Monster

Monsters are one of the main attractions in Diablo III, or at least the opportunity to kill them is. See the Monsters Category for a listing of all the known monsters in Diablo III. There is also a brief list below. In addition to monsters, there is more of the basic Diablo III information available in the Diablo 3 Basics article.

Improvements

The D3 team has created a huge variety of monsters for our slaughtering pleasure, and the denizens of the underworld are customized, personalized, and quite versatile. Bosses have been greatly upgraded in appearance and size, and the AI has been improved as well.

Monster Types

It's not yet known how monsters are classified in Diablo III. There are monsters seen in the early screenshots and gameplay movie that look to be animals, and quite a few undead, and others that might be demons, but there's no telling if that Diablo II classification system will be reused in Diablo III. We're tentatively referring to the monsters by their apparent demon/undead/animal genus, for the sake of easier organization, but do not take that as evidence that they'll be sorted by those types in the game.

Bosses

Thousand Pounder (Gluttony Incarnate)

How bosses will be distributed through the game is not yet known, and still something the design team is working on. They may follow something like the D2 system of a few [1] and lots of random bosses, or they may break away from that tradition. What we do know is that the bosses will be huge, and have a lot of individual styling. One boss battle is shown at the end of the WWI 2008 gameplay movie, and it's an amazing fight against the Siegebreaker Assault Beast, an enemy far larger than all of Diablo II's act bosses put together.

Behavior

Monsters are going to be smarter and more varied in their behaviours in Diablo III. The D3 team wants to force players to play smarter, and use tactics other than simply rushing to kill the monsters as soon as they are sighted. So some creatures have very powerful attacks that need to be avoided, others work very well in groups, others run away if threatened or only attack in packs, and so forth.

Component System

This term referred to the way monsters of the same type in Diablo II could appear different. Skeletons spawned with different types of weapons, armor, shields, and so forth, just to give the demonic legions some variety in their appearance. The different equipment wasn't purely superficial either; it went along with logical changes to the monster's damage or defense.

This technique is being used in Diablo III, and while details haven't yet been revealed, the team has mentioned their plans to use graphical tweaks and palette shifts to give the monsters some variety.

List of Known Monsters

Here is a list of all the monsters in brief. Click on their names for further information about them.

SuperUniques

In lack of a name of "boss type" units, we are calling them SuperUniques for now.

Siegebreaker Assault Beast

"Living siege Engine of Hell". The Siege Breaker is an absolutely massive "miniboss" shown in the WWI 2008 gameplay video. It's apparent that Blizzard is taking the gameplay with even the minor bosses to a whole new level in Diablo III! We don't know if he's a random encounter or not, but this big bad-ass is found in Leoric Highlands.

Thousand Pounder

Inside the forgotten Tombs of the WWI 2008 gameplay video, we got familiar with the Thousand Pounder, a boss with apparent random monster attributes (Gluttony & Incarnate), as he was summoned in to the scene. He's also seen in concept art work, and looks more like an overly powerful monster than an actual type of boss, like a SuperUnique.

Standard Monsters

Even the "standard" monsters of Diablo III comes in many different shapes and forms, and employs different types of obstacles for the player.

Activated Vessel

Scary looking humanoid demonic creation made from willing Dark Vessels. Activated Vessels are mutated, half-demonic things who fight furiously and move very quickly. It's a good idea to kill off the Dark Vessels before they can activate, if at all possible.

Beast

Beasts are large, buffalo-like herd beasts seen in the plains areas of Diablo III. They have a very fast charging attack, and gore with their huge tusks up close, though the few seen in the WWI 2008 gameplay movie died pretty easily. They're not just animals either; they've been mutated by Diablo (or someone?) to become monstrous.

Berserker

Berserkers are the muscle of their evil, demon-worshiping cult. They are massive, powerful men who wear hoods and loincloths and carry huge mauls, with which they are happy to bash your brains in. Berserkers have a special overhead smashing attack, which they telegraph by powering up their mauls with a reddish glow. Their overhead attack is highly damaging, but if you dodge it the Berserker will hit the floor so hard their maul breaks through the stone and gets stuck there.

Crawling Torso

Crawling Torsos are one of the more disturbing monsters we've yet seen. They are the upper half of a Walking Corpse, a type of zombie. If the walking corpse is killed with a powerful hit, it will die completely. If it's only hit with a glancing blow though, it will break in half, and the upper body will become... A crawling torso.

Cultist

Cultists are human mages who spawn with Berserkers. Cultists are very weak, but they can shoot fireball projectiles and summon powerful Dark Demons, so it's wise to bypass the hulking Berserkers to kill the Cultists as quickly as possible.

Cultists can be recognized from Dark Vessels by their lack of a staff. Vessels have a long staff which curls at the end, on which they lean while summoning up the demons by which they are possessed.

Dark Demon

These odd, half-skeletal creatures are summoned from raw, red manhole-like openings in the ground by Dark Cultists. They are quadrupedal, and look a bit like a dog crossed with a crocodile, then turned inside out. They are quick of foot, but appear to possess only melee attacks.