D2 took some ideas from of other things(gauntlet especially) but definately improved upon them substantially. Divine Divinity would never have existed if it werne't for Diablo so you have to compare the two, since it is obvious what they were thinking of when they made the battle and item system. It's not like DD/BD was thinking of gauntlet or some other game. I not bashing BD either because I liked both games but just think they could have been twice as good if they fixed some things.
