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Right now I'm on my... *counts* third time through NWN, but this time I decided to try something new and play a spellcaster instead of Fighter/Weaponmaster. Took me a little while to get the hang of the new situation, but until recently I was quite happy solo'ing the game with my cranky, money-crazed, fireball-flinging, redheaded dragonspook sorceress by the name of Lina Inverse.
In other words: no henchmen, usually not even a familiar.

Until recently. Namely until I came across the Balor Lord in the creator ruins.

Now... I already know those, and back on my first playthrough (two-katana wielding fighter throroughbred), that encounter was barely memorable, as I hacked him to pieces in a reasonable amount of turns... but this time?

With more charisma than Elvis himself and buffed to the brink I faced him and threw my precious 7th-level spells to his face... just to see all of them crumble in a puff of arcane smoke. Needless to say his next Dispel put me in a baaad spot. The next time, I went melee with my "Greater Magic Weapon"-buffed dagger side by side with an also buffed incarnation of my panther familiar. Well... it won me at least one more round, as that was the time he needed to dispose him of. The result was still the same though: dispelled and mangled.

*sarcasm* At least I'm pretty confident that I managed to cut off one of his wingtips that time - so things were getting better. */sarcasm*

In the end, I finally did him in with lengthy series of maximized Ice Storms that do a little physical bludgeoning damage each time... "lengthy" because it included mindlessly scrambling through the ruins while escaping his wrath -and- two rests in the adjacent garden.

Anyway... do I really have to hire some fighter whenever I face Balors?
Are all Balors that strong against spellcasters or is this just a special incarnation graced by being a "plot balor"?

Isaacs Greater Missile storms turned out as warm summer rains due his counterspelling, and any fire/electrical assault seems pointless anyway. Cold wasn't any good as well, now that I think of it. Plus, I remember from my earlier playthroughs that Balor encounters get quite common later in SoU and HotU...

What does it take to bring those guys down with spells?

<edit>
Well... I just noticed I could also try a Tenser's transformation... but I don't want to. For roleplaying reasons.

-Zel

Well if you dont' want to try Tenser's (nice spell though), what about the usage of summons?
The two I normally use in the games as a sorcerer are Moderkin's(sp?) Sword and Black Blade of Disaster (in HotU).

That or grap one of the tank henchman to run in and get cut up. Grimgnaw is a personal favourite! Between that and summoned creatures, not a lot else, you just need a barrier between him and yourself and plenty of immunity granting items (fear and death magic, namely).

It took me a few attempts with this guy, but you can get a 4 person group up against him, and you could use a few scrolls/spells to keep summoning creatures while you keep hitting him.

Admittedly it is easier with a fighter type character (my Elven ranger didn't do too bad, and thats with a constitution handicap). Probably because his main weakness is that he is bloody huge! Easy target for conventional weaponry, and its just a case of plugging away at him. Whereas magically he is pretty good!

If all else fails, fall back on the tried and tested (but admittedly cheap) tactic of using the stone of recall, or resting like you say. Its the only way sometimes!

I prefer SoU in this respect because you can't fall back on that, but the enemies you encounter are possible all the time.

Hmmm Mordenkainen's Sword might be a feasible way, but being a sorcerer I can't just pull it out of the hat. Maybe a scroll...

But judging from your answers, it seems I was right with the theory that physical damage is really the only way to confront them. I had hoped that some very high-level spells might be enough to burn through their resistances some day.

Well, I'm familiar with the toolset and NWN-scripting... so I guess I'll have to script another custom spell. This time one that does physical instead of magical damage.
But now that I think about it - he even resisted one of my custom spells that I hurled at him once I was really pissed. Without making a saving throw or using his innate spell resistance, even. (at least nothing was shown in the console, the engine treated him as if he had never been exposed to the spell at all)

...leads me to the conclusion that there is something like an "undercover" form of spell resistance in NWN. Something like an engine flag that is beyond the workings of the 3rd edition D&D ruleset. Since... I've seen the spell scripts. Apart from the saving throws/target resistance they only check for the hostile/friendly variable before applying the damage. That custom spell should have circumvented both, but it still had no effect on that critter.

Oh great, back to experimenting... as if custom spell implementation wasn't already awkward enough. *sigh*

-Zel

Reminds me of..

Reminds me of my first time through with a monk, of which I had not built up the discipline skill. I ran into that guy in Lusken--High Captain Baram/Balam? Anywho, he seems to be invisible, hasted, fire damage weapon and very good a knock downs. He consistently turfed me despite a whole long list of enhancements; I was at that spot where I could not get a new henchman, so I was stuck with Tomi, and he was just as usless as my monk. I lost the ability to load that save after I installed HotU so I started over with a mage. If I had not installed HotU, I would have uninstalled the game and quit playing NWN. I guess the lesson is: Do not neglect discipline for melee fighters.