Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context DiabloIII / TropesPToT

Go To

1[[DiabloIII/TropesAToE A to E]] || [[DiabloIII/TropesFToJ F to J]] || [[DiabloIII/TropesKToO K to O]] || '''P to T''' || [[DiabloIII/TropesUToZ U to Z]]
2
3Back to [[VideoGame/DiabloIII the game's page]].
4
5----
6* ThePaladin:
7** The Templars of the Templar order qualify as paladins, but they take a more KnightTemplar-ish stance because of their [[spoiler:brainwashing by the order]]. Kormac, the Templar who accompanies you, is quite fervent about protecting the innocent, but he's not forgiving of betrayers of the order [[spoiler:and even less forgiving about betrayal by the order itself]].
8** The Crusaders are a straighter example, sworn to restore the name of Zakarum, and possessed of holy power. They're also quite amiable, but have a tendency to "have words" with evil scum and monsters they want dead and can be absolutely frightening when pushed too far.
9* ParentalBetrayal: [[spoiler:Leah's mother Adria reveals herself to be Diablo's high priestess before shoving the Black Soulstone, with all seven Great Evils inside, into Leah, who she had for the sole purpose of using her as the vessel for Diablo's rebirth as the Prime Evil.]] This is in fact a double example of the trope as [[spoiler:her father was Diablo himself, who sired Leah solely to use her body as a vessel]].
10* PercussiveMaintenance: You need to have repairs made to [[spoiler:Leoric's crown]] so you can access the crypt of the Skeleton King. What does Haedrig do? Whack it a few times with his hammer.
11* PermanentlyMissableContent:
12** In Caldeum, there's a collapsing dungeon full of treasure that begins to collapse after it's been cleared. Should a player fail to escape, they lose the loot they would have obtained.
13** In Story Mode, Leah updates her journal after key events. Should you miss one, you can't go back to see it without undoing your progress.
14* PhysicalGod: Your character is one of the first new nephalem, beings who are said to surpass Angels or Demons in power, in addition to being ImmuneToFate. [[spoiler:The ending of ''Reaper of Souls'' has Imperius and Tyrael realizing that you have faced the best of both Heaven and Hell, and come out on top. This has Tyrael hope that [[HeWhoFightsMonsters the nephalem don't turn on humanity.]]]]
15* PhysicalHeaven: The fourth act has you [[spoiler:battling demons in the High Heavens themselves to stop them from destroying everything]].
16* PhysicalHell: You head there to [[spoiler:close the rifts that are allowing Diablo's forces to invade Heaven]].
17* PinataEnemy: The Treasure Goblins qualify as this sometimes, but if you don't kill them quickly, they'll [[MetalSlime open a portal and escape you]]. As they run, they'll drop minor loot, such as gold, gems, or crafting materials. Killing one drops a lot of it, and it may open a portal to the Vault, where a ton of rewards can be found.
18* PinballScoring: Characters at max level easily deal damage in the tens of millions. With highest-tier equipment, a good HerdHittingAttack will fill the screen with critical hit numbers.
19* PityTheKidnapper: A Bastion's Keep soldier and his wife reminisce about the time barbarians kidnapped her. He was frantic until they returned her with an apology. She simply reasoned with them... and the leader still sends her a bundle of hides sometimes.
20* PivotalBoss: Belial's OneWingedAngel form. The Console version ups the ante by shifting the POV to a first-person view behind your character.
21* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: On top of being a traitor who makes an already horrific situation worse by murdering the King of Westmarch, Lord Wynton calls your Witch Doctor a "primitive heathen" when you start the battle with him.
22* PoorCommunicationKills: [[spoiler:Zoltun Kulle]]. If he actually explained things to you for once instead of him being totally mysterious and ObviouslyEvil then the game might have ended a lot differently.
23** In the tie-in novel ''Storm of Light'', the Angiris Council is unable to decide [[spoiler:what to do with the Black Soulstone]]. Each of them having a different opinion. With none of them willing to listen to Tyrael or, [[spoiler:his warning that the stone is slowly corrupting them.]]
24* PortalNetwork: The game has waypoints, huge tiles on the ground that allow you to travel instantly between levels once you've activated them.
25* PoweredByAForsakenChild: The Dark Coven, whose BlackMagic is fueled by human suffering and sacrifice, usually with ColdBloodedTorture involved.
26* PowerFist: One of the Monk's weapons of choice. The game features a whole slew of designs, ranging from basic brass knuckles to [[BladeBelowTheShoulder Blades Below The Shoulders]]. There's also the legendary Sledge Fist, which is basically a glove attached to a slab of concrete covered with spikes.
27* PowerFloats: When the Wizard uses the Archon ability, he/she floats around rather than walking.
28* PowerLimiter: Turns out that the Worldstone served this purpose. Now that it's gone, humans can look after themselves against both angels and demons. While Tyrael ultimately caused this to happen, he admitted to having no way of predicting this outcome.
29* ThePowerOfHate: The heroic version of this comes in the form of the Demon Hunters. They are primarily fueled by hatred for the demons, to which they have lost friends and family. Unlike the scions of Mephisto, this hatred is tempered with discipline instilled in them through the training that every Demon Hunter receives.
30* PrecautionaryCorpseDisposal: New Tristram, which is under siege by the undead, is starting to burn their dead to keep them from rising as more undead.
31* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: The barbarian is quite proud to follow the lineage of Bul-Kathos.
32* PsychoKnifeNut: The lowest ranks of the cultists merely run toward the player character brandishing daggers.
33* PurelyAestheticGender:
34** Gameplay-wise, it doesn't matter if your character is male or female; you still get all the same stats, abilities, etc. as either gender. The only real difference between male and female characters is appearance, voice, and how certain [=NPCs=] behave towards you.
35** In ''Reaper of Souls'', there's two achievements for the Crusader, depending on their gender.
36** Myriam will call any character either "Celdo" for the men or "Celsa" for the women.
37* PurposelyOverpowered: Late-game sets fall into this category, especially ones that grant "[Ability X] gains the effect of every rune," which turns the ability/attack into a total powerhouse. Finding complete sets is one of the few ways to survive at the higher levels of Torment.
38* PutOnABus: In latter patches, CanonName of the heroes' representatives in VideoGame/HeroesOfTheStorm, such as Valla and Johanna, receive their own set of legendary items, in which their flavor text imply that these heroes all of the sudden vanished, more likely pulled to the Nexus, leaving your player character to pick up the slack.
39* QuizzicalTilt: Malthael does this in the ''Reaper of Souls'' trailer when he sees [[spoiler:mortal Tyrael.]]
40* RagdollPhysics: Enemies ([[LudicrousGibs and their chunks]]) go ''flying'' when the killing blow is strong enough.
