Skeleton King (Diablo I)

"King of strong bone."

The Skeleton King is a Unique undead enemy.

Diablo I
The Skeleton King's model differs from other undead enemy types in Diablo I. He is a skeleton, but is much taller, wears a and wields a huge two-handed sword. In Single Player games with the quest, he appears in a mini-level called King Leoric's Tomb which is accessible from Level 3. After pulling the necessary lever to open his chamber, he attacks the player with a small company of skeletons. The King can create more skeletons to replace the ones that fall in battle, so the player should make him their primary target.

In multiplayer games, Leoric will appear anywhere on the third floor itself. A dead giveaway to where he is often lies in the massive horde of skeletons around him. Players should be especially careful if the Skeleton King is surrounded by a great gang of Skeleton Archers; this usually leads to a great deal of arrows fired in the hero's general direction, often resulting in worrisome amounts of damage in a quick timeframe. In these times it's advantageous to wear armor giving -Damage from enemies to prevent the health from rapidly going down. If the player can get rid of the archers somehow, be it through luring the King himself, or outright destroying them, he will not be as hard. He is however, considerably more powerful than the monsters around him, and will take much more damage to kill. It should also be warned that Leoric's attacks possess 100% Life Stealing, that is to say, every single point of damage he inflicts on the player is returned to him as Life up to his maximum, it may even exceed the maximum this way. The King is quite weak however, against the Spell Holy Bolt and fine quality Hammers which will make a short work of him. As a quest reward in Single Player he drops The Undead Crown. The great effect this item gives is a Life-Steal that stacks with other life-stealing abilities like Leech and Blood.

Quotes

 * "The warmth of life has entered my tomb. Prepare yourself, mortal, to serve my Master for eternity! (laughs)"

Diablo III
The Skeleton King re-appears in the Anniversary Dungeon of Diablo III, once again dropping Undead Crown upon defeat. He is likewise accompanied by lots of Skeletons who he can reanimate.

He does not use his model from the game itself, but instead fights with a sword.

Trivia

 * He is voiced by Chris Metzen.
 * In Diablo III's The Darkening of Tristram event, there is a glitch with the effect of his charged swing and death "explosion" where instead of his sword, it'll display his mace from his Diablo III version.