What powers should have a new boss in the Serpent Riders saga?

[Vegeta]

-D'Sparil has the power of teleportation (teleport his disciples, himself, and the curse he send to Corvus involves teleportations)
-Korax has the power to transform the enviroment
-Eidolon has the power of life and death (he can heal himself, and his ligthings are instant death no matter how much health you have)

Now imagine a new boss in the saga, no matter if his a fourth serpent rider, something higher, or something not related with them, yet with some distinction


I'd say time travel, but that'd be imposible to implement properly in-game. Other than that, transdimensional gates, with projectiles he could teleport the player to other dimensions (including hell), open gates that suck the player, open gates that spawn monsters, change the location of the battle, then also some random magic attacks.

[Naked Snake]

The power of illusion and mind-control.

He could mess up your config temporarily (open shoots, shoot jumps, etc., but it'd be random. It would also invert your mouse's 4 axises or axese whatever), make you blind or hallucinate (makes your view all crazy and blurry and you see monsters that aren't there phase in and out). He could make you see an ass-load of monsters but only some are real, or none. In co-op, he could make it so that you see your partners as monsters.

He also has magic that IS real and can teleport and summon creatures. He can heal himself but not totally. He doesn't have an instant death attack, but he does have one that drains you to like, 5 hp no matter how much you had (so if you've got 7 hp, consider yourself lucky!)

I really wish Hecatomb would have been started and completed using the Hexen engine. I've always had a few ideas of what it should contain to make it superior to Heretic and Hexen.

[Udderdude]

That sounds like an interesting idea, but I doubt anyone would find it fun to suddenly have their controls inverted.

The hallucinated monsters sounds like a neat idea .. until you realize that since they're just hallucinations, they can't hurt the player, and the player can't hurt them. So they're basically just a small, ignorable nusiance.

[lupinx-Kassman]

udderdude said:

That sounds like an interesting idea, but I doubt anyone would find it fun to suddenly have their controls inverted.

The hallucinated monsters sounds like a neat idea .. until you realize that since they're just hallucinations, they can't hurt the player, and the player can't hurt them. So they're basically just a small, ignorable nusiance.

But (like he said) if you throw in a couple of real monsters along with the hallucination ones, than you'll have to fire at them all to find the real ones, so it still sounds like a good idea.

[Ichor]

Here's a few ideas:

Time Stop - Freezes anyone and anything except for the boss for a few seconds.
Dispel - Cancels out every kind of effect you may have, including invulnerability.
Blood Mana - Causes your life to drain away along with mana with every shot you take.
Heal - Ummm...heal.
Mirror Image - Can split up into four illusions of himself. Only one is real, but all four can hurt you.
Psychokinesis - Can pick you up and toss you at a nearby column or wall for hefty damage.
Magic Absorption Orb - Launches an orb that will direct all of your attacks towards it instead of the boss until it fizzles, even those that aren't homing. Melee attacks on the boss aren't affected, of course.
Various spells
Black Dragon Wave - Ultimate attack. Much hurtiness.

[DJShrimpy]

I don't like the idea of a fourth Serpent Rider. I'd rather have the player face the "Serpent King". Now THAT would be cool. He could summon "mini" versions of the three Serpent Riders as an attack.

This is a good thread for people with monster editing skills... :P

[bartwart]

The ability to disable your mana, so you have to Tyson him, or whatever. He should also have the power to ride a serpent, damnit, and maybe even summon a whole bunch.

[printz]

Ichor, your spell ideas sound like they're taken from other games (like D&D or Warcraft 3).

A fourth serpent rider? Interesting. My idea is that he's the different one from the group, the freak, the quiet one, the thinker. Not agreeing to become a magician like his brothers, he chose mighty technology. Predictably, if the hero would meet him in game, this'd look all too similar to Armagon, a Strogg, or a bigger Doc Terror from "The Centurions". He'd use powerful stuff never before seen -- BFG-like guns, atomic bombs, strong lasers and easily constructed termination robots. His scientific "aura" would pollute the magic air, causing our hero's spells and magical weapons to fizzle. He won't completely abandon the "classic" comrades. All critters from Doom 1/2/3, Heretic 1/2 and Hexen 1/2 should help him, by being implanted with cybronic boosters and portable Internets. Cameras and computers should be everywhere. There'd be something like an intelligence system (but typical villain foolishness would still prevail).

