Treasure Goblin

The Treasure Hunter is a dungeon-exploring semi-monster who is a new addition to the Diablo gameplay experience. He runs very quickly, dropping gold as he moves and whenever hit by a character's attacks. If killed he drops numerous items of a quality and quantity similar to that of a transcendent chest.

Despite his name, it's not clear if he can steal from players or actually take items from chests, or if he's just a sort of moving chest who does not affect or impact the other treasure drops available in the dungeon.

Gameplay

First sighted in the playable demo at Blizzcon 2010, the Treasure Hunter is a small, shiny, loudly-giggling, rat-like humanoid with a huge sack of loot over one shoulder and extremely quick foot speed. He is technically a monster, but he does not attack characters or deal any sort of damage. Instead he is basically a moving treasure chest, one that drops a constant shower of gold and occasional items, and will drop lots of high quality items if you manage to run him down and kill him.

The Treasure Hunter is a sort of Easter Egg, since he's fun and diverting, and not a danger. The character is reminiscent of the Thief in the arcade classic Gauntlet II, except that he doesn't steal from you, and is purely a fun bonus diversion.

The TH is slow at first, giggling loudly and gleaming in the light to draw the eye, as does the shiny trickle of gold he's constantly dropping. He generally lets players get in a hit or two, before activating his super fast movement and darting some distance away. He's there to tease, not to escape, and he always stops just at the edge of the visible screen, where he continues laughing and screeching and making all sorts of comical, attention-getting, goblin type noises.

If the player pursues him, the Treasure Hunter will allow another hit to be landed before darting off again, dropping gold the whole while and running in semi-random directions.

He's very quick, far faster on foot than any character, and his erratic movement, and tendency to lead the player into large mobs, makes him hard to kill, especially for melee characters. Ranged attackers have an easier time nailing him from a distance, but his poor pathfinding makes him killable for any character who puts in the effort. Eventually the Treasure Hunter will run into a corner or a cul-de-sac and yield to melee strikes.

Escape Portal?

Escape Portal?

In the Blizzcon 2010 gameplay movie, the Treasure Hunter is seen casting some sort of dark purple/orange portal. It's not clear what this behavior does; if he's stealing items from the chests and sending them away to his hideout, or if he's preparing to escape. More study is required to understand his full suite of behaviors.

Blizzcon 2010 Crafting Sanctuary Panel

Treasure Hunter wanted poster.

The Treasure Hunter was briefly discussed during the 2010 Blizzcon Crafting Sanctuary Panel, where the developers urged players to "beat the candy out of him" if and when we spotted the little guy. They also presented a wanted poster with his face on it; a useful presentation since there's no way to get a good look at his visage in the actual game.

Most players assumed he was humanoid; like a twisted old man, but apparently he's some sort of demonic rat-like creature?

It's unknown if this type of enemy will be found in some/many/most/all dungeons in Diablo III, or if there are higher quality versions, or they ever appear in larger numbers.