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Diablo II: Diablerie

Diablo II: Diablerie was the first of two gaming supplements published by Wizards of the Coast that hopes to bring the world of Diablo II, Blizard's gloriously detailed computer game of gratuitous demon bashing, to Dungeons and Dragons Third Edition. With the recent release of the second book in this pair (Diablo II: To Hell and Back), I've decided to take a look at both.

Diablo II: Diablerie details character classes, abilities, spells, magic items, and monsters of the Diablo world.

Graphical Presentation and Format

Diablo II: Diablerie is a 96 page softcover book, with a black cover with artwork by rk post (they don't capitalize it either ...) depicting characters from the game. The interior is black and white, with art by rk post, Pete Venters, and David Roach. A lot of the art is recycled from the 2nd edition version of the book, Diablo II: The Awakening. The art is used sparingly and is attractive -- especially rk post's pieces.

The book makes good use of space, with slender margins and a mid-size readable font. The book is does not have a lot of flashy frills like margin artwork, though it does offset some material in shaded boxes resembling frayed paper.

The book is priced at 19.95 US, which isn't bad for Wizards of the Coast, but pricey for other game companies.

Contents

The book is divided into a brief introductory section and 6 chapters: Character Creation, Equipment, Spells, Magic Items, Monsters, and Morgan keep.

Introduction: The introduction is very brief, and gives obligatory rundowns of how to use the book and the backstory of the setting. In short, a number of powerful demons engineer their entry into the mortal realm so that they can corrupt it, which they feel holds the key in getting the upper hand in a timeless battle against the forces of light. This will inevitably cause chaos and corruption in the mortal realm, which the PCs will be forced to grapple with.

The introduction also spells out that many details that would be important is a normal D&D campaign will be glossed over here in favor of a wholesale dungeon-bash style of gaming. While there is some wisdom in not sweating the details, I think focusing entirely on the dungeon bash is perhaps not the best approach. For more on that, see my review of Diablo II: To Hell and Back.

Chapter 1 -- Characters: Chapter 1 contains the details on 5 new character classes mimicking the five character types in the Diablo II: Game:

Amazon: an agile fighter proficient in ranged weapons, and with access to a number of special attacks using them.
Barbarian: slightly different from the PHB barbarian, the Diablo II barbarian has a number of physical abilities to make him a deadly melee combatant.
Necromancer: A mage type character that can curse enemies, attack enemies with bone or poison spells, or summon undead creatures or golems.
Paladin: Like the barbarian, is somewhat different than the PHB version of the class, with an number of defensive and offensive magical abilities that assist them in the fight against evil.
Sorceress: Another magic using character, the sorceress resorts to old fashioned ice, fire, and lightning attacks.

Like the Diablo II computer game -- and D&D in general -- a number of choices are available to individualize the characters. Unlike the standard D&D 3e classes, support is given for Diable II classes up to 25th level in ability. The classes are not a good fit for a standard D&D campaign. However, even if you don't intend to play a game in the Diablo setting, the classes might provide enterprising DMs with some ideas for prestige classes and class abilities.

Chapter 2 -- Equipment: This chapter contains a number of new pieces of equipment that exist in the Diablo II setting, primarily weapons. In addition, it has rules for equipment damage, emulating the way that the computer game works.

Chapter 3 -- Spells: This chapter details new spells available to the Diablo II spellcaster classes: the Necromancer and the Sorceress. As is the nature of the game they are drawn from, most of the spells are combat oriented. The sorceresses spells are primarily elemental attack spells. The necromancer's spells includes some attack spells based on poison and bone, some curses that make an enemy more vulnerable or weaker, and some spells dealing with summoning creatures or raising dead creatures.

Diablo II fans may be a little disgruntled by the inexact conversions of some of the spells. For example, in the Diablo II computer game, bone spear is a single direct attack with a spear hurled at high speed. In Diablo II: Diablerie, the bone spear operates more like a spiritual weapon, in that it remains and attacks for a number of rounds.

The spells would make a good addition to arsenals of spellcaster in a standard D&D campaign, though as mentioned they are primarily combat oriented. The book makes using them is a standard campaign easy, as it assigns the sorceress spells a level on the Sorcerer / Wizard spell list, and it assigns the necromancer spells a level on the cleric spell list.

Some of the spells may be a little powerful for inclusion in a standard campaign at the indicated level. For example, the sorceress spell frost nova causes damage to creatures within 20 feet of the sorceress and has a chance to leave them paralyzed and helpless for 1-3 rounds. The damage is about right, but the helplessness effect is a little extreme for a 2nd level spell.

