Monster Melee - Balor vs. Pit Fiend

[@esperthebard]

There is a kiting tactic the balor could try against the pit fiend. It would let the pit fiend Dash to get into melee, then multiattack the pit fiend and fly away 80 feet, taking the opp attack (but the pit fiend would again have to use Dash to get adjacent). However, the pit fiend obviously wouldn't go for that, and we wouldn't have any fight. Fast-flying, high-mobility monsters in an open exterior area is kind of weird on a battlemap. Something like this probably is better for theatre of the mind, with unlimited space.

[@dungeonfightclub9600]

I did this on my channel Dungeon Fight Club. I play monsters 25 times and show who definitively wins. Balor Kiting doesn’t work on account the Pit Fiend has crowd control like Hold Monster spells and Fear Aura. Strange the Balor is not immune to fear. Plus once the Balor attacks he’s getting hit way harder than the Pit Fiend is on account the Pit Fiend is Fire Immune. So in the end follow me to see Mind Flayer vs Githyanki Knight. Upcoming episodes are Red Dragon Vs Storm Giant, Pit Fiend Vs Balor and Kraken Vs Elder Elemental!

[@matthewwhite9643]

Treant vs Hydra please

[@ANIMOUS8]

​@@dungeonfightclub9600 the hold monster was pretty much a non-issue and the balor only has to resist the fear once to be immune to it. Therefore none of the crowd control would be effective for very long and certainly wouldn't allow the pit friend to overcome kiting in the majority of fights.

[@dungeonfightclub9600]

@@ANIMOUS8 actually in my test runs, the Balor saved against the Pit Fiend 69% of the time. 88 saves and 40 fails when trying to get away. The Pit Fiend save for spells is 21. Even with +9 WIS and magic resistance, the Pit Fiend’s hold monster works at least 31% of the time, so once a fight or every other fight. I also did different arena sizes from 20x20 to 50x50 and in every instance when the Balor kited, it was short lived. The average rounds it takes for a Balor to die from a Pit Fiend was just 3.5 rounds.

[@joshuagroner6819]

The Pit Fiend cannot effectively flee due to the Balor’s superior mobility.

[@joydjinn8692]

The whole fight felt like a human trying to fend off a ferocious cat.

[@esperthebard]

We've recently seen how savage that can be 😆

[@luizaugusto6532]

Lich vs Solar. Let the light extinguish the darkness!

[@edgar-sama642]

That's a great idea

[@FraternityOfShadows]

our bony boy would get slapped into oblivion.

[@FraternityOfShadows]

After looking at sta-blocks: Lich can't even damage Solar with any means other than Ray of Frost, Paralyzing touch, Magic Missile, Acid Arrow, Fireball or Desintegrate. Considering that a Solar has a solid +6 to dex, and magic resistance, Desintegrate isn't going to hit that often.

[@primeemperor9196]

​@@FraternityOfShadows The lich also doesn't have to reduce all of the Solar's hitpoints. It just needs to get it below 100 and use a Power Word Kill. (Though that may be difficult to pull off if the Solar closes the distance, since they have no mobility spells.)

[@FraternityOfShadows]

@@primeemperor9196 And Solar can heal 40+ HP 4 times a day. And ALSO has a kinda-ish better power word: kill built in into his longbow

[@purplehaze2358]

"The pit fiend goes down to 69 hit points. *grunt* 'Nice!'" This nearly killed me.

[@esperthebard]

I'm glad you got a kick out of that. Then on the pit fiend's next turn, it deals 69 damage to the balor, "I have repaid you."

[@BassBumbass]

@@esperthebard The fiends are just 69ing each other.

[@joearnold6881]

@@esperthebard repaying is what 69 is all about 😆

[@philippel.9086]

That was perfect

[@ChilleBruh]

Poetic even

[@jackrogers5712]

This is such an awesome series. It has such potential. You can pretty much continue it forever just by adding complexity. Teams of monsters, different environments, hazards, homebrew creatures etc. So glad to be watching these as they release.

[@Uutalo]

Bro you gotta keep these up, they are so fun! Love this content!

[@esperthebard]

Thank you!

[@MiagolioMaxwell]

I feel like it's hard to imagine a 1v1 like this because a lore-accurate fight between a balor and pit fiend would start with both of them summoning hordes of reinforcements before chucking spells from a distance.