41* RainbowPimpGear: Averted. Unlike the first two games, Diablo III lets a player dye and (with the expansion) pay to change the appearance of their gear. Randomly-dropped gear of Magic or higher quality comes with a random dye. There is an achievement for equipping six different pieces of armor, each dyed a different color. Most players acquire it by accident.
42* RainOfArrows: Dual-wielding Demon Hunter. AwesomeButImpractical as the result is only a 15% rate of fire increase, while forcing you to alternate weapons (resulting in a lower damage output than just using the better of the two weapons) and to go without a [[StatStick quiver]], which often gives a 10% or greater attack speed anyway.
43* RandomDrop: Everything. It's possible to get an extremely powerful weapon from a Mook, a barrel, or some otherwise innocuous hole in the wall.
44* RandomEvent: Much more so than the previous games. Such events include sudden ambushes, short sidequests, [=NPCs=] needing rescue, or even an enemy's ghost complaining that you killed him.
45* RandomlyGeneratedLevels: Zigzagged. As in the first two games, the levels are randomized, but ''III'' isn't quite as random. While there ''are'' different things every time, and different events to come across, the layout is less random in many areas. For instance, while Zoltun Kulle's blood is hidden two different places in the Caldeum Wastelands, his archives are always in the northwest corner of that area. This only applies to ''outdoor'' areas. Caves, dungeons, and most of Act V's cities still play the trope completely straight.
46* RandomNumberGod: Every item is randomly generated, including legendaries, and the quality of dropped items is not based on killed monsters. Elite bosses are also randomly generated and mostly dangerous only if they get skills unpleasant for your class. The "Loot 2.0" system released with the 2.0 patch weights the RNG in favor of giving you items that might be useful for your character class (for example, your Wizard character will get a lot more stuff with +Intelligence and a lot less stuff with +Strength), to balance out the closing of the Auction House.
47* RatKing: Found on Greyhollow Island, though they might not be true rats, as they carry "eggs" which hatch into "larvae" that burrow into their backs and can be summoned to attack the player.
48* RealSoonNow: Creator/BlizzardEntertainment is of course the king of this trope, having done this with very many of its games. For instance, after the game was announced in 2008, it was almost four years before a release date was announced.
49* {{Reconstruction}}: Whereas the first two games in the entry irrefutably [[{{Deconstruction}} ripped apart the conventions]] of HeroicFantasy with a bloody meat cleaver, ''Diablo 3'' is a surprisingly warm-hearted reminder of why we love stories about heroes fighting demons: these tales appeal to the inner desire to make the world a kinder and gentler place. Several of the reconstructed aspects include:
50** The fact that the previous games showed that while it's possible for mere mortals to fight against the forces of hell, their efforts are ultimately futile as hell just has more demons and monsters and at best the heroes can only score small victories that can only at most maintain the status quo. Since most of the heroes and their allies are just human, many of them are killed, driven insane, horribly traumatised, or corrupted by the evil they were fighting. In this game the heroes aren't BadassNormal but straight up [[SemiDivine demigods]] with each of them being a PersonOfMassDestruction capable of slaughtering thousands of demons without breaking a sweat and suddenly, the sin lords habits of WeHaveReserves are an irritation at best. Now the forces of hell are on the run with demons and cultists shitting themselves after sitting fat, dumb and happy secure in the knowledge that humans can't pose any real threat suddenly faced with beings from Sanctuary that can not only score real victories against them but outright butcher them in droves. TheHunterBecomesTheHunted indeed.
51* RecruitmentByRescue: Two of your companions are recruited this way:
52** You rescue Kormac, the Templar, from a demon cultist magical torture ritual and help him get his gear back from said cultists. You then have to help him take down a rogue Templar turned cultist necromancer.
53** When you come across Lyndon, the Scoundrel, he's in a bit of a fix -- the Thieves' Guild of some major city wants a relic that his friend has, and has sent a group of assassins to kill her and take it, and you have to help him fight them off.
54** Karyna, the lady you rescue from the Spider Queen, was also planned to be a companion (before her role as a "mystical" companion was taken by Eirena the Enchantress in Act II).
55* RedHerring: Black Mushrooms can spawn in the Cathedral. Their description even refers to the trope; it is in fact a quote from the original ''Diablo'', spoken by Deckard Cain when asked about the Black Mushroom quest. They may seem useless, but [[spoiler:you'll need them to get to Whimsyshire]].
56* RedShirtArmy: The defenders of Bastion's Keep. By the time Azmodan's invasion is over, less than three hundred of them remain out of an original one thousand. It doesn't help that their uniforms are red as well.
57* RegeneratingMana: Each class has a different primary resource, some of which act differently than others.
58** The primary magic-using classes, the Wizard and the Witch Doctor, regenerate their Arcane Power and their Mana, respectively. Arcane Power regenerates relatively quickly, while Mana regenerates slowly.
59** The Demon Hunter relies on two regenerating magic reserves called Hatred and Discipline, the former of which recharges faster than the latter.
60** The two melee classes have to build up their supply of power (Fury for Barbarians, Spirit for Monks) through melee attacks on enemies rather than just standing around. In the case of Fury, it naturally drains instead of regenerates, requiring the Barbarian to keep attacking to use many of their skills.
61** Crusader's Wrath is something of a happy medium. It will slowly increase naturally, but regenerates much more quickly if you are attacking.
62* ReligionOfEvil: The Triune cultists worship the Prime Evils as gods and perform unholy summoning incantations to aid them. In ''Diablo 3'', you fight the Dark Coven, a remnant of that religion which is led by [[WickedWitch Maghda]] and serves Belial, one of the two remaining Great Evils; and in the past was led by [[spoiler:Adria]] and Mephisto's son, Lucion.
63* ReplayValue: They have put a lot in to make sure each time you play you run into different optional events and challenges each time.
64* {{Retcon}}:
65** The goatmen, known as the Khazra, were originally classified as demons in the first two ''Diablo'' games. In ''Diablo III'', it is revealed by Abd Al-Hazir that they are actually humans who were transformed by Vizjerei magic into their monstrous goatlike forms. Doesn't stop one major clan (the Blood Clan) from throwing in with Azmodan and Diablo later.
66** From a plot point of view, ''Diablo III'' retcons a retcon from ''II'', namely that nobody in Tristram knew the identity of the Wanderer. In ''I'', Ogden greets the player warmly and refers to the fact that they lived in Tristram some time ago. In the manual for ''II'', Deckard Cain muses that the Wanderer was a stranger to Tristram and barely socialized with anyone during his stay. In ''III'' [[spoiler:it's revealed that the Wanderer was actually the firstborn son of Leoric, who hardly would have been a stranger to Tristram]].
67** The term "wizard" being used in a derogatory sense retcons some of the dialogue in ''II'', e.g. when Elzix speaks highly of the "wizened wizard" Drognan.
