When folk whisper frightened tales of the demonic, what most envision is a towering figure of fire and flesh, a horned nightmare armed with flaming whip and sword flying through the night in search of its latest victim. The demon these folk fear is the balor, and that fear is justly placed, for few demons can match the mighty balor in strength or brutality.

On the Abyss, most balors serve demon lords as generals or captains (those balors who don't are even more potent, and are known as balor lords—see below). A balor typically commands vast legions of demons, and while it often lets these slavering and eager minions fight its battles, the balor is far from a coward. If presented with an opportunity to join a fight, few balors choose to resist.

In combat, a balor relies upon its spell-like abilities to fight foes wise enough to avoid melee range, favoring destructive powers like fire storm or implosion and saving dominate monster for use against the rare foe it would prefer to capture alive. A balor usually uses telekinesis to disarm ranged weapons or pull foes into melee—with the use of a quickened telekinesis, a balor can use the latter tactic and still inflict a full-round attack on a hapless foe. A balor reduced to fewer than 50 hit points almost always seeks to flee via teleportation, but if that and flight prove impossible it seeks to position itself such that, if it is slain, its death throes are as devastating as possible to the enemy host.

A balor stands 14 feet in height and weighs 4,500 pounds. Only the cruelest mortal souls can fuel the creation of a balor—unlike in the cases of most other demons, it often takes multiple souls of powerful villains to trigger the birthing of a new balor.

Balor Lords

Even more terrible than the typical balor are those who do not call a demon lord their master, but instead are masters themselves. A balor lord typically rules over a region no larger than half the size of the realm in which it resides (as only full demon lords can command the rule of an entire Abyssal realm), and even though most balor lords rule much smaller regions (generally areas comparable in size to a single continent), their power is vast indeed.

Cleric balor lords are unknown, as they see themselves as objects of worship, not the other way around, although rumors persist of powerful balor clerics that directly serve demon lords or even evil gods.

Known balors

  • Alzoll
  • The Antidimiourgian
  • Balor - thought to be the original (and certainly the greatest) Balor. Balor appears in the palace of Demogorgon.
  • Errtu
  • Fieriel
  • Ndulu
  • Ter-Soth
  • Wendonai - He is a former favorite of the drow goddess Lolth and specializes in the art of corruption. He was instrumental in the fall of the drow.