- "Tough as a dump truck and nearly as big, these Goliaths are the worst things on two legs since Tyrannosaurus rex."
- ― Doom instruction manual.
Barons of Hell are one of the most powerful demonic creatures encountered in all classic Doom games.
Background
Doom/Doom II
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. Barons also appear as regular enemies in the later episodes and in the sequels; coincidentally, they and their weaker counterparts, the Hell Knights, frequently appear in pairs.
The Doom II manual later described them as follows: "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". The original Baron of Hell description was given to the Hell Knight in Doom II's manual instead.
A texture displaying the face of the Barons/Knight of Hell can be found in E2M8: Tower of Babel on pillars throughout the level (a similar texture appears in Doom Eternal as well).
Doom 64
Doom RPG/Doom II RPG
In Doom RPG and Doom II RPG, the Baron of Hell and Hell Knight both belong to the "Baron" monster class. There are three variations, identified by color:
- Ogre (green torso, red hands, brown legs)
- Hell Knight (brown torso, brown hands, pink legs)
- Baron (pink torso, orange hands, brown legs)
As in the original, the Hell Knight is not as powerful as the Baron, though both are more powerful than the new "Ogre" variation. This class of monster is especially weak against attacks from shotguns.
The Doom reboot duology
A texture showing the classic Doom Baron of Hell can be found in some levels of the reboot game (this is based on a similar texture in Doom 1). Doom Eternal introduces the Fireborne Barons as a new breed of Barons of Hell.
Mighty DOOM
The Baron of Hell appears in Mighty Doom exclusively as a boss, resembling the Fireborne Barons. The Baron of Hell, as a purely infernal creature, is vulnerable to ice weaponry. It primarily attempts melee attacks against the Slayer by either making targeted long-jumps or making several very short-ranged slashes towards the Slayer, with the former more likely to connect and deal serious damage. The Baron of Hell can also hurl a salvo of three fireballs that move at unnatural speed.
Inspiration and development
The Barons were known as the "bruiser brothers" internally to id because of the first encounter with them and as a parody of the Hammer Brothers in Super Mario Brothers.
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. The Hell Knight, essentially the same as the Baron but with only half as much health, was added to serve as a standard medium-strength monster, falling more quickly to small arms fire such as from the shotgun or chaingun.
Trivia
- Barons have green blood, as is evident in their death animation, as well as the wall textures of the "crucified" Baron. However, due to the limitations of the Doom engine, they, like every other monster in the game, will bleed red.
- The Barons were known as the "Bruiser Brothers" internally to id Software devs because of the first encounter with them and as a parody of the Hammer Brothers in Super Mario Brothers.
Notes
- Barons of Hell were originally known as "Bruisers". The first two were known as the "Bruiser Brothers".[1]
- The Baron of Hell's face is displayed periodically throughout the games in the textures MARBFAC3 & MARBFAC4.
- Although the Baron of Hell was never featured in Doom 3, the Hell Knight iteration shares a lot more similarities to it than it's classic counterpart in that game. The Doom 3 Hell Knight has nearly equivalent hitpoints of 900 (original Baron of Hell had 1000 points) thus serving as one of the elite high-tier enemies, and it's introductory cutscene mirrors the Baron of Hell's debut in the first episode of the original Doom.
- The thing name assigned to them within the Doom source code is MT_BRUISER.
- The projectile thrown by the Hell Knight and by the Baron of Hell are the same thing, and if a Hell Knight accidentally hits a Baron with his fireball (or vice versa), it will have no effect (this is a special exception to the usual rules). However, this is not the case in either the PlayStation and Saturn ports, the PlayStation port of Final Doom or Doom 64; in these games their projectiles are each classed as different things altogether (something which is only visually noticeable in Doom 64 due to Barons throwing red fireballs), and as such direct infighting between the two is possible.
- In a ZDoom-based source port, if the player is killed by a Baron of Hell (monster is credited with delivering the blow that reduces player's health to 0%), one of two obituary messages will be displayed at the top of the screen depending on which attack the Baron used to kill the player: "[player name] was ripped open by a Baron of Hell" or "[player name] was bruised by a Baron of Hell" for the claw and green fireball attacks respectively.