Life

Life represents the maximum amount of hit points that a character can have.

Life is affected by some magic items and by Vitality. After taking damage, the number of current hit points is decreased. When it reaches 0, you die.

Diablo II

Diablo I Life orb

Diablo II Life Orb

In Diablo II, life can be replenished by the use of Healing Potions and Rejuvenation Potions. Healing potions heal over time while Rejuvenation potions act instantly.

Life can also be increased permanently by use of certain elixirs prepared by talented alchemists like Alkor in Kurast, who increased the player's life permanently by 20.

Note that you cannot die from poison, because poison can only lower your hit points to 1. Your hireling and all other entities lacking immunity, however, can be killed through poison.

Diablo III

Diablo III Life Orb

In Diablo III, you can heal to full life by talking to a priest (symbolized by a heart on your map). Armor and Resistances play in determining how long you can stand against the minions of Hell and increase your Toughness. Recovery (a.k.a. Healing) meta-stat shows an approximate average amount of Toughness (not Life) that is regained per second from all sources.

One can increase base Life by getting either Vitality or + Life % attributes from items and Paragon levels. Vitality can be rolled on any items in game, while Life % can only be rolled on helms, amulets, shoulderpads, chestplates and rings. The total bonus to Life % from items is limited to 108% (200% with the help of Legendary items). Amethyst gems in a helm socket may also add up to +23% Life (up to double with the aid of Leoric's Crown). One should be careful about increasing Life over Armor and Resistances, though; while a higher amount of Life allows them to take more punishment than gathering protection might some of the time, it is also much harder to replenish a great deal of said Life in the field. This last point is seen in an easier form if you choose to not go with a passive skill that grants a form of healing based on your Life. To name an example, a Barbarian with skills like Warcry could use the passive skill Inspiring Presence, which grants him/her and nearby allies a bonus to Life Regeneration that improves as their Life maximum reaches new heights.

There are many ways to regain lost Life in Diablo III:

Main article: Healing

• Life Steal (% of damage dealt goes to Life; removed in Reaper of Souls)
• Life on Hit (heals fixed amount of Life for each attack)
• Life per Kill (heals a fixed anount of Life for each enemy killed, regardless of how tough that enemy was)
• Life Regeneration aka Life per Second (heals fixed amount of Life per second)
• Life per resource spent (heals fixed amount of Life for each point of primary resource consumed by skills)
• Certain skills (like Templar's healing or Breath of Heaven)
• Healing Potions (instantly heal 60% of maximum Life, cooldown of 30 seconds)
• Health Globes (drop from monsters, heal 1-100% of maximum Life)
• Healing Wells (restore 100% Life when used, but need 60 seconds to recharge)
• Pools of Reflection (restore 100% Life when used, but do not recharge)
• Leveling up (fully restores Life and all resources)
• Speaking to a priest in town (marked with red heart on the map) (fully restores Life)