68* {{Retraux}}: The Darkening of Tristram anniversary event is a recreation of the original ''Diablo'''s sixteen-floor cathedral, complete with original Unique monsters, and recreations of the four main story bosses. All characters and monsters in the dungeon also have a light mosaic filter applied, and lower-framerate animations to emulate the original game's pre-rendered sprites.
69* RevengeIsSweet:
70** The Demon Hunter's backstory is that their sister was killed by demons, and the Hunter has dedicated their life and their talent to slaying as many demons as possible. Their SuperMode is called "Vengeance", two of their battle cries are "Sweet revenge!" and "Vengeance!" towards demons, and they thrive off of the chance to kill the Prime Evils for what happened to their sister throughout the course of the story. The Demon Hunter also doesn't have a higher calling like the Monk, the Crusader, or the Witch Doctor; the Hunter just wants revenge, and revels in causing misery to the demons.
71** In Act V, the nephalem finds out that one of their allies that pulled a FaceHeelTurn, [[spoiler:the witch Adria to be specific, who also sacrificed her own daughter Leah to Diablo]], is nearby. The very idea of getting revenge on the traitor is too much for the nephalem to resist, and they race off to kill their target. Once the target is dead, the nephalem revels in getting revenge for the betrayal.
72* RewardingVandalism: Not only do you get items from RandomDrops, but you get speed bonuses for breaking lots of objects in quick succession.
73* RewatchBonus: The beginning of Act III has Azmodan talking to Leah about how he will not fall under the same trap as the other Evils. [[spoiler: He's actually talking to [[SealedEvilInACan Diablo who's dormant inside Leah]].]]
74* RiddleForTheAges: Who or what exactly is Covetous Shen? Is he just a simple traveling jeweler with a lot of stories to tell, or is he secretly a god in disguise? Shen himself drops some hints, but ultimately just dances around the question. Given that he may or may not be a {{Trickster god}}, nearly any hints ''against'' him being such could be construed as deliberate misdirection. Meaning he's either just a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} of a man who happens to know a little more than you'd expect, or a trickster god who's ''very'' good at what he does. ''Reaper of Souls'' answers this question: [[spoiler:Covetous Shen was once Zei, the god of thieves, but after the death of Liria at the hands of Zei's master and nemesis Dirgest, Zei cast off his godhood and ultimately his very name, becoming the lovable jeweler of the game. The end of his sidequest, ''The Jewel of Dirgest'', which has Shen seeing off the spirit of Liria, is very, very sad]].
75* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: The Nephalem goes on two of these during the course of the game.
76** The first, which takes up the latter part of Act I and the first part of Act II, has the Nephalem going after Maghda and her Dark Coven for [[spoiler:murdering Deckard Cain]].
77** ''Reaper of Souls'' has [[spoiler:Adria]] resurfacing, turning the second part of the expansion into a supreme one of these as the Nephalem seeks vengeance for [[spoiler:her unforgivable betrayal at the end of Act III]].
78* RoomFullOfZombies: There's a scene where your character must go in a room like this with a blacksmith in order to assist him in disposing of the infected, including his own wife.
79* RousseauWasRight: Even in this universe, love, courage and hope are still the greatest powers of all.
80* RuleOfSymbolism: Like Literature/TheBible, there is a divine entity who willingly and intentionally abjures everything about him that makes him better than mortal, in order to be able to save humanity from the ancient machinations of a primal evil whose primary form was a seven-headed dragon. [[note]]Even better, the most even way to distribute the ten horns among the seven heads would result in four one-horned heads and three two-horned heads. Three of the seven archdemons that Tathamet splintered into had power over the other four...[[/note]]
81* SaharanShipwreck: The Black Rock, a shipwreck that the random map generator sometimes places in the Stinging Winds.
82* SandInMyEyes: The innkeeper in New Tristram says he has something in his eye when [[spoiler:talking about the recently deceased Cain]].
83* SandWorm: This game once again features desert locations with giant worms, this time the far more traditional Rockworms and their variants, which can swallow players whole and spit them out. Watch out when you hear the ground crumbling, as they love to pop up right next to you when you least expect it. The Cave of Burrowing Horror has the corpse of a truly immense specimen winding through the floor. This game also features the dinosaur-like Dune Threshers [[SandIsWater swimming through the sand like sharks.]]
84* SatanicArchetype: [[spoiler:Diablo becomes this with the Black Soulstone, which combines the souls of the seven Prime Evils into Tathamet, the personification of all evil in the Diablo universe.]]
85* SavedForTheSequel: All the Lords of Hell are mentioned in ''Diablo'' but only Diablo is fought in the game. Andariel, Duriel, Mephisto, and Baal show up in ''Diablo 2''. Finally, 15 years after first being mentioned, Azmodan and Belial make their appearance in ''Diablo III''.
86* SaveScumming: Averted, as the game autosaves frequently, and (at least on PC) requires an online connection. So you can't abuse Kadala's gambling.
87* ScamReligion: The "Order of Malthael" from ''Reaper of Souls'', which plays on people's fears of the Reapers in order to get people to "sacrifice" their wealth to the Order's scam-artist leader so that the Angel of Death will spare them.
88* ScaryBlackMan: This is what [[spoiler:human!Tyrael]] looks like.
89* ScaryImpracticalArmor: The barbarian has some body armor with horns that protrude from the body in positions that would be ''really'' likely to stab him in the arms.
90* ScaryScorpions: The Tormented Stingers may look and sting like scorpions, but they are actually made from human sacrifices whose chests have been sliced open and their legs mutilated, [[AndIMustScream while maddened by pain]]. Look at their corpses and it becomes evident.
91* SceneryGorn:
92** The Desolate Sands area, with parched, cracked ground, tar pits, and multiple {{Ribcage Ridge}}s.
93** Azmodan's realm, which looks like hell. In particular, the towers of the Sin Hearts and their massive chained-and-tortured demon inhabitants.
94** [[spoiler:Heaven after Diablo and his demons invade it]].
95* SceneryPorn:
96** You finally get to see the Silver City and High Heavens, and they are ''amazing''. They become SceneryGorn after [[spoiler:Diablo attacks, though after his death it is slowly restored [[CueTheSun by the sun as it breaks through Diablo's cloud cover.]]]] They look a lot like the Vortex Pinnacle from ''World of Warcraft''.
97** The Hidden Camp area gives you a rather breathtaking view of Caldeum, the Jewel of the East, in the background.
98** The Dahlgur Oasis. Your follower even comments on it when you enter it for the first time. Located between the very yellow Stinging Winds and bleak Desolate Sands, the oasis' colour palette features dark greens and blues, disturbed by the ocassional bright red/yellow of campfires. A very peaceful place, were it not for the demons that inhabit it, of course.