[@LoarvicLoarvic]

Not always. Perhaps all of their minions have been evaporated. Perhaps balor is so consumed by hatred that it rushes into battle (still, doing its best to evade pit fiend's attacks) and pit fiend is too arrogant to think it can't take the balor out alone.

[@doomguy19931]

To be honest I could totally see some Khorne-esque god of war just going "you know what" and summoning a pit fiend and a balor to duke it out for his amusement

[@davidthebarbarian6851]

8 Rust Monsters vs a Iron Golem or Remorhaze vs Behir

[@markusnixon3156]

Oh I love this, or just some other form of metal opponent, not necessarily an Iron Golem... I wonder how many it'd take to take down a metallic dragon!? 😄

[@jonthrift4848]

Rust monsters vs iron golem? Yes please!

[@letendreelliott8778]

@@markusnixon3156metallic dragons are not, in fact, made of metal

[@markusnixon3156]

@@letendreelliott8778 Their scales are partially metal, just as crystal dragon's scale are partially crystal, I believe.

[@letendreelliott8778]

@@markusnixon3156 Gold isn’t very hard to melt though. I find it hard to believe gold dragons could breathe fire without melting their own skin if it was made of Gold.

[@stickyxliver1223]

I'd love to see any of these... 1. the avatars of Bahamut and Tiamat face off 2. Ancient bronze dragon vs Kraken 3. Elemental free for all 4. Giants vs dragons 5. 3 werebears and one human girl (wins by killing werewolves) vs 3 werewolves (wins by killing human girl, does not need to kill bears)

[@FinallyAlone]

*puts on novelty "bahamut is #1" foam finger*

[@jamescoughlan7175]

I put my vote in for the dragon avatars and elemental free for all, but specifically elemental myrmidons.

[@andrecosta8680]

Giants x dragons will be legendary and lore accurated😂

[@RachDarastrix2]

@@andrecosta8680 Too bad instead of the trash Hollywood makes now as apparently the only people who can make movies they can't figure out they never made that into a movie with humans only being side characters that get caught in the crossfire. And no Kaiju movies don't count.

[@esperthebard]

Great suggestions!

[@y2a1979]

Worth mentioning, against anything not immune to fire the pit fiend would normally have unlimited AoE ranged attacks, making the lower mobility less of a factor. :D

[@penabler]

Popped down to the comments to make sure this was pointed out. It’s a cool fight but their duel fire immunities defang some of their really high damage potential. The fire aura on the balor suuuuucks if you don’t have immunity.

[@whiskeypixels]

You should have a tournament for these. That would be really cool. Love the content! Can't get enough!

[@Luraldir_Original]

The winner of this VS a Molydeus?

[@esperthebard]

It might eventually build into a tournament.

[@Jeromy1986]

The Blood War rages!

[@Lucanoptek]

This reminds me of the "Monster vs Monster" which the D&D CR Exposed KZbin channel used to do, glad to be able to see monsters fight again !!

[@navarrjenkinz]

Ancient Gold Dragon Vs. Ancient Red Dragon is an iconic matchup. Maybe silver or blue in place of one of them, since both are immune to fire.

[@chadnorris8257]

Would like to see that. Generally the metallic Dragons have an edge over Chromatics in their weight class, but it's not a completely one sided fight. I'm sure somewhere out there, a Gold Dragon has defended its kin against a Red Dragon.

[@bluebird3281]

I once asked for Orcs vs Hobgoblins as an amendment to my request which I forgot to add originally, I was picturing small 3-5 warrior squads. I know it is a lot of rolling but the public needs to know who would win.

[@purplehaze2358]

The fact that balors even _can_ experience fear doesn't sit right with me.

[@nickclinton5147]

Some Demon Lords rule through fear. If Balors are not afraid of their masters the whole system breaks down.

[@Funkin_Disher]

Fear would be one of the few methods a demon could use to control other demons. They are notoriously difficult to work with. Demon lords would have to apply it liberally to get pretty much anything done

[@CarrowMind]

Why not? Demons are cowards by nature when facing against a superior opponent, even the mightiest of them. Demons are like school bullies or thugs, tough in numbers and when physically stronger, but as soon as the tables are flipped, they run and scatter. Demons aren't Devils, they don't have the benefit of rigorous training and discipline to rely on in combat. This is what sets them apart in the Blood War. Demons outnumber the Devils numerically, but the Devils far outclass the Demons in terms of martial prowess and tactics.

