History Main / Diablo

* ''VideoGame/DiabloI'', the original game in the series
* ''VideoGame/DiabloII'', the first sequel, released in 2000
* ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'', the second sequel, released in 2012
* ''[[ComicBook/DiabloChile Diablo]]'', a [[ChileanMedia Chilean comic book]] made in TheNineties

* ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'', the original game in the series

[[redirect:VideoGame/{{Diablo}}]]

[[redirect:VideoGame/Diablo]]

[[quoteright:353:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/diablo.jpg]]

->''Stay a while and listen.''
-->-- '''Deckard Cain'''

A HackAndSlash game series from BlizzardEntertainment. Notorious for having [[WasteOfTimeStory an elaborate backstory and plot]] [[{{YMMV}} that nobody ever follows]] concerning a war between HeavenAndHell. As a sort of simple graphical {{roguelike}}, [[RandomlyDrops the pursuit of the perfect randomly-generated equipment]] and [[LevelGrinding character build]] to satisfy one's inner {{Munchkin}} gives the game tremendous replayability.

The first game was essentially a huge dungeon crawl, consisting of 16 levels of increasing difficulty under Tristram, the only town in the game, where various [=NPCs=] provide you with quests, healing, and equipment. The goal was to get to the BigBad, Diablo, in TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon. The non-canonical third-party expansion pack ''Hellfire'' added eight new separate levels, four new quests (a quest to kill another Diablo-esque baddy in the crypt near the church, [[LighterAndSofter a quest from Lester the farmer, a cow quest and a quest to retrieve a teddy bear]]) as well as three more characters (Monk, Bard and Barbarian) in addition to the original three ([[FighterMageThief Warrior, Rogue and Sorcerer]]), but you had to enter a special edit to a text file to get the last two of those quests and new characters.

The second game followed the storyline, which ended with the protagonist of the original game implanting Diablo's soulstone into his own forehead (it's implied that it was the warrior). Despite remaining at 640x480, it brought numerous gameplay improvements and was now broken into four acts, each with its own town and six quests per act (except Act 4, which had only three). The expansion pack, ''Lord of Destruction'', added 800x600 resolution, two new characters ([[FragileSpeedster Assassin]] and [[TheBeastmaster Druid]]) in addition to the original five ([[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Barbarian]], [[TheMinionMaster Necromancer]], [[ActionGirl Amazon]], [[HotWitch Sorceress]] and [[ChurchMilitant Paladin]]) and added Act 5, in which, after defeating Mephisto and Diablo in the original game, the player confronted Baal, the last of the three Prime Evils.

Of course, in multiplayer games over Battle.Net, players nearly always skip everything until an act's final boss with [[LeakedExperience help from more powerful players]], and then just continue to play in one particular area over and over again for XP and loot. Thus, nobody actually plays 95% of the game. Those who ''try'' are quickly ignored unless playing in a private party for that exact purpose.

The third game in the series, ''Diablo III'', was announced in June 2008 for a 2012 release. Trailers for it are on Blizzard's homepage. In the meanwhile, the developers of the first two ''Diablo'' games, Blizzard North, resigned ''en masse'' and formed "Flagship Studios", which continued to produce HackAndSlash games, specifically ''HellgateLondon'' and ''Mythos''. After Flagship folded, the same people formed "Runic Games", which produced ''{{Torchlight}}''. All three titles can be considered {{Spiritual Successor}}s to ''Diablo''; they certainly all play similarly.

See also ''BaldursGateDarkAlliance'' and ''its'' spiritual successor ''ChampionsOfNorrath''. (They take a lot of cues from the ''Diablo'' series and ''{{Borderlands}}''; the developers have cited ''Diablo'' as a prime inspiration.)
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!!This game series is the TropeNamer for:
* SocketedEquipment

