Demon, BalorThis winged fiend’s horned head and fanged visage present the perfection of the demonic form, fire spurting from its flesh.Balor CR 20Source Pathfinder RPG Bestiary pg. 58
XP 307,200
CE Large outsider (chaotic, demon, evil, extraplanar)
Init +11; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, true seeing; Perception +38
Aura flaming body, unholy aura (DC 26)DefenseAC 36, touch 20, flat-footed 29 (+4 deflection, +7 Dex, +16 natural, –1 size)
hp 370 (20d10+260)
Fort +29, Ref +17, Will +25
DR 15/cold iron and good; Immune electricity, fire, poison; Resist acid 10, cold 10; SR 31OffenseSpeed 40 ft., fly 90 ft. (good)
Melee +1 vorpal unholy longsword +31/+26/+21/+16 (2d6+13), +1 vorpal flaming whip +30/+25/+20 (1d4+7 plus 1d6 fire and entangle) or 2 slams +31 (1d10+12)
Space 10 ft., Reach 10 ft. (20 ft. with whip)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 20th)
Constant—true seeing, unholy aura (DC 26)
At will—dominate monster (DC 27), greater dispel magic, greater teleport (self plus 50 lbs. of objects only), power word stun, telekinesis (DC 23)
3/day—quickened telekinesis (DC 23)
1/day—blasphemy (DC 25), fire storm (DC 26), implosion (DC 27), summon (level 9, any 1 CR 19 or lower demon 100%)StatisticsStr 35, Dex 25, Con 36, Int 24, Wis 24, Cha 27
Base Atk +20; CMB +33; CMD 54
Feats Cleave, Combat Reflexes, Greater Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Initiative, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Iron Will, Power Attack, Quicken Spell-Like Ability (telekinesis), Two-Weapon Fighting, Weapon Focus (longsword)
Skills Acrobatics +27, Bluff +31, Diplomacy +31, Fly +32, Intimidate +31, Knowledge (history) +27, Knowledge (nobility) +27, Knowledge (planes) +30, Knowledge (religion) +27, Perception +38, Sense Motive +30, Stealth +26, Use Magic Device +31; Racial Modifiers +8 Perception
Languages Abyssal, Celestial, Draconic; telepathy 100 ft.
SQ death throes, vorpal strike, whip masteryEcologyEnvironment any (Abyss)
Organization solitary or warband (1 balor and 2–5 glabrezus)
Treasure standard (+1 unholy longsword, +1 flaming whip, other treasure)Special AbilitiesDeath Throes (Su) When killed, a balor explodes in a blinding flash of fire that deals 100 points of damage (half fire, half unholy damage) to anything within 100 feet (Reflex DC 33 halves). The save DC is Constitution-based.
Entangle (Ex) If a balor strikes a Medium or smaller foe with its whip, the balor can immediately attempt a grapple check without provoking an attack of opportunity. If the balor wins the check, it draws the foe into an adjacent square. The foe gains the grappled condition, but the balor does not.
Flaming Body (Su) A balor’s body is covered in dancing flames. Anyone striking a balor with a natural weapon or unarmed strike takes 1d6 points of fire damage. A creature that grapples a balor or is grappled by one takes 6d6 points of fire damage each round the grapple persists.
Vorpal Strike (Su) Any slashing weapon a balor wields (including its standard longsword and whip) gains the vorpal weapon quality. Weapons retain this quality for one hour after the balor releases the weapon, but after this the weapon reverts to its standard magical qualities, if any.
Whip Mastery (Ex) A balor treats a whip as a light weapon for the purposes of two-weapon fighting, and can inflict lethal damage on a foe regardless of the foe’s armor.DescriptionWhen 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 LordsEven 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.
A balor lord is typically a CR 21 to CR 25 monster (a range shared with the various unique nascent demon lords, with the range of CR 26 and above being the domain of the demon lords themselves), and as such serves quite well as the final villain in a long-running campaign. The majority of balor lords have several levels of barbarian, fighter, or ranger (although ranger balor lords never form bonds with animals), but some instead have levels of bard, rogue, sorcerer, or wizard. 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.
In addition to any benefits a balor lord might gain from its class levels, all balor lords possess one additional unique ability over and above those granted by its race and class. Listed here are three sample balor lord abilities, but these samples are by no means the entirety of the strange powers a balor lord might wield.
Lifedrinker (Su) Whenever the balor lord slays a living foe, it receives the benefits of a heal spell (CL 20th). This ability can activate up to once per round.