Some of the necromancer spells may be thematically out of place for the cleric list. I would be loath to add some of the necromancer spell to the universal cleric lists, but spells like poison dagger and poison nova would make a good basis for a clerical poison domain, and the various curses would make a good addition to a curse domain.

Chapter 4 -- Magic items: This chapter consists of a brief explanation of how to handle treasure and magic items in a Diablo II campaign, and some tables. As simple as it sounds, this chapter is probably the book's biggest draw.

There are 5 tables in the chapter: the base treasure table, the base item table, and tables for prefixes, suffixes, and perishables. The base treasure table outlines what type of items you have found, whether they are gold, mundane items, or enchanted items The base item table has a number of normal objects on them -- weapons, armor, jewelry, clothing, etc., or may result in perishables. Perishables are items with temporary effects, such as herbs that give you a temporary boost to your statistics.

If the base treasure table so indicates, you may find an item enchanted with a prefix, a suffix, or both. Prefixes and suffixes not only add a specific name to an item, but they describe the special properties of an item. For example, if the base treasure table indicates that you have a normal item with a prefix and a suffix, and you roll "chain mail" on the treasure table, and roll "jade" on the prefix table and "of the Wolf" on the suffix table, you have Jade Chainmail of the Wolf. This particular item would give you 2 to saves against poison (from the jade prefix) and 10 hit points while worn (from the of the Wolf suffix.)

As can be seen, the tables can result in literally millions of items, and you end up with a good deal more variety than the stale "chainmail 1" type items that litter D&D worlds. Note that the base item tells you what dice to roll on the prefix or suffix tables, so you don't usually find armor that gives you attack bonuses or weapons that add to your defense.

The items that are provided break some of standard D&D conventions. For example, not all arms and armor the Diablo II world have the standard 1 bonus, and clothing provides a small armor AC modifier, unlike the standard D&D rules. Presumably, a DM can decide whether the classical D&D conventions are worth adhering to or not and make the appropriate adjustments.

Diablo fans will quickly notice a few problems with the magic item translations. Some ability translations seem a bit bizarre. For example, the [.] of Warding and following suffixes reduce damage from magic spells in the Diablo II game. In Diablo II: Diablerie, somehow this got translated to the ability for a spellcaster with the item to prepare spells more easily. Diablo fans will also notice that some types of items are missing, like the so-called rare items that have more than two powers (easily fixed, just roll more that twice on the ability tables) and socketed items that get powers from gems (which would require the DM to do their own translation work.)

Chapter 5 -- Monsters: This chapter introduces a number of creatures from both Diablo computer games in the D&D 3e format. In addition to being essential fare for DMs running in the Diablo world, could make some interesting additions the the arsenal of a DMs existing campaign. Many creatures resemble creatures already existing in the 3e MM, but may make interesting additions or substitutions nonetheless. For example, if your players have progressed beyond fighting the basic skeleton, you can try throwing some burning dead at them, or a spell hurling skeleton mage. Tired of kobolds or other small harrassing beasties? Try some scavengers. Diablo's vampires are totally different from the D&D vampire, but can easily be renamed and inserted into a campaign.

Many creatures from the Diablo II game do not appear in this book, but all that are missing here will make an appearance in the second book, Diablo II: To Hell and Back.

One problem with the book is that it dismisses itself from using the standard D&D advancement range mechanic, justifying that since there are different subtypes for each creature that you should not need them. However, the computer game features champions of each creature type, so that is ill justification.

Chapter 6 -- Morgan Keep: The last chapter of the book is a mini-adventure. It is a bare bones adventure, detailing an abandoned keep infested by monsters with little in the way of backstory or justification for the players going there.

Summary and Conclusions

If perchance you actually intend to play a game in the Diablo world, this book will, be indispensable. DMs may also find a considerable amount of value in using the spells, items, and creatures in their own campaign worlds. The classes will be harder to adapt to other games, but contain some interesting ideas for PC abilities.

Overall, the book takes a highly "dungeon oriented" outlook, and does not take any opportunities to add deeper background to the setting or characters. Even the Diablo II instruction book that came with the computer game had an outline for the character backgrounds the likes of which would have given Diablo II: Diablerie greater depth.

I found the book to be interesting and valuable, and many items, creatures, and spells from it have made it into my campaign. But does it contain the same sort of idea content as the Psionic Handbook or Relics & Rituals? Alas, I'm afraid not, so I reluctantly give the book a "3" RPGnet substance rate. You all can read that as a 3.5 if you want, though.

-Alan D. Kohler