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| Character Information | Character Attributes | Character Titles |

Character Names
Character Names must be between 2 and 15 characters. Characters Names may only have upper and lower case letters (A-Z). In addition, names may have one dash ( - ) or one underscore ( _ ) as long as it is not the first or last character of the name. Finally, there are no spaces and no numbers allowed in Diablo II Character Names.

Character Level, Experience, and Allocating Stats and Skill Points
When a character levels up by earning enough experience points (from killing monsters), the "Level Up" and "New Skill" buttons appear at the bottom left and right corners of the screen. When in a safe situation, click on the buttons to bring up the Character Attributes and the Skill Tree to allocate the points.

Each time you level up, you may distribute 5 attribute points among your 4 attributes - Strength, which affects damage, Dexterity, which affects the ability to hit and avoid attacks, Vitality, which affects life, and Energy, which affects mana. Click on the "+" button next to an attribute to increment that attribute.

Each time you level up, you may add 1 point to an available skill. Available skills satisfy both a player level requirement and any skill prerequisites higher up on the tree. Click on all 3 tabs and sweep your cursor over the available skills (appearing in bright white) to review their descriptions and detailed effects before making your selection.

See a list of Levels and Experience here

What Happens When Your Character Dies?
Much like in real life, death is something you should strive to avoid in Diablo II. If your Life rating is reduced to zero during the game, you have died.

If you are killed by a monster, your character loses a percentage of the total gold both carried and stored in the Stash. The percentage is equal to your character level but will not exceed 20%. After deducting the death penalty from the gold your character is carrying, the rest falls to the ground in a pile. If the penalty uses up the gold being carried, the remainder of the penalty is deducted from the Stash.

However, in Single Player the death penalty will not take away all your gold. No gold is taken from the Stash and 500 gold per character level is exempt from the death penalty. For example, if a level 10 Single Player character with 5,000 gold dies, no gold is lost.

If you are killed by another player (PKed), your character does not drop the gold being carried, but instead drops the amount of gold that would be lost if you had been killed by a monster. This prevents a player killer (PK) from taking the gold you are carrying. Of course, in this case the gold dropped comes from your stash too.

As an additional death penalty, in Nightmare and Hell difficulty levels your character loses some experience, but will not drop down to a lower character level.

When you press the Esc key you will restart in town. However, your corpse remains at the location where you died. You will have to return to your corpse in order to retrieve the gear that you had equipped when you died. When you find your corpse again (hint: when you are near it, your corpse appears as the purple "X" on your Automap) left-click on it to re-equip your items. Make sure you have room in your inventory to pick up all the items on your corpse. If you do not have room, you will not be able to fully loot your corpse until you free up some more space. You should also collect any gold you might have dropped when you died.

If your character currently has no corpse, one is created and your equipped items stay on your corpse. If your character already has a corpse, equipped items simply fall to the ground along with gold. Be warned about equipping valuable equipment when you already have a corpse out in the field. If you die, your items will fall to the ground allowing anyone to take them. Unequipped items always remain in your inventory.

When you find your corpse, click on it to loot it of all equipped items. Only you (and those you permit) may loot your corpse.

After re-equipping the items from your corpse, you may wish to verify that you are using your primary weapon of choice and not your "backup" equipment or an item accidently picked up nearby, or from the area surrounding your corpse.

If you exit a game without retrieving your corpse, it will be placed in town in the next game you create or join.

NOTE: If your character was created "Hardcore", it is never reincarnated - you simply find yourself as a ghost in the Battle.net chat channel. Hardcore characters cannot create or join games once they have died.

Warning on recovering your corpse
If you use +Strength or +Dexterity items to allow you to wear other pieces of equipment or weapons, you may have to manually reequip these items after death. When you click on your corpse, an attempt is made to reequip your items where they were before. However, if for example, an item that requires more than your base Strength (such as Armor) is attempted to be placed on your character before another item that gives +Strength which allows that armor, then that item can't and won't be placed on your character and will instead will fall into your inventory. If you do not have room in your inventory it will remain on the corpse. In this situation you will have looted and will be wearing all items you have room for, and your corpse will still exist with the items that couldn't be placed on your character or inventory.

