Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

I have noticed that some bugbears and goblins explode upon death, but I noticed that the Balor, when killed, doesn't explode.
According to the Monster Manual the Balor should explode when they die.

Death Throes (Ex)
When killed, a balor explodes in a blinding flash of light that deals 100 points of damage to anything within 100 feet (Reflex DC 30 half). This explosion automatically destroys any weapons the balor is holding. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Though by the book, this explosion would probably break the chests always, so maybe it can be made smaller.

Could just move the chests to another small area with a wall between, requiring a transition hop.

decision was probably made not to have them explode due to the chests as well as practicality. group worn down after fight all suddenly die from an explosion. while goblins and bugbears exploding i dont believe is canon, it is fun, and interesting, and wont normally put your life in peril. with a balor, your life was/is already in the peril for the entire fight, and while explosion is canon, i can understand the absence of said mechanic

if I recall, the goblins that explode are explicitly Goblin Sappers - IE goblins running around with explosives.

Balor death throes is what happens according to monster manual.

No reason to not add it.

practicality. current cr of the boss is already appropriate. server resources. staff time that can be spent adding new areas. destruction of chests

to be fair, not everything in game is as it is in pnp, nor should it be. what works on paper doesnt always work in live action setting. there are many things in game that are not as they are in the pnp manuals. oft times if you tried to copy and paste mobs from pnp to live server they would be either too weak or too strong

Blame The Rogue wrote: ↑Mon Feb 15, 2021 3:10 pm to be fair, not everything in game is as it is in pnp, nor should it be. what works on paper doesnt always work in live action setting. there are many things in game that are not as they are in the pnp manuals. oft times if you tried to copy and paste mobs from pnp to live server they would be either too weak or too strong

To be fair what you're saying is 100% true. However I don't think it necessarily true in this case. Also the argument that "the player will think they've won only to die after killing the boss" doesn't really hold water, since exactly the same is true in PnP. Except in PnP you don't have unlimited respawns, when your party gets wiped that's it game over, so it's actually worse. In PnP you also don't have time to pre-buff, you don't have potions of Heal, and you (probably) don't have 20 Wands on your belt.

So imo it would be much tamer in BGTSCC.

After the first time it happened everyone would prepare for it and make sure they're on full hp when it dies. Really it's just a flavor ability that would add something cool to RP around.

The benefit is not worth the time it would take right now. Reworking bosses to be a little less tank and spank is one of my goals in the future, something like this would likely be part of that. But for right now it's not likely unless someone's doing work on the area it's self.

I would like to personally thank the DMs for making all the balors that I have seen them summon have death throes!

Big props