!!It also provides examples of:
* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: The sewers under Lut Gholein. Averted somewhat since there are passageways that are tiny and cramped and will only allow one character to move forward at a time. The sewers under Kurast are larger still.
* ActionGirl: The Amazon, the Sorceress, the Assassin, the NPC Rogues. ''Diablo III'' will feature an ActionGirl for each class, although the most clear examples of the trope will be the female Barbarian, Monk and Demon Hunter.
* AffablyEvil: "I shall take your position into consideration."
* AllThereInTheManual: Background information for much of the series is not actually in the game, though you do get plenty of tidbits from [=NPCs=].
** In ''Diablo II'', practially any information about items in the game, such as Horadric Cube recipes, crafted item formulas and Rune Words, or even what's a magic/rare/set/unique item and their colors, are not explained in-game, and are explained [[http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/ here]] instead.
* AmazonianBeauty: Oddly enough, it's not the actual Amazon class but the Female Barbarian, who (at least in [[http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080813052237/diablo/images/c/cd/Fem_barbarian.jpg concept art]]) looks like a buff version of RedSonja.
* AmbiguouslyBrown: The sorceress and the paladin in ''Diablo II''.
* AndIMustScream: The Diablo 1 Warrior. You ''know'' that somewhere during his voyage to the East, he realized that Diablo has more and more control over him, and that instead of seeking salvation, Diablo will make him free another Prime Evil.
** Tal Rasha, deliberately having himself imprisoned with Baal's soul inside him in much the same way, intending to fight it inside him for all eternity.
** Inarius the angel. Mephisto tore the wings from his back, sliced open his eyelids, and sealed him in a prison of mirrors. He's got nothing to do for the rest of eternity except gaze upon the reflection of his ruined form.
* AnimateDead: Justified on the [[AllThereInTheManual website]]. Evidently skeletons are actually dirt and bone dust held together by magic, rather than actual skeletons.
** Revive is the Necromancer spell that turns corpses of monsters into your minions.
* AntiGrinding: In the first game, each floor had a finite number of enemies, limiting experience and item acquisition.
* AprilFoolsDay: [[http://us.blizzard.com/diablo3/community/merchandise/gps/index.xml Deckard Cain GPS voice pack]].
** [[http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/characters/archivist.xml The Archivist]]: Basically Cain as a playable character: Extremly slow movement, [[OneHitPointWonder dies as soon as a monster touches him]], and has AwesomeButImpractical skills such as turning enemies into {{QuestGiver}}s.
** The Secret Cow Level was announced on April 1st, and [[SubvertedTrope turned out to be real]].
* AxCrazy: [[spoiler:''Every hero from 2.'']]
** Equip a Barbarian with an axe (or two). Cast Berserk. or Frenzy. Literal example. [[DontExplainTheJoke Ax, crazy.]]
* {{Badass}}: Any character who dives into hell and makes it his/her own blood soaked parking lot deserves special mention. Especially [[OneManArmy single handed]].
* BadassBeard: Possible explanation for the Monk's BaldOfAwesome. The ''Diablo III'' Barbarian has one as well.
* BadassBoast: In ''Diablo II'', just before you're about to fight Diablo; "Not even ''death'' can save you from me!"[[spoiler: He's right]].
** The Demon Hunter gets a couple in her introductory trailer:
-->As long as I'm here, they are the prey... And I... am the Hunter.
-->I stand alone. And if they keep coming, I'll never stop killing.
* BagOfHolding: The Horadric Cube is four inventory spaces outside, twelve inside.
* BagOfSharing: The chest in Diablo III allows you to transfer the gear between your characters easily.
* BaldOfAwesome: The male Diablo III monk and the Diablo II Barbarian.
* BarbarianHero: The Barbarian is available as a character class in Diablo II. It's also slated to return in Diablo III.
* BareFistedMonk: Diablo III monk uses punches and kicks for his special attacks, even when carrying weapons.
* BigRedDevil: Guess who?
* BlackMage: The Sorceress.
* TheBlacksmith: Griswold in Diablo I. Followed by several in the second game: Charsi, Fara, Hratli, Halbu and Larzuk.
** Diablo 3 has Haedrig, one of the artisans that travels with you.
* BloodBath: One monster in ''Diablo II'', dubbed "The Countess" in reference to [[TropeMaker Elizabeth Bathory]], is described as having "bathed in the rejuvenating blood of a hundred virgins" in the tome that initiates her quest. And her room in the old tower contains a basin full of (still fresh-looking) blood.
* BlownAcrossTheRoom: anything killed by Barbarian's special attacks in ''Diablo III'' is flung away, inversely proportionally to its size. If it doesn't explode into LudicrousGibs, that is.
* BoastfulRap: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVIImXekNL8 Bind Those Keys]] by Amerigo Vespucci. Yep, an actually good fan song about ''Diablo II''.
* BonusBoss: Über Diablo. [[spoiler:Lilith]]. Über Izual. Über Duriel. Beating the last three gets you items that take you to [[BonusLevelOfHell Über Tristram]] where you can fight Über Baal, Über Mephisto, and Pandemonium Diablo ([[OverlyLongGag who is even more Über than Über Diablo]]). There's a lot of them.
* [[BonusLevelOfHell Bonus (Difficulty) Level of Hell]]
** Act V features three actual [[BonusLevelOfHell Bonus Levels Of Hell]] filled with nasty enemies, namely [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace Abaddon, The Pit of Acheron and the Infernal Pit.]]
* BoobsOfSteel: How the Amazon in ''Diablo II'' can move around without her assets getting in the way is truly something. Other females in the series are more realistically endowed.
** See also BreastPlate for the same Amazon.
** Lampshaded in one of the dialogue options with Larzuk.
* BossBanter
* BowAndSwordInAccord: Your warrior in the first game ought to hang on to a bow in case he gets a chance to shoot anything through a portcullis. (Most enemies can't open doors.) For the Rogue, this is much more important, as if she's caught at close range she needs a sword and shield to defend herself.
* BreakableWeapons
* BribingYourWayToVictory: [[http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2397-Diablo-3-Auction-House-Announced-Spend-and-Earn-Real-Life-Money! Diablo III will allow real life currency to be used in the auctionhouse.]]
* BrutalBonusLevel
** Hell Tristram and the super version, Chaos Tristram. They require items you have to fight Hell difficulty act bosses to ''maybe'' see. And this isn't the only stage in the process...
* TheButcher: "Aaaah, Fresh Meat!"
* CastFromHitpoints: A unique curse that Baal and some of his succubus minions cast causes players with more mana than health (i.e. most spellcasters) to use up health instead of mana when using their abilities, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin essentially forcing them to cast from their hit points.]]
** The Paladins "Sacrifice" skill plays it straight
* CatchPhraseInterruptus: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmSna5Df1hY Shown]] in the initial Diablo 3 Demo, where the Barbarian cuts Cain off in the middle of his catchphrase, who then complains that no one listens to him.
* CatGirl: Jaguar Women enemies, and [[UndergroundMonkey variants]].
* ClowncarGrave: The infinitely annoying mummy sarcophagi. [[http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/monsters/act2-mummysarcophagus.shtml The official website]] says that they were never designed as a resting place but instead as a way to guard the tombs and that the fake mummies are artificially created whenever an intruder is detected.