99* SchizophrenicDifficulty: The game has this to a lesser extent, though in a rather strange way. Act 2 is more difficult than the first act, with multiple ranged enemies doing nasty things to you, but the start of act 3 is laughably easy, with masses of easy-to-kill enemies trying to swarm you (and failing) while dropping lots of gear. Midway through act 3 you start fighting enemies with an obnoxious ranged attack, but then after that point they go away and the act goes back to being easy again. This repeats itself as you go through the difficulty tiers. Eventually you reach Inferno mode, the most difficult mode when you are at level 60 and the enemies are very powerful, and the elite and unique mobs (the most dangerous - and valuable to kill - enemies in the game) get FOUR random buffs per group. The game is EXTREMELY difficult at this point (particularly before the patches repeatedly made Inferno mode easier), but it doesn't get any WORSE, either - once you get the gear you need (which is quite hard to do, and likely to cost you piles of money in repair costs due to dying constantly) it becomes progressively easier to kill the inferno mode enemies. As you get more and more gear your damage goes up and the damage you take goes down, and the enemies don't really get significantly deadlier. This eventually culminates in reaching Act 3, when the enemies drop the best loot in the game at the highest rate that they ever are going to (act 4 enemies, though tougher, don't drop better loot), the enemies are easy to mow down, there aren't as dangerous of enemies to have to fight elite versions of (for most of it anyway), and you are powerful enough you can beat them. The net effect is that the game becomes EASIER after that point, as you continue to get better gear but the enemies fail to increase in difficulty alongside you.
100* SchmuckBait:
101** There's a golden chest in the middle of a room filled with corpses/a somewhat creepy grove lined with "trees"/several other situations. Is it safe?
102--->'''Demon Hunter:''' This chest is just waiting to be opened, hmm? ''[chuckles]'' I'll play along.
103** There's also the "Jar Of Souls" on an altar surrounded by a ''massive'' load of skeletons on the floor. Most of the player characters comment on how the Jar of Souls is obviously a trap, and the Witch Doctor even goes so far as to say that it's a trap they're more than willing to spring in order to put the souls to rest.
104** An NPC says "don't disturb the (spider) eggs." Naturally, most players immediately disturb the spider eggs.
105** Treasure Goblins. Lots of loot and they don't fight back, but they are very hard to kill, and love to lead you into huge ambushes of tough elite and boss monsters.
106** In the expansion, there is a golden chest which, when triggered, shuts the gates around you, summons a horde of enemies, and drops a note from a boss saying he knew you'll [[DeathByMaterialism be greedy enough to open it]].
107* ScrewDestiny: Nephalem are stated as being the only beings capable of this, since they are not mentioned in the Scroll of Fate. Proved true when [[spoiler:the hero averts the destruction of the angels at the hands of Diablo, which was prophesied in the Scroll of Fate]].
108* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Tyrael refused to go along with his fellow Angels' non-interference policies. When his superior Imperius tried to punish him for it, Tyrael finally had enough and [[spoiler:tore off his own wings so he could help Sanctuary as a mortal.]]
109-->'''Tyrael:''' [[BadassBoast "You cannot judge me]], I am Justice itself! We were meant for more then this, to protect the innocent! But if our precious laws bind you all to inaction, then I will no longer stand as your brother."
110* TheScrooge: Gozek the Miser left a will explaining that he'd rather see his relatives dead than inheriting any of his fortune. For this reason he set up three chests, two of which are booby-trapped decoys to kill anyone looking for his money.
111* SealedEvilInASixPack: Zoltan Kulle was killed and his head, body, and blood sealed in different location to ensure he never returned.
112-->'''Lyndon:''' People say ''I'm'' bad, but no one's ever had to imprison me and dismantle ''my'' body parts. A little context would be nice.
113* SecretLevel: [[SugarApocalypse Whimsyshire]], a land that seems ripped straight from ''Franchise/CareBears'' with smiling clouds, purple bears and unicorns. Getting there requires killing a Rainbow Goblin, or combining multiple different items together and finding a hidden location in Act I.
114* SeenItAll: There are a few examples, but one particular standout is Marta, the old soldier's wife at Bastion's Keep in Act III. She's completely unfazed by anything up to and including [[spoiler:demons bursting through the wall in ambush]] not twenty feet from her.
115* SensibleHeroesSkimpyVillains: The Queen of the Succubi plays with this. The non-combat pet is still a scantily-dressed demon, but is described as friendlier than other demons, and her outfit is downright prudish by Succubus standards.
116* SequelHook: There are a ''lot'' of dangling plot threads that leave the game wide open for future expansions: [[spoiler:Imperius is clearly up to no good; the developers have explicitly hinted how Leah isn't gone forever; Kormac's desire to reform his Order, Lyndon's brother still being in jail, Eirena still not knowing what happened to the Prophet, and Covetous Shen's search for the Jewel of Dirgest.]] Also, only two of the Sin Lords are encountered in the game (Cydaea, the Maiden of Lust and Ghom, the Lord of Gluttony). Assuming that there's a Sin Lord for each of the seven deadly sins, the other five may show up in an expansion.
117** ''Reaper of Souls'' pays attention to three of the most major plot threads: [[spoiler:Tyrael and the Horadrim try to hide the Black Soulstone, but Malthael returns and seizes it to use it as a weapon to trap '''all''' demonic essences, including the souls of every human in Sanctuary, in order to end the Sin War once and for all. Also, Adria is confronted and killed.]] The expansion ends with [[spoiler:the souls of Diablo and the rest of the Prime Evils escaping the Black Soulstone in the aftermath of Maltheal's death, and the not so subtle implication that Imperius' anger and fury is [[SanitySlippage driving him mad]]]]. Meanwhile, all of the followers' sideplots have been updated, though all have some amount of unfinished business, especially [[spoiler: Shen and Lyndon]]. And in the closing narration, [[spoiler: Tyrael worries that the player character may one day be tempted to evil, which, as a PersonOfMassDestruction with nigh-unlimited power, could spell doom for everyone.]]
118** As for the follower's storylines, ''Reaper of Souls'' wraps up the ones presented in main game, and creates new ones. [[spoiler:Eirena decides she will become a new prophet and found her own order of enchantresses, Lyndon has discovered his brother's ''own wife'' killed him and is searching for Lyndon, Shen found the jewel of Dirgest only to discover that Dirgest himself has escaped, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Kormac has sworn to bring his fellow Templar around and is having terrible luck wooing Eirena]]]].
119* SetBonus: By equipping Set Legendary equipment of the same group together, you can reap incredibly powerful benefits from them. The more potent sets have multiple tiers of benefits, with each tier requiring more pieces than the last.
120* SevenDeadlySins:
121** Azmodan's lieutenants include Cydaea, the Maiden of Lust, and Ghom, the Lord of Gluttony. Others may appear in expansions.
122** The Adventure Mode in ''Reaper of Souls'' adds special legendary items only available in the Horadric Caches given as rewards for completing all bounties in an act. The legendaries that are available in the Act 3 Caches are all themed after one of the Sins: Envious Blade (Envy), Insatiable Belt (Gluttony), Avarice Band (Greed), Overwhelming Desire (Lust), Pride's Fall (Pride), Boots of Disregard (Sloth) and Burst Of Wrath (Wrath).
