History VideoGame / DiabloII

* 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.

* EnoughToGoAround: In online play, quests will yield as many {{MacGuffin}}s as there are players completing them, even when said {{MacGuffin}}s are one-of-a-kind items. Exceptions: The scroll with the solution to the Cairn Stones, the Horadric Malus and the Hellforge Hammer only drop once. 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.

** In addition, there's the Town Portal scroll, though as the name implied, the scrolls primarily sent you back to town (which you would need to do often in order to sell off your old or excess gear, repair the gear you were using, and resupply on essentials such as potions, ammunition and Scrolls of Identify or Town Portal.

* WhipOfDominance: The Overlords demons are armed with barded whips in combat, and are {{Mook Lieutenant}}s who are often leading lesser demons into battle, and can whip their own troops to give them buffs, which is translated in-game by their custom ability "Minion Frenzy".

* ATasteOfTheLash: Several of the larger demon enemies use whips, in particular the Overlords in Act V, who can whip their own minions to turn them into suicide bombers.

* DoomedProtagonist: ''Diablo II'' makes very clear that this was the eventual fate of the hero from the first game, as he finally succumbs to Diablo's corruption and becomes the Dark Wanderer. All three [=PC=]s from the first game suffer this; the Rogue becomes the demonic Blood Raven, and the Sorcerer becomes the Summoner.

* SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome:
** The helpful townsfolk from the first game are skeletal scenery when you return to Tristram... except for Deckard Cain, of course, and poor Griswold, who is now the zombie Level Boss. On the plus side, Peg-Leg Wirt's body yields a buttload of coin and a surprising magic item.
** Even better example? The Rogue is corrupted by Andariel and becomes Blood Raven; the Sorcerer goes insane and becomes the Summoner, the imposter sub-boss of Act 2; and the Warrior becomes the Dark Wanderer -- the new host of Diablo himself.
* SuddenSequelHeelSyndrome: The hero from the first game is the BigBad of the second.

* SwordOfPlotAdvancement: One's an epic staff (Horadric Staff); the other is an epic mace (Khalim's Will). You're forced to give up both to foward the plot. The staff opens the true Tomb of Tal Rasha in Act 2 and Khalim's Will opens the stairwell to Mephisto's Durance of Hate in Act 3.

* WhipItGood: Several of the larger demon enemies use whips, in particular the Overlords in Act V.

* HospitalityForHeroes: The reward for one of the quests in Act II is that shopkeepers give you a discount.

* NoHeroDiscount: As in the first game, you have to pay for everything, regardless of your heroic deeds; the only break from this is that there are two quests (one each in Acts II and V) that will reduce prices. Even Tyrael and the two merchants in Act IV 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. There are similar rules for the two human merchants in the Pandemonium fortress with Tyrael. The official ''Diablo II'' online database {{lampshade|Hanging}}s this humorously:

* {{Druid}}: ''Lord of Destruction'' introduces the Druid character class. He's a JackOfAllTrades, who can be biult to be proficent in offensive magic via his Elemental skill tree, in melee thanks to his Shapeshifting skill tree or as a minion summoner thanks to his Summoning skill tree.

* {{Druid}}: ''Lord of Destruction'' introduces the Druid character class.

* DyingTown: The Kurast Docks.

* LordBritishPostulate: ''Median XL'' is a mod that features invulnerable trap-like monsters that kill you instantly when you get near, but don't move. This being ''[[KillEmAll Diablo]]'', you can imagine how well that went.

* {{Speedrun}}: ''Diablo II'' has a 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.

* AnAxeToGrind:
** Choosing the Barbarian from the character select screen will prompt him to let out a yell and start sharpening an axe while you choose his name. His starting inventory includes an axe.
** ''Diablo II'' also introduced one-handed axes that the Barbarian can use with a shield or in each hand, while the first game only had two-handed axes. Axes have more consistent damage output, with higher minimum but lower maximum damage than swords and maces.

* BodyguardBabes: According to the manual, the [[HornyDevils succubi]] enemies in ''Lord of Destruction'' are Baal's personal harem. Given that you'll fight a few hundred over the course of Act V, Baal is clearly a pimp.