[@rainbowmothraleo]

There's always a bigger fish Well, unless we're talking about the Lady of Pain, she's the biggest fish (I sure hope I want be mazed for saying this)

[@theenderdestruction2362]

​@georgeuferov1497 Well, besides the fact she seems to be unable to mess with greater deitys and has to rely on siglis degenses agains them and even those can fail cause she doesnt see all and then theres AO is the 2nd biggest fish, and then there's the light who, if he says to her to do the hokey pokey she does the hokey pokey without question

[@brendanmoore5287]

I’d love to see more smaller battles! Pixies vs Pseudodragons as the ultimate battle of tricksters! Or Pegasus vs Peryton fighting for the best cave to make their nest

[@brendanmoore5287]

WAIT! The magical modern Unicorn vs the unicorn of the past: the Triceratops! Maybe in the unicorns lair to even the odds

[@calvinwarlick8533]

Wyvern vs Hydra might be fun. The wyvern can fly, but has to close the gap to hurt the Hydra, who can mess it up with opportunity attacks.

[@SpaceWaterfall1]

It's funny seeing the larger Balor running away from the Pit Fiend Here's an idea for a battle: Doppelganger vs Succubus Fight takes place in the bedroom of an Inn, both are transformed into humanoids and each of them has the typical intention of their kind: The Doppelgnager wants to leave some poor woman a single mother with his doppelganger offspring and the succubus wants to steal the lifeforce from some unsuspecting, horny mortal But to their shock the person they are with is not the victim of their scheme they thought they would be The succubus has a higher CR with 4 to the Doppelganger's 3 and has alot of abilities, can charm and can fly, but the doppelganger has stronger offenses, can read minds, can surprise the succubus and is immune to being charmed, however the succubbus has better defenses with higher hp, slightly higher AC and resistance to bludgeoning damage. It could go either way but I think it slightly leans in favor of the succubus, but it will be a close one either way

[@alkatron768]

Pit Fiends and Balor are classes of monsters, they aren't individuals, yet they get these somewhat specific magic weapons in their stat block. Would it not be cool, no I guess you can just do that but if we get encouraged by the game, to "build a fiend". This Pit Fiend has a glaive with acid damage and a ring that casts Expeditious Retreat thrice a day. This Balor has a giant Javelin that returns to the user and a Battle Axe that makes the hit creature deaf from illusionary cackling skulls.

[@DIEGhostfish]

Pit fiends usually don't have a weapon unless you're using 3.5 and letting him dip into his own treasure, but the Balor's always gonna have the sword and whip.

[@johngleeman8347]

You should definitely "build a fiend." Balors and pit fiends are rare and powerful monsters. Each one should have its own unique history, special abilities, and custom treasure. The base versions in the MM are there for new referees and in case you need the stat block for a temporary summons or similar event where the monster won't be around for long.

[@osvaldoprado9906]

@@johngleeman8347 Yeah exactly what you said. It's not like finding a group of 6 generic Balors/pit fiends inside a dungeon 😂

[@LoarvicLoarvic]

I would say these weapons are part of their "essence". Remember that fiends (demons, devils and the like) aren't living, biological creatures, but embodiments of evil, so when they are formed, their equipment is formed with them. This is also why you cannot loot their equipment. That being said, no one restricts you from doing what you want. Maybe on your table fiends work differently. Maybe that pit fiend has abandoned its mace in favour of a glaive. Maybe that balor has formed with a greataxe instead of a sword.

[@alkatron768]

@@LoarvicLoarvic Who says you can't loot them?

[@kelolon]

Hi, loving this series so far! I love "simulations" of battles like this. My suggestions has to be the crew of Cragmaw Hideout from LMOP (Klarg and his Bois; 1 bugbear, 4 wolves, 14 goblins) vs the crew of the Sea Ghost from GoS (1 pirate first mate, 1 pirate bosun, 1 pirate deck wizard, 7 bandits and 3 lizardfolk). Head-on battle, or maybe one group goes into the dungeon of the other group.

[@meowmix10000]

KEEP these up!!!!! love them!!

