Character Balance In HeXen II by Casey McGirt. (Heretic screenshots by Pariah.)

With HeXen II in full retail release, and a patch out the door, the next Hexen-related releases will be the custom code 'hacks', followed by an official add-on pack. New weapons and new characters will be the foremost thing on everyone's mind. The trick is to keep game balance in mind, which is no easy task.

This is...

HeXen II does a good job of keeping characters balanced, but there are a few faults. The Necromancer, who 'prefers to do his fighting at long range', is most effective at a medium to close range. Without the Tome of Power, none of his weapons have any tracking capability. This makes long-range fighting a difficult task, at best. One of his special abilities is listed as siphoning energy from his opponents with his sickle. Upon closer examination, it would seem that this would be a weapon ability, instead. And, few would risk hand-to-hand against a tough opponent using the character's weakest weapon. The damage output of a Necromancer is used to balance this, turning him into a mana-sucking firing platform.

A better attempt at balancing a character is the Paladin. Free action underwater (and being unable to drown, with the patch) is a rather strong ability, perfectly suited for a character focused on close-range combat. This is balanced by an ability few want to test, as it requires the Paladin to recieve a deathblow to see if it activates. The weapon selection is balanced rather well - apparently they liked the way the Fighter turned out in Hexen, and kept the weapon layout.

the Dragon Claw.

The Assassin seems fairly balanced in single player or cooperative mode. Though she certainly has the best weapon selection in the game, close-range combat or fast-moving ranged opponents can give the assassin a lot of trouble. The Assassin becomes significanly tougher in deathmatches, though. Hiding in Shadows can give a significant tactical advantage, and the Staff of Set (Tome or no Tome) is perfectly designed to be used against other players. Fortunately, the wide variety of objects in the game counterbalance this. You never know when that powered Staff shot will be thrown back at you with a Disc of Repulsion.

The Crusader I will only mention briefly, as I have not used him much. His abilities and weapons seem balanced rather nicely, though I find it interesting that the Meteor Staff seems tougher than the Crusader's final weapon.

The Maulotaur.

This brings us to what comes next - new characters. The most important thing about designing character for mods or add-on packs is theme. With a consistent theme, the character will be far more interesting than one who is merely a collection of nifty weapons and abilities. Once theme has been decided on, a style of combat should be chosen. Will the character focus on close-range encounters, like the Paladin? Will offense be more important, or will defensive capability be prefered? Or will the character be a jack-of-all-trades, proficient at each style, but a master of none?

the Hell Staff.

Abilities should be chosen carefully. One common add-on character that has been suggested is an Angel. I personally like this idea, but game balance may be difficult to come by. To do the character justice, it should be able to fly just like a Fallen Angel. This would be an overwhelming advantage in combat, not to mention the havoc it would play on certain hubs. The character should either have two moderate-strength abilities (such as the Crusader), or one strong ability accompanied by one weak ability. Both the Paladin and the Necromancer seem to fall in the latter catagory.

Finally, we come to weapons. When choosing weapons, the style of combat should be a prime concern, followed by the layout enforced by the game. The character will be without their third weapon through the entire first hub, and so their first and second weapons will have to be chosen carefully. The best example of a character's second weapon is the Assassin's crossbow. It is perfectly suited to the Assassin's style of combat, is equally useful against minions and boss characters, and is fairly conservative in mana usage.

The Maulotaur.

In contrast to the other weapons, the character's final weapon will almost always be reserved for large groups or bosses, due to its high mana requirement. Since Tomes are also reserved for bosses, the powered version of the fourth weapon should be something that a character would want to use against a boss - provided, of course, that it fits the character's theme. The best example of a fourth weapon would be the Purifier. The stream of shards can be swept through hordes, while the Tome allows homing fireballs to pelt boss characters with ease. Below, I give you an example of character creation - the Sidhe Hunter. It builds upon previously-established history in the Serpent Riders trilogy, is based around a particular style of combat (long-range fighting), has one strong ability paired with a weaker one, and tries for a balanced selection of weaponry, to give the character options in any situation.

Sidhe Hunter
The desecration caused by D'Sparil occurred nearly two-thousand years ago, but this is merely an eyeblink in the lifespan of an elf. Most of those on the new Council of Elders voted against hunting down the other Serpent Riders, fearing possible retribution should an attack fail. There was only one who voted for an attack, and the Elders forbid her from taking action. That lone elf refused to bow to the will of the Council. Arming herself for battle, she took the mightiest weapon of her people, the Phoenix Staff, and traveled the worlds to do battle with the forces of darkness.

This, plus this...

The Sidhe hunter is equipped with the following weapons: #1 - Elven dagger: your basic hand-to-hand weapon. The powered version glows with mystic energy, and can be thrown similar to the Crusader's Tome-enhanced warhammer. #2 - Longbow: Fires a green bolt like a knight archer, with minor seeking capability similar to the Assassin's crossbow. The powered version fires red bolts that do extra damage and knock the foe back, useful for keeping hand-to-hand opponents at bay. #3 - Dragon's Claw - Taken straight from Heretic. Rapid-fires bolts of magical energy. The powered version would fire a cone of energy, similar to a dragon's breath. This is different from the powered version of the Dragon's Claw in the original Heretic - the bouncing energy balls were fun, but didn't really fit the theme. #4 - Phoenix Staff: This is a combination of the Phoenix Rod and the Hellstaff from Heretic. Either the weapon abilities can be taken straight from Heretic, or updated versions can be made. Personally, I'd like to see the normal version release a firestorm over an area, while the powered version would have a phoenix-like force home in on the target.

Special Abilities
Litheness - The Sidhe are known for their extraordinary agility - they can move quicker and jump farther than humans. This need not be constant - especially since the Paladin needs a way to get into hand-to-hand combat with the character.
Reflection - As per the ring. This seems to be balanced with other classes - as an example, the Paladin recieves permanent Water Breathing/Free Action abilities. The Sidhe's innate knowledge of magic provides this ability (almost every ranged attack in the game is magical, and air magic could be used to block non-magical attacks). As the Sidhe's level goes up, the chance of a projectile being reflected increases (level x 2-3 percent, perhaps?)

Design Notes The Sidhe Hunter is designed to be a long-range character - their second weapon will generally be the main one used in combat. This fills a slight void in the classes. The Paladin is a close-range character, the Necromancer is a mix (bone shards are a close-range weapon), as is the Assassin (backstabbing is close range, and grenades are difficult to throw accurately at long ranges). The Crusader... well, I haven't played the Crusader much, since I had been waiting for the patch to fix the XP problem with freezing opponents.

= the Phoenix Staff.

The dagger is your beginning close range weapon, though powered up it gives a no-mana ranged attack (similar to the Crusader). The longbow's slight seeking capability makes it great for nailing foes at extreme range, but it only fires one projectile (as opposed to the three fired by the Assassin's crossbow). The Dragon's Claw drains mana quickly, but can put out enough damage to take out the tougher monsters (similar to the Necromancer's Magic Missiles in fire rate, but doing more total damage). Finally, the Phoenix Staff's mass destruction is perfectly suited whenmobbed by large numbers, or powered up to take on bosses.
Also note that nowhere in the character's history reveals what happened to the character from the original Heretic. The world survives, but that is to be expected (otherwise, what was the point of winning?).

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