What Heretic weapons would you bring to HeXeN?

[Duke of Pathoris]

D'Sparil's curse has backfired and instead of travelling the outer worlds, Corvus ends up in Chronos. He joins forces with the heroes of Hexen. Which of his 4 weapons from the original game will he bring with him/be available to him in his quest? Which of his weapons from Heretic II would be available to him if it were to go down that path?

 

Spoiler

My thoughts.

 

Original game:

1. Gauntlets of the Necromancer
2. Dragon Claw
3. Ethereal Crossbow 
4. Hell Staff (powered)

 

Heretic II weapons:

1. Staff
2. Thunder blast
3. Hell Staff (unpowered)
4. Iron Doom (powered)

 

[Lila Feuer]

Just give me the Tome of Power, an item sorely lacking in Hexen 1.

[Duke of Pathoris]

7 hours ago, Lila Feuer said:

Just give me the Tome of Power, an item sorely lacking in Hexen 1.

Yeah its absence really sticks out. What would the powered up weapons look like?

[gibfrag]

I just would like to see a Corvus class done well. Give him his hitscan wand as the starting weapon, crossbow for green manna, dragon claw for the blue manna weapon, and for his special weapon it could be the phoenix rod merged with the hellstaff,  call it the hell phoenix. 
 

Otherwise, the fighter could’ve used the heretic version of the gauntlets as a dual manna attack, which would’ve helped beef him up a bit more since he was mostly melee only. Then again, the fighter should’ve also been able to use his sword without manna just like the rest of his weapons, that was a greatly missed opportunity. 
 

Tome of Power could’ve made the fighter more like doomguy with berserk for his weapons, could’ve made the mage more resistant to damage and faster moving, and done something like the health regain thing that heretics gauntlets could do with the tome where it drains enemy health and feeds it to the cleric. I think it would’ve worked better to have used it to grant them special power vs just making their weapons stronger and it would’ve made the item different for each class like the flechettes. 

Edited September 16, 2023 by gibfrag

[Duke of Pathoris]

6 minutes ago, gibfrag said:

I just would like to see a Corvus class done well. Give him his hitscan wand as the starting weapon, crossbow for green manna, dragon claw for the blue manna weapon, and for his special weapon it could be the phoenix rod merged with the hellstaff, call it the hell phoenix. 

I see your point there. Giving him an infinite ammo wand would put him on par with the Mage as a capable ranged player. I agree the dragon claw should be blue mana and the crossbow green mana, it reflects the colours and power levels a lot better. 

 

It's the final weapon where I'm quite unsure about what form it would take. I don't think lifting any weapons out of Heretic verbatim would do that weapon slot justice, except for maybe the tomed up fire mace or hellstaff. 

 

9 minutes ago, gibfrag said:

Tome of Power could’ve made the fighter more like doomguy with berserk for his weapons, could’ve made the mage more resistant to damage and faster moving, and done something like the health regain thing that heretics gauntlets could do with the tome where it drains enemy health and feeds it to the cleric. I think it would’ve worked better to have used it to grant them special power vs just making their weapons stronger and it would’ve made the item different for each class like the flechettes. 

I like the idea of the Tome of Power being a general booster rather than just a weapons booster. Maybe it could replace the icon of the defender, providing base immunity to attacks and then something special like berserk for the fighter, infinite mana for the mage, temporary flight for the cleric. 

 

14 minutes ago, gibfrag said:

Then again, the fighter should’ve also been able to use his sword without manna just like the rest of his weapons, that was a greatly missed opportunity. 

It's a very strange thing to leave out. Makes it feel almost like it was rushed out.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

3 hours ago, Duke of Pathoris said:

Yeah its absence really sticks out. What would the powered up weapons look like?

Not the person you asked, but as it's something I've thought a fair bit on (though never implemented):

 

Spiked Gauntlets: Powerful strike with an energy blast knockback (like Heretic powered staff)

Timon's Axe: With mana, strikes have a chain lightning effect that arcs to nearby enemies.  Without mana, you can use it as if it were in untomed-with-mana mode at no cost.

