as dominate person). The protection does not prevent such effects from targeting the protected creature, but it suppresses the effect for the duration of the protection from evil effect. If the protection from evil effect ends before the effect granting mental control does, the would-be controller would then be able to mentally command the controlled creature. Likewise, the barrier keeps out a possessing life force but does not expel one if it is in place before the spell is cast. This second effect works regardless of alignment.
Third, the spell prevents bodily contact by summoned creatures. This causes the natural weapon attacks of such creatures to fail and the creatures to recoil if such attacks require touching the warded creature. Good summoned creatures are immune to this effect. The protection against contact by summoned creatures ends if the warded creature makes an attack against or tries to force the barrier against the blocked creature. Spell resistance can allow a creature to overcome this protection and touch the warded creature.
Arcane Material Component: A little powdered silver with which you trace a 3-foot -diameter circle on the floor (or ground) around the creature to be warded.

So, according to the SRD it gives a +2 on saves against Fear, (not immunity) and it does prevent charm from taking effect.

 

I found out a good way to damage baylor was melfs acid arrow

make wands of melf-acid arrow and magic missle

summon vrock, hezru, glabrezu if you have these in your golden skull

then start pounding balor with melfs-acid arrows and magic missles
charm any sorrounding monsters with charm monster or suggestion

sit back and watch from a distance as you watch the demons fight it out,
make ranged attacks, allow only the most fit fighters into the fight 1 at a time if possible.
use Stone Skin and portection from evil if possible

greese, entangle, web also altornate ideas for casting in the area.

also having extra elemental node crystals for back up is a good idea
(killing a golden skull summon then looting the body) (dont let the golden skull
carrier pick up the extra stone) you need to identify them before you can use them.
+the golden skull sucks them up if you do loot an extra

these extra node stones also allow teleportation freely to the node color for quik travel.

also make sure if your character is near balor by the time he dies he blows up
and causes damage like an extended fire ball, so have good reflex saves.

 

Then ToEE has modified SRD rules. It gives immunity to the Balor's Fear, at least under Co8 modpack 7.6 (last one I tried). Protection From Evil turned the Balor fight from impossible to easy because my guys were no longer falling to his DC 26(?) Fear effect and Dominate spells.

It took me a long time to catch on to this because I was already using Magic Circle Against Evil, which according to SRD should make Protection From Evil redundant.

-Max

 

The key against enemies like Balor, Iuz, and anyone else with insanely high "to hit" rolls is concealment, provided by Displacement and Greater Inviso (and a few others) plus movement. Prot from Evil (which protects against tons of enchantment spells in ToEE) is vital against the Balor, and nearly every evil spellcaster. Whether using archery (manyshot is awesome for this) or melee, attack once and move away (especially with high Tumble score or Dodge/Mobility); the enemy will only get one attack. If you use haste or longstrider (or monk/barbariain movement rates), it's possible the enemy only closes the distance. [Hill Giants are the exception because they Charge, but only if they have a straight line of attack.] Even if it attacks, it has to pass a 50% miss chance due to the concealment. Just wear 'em down. Move and heal yourself if necessary, or renew the Concealment spell. But keep moving. Even solo characters can take down the Balor using this tactic; or I should say, Especially solo characters.

 

Balors have constant true seeing and don't give a flying fuck about illusions.

 

Displacement works every time I've ever faced the Balor or Iuz in ToEE, as does Obscurement/Horn of Fog. Of course, with the Balor you have to wait until after it uses all its spells (Dispel Magic), and closes for melee.
I think you're right though, about demons' true sight, in the erstwhile D&D rules.

 

I just single-handedly defeated the Balor Guardian and his summoned Balor with my Ranger, after they had killed all four of my companions using this tactic. I was going to reload and retry the battle but when I noticed that the summonned Balor got caught in my Spiked Growth spell that I loaded earlier to try and slow down the Effretti, I persisted until I managed to kill both of them.

 

He can be beat using only first level spells plus summons.