[@squashedeyeball]

One of the most epic titles of all time, just randomly appears in the notifications :) This will be a blast!

[@esperthebard]

Good to see ya, squashed!

[@squashedeyeball]

@@esperthebard Bless you Esper!

[@tjhookertj6923]

bro you are awesome, as a long time DM since the 80s.. I appreciate your monster noises and the VS content.... great videos bro, props!!

[@Luraldir_Original]

12:27 That's some great combat DM'ing right there.

[@Sir_Edusu]

I've always wanted to see this kind of content, and you do it very well. I hope this series continues on the channel.

[@samuelteare8160]

Displacer Beast Vs Blink Dogs would be neat to see. (Since it's in their lore)

[@MrDudestein]

I'm loving this new series of videos!

[@FlawlessP401]

I ran this fight a few times. Fun side fight

[@joshchandler13]

The Pit Fiend had a nice fire cleaning at the end, the death explosion burned the viscera from the battle off of it.

[@fragile4408]

It would have to be a bigger video. But I'd love to see an Out of The Abyss battle royal between all the Demon Lords.

[@ajl278]

And one for all the Lords of the Nine Hells!

[@mystiosmystios2534]

I was so excited when I saw YT's suggestion, Yeah "another melee monster!!!" :)) I really hope you continue this series, as I start playing DnD 5e with my family, it's nice to see this kind of interaction between monsters, trying all their abilities to kill and survive! Thank you from France ! :)) Proposition for a futur battle : 21 CR combat, lich vs solar ! ^^

[@sonichalo1527]

this would likely result in a overall victory for the balor, as for 5e, most blood war battles are in Avernus, so while the balor would discorporate to the abyss, the very bloodied pit fiend would now be vulnerable for a hoard of demons to finish it off permanently.

[@johngleeman8347]

Do you assume a pit fiend doesn't have its own legion of devils with it? A pit fiend is the result of a devil scheming and being promoted over the course of thousands of years. They leave nothing to chance. The only way the pit fiend would be alone would be a major act of treachery on the behalf of the yugoloths. That's the most likely way it could come to pass.

[@Mortablunt]

They are not mostly in Avernus. We just have a campaign module, where we see some battles happening there, but they mostly happen in Hades and Gehenna, between the two home planes of the factions.

[@LoarvicLoarvic]

No, most battles are in Acheron, with the few also appear in Gehenna and Hades. Baatezu would not let tanar'ri breach their defences so much that they pour into Avernus.

[@patrickmcathey7081]

The balor in avernus isn't fighting alone teamwork is the 8 hells superpower. They are lawful evil in the blood war hell has a 100% united front.

[@Roosauec]

When you were describing the abilities of the Balor, I couldn't help but think about how my Houndoom, using his Flashfire ability and Dark Pulse, could potentially defeat him.

[@FinallyAlone]

"MORE! MOOOOOOORE...!"

[@chrismiller9292]

The Blood War is one of my favorite parts of D&D lore. The pit fiend was always going to be a tough battle for the balor and did not disappoint.

[@IllIllIIIllIll]

Oh snap I didn't know I wanted this until I saw it, Thank you Esper!

[@benjaminhidalgo8808]

I’m new to dnd but I really like these videos!!

[@jacktough]

So much potential with these. Keep em coming 👍

I would bet on the pit fiend as well, but I did wonder of the Balor would be able to keep itself at range all the time. Even though the Balor does not do as much damage, it can take the fiend apart piece by piece, a very interesting fight.

[@darkkhalwb]

That is true. However, as they are described in lore, the Balor likely would have been much more aggressive and only started using hit and run tactics once it was clear that hyper aggression was futile. While they are the demon generals of the Blood War, they are not keen on strategy at all, leaving that to the Marilith lieutenants. In battle, pure brute force tends to be the Balor way.

[@m3w]

Just wonderful! I wish I had thought to suggest this match-up.

