The Balor needs to cut down on his calorie intake...

[Sarco_Phage]

The Solar is 9 feet tall, and about 500 pounds. Reasonable for someone of that weight with a fair amount of muscle mass.

The Pit Fiend is 12 feet tall, yet weighs only 800 pounds. That thing is positively svelte.

Meanwhile, the Balor is 12 feet tall and weighs a hefty 4,500 pounds. I mean, whoa. While that would be reasonable for a T-Rex of around that size, the Balor vastly outweighs the top (basic) Celestials and Infernals.

I've always been curious about this.

[Thrice Dead Cat]

DND writers have no sense of scale. Similarly, if you compare the size of a Wailord to its weight, you would find it to be less dense than diatomic hydrogen.

[LOTRfan]

I always assumed that Balors are nearly pure muscle, with little-to-no fat, and extremely compact (but heavy) organs. And then I realized that Pit Fiends, while having a lower Con score, actually has a higher strength score than the Balors.

[Sarco_Phage]

Well, there's a cutscene in Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of the Underdark where a Balor basically kicks a Pit Fiend through a fortress wall. From the weight point of view, it makes sense.

Right now I'm actually thinking that the Balor's weight makes a lot more sense than the Pit Fiend, unless the Pit Fiend was supposed to fly under its own power, in which case a lighter bone-structure in relation to more powerful muscles makes sense.

[Coidzor]

CE was more evil than LE in the designer's minds. Thus, Balors are more evil and evil is heavy, so the more evil there is, the heavier it is.

[Claudius Maximus]

They should probably weigh somewhere in the neighborhood of 1500 lbs, give or take a few hundred.

But ultimately, they're outsiders. A balor is literally made of evil - for all we know it's composed of malecules and cruelectrons instead of the usual stuff. Who knows what kind of mass they might have.

[Flickerdart]

Well, there's a cutscene in Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of the Underdark where a Balor basically kicks a Pit Fiend through a fortress wall. From the weight point of view, it makes sense.

Right now I'm actually thinking that the Balor's weight makes a lot more sense than the Pit Fiend, unless the Pit Fiend was supposed to fly under its own power, in which case a lighter bone-structure in relation to more powerful muscles makes sense.

Shadows of Undrentide or Hordes of the Underdark?

[Sarco_Phage]

Shadows of Undrentide or Hordes of the Underdark?

A HORRIFIC FUSION OF BOTH. yeah, I always mix those two up, thanks man

But ultimately, they're outsiders. A balor is literally made of evil - for all we know it's composed of malecules and cruelectrons instead of the usual stuff. Who knows what kind of mass they might have.

You know what? This is hilarious and I plan to sig it.

[Moriato]

Maybe Balors are hollow, like chocolate bunnies. Evil-flavored chocolate bunnies.

[LOTRfan]

Maybe Balors are hollow, like chocolate bunnies. Evil-flavored chocolate bunnies.

I think you mean Pit Fiends.

If Balors were hollow, well then they'd be even more ridiculously heavy.

[Moriato]

I think you mean Pit Fiends.

If Balors were hollow, well then they'd be even more ridiculously heavy.

Right, right. Sorry I got distracted at the thought of biting off a Balor's delicious chocolate horns.

[sonofzeal]

Balors are double the height of a 6 foot tall man; that means eight times the volume (V = L*W*H, each of which is doubled).

A 6 foot tall, heavy-built athlete might weigh 250 lb. Brock Lesner is only a bit taller, and only a bit heavier, so a Brock Lesner shaped Balor would weigh roughly eight times that. So a Balor should reasonably be able to weigh 2000.


....off by a factor of two. To weigh that much, a Balor would be equivalent to a six foot tall human weighing over 560 lb. That's possible, it wouldn't even make the top 10 heaviest humans. And they may be denser than humans - probably are, if you think about square-cube (warning: thinking about square-cube in context of D&D is not advised).

So, in the end, I'll buy it. It's pretty crazy-heavy, and they'll probably look somewhere between this and this, but it's not completely outside the realm of possibility.

It does change the mental image a bit though.

[Sarco_Phage]

I think Jay Cutler might adequately represent a Balor's build. He even has the skin tone for it!