Warning: If you die while your corpse is still on the ground you may drop important items that you have just recovered from your corpse. This happens because any items you are wearing while a corpse already exists will be dropped to the ground. It is therefor extremely important to make room in your inventory for weapons or items before attempting to retrieve your body. When your belt comes off, your potions can quickly fill your inventory. Free up plenty of space in your inventory before looting your body. Keep this in mind especially in player vs player situations where another player might steal any of your items if you happen to die while you are in the process of equipping your items with an existing corpse.

Having Difficulty recovering your corpse?
If your corpse is located in an area where it is too dangerous to retrieve, or if you simply can't find your body, you can simplify matters by exiting and re-entering the game. When you do so, your corpse and all of its items will appear near your starting location in town. The drawback to this method is that you will lose any gold that your character had dropped upon death. This is even an option to advanced players playing on Nightmare and Hell Difficulty levels where deaths result in lost experience. When you die it's safer to exit and re-join the game to get your corpse if there are dangerous enemies around your body.

Character Saving/Loading and Corpses
Periodically, Battle.net automatically saves every character playing in all Diablo II games. Your character is also saved when you choose "Save and Exit Game" from the 'Esc' Menu. If you die and leave a game without retrieving your corpse, at the beginning of the next game you start or join your corpse is placed in (or just outside) the town.

The character save data includes Character Attributes, Inventory, Skills, Skill Hot keys, Control Configuration, Waypoints Activated, the character's Corpse (if there is one), the list of completed Quests, and the contents of the character's Stash.

Your character has several Attributes corresponding to the abilities he or she will use during the game. Each character Class starts out with different starting values to represent training they have already had.

There is no limit on the points you can put into a single Attribute. However, you only receive 5 attribute points per level (plus one quest that gives 5 additional attribute points as a reward), so there is a finite amount of attribute points that you can earn.

Strength: affects how much damage you do when attacking and what armor you can equip. Displayed near your Strength is your attack damage rating associated with the actions you have selected for the Left and Right Action Icons. 170 Strength is the maximum Strength required to wield any weapon or don any armor. Additional Strength over 170 will give only minor increases in damage so points will probably be best spent elsewhere. Paladins and Barbarians are the classes that will need to wear the heaviest armor in the game, so they are the only classes that really should increase their strength all the way to 170, although there is nothing to stop the other classes from increasing their strength to that point as well. Amazon Bows will never require more than 95 Strength so they may not want to spend any more points past 95 although you might want to go higher for better Belts and Armor. Necromancers and Sorceresses typically want at least 60 Strength to equip Belts with 16 slots to hold their many Mana Potions, but they can also devote more points to Strength to wear Armor that offers more protection. Before spending too many of your hard won attribute points, remember that many magical armors have reduced Strength requirements, so a character can get by with much less Strength than this if they are choosy about their items. You will have to use up one of the Magical Attributes on that Armor, however, which may not be as much of an issue if you find a Rare Piece of Armor with up to 5 Magical attributes.

All characters can wear items that give additional Strength. This is something you should look into when wanting to use an item that you do not yet meet the requirements for.
 

Attack Damage - The first Attack Damage field represents the damage for the action that's currently selected in your Left Action Icon, while the second Attack Damage field represents the Right Action Icon. Whether the action is an attack, a skill, or a spell, the damage displayed in the field represents the current action. The higher the number the more damage your character will do per attack. If a field is blank, then the action selected in that slot does not directly cause any damage.

For Throwing Weapons, Melee Weapons:

Final_Min_Damage = Weapon_Min_Damage * (Str+100)/100
Final_Max_Damage = Weapon_Max_Damage * (Str+100)/100

For Bows and Crossbows:

Final_Min_Damage = Weapon_Min_Damage * (Dex+100)/100
Final_Max_Damage = Weapon_Max_Damage * (Dex+100)/100
 

Attack Ratings - The first Attack Rating field represents the attack rating for the action that is selected in your Left Action Icon, while the second field represents the Right Action Icon. The higher the value the more often your character will hit in battle. Magical attacks or non-combat skills do not have attack ratings and, if such a skill is currently selected in an Action Icon, the associated field will be blank.

Melee fighters need enough to hit often enough to kill without being killed. An estimate would be between 50 and 75%. If you are a melee fighter and you feel you are missing monsters too much, add more points to Dexterity or find/gamble a Dexterity-boosting item. If the monsters are much higher level than your character you should also level up to a level above the monsters to have a better chance of hitting them.