** ''Diablo III'' has a similar one with zombies and an Iron Maiden.
* CombatMedic: The Paladin is the closest thing to a 'healing' class in the game with his combat auras.
** And, ya know, ''Holy Bolt'', which is actually a healing spell. Still, the game consciously avoided healbots.
* CombatStilettos: The Demon Hunter is wearing these in her announcement trailer.
* CombatTentacles: Andariel, [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the Maiden of Anguish,]] uses four of these, each [[SpikesOfVillainy tipped with a spike.]]
* ConvectionSchmonvection: Act IV's River of Flame
* CoolOldGuy: Diablo 3 Barbarian, definitely. [[SoCoolItsAwesome He can still twirl Whirlwinds and he's probably pushing sixty!]]
* CorruptChurch: The Zakarum in the second game, except for the PC Paladins. The Archbishop Lazarus was part of the Zakarum in the first game, although as an individual he qualifies as EvilChancellor.
* {{Council of Angels}}
* CrapsackWorld: Well, technically the tie-in novels make it a CrapsaccharineWorld, but the games themselves focus on what happens when the veil's stripped away, followed three seconds later by the flesh off your skull.
* CrateExpectations: Wonderfully averted in D2. There is (usually) one interactive crate in the entire game. One. Everything else is either a barrel, a jar, or some horrible hellish construction involving NothingButSkulls.
* CripplingOverspecialization: A few of the archetypes.
** Smiters and Kicksins rely on combining high crushing blow (takes a large chuck of a foes HP) chances with high attack speed (to get crushing blow off a lot). They tend to be poor in non-boss non-PVP situations.
** Summonmancers are considered by far the easiest class to solo the game with. They can not function at all in PVP unless you're able to perform a successful "tele-stomp" which involves teleporting yourself and all your minions onto someone and killing them with the combined might of their blows.
** In Hell difficulty, every monster has total immunity to at least one form of attack. If you're playing a character specialized in that form of attack to the exclusion of all others, your life will be... difficult. Single-element sorceresses, and warrior-type characters who deal only physical damage, are the most common victims of this.
* DamageSpongeBoss: Izual, first boss encountered in Hell, from ''Diablo II''.
* DareToBeBadass: The Demon Hunter trailer for III ends with one of these.
--> ''You have a choice. Hunted... or '''hunter'''.''
* DarkIsNotEvil: The Necromancer in the 2nd game is, going by his commentary, at worst an AntiHero. [[http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/classes/necromancer.shtml the official website]] states that his own purposes are often aligned with those of the forces of Light.
** According to the manual his order are masters of keeping themselves level-headed and strive for perfect balance. He is on the side of good simply because evil is in danger of winning. In other words, the trope is played perfectly straight; Dark may not be good, but it [[IncrediblyLamePun sure as hell]] isn't evil. (Unless the angels somehow get the upper hand...)
*** He'd still qualify for DarkIsNotEvil even if they did: see LightIsNotGood below.
* {{Deconstruction}}: Arguably. [[spoiler:The protagonists spend the entire game battling DemonicInvaders and {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. Of ''course'' they [[AxeCrazy go bonkers]].]]
* DefensiveFeintTrap: "Pulling"
* DemonSlaying
* DevilButNoGod: Averted. There isn't a devil either. In Hell you have the Three Prime Evils and their four lieutenants, and in Heaven you have the Angelic Council. Sanctuary itself was created by a ''relationship'' between an angel and demon.
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: The whole point of the game.
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:In the first game your character is corrupted by Diablo's soulstone and becomes one of the sequel's {{Big Bad}}s. The sequel ends with Tyrael destroying the Worldstone, which is apparently the only thing holding Sanctuary apart from Heaven and Hell.]]
* DualWielding:
** In Diablo II, the Barbarian class is able to dual-wield any single-handed weapons, and use any two-handed sword in one hand (and thus dual-wield two-handed swords).
** In Diablo II's expansion, the Assassin class is able to dual-wield claw-class weapons, and has a passive skill to use them as a shield while doing so.
** In Diablo III, the Demon Hunter class is able to dual wield crossbows. Her introduction trailer shows her using them with a bit of GunFu.
** The Bard had a crude form of it; they reused the Rogue animations so she's only ever shown holding one sword, but gets double damage and the ability to hit multiple enemies simultaneously when equipped with two.
* DumpStat: Energy tends to be looked down upon.
* DyingTown: Tristram in the original ''Diablo'', the Kurast Docks in ''Diablo II'', and New Tristram in ''Diablo III''.
* EmpireWithADarkSecret: The tie-in novel "The Kingdom of Shadow" centers around this, coupled with CrapsaccharineWorld.
* EnemySummoner: Sand maggots in Diablo II which spit poison and lay eggs.
** The aforementioned "summonomancers" can have a small army of skeleton minions, plus a merc and a {{Golem}}.
* EnoughToGoAround: Played straight with anything [[MacGuffin you need to advance the plot]], but unfortunately averted with the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Infinity Plus One Charms]] dropped by the {{Bonus Boss}}es. Except the [[BraggingRightsReward Standard of Heroes]]. Figures.
* EternalEquinox: Present in ''Diablo II''.
* EverythingsBetterWithCows: The Cow Level.
* EverythingsCoolerWithLava: The spells "Volcano" and "Molten Boulder".
* EvilLaugh: Seems that Baal finds many things funny.
* EvilSorcerer: The Summoner.
* ExpandedUniverse: A number of novels penned in the world of Sanctuary, including the WordOfGod canonized Sin War Trilogy starring the Sanctuary equivalent of Heracles/Jesus set thousands and thousands of years before the games take place.
* ExperienceBooster: The Experience Shrines in D2 provide a temporary boost to your experience gain rate.
* FallenHero: [[spoiler: All three player-characters from the first game wound up this way by the time of the second. The fighter became possessed by Diablo's soulstone; the rogue...well, Blood Raven's her; and the sorcerer became the Summoner who's causing Lut Gholein a small hell's worth of grief. And possibly every hero from the second game has gone AxCrazy or some other form of loopy. Yes, the Paladin included.]]
* FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler:Both Tal Rasha and the player-character from Diablo make the unwise decision to insert a soulstone containing a demon into their bodies. The end results were not pretty for either of them. Tal Rasha [[HeroicSacrifice knew exactly what he was getting into and why]], and the PC [[MoreThanMindControl had been corrupted by Diablo himself]]]], but it still sucked in the end.
* FakeDifficulty - Loads of it once you get to the aptly-named Hell Difficulty. -100 to all of your resistances, life and mana stealing is drastically reduced, minions and mercenaries are {{Nerf}}ed beyond recognition, every enemy is immune to something (except act bosses, some really special superuniques, quill rats and hell bovines), massive experience loss upon death... the list goes on.
* FantasticRacism: The Angel Imperius displays this in the ExpandedUniverse. Even Tyrael shared his prejudice before Uldyssian's HeroicSacrifice showed him that humanity was capable of nobility and virtue.
* FaunsAndSatyrs: The Goatmen, which are actually demons and not related to either goats or humans.
