Someone forgot to tell Bioware that invincible enemies aren’t fun. I’m on the main Underdark map, and I just took on a quest for one of the little gnome characters to rid the gnome caverns of a horrible evil (near the top middle of the map). This horrible evil happens to be Balor, some winged red demon thing that constantly confuses/holds my party, doesn’t do a whole lot of damage, and is damn near impossible to hit. Every magical weapon my party has is ineffective, and even the 7th level magic sword scroll that the gnome gave me only does a bit of damage before it ends. Also, Balor has magic resistance for every spell I cast on him. This is irritating as fuck. Can anyone tell me how to beat this thing?
Lower Magic Resistance and Pierce Shield work wonders. He’s immune to fire, all weapons of +2 or lesser enchantment and he’s 90% resistant to magic. You should have plenty of weapons that are +3 or greater, especially since the dark elves drop them too. Good luck. :D
edit: Oh yeah, don’t forget your Protection from Evil 10’.
AC -6
HP 155
TACH0 5
4 attacks/round (causes panic)
Str/Dex/Con/Int/Wis/Cha - 25/19/9/20/16/25
Saves death/wands/polymorph/breath/spell - 5/7/6/5/8
Immune to non-magical/+1/+2 weapons
Immune to poison, charm, feeblemind, confusion, polymorph, panic
The Baalor will try to cause paralysis and it will cast dispel magic and confusion if mages are present (both only once - can be used to your advantage).
The Balor in BG2 isn’t resistant to physical damage. He only has 120 hp and 2 attacks as well, but he uses a vorpal weapon with a 15% chance to kill instantly (No save, doesn’t bypass resistance).
Every single monster in any of the BG games that ever gets complained about as being “too tough” always, always, always has, in my experience, the same very simple solution. Beat it over the head hard and often. It will go down.
If you’re having trouble hitting it, look into buffing spells (bless, prayer, emotion, etc) - or just stick your melee types on it and have everyone else hang back and heal them when necessary. As long as you can make up the damage it’s doing to you, you can afford to wait around long enough to get the occasional lucky hit - but you shouldn’t be having that much trouble.
The last game of BG2 I played, I had Aerie along to be my mage and my cleric, and I think my PC was a rogue/fighter. Everyone else in the party was a hardass melee character of some sort. Easiest run-through I ever played. This becomes even more true once you get into ToB where everything and the kitchen sink has magic resistance - offensive spells become basically useless there, you’re much better off relying on brute strength.
Edit: You might need +3 or better weapons to actually damage it. At least one of those is available from really early on, so I wouldn’t expect you to be short on those. If you are, then that may be your problem.
2 attacks/round it is (forgot that twice the number of attacks is stored in the creature file format to cope with ,5 attacks/round).
<bg2geek>
Pretty sure the rest is correct though. There are several different types of Baalors in BG2/ToB, maybe you’re thinking of a different one? The Underdark one is specified in UDBALOR.CRE, spawned by DWPIT01.BCS, area file AR2100.ARE (trigger DemonPit). 18 other Baalor (BioWare spelling) versions are included in BG2/ToB…
</bg2geek>
A few ideas to beat the Baalor:
Prepare with Resist fear, Chaotic commands, Improved haste and Protection Evil 10". Summon Fire elementals, Mordenkainen’s Sword and/or Skeleton warriors. Time stop is always good. Spell trigger with 3 lower resistance fixes the magical resistance. Bolt of Glory does extra damage to demons. Ring of Free Action is very useful for frontline fighters.
That’s not really accurate. In fact a solo sorceror is probably the most insanely powerful thing in the game. We’re talking munchkin critical mass, everything-dies-in-the-first-two-rounds type of power.
<shamedbg2geek>
You’re right! I didn’t think they used a different creature file for that one. The stats I listed are only for the Balor summon, I suppose.
</shamedbg2geek>
I don’t think there are any large groups with hefty amounts of magic resistance other than Drow, and even they fall to massed offensive spells. I remember one room completely filled with them in ToB. I waltzed right into the middle of them with invisibility from the Staff of the Magi and used my spell trigger with 3 Sunfires, killing around half of them instantly and critically wounding the rest. Finishing them off was easy.
The tough, individual guys with lots of resistance are what Lower Resistance was made for (particularly a Spell Trigger with Lower Resistancex3). After that stack Abi Dahlzim’s Horrid Wilting until done. Allow to cool before serving.
If you get all the biggest baddest weapons in the game when you have the opportunity (I would recommend doing Nalia’s quest at the beginning of the game and work on upgrading the Flail of the Ages ASAP for a great first nice weapon) and have a few beefy fighters (Minsc with a 2 hander, the other ranger with two katanas, etc) then beating the crap out of bosses is often a great strategy. My main character was a Dwarven Fighter / Cleric, and I would buff the crap out of my party, haste it, and beat on stuff until it died.
