Note that monster resistances are the same on Nightmare difficulty as on Normal difficulty, but they change in Hell difficulty (usually to make them tougher to kill, of course :) ). Resistances often become immunities, and new resistances or immunities may be added. See: immune; triple-immune.

However, it also refers to one of the early dungeon-crawl type of computer games, which some people feel is sort of a precursor to or model for Diablo. See: Angband; D&D; dungeon crawl.

I recommend reading Armin's Editorial "A stance on scanners", available at Freshman Diablo (see Links Section). Also, see: rant.

Scumming in Diablo includes store-scumming, church-scumming (clearing hell/church over and over for free no-risk loot), laz-scumming (doing millions of laz runs at low enough difficulty to present no danger), etc.

The trouble is that Diablo is so limited in extent compared to traditional roguelikes, that there is almost nothing to do that is NOT scumming for a high level character.

An example of a scum that is also a cheat is backing up your character save in case of equipment loss."

Note: Roguelike in the above is a reference to Rogue, one of the early dungeon-crawl type of computer games, which some people feel is sort of a precursor to or model for Diablo.

So, if you want to use the modem setting, it's best to unplug the phone line from your modem first. Also, I believe for the IPX setting to work, you have to have some basic Windows networking modules loaded, even if you aren't hooked up to a LAN. Thus, the Direct Cable Connection seems to be the best choice, but many people use one of the other two. See: LAN.

At this point, before you do anything else, back out of the dialogue boxes with Adria until you get to the normal game screen, then open up your inventory and right-click on the SE. If you compare your stats before you do this (hit "C" and look in your character screen), with what they are after you drink the SE, you will find that the SE adds +3 to all four attributes! A very nice reward, indeed!

However, if you do not drink the SE right away, before doing almost anything else in the game, you will not be able to drink it at all (at least in that game). If you find yourself in that situation, you might as well just discard the SE, unless you are willing to, or planning to, start another game with that character. If you do start another game (pick up or sell all stuff on the ground in town first), take the SE with you. If you get the Black Mushroom quest in the new game, when Adria tells you to keep the new SE, you can then drink them both, for a nice +6 boost to all attributes.

For a three-year old game like Diablo, there is so much information about everything in the game available, not many people worry a lot about posting spoilers for D1. However, since there are a lot of people who still haven't gotten through D2 on normal difficulty, people are more conscious of this and often put (spoiler) or (possible spoiler) in the subject lines of their posts so those who don't want to take a chance on having a surprise ruined can skip that post. See: D2.

Remember that, because warrior's naturally have the equivalent of fastblock, they do not benefit from that aspect of fastblock shields. See: fastblock.

Most modifiers in Diablo will stack, but there are a few that don't. For example, if you equip an item "of the Leech" and another item "of Blood," they will not stack - the highest takes effect, so you will get 5% steal life, not 8%. The modifiers for steal mana ("Bat" and "Vampires") work the same way. See: steal life; steal mana.

In SP, the Undead Crown (Unique Headgear) steals a random amount of life between 0% and 12.5%. In MP, the Helm of Sprits (Unique Headgear), Shadowhawk (Unique Sword), and Eater of Souls (Unique Sword, only in HF) are all treated as items "of Blood".

These items are not of much use to a Sorcerer using Mana Shield, but can be very useful to a Warrior, and for some Rogue playing styles. I think that you can use a steal life item on stone-cursed monsters and get points, but I don't think there are many situations where this is significant.

Note that the Undead Crown will stack with other items "of Blood," giving potentially up to 5% to 17.5% life steal, but the other Uniques with steal life won't. Also, this property doesn't work versus players. See: PvP; stack.

Oct. 2000: Many old-timers on the DSF (mostly gone now) still say that an item "of Blood" will stack with an item "of the Leech." Early versions of JG also say this. However the 1.5 and 1.6 versions of JG both state that this is not true. Apparently this was a relatively late discovery that didn't become widely known. I, too, had been under the impression that two unlike items of the same type would stack, until I started researching this answer. :)

In MP, the Eater of Souls (Unique Sword, only in HF) is treated as an item "of Vampires".

These items can be of use to all three classes, but are probably of least use to Sorcerors, because most Sorcerers don't engage in melee attacks, and thus won't generate many points. Nevertheless, there are times when even sorcerers can get some benefit from an item of this type, especially an item such as a KSOV. For one thing, I think that you can use a steal mana item on stone-cursed monsters and get points, so this could benefit a sorcerer, especially against triple-immunes. For a while, I used a Master's Flail of Vampires in Hell/Church XP clears. I would mostly use CL, sometimes Guardians, but when monsters got in my way, and I was low on mana, I would bash a few monsters and get enough mana to cast a few more spells. However, that slows you down some; it's probably more "efficient" to just buy mana pots, and so eventually I quite using that Flail. In some ways, it was fun, though. :)

Oct. 2000: Many old-timers on the DSF (mostly gone now) still say that an item "of Vampires" will stack with an item "of the Bat." Early versions of JG also say this. However the 1.5 and 1.6 versions of JG both state that this is not true. Apparently this was a relatively late discovery that didn't become widely known. I, too, had been under the impression that two unlike items of the same type would stack, until I started researching this answer. :) See: PvP; stack.

The most LR reduction you can get is -80%; equipping three items "of the dark" has no greater effect than equipping two. At -80% LR, I believe that you have to be right next to most monsters for them to see you.

Some people differentiate between degrees of Stealth; for example, equipping an item "of the Night" gives a -20% lr reduction -- this would be "partial Stealth." I'm not sure where the cut-off is -- probably 50% or greater -lr is "full Stealth."

