Diablo Characters

There are three characters in Diablo, the Rogue, Sorcerer, and Warrior, and three more were added in the Hellfire expansion pack, the Monk, Bard, and Barbarian. This page provides basic information about the characters. This information can also be found on the individual character pages, along with more context and discussion of their relative strengths and weaknesses.

Starting/Max Stats

The characters in Diablo and Hellfire start off with different stats, and gain different bonuses with each level up. All attributes, life, and mana can be vastly increased with equipment. Each level up also provides 5 attribute points to distribute as you see fit.

• All four attributes, life, and mana are listed with their starting / maximum values.
• Attributes turn golden when they have reached their maximum values; life and mana never turn golden.
• The maximum life and mana values in this table are for a naked character.
• Characters do not gain their life/mana bonus for reaching level 50.

Class	Strength	Magic	Dexterity	Vitality	Life	Mana	Level up Bonus
Warrior	30 / 250	10 / 50	20 / 60	25 / 100	70 / 316	10 / 98	+2 life, +1 mana
Rogue	20 / 55	15 / 70	30 / 250	20 / 80	45 / 201	22 / 173	+2 life, +2 mana
Sorcerer	15 / 45	35 / 250	15 / 85	20 / 80	30 / 138	70 / 596	+1 life, +2 mana
Monk	25 / 150	15 / 80	25 / 150	20 / 80	45 / 201	22 / 183	+2 life, +2 mana
Bard	20 / 120	20 / 120	25 / 120	20 / 100	45 / 221	35 / 231	+2 life, +2 mana
Barbarian	40 / 255	0 / 0	20 / 55	25 / 150	70 / 416	0 / 0	+2 life, +0 mana +1% resistance to all

Max Stats with Equipment

Maximum stats with equipment. Diablo / Hellfire stats listed for the Warrior, Rogue, and Sorcerer (unique rings were added in HF that allowed greater stat boosts than in D1). These figures do not include the two pieces of unique jewelry that move a % of life/mana to each other.

Class	Strength	Magic	Dexterity	Vitality	Life	Mana
Warrior	425 / 485	225 / 285	225 / 285	265 / 325	796 / 916	533 / 568
Rogue	230 / 290	245 / 305	415 / 475	245 / 305	681 / 741	690 / 718
Sorcerer	220 / 280	425 / 485	250 / 310	245 / 305	618 / 618	1196 / 1216
Monk	385	315	375	305	741	728
Bard	370	360	360	340	761	865
Barbarian	490	235	280	375	1091	470

Attributes

The characters derive different benefits from the points they add to their various attributes. For example, Warriors get more life per vitality point than Sorcerers, who get more mana per magic point than do Warriors. Attribute points from leveling up and elixirs are treated the same as points added by equipment.

• The Barbarian can not add any magic points, but can gain magic from equipment. The mana he derives from his magic points is the same as a warrior's, in that regard.
• The monk suffers an AC penalty when wearing chain or plate armor. This makes it impossible to raise his AC as high as the other characters. His highest AC still comes from high defense plate, but his AC will be much lower than any other character's in the same chain or plate armor equipment. (Though much higher when naked or in light armor).
  • Unique armor plate is counted as mail, and unique mail as leather, in this penalty calculation.
• Barbarians only receive half AC from their shields.

Class	from Vitality	from Magic	Armor Class
Warrior	2 life per vit	1 mana per magic	Dex/5 + AC (items)
Rogue	1.5 life per vit	1.5 mana per magic	Dex/5 + AC (items)
Sorcerer	1 life per vit	2 mana per magic	Dex/5 + AC (items)
Monk	1.5 life per vit	1.5 mana per magic	Plate: Dex/5 + AC (items) Mail: Dex/5 + AC (items) + .5 x Clvl Light: Dex/5 + AC (items) + 2 x Clvl Naked: Dex/5 + AC (items) + 2 x Clvl
Bard	1.5 life per vit	1.75 mana per magic	Dex/5 + AC (items)
Barbarian	2.5 vit per life	1 mana per magic	Dex/5 + AC (items) + Clvl / 4 Shield AC counts 50%.

Max Attainable Attributes

255 magic is required to read higher than level 5 or 6 in most spells. Rogues and Warriors can not attain that in Diablo, but can in Hellfire, with the right equipment.

Class	Max AC (naked)	Max AC (maxed stats)	Max AC	Max to/hit (naked)	Max to/hit (maxed stats)	Max to/hit
Warrior	12	45 / 57	349 / 401	80	162 / 192	392
Rogue	50	83 / 95	385 / 425	175	257 / 287	487
Sorcerer	17	50 / 62	350 / 390	92	175 / 205	405
Monk	130	175	419	125	237	437
Bard	24	72	413	110	230	565
Barbarian	23	56	370	77	190	390

To Hit

Being able to hit your target is of the utmost importance in Diablo and Hellfire. Adding dexterity (and leveling up) helps with this for combat characters, and putting more points into magic (and leveling up) helps with spells. Some characters have hidden bonuses to various types of attack; see below.

• To/hit calculations:
  • Character screen: 50 + Dex/2 + to hit from items
  • Melee: 50 + Dex/2 + to hit from items + Clvl + bonus
  • Arrow: 50 + Dex/2 + to hit from items + Clvl + bonus - distance x damage / 2
  • Magic: PvM: 50 + Mag - 2 x Mlvl + bonus
  • Magic: PvP: 50 + Mag - 2 x Clvl (of the target) + bonus
  • To hit penalty for adacent quarter damage: 70 - 2 x Clvl (minimum 30)
    • (Monk and Bard only; this is calculated for targets immediately to the left and right of the direction the character is facing, since these characters can hit up to 3 enemies at once.)

