Phandebrass was created about 15 years before Diablo 3. If anything, Blizzard is copying me.
By the way, the name "Phandebrass" is a nod to a friend back in Northern Virginia who used to play AD&D with us. Phandebrass the Unusual was his magic-user.
I'll never forget those hours we "tried" to play, but Pat kept us all rolling on the floor unable to breathe because of that insane magician. Never did we have so much fun trying for two hours to get out of a room.
The speech patterns Phandebrass uses aren't Pat's, though, because Pat played Phandebrass as a completely (well...occasionally) harmless insane wizard with an unhealthy obsession with bunnies and the world's largest collection of string. I could never hope to copy that level of sheer chaos.
We once played a Dragonlace campaign, and he played a Kender.
It was...a nightmare. But in a good way.
Just another guy from the shallow end of the gene pool.