Balor

Legacy canon content This article contains information of uncertain canon status due to changes made in Monster Core and the Pathfinder Second Edition Remaster Project. Additional context might be available at Meta:Balor.

Balor

(Creature)

Common

CE

Large

Demon

Fiend

Level

20

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Images of balors

Source: Bestiary, pg(s). 82–83

Type

Outsider
(chaotic, demon, evil, extraplanar)

CR

20

Environment

Any (Outer Rifts)

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Images of balors

Source: Bestiary, pg(s). 58–59

Aside from the demon lords, the dreaded balors are the most powerful of the demons of the Outer Rifts. They are sometimes known as fire demons.

Associated sin

A balor striking down its mortal opponent.

All sins, taken to an ultimate degree of excess.

Appearance

The epitome of demonkind, a balor demon resembles a tall horned pillar of flesh and fire. A typical specimen is 14 feet tall and weighs 4,500 pounds.

Habitat and society

As with most demons, balors are created from mortal souls. However, while one evil soul can create several lesser demons, it usually takes the souls of several powerful villains to generate a single balor.

Most balors act as the main generals of the various demon lords, leading vast armies of demons into battle on behalf of their masters. They are content to let their minions fight on their behalf, but relish the prospect of personal combat when challenged directly. They are generally only found singly or in the company of other demons.

Abilities

A balors usually fights with a flaming whip in one hand and a longsword in the other. It is somehow able to imbue both these weapons with the fearsome quality of a vorpal weapon, enhancing its already formidable melee prowess. The balor can also use its whip to entangle a foe and draw it within the reach of its deadly sword. They can also call upon a powerful suite of spell-like abilities that enable them to summon demonic allies, rain fiery death down upon their foes, or control others' minds. So great is the infernal heat of the balor that any who come close enough to strike the demon with their bare hands are badly burned.

If a balor is killed, it poses one last danger: its body explodes into an inferno of fire and unholy energy that engulfs everything within 100 feet.

Balor Lords

Some unusually powerful balors do not have a demon lord for a master. Instead these so-called Balor Lords rule in their own right. Only a true demon lord can command an entire Abyssal realm, but the greatest of the Balor Lords rule up to half of a realm.

Balor Lords are equivalent in might to the nascent demon lords and have abilities above and beyond those of ordinary balors. Some can heal themselves by slaying living creatures and others have additional spell-like abilities. The most feared Balor Lords can inhale the souls of nearby living creatures, killing the victims and transforming their corpses into babaus, succubi, or shadow demons.

On Golarion

Khorramzadeh, the Storm King of Iz.

Like most demons, balors usually live in the Outer Rifts. It takes powerful magic to summon a balor to the Universe and is not to be done lightly. A balor views any period of enforced servitude, however short or stress-free, to be a personal affront and goes to any length to avenge itself.

Balors ruled many of the various petty fiefdoms that made up the Worldwound in northern Avistan prior to its closing in 4718 AR. Arguably the most powerful of these was the balor Korramzadeh, also known as the Storm King, who ruled the city of Iz. Unusually for a balor, his form appeared to be bathed in lightning rather than fire. The Storm King seemed to be gathering a growing force of demons to his banner, and the forces of Mendev launched the Fourth Mendevian Crusade to check his growing power.

References

Paizo published a sourcebook about demons called Demons Revisited, which includes a chapter about balor demons.

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.