@PeterLawrenceYT

Oh wow, this is really neat! Having it on the pain states is a brilliant idea as now you can predict when the attack will happen instead of from no where.

@MrTheMasterX

I always assumed the Arch-Vile's unique spellcasting was inspired from the unused magic attack the Mastermind was supposed to have; the pose is pretty similar after all.

@kilo5011

If you could make the Archvile attack damage minimal and the pushback greater, that is something people could have fun with. You could have an arena in the center of a damaging floor and you would have to think about positioning, too far you get pushed out, too close exposes you to more damage.

@ShadesMan

Hell yeah! And considering spider mastermind in 2016 also used magic, too, it's quite fitting!

@Andy_Paluzzi

Enemies having a secondary attack triggered by pain state is a really cool ideia, map makers should definitely use that more. The only example I know of is that "bee" enemy from Sunder.

Personally, the problem I have with the spiderdemon is not so much that she's weak, but more so that fighting a tanky hitscan enemy is really annoying. It requires that you either peak-a-boo shoot her to death or rush with the bfg and take some damage or use a blur sphere or use some other "cheap" strategy.

So one idea I had for a long time was to simply make the spiderdemon fire plasma, instead of hitscan, but with a much rapid rate of fire in comparison to the arachnotron. Or maybe fire mancubus fireballs. Also, her pain chance needed to be decreased. That way, you don't need to hide from her, you could actually fight her in an open area.

@carlphilippgaebler5704

First thing that came to mind is "what if its magic attack was a status debuff to the player?" Like, if the attack lands, your movement gets halved for 10 seconds or something.

And then it chainguns you to death as you flounder towards cover. Or, even more fun, the minions suddenly become relevant, as you have to dodge their fireballs while slogging through molasses instead of just ignoring them.

@linusgustafsson2629

If it sucks, then give it sucking magic. Make it draw you in/off ledges and around corners you were trying to hide behind.

@Tamamo-no-Bae

I'd add a line of fire similar to the Maulotaur from Heretic.
It'd be a heat seeking line of fire, this prevents you from just taking potshots at the spider mastermind from behind corners, but you actually need to break cover to avoid being hit by the fire.

@MrEvilbyte

My ideas for the magic attack:
-It summons a attack similar to the Archvile.
-Look at the Mother Demon (final boss from Doom 64), and use something similar.
-Perhaps it just simply launches a salvo of projectiles in the player's general direction (easily dodged if circle strafing, but woe is you if you aren't).
-Maybe she uses the animation to summon a shield (basically giving her more HP).

@hopemetal3440

ID could have made the Spider Mastermind trigger something in the level, maybe activating some crushers, or raising or lowering some pillars to make it harder for the player to navigate the level and avoid its attack. Would really have made it seem like the Mastermind was capable of manipulating Hell itself.

@justiciar1964

0:08 The spiderdemon's natural habitat: The floor.

@PapaJoeRobertson

Looking at DIS and thinking of Heretic, the SMM could teleport around the map on pain.

@brainfriiz2351

I've always wanted to give it zero pain chance, or a drastically reduced pain chance but the ability to walk and shoot simultaneously.

@johnlewisbrooks

Simple. Set the spider demon to nightmare mode and give it a more accurate rapid-fire supershotgun to fire with the chaingun! Also, no more flinches!

That would be NEXT LEVEL!

Gone would be the days of standing toe to toe with 100 health and stun locking it with plasma!

@GabrielOliveira-xs9in

could be the psychic attack of the lost souls, which was not used on them, it would be a unique attack and not the same as archvile

@7Soul123

Just recently I was working on a WAD that uses some ZScripting to alter some monsters. The Mastermind got a triple Arachnotron shot that it fires in bursts of 3, and when it gets to half hp it teleports to a pre-set teleport spot and heals a bit

@DylanBelievesInTheNet

I would have her on her attacking frames a chance not only she fires the chaingun, she also has her magic arms raised and she summons Specters. She's a "Mastermind" and she could employ that as a way to shield herself as well as potentially throwing off the doom guy...Eh I'll have to come back to this -_-

@AdamM3377

This is a good question. Since a non-standard attack is implied by it's pose, an archvile -type attack seems logical. However, since the lore states it as a leader, maybe it should be given a support ability to nearby allies, triggering a large AoE revive for all nearby dead monsters or give a passive to allies indicated by a visual cue, maybe switching on their fast-monster tag or disabling their pain chances. This would make the mastermind more of an indirect threat and adds another layer to enemy synergy.

@robertbeckman2054

More hit points, more powerful machine shotgun, and pain states as rare as an Archville’s.

@OneDoomedAngelo

I find the idea of putting it on her pain state perfect. It covers one of her biggest weaknesses, which is her main attack being interrupted. You can 1v1 a Mastermind with almost any main weapon without taking cover, except for the Rocket Launcher. The Super Shotgun interrupts its attacks almost every time, even the normal Shotgun is fairly reliable, just like the Chaingun. The Plasma Rifle is really good and the BFG... well we all know what it does to a Mastermind.
With all of these weapons (and a bit of health + armor) you can just stand there, unload all your ammo into the Spider and it will most likely die before being able to shoot you too often.

With a counterattack like this, it would fundamentally change how you'd fight it. You can't just stand there and make the Mastermind your bitch. Well except for the BFG, it would still get rekt by that.

Another way I could see this working is to enable the Mastermind to have a chance of teleporting away after its pain state is triggered. Even tho this could be hard to code with its massive hitbox, there aren't too many areas it can fit in.