123* ShaggyDogStory: Many of the Event sidequests found on the overworld have you helping some unfortunate bystander, only for them to be slaughtered just when things seem to be in the clear. This happens especially often in Acts III and V.
124* SharedLifeMeter: Champion packs of enemies with the Health Link modifier share a single common health pool. This makes the individual champions seem very robust, since the damage they take is shared between the entire group, effectively tripling or quadrupling the hit points of any single monster. The effect has a fun side effect though, since when the shared health pool is emptied, all of the Champions will die in rapid succession, sometimes almost simultaneously.
125* ShiftingSandLand: Caldeum, ruled by Hakan II, with a similar style of architecture to Lut Gholein (though the city is much larger in story), with Arabic like clothing and names, dangerous animals in combat areas, and numerous sand colored ruins.
126* ShipperOnDeck: [[spoiler: Damn near everyone in your entourage, and the player character him/herself for Kormac and Eirena. Myriam in particular gives a couple nudges regarding this.]]
127* ShockwaveStomp: The barbarian has this as an attack, which stuns nearby enemies.
128* ShoeSlap: In one of the lores, Abd al-Hazir mentions the time when his tent was ransacked by some quill fiends that he had to beat off with a shoe.
129* ShootTheMedicFirst: Kill the Fallen Conjurer/Prophet/Firemage first unless you want them to keep reviving the grunts.
130* ShopFodder: Just like its predecessors, this game has [[RandomDrops loads of randomly generated loot]]. As is tradition, you can expect oh... maybe five to ten percent of that to be of any use to you.
131* ShouldersOfDoom: The archangels Imperius and Tyrael both have this. Tyrael loses one when he becomes mortal. When he reforms the Horadrim, they all have a single, large shoulder pad each, most likely out of respect for Tyrael.
132* ShoutOut: Enough of them to fill an [[ShoutOut/DiabloIII entire page]].
133* ShrunkenHead: The Witch Doctor can use shrunken heads as a charm for their powers.
134* SidetrackBonus: Exploring off the beaten path can lead to optional quests or new dungeons full of loot. This game seems to have taken this trope to heart, as every nook and cranny is almost guaranteed to have a little something at the end, if only a pittance of gold or a worthless item. And that's not speaking of the optional dungeons dotted about at random, each of which has a huge, glowing chest at the bottom.
135* TheSiege: Act III has you defending the fortress of Bastion's Keep in Arreat against a full-on demonic deadly onslaught of [[TheLegionsOfHell the forces of Azmodan]].
136* SignificantAnagram: [[spoiler:Daivin the Adventurer]] turns out to be [[spoiler:the Demon Lord Vidian]]. He even makes fun of the player for not seeing this:
137-->[[spoiler:Daivin]]: '''Don't''' tell me that you never suspected I was more than I seemed?
138* SkewedPriorities:
139** The nobles of Westmarch, and many of the peasantry, are too focused on political maneuvering to worry about the hordes of undead attacking them. It's implied that if they worked together from the beginning, they could have actually held off the invasion or at least mitigated its effect.
140** YOU, if you're chasing a Treasure Goblin instead of saving hapless civilians or ''keeping yourself alive against the horde of still-living enemies''!
141* SkillPointReset:
142** PC skills and their runes can be freely swapped around.
143** The skills of the followers can also be reset, if you want to try different ones.
144** Subverted somewhat by the fact that there are no points to spend in the first place, however...
145** The new Paragon system awards points to players who continue to gain experience while at the level cap. Just like skills and runes, these can be reallocated at any time.
146* SlicesDicesAndMakesJulienneFries: Kanai's Cube, the prototype to the infamous Horadric Cube. Here's a list of what it is capable of:
147** Archive of Tal Rasha: Harvest a Unique Property of legendary equipment (Orange Text which gives your character a unique ability), which can then be selected from an archive of Unique Properties to augment your character. This is great for both cleaning your inventory and extracting the best special abilities from a legendary piece of equipment with low stats.
148** Law of Kulle: Destroys and recreates a legendary item as if it had been freshly dropped and picked up. Great for low-level legendaries.
149** Hope of Cain: Transforms a Rare Item into a Legendary item. Obviously, this is expensive.
150** Skill of Nilfur: Turns a legendary set item into another legendary from the same set.
151** Work of Cathan: The ultimate twink augment: removes the level requirement from your gear.
152** Darkness of Radament: Craft a single gem using nine same-quality gems of a different type.
153** Anger of Iben Fahd: Turns 100 of one type of crafting material into 100 of a different type. Useful when your crafting supplies are imbalanced.
154** And finally, a few recipes for the [[BlatantLies Not The Cow Level]] and the Realm of Greed.
155** ButWaitTheresMore! As of patch 2.40, Caldesann’s Despair is an expensive augmentation that slightly increases the strength of a legendary. All you need is an Ancient-tier item, a high-level rift gem, and three royal-tier stat gems. You'd better be loaded before you burn your money on this forge.
156* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Quite surprisingly for the GrandFinale of a GothicHorror[=/=]DarkFantasy game series, ''Diablo 3'' is quite possibly the most uplifting and idealistic installment in the franchise yet. With heartfelt sincerity, it reminds the player that no matter how ugly and sad the world may become, there is always hope and it is '''worth''' believing and fighting for.
157** Perhaps demonstrated in the game's art style which is slightly more saturated with color and light/dark contrasts than previous games which were muted and dark on semi-dark contrast.
158** But at the same time, this game has the most heart-wrenching character deaths in the series, by creating a number of interesting and well-rounded characters who are subsequently killed in horrific ways to give the player and the character they're running [[invoked]] [[PlayerPunch personal reasons to want the Lords of Hell and their subordinates dead]]. Nevertheless, the main characters maintain some level of optimism throughout the horror.
159* SlippySlideyIceWorld: The game revisits the frozen north with Bastion's Keep, which is under siege by TheLegionsOfHell.
160* SmashingHallwayTrapsOfDoom: The Halls of Agony in Act I have giant meat-cleaver like blades that fall at regular intervals.
161* SmugSnake:
162** WickedWitch Maghda spends as much time taunting the nephalem as she does interfering with them. The nephalem take it in stride up until [[spoiler:Maghda engineers the death of Deckard Cain in Act I]].
163** Azmodan as well, whose boasting about his "brilliant strategy and sneak attacks" to the player's face lets them counterattack flawlessly. [[NiceJobFixingItVillain Ultimately, Azmodan does more damage to his army than the entire enemy force]], including the OneManArmy player character. He ''is'' the anthropomorphic personification of Pride, after all.
