D1 Spellbooks: Difference between revisions

Unlike Diablo II with its skill trees of unique abilities for each character, Diablo featured no special attack skills at all. In Diablo and Hellfire all of the characters can cast the same spells from scrolls, charges on staves, or from memory, after learning the spells by reading spell books.

* Most spells can be found in charges on items; on staves and some unique items. Some Hellfire spells can only be found on staves.

| Etherealize

* Scrolls/Staves only: Resurrect, Apocalypse, Nova. (Apocalypse and Nova exist in book form in Hellfire.)

** Staves only: Jester, Magi, Mana.

* Staves: Magic requirement is equal to the magic required to read the level 1 book.  

* Scrolls: Magic req is usually lower than staves/book reading.

* '''Available: '''Scrolls and staves only in Diablo. On books as well in Hellfire, but the only way to get a book is to kill Na-Krul.

Blood Star is the only viable, magic-type skill to kill targets at a distance, but the fact that it does so much less damage than comparable fire or lightning spells means it is very seldom used, except in special circumstances. In Diablo, there are no monsters who are immune to Fire and Lightning but not Magic, however there are a few such enemies in Hellfire. Bloodstar could in theory be useful, in combination with [[D1_Spellbooks#Bone_Spirit|Bone Spirit]] to kill fire- and lightning-resistant monsters in Hellfire, with Bone Spirit to weaken the target and Blood Star to finish it. However, brute force often proves a more efficient follow-up to Bone Spirit, either using a [[D1_Spellbooks#Golem|Golem]] or a bow.

A summonable stone man, the Golem is a slow moving but fairly damaging companion, most commonly used by sorcerers against triple immune monsters.  Golems can also be helpful to distract enemies, and to kill targets on the other side of a wall. They benefit greatly from the stone curse spell, since if their targets are stationary and helpless, the golem hits with every strike and takes no damage during the battle. Without backup Golems are not useful against higher level melee monsters, who will kill them quickly. A single golem can terrorize entire levels in the Church, though. Think of Golems more as bodyguards than as scouts: they will happily take a hit for you or cover your retreat, but keep them backed up if you want them to last as on their own they will be helpless against powerful melee fighters, mobs, or fast-moving ranged attackers. They do regenerate HP though, and they will do a nice job at securing areas for you once the bulk of the opposition has been cleared so that they can regenerate between engagements. Artillery mages might also like having a Golem on their side when facing [[Hidden]] or "immune" ennemies.

Golems are most useful against Advocates, since they can withstand a lot of damage from Flash spells, and are not touched by the Advocates' Fireballs. They are less successful against Witches, and take damage from Bloodstar. Also, due to a bug in the Golem's light radius (it's set to infinite) every witch on the level sees the golem the moment he's cast, and will fire at him if they have a line of sight (yes, that can be useful to take a pack of witches off your back). Golems home in on nearby enemies. If nothing is nearby, they will walk in the direction their caster is facing.

Nova is only found on scrolls and staves in Diablo. In Hellfire it can be found in book form.

Jester is only found on staves. Jester staves will cast a semi-random spell each time the charges are used. Spells are fired at the character's appropriate Slvl, or at level 1 if the character has not yet read a book for that spell.

Found only in charges on staves, the Magi charges work like drinking a full mana potion. They completely refill the mana of the caster, unlike the partial mana fill granted by the Mana charges.

Many of the spells in the demo were unbalanced and buggy, but they had some interesting effects not found in the final game. We don't have full stats for these, just the icons and a quick description of how they worked. Thanks to [http://www.ladyofthecake.com/diablo/spells.htm Lady of the Cake] and [http://www.diablo-evolution.com/index.php4?pageid=spells Diablo Evolution] for most of the info in this section. The following skills were only found in the demo, and are not in the final game, though a few of the icons were eventually reused.

An odd sort of proximity-based magical attack. When cast with enemies nearby, they would take huge damage, as though their blood was boiling from within. Presumably it did not work on undead, since skeletons pretty clearly lack blood. In the PR demo, apparently the spell was changed to (or first implemented as) a point and click spell. It would blow up the target from within, killing it instantly and dealing damage to the caster equal to (100 -(12,5*slvl))% of the target's maximum hp. Mana cost started at 18 and decreased by 2 per level.

A spell-casters aid, this one transferred health points to mana points. It was taken out because the mana bonus was higher than the health cost, which meant it could be used together with Heal to give a character infinite health and mana.

A projectile spell that shot a missile consisting of two snakes corkscrewing around each other. This would home in on a target, possibly hitting two targets much like Elemental, but did not appear without a valid target. It damaged only beasts (and the Butcher).

Temporarily turned a character invulnerable. Graphics were a gold ring that fit exactly around the Mana Shield orb.

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