BG2, the Balor: is there a sensible way of killing it?
phobos
tunnelled too deep and awoken something unpleasant. Apparently they
want it dead. Now, this is a story I've heard before somewhere, so I
turn up expecting to meet something tremendously horrible, a demon of
the ancient world made of shadow and flame that may or may not have
wings.
Well, what do you know? There it is, too.
Fight that thing? As if, sez I; pause game, give rest of party the
standard 'Fly, you fools' orders and become the Slayer. No more
problem.
But I can't help feeling that being the Slayer is cheating. I reloaded
and tried to do it fairly and got flattened. Any advice on Balro^H^Hor
killing without being quite so brutal about things?
n.b. Not that I don't like being the Slayer (I love it, and as soon as
I get back to civilisation I'm going to personally rip Firkraag's head
off), but it does seem to cost karma, and I have a mostly good party.
Troll
> I got to the Underdark and met these dwarf guys who seem to have
> tunnelled too deep and awoken something unpleasant. Apparently they
> want it dead. Now, this is a story I've heard before somewhere, so I
> turn up expecting to meet something tremendously horrible, a demon of
> the ancient world made of shadow and flame that may or may not have
> wings.
in the underdark.
>
> Well, what do you know? There it is, too.
>
> Fight that thing? As if, sez I; pause game, give rest of party the
> standard 'Fly, you fools' orders and become the Slayer. No more
> problem.
>
> But I can't help feeling that being the Slayer is cheating. I reloaded
> and tried to do it fairly and got flattened. Any advice on Balro^H^Hor
> killing without being quite so brutal about things?
This is a chance for your clerics and mages to shine. Mages cast pierce
shield or lower resistance a few times so that it's no longer immune to
magic, then have the clerics start throwing bolts of glory, holy smite,
etc. Oh yeah, lots of summons beforehand to keep it occupied while you
do all of this:) Protection from evil would also be useful...
Jonathan Ellis
"phobos" <pho...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:af26c87a.03031...@posting.google.com...
> I got to the Underdark and met these dwarf guys who seem to have
> tunnelled too deep and awoken something unpleasant. Apparently they
> want it dead. Now, this is a story I've heard before somewhere, so I
> turn up expecting to meet something tremendously horrible, a demon
of
> the ancient world made of shadow and flame that may or may not have
> wings.
>
> Well, what do you know? There it is, too.
>
> Fight that thing? As if, sez I; pause game, give rest of party the
> standard 'Fly, you fools' orders and become the Slayer. No more
> problem.
>
> But I can't help feeling that being the Slayer is cheating. I
reloaded
> and tried to do it fairly and got flattened. Any advice on
Balro^H^Hor
> killing without being quite so brutal about things?
Resist Fear on all your party, to stop them being terrified.
Sufficient hit points to be unaffected by a Power Word Stun, for your
front-line fighters (quaff potions of fortitude if necessary). Quaff
those potions that improve your saving throws, its paralysis attack
can be saved against.
Make your fighters use +3 weapons or better. Drow weapons will do,
although you can't use these outside the Underdark they're quite good
enough *in* the underdark. Most drow melee weapons are flails and
swords, but there's a halberd or two. Admittedly not much else. There
are also a few decent +3 weapons easily available during the game.
*coughcoughFlailOfAgescoughcough*
If you want to use magic against it, lower its resistance first. The
5th-level spell of Lower Resistance works wonders when used two or
three times against it: then you can use spells like Magic Missile and
Holy Smite (unless you are of Evil alignment yourself, in which case
you dare not use the latter: this nerfs a lot of Evil clerics when it
comes to damaging the enemy, since most of your enemies are also
Evil). The 6th-level spell of Chain Lightning will hurt it. Even
Melf's Acid Arrow or Flame Arrow, or Melf's Minute Meteors are nice.
If you're high enough level to cast 8th-level spells, Abi-Dalzim's
Horrid Wilting. Summoning a Mordenkainen's Sword (7th-level mage
spell) is useful, they hit several times a round for decent damage,
can hit anything not protected from magical weapons, and cannot be
stunned, confused or paralyzed.
Jonathan.