** This was true for the first two games, but Diablo III retcons the info given in the first game. The Goatmen or Khazra were once humans, but they were transformed by evil mages called Vizjerei. Apparently, the info given in the first game was cover-up story created by the Vizjerei to cover their atrocities.
* FighterMageThief: Played completely straight in Diablo, with the Warrior, Sorcerer, and Rogue, respectively. In Diablo 2 and 3, the archtypes get expanded on and diversified, with the Paladin and Barbarian descending from the Warrior, the Assassin and Amazon descending from the Rogue, and so on. Most classes can be played as two or even all three types, though.
* {{Fireballs}}: It has fire magic in it after all so that's almost compulsory.
* FireIceLightning: a few variants of this, but played completely straight by the Sorceress.
* FishingForMooks: A strategy in some cases as you do not want to go wading into large melees, the barbarians taunt can be used to lure enemies away from other enemies. This can help in defeating fallen shamans but is generally regarded as a waste of skill points.
* FlingALightIntoTheFuture: Evilly subverted. Azmodan pulls this with himself and his forces, sealing himself away until the heroes who defeated his fellow Prime Evils would be unable to stop him.
* FourthWallObserver: Malah in Lord of Destruction.
-->[[spoiler:"You knew it would eventually come down to this. Kill [[BigBad Baal]]. Finish the game!"]]
* FullSetBonus: Some armor and items give these.
* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: Technically Duriel. He ''is'' an important lore character and has a detailed backstory, but unlike Andariel he received no build up or foreshadowing for his fight.
** Somewhat justified since he's essentially a BaitAndSwitchBoss there to end the act with a [[ItWasHisSled twist]] by making the player think they're about to face Baal.
* GratuitousGerman: The Diablo III logo, but you need a very high resolution to read it.
* TheGodsMustBeLazy: There doesn't seem to be ''a'' God in the setting (with the Prime Evils dividing up the duties of Satan) but the angels of the High Heavens are more concerned with saving their own asses than those of the mortals of Sanctuary (whom most angels would just as soon see effaced anyway, since the way it came to existence means it's inherently half-demonic. They don't want anything that isn't pure angelic to exist.). The demons from the Burning Hells, of course, aren't picky with their prey, so the world is [[CrapsackWorld just as crappy]] as you'd imagine as a result.
** Although one angel, Tyræl, does eventually decide to take matters into his own hands (and [[ItsUpToYou gets his ass kicked]].)
* GradualGrinder: Necromancers, and oddly enough, Paladins.
* GratuitousJapanese: In a way - the name of the Unique crossbow "Buriza-Do Kyanon" is pretty much what you'll get if you spell out "blizzard cannon" in Katakana.
* GridInventory: Diablo virtually named this trope.
* GroundPound
* GuideDangIt: Many game mechanics are not described in game or in the manual. Attack speeds, for example, in Diablo 2 are different between characters, do not often correspond to the descriptions given for items, multiple attack moves like Zeal and Strafe increase the speed in unusual ways, and these and other properties are not described anywhere, they had to be found by outside players in outside guides.
** There's a guide written up for the technical details how poison damage works, including how it gets overwritten and how to convert damage over time in-game as relates to time IRL, to help use it viably as a damage-over-time effect. Without knowing this, it's easy to overwrite/nerf your own damage and come to the conclusion that poison simply sucks.
* HappyEndingOverride: The second game is one of the few games that matches ''ChronoCross'' in the sheer brutality of this--''everything'' you did [[ShootTheShaggyDog only made the problem worse]]. It looks like the third will apply this to the second as well.
* HardModePerks: Drops on Nightmare and Hell difficulties are much better.
* HitAndRunTactics: Tonnes of opportunities to deploy this trope are listed on the trope page. Deploy this trope against any melee opponent who looks too scary.
* HealthDamageAsymmetry: In Diablo 2:
** Monsters in hell difficulty usually have base attack damage that are around 1/100th of their HP.
*** Maw Fiend (a [[StoneWall Stone Wall]]): 11128~19782 HP, 81~139 melee attack, 130~160 corpse spit damage
*** Burning Soul (a [[GlassCannon Glass Cannon]] / [[DemonicSpider Demonic Spider]]): 2008~5059 HP, 42~108 attack damage, (42~108)+(188~282) lightning damage.
** The Necromancer skill Iron Maiden bounces cause enemies to take 6.75x of damage they deal with their melee attacks. It's not an effective skill in Nightmare and Hell difficulties. On the other hand, Oblivion Knights using Iron Maiden was extremely deadly to players that rely on melee attacks, until patch 1.13 removed this skill from this monster.
** Nihlathak's Corpse Explosion deals only 20% damage in Hell difficulty. And well-geared players still get owned by this badly.
** Players deals 1/6 damage to other players.
** As of patch 1.10 and later, monsters have +50% HP, +50% EXP and deals +6.25% damage for each additional player in the game beyond the first.
** The game does not display flying damage numbers anywhere, just graphical health bars.
** It's possible that poorly geared characters, that can deal more damage than their own HP, end up having trouble killing monsters in hell difficulty.
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: [[spoiler: Every protagonist. No exceptions.]]
* HeyItsThatVoice: The narrator and Mephisto are voiced by Paul Eiding, who some may instantly recognize as the voice of the Colonel from Metal Gear Solid.
** And Aldaris from {{Starcraft}}.
** And [[WesternAnimation/{{Ben10}} Grandpa Max]]
** Marius and Lysander the potion merchant were voiced by Frank Gorshin, who played the Riddler in the 1960s {{Batman}} series.
** Charsi the blacksmith in Act 1 is voiced by Glynnis Talken, who also voiced Sarah Kerrigan in {{Starcraft}}.
** The voice of the Druid and Nihlathak in Lord of Destruction is [[{{Warcraft}} The Prophet]] and [[LegacyOfKain Raziel]].
** Natalya sounds a lot like [[{{Warcraft}} Jaina]].
* HospitalityForHeroes: The reward for one of the quests in ''Diablo II'' is that shopkeepers give you a discount.
* HuskyRusskie: Male Monk in ''Diablo III''. The female is a little less husky, but still has the accent.
* IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace: The Den of Evil. Halls of the Dead. ''Flayer Dungeon''. In fact, it would be easier to list locations that aren't this trope.
* IceBreaker: Using cold magic or cold-enchanted equipment can shatter an enemy to bits, leaving no corpse. This works best against skeletons in Act II.
* ImprobablePowerDiscrepancy
* InexplicableTreasureChests. Even in hell. To be fair, the chests there are ''skeletal cages and corpses''. Although most of them are called "Hidden Stash" or similar, which is really weird since they usually stand in the wide open and consist of neatly tiled skeletons and a flickering flame.
* InsurmountableWaistHighFence: Tristram is delimited by these on all four sides in ''Diablo I''.
** The sequel isn't nearly as bad as the first (Act II is a desert, with each region surrounded by cliffs; Act III is a jungle, and the trees are apparently solid walls; Act IV is Hell, at first on floating rocks in a field of darkness, and then islands on a river of fire; Act V is a mountain, and portals into Hell, and a big scary dungeon full of big red crystals), but Act I is a bunch of fields, surrounded by stone and wooden fences that a child could jump over.
* InterchangeableAntimatterKeys: And the Assassin doesn't even need them...
* InUniverseGameClock: In ''Diablo II'', a day/night cycle is present but it usually affects only visibility.
* InventoryManagementPuzzle
* LastOfHisKind: Deckard Cain is the last of the Horadrim.