[@GreycatRademenes]

Neat! I once ran a oneshot for lv20 chars and in one of the last rooms there was a balor and the lv20 druid shapechanged into a Pit Fiend ^^

[@CarrowMind]

Here's the thing, a Pit Fiend would be well aware that Balor's are cowards when confronted by a superior opponent, and would certainly be aware of its superior mobiity options, and since a Pit Fiend is a genius tactiction what it would do is use the environment to fight for it. While a Fireball might be useless against the Balor directly, its still a spell that deals massive explosive force... Perfect for destroying structures and objects, so what I would have done as the Pit Fiend is flight those Fireballs around the arena, knocking down pillars, collapsing buildings, and causing shrapnel to rain like bloody death. This would ensure that even if the Balor out-paces the Pit Fiend, its not safe from it and would have to contend with the environment around it collapsing and shattering, the crushing and piercing damage won't deal a whole lot of damage admittedly, but even so, it will begin to add up in the long turn, serving to weaken the Balor enough for the Pit Fiend to fly in and finish it off.

[@LoarvicLoarvic]

But balor can just, you know, flight vertically. Above those structures.

[@craven99]

I like these a lot. Not something anyone else I follow is doing. Hope it gets some good traction for you.

[@zacharyhawley1693]

😂 the funniest thing the party did was somehow manage to trick a balor and a pit fiend into getting together. 😂

[@DathanDroid]

Legendary characters vs high level monsters that win in these battles.like Drizzts vs beholder that won that battle.love the content Esper.

[@lihanchai154]

I hope one day some animator will come and do your fights justice. Just listening to these make my imagination run wild!

[@WandersNowherre]

Oohhhh yeah. Been looking forward to this one.

[@rainbowmothraleo]

And then there's an Ultroloth, who has orchestrated this whole battle

[@afungi9885]

This series made me go battle royale with my characters to see who is the strongest. The guys that avoided damage won

[@theonewhowins47]

I love this sort of content! Planetar vs. Marilith would be an interesting matchup imo.

[@CufflinksAndChuckles]

Esper, that roar combined with the metal music was 🤘 This series makes me wish there was a Heroscape/Hero Clicks/Warhammer version of D&D using the monster manual. If you use Challenge Rating to measure team/army strength, one could bring in 3rd party resources!

[@BBMorti]

Few monsters can make a freaking Balor flee around like that what a terrifying monster the Pit fiend is

[@desertdreamer8224]

Pit Fiend: Hey, HEY Balor.... Y you running?

[@Fairburne69]

Because I'm not dumb. I can kill you using my whip and mobility and stay out of range from your impressive melee skills. It may take some time but you my slow friend without good ranged attacks are going to die. (Unless the GM that controls me doesn't optimize my mobility and allows you to attack me with melee attacks)

[@nunya_bizniz]

I used to do this as a kid in the 80s with my brother's Advanced dnd stuff. So long ago. When baldur's gate 1&2 came out I used console commands to spawn creatures and made them fight in tournaments. This reminds me of those times. I'm old.

[@tomruk95]

Please keep going love this series and I suggested a few match ups in the last vid and i have a couple more I would love to see a solar vs molydeus or a litch And a purple worm vs eldritch litch

[@LoarvicLoarvic]

Eldritch lich is immortal, unless that worm can perform Magic Circle. It will haunt the worm over and over again.

[@jamescampbell2353]

I'm a big fan of these!

[@TheDoomed]

Man if this gets a little more production these videos will be events lol 🎉

[@TheDeplorableNeanderthal]

I’d be curious to see level 20 character classes and multi classes vs dragons / demons / gods etc.

[@jackrogers5712]

Just finished the commoners vs cat video a couple hours ago. Love it ❤️

[@goodhunter9791]

These are a lot of fun Esper! If I might make a suggestion, I think an Efriti Djinn vs. an Oni might be a fun little clash! Or maybe an Efriti vs. an Ice Devil?

[@ChaoticHeretic]

I've been craving videos like this for so long. I know I said this in a previous video but please have the chrome dragons fight against each other! I really want to see how much damage a white dragon can do against a red dragon

[@CthulhuOnCam]

Balor "might" stand a chance if the Pit Fiend closed with it. The balor then makes its attacks and then moves away. It would take one attack of opportunity but just one attack and then when the Pit fiend closed again it would have to dash. This would deny it most of its attacks

[@BillyButton63]

I think Monster Melee is awesome! It's just as good, if not better than Scripted by Machines. Keep them coming Esper.

[@joze838]

You played very much in favor of the devil. Everytime the two of them faced each other the demon actually had enough movement left to evate the counter attacks. The opportunity attack would have been just one instead of 4. This would have changed the tide completely.