Yeah, so, the Pit Fiend and Solar are massively underweight... which can at least be handwaved away by explaining it in conjunction with their wings.

[herrhauptmann]

You know, I was making a halfminotaur character and wondering at his weight. He was a little shy of 8ft, and about 750. It seemed heavy next to a pro basketball player, but I reasoned his extremely high strength was a factor.
Then I looked at the troll in the party. Taller, with similar strength, and less than 400, while the drider (5ft drow on a big spider body) weighed 500-600.
Ended up giving up on it, though I still worry how a member of the party would ever carry his carcass out of there if he's dead or unconscious.

Never occurred to me to look at the uber-powerful outsiders. But I think claudius might have the right of it, and need to sig that as well...

[sonofzeal]

I think Jay Cutler might adequately represent a Balor's build. He even has the skin tone for it!

Yeah, so, the Pit Fiend and Solar are massively underweight... which can at least be handwaved away by explaining it in conjunction with their wings.

Jay Cutler weighs 274 lb in contest season, and 310 lb in the off-season. Scaled up, that's only 2000-2800 lb. Still a far cry from 4500.

[Sims]

Maybe he wears weighted equipment? :D Or its a typo and instead of weighing 4500 he supposed to be 450.

[nedz]

Its simple: Balors have lead feat

[sonofzeal]

Maybe he wears weighted equipment? :D Or its a typo and instead of weighing 4500 he supposed to be 450.

Except 450 would be ridiculous. I'd say 2000 would be the most plausible number.

[NNescio]

Its simple: Balors have lead feat

They have the leadership feat?

[Halae]

Maybe he wears weighted equipment? :D Or its a typo and instead of weighing 4500 he supposed to be 450.

Well then, he'd just weight less than the other guys!

[Tvtyrant]

The closest proportion that I know of in the animal world is an extinct bear that was 13 ft. when standing and about 1.2 tons. So... It was around the right height and only 2600 pounds or so. This means a Balor should be considerably wider than a bear.

The correct animal to compare to in both height and weight are female white rhinos and female hippos, which tend to be smaller than the males.

[Flickerdart]

They have the leadership feat?

Yep, and they took a beer belly for their cohort.

[GoatBoy]

malecules and cruelectrons

You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.

Solars and Pit Fiends need to be light so they can fly.

Balors don't worry about weight when flying. The smell so bad that their "flying" is actually the planet they are currently occupying trying to get away from them.

[Sarco_Phage]

Actually, given that 4,500 weight tag, I'd be willing to bet that Balors have floatorials far more than big enough to support their flight capabilities.

[Thurbane]

I always like the article "Realistic Vital Statistics: A New system for figuring heights and weights" from an old 1E Dragon Magazine. It generally presents much more realistic weights for heights than the usual books do.

Unfortunately, the tables cap out at 132" (11 feet)...but if I'm extrapolating correctly, 144" would equal 1400 lbs.

[NNescio]

Found something interesting:

Iron golems are also 12-ft tall, and they weigh 5000 lbs. Gee, do they both have a similar body composition or something?

[Flickerdart]

So, Balors are made from iron golems?

[Otherworld Odd]

There's a simple answer to this! Demon meat is just more dense and weighs more than devil or anything-meat. >_>

[Eldan]

I always explained it like this.

Pit Fiends and Balors are both, basically, made up of belief.

Now. Pit Fiends are lawful evil, so they are made up of the belief of lawful people.
Balors are chaotic evil, so they are made up of the belief of chaotic people.

When lawful people think of a fiend, they go "it needs to be light, so it can fly!"
While chaotic people think: "Something heavy that flies is much more threatening! It could fall on you!"

That's why Balors are heavy and Pit Fiends are light.

[Xefas]

I always explained it like this.

Pit Fiends and Balors are both, basically, made up of belief.

Now. Pit Fiends are lawful evil, so they are made up of the belief of lawful people.
Balors are chaotic evil, so they are made up of the belief of chaotic people.

When lawful people think of a fiend, they go "it needs to be light, so it can fly!"
While chaotic people think: "Something heavy that flies is much more threatening! It could fall on you!"

That's why Balors are heavy and Pit Fiends are light.

Y'know, I bet if you walked into any pub in Sigil and brought this up, they'd basically give the same explanation. ...Planescape was the best setting ever.