* {{The Legions of Hell}}
* LevelMapDisplay: Especially necessary given that the maps are randomized.
* LevelUpFillUp
* LightIsNotGood: Turns out all the angels except Tyrael, and perhaps Hadriel, are barely any better than the demons. Whether or not they're worse is up for debate because unlike the demons, no one actually knows what they're up to.
** At least one of them, the Archangel of War, wanted to genocide the entirety of humanity and Class X-4 ApocalypseHow the material plane of Sanctuary on the grounds of "Demons had some hand in making it exist." Light is ''definitely'' not good in the Diablo universe.
* LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards: As with nearly all branches of RPG's that host both [[TheBigGuy Fighter]] and [[SquishyWizard Mage]] types, Diablo 2 plays this pretty straight. In early levels your [[DiscOneNuke physical, combat class]] will sweep the floor with any {{Mooks}} standing in their way. Later levels see the caster become a borderline GameBreaker, especially those who went with [[AnIcePerson Frost or Cold effects.]]
** Averted in PvP: every single class has several builds to duel with at each PvP level cap. There are melee builds dubbed "caster killers" for how effectively they can trash Necromancers, casting Druids and Sorceresses. This is in part due to a piece of armor which gives any class the ability to teleport, a skill normally reserved for the Sorceress. Even low-level duels are well-matched between caster and melee.
* LivingLegend: The hero of the first, not so much. But of the second? Travels the world, solving everyone's problems and actually kills all three lords of hell. LivingLegend.
* MadeOfExplodium: The first game had the occasional explosive barrel and fireball, but the second is particularly bad about this. Magic can make nearly anything explode - arrows, snowballs, the earth itself, and most notably, ''corpses'' in a variety of gruesome ways.
* MagicIsAMonsterMagnet: Attracting demons is an InformedFlaw of using magic, but since you have a fair chance of being torn apart by them any time you set foot outside your house ''anyway'', at least you'll be better able to defend yourself...
* {{Mana}}: Played completely straight in the first two games; the third has permutations based on the class.
** Fury depletes itself as time passes, but builds up quickly as long as the Barbarian is on the front lines, both dishing pain out and taking it.
** The Demon Hunter is a duality in that governing both Hatred (used in offensive skills, regenerates quickly) and Discipline (used in support skills, replenishes much more slowly) is essential in keeping combat under control. Crafty use of Discipline abilities is vital, as the Demon Hunter is a ranged specialist and thus cannot sustain much punishment.
** The Monk's fighting Spirit does not decay like the Barbarian's Fury, but sustaining damage does not replenish it, either. Rather, the skilled fighter builds Spirit by engaging small groups and dispenses it to control crowds, flowing from one demon to another like a river of quicksilver.
** Witch Doctors attune to the Mana ever-flowing from the Unformed Land, utilizing it to manage their vast conjured hordes. In the event of a shortage, abilities that siphon Mana from their victims are also present, and cautious management is vital to casting the hordes back to the Burning Hells.
** Channeling raw and everpresent Arcane Power, Wizards can utilize spells of a wide variety of elements. Eschewing the hordes of the Witch Doctor, the Wizard instead directs their energies into utter annihilation of their foes, as well as dimensional distortions and temporal anomalies.
* MinMaxing
* TheMinionMaster: Summon-focused necromancers. They can have more than 30 minions of various types on screen at a time, which is a GameBreaker in multiple senses.
* MirrorBoss: Nihlathak and The Ancients use skills accessible to Necromancers and Barbarians. Nihlathak in particular is fitting, as using your abilities quick enough prevents him from using the same (very deadly) abilities against you (both use up corpses)
* MoneyForNothing: Money has three uses in Diablo. Reviving your mercenary, repairing your gear, and gambling (in which you spend money on an item with unknown properties). It's still one of the best ways to get good equipment in single player.
** Early on, it's a good idea to buy gear regularly. And every now and then, you can get some useful but expensive gear from the right merchant. Especially for the Paladin, the Sorceress and the Necromancer, because they need specific weapons that don't drop more often than others, and cannot be acquired through gambling.
* MoneySpider: One of the worst offenders. Watch in awe as a swarm of insects spits up a suit of plate mail!
* MookMaker: Several enemies can revive dead enemies (such as the fallen shaman). Also, the player character, if he plays as the necromancer, as he has the ability to summon HelpfulMooks (such as skeletons and Golems).
* MST3kMantra: This is a requirement. FridgeLogic avoided.
* {{Multishot}}: Several of the Amazon powers.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: ''Black Death'' in ''Diablo'', and their ability to ''permanently'' lower your health by [[LostForever one point]] causes even experienced players to avoid them like the plague.
** The fact that they can crash the game when dealing a finishing blow to the player in earlier versions, makes it worse.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: ''Every'' hero in the series has done something or another to screw things up. Including frigging ''Tyrael'', your archangel ally.
** Marius, however, is the shining example. Not only does he ''violently bugger up'' by yanking Tal Rasha's Soulstone (and thus releasing Baal) while Diablo and Tyrael were occupied, but he breaks things worse by inaction due to ''not'' going through the HellGate and having the Soulstone fragment destroyed. [[AlasPoorScrappy This does little to make his death at the end of the main game any less tragic.]]
* NintendoHard: Hell difficulty since patch 1.10 in ''Diablo II'', where it was massively beefed up as a result of being ItsEasySoItSucks in the prior patches. To stand a chance in this difficulty level you need to have a proper character build, to play through the game so many times over to level your stats, and the proper equipment dropable only on this difficulty at extremely low rates, to stand a chance against the later bosses.
** In Hardcore mode, the difficulty of the game essentially forces you to play cooperatively; beating the game on your own requires a very specialized build and a great deal of skill and/or patience.
* NoHeroDiscount: Demons about to overrun the countryside? Tragic. Want your armor repaired? Cash up front!
** Even Tyrael and the two merchants in Act IV of ''Diablo II'' will charge money, though they at least have an excuse. Tyrael charges because he's an angel, and because of the pact, cannot directly intervene on behalf of humanity. Being the only angel who gives a shit, he still wants to help. There are similar rules for the two human merchants in the Pandemonium fortress with Tyrael.
** Hilariously [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in the official ''Diablo II'' online database; "In Act IV, Tyrael will resurrect your Hireling but he will charge you. What does he do with that gold? Angels got to pay the bills too."
** Oddly subverted in that there is one quest in act II which will reduce prices. But there isn't in act V, which underlines most your transition from "unwelcome stranger" to "hero of the nation".
*** There is one in every act. But the one in Act V reduces the prices from double than normal to normal, so it's basically the highest discount.
* {{Nothing But Skulls}}: Skullpiles as treasure chests, in addition to lying strewn about in Chaos Sanctuary. Made worse by the RandomlyDrops nature of the game - ''How can you not find a skull in a pile of skulls?''
