Diablo d&d 3ed-any good?

2 hardcore Diablo players are starting up a game. I´ve never played Diablo (the computer game) but as I understand it it´s the paragon of hack n' slash?
So, what can we expect (besides hack n` slash ) ? Is it any good? They are running the original adventure I belive, "To hell and back" or something like that.
No spoilers please,just some general advice of what to watch out for and keep in mind.

Asmo

As far as I know, they are, erm, best avoided.

Writing quality is poor (aimed at 12-year-old), rule balance is on vacation somewhere far away, and the only thing of interest (the dread battle cows) is on the web. http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=d2/d220010302x1

Diablo 3e took a turn that would be best avoided: completely emulating the powers and progress of the game. Take a peek at Warcraft d20, from S&SS for a much better adaptation. They wanted to make D&D in the world of Warcraft, not turn D&D into a pen-and-paper version of the crpg mechanics.

If you want to give the Diablo players a taste of Diablo D&D, just use a very basic plot from Diablo 1: The village the PCs grew up in is being haunted by otherwordly creatures that supposedly lair deep below the ruined cathedral in the outskirts of the city. The village elders send a message to the PCs, who must venture down the crypts and catacombs of the cathedral to find out just what turned the cathedral into a focal point of evil. Ask the players what are their favorite Diablo (1 or 2) characters, and explain that arcane spellcasters will have a hard time if they try to wear armor.

Here are some quick rundowns of the classes and what they can mean in D&D terms:

Amazon: Bow or Spear specialists. A Fighter with archery feats or a spear-wielder with Power Attack will do nicely.
Assassin: Martial Artists that keep arcane spellcasters in check. Monk will do fine, although Diablo 2's Assassin have some shadow/psychic powers. Monk/Shadowdancers would be great.
Barbarian: can Rage and Dual-wield. Barbarians cover most of its abilities.
Druid: Shapechage and summon nature's ally, so go straight Druid.
Paladin: Has auras that increase effectiveness. Most Diablo2-paladin abilities are covered by feats in Defenders of Faith. Go with Paladin or Cleric.
Necromancer: Actually a priest that venerates death. Not a good PC, due to the tendency of raising skeletons. A Cleric of Wee Jaz is the closest analogy.
Sorceress: Works just like a Sorcerer that learns mostly fire, lightning and cold spells.

Rogue: Diablo 1 had this class, which can disarm traps and is very good with a bow (but less so than an Amazon). Go with Rogue, plus some archery feats.

Hope this helps!

Plunderable (some neat creatures and random items for your typical D&D game), but the problem I had was that the game offered nothing beyond what the computer game could. I think the little booklet that came with the game had some hints of background flavor that they could have expounded upon to make a more ("real") RPG-like environment, but they squandered that to come up with something that was mostly just the computer game with more work and slower.

It's terrible, not worth the money by far. I'm pretty sure I threw my copy out. The computer game was fun for a while, but the booklet is just stupid.

-The Souljourner

About the only thing our group uses them for is the monsters. Occasionally, it's nice to suprise people with a pack of D2 creatures.

Yeah.. the balance is really off. but with tweeking and some thought you could get an interesting game. Stay away from the treasure tables. they're the worst.

My suggestion would be to take the characters and give them access to the "spells" of the classes in the D2 books as feats. If I have the time I'll stat out the few characters I converted to regular D20.

The writing is horrible (it's aimed at 6 year olds, not 12, very patronizing, too). And it's not much to it, it's literally a port of the game, no roleplaying, just hack & slash.

But, I liked the magic item system, items have a number of adjectives that affect the magic item. And I liked the concept of the classes, they would all get special abilities like the rogue does. Only differing power levels.

trancejeremy said:

But, I liked the magic item system, items have a number of adjectives that affect the magic item.

Click to expand...

You mean, like holy flaming vorpal longsword ?

Heh... and there were rules for SAVING YOUR GAME!






Chris