Balor 5e: Stats, Fire Aura Math and Surviving Death Throes

A balor is a CR 19 Huge demon with AC 19, 262 hit points (287 in 2024), an 80-foot fly speed, and two attacks a turn: a 30-foot whip that drags you in and a 10-foot sword that hits for over 30. Standing next to it burns you every round, and killing it triggers Death Throes, a 30-foot explosion at DC 20 that averages 70 fire damage in the 2014 rules and 62 fire-and-force damage in 2024. The 2024 balor hits harder, gains Legendary Resistance (3/day) and a bonus-action teleport, and reforms in the Abyss if you kill it anywhere else.

Table of Contents

• •Balor Stat Block (2014)
• •The Balor in the 2024 Rules
• •Fire Aura and Death Throes, by the Numbers
• •How the Balor Fights
• •Running a Balor Encounter
• •How Players Beat a Balor
• •Balor Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Balor Stat Block (2014)

This is the balor from SRD 5.1, the same stat block as the 2014 Monster Manual.

The 2014 balor's saving throws are its armor: Strength +14, Constitution +12, Charisma +12 and Wisdom +9, plus Magic Resistance for Advantage against spells. Only Dexterity (+2) and Intelligence (+5) are soft. It resists cold, lightning, and bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks, is immune to fire and poison, and sees everything within 120 feet with truesight.

Its offense has two quirks. The longsword triples its damage dice on a critical hit instead of doubling them: 18d8 + 8, or 89 damage on average, from one swing. And its weapon attacks count as magical, which matters against creatures that resist damage from nonmagical attacks. Teleport costs its whole action, so a 2014 balor that teleports doesn't attack that turn.

The Balor in the 2024 Rules

The 2024 balor (SRD 5.2.1) keeps AC 19, CR 19, its speeds and its ability scores, and rewrites its attacks and traits.

The changes that matter most:

• •More damage, more of it unresisted. Both 2024 attacks deal force damage as their base. Few characters resist force, so the 2024 balor's 78 damage per turn (if both hit) is harder to mitigate than the 2014 version's 59.
• •The whip no longer allows a save. In 2014, a strong fighter shrugs off the pull 60% of the time. In 2024 every hit drags a Huge or smaller target 25 feet and knocks it Prone.
• •Teleport and attack in the same turn. The 2024 balor can teleport 60 feet as a Bonus Action and still use Multiattack. It can also bring a willing demon along.
• •Fewer saving throw proficiencies, plus Legendary Resistance. Banishment targets Charisma, which drops from +12 to +6. But Legendary Resistance lets it ignore three failed saves a day.

Fire Aura and Death Throes, by the Numbers

Fire Aura (2014). At the start of each of the balor's turns, every creature within 5 feet takes 10 (3d6) fire damage, no save. Any creature that touches it or hits it with a melee attack while within 5 feet takes another 10. A level 17 fighter making three melee attacks that all hit takes 30 fire damage for the privilege, plus 10 more at the start of the balor's turn: 40 a round before the balor even swings.

Fire Aura (2024). At the end of each of the balor's turns, every creature within 5 feet takes 13 (3d8) fire damage. There's no retaliation damage, so melee characters can attack freely, but the timing punishes anyone the Flame Whip pulled adjacent this turn.

Death Throes. When the balor dies, every creature within 30 feet makes a DC 20 Dexterity save.

The last row is the edition change in one line. In 2014, fire resistance (or immunity) handles almost the whole explosion. In 2024, half the explosion is force damage, so a fire-resistant character takes more than in 2014.

The 2014 explosion also ignites unattended flammable objects and destroys the balor's weapons. The 2024 version adds that a balor dying outside the Abyss gets a new body there instantly, with all its hit points.

How the Balor Fights

A balor has Intelligence 20 and Wisdom 16. It's a general, not a brute, and it should fight like one.

Damage per round against AC 20 (+14 hits on a 6 or higher, 75%):

The whip-blade combo (2024). Lash a target 30 feet away with the Flame Whip. On a hit it's pulled 25 feet, ending 5 feet from the balor, and it's Prone. Then use the Lightning Blade on that target: a melee attack against a Prone creature within 5 feet has Advantage, which raises the hit chance against AC 20 from 75% to about 94%. A hit also stops the target taking Reactions until the balor's next turn (no Counterspell, no opportunity attack when the balor moves off), and at the end of the balor's turn it's still adjacent and takes 13 from Fire Aura. Against a wizard, that's about 91 damage in one turn from a single target choice.

The 2014 version of the combo. The 2014 whip pulls only on a failed DC 20 Strength save. A level 17 wizard with Strength 8 fails every time. A fighter with Strength 20 and proficiency (+11) fails 40% of the time. Pull the wizard in, hit it with the longsword, and let Fire Aura burn it at the start of the next turn.

Fly above the melee characters. With an 80-foot fly speed and a 30-foot whip, a balor can hover out of reach of anyone without flight and still attack. A party without fliers fights it on its terms.

Teleport where it hurts (2024). Use Teleport as a Bonus Action to land next to the backline, then Multiattack. Or take a marilith or glabrezu along with it. The 2014 balor gives up its attacks to teleport, so it uses Teleport to escape a bad position or reach a caster before the next round.