164* SmugSuper: If his/her quotes are any indication, the Wizard is this. S/he has "always known from a young age" that they had incredible power, and wanted more of it. The reason they left the Academy at Caldeum is because they weren't learning magic fast enough.
165-->'''Wizard:''' I'm so good I astound myself!
166* SmurfettePrinciple:
167** Auriel, the Archangel of Hope, is the only female member on the Angiris Council.
168** On the other side of the fence, Andariel, the Maiden of Anguish, is the only female Evil. She is also the weakest of the seven...
169* SnakePeople: Belial's minions, the Deceivers, are these.
170* SocketedEquipment: Socketed weapons and clothing/armor pieces return, allowing the player to improve their stats with gems. Far more forgiving here. Once you find your jeweler, Covetous Shen, you can both combine gems that drop from monsters and treasure hoards into higher-stat gems by using his Crucible, and you can have gems removed from weapons, armor and other items for a nominal fee, which is VERY helpful, [[AdamSmithHatesYourGuts because creating the higher-end gems becomes hideously expensive later on.]]
171* SortingAlgorithmOfEvil:
172** You start by killing zombies and mutated wildlife. Soon enough you're battling skeletons, hellspawn, undead mages with a lust for immortality, living demonic siege engines the size of a house, fallen angels, and finally the manifestation of all evil.
173** Also [[DiscussedTrope discussed]] in a [[http://www.tomshardware.com/news/blizzard-diablo-pc-gaming-angel-of-death-expansion,26222.html developer interview]]:
174--->'''Leonard Boyarsky''': That's always a challenge when creating a series of books or games. You know, at [a] certain point you fight the ultimate evil and when you create a new installment, you have to fight extra-ultimate evil."
175* SoulJar: The Black Soulstone, like the other Soulstones in the series, is this. It becomes the Soul Jar of all seven Prime Evils [[spoiler:thus making it the Soul Jar of the original Prime Evil Tathamet.]]
176* SpaceFillingPath: The game has at least three needlessly twisty paths - between Old Tristram and Adria's Hut, on the way up to the Desolate Sands, and a long straight path at the start of Zoltan Kulle's sanctum - which are all, barring movement speed increasing buffs, ''exactly'' long and twisty enough to last the length of an attendant party member's exposition.
177* SpiderSwarm:
178** One level has you going through a cave full of spiders that follow this trope under every aspect. [[NightmareFetishist The Witch-Doctor]] [[AdmiringTheAbomination is delighted]].
179** Talking about the Witch-Doctor, one of his/her spells actually involve summoning swarms of spiders. At higher levels, it can summon a Spider Queen that spawns armies of smaller spiders.
180* SpitefulWill: One of these is found during the Miser's Will event in Act V:
181-->To my sniveling offspring: if you are reading this, then I am dead and you have come to claim my fortune. Well, you still can't have it! I have set traps to stop you from even trying. So, enjoy the rest of your poor, miserable, and cowardly lives.
182* SpreadShot:
183** There are skills and runes that allow the Demon Hunter and the Wizard to fire out a spread of multiple projectiles. One of the Demon Hunter skills is even named {{Multishot}}. It fires a large spread of arrows in front of them.
184** The Scoundrel can learn a skill that gives him multi-projectile shooting.
185* SquishyWizard:
186** The Wizard can be this, and has a lot of Skills devoted to mitigating it.
187** The cultists are hilariously squishy, and you might barely notice them as you step over their corpses unless one manages to transform into an Unholy Thrall.
188* StatSticks: The [[SquishyWizard Wizard's]] and [[SummonMagic Witch Doctor's]] weapons and off-hand items. [[http://hellyeahcomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/HellYeah_MonksAndWeapons_en.jpg Monks' too]]
189* TheStoic: Many of the [=PCs=] can come off as this at times.
190* StrippedToTheBone:
191** The Oppressor demons have this as their normal death animation.
192** The witch doctor's locust swarm will do this to just about anything it kills, turning groups of enemies into little more than a pile of bloody bones.
193** Inverted with the Golgors, who assemble from a skeleton. Although once slain, they turn ''back'' into a bloody skeleton...and, for some reason, a pair of kidneys.
194** In fact, any melee finishing blow that criticals can result in this, splatting ''all'' the victim's fleshy tissue into a red smear on the ground while the bloody skeleton flies back trailing more goo.
195* {{Stripperiffic}}:
196** The default outfits of all the female {{Player Character}}s are basically rags tied around the chest and waist. The only exception is the female Crusader, who [[InvertedTrope wears a full-body garment]].
197** The female Witch Doctor's outfits never stray away from this. She even lampshades it in one of her dialogues with the Enchantress.
198--->'''Eirena''': Do all women dress as you do where you come from?\
199'''Witch Doctor''': Some wear less.
200** The female Wizard's outfits in a lot of the official art. Like the female Witch Doctor, she lampshades it in a dialogue with the Enchantress.
201** The clothes of the noblewomen in Caldeum[[note]]one is standing outside the Searing Sands Inn, one is inside the Inn, and one is part of the group that's yelling at the guards[[/note]] make them look more suited for a harem than anything else.
202* StuffBlowingUp: There is a very high number of explosions in the game. Besides various player skills and spell causing explosions, monsters tend to blow up when killed as well. Sometimes this does damage to other monsters nearby, or to the player.
203* StylishProtectionGear: The Demon Hunter has been shown in her [=BlizzCon=] promo video to have some very stylish armor with the rather out-of-place addition of CombatStilettos.
204* SuccubiAndIncubi: Not only do the Succubus demons return to tempt mortals with their exposed assets, but their new matriarch Cydaea, the Maiden of Lust, shows up, and she sounds ''very'' excited when describing her anticipation of killing you. She's enough to creep out even the resident [[TheCasanova Casanova]] among your companions, Lyndon!
205* SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome: Most of the cast of ''Diablo II'' is either dead or insane come ''Diablo III'', including Warriv, everyone in the city of Harrogath, and the Sorceress (who was killed by the Assassin). And Deckard Cain himself, who survived the first two games, dies early on in the game. However, latter novels imply that at least the ''Diablo II'' heroes did not lose their sanity, they just simply die peacefully as they pass their knowledge to the next generation... Well, except the Sorceress (but she died sane.)
206* SuddenSequelHeelSyndrome: [[spoiler:Adria was mostly harmless in ''Diablo I'', if a bit cold and distant. By Chapter 3, we got hit with the fact that she's an EvilMatriarch [[EvilAllAlong all along]].]]
207* SugarApocalypse: [[spoiler: What you bring to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JeQzJC-vS40 Whimseyshire]] in the hidden level.]] Apparently, this was a developer reaction to people complaining that the new art style of D3 was too cartoony and bright.
208* SuperMode:
209** The Wrath of the Berserker ability temporarily transforms the barbarian into a 10 foot tall juggernaut that boasts improved damage, health, and speed.
210** The Wizard's Archon spell temporarily turns them into a creature of pure magical energy that moves fast and has powerful melee attacks.