Chance to Hit for Melee Attacks: 100*AR/(AR+DR) * 2*alvl/(alvl+dlvl)

AR = Attack Rating, alvl = Level of Attacker, dlvl = Level of Defender.

If you remove all your equipment that affect Defense or Attack Rating: Attack Rating = -28 + Dex*4

For any melee attack there is never less than a 5% chance to hit and never more than 95% chance to hit.

Defense Rating represents how well your character can evade being hit in combat. The higher the value the less often your character will be hit. Highlighting the Defense Rating field with your cursor will display the percentage chance needed for a creature of your level to successfully hit you.

If you remove all your equipment that affect Defense or Attack Rating:

Defense = Dex/4 (round down)

For any melee attack there is never less than a 5% chance to hit and never more than 95% chance to hit.

Will a Higher Defense Rating Reduce the Amount of Damage Received when hit?
No, A higher defense means there is less chance a monster will hit you.

I put on armor that has a Defense Rating of 100 but my characters overall Defense Rating goes up by 200. Why?
Your Dexterity bonus might account for this, as might passive skills (such as Barbarian Iron skin) or any magical bonuses that boost defense rating by a percent.
 

Stamina affects how far you can run. Having more stamina means you can run farther before tiring out.

Life is the amount of damage your character can endure before he or she will die. Life does not regenerate by itself, and must be replenished through healing potions, items that Replenish Life, or by visiting a healer.

Energy determines how much Mana your character possesses.

Mana is your character's essence. Each time certain skills are used, such as the Sorceress' Fire Bolt or the Barbarian's Double Swing, some of this mana is consumed.

Mana Regeneration Formula
The Formula to calculate how much Mana is regenerated per second is:

25*[[256*max_mana/(25*120)]*(100+"+% mana regeneration")/100]/256

The [ ] brackets are used for rounding down.

For example, we have 900 Mana and level 20 Warmth (+258%) we get 26.5625 Mana/second.

25*[[(256*900)/(25*120)]*(100+258)/100]/256

25*[[230400/3000]*(358)/100]/256

25*[(76)*(3.58)]/256

25*[272]/256 = 26.5625 Mana/second

Adding more Mana is a good way to increase Mana Regeneration.

Stamina

Stamina affects how far you can run. Having more stamina means you can run farther before tiring out.

Heavier Armors drain Stamina Faster
Armor does have an effect on Stamina. Heavier Armors cause you to drain Stamina faster. If you're having serious problems with Stamina drop back one level of Armor such as from Medium Armor to Light Armor. So a player with Ring Mail should switch down to Studded Leather Armor.

Quilted Armor/Ghost Armor - Light
Leather Armor/Serpentskin Armor - Light
Hard Leather Armor/Demonhide Armor - Light
Studded Leather Armor/Trellised Armor - Light
Breast Plate/Cuirass - Light
Light Plate/Mage Plate - Light

Ring Mail/Linked Mail - Medium
Chain Mail/Mesh Armor - Medium
Splint Mail/Russet Armor - Medium
Field Plate/Sharktooth Armor - Medium
Gothic Plate/Embossed Plate - Medium
Ancient Armor/Ornate Armor - Medium

Scale Mail/Tigulated Mail - Heavy
Plate Mail/Templar Coat - Heavy
Full Plate/Chaos Armor - Heavy

How does one fix Stamina Problems?
Sometimes you find yourself running out of Stamina too quickly. You can balance this with Magic items that add to Max Stamina and that regenerate Stamina faster. Also next time you level up, devote more points to Vitality.

Other Stamina Replenishing Options
Stamina Shrines will give you unlimited Stamina for a limited time. Stamina Shrines regenerate so you can come back and use them again.

You can find items of Pacing, Haste, Speed, and Unique and Set items that increase walking and running speed These items do not take any additional Stamina and allow your character to walk or run faster.

Boots with the Magical Attribute Tireless will reduce the amount of Stamina Drain.

The Barbarian has Passive Combat Skills which Increased Stamina and Increased Speed of the Barbarian. He can also use the Warcry Battle Orders which can increase Max Stamina, Life and Mana and can be shared with a party or friendly Hirelings.

The Paladin has a Defensive Aura called Vigor which increases Stamina Recovery Rate, Maximum Stamina and Speed.