- "The Hell Knight was bad news but this is Big Daddy. These bruisers are a lot like Hell Knights, but look a little different and are twice as tough to kill."
- ― Doom II instruction manual
Barons of Hell are one of the most powerful demonic creatures encountered in all classic Doom games.
A pair of Barons, referred to internally by id Software as the "Bruiser Brothers," start as the bosses at the end of Knee-Deep in the Dead, the first episode of Doom. In the second game, Barons first appear as regular enemies, three levels after the introduction of it's weaker cousin, the Hell Knight.
The original Doom manual initially described them as follows: "Tough as a dump truck and nearly as big, these Goliaths are the worst things on two legs since Tyrannosaurus rex". In the second game, this description was given to the newly introduced Hell Knight, while the Baron of Hell's description was updated to forewarn players of a similar but more threatening enemy.
Appearance[]
A Baron takes the appearance of a muscular, bipedal goat-like demon with red skin and tan legs with black hooves. Its hands are covered with a slight greenish tinge, but it becomes more pronounced when it launches green fireballs.
Combat characteristics[]
A Baron will utter a loud, bull-like cry when it spots a player. When in pain, they will make a low-pitch demonic moan that most other monsters make. But otherwise, will resort to making a soft low-pitched growling sound like most other monsters when they are present.
The Baron of Hell attacks in a very similar fashion as Imps. They throw green plasma-like fireballs at a distance, which travels non-stop at a straight line until it hits its target, an object, or a wall. At close, they will resort to clawing its opponents.
With 1000 hit points, Barons are the most resilient of all creatures in both games, only being surpassed by the Cyberdemon and the Spiderdemon.
When killed, a Baron will make a high-pitched gurgling sound as its body splits in half, the upper body half falling on the ground right behind the lower body half, exposing copious amounts of green blood and intestines.
Tactical analysis[]
General tactics[]
Having many hit points, the Baron of Hell appears only sparingly in Doom, as a boss or a champion-type monster. In Doom II the game dynamics change with the inclusion of a greater variety of relatively tough monsters, and the addition of two items, the super shotgun, and the megasphere. Thus the Baron of Hell became much more common, although not as the Hell Knight.
Baron attacks are dodged easily if the player is giving him full attention, but his plasma balls are faster than those of Imps or Cacodemons and can do heavy damage on a successful hit. Because Barons take heavy damage before going down, and because their pain chance is low, use of the rocket launcher, plasma rifle, or super shotgun is recommended. However, provided that the player can get at sufficient range without being hit, the chaingun and shotgun will also work, but may take a while. Melee attacks against them are hazardous, as they put the player at risk of being clawed.
Killing them requires about 5 rockets, 45 plasma shots, 100 bullets, 11 seconds with the chainsaw, 15 well-placed shotgun blasts, or 5 point-blank super shotgun blasts. The BFG9000's main plasma ball does not deal enough damage to kill a Baron in one shot, although the subsequent blast rays may deal a killing blow to the Baron if enough of them strike the target. This is best achieved by firing the BFG at point-blank range, which leaves the player vulnerable to the Baron's extremely damaging melee attack during the BFG's charge cycle.
The Baron of Hell presents itself as a formidable combatant in monster infighting. While the Hell Knight is able to prevail against monsters up to a Revenant at most, the Baron of Hell's high hitpoints can allow them to overpower even the more powerful middle-tier demons like the Mancubus or the Arachnotron. Barons of Hell can take out even a single Cyberdemon within large packs, as seen on one occasion. Due to the high threat that the Baron of Hell can potentially pose, using it to take out a group of lesser demons is an efficient and vital strategy to maintain if the player is being overwhelmed. However, Barons of Hell will never engage in battle against Hell Knights, as both monster utilize on the same projectile.