** Justified in that the skulls you ''want'' are the skulls of arcane demons - apparently the rest are a more mundane variety.
* OneHitKill: Some builds are focused around doing so much damage in a single strike that they can kill any monster or opponent in PvP. Notably, the twinked Blizzard Sorceress and the Charging Paladin. It is also technically possible, with perfectly set-up gear and skills, to kill the final boss on the hardest difficulty over the course of several minutes with a single stab from a Necromancer's Poison Dagger skill.
** Due to a bug in how damage is dealt when Fire-Enchanted monsters explode upon death, they can easily OHK an unprepared player. The mini-boss Nihlathak is infamous for both his potential to drop desirable items and his potential to kill even ''prepared'' players in an instant by using the corpses of his dead minions as area-of-effect bombs.
* OneTimeDungeon: The Cow Level can only be played once per difficulty level.
* OneStatToRuleThemAll: In most cases, non-Vitality point assignment is only recommended for meeting equipment requirements. What happened to avoiding getting hit, and so being able to add to strength and agility? Well, all right, so far it's only Amazons who get to enjoy Slow Missiles...
** Inverted with the energy stat. There's only one, maybe two, builds where a guide does not explicitly tell you to ''never, ever'' put a point into energy.
* OurAngelsAreDifferent: Light tentacles instead of wings, tend to wear armor and face-concealing cloaks. As far as alignment goes, they are ostensibly on your side, but don't expect any help from anyone other than Tyrael. Appear to lean towards being dicks, again with the exception of Tyrael and a few novel-only angels.
* OverdrawnAtTheBloodBank: And not just monsters. The Paladin in ''Diablo 2'' has a skill called Sacrifice, which grants him bonus damage in exchange for losing some health. Every time he uses the skill, about a gallon of blood spills out of him.
* OvershadowedByAwesome: It's hard to make the Diablo II expansion climactic when the previous game ended with you effectively beating ''the Devil in Hell''.
* PaletteSwap: The different monster varieties, from 3 to 6 variants, as well as champion/unique monsters.
* PerpetualBeta: Both games have suffered from this. Diablo 1 had a long history of GoodBadBugs and {{Game Breaking Bug}}s, most notably item-duplicating, in its day. The second game is more notable for being in this state even after a decade of semi-annual support. Most skills are bugged and many are outright broken [[http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=754786 even after ten years of patches]]. A few particularly offensive examples of bugs that still plague it:
** The "Lying Character Screen". Due to the character screen not being updated in patch while fundamental game mechanics ''have'' been, the character screen is notorious for displaying incorrect numbers for ''every gameplay value'' except the player's name, level, experience, and health.
** Melee spear skills for the Amazon class are so broken that players will call you crazy for considering them. One skill has such a slow animation that a monster can walk away before it lands. There's also a multi-strike skill that, as soon as ''any'' hit misses in the sequence or is interrupted (including by any of the Amazon's passive damage avoidance skills), all subsequent hits will miss while the animation plays out and you are beaten to death.
** Both skills that use a certain attack animation, which looks like a continuous blast of flame or ice, can only hit one target. Furthermore, these skills do less than 1/3rd the damage they should. This is because the missile used disappears once it hits a target, rather than continuing to exist to deal damage in spite of the ongoing animation giving the illusion it's working.
** There is the Gloam enemy that has two attacks: a powerful touch-based attack and a ranged lightning blast. The damage from the first attack is inexplicably added to the damage from the second attack making it one of the most infamous monsters in the game.
** Due to faulty coding a Viper enemy, on Hell difficulty, fires poison blasts from its mouth that leave behind invisible hitboxes that do massive ''physical'' as well as poison damage and hit up to ''[[EmphasizeEverything 12.5 times per second]]''. This can and will kill any character not specifically built to fully negate the damage to be killed within seconds if they meet the conditions to trigger the bug. The conditions? Walking, or having an ally stand near you. They're also notorious for murdering your NPC ally without a moment's notice. Veteran players will usually just Save & Quit rather than deal with them.
** If a boss monster gets a certain kind of randomly generated Mana Drain power, it drains 512x as much mana as intended. This makes it go from an annoying perk to an instantly debilitating one that can result in (nearly) instant death for sorceresses who used the Energy Shield skill (which allows the player to lose mana instead of health when attacked).
* PhysicalHeaven: Diablo 2 has you sent to Hell to kill Diablo. Turns out the forces of heaven have set up a fortress there and in fact have a few angels patrolling the place trying to keep things under control. Care to guess how that turned out?
* PhysicalHell: Of course, there wouldn't be a game otherwise. Not there originally, Diablo makes it literally out of HighOctaneNightmareFuel.
* RainOfArrows: dual-wielding Demon Hunter in ''Diablo III''. AwesomeButImpractical thanks to stupidly low chance of RandomDrops for hand crossbows with decent damage rates.
* RandomlyDrops: At extremely slim odds. The chance of anything in the game dropping a Zod (the rarest rune) ranges from zero (cannot drop) to 1:some six digit number.
** Mercifully, the latest patch has made the rarest runes drop more frequently - still incredibly rare, but it is now reasonably likely for a high-level player to see a few in a Season. Before it was possible for a player to never see some runes in their entire ''career'' - unless you traded for dupes.
* RangedEmergencyWeapon: The bow is hardly the warrior's most useful weapon, but it can be handy if an enemy is behind a grate or if you need to exchange fire with something that won't let you close enough to engage in melee for a meaningful length of time.
* {{Retcon}}: Remember how the male Barbarian planned for ''3'' was meant to be the same one from ''2''? Blizzard's apparently changed their minds. Apparently gender equality and a single complainer had a big hand in it.
* ReviveKillsZombie: The Holy Bolt spell does two things: damage undead mobs, and heal friendlies.
* {{Roguelike}}: The randomly-generated dungeon maps and loot, and the SaveGameLimits designed to prevent SaveScumming, essentially make it a real-time Roguelike with [[strike:3D]] isometric graphics and multiplayer. Hardcore mode in Diablo 2 features the Roguelike tradition of the permanency of death, and the option of having your corpse lootable is similar to the bones file feature of NetHack.
** WordOfGod says that it was a more traditional turn-based Roguelike (albeit one with isometric graphics) during early development, until someone turned off the pause between turns to see what would happen and was pleasantly surprised...
*** The upcoming Diablo III has completed a transition in the franchise from a Roguelike in the vein of ADoM to more of an action RPG with an emphasis on real-time battle rather than square-by-square exploration and planning.
* RuinsForRuinsSake
* RuleofThree: To craft the weapon that will open the path to Mephisto's lair, You must use the Eye, Heart, and Brain of Khalim.