See: light radius; lr.

Pete pointed out to me that tactics is not always small-scale; e.g., how to most effectively land a battalion of sea-borne troops on a beach-head would be tactics, although you are dealing with a large group and area. Also, tactics are usually of such a nature that they can be practiced until they can be smoothly and efficiently carried out.

[from Pete]: "Now, as to scale, strategy can be small scale, as in a field commander's decision to bypass an enemy bunker, expecting that bunker to fall after it has been cut off. Tactics can be large scale, as exemplified by the air/armor/infantry sequence of the WW II German Blitzkrieg. So, scale is not a determining factor, though it can be a good pointer :)"

"To my mind, the basic difference between strategy and tactics is that a new strategy must be formulated for each specific situation, with the goals and objectives of that situation kept well in mind. Tactics, OTOH, are largely situation neutral. They may be dictated by the terrain, or enemy disposition, but they are usually pretty fixed and can be practiced, for instance, in field exercises."

See: strategy.

Well, I still don't feel I understand this well enough to explain it to my grandmother, but I'm working on it. ;) Hope to have an entry soon.

Meanwhile, here is a definition from Mirajj: "This is the longer version of THac0 if you've ever played a table top RPG. Basically, the entire phrase is "To Hit Armor Class 0". What this does, is take your To Hit %, subtracts the Armor Class of the monster you are trying to hit, and what is left over is the chance you will hit the monster. Example. You have an TH of 100%, but are attacking a monster with an AC of 50. The computer will take the 100% of your To Hit, subract the 50 of the monsters AC, leaving you with a 50% chance of hitting the monster."

[Modified, from Barage:] "By my own feelings, this is proof that the ones who make and use trainers have a rather low IQ. Town Kill is a cheat, used via trainer, that allows players to use any spell in town. This includes attack spells, like fireball. The odd quirk is that, while the cheating player can see the spells occuring, ONLY other users of this cheat can both see it and be affected by it. A cheater can throw fireballs at a legit player and see them hit, but the legit will only get the "player used an illegal spell" warning and will not feel a thing."

[more, from Mirajj:] "An old version of BoboFett's trainer allowed use of an Autokill spell in Tristram. A subsequent patch by Blizzard decimated this so badly that it's never returned. However, there are still people who try to do this. You can be guaranteed that you are playing with a hacker/PK'er when you see the message "Illegal spell cast in town" appear. The spell won't take affect, but it tells everyone in the game that someone just tried to cast a Townkill spell."

I think the word "trainer" applied to these programs is a misnomer. In what way are these programs "training" your character? If you work out with a personal trainer to get in better physical shape, you still have to expend the effort. Likewise, if you work with a swordsman to learn how to sword-fight, you are going to have to put in long hours of hard, physical labor and effort to get any good, plus some mental effort to learn the movements and tactics.

Likewise, to advance in Diablo (without cheating), one must put in time and effort, and some learning. These programs allow one to replace that time and effort with a few mouse clicks. But in so doing, they remove the challenge (and most of the fun) from the game. Why bother to play if you take these shortcuts? Diablo/HF is not that hard to win, especially at normal difficulty. Killing Diablo even at Normal difficulty without cheating is an accomplishment to be proud of -- killing Diablo at Hell difficulty using God Mode is a trivial exercise, and rather pointless.

Having said that, I will add that some "trainers" are used by some legit players, simply to backup their characters, and/or to import/export items for use by other characters, especially if for some reason they can't use mules. Most don't regard this as cheating, although there are some DSF regulars who feel even this activity is wrong. The subject is too complex to cover further here -- just keep reading the DSF -- I'm sure another thread along these lines will pop up sooner or later. ;) :( See: hack; third-party program.

Well, I wrote the above on my own, then later checked out "troll" in The Jargon Lexicon (see Links section) when I researched "flame." I was surprised how close I came to what they had: 1. [From the Usenet group alt.folklore.urban] To utter a posting on Usenet designed to attract predictable responses or flames; or, the post itself. Derives from the phrase "trolling for newbies" which in turn comes from mainstream "trolling," a style of fishing in which one trails bait through a likely spot hoping for a bite. The well-constructed troll is a post that induces lots of newbies and flamers to make themselves look even more clueless than they already do, while subtly conveying to the more savvy and experienced that it is in fact a deliberate troll. If you don't fall for the joke, you get to be in on it. 2. An individual who chronically trolls in sense 1; regularly posts specious arguments, flames or personal attacks to a newsgroup, discussion list, or in email for no other purpose than to annoy someone or disrupt a discussion. Trolls are recognizable by the fact that the have no real interest in learning about the topic at hand - they simply want to utter flame bait. Like the ugly creatures they are named after, they exhibit no redeeming characteristics, and as such, they are recognized as a lower form of life on the net, as in, "Oh, ignore him, he's just a troll."

Yes, indeed. Ignore them if possible.

I haven't seen Troll-O-Meter used on the DSF, but I love the concept; maybe someone needs to introduce it. :)

-- Update (Aug. 2000): Ooh, ooh, I saw somebody use this not long ago on the DSF. Maybe someone actually reads this stuff. :)

Basically, similar to the War Wizard, but this is actually the older, longer-used term. See: War Wizard.

Although he may not have been the first one to play in this way, Claudio has popularized the use of Ultra-pure as the name for it. See Claudio's Ultra-pure link in the Links section.

Note that this does not work in Hellfire. See: Harmony.