Data statistics[]
| ID # | Hit points | Speed | Width | Height | Reaction time | Pain chance | Pain time | Mass | Bits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3003 (decimal) BBB (hex) |
1000 | 8 map units per frame (93.3 map units per second) |
48 | 64 | 8 | 50 (19.53%) | 4 tics | 1000 | 4194310 |
| 1: | 2: | 22: |
|---|---|---|
| Obstacle | Shootable | Affects Kill % |
Melee
| Damage | Sound |
|---|---|
| 10-80 | DSCLAW |
Range
| Type | Speed | Damage | Width | Height | Sprite name | Sound |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Projectile | 15 map units per tic (525 map units per second) |
8-64 | 6 | 8 | BAL7 | DSFIRSHT (firing) DSFIRXPL (impact) |
Strike damage
Damage done by a Baron's clawing attack
| Blows needed to kill1 | Mean | Standard deviation | Min | Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player (100% health, no armor) |
2.77 | 0.78 | 2 | 5 |
| Player (100% health, security armor) |
3.87 | 1.02 | 2 | 7 |
| Player (200% health, combat armor) |
9.41 | 1.48 | 6 | 13 |
| Barrel | 1.12 | 0.33 | 1 | 2 |
| Trooper | 1.12 | 0.33 | 1 | 2 |
| Sergeant | 1.25 | 0.46 | 1 | 3 |
| Wolfenstein SS | 1.61 | 0.70 | 1 | 4 |
| Imp | 1.81 | 0.76 | 1 | 4 |
| Chaingunner | 2.04 | 0.79 | 1 | 4 |
| Lost Soul | 2.77 | 0.78 | 2 | 5 |
| Commander Keen | 2.77 | 0.78 | 2 | 5 |
| Demon | 3.87 | 1.02 | 2 | 7 |
| Spectre | 3.87 | 1.02 | 2 | 7 |
| Boss Brain2 | 6.12 | 1.19 | 4 | 10 |
| Revenant | 7.22 | 1.33 | 5 | 11 |
| Cacodemon | 9.41 | 1.48 | 6 | 13 |
| Pain Elemental | 9.41 | 1.48 | 6 | 13 |
| Hell Knight | 11.65 | 1.67 | 8 | 16 |
| Arachnotron | 11.65 | 1.67 | 8 | 16 |
| Mancubus | 13.84 | 1.72 | 10 | 18 |
| Arch-vile | 16.07 | 1.78 | 12 | 20 |
| Baron of Hell | 22.81 | 2.10 | 17 | 27 |
| Spider Mastermind | 67.42 | 2.81 | 61 | 74 |
| Cyberdemon | 89.66 | 2.76 | 83 | 95 |
Shot damage
Damage done by a Baron's fireball
| Shots needed to kill1 | Mean | Standard deviation | Min | Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player (100% health, no armor) |
3.37 | 0.88 | 2 | 6 |
| Player (100% health, security armor) |
4.78 | 1.04 | 3 | 8 |
| Player (200% health, combat armor) |
11.68 | 1.70 | 8 | 16 |
| Barrel | 1.27 | 0.51 | 1 | 3 |
| Trooper | 1.27 | 0.51 | 1 | 3 |
| Sergeant | 1.44 | 0.60 | 1 | 4 |
| Wolfenstein SS | 2.04 | 0.77 | 1 | 5 |
| Imp | 2.25 | 0.76 | 1 | 5 |
| Chaingunner | 2.56 | 0.73 | 2 | 5 |
| Lost Soul | 3.37 | 0.88 | 2 | 6 |
| Commander Keen | 3.37 | 0.88 | 2 | 6 |
| Demon | 4.78 | 1.04 | 3 | 8 |
| Spectre | 4.78 | 1.04 | 3 | 8 |
| Boss Brain2 | 7.66 | 1.32 | 5 | 11 |
| Revenant | 9.04 | 1.46 | 6 | 13 |
| Cacodemon | 11.68 | 1.70 | 8 | 16 |
| Pain Elemental | 11.68 | 1.70 | 8 | 16 |
| Hell Knight3 | ||||
| Arachnotron | 14.55 | 1.88 | 10 | 19 |
| Mancubus | 17.27 | 2.00 | 12 | 21 |
| Arch-vile | 20.10 | 2.11 | 14 | 25 |
| Baron of Hell3 | ||||
| Spider Mastermind | 84.14 | 2.60 | 79 | 93 |
| Cyberdemon | 112.12 | 2.48 | 107 | 117 |
- These tables assume that all calls to P_Random for damage, pain chance, blood splats, impact animations, and backfire checks are consecutive. In real play, this is never the case: counterattacks and AI pathfinding must be handled, and of course the map may contain additional moving monsters and other randomized phenomena (such as flickering lights). Any resulting errors are probably toward the single-shot average, as they introduce noise into the correlation between the indices of "consecutive" calls.
- Assumes that direct hits are possible, which does not occur in any stock map.
- Hardcoded exception to infighting negates damage (excepting indirect damage caused by exploding barrels).
The IWADs contain the following numbers of Barons:
| Game | ITYTD and HNTR | HMP | UV and NM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ultimate Doom | 26 | 44 | 82 |
| Doom II | 24 | 27 | 31 |
| TNT: Evilution | 15 | 44 | 61 |
| Plutonia | 58 | 76 | 90 |
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