Do You Need the Diablo II Disc to Play Lord of Destruction?

No. Diablo II: Lord of Destruction (LoD) is an expansion pack. It requires the base game Diablo II to be installed, but not the physical disc in the drive if you meet one condition:

• Digital Ownership (Battle.net / GoG): If you own Diablo II + LoD on Battle.net (now Battle.net App) or GOG.com, you download and install both. No disc ever needed.
• Disc Install + No-CD Patch (Legacy): If you installed from discs years ago, the game expects the Diablo II Play Disc (Disc 1) in the drive on launch. You can use a No-CD Fixed EXE (for your exact version, e.g., 1.13c, 1.14d) to play disc-free. Note: This modifies game files; use at own risk.
• Modern Patch (1.14+ / 2.0+): Blizzard’s later patches (post-2016) removed the disc check for many regions. If fully patched via Battle.net, it may run without disc.

How It Works

Installing LoD merges into your existing Diablo II install folder. It adds Act 5, new classes (Druid, Assassin), runewords, crafting, and raises level cap to 99. It becomes one unified game executable (Game.exe or D2R.exe for Resurrected).

Diablo II: Resurrected (2021) is a separate remaster — buy it digitally; no discs involved.