* HornyDevils: Baal's personal harem is unleashed in ''Lord of Destruction''. Albeit, they're not particularly sexual creatures, rather color-coded, fireball-flinging, batwinged, naked women.

* EverythingsBetterWithSpinning: At level 30, Barbarians gain access to the Whirlwind attack. The in-game description of "Whirling dance of death" is sufficient enough to describe what that move is and does. Assassins can also use this attack, if they equip the Chaos runeword.

** Median XL's Necromancers are quite fond of using scythes as their WeaponOfChoice, and have some nice attacks such as Angel of Death that do nasty damage.

** The Necromancer's iron golem. It turns a metal item into a golem, with stats based on the item used. The problem being you have to have said item to start, and armor especially takes up a lot of inventory space. There's also how magic items are randomly generated so [[VendorTrash most items will be total junk,]] meaning if you plan to use the skill and have a good magic item you should defintely save it for a rainy day.

** The Necromancer's iron golem. It turns a metal item into a golem, with stats based on the item used. The problem being you have to have said item to start, and armor especially takes up a lot of inventory space. There's also how magic items are randomly generated so [[SturgeonsLaw most items will be total junk,]] meaning if you plan to use the skill and have a good magic item you should defintely save it for a rainy day.

* BalefulPolymorph: One of the runewords has a chance of turning the user into an undead pygmy skeleton.

* FirstPersonPeripheralNarrator: Most of the actual story is narrated by Marius, a random person whom the Dark Wanderer (Diablo) takes along to carry his stuff or something. He is eventually given the task to enter Hell itself to destroy Baal's soulstone, ie. to actually do something, but understandably chickens out. What's interesting is that if Marius is seen as FirstPersonPeripheralNarrator, then the main character is Diablo, not the PlayerCharacter. But since the latter only runs around killing monsters and misses all the real story, even Marius himself seems more like the protagonist at times.

** Apparently the books make it more confusing than the game. In-game materials and the guidebook make it clear that necromancers are TrueNeutral or even ChaoticNeutral. It's just that when the world is completely full of AlwaysChaoticEvil demons, and there are not one but ''three'' Satan {{Expy}}s running loose, True or Chaotic Neutral is right there side by side with LawfulGood.
*** This a running theme with Neutral alignments in everything, and mentioned in more than one flavor text description of the Neutral alignments in D&D. In general, even characters utterly devoted toward neutrality and balance will almost always side with Good in the end, especially if the forces of Evil are strong enough. Rarely is there an instance of the opposite occurring, unless the good guys are going the WellIntentionedExtremist route or the Neutral characters lean more towards Evil themselves. It's often stated that Neutral characters begrudgingly admit that Good-aligned characters make slightly more manageable neighbors, as opposed to their much more unpleasant cousins.

** The mage Ormus gives a short speech that's similar to the one from ''LightNovel/VampireHunterD'' during a quest related to the lost treasure of a sage who sought immortality:

* BossBanter: Most Bosses say a specific phrase when you first meet them.
-->'''Andariel:''' ''DIIIIIE, maggot!''\\

'''Mephisto:''' ''You're too late!''\\

** There is a very cheap [[SocketedEquipment runeword]] that averted this by giving a massive bonus to all fire spells, and to the Inferno spell in particular; like most spells, it could become much more effective as you pumped its effective level up beyond 20, making it a cheap and effective tool that could be acquired [[DiscOneNuke by the end of Act 1]] and remained useful until [[DifficultySpike everything becomes immune to fire]].

** There was always the hardcore mode, which made the game a bit more similar to its roguelike ancestors and made death permanent.

* NiceHat: The Harlequin Crest returns, and is one of the best hats in the game. Unfortunately, it stands out like a sore thumb in a fairly realistic and gritty {{Grimdark}} world because it's a ''neon green hood''. You can also wear skull helmets, winged helmets, and assorted other interesting headgear.

* TheTetrisEffect: After playing (especially with friends who quickly grab everything), you will start to hear the "ding" noise that happens whenever a jewel/rune drops.