Chain Lightning (Diablo I)

Chain Lightning  is a Lightning spell in Diablo I, a more potent variant of.

General Information
Chain Lightning functions differently than its versions in other games: instead of creating a lightning bolt that jumps from one enemy to another, it conjures multiple lightnings from the single point (the character).

Mana cost is, predictably, much higher than that of Lightning, to compensate the devastating damage potential.

This spell creates several concentrated bolts of lightning (identical to the single Lightnings released by the simpler spell), each aiming automatically at monsters. They can hit foes to the left and right, but not behind the caster. One bolt will always hit the designated cast point or foe.

It will hit every monster in a straight line until finishing its course on a solid wall. At higher levels, it is quite damaging and the automatic-targeting range is expanded, launching a stream of lightning towards nearly every enemy in the vicinity.

This spell is, effectively, the one that can deal the most damage per cast. Range is calculated without regard for walls or other obstacles, and range increases with more points in the spell, as does the damage per bolt. The game's engine will only display 255 sprites at once, and since each bolt from the Chain Lightning creates quite a few sprites, numerous "gaps" appear in the bolts. As a result, some strategy is required to use Chain Lightning effectively.

With Infravision, players might know where the monsters are around them, whether they are on the other side of a wall or not. If yes, one should stand against that wall (so that bolts do not target enemies they cannot hit).

The damage from each bolt is calculated multiple times per bolt, as they appear to move past. Each bolt does a hit check each 0.05 seconds, for a total of [Spell Level/2] + 6 times per bolt. Damage is not blockable.

Damage Calculation:
 * Minimum Damage: 4
 * Maximum Damage: 4 + 2 x Character Level
 * Real Damage: Random[1-Character Level] + Random[1-2] + 2
 * Number of Bolts: 1 + numbers of monsters in range (minimum 6)
 * Range: 2 + Spell Level (maximum 18)
 * Speed: 32
 * Duration: ([Spell Level/2] + 6)/20 seconds