Baron of Hell
Barons of Hell are enemy monsters found in the computer game Doom. Barons of Hell resemble minotaurs, with pink torsos and brown legs. They attack the player by scratching when close or throwing green balls of flaming plasma when distant. A pair of Barons, referred to internally by id Software as the "Bruiser Brothers" (a reference to the Hammer Brothers from the Mario series), star 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 Doom's sequels.
They are described in the Doom manual as "tough as a dump truck and nearly as big, these Goliaths are the worst things on two legs since Tyrannosaurus rex"; 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 the Knights, but look somewhat different and are twice as tough to kill. Keep your eyes open". The original Baron of Hell description was given to the Hell Knight in Doom II's manual instead.
Strength
Except for the Cyberdemon and the Spider Mastermind, Barons are the strongest of all creatures in DOOM, with 1000 hit points. They survive about five rockets, 50 plasma cells, 100 bullets, 67 Cacodemon Gasballs, 34 Baron Plasma Balls (although by normal Doom logic, they are immune to their own shots), 25 Revenant Missiles, or 15 shotgun shots. A direct hit from a BFG9000 can kill a Baron in a single shot, however. Despite their endurance, Barons often pose a lesser threat compared to some of the weaker monsters since their slime balls are relatively easy to dodge given sufficient space, especially by circlestrafing.
As a result of their high hitpoints but low speed, the Baron of Hell was an unbalanced monster and it was infamously known for forcing the player to waste lots of ammo to kill it despite its not-so-high threat. In other words, Barons were "meat shields" unless they were at close range. The Hell Knight, brought in Doom II, was essentially the same monster as the Baron (except for some cosmetic differences) but it had half the hitpoints, enabling the Knights to be used far more frequently.
The Baron of Hell was replaced with the Hell Knight in Doom 3.
Appearance statistics
On the Ultra-Violence skill level, Barons of Hell make the following appearances (in single-player games):
- 2 in episode 1 of Doom (both in E1M8)
- 18 in episode 2 of Doom (1 in E2M3, 4 in E2M4, 4 in E2M5, 3 in E2M6, 2 in E2M7, 4 in E2M9)
- 18 in episode 3 of Doom (2 in E3M3, 3 in E3M4, 5 in E3M5, 1 in E3M6, 1 in E3M7, 1 in E3M8, 5 in E3M9)
- 44 in episode 4 of Doom (5 in E4M1, 12 in E4M2, 7 in E4M3, 1 in E4M5, 3 in E4M6, 3 in E4M7, 11 in E4M8, 2 in E4M9)
- 31 in Doom II (20 in MAP08, 1 in MAP12, 2 in MAP15, 1 in MAP20, 1 in MAP22, 2 in MAP26, 1 in MAP27, 3 in MAP29)
- 61 in Final Doom: TNT (3 in MAP02, 4 in MAP05, 8 in MAP07, 1 in MAP10, 4 in MAP12, 2 in MAP13, 1 in MAP15, 2 in MAP16, 10 in MAP18, 2 in MAP20, 2 in MAP21, 3 in MAP22, 3 in MAP23, 8 in MAP25, 1 in MAP28, 1 in MAP29, 4 in MAP30, 2 in MAP32)
- 90 in Final Doom: Plutonia (1 in MAP02, 1 in MAP03, 4 in MAP04, 6 in MAP05, 2 in MAP07, 2 in MAP08, 2 in MAP09, 2 in MAP10, 1 in MAP12, 2 in MAP13, 1 in MAP15, 1 in MAP17, 4 in MAP20, 1 in MAP21, 11 in MAP22, 3 in MAP23, 1 in MAP24, 2 in MAP25, 5 in MAP26, 3 in MAP27, 10 in MAP28, 3 in MAP29, 2 in MAP30, 2 in MAP31, 18 in MAP32).