** Plus the [[RuleOfThree Three Prime Evils]].
* SavingTheWorld: What you are supposed to do.
* SealedEvilInADuel: In ''Diablo II'', [[spoiler: Tal Rasha uses his own body as an extension of a soulstone to imprison Baal. He is [[GrandTheftMe possessed]], and has to be tied up and magically bound in a tomb, his spirit fighting Baal's for eternity. Or until Marius came along and tugged on the ringpull. Ooops.]]
* ShapedLikeItself: The randomly-generated items and monsters sometimes have matching affixes, leading to things such as "Flaming Longsword of Flame" and "Ghostly Ghost".
* ShoutOut: In ''Diablo II'', it's possible to hire a mercenary named "Jarulf"; being the screen name of Pedro Faria, the author of the greatest ''Diablo'' resource ''Jarulf's Guide''.
** It's also possible to hire a mercenary called "[[TheDayTheEarthStoodStill Klaatu]]"
** Also, one of the rare 'Dirk' class weapons is called 'The Diggler,' which is almost certainly a reference to the movie ''BoogieNights''.
** Let's not forget the lore behind the Blessed Hammer skill. If you use it, you're channeling the energy released the day when a bunch of nuns nearly sacrificed themselves to save a holy Hammer. What's the name of that hammer? Why, the [[GalaxyQuest Hammer of Ghrab Thaar]], of course, according to the game's manual.
** Also, in ''Diablo III'', the Monk has a skill called Exploding Palm. The key feature of this attack is that the victim [[LudicrousGibs explodes]] if the DOT kills them (later edited to apply to any damage while the debuff still applies). Four words only: [[FistOfTheNorthStar You are]] [[YouAreAlreadyDead already dead.]]
** In the first Diablo game, there was a Staff called the 'Rod of Onan' which could never ever be a reference to the Biblical story of the sin of Onan. It summoned golems from the earth.
** There's also the mini-boss [[http://www.d2tomb.com/images/unique_monsters/summoner_ani.gif The Summoner]], who bears a distinct resemblance to [[MightyMorphinPowerRangers a certain kids TV Villain...]]
** If rumors about ''Diablo III''[='=]s secret level [[http://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/k6nqz/the_secret_level_of_diablo_3_has_been_revealed/ from Reddit]] can be believed, [[spoiler:[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Blizzard are either huge bronies or taking the piss on them]]]].
** On the Diablo III page describing the barbarian's Berserker Rage passive, the quote "you wouldn't like me when I'm angry" is attributed to one [[IncredibleHulk "Bannar the Berserker"]]
** The same site has a three-bladed legendary fist weapon called [[{{Wolverine}} Logan's Claw]] that regenerates the user's health, and a legendary spear called [[{{ThreeHundred}} The 300th Spear]]
* SchrodingersPlayerCharacter: In-game, at least. Everyone who was present in the canonical games and expansions has a part in the canon. [[spoiler:[[FaceHeelTurn As a boss]].]]
* SkywardScream - The first game's ending.
* SoLongAndThanksForAllTheGear: If you hire a new mercenary while you have an old one, the old one disappears with whatever equipment you gave him/her.
* SoundtrackDissonance - The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLs6OHlSdyE Cain Rap.]]
* {{Speedrun}} - Diablo manages to hold two speedruns that are astounding for entirely opposite reasons: The original Diablo was crushed in [[http://speeddemosarchive.com/demo.pl?Diablo_Sorcerer_312 0:03:12]](!) through obscene luck manipulation and glitching, while Diablo II has a much longer run of [[http://speeddemosarchive.com/Diablo2LoD.html#Sorceress100p 4:22:xx]] beating the game 100%... on Normal, Nightmare, and Hell, all from a fresh file.
* SquishyWizard - The Necromancer and Sorceress are the 'squishy' classes. The Druid can be as well, but certain builds (especially those that focus on shapeshifting) are more durable.
** For enemies, there's the Summoner, who can [[GlassCannon deal lot of damage to you from a long distance but goes down pretty easily]], if you can manage to get through [[GoddamnBats the multitude of weaker enemies surrounding him]] to actually hit him.
* StockSoundEffect - Blizzard abuses this often. Minotaurs' death in ''Diablo II'' is one of the examples.
* TheStoic: The ''Diablo III'' Barbarian, or so the authors claim.
* SturgeonsLaw: 90% of any drops you get is worthless junk.
* StylishProtectionGear: The Demon Hunter from ''Diablo III'' has been shown in her BlizzCon promo video to have some very stylish armor with the rather out-of-place addition of CombatStilettos.
* SuddenSequelHeelSyndrome: The hero from the first game is the BigBad of the second.
* SwordDrag - the Rot Walkers in ''Diablo II'', Act V do this.
* ThirdPersonPerson: Ormus's dialogue.
* ThisWasHisTrueForm
* TooAwesomeToUse: Jewels and runes in II are just rare enough, and can only be used once. In III, runes are for skills and are interchangeable, while jewels can be desocketed with the right artisan.
* UndergroundMonkey
* TheUnfought: As of ''Lord of Destruction'', Azmodan and Belial are the only Evils, Prime or Lesser, that have not been fought.
** At least for Azmodan, that will change in D3, he is the BigBad .
* UniversalPoison: And universal antidote. It's ''elemental'' poison, after all.
* UnwittingPawn: The protagonist of ''Diablo I''. Even the Archangel Tyrael falls into this category a bit. Or a lot, if you believe Izual. Arguably ''everyone'' in the series was a UnwittingPawn to the Prime Evils. Especially in the first game. Nobody ever figures out the true agendas of the Prime Evils until it's too late.
* UrbanLegendOfZelda: The cow level in the first game. It's an actual level in the second, with its "secrecy" in ItWasHisSled territory.
** Possibly referenced with the exploding cow corpses in Tristram in D2.
* UrbanSegregation: Kurast.
* UselessUsefulSpell: Averted for the most part. While at first sight anything that has to do with freezing, stunning, knocking back, fleeing, or converting won't work on anyone important, they DO work well on those "anyone important"'s minions, and a well built character (and their merc) can take on even the scariest uniques one on one if the minions are not joining the fight.
** The synergy system succeeded in averting this trope, although certain skills such as Psychic Hammer and Blade Sentry are still viewed as useless beyond the first few character levels. Classic Diablo 2 played this straight. Minion-based Necromancer builds had to rely on golems because of how weak skeletons were and most Sorceresses had to wait until they were level 18-24 to have a single skill worth putting more than a single prerequisite point into.
* WalletOfHolding: The first game allowed up to 5000 gold per available inventory slot. The sequel has a separate storage for gold in the inventory.
** ''Hellfire'' for the first ''Diablo'' bumped up the limit to 10,000 per slot.
* WeBuyAnything: Shopkeepers love to buy items from you.
** In the first game, only related items can be sold to the relevant shopkeeper. The sequel relaxes the rule and plays this trope straight.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The male barbarians of D3 and D2 being the same person. But Blizz [[http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=27508584306&postId=275061593826&sid=3000#0 changed]] it.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: When you kill Mephisto, Natalya disappears. There's still no word as to where she went.
* WhiteHairedPrettyGirl: The female Diablo III Monk.
* YinYangBomb: The entire human race is the result of interbreeding between angels and demons.
* YouCantThwartStageOne: Or Stage 2: both games end badly for team Human.
* ZipMode: In the unofficial expansion ''Hellfire'', your walk speed was doubled in town. In ''II'', you could run in towns without depleting your SprintMeter.
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<<|HackAndSlash|>>
<<|{{Roguelike}}|>>