Die in the middle of them. A smart balor near death closes in on the densest cluster of enemies before it falls. Death Throes is a 30-foot radius. The balor can't choose when it dies, but it can choose where to stand when it's low.

Running a Balor Encounter

A balor is worth 22,000 XP. Using the 2024 SRD 5.2.1 budget for four characters:

Vrocks are CR 6 (2,300 XP) and mariliths are CR 16 (15,000 XP). Under the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines (used by our encounter difficulty calculator), a lone balor is Hard for four level 15 characters (Hard 17,200, Deadly 25,600) and Medium at level 17 (Medium 15,600, Hard 23,600). A balor with two vrocks is 26,600 XP, doubled to 53,200 for a group of three, which is past Deadly even at level 20 (50,800).

A balor alone is a weaker encounter than the numbers suggest: it has no legendary actions, so a party of four takes four turns for each of its one. Give it allies, terrain and a reason not to fight to the death. A balor commanding hezrous and vrocks from the air above a burning city is a campaign finale.

How Players Beat a Balor

• •Resist the right damage. In 2014, fire resistance halves its whip's fire, Fire Aura and the entire Death Throes. In 2024 it halves Fire Aura, the Flame Whip's fire and half of Death Throes. Lightning resistance matters against the sword in both. Protection from Energy (fire) is the 3rd-level spell for it.
• •In 2014, don't melee it with many small hits. Every melee hit within 5 feet costs 10 fire damage. One big hit (a smite, a sneak attack) is cheaper than four small ones. Reach weapons attack from 10 feet and avoid the aura entirely.
• •In 2024, step away before its turn ends. Fire Aura triggers at the end of its turn, so the danger is being adjacent when it finishes. The whip pull makes this hard. Freedom of Movement doesn't stop forced movement, so the fix is distance: stay more than 30 feet away and it has to move or teleport to reach you.
• •Target Dexterity. Its Dexterity save is +2 in both editions, its worst. Intelligence (+5) is next. Expect Advantage from Magic Resistance and, in 2024, three Legendary Resistances to burn first.
• •Banish it, especially in 2024. It's a Fiend far from home. Banishment against a 2024 balor (Charisma +6, with Advantage) at DC 19 succeeds about 36% of the time per cast once Legendary Resistance is gone. Against the 2014 balor's +12, the same cast works about 9% of the time.
• •Plan the kill. Before the last hit, melee characters back off more than 30 feet and a ranged character finishes it. A Readied ranged attack that triggers "when the fighter is clear" keeps everyone outside Death Throes.
• •Don't rely on invisibility or illusions. Truesight 120 feet sees through both.
• •In 2014, bring magic weapons. It resists bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks. A party without magic weapons at level 15 faces a much harder fight than its CR suggests.

Balor Encounter Ideas

The siege of the bell tower. A city is holding out against a demonic incursion behind warded walls. The wards are anchored to a bell that must ring every hour. A balor has landed on the bell tower roof. The party has 40 minutes to climb a burning tower, fight it at the top in a space too small for it to fly freely, and kill it without Death Throes bringing the tower down.

The bargain at the portal. A balor guards an open gate to the Abyss and offers the party a deal: bring it the paladin who sealed the gate a century ago (now an old innkeeper) and it will leave this plane in peace. It means it, for now. Under the 2024 rules, killing it here only sends it home anyway, which makes its offer harder to refuse.

The forge. A dwarven forge-temple has been taken over by demons who use its heat for something. A balor stands at the center of the great forge, where fire damage is everywhere. The party can fight it there, or quench the forge fires and fight in darkness, where its truesight still works and most of their eyes don't.

At this level, a single fight can last a whole session. Loreify records the session and writes up the notes, so the turn where the rogue dodged Death Throes with Evasion is in the campaign log.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a balor in 5e?

A balor is CR 19 (22,000 XP) in both the 2014 and 2024 rules. It has AC 19, with 262 hit points in the 2014 rules and 287 in the 2024 rules.

How much damage does a balor's Death Throes deal?

In the 2014 rules, 70 (20d6) fire damage to each creature within 30 feet, DC 20 Dexterity save for half. In the 2024 rules, 31 (9d6) fire plus 31 (9d6) force damage in a 30-foot Emanation, DC 20 Dexterity save for half.

How does a balor's Fire Aura work?

In the 2014 rules, creatures within 5 feet take 10 (3d6) fire damage at the start of each of its turns, and a creature that touches it or hits it with a melee attack from within 5 feet takes 10 more. In the 2024 rules, creatures within 5 feet take 13 (3d8) fire damage at the end of each of its turns, with no damage for hitting it.

Does a balor have legendary actions?

No. Neither the 2014 nor the 2024 balor has legendary actions. The 2024 balor has Legendary Resistance (3/day), which lets it turn a failed saving throw into a success.

Can a balor be killed permanently?

In the 2024 rules, a balor that dies outside the Abyss gets a new body there instantly, with full hit points, so a permanent kill has to happen in the Abyss. The 2014 SRD stat block has no such rule.

Is a balor immune to fire?

Yes. A balor is immune to fire and poison damage in both editions and resists cold and lightning. The 2014 balor also resists bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks.

Stat blocks: System Reference Document 5.1 (2014) and 5.2.1 (2024), Wizards of the Coast, CC-BY-4.0. Tactics, encounter math and ideas are Loreify's own.