PK Protections in Diablo II
Player Killing was virtually uncontrolled in Diablo I, with full
friendly fire damage from spells or projectiles. There was a war/peace switch to click that allowed melee combat to hit, but it wasn't something that most
Sorcerers or
Rogues even needed to bother with. Diablo II was designed to allow non-consensual
PVP, but added some limitations to make it more sporting and give protections to players who didn't want to engage in PvP.
- Friendly fire was eliminated in Diablo II.
- Players could only declare hostility in town.
- Damage dealt in PvP is only a fraction of the full damage counted in PvM.
There were more anti-PKing fixes added in patches as well.
- A feature was added so that the PK's town portal closed the instant he went hostile, preventing quick trips back to the dungeons.
- A timer was added to "going hostile" that gave players additional time to prepare or escape before attack.
- Spells with a length duration were tweaked so that they would not deal huge damage to other players, if the caster went hostile while the spell was already in place.