Hidden Hit/Block Modifiers

Hidden to/hit modifiers are always in effect, but are never displayed in the character window.

• Inherent blocking bonuses are bugged in Diablo and Hellfire. The bonus is always 0, except in the first game a new character plays.

Class	Melee	Arrow	Magic	Blocking*
Warrior	20	10	--	30
Rogue	--	20	--	20
Sorcerer	--	--	20	10
Monk	--	--	--	25
Bard	--	10	10	25
Barbarian	--	--	--	30

Blocking and hit recovery

Blocking refers to how much time must pass between hits for another successful block to take place. The blocking animation will not always display when you block successfully, though there is usually a sound heard. Characters can not block while walking. Characters can block while in mid-attack or spell-casting animation, but will not show the blocking animation.

Class	Blocking	Fast Block*	Hit Recovery	of balance	of stability	of harmony
Warrior	0.10	0.10	0.30	0.25	0.20	0.15***
Rogue	0.20	0.10	0.35	0.30	0.25	0.20***
Sorcerer	0.30	0.10	0.40	0.35	0.30	0.25***
Monk	0.15	0.10	0.30	0.25	0.20	0.15
Bard	0.20	0.10	0.35	0.30	0.25	0.20
Barbarian	0.10	0.10	0.30 (0.20)**	0.25 (0.20)**	0.20	0.15

• * Fast block = unique items with fast blocking, or magical shields with the "of blocking" suffix.
• ** The Barbarian has an inherently property that's equivalent to a character using the "of stability" suffix when he equips an axe or a club. Therefore, items "of balance" or "of stability" will drop him to 0.20 recovery time when wielding an axe or club. ("of harmony" will take him down to 0.15 in that situation).
• *** In Diablo (but not HF) simultaneously equipping one or more items of all 3 modifiers: "of balance," "of stability," and "of harmony," reduces hit recovery times to 0.05 faster than harmony alone. Warrior 0.10, Rogue 0.15, and Sorcerer 0.20.

Attack Rate

How fast your character swings their weapon (or fires arrows or casts spells) is an enormously important factor in their overall success. The magic number is 0.35 seconds; that's how fast an attack has to be to "stunlock" most monsters. If you can hit them that quickly, with enough damage to break their attack animation, any single target (or 3 targets, for Axe Barbarians, dual wielding Bards, and Staff-wielding Monks) will become helpless before your onslaught. Accuracy counts as well, of course. Swinging does no good if you don't hit, but it's pretty easy to see how the characters were designed by comparing their attack rates.

• Rogues can do pretty well with a sword/shield setup, but they're just 0.05 of a second slower than the Warrior, and that twentieth of a second is what lets him stunlock enemies and take out mages and witches before they can flee, and what keeps her from doing so. (Of course she can do it with a bow, so all is not lost.)
• Bards swing all weapons at the same speed as Rogues, except for bows, with which they are much slower. This makes playing a Bard melee style an interesting task, since they can do enormous damage with their dual wielding, but can't quite stunlock fleeing enemies. Their high mana and variety of weapons have to make up for that inability.
• Barbarians are weapon masters, and can achieve stunlock with one handed swords or maces (with which they're even faster) as well as two-handed axes.
• Sorcerers are feeble with all sorts of weapons (but actually have one of the faster attacks with just a shield), and they can not cast spells quickly enough to stunlock with them. Not that they especially need to, since spells do so much damage.
  • There aren't any items that increase casting speed in Diablo or Hellfire (though plenty were added in Diablo II.)

Weapon	Suffix	Warrior	Rogue	Sorcerer	Monk	Bard	Barbarian
Swords & Clubs	Normal & Readiness	0.45	0.50	0.60	0.60	0.50	0.45 / 0.40
	Swiftness	0.40	0.45	0.55	0.55	0.45	0.40 / 0.35
	Speed & Haste	0.35	0.40	0.50	0.50	0.40	0.35 / 0.30
Axes	Normal & Readiness	0.50	0.65	0.80	0.70	0.65	0.40
	Swiftness	0.45	0.60	0.75	0.65	0.60	0.35
	Speed & Haste	0.40	0.55	0.70	0.60	0.55	0.30
Staffs	Normal & Readiness	0.55	0.55	0.60	0.40	0.55	0.55
	Swiftness	0.50	0.50	0.55	0.35	0.50	0.50
	Speed & Haste	0.45	0.45	0.50	0.30	0.45	0.45
Bows	Normal & Readiness *	0.55	0.35	0.80	0.70	0.55	0.55
	Swiftness *	0.50	0.30	0.75	0.70	0.55	0.55
Shields	--	0.45	0.50	0.45	0.35	0.50	0.45
Bare hands & feet	--	0.45	0.50	0.60	0.35	0.50	0.45
Spells **	--	0.70	0.60	0.40	0.60	0.60	0.70

• * In Hellfire, Readiness and Swiftness make the arrows move faster, rather than the character fire more quickly. This makes very little difference in damage dealt, but does make the arrows slightly more accurate over longer distances. (Since accuracy decreases with arrows by time.)
• ** Spells cast without a target (such as Flash, Infravision, Mana shield, etc) are .05 faster than spells that target where the cursor is pointed. Thus Phasing or Warp are better escapes from being mob stunlocked than Teleport.

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