Note that the player should have access to the techy sistems, but he'd be noticeably slower and less dextrous than an equivalent Doomguy.

[Ichor]

Actually, the only one from another game was blood mana (Diablo 2 expansion), except for that one life is drained instead of mana.

[printz]

Really? Time Stop, Dispel, Heal, Mirror Image are all to be found in at least one certain AD&D based computer game :P
Something similar to psychokinesis is: 1) the Archvile jump; 2) a certain boss attack used in a certain Prince of Persia game for a certain platform (I could say but don't wanna spoil even if it's an old game).

Because I'm getting off-topic, I'll post here by expanding on my earlier idea, by streamlining and revising: wizards and cyborgs. Don't bash me for thinking of destroying the saga by including Doom-specific elements :) But they rock.

[Ichor]

They're more generic spells seen in a lot of games, not just World of Warcraft, which I have never played.

Anyway, the magic/science combination could work if it's done just right, but not if it's only for the boss. It would have to include at least the last few levels, maybe on an entirely different world.

[printz]

Ichor said:

Anyway, the magic/science combination could work if it's done just right, but not if it's only for the boss. It would have to include at least the last few levels, maybe on an entirely different world.

Actually I got inspired from Doom 1. E3M8 has a lot of electrical scenery, which is missing in former Inferno levels. The spider boss also stands out as an alien.

Late edit:

Ichor said:

World of Warcraft

I wasn't referring to that W.o.W., but to Baldur's Gate. W.o.w. isn't based on AD&D.

[Vegeta]

In a mod I were working on, the final boss was going to be the creator of the Serpent Riders. The Serpent Riders were his master pice, as sub bosses in the game you were going to fight other of his creations, one of them was "rumored to be on par with the Serpent Riders".

I like the idea about the tech guy, I think it should have little magic, and lots of technology, some of it using advanced stuff other medieval (spiked balls, chains, blades), everything surronded by some aura.

Other creature, not final boss, that use the same magic of the Fighter, only axes, hammers, swords, and what not, his main power is the hability to incress his strengh and speed, when he uses his spell he start moving and attacking much faster and deadlier, also attacks are less efective against him, this eventualy fades after a little time, then he backs to normal, but can use it again after some time.

[Impie]

Given the plotline trend of the "Serpent Rider Trilogy", and the fact that the Riders are all dead, I think it's most likely it'd be some powerful human character, probably a high-priest with total control over a vast dominion of some sort. This guy does some research and decides to summon the essence of the three Serpent Riders to use for his own naughty purposes. The Riders, naturally, would corrupt him further, and distort his homeland into some perverse version of itself.

When you confront him, he'd use their power to morph into an uberserpent that'd probably attack like a souped-up maulotaur, charge and all. After you drain his health significantly, the wraiths of the three Serpent Riders tear out of him, and he changes back and teleports to his altar to gather his strength. Obviously he'd be vulnerable here, except now the Serpent Riders are chasing you down like the Wraithverge wraiths. By the time they vanish (and maybe summon some Dark Bishops in the process?), Newbadguy regains his power and morphs again. Repeat process until hero or Newbadguy is dead.

And, of course, there'd be an expansion pack with an extra handful o' hubs following the death of Newbadguy. Because every time you kill a Serpent Rider, your life just gets harder.

Edit: The REAL question is, if they made another installment, what hero classes would be available? Subject for another thread?

[Ichor]

Impie said:

Given the plotline trend of the "Serpent Rider Trilogy", and the fact that the Riders are all dead, I think it's most likely it'd be some powerful human character, probably a high-priest with total control over a vast dominion of some sort. This guy does some research and decides to summon the essence of the three Serpent Riders to use for his own naughty purposes. The Riders, naturally, would corrupt him further, and distort his homeland into some perverse version of itself.

Kind of like Praevus (in the Hexen 2 expansion). The rest of that is much different from what his powers are.

[Impie]

Ichor said:

Kind of like Praevus (in the Hexen 2 expansion). The rest of that is much different from what his powers are.

lol See what I mean? They love screwing people's shit up.

And here I thought Praevus was a location...