Dark bishop



Dark bishops are Hexen's equivalent of the Disciples of D'Sparil from Heretic: flying, spellcasting humanoids enshrouded by robes. Dark bishops cannot withstand as much damage as the Disciples do, with 130 Hit Points, and their projectiles do less damage at 4 Hit Points per projectile and 12 projectiles fired per attack. As such they are somewhat less of a threat than the disciples are. Dark bishops can, however, move around fast, leaving afterimages of themselves behind, and they fire homing projectiles that move in a spiral pattern. When a dark bishop is killed, it explodes and will hurt the player if they are too close to the explosion radius of the dark bishop that is dying. This explosion also hurts monsters, so it can be used to the player's advantage. A mage forced to deal with dark bishops in close quarters can avoid damage from their death explosion by using Frost Shards, which cause them to freeze and shatter instead. Like afrits, dark bishops are sometimes contained within destructible objects; these objects are suits of armor in all but one case (in Heresiarch's Seminary, where it is strangely in a tiny pot).

Dark bishops also have a close range attack which does the total damage from a stream of projectiles in one hit. However, they cannot use it unless you are directly adjacent.

The Heresiarch also summons them to aid him in battle (just as D'Sparil summons Disciples). He will only do this once his health has been lowered.

They first appear in the third hub, Heresiarch's Seminary, and continue to appear in the remaining hubs of the game.

If you are the mage and you use an Icon of the Defender, their projectiles will not only be reflected but will home in on the dark bishops instead. However, the projectiles will veer away from you until the Icon runs out, although the bishops keep attacking. The Disc of Repulsion, on the other hand, is not very effective, as the projectiles will re-target on the player shortly after being repulsed.

The ambient phrases spoken by the Dark Bishop, when played backwards, seem to be "Serve the Bishop" and "So you are back". The sound lumps' names (STB1D and SYAB2D, respectively) offer a clue to this.