Hammer of Retribution: Thrown hammers bounce off of walls/enemies three times, creating an explosion with each impact (maybe the final one is a bigger explosion, too).  Melee does more damage.

Quietus: Wide ripping slash arc, good for devastating things in a straight line in front of you.

 

Mace of Contrition: Strikes much faster, and harder as well

Serpent Staff: like Dark Bishop attack (rapid-fire homing corkscrews).  Melee vampirism range increased.

Firestorm: Strikes create a rain of fire (like tomed Heretic hellstaff)

Wraithverge: Does a BFG-explosion-style scatter strike; if enemies die to it, a wraithverge ghost appears from their corpse and is dragged struggling into the staff

 

Sapphire Wand: Loses the ripper effect, but fires much faster (something like the Heretic dragon claw)

Frost Shards: like Wendigo attack (ice balls that explode into shards).  Melee touch range/damage increased.

Arc of Death: like the one Strife Sigil mode that throws out a lightning bolt that forks a bunch of little bolts off to the sides as it travels

Bloodscourge: like Heretic tomed firemace in function, but with visual effects like the Heresiarch's bouncing fire skulls

 

As for the initial question;

17 hours ago, Duke of Pathoris said:

D'Sparil's curse has backfired and instead of travelling the outer worlds, Corvus ends up in Chronos. He joins forces with the heroes of Hexen. Which of his 4 weapons from the original game will he bring with him/be available to him in his quest? Which of his weapons from Heretic II would be available to him if it were to go down that path?

Hmm.

Heretic 1: Elven Wand, Ethereal Crossbow, Hellstaff, Phoenix Rod.  Maybe give the phoenixes a bit of homing.

Heretic 2: Staff, Thunder Blast, Hellstaff, Sphere of Annihilation

I'm somewhat biased to keeping the Hellstaff just because they seem to have decided it was the iconic weapon to appear in both games, for whatever reason.

[Duke of Pathoris]

6 minutes ago, ETTiNGRiNDER said:

Spiked Gauntlets: Powerful strike with an energy blast knockback (like Heretic powered staff)

Timon's Axe: With mana, strikes have a chain lightning effect that arcs to nearby enemies.  Without mana, you can use it as if it were in untomed-with-mana mode at no cost.

Hammer of Retribution: Thrown hammers bounce off of walls/enemies three times, creating an explosion with each impact (maybe the final one is a bigger explosion, too).  Melee does more damage.

Quietus: Wide ripping slash arc, good for devastating things in a straight line in front of you.

I love the axe in particular, seems very well within the spirit of the game. Cleric being able to pull some dark bishop magic would also be very cool.

 

9 minutes ago, ETTiNGRiNDER said:

Heretic 1: Elven Wand, Ethereal Crossbow, Hellstaff, Phoenix Rod.  Maybe give the phoenixes a bit of homing.

Heretic 2: Staff, Thunder Blast, Hellstaff, Sphere of Annihilation

I'm somewhat biased to keeping the Hellstaff just because they seem to have decided it was the iconic weapon to appear in both games, for whatever reason.

Yeah it's strange how the hellstaff became the iconic weapon, even though they nerfed it in Heretic II and gave its cooler aspects to the storm bow. I always thought Heretic's most iconic weapon would be the crossbow or elven wand (given the titlepic).

[plums]

A while ago I made a quick thing for GZDoom that replaces the Heretic weapons with ones from Hexen: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/118179-hexen-weapons-in-heretic-with-faithless-support/

 

As part of that I gave each weapon a tomed version, however the whole thing was pretty quickly done, and most tomed attacks either come from ones from enemies (hammer shoots maulotaur fire) or from weapons that didn't get used normally (serpent staff shoots a quietus fireball).

Edited September 17, 2023 by plums