I charmed two of Hadrick's ettins to add to the four giants from the southwest corner of level four. That was enough to take out Hadrick and the three easier bosses without taking any damage or resting. I went straight to the bosses while I had my army.

When I came across the balor, I knew I needed a new strategy. You can't use spells due his saves and resistance. Taking a tank to attack him is suicide since the healers can't close to heal without attacks of opportunity.

I created eight +3 cold bows and gave one to everyone, I crafted 5 wands of True Strike for the wizard, sorceress, thief, bard, and ranger. The ranger had the lowest use magical device (8) of the group. I finally memorized eight Protection from Evil spells, five Spiritual Hammer spells, and filled every other slot with a summon spell and 2 Cone of Cold spells for the wizard. My sorceress had that as a chosen spell.

My prep was an unneeded Mage Armor for the sorceress and wizard and resistance from evil for everyone. I summoned a minor fire elemental and put it out front to draw fire.

I opened with cones first to weaken the djinn and finished them with the bows. My bard had already began invoke courage and added countersong the first round and haste after that.

The balor opened with quasits which took out the fire elemental but didn't attack anyone else. Two hasted bowmen using full attack took care of them. Protection from evil kept anyone from being frightened but that was irrelevant since only my paladin was close enough to be affected. He kept trying dispel magic without lasting repercussions.

Ronald ensured that there was always a target for the balor's attack and he was down to 17 hit points before he moved to get one strike for 20 damage on my paladin. Elmo was useless but my sorceress has grown to love him. My paladin got in a few lucky strikes but her job was to keep eyes on the balor.

Every round my mage, sorceress, ranger, thief, or bard would either use the true strike wand or fire their bow with a plus 30, 31, 34, or 40. I rarely missed since the balor's armor class was 35. I probably averaged about 20 points of damage per round but the balor was wasting Dispel Magic spells most of the time. He only attacked the summons during five rounds and his last attack of my Fiendish Boar was enough to allow him to advance and attack the Paladin.

So that is how I used two level one spells and a level two spell to take down the balor.

 

this combat is screwed without deliberately using just about every exploit in the books. balor summons another balor 3 out of 4 attempts (and I've now made 8 attempts at this frickin combat with a lvl 11 group of 5) and both let fly with fear and dominate monster, then slay living spells which take me out in a few rounds. absolutely ridiculous even with heaps of pre-buffing vs evil, bless, prayer, summon using golden orb - e.g. glabrezu which then succumbs to fear almost straight away, fungus figurine, lamina, earth elemental and I still can barely scratch him with AC 36 or 45 vs. ranged.

ridiculous overpowered combat. how the hell am I supposed to get the last gem and destroy the orb unless I read every cheat post on how to get past this. so much for "honest" gaming trying to follow a story line

 

Have you obtained Scather? That "exploit" was in the original story, because an intelligently run Type VI demon can (and should) defeat an 11th level party.

 

nope. the idea of sitting in a room for 2 weeks for a reward (now that I have looked it up ) seems a bit incongruous with the story line. but if it that's only way to defeat the bugger... guess I'm having a booze up in homlett for a few weeks

 

I don't think you need to get the gem to destroy the Orb (and you don't need to destroy the Orb, either), so one option is to leave the Balor until you feel ready to have a crack at it.
There are other options: a Paladin or Dwarven Defender won't flee, and a Bard can also apply buffs that can keep you in the game. I think they are also susceptible to sneak attacks so a Rogue with a holy bow and greater invisibility can be effective.
Or use Scather (a non- chaotic wielder, or someone with fire- resistance, shouldn't get caught in the crash-loop of revenge hits).

 

Regarding Scather, I believe that either Co8 or Temple+ made it so that the swords of answering don't get caught in a loop.

 

thanks. so I can move on to zugg and come back to do fire node later then?

and I don't have any paladin's, dwarves or bards and don't really want to grab an npc at this point given I've been able to get through thus far without too many reloads

might have to wait another level or until I have enough xp to craft 3 or 4 cloaks of resistance at least +4