Master of Magic (Su) The balor lord has additional spell-like abilities (20 spell levels’ worth of 1st–4th level spells usable at will and 20 spell levels’ worth of 5th–8th level spells usable 3 times a day).
Soul Swallow (Su) As a standard action, the balor lord can inhale the soul of a living creature within 30 feet. The target must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 balor lord’s racial HD + the balor lord’s Charisma modifier) or die. The body of a humanoid creature killed in this manner immediately transforms into a demon under the balor lord’s command (a babau, succubus, or shadow demon, according to the balor lord’s whim).Creatures in "Demon" CategorySource Pathfinder RPG Bestiary pg. 57
Demons exist for one reason—to destroy. Where their more lawful counterparts, the devils of Hell, seek to twist mortal minds and values to remake and reshape them into reflections of their own evil, demons seek only to maim, ruin, and feed. They recruit mortal life only if such cohorts speed along the eventual destruction of hope and goodness. Death is, in some ways, their enemy—for a mortal who dies can often escape a demon's depredations and flee to his just reward in the afterlife. It is the prolonging of mortal pain and suffering that fuels a demon's lusts and desires, for it is partially from mortal sin and cruelty that these monstrous fiends were born.
Demons are the most prolific and among the most destructive of the fiendish races, yet despite what some lore might preach, they were not the first forms of life to rise in the stinking pits of ruin and cruelty known across the multiverse as the Abyss. Before the first fledgling deity gazed upon reality, before mortal life drew its breath, before even the Material Plane itself had fully formed, the Abyss was infested with life.
Known to many scholars as “proto-demons,” these wretched and deadly beings were the qlippoth. Today, because of the influence of sinful mortal souls upon the Abyss, mixed with unholy tamperings at the hands of the daemonic keepers of Abaddon and the cruel whims of fate and evolution, the rule of the qlippoth has receded. The proto-demons dwell now in the noxious and forgotten corners of the Abyss, and the far more fecund and prolific demons rule now in their stead. With each evil mortal soul that finds its way into the Abyss, the ranks of the demonic hordes grows—a single soul can fuel the manifestation of dozens or even hundreds of demons, with the exact nature of the sins carried by the soul guiding the shapes and roles of the newly formed fiends.
The Abyss is a vast (some say infinite) realm, far larger than any other plane save possibly the primal chaos of the Maelstrom itself. As befits such a vast and varied realm, the demonic host is likewise diverse. Some carry in their frames humanoid shapes, while others are twisted beasts. Some flop on land while others flap in air or sea. Some are schemers and manipulators of emotion and politics, others are destructive engines of ruin. Yet all demons work to the same goal—pain and suffering for mortal life in all its forms.
Yet despite this, mortals have sought demonic aid since the start. Be it an instinctual draw to self-destruction or a misguided lust for power, conjurers to this day continue to draw forth demons with forbidden magic. Some conjure demons for lore, while others call upon them to serve as assassins or guards. Demons view such summoners with a mix of hatred and thanks, for most demons lack the ability to come to the Material Plane to wreak havoc on their own. They depend on the mad to call them up from the Abyss, and while they gnash their fangs and rail against the commands and strictures enforced, most demons find ways to twist their summoners' demands so that even the most tightly controlled demonic slave leaves a trace of ruin and despair in its wake. More often than not, a foolish spellcaster makes a fatal mistake in the conjuring and pays for it with blood, unwittingly releasing a terrible blight upon the world as his conjuration breaks free of his control.
The truly mad call upon demons to offer themselves, both body and soul, in the misguided belief that alliance with the demonic can buy salvation and protection when the demonic apocalypse finally comes to call. Tales of desperate kings who sought to engage demons to serve as generals for their armies or of lunatics who seek demonic sires to gift them with horrific children are common enough, yet worst are those mortals who worship the most powerful demons as gods, and who pledge their lives in support of that which would bring destruction to all. Demon SubtypeDemons are chaotic evil outsiders that call the Abyss their home. Demons possess a particular suite of traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature's entry) as summarized here.- Immunity to electricity and poison.
- Resistance to acid 10, cold 10, and fire 10.
- Summon (Sp) Demons share the ability to summon others of their kind, typically another of their type or a small number of less powerful demons.
- Telepathy.
- Except where otherwise noted, demons speak Abyssal, Celestial, and Draconic.
- A demon's natural weapons, as well as any weapon it wields, is treated as chaotic and evil for the purpose of resolving damage reduction
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