211** The Demon Hunter's Vengeance ability temporarily turns them into the embodiment of hatred and vengeance, gaining powerful ranged attacks that can clear a crowd quite quickly.
212** The Crusader's Akarat's Champion ability makes them a large, glowing, armoured warrior with increased damage and Wrath generation.
213** The Necromancer's Land of the Dead turns them into a figure of pure darkness, turns the surrounding area into a graveyard, and allows them to summon minions from thin air.
214* SupernaturalGoldEyes:
215** The Demon Hunter sports a glowing pair of these when she has a hood on, signifiying someone who has stared into the soul of a demon without going mad.
216** [[spoiler:The mortal Tyrael]] sports a pair of these, signifying [[spoiler:his former angelic status]].
217** [[spoiler:Leah]] also sports a very creepy pair of these after [[spoiler:her body is taken over by Diablo as the Prime Evil]].
218* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: The fence you sometimes find in an area full of cultists and khazra was absolutely ''not'' making his merchandise available to inhuman monsters, and he resents that knowing look in your eye!
219* SwordOfPlotAdvancement: Act 1 has you running around collecting the pieces of an angel's mighty sword.
220* TakeThat: The ultimate TakeThat is an obscure Easter egg that opens a portal to [[http://www.diablowiki.net/Whimsyshire a brightly colored level reminiscent of ''My Little Pony'']].
221* TakeThatAudience:
222** When the first trailers and screenshots of ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' were released, there was a ''lot'' of backdraft over the game not being "dark enough" to the point everyone thought the game was going to be a LighterAndSofter cash-in. Blizzard's response? [[http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/diablo-iii/1224723p1.html Whimsyshire]], the game's new cow level, which has you fighting your way through a SickeninglySweet landscape of rainbows, smiling clouds, dancing flowers, and unicorns. The SecretLevel "[[JokeLevel Whimsyshire]]" is a TakeThat to people who were critical of some of the design aspects of ''Diablo III'', as well as a ShoutOut to the original Cow Level.
223** There was even a limited time dungeon dedicated to the Bovine King, a group of Khazra, and Diablo-Text cow puns. [[BlatantLies Not The Cow Level]] my ass.
224* TakeYourTime:
225** Don't worry that there's a siege happening at this very moment. Take all the time you need messing with your stash.
226** No matter how much you idle, [[spoiler:Diablo]] won't be able to [[spoiler:corrupt the Crystal Arch]] until you reach him.
227** Averted with the Crumbling Vault, in which you have a limited time to find the treasure room until it closes forever! (At least until you remake your game and it spawns again.)
228* TakingYouWithMe: The game has certain elite enemies that explode upon death.
229* ATasteOfTheLash: The Templar Order does this to convicted criminals that they want to make into new Templars after first beating them for three days. The purpose of this, according to your follower Kormac, who went through the process himself, is to strip away everything that brought the initiate tainted joy, to cleanse and purify them of sin. Needless to say, your PlayerCharacter doesn't see things that way. [[spoiler:As it turns out, the Order doesn't really give a damn about an initiate's actual guilt or innocence, and the Order's Inquisitors will gladly pile false sins upon an innocent if they deem him to be a useful asset to the Order, which is exactly what happened to both Kormac and his former comrade Jondar]].
230* TeleportSpam: Diablo himself picks up this trick in the final battle. You can too if you're a wizard equipped with the Aether Walker, which replaces your teleport's cooldown with a mana cost.
231* TempleOfDoom: The game continues the tradition of trap and monster-filled desert and jungle tombs.
232* TemporaryPartyMemberToVillain: If [[PlayerCharacter the Nephalem]] visits the Shrouded Moors, they are accosted by an NPC called Daivin the Adventurer, who insists on following them around and helping them fight the monsters that live on the moors. He's later captured by a band of cultists who appear to use him as a sacrifice in a ritual. On completing the Temple of the Firstborn, Daivin reappears and reveals that he used the cultists to fake his own death, and he's actually Vidian, a lieutenant of the [[DemonLordsAndArchDevils Demon Lord]] Azmodan, intent on [[ItsAllAboutMe stealing the Nephalem's power for himself]].
233* ThanatosGambit: In the animated short movie [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEWrQ-XVa3g "Wrath"]] about the background, Diablo sets a trap for the [[CouncilOfAngels Angiris Council]], the real purpose of which is to provoke Imperius into killing him while he's helpless (as the others point out, it would be better to [[SealedEvilInACan imprison him]] because [[FightingAShadow killing him will only result in his eventual reappearance]]) to create disunity between the angels.
234* ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow: Inverted when the Necromancer calls out Malthael for meddling with forces he doesn't understand. Nephalem, being mortal, are far better-suited to handling the forces of life and death than angels.
235* ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself: Before you fight Diablo, Tyrael tells you "this battle is yours alone." Enforced when your follower is caged as you approach Diablo.
236* ThreeStrikeCombo: All of the Monk's Primary attacks work like this, releasing a powerful blow on the third strike. They can be mixed up, using two strikes from one technique and the third from another, or any other combination.
237* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: No one does it better than the Barbarian, for whom Weapon Throw is one of the available primary skills.
238* TimedMission:
239** Cursed Chests task you with some objective to complete under the time limit (such as killing a number of enemies, killing enough waves of enemies, activating Cursed Shrines, etc.). Usually, the timed aspect of the objective is simply for awarding a second chest, but in some cases you won't get a chest ''at all'' if the timer is allowed to run out.
240** After entering the Crumbling Vault, you have two minutes to get to the exit portal leading to the treasure room. If you take longer than that (whether by getting lost or by getting distracted or surrounded by enemies), the treasure room is closed off, and you'll be sent straight back to the entrance.
241** Patch 2.4.0 introduced Set Dungeons, in which, if you have six pieces of a given class-specific armour set,[[note]] Or five pieces and a Ring of Royal Grandeur.[[/note]] you can try your luck at completing two objectives usually tailored to the armour set's strengths. The timed mission aspect comes with getting the Mastery achievement; both objectives must be completed and all enemies on the map killed within four and a half minutes. Run out of time, and the Mastery achievement is marked as "FAILED".
242** Greater Rifts must be completed before the time bar reaches the end in order to claim rewards, the biggest of which are chances to upgrade Legendary Gems and unlock higher Torment difficulties for multiplayer use (if doing the Rift solo).
243* TimedPowerUp:
244** Shrines, stationary objects with random effects that commonly include temporary buffs to speed, defense, offense, experience gain, etc. A common strategy is to clear out the enemies in an area without activating its shrines, then run through the area activating all of them as quickly as possible to stack several bonuses before teleporting into a challenging area such as a rift, Whimseyshire, or a boss fight.