[@JokersVsZombies]

This is a perfect matchup

[@mrmaat]

5e Baelors are chumps. Earlier editions had vorpal swords, innate spell casting with very powerful spells and entangling whips. Pit fiends also had some bonkers spells.

[@viniciusklaussnerfonsecaco1952]

Man you are having such great ideas!!!!!! hahaah fantastic

[@samuelmiles4020]

This fight was so metal 🤘

[@garvinanders2355]

That Pit Fiend laid down the law today.

[@F.O.R.]

How about you design a PC and the create a poll for us to decide what creature to fight it with 2-4 options. Best channel ever!

[@cryptogames299]

That was AWESOME!!!!

[@rowanfroese8577]

Flind vs Bone Devil The battles of the blood war continue!

[@en6125]

What about a death knight vs a planetar

[@McHappyface]

The devils in the multiattack! Always love to see these!

[@mitchgaunt2431]

6 flumphs v flail snail

[@lordmortos979]

Max level dragon sorcerer vs. Max level oath breaker paladin.

[@AndrewBrownK]

OH MAN THIS IS GONNA BE GOOD!

[@sergiykud]

more of these please!

[@unplaceableface]

When pitfiend said "uuurr nice" I felt that

[@hrs29]

Quickling vs. Redcap in a battle of evil low level Fey. An Archer and Blink Dog vs. a Displacer Beast Boggle vs. Fairy in a battle of trickery.

[@Arhaul]

Elemental FFA. A brutal match of clashing elements for primordial mayhem! Maybe a classic aasimar paladin, in the minotaur labyrinth: will he manage to vanquish the beast and return victorious, or perish as many before him? Perhaps a Titan fighting for dominance against a dragon, over a disputed land.

[@Mastikator]

I wonder if the balor wouldn't be better off just retreating and eating opportunity attacks, forcing the pit fiend to dash on their turn.

[@firestorm165]

Oh this is going to be good

[@ananass8030]

Good fight. Would've been nice to have a short story for why they're fighting; are they army scouts of opposing sides that happen to encounter each other on a solo mission? Maybe two thieves that fighting over the the loot they stole together from a demon lord? Or it could be lovers quarrel? Gladiators in an arena? or my favourite: two office workers in a fight for a promotion (the winner finds out there is no promotion, and paperwork has piled up while he was in that fight, which was by the way on his own break time so enough dilly dallying)

[@justnojustn3036]

Here's an idea you could do a thing where you make character using only the most famous/ generic options ( in our opinion) for that class and have them fight. So like the most popular subclass with the most popular/generic spells for them ect ect. With basic starting equipment

[@crabking1349]

What app is he using?

[@blakemamba2067]

I’m confused, couldn’t the balor just hit it and run away with superior movement speed only taking opportunity attacks and basically guaranteeing it a win ?

[@esperthebard]

See the pinned comment.

[@dawall3732]

I wonder if you can get an AI to animate some of these fights?

[@benhover9604]

Sweet ive been waiting

[@daniell1483]

I always wondered how this would unfold. I was personally pulling for the Pit Fiend even though they are almost mirror images of each other.

[@JGPlunder]

*a comment to you saying that the pit fiend has it arounf 16 min in- The balor could win if you fought differently. The mobile tactics are good. But you could have straifed and disengaged and gained at least 2 more rounds, the pit fiends lack of range is a heavy handicap. You are also correct that they wouldnt be confined to this space. A Balor would not find itself cornered at all

[@Ozzy3000]

HELL YEAH !!

[@Redeyeclipse]

Great fight

[@jonthrift4848]

Keem em comin... love them..😊

[@Franco1395]

It’s a guess from me…10 sec in I’m calling Pit Fiend.

[@korgothkillings2032]

Yeah boi!

[@Kendelise1]

If Inwere the pit fiend, I would have attempted to knock down the ruined structure that the balor took cover in, and later, trued to knock down the standing pillars onto the balor when it was out of reach.

[@markzofcin9003]

if were upping the anti with the battles, one fun one id love to see would be The Aspect of Tiamat vs The Tarrasque, full on kaiju fight! definitely loved this fiend battle to the death!

[@Jeromy1986]

That comment about expecting armies to fight, it would be awesome to see a necromancer in one of these. I just don't know who would be a good counter to him or her.