Mage



Clad in ominous hooded robes, Mages are evil spellcasters in the employ of Nemesis.

Notable for being one of only a few enemies capable of shooting at the player, Mages appear as robed humanoids, capable of floating a few feet off the ground. They appear in not only Catacomb 3D, but in Catacomb Abyss and Catacomb Armageddon as well.

In Catacomb 3D


Mages are the only enemy, other than Nemesis, that can shoot at the player, which makes them dangerous. While their fire rate is slow and they don't do much damage, they will continually fire at the player as long as they can maintain line-of-sight. Worse, they're not very aggressive, often lazily strafing back and forth at a distance while they shoot Magick Missiles, which can make them hard to hit at long range.

Fortunately, Mages are fragile, with a meager 5 Hit Points, making them easy to take down. However, they are often positioned in areas they can cover one another, which ups the threat they pose considerably. They appear in Chaos Corridors and The Labyrinth. A lone Mage can be easily defeated by peppering it from long range and strafing to avoid its fire.

In Catacomb Abyss
Mages appear again in Catacomb Abyss, and they are extremely similar to their Catacomb 3D incarnation. They wear red robes this time, similar to Nemesis, but are otherwise very similar stat-wise, having 5 hit points and firing Magick Missile projectiles at the player. The main difference is that Mages in Abyss move and shoot faster, making them a bit more dangerous, especially when in groups or when backing up other monsters, which happens much more often in Abyss.

They first appear in The Main Floor of the Mausoleum, and appear sporadically in later levels.

Mages require the Red Jewel to detect on the Crystal Sphere.

In Catacomb Armageddon
The Mages return in Catacomb Armageddon, effectively the same as they were in Catacomb Abyss, with the difference being the kind of enemies they appear alongside. Mages tend to be backed up by other enemies even more than their predecessors, specifically Zombies, Killer Bunnies, and Bats. They have the same tactics and abilities that they did in Abyss.

Uniquely amongst monsters in Armageddon, Mage starts relatively weak in terms of hit points, and gets stronger as the player advances. When they first appear in The Garden of Forgotten Souls, they have 8 hit points. The ones from The Temple of Vipers onwards have 10 hit Points.

Also similar to Catacomb Abyss, Mages in Catacomb Armageddon require the Red Jewel to detect on the Crystal Sphere.

Trivia

 * The Mage has a similar look and similar behavior to the Fake Hitler enemies in Wolfenstein 3D.
 * They also resemble the Disciple of D'sparil enemies in Heretic.