245** [[QuadDamage Nephalem Glory]], {{Power Up}}s which [[RandomDrops randomly drop]] from enemies and grant a temporary buff to damage. Picking up additional Nephalem Glory orbs resets the timer and stacks additional bonuses up to three levels, while picking up health globes extends the timer slightly.
246* TimeLimitBoss: Bosses and Elites on Inferno difficulty have "rage timers" whereupon they will beef up considerably and certainly kill you within a matter of seconds. This was removed in the 2.0 update.
247* TokenHeroicOrc: While they were just as evil as all other demons in the last game, in this game the Fetishes are allied with the Witch Doctor and can be summoned to fight other demons.
248* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: What you get when you team up a female monk and the enchantress follower.
249* TooDumbToLive: One possible quest is ''A Stranger In Need'', a would-be adventurer named Merhan goes down into the Halls of Torment looking for treasure. He somehow gets the bright idea to look inside an iron maiden in a haunted dungeon. So of course it closes on him. He'd be dead if the Nephalem wasn't there and he admits that it was awfully stupid of himself.
250* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: [[spoiler:Leah]] is this. She was a good and nice girl [[spoiler:until her mother betrayed her and the entire team including an [[AngelUnaware angel]] to bring back the Prime Evil [[BigBad Diablo]] into full power]].
251* TookALevelInBadass: [[spoiler:Izual, who was a mere DamageSpongeBoss in ''Diablo II'', has gotten a ''lot'' more dangerous in ''Diablo III''. Gharbad the Weak also gets one for this game. He gains a second head, bigger muscles and a lot more health to become Gharbad the Strong. It still doesn't save him from the Nephalem.]]
252* The Butcher counts as well. While he wasn't exactly easy in the first game, here he is a full fledged Act Boss (a role normally reservered for the Great Evils themselves.)
253* TooManyMouths:
254** Belial has two mouths, one on each side of its head. Possibly a {{Stealth|Pun}} VisualPun (two-faced).
255** Ghom has four: One on his head, one on each shoulder, and one on his gut.
256** [[spoiler:Diablo, once resurrected,]] has an extra mouth in each of his shoulders.
257* TortureTechnician: The Inquisitors of the Templar Order are essentially this, in charge of "cleansing" new initiates of their sins by beating and whipping the living daylights out of them. [[spoiler:They don't particularly give a damn about the guilt or innocence of the initiate, and will gladly pile false sins upon an innocent if they feel he would make an asset to the Order, as happened with Kormac, your Templar follower who was put through this]].
258* TrainingFromHell: Kormac explains that the training to become a templar begins with a process of "purging sinfulness". It ''starts'' with being chained to a wall, starved and beaten continuously for ''three days straight''. ''Then'' the inquistors start whipping the trainee bloody. Needless to say, it's very effective at wiping out all memory of who they were before. The heroes generally don't approve of this -- the Monk, in particular, is outraged upon hearing it. [[spoiler:And then it turns out that the Templars don't do this to criminals, like they claim, but simply grab any good fighter, brainwash them through ColdBloodedTorture, and then tell them they were criminals who had to be punished "for their own good" and need to obey the Templars without question to redeem themselves.]]
259* TrapIsTheOnlyOption: The ''Jar of Souls'' event has a response line from all of the player characters worthy of the [[Franchise/StarWars Admiral himself]], but the Witch Doctors suggest that they willingly spring the trap in order to free the souls contained in the jar from their torment.
260* TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening: Most of the player classes (particularly the Witch Doctor, Barbarian, and Demon Hunter) seem to have unlocked their Nephalem potentials in reaction to the deaths of loved ones. The Monk and Wizard, by contrast, may have done it through practice and meditation.
261* TreacherousQuestGiver: [[spoiler:Adria, the Witch of Tristram]] sends you on a questline involving the [[spoiler:Black Soulstone]], which takes up the better part of the second act and all of the third, involving [[spoiler:resurrecting the ancient Horadric betrayer who first created it, wresting the Stone from his hands, and then using it to trap the souls of the remaining Great Evils, Belial and Azmodan. The other five Evils were already marked and drawn into the stone by Adria herself]]. Now, why would [[spoiler:Adria]] be so hell-bent upon [[spoiler:getting all seven of the Great Evils into that stone]]? As it turns out, [[spoiler:she's the agent of Diablo himself, and seeks to use the stone to resurrect him as the Prime Evil, the embodiment of all seven Evils in one being, in accordance with Diablo's grand plan. And the vessel that Adria uses for her master's resurrection? Her daughter Leah, whose father is none other than the Dark Wanderer, Diablo's old host]].
262* TrickArrow: Many Demon Hunter skills.
263* TurnsRed: In the premiere gameplay video, the Barbarian fights the Thousand Pounder mini-boss. At half health, he turns black with glowing tattoos and becomes much faster.
264* TheTurretMaster: The Demon Hunter has an ability to drop a sentry turret.
265* {{Twinking}}: Deals with this in various ways:
266** Players have a BagOfSharing across all characters on the same account to [[AntiFrustrationFeatures obviate the need for mule characters]].
267** Blacksmith, Jeweler, and Mystic upgrades carry over between characters.
268** As of version 2.0, Paragon points, bonuses unlocked after reaching the level {{Cap}}, apply between characters.
269** Loot is [[LevelLockedLoot level locked]], with certain particularly-prized items being flagged "account bound" to allow them to be traded between characters but not players, to keep Twinking from being too OP. However, the possibility of a "Reduced Level Requirements" attribute on gear means that [[LoopholeAbuse characters can still equip gear orders of magnitude more powerful than what "should" be available at their level.]]
270** The Auction House was flooded with [[DiscOneNuke powerful Reduced Level Requirement gear]] in the 1.X version of the game. By the time it started dropping, the character finding it no longer needed the reduced requirements, and the attribute took up a slot that could be filled with something useful, so there was no incentive ''not'' to sell.
271** The 2.0 patch [[ObviousRulePatch closed the Auction House]] and increased the quality of RandomDrops to compensate.
272** A Legendary Gem, the [[http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Gem_of_Ease Gem of Ease]], reduces the level requirement of any weapon it is socketed into to 1. Yes, you can now hand that ultra-powerful legendary of awesome to your brand-new character.[[note]]It's been speculated that this was to put pressure on "power-leveling" and "farming" businesses.[[/note]]
273*** Taken even further with [[SlicesDicesAndMakesJulienneFries Kanai's Cube]]--stick a level 25 version of the Gem of Ease plus the item you want to augment in the cube and...presto! That kick-ass InfinityPlusOneSword set you built now can be used by your level 1 alt-account without taking up property slots or being restricted to weapons with sockets like the gem was originally. Consumes the Gem, but if you are doing this most likely getting a new version of the Gem to level 25 would be easy anyway.
274* TwoFacedAside: The Scoundrel has a personality that can easily apply these.
275--> '''Lyndon''': Fair price indeed! ''[aside]'' You're getting swindled!

Top