T.J....@durham.ac.uk
> phobos wrote:
>> But I can't help feeling that being the Slayer is cheating. I reloaded
>> and tried to do it fairly and got flattened. Any advice on Balro^H^Hor
>> killing without being quite so brutal about things?
> This is a chance for your clerics and mages to shine. Mages cast pierce
> shield or lower resistance a few times so that it's no longer immune to
> magic, then have the clerics start throwing bolts of glory, holy smite,
> etc. Oh yeah, lots of summons beforehand to keep it occupied while you
> do all of this:) Protection from evil would also be useful...
It tends to paralyse your party members as well. Free Action (from the
ring, which you should have by now, or the 4th level spell) might be of
use.
Tom
--
This mystery is really getting mysterious!
-Fred from Scooby Doo
Kish
> This is a chance for your clerics and mages to shine. Mages cast pierce
> shield or lower resistance a few times so that it's no longer immune to
> magic, then have the clerics start throwing bolts of glory,
If you can cast Bolt of Glory, don't worry about Lowering its
Resistance--Bolt of Glory cuts through magic resistance, I believe.
Gingley
I found Finger of Death to be very effective (after reloading and
failing at several other strategies first).
Michael Ian Finn
summoned creatures while hitting him with ice based spells and weapons.
Scobin
> Any advice on Balro^H^Hor killing without being quite so brutal [...]?
Nice connections to Tolkien. It seems that you are to be commended. :o)
To add my bit to what the others have already said: the Balor may sometimes
be killed by a mere Chromatic Orb (its side effect -- stunning, paralyzing,
polymorphing, insta-killing or whatever -- bypasses Magic Resistance, I
believe).
--
Best regards,
Stanislaw "Scobin" Krawczyk
If there are any lingustic mistakes in this letter, please point them out to
me. I'll be thankful.
Badbark
> phobos <pho...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Any advice on Balro^H^Hor killing without being quite so brutal [...]?
>
> Nice connections to Tolkien. It seems that you are to be commended. :o)
>
> To add my bit to what the others have already said: the Balor may sometimes
> be killed by a mere Chromatic Orb (its side effect -- stunning, paralyzing,
> polymorphing, insta-killing or whatever -- bypasses Magic Resistance, I
> believe).
And for the cheesey method - have a thief lay down as many traps as
possible before searching the pit.
Not as cheesey as usual, as you know a demon is about to spawn there
without using any previous game knowledge.
Three spiked traps can take him down. (If you have them)
Badbark.
phobos
> phobos <pho...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Any advice on Balro^H^Hor killing without being quite so brutal [...]?
>
> Nice connections to Tolkien. It seems that you are to be commended. :o)
I was on high 'Tolkien Rip-Off' alert all the way from the Spellhold
dungeon; one of the statue's riddles was so familiar. Fissh, precious,
yesss...
--
1 February 2003: There we were, now here we are; all this confusion,
nothing's the same to me...
Stephen Mackey
>I was on high 'Tolkien Rip-Off' alert all the way from the Spellhold
>dungeon; one of the statue's riddles was so familiar. Fissh, precious,
>yesss...
It hurts less if you think of it as homage....
--
Stephen Mackey
"Nothing is so easy as to deceive one's self; for what we wish, we readily
believe." -Demosthenes
Katherine F.
wrote:
>Scobin wrote:
>
>> phobos <pho...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Any advice on Balro^H^Hor killing without being quite so brutal [...]?
>>
>> Nice connections to Tolkien. It seems that you are to be commended. :o)
>
>I was on high 'Tolkien Rip-Off' alert all the way from the Spellhold
>dungeon; one of the statue's riddles was so familiar. Fissh, precious,
>yesss...
Nah, that riddle's ancient. It predates Tolkien by hundreds of
years. Most of the riddles Tolkien used were very old, though he
changed some of them; for one of Gollum's riddles Bilbo gives the
answer "Time" (by accident, actually) where the original answer was
"old age".
Though complaining that a D&D-based game is a Tolkien ripoff
is like complaining that Beethoven used all the same notes as
Mozart...
--
Katherine F. http://puritybrown.diaryland.com
"High art it isn’t, but if movies aren’t occasionally going to show
armored chimpanzee cavalry charging a space ship then I can’t see the
point of having them." -- Andrew Rilstone
