Diablo 1 HD Hellfire Mod | Awake

Just started this mod and I can't get the combat text to show up for some reason. It's turned on in the options but still does nothing. Am I missing something?

You mean the monster descriptions? You'll only get the bare minimum (name, type [undead, beast, or demon]) until you kill 15 of them; after you kill 30 you get all of the info available.
It'll be on the top of the screen. The original Diablo had it fill in that blank space at the bottom but for some reason it doesn't do that here.

No, I mean the actual scrolling combat text. e.g. damage done and xp gained

I guess combat text doesn't work for 2560x1440. When I set it to 1920x1080 it worked.