The third game in the series, ''Diablo III'', was announced in June 2008 for a 2012 release. Trailers for it are on Blizzard's homepage. In the meanwhile, the developers of the first two ''Diablo'' games, Blizzard North, resigned ''en masse'' and formed "Flagship Studios", which continued to produce HackAndSlash games, specifically ''HellgateLondon'' and ''Mythos''. After Flagship folded, the same people formed "Runic Games", which produced ''{{Torchlight}}''. All three titles can be considered {{Spiritual Successor}}s to ''Diablo''; they certainly play all similar-like.

See also ''BaldursGateDarkAlliance'' and ''its'' spiritual successor ''ChampionsOfNorrath''; they take a lot of cues from the ''Diablo'' series, and ''{{Borderlands}}''; the developers have cited ''Diablo'' as a prime inspiration.

* AmbiguouslyBrown: The sorceress in ''Diablo II''.

* FaunsAndSatyrs: The Goatmen, which are actually demons and not related to either goats or humans.

** There is the Gloam enemy that has two attacks: a powerful touch-based attack and a ranged lightning blast. The damage from the first attack is inexplicably added to the damage from the second attack making it one of the most infamous mosnters in the game.

** Players deals 1/6 damage to other players. And i

** If rumors about ''Diablo III''[='=]s secret level [[http://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/k6nqz/the_secret_level_of_diablo_3_has_been_revealed/ from Reddit]] can be believed, [[spoiler:[[MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Blizzard are either huge bronies or taking the piss on them]]]].

*** The Necromancer skill Iron Maiden bounces cause enemies to take 6.75x of damage they deal with their melee attacks. It's not an effective skill in Nightmare and Hell difficulties. On the other hand, Oblivion Knights using Iron Maiden was extremely deadly to players that rely on melee attacks, until patch 1.13 removed this skill from this monster.

*** The Necromancer skill Iron Maiden bounces cause enemies to take 6.75x of damage they deal with their melee attacks. It's not an effective skill in Nightmare and Hell difficulties.