Difference between revisions of "Diablo Monsters"

Revision as of 04:52, 5 February 2009

This page houses general information about the monsters in Diablo and Hellfire. Click to the individual monster pages for full stats and images, along with some strategy and other tidbits.

Monster Type

Monsters in Diablo and Hellfire are divided into three types: Animals, Demons, and Undead. The type of a given monster is fairly easy to tell; Undead are skeletons and zombies, Animals are lower life forms like scavengers, bats, goatmen, etc, and Demons are the more advanced enemies like Knights and Mages. (Everything found in Hell is a Demon, save for Lava Dogs and one type of Witch.)

These different types are not just a trivia question, since they substantially effect the damage dealt by swords and clubs, in melee combat.

Monster type also determines if a monster will take damage from the spell Holy Bolt. Only undead monsters (and Diablo) take damage from it; other monsters can not be touched at all by the spell. Also, some weapons (mostly Uniques) have higher AC or deal bonus damage against one type of monster. For instance,Bloodslayer, the unique broad axe, deals 200% damage to Demons.

To summarize: swords deal 50% bonus damage to Animals while blunt weapons deal 50% bonus damage to Undead. Both deal 100% damage to Demons. In effect this favors swords, since there are no Undead found past the Catacombs (Dlvl 5-8) in Diablo. The Caves are about evenly divided between Animals and Demons, and then Hell is almost entirely Demons (with one or two Animals). Since swords do higher base damage to begin with, the fact that they have an additional bonus to Animals, and that there aren't any Undead later in the game (in Diablo) makes Swords a much better long term choice. Blunts are a better choice early on though, especially against large packs of undead, such as the Skeleton King's.

This is not the case in Hellfire, since the monsters in the Hive and Crypt are (roughly) divided between the three monster types. However, since this means that the monster type bonuses even out, and the bastard sword has the highest base melee damage of any one-handed weapon, swords are still king. (Assuming the modifiers on the weapons are roughly equivalent.)

Since Axes, Bows, Staves, and all spells (save for Holy Bolt) deal 100% damage to everything, this distinction is largely irrelevant to Monks, Rogues, Barbarians, and Sorcerers.

Hover Information

Flesh Thing stats revealed at 15 and 30 kills.

Monsters in Diablo and Hellfire immediately display their names when hovered on, and the game keeps track of how many of that monster you have killed in that game. (The counter will run for multiple games in the same multiplayer play session.) Information about their resistances and immunities is displayed once you have 15 kills, and after 30 kills you are shown the hit points for that monster type.

Incidentally, the resistances and immunities are correctly displayed, but the hit points are only approximate, and are considerably inaccurate on Nightmare and Hell, thanks to various bugs in the way the game adds extra hit points for higher difficulty levels. The basic problem is that the hit points displayed are pulled from one data table, but it's not the same data as that which the game actually uses to create the monsters. The actual, accurate, hit points are displayed in the tables on the various monster pages in this wiki.

Monster Attack Type

Most monster types have their own unique way of attacking and moving. However, some of the monster types share some common attack types. The table below lists the various attack types that exist. I have used the name of the first monster type that uses that attack type. For example, skeletons and knights use the same attack type, but I have called it skeleton because they appear first. All monsters of a monster type share the same attack type, so I have only listed attack types for monster types. Since Hellfire does not have monster types, I have listed the attack type for each monster.

When a unique monster is present, it and its mob may have a different attack type than the normal one for that monster type.

The attack type does not only affect the actual attack but also how the monsters move around. Many monsters that share a specific attack type still cast different spells as the attack type does not in itself include spell (or arrow) cast. Others may be similar at some parts; for example, at a distance greater than Inferno range (3 squares) a Balrog will behave like a Skeleton in its movements, and it is not until it gets closer that it will start to circle the player. There are many similar features between the different attack types. Most of them are also heavily triggered by the distance to the target; that is, the behavior of the monster changes as it gets to a specific distance(s) to the target. Monsters can also gain a different attack type if they are part of a mob of a unique monster with a different attack type. The way monsters behave is not affected by difficulty level. For a more detailed explanation of how the attack types work, see chapter 5.5.

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