Hero specialty

Hero specialty is a characteristic of every hero that typically improves their performance in combat. Specialties can be categorized into five primary types (i.e. secondary skills, spells, creatures, war machine and production).

Secondary skill specialties

Common Secondary skill specialties

Common secondary skill specialties increase the secondary skill by 5% per level. The formula for the calculation is as follows:

FORMULA:  A x (0,05 x B + 1) = BONUS 

  where   A = Secondary skill's effect percentage
          B = Level of the hero

EXAMPLE:  A = 30%
          B = 20
          
          30% x (0,05 x 20 + 1) =
          30% x (1 + 1)         = 60%

From the example above we can see, that a level 20 hero who has 30% ability due their secondary skill (e.g. Crag Hack with expert Offense) would actually gain +60% in total.

List of Common Secondary skill specialty Heroes

Hero	Skill
Orrin Murdoch	Archery
Mephala Neela Tazar Dury	Armorer
Geon Malcom Nimbus Oris Sanya Serena Tiva	Eagle Eye
Lord Haart	Estates
Gem Rion Verdish Floribert	First Aid
Andra Ayden Elleshar	Intelligence
Giselle	Interference
Kinkeria	Learning
Dessa Gunnar Kyrre	Logistics
Axsis Halon Jaegar Rosic	Mysticism
Sylvia Voy Elmore	Navigation
Isra Vidomina	Necromancy
Crag Hack Gundula Corkes Tavin	Offense
Thorgrim	Resistance
Gird Malekith Sandro Styg Zydar Spint	Sorcery

Unique Secondary Skill specialities

The secondary skill specialty of some heroes doesn't apply a 5% bonus per level.

List of Unique Secondary skill specialty Heroes

Hero	Skill	Effect
Beatrice Miriam Wynona	Scouting	Increases the scouting radius by 1 every 6 levels.
Adrienne	Fire Magic	Starts with Expert Fire Magic.
Melchior	Diplomacy	Receives a 5% per level bonus to Diplomacy skill percentage only when surrendering.

Spell specialties

All heroes who specialize in a spell start with it.

Common spell specialty

The normal/common spell specialty increases the efficiency of the spell (after spell power and base spell effect is calculated) by 3% per level, divided by target creature's level. It can be visualised with the following formula: C*(1+0.03 * L / n) , where n is the creature's level, L is the hero's level and C is the base effect of the spell (including spell power and the appropriate magic skill's effects).

List of Common spell specialty Heroes

Hero	Spell
Ziph	Lightning Bolt
Dargem	Air Shield
Astral	Hypnotize
Solmyr	Chain Lightning
Septienna	Death Ripple
Thant	Animate Dead
Aislinn Deemer	Meteor Shower
Alamar Jeddite	Resurrection
Xarfax Manfred	Fireball
Victoria	Land Mine
Wrathmont	Frenzy
Xyron	Inferno
Uland Astra	Cure
Alagar	Ice Bolt
Adelaide	Frost Ring

Unique spell specialty

The spell specialty of some heroes changes the base spell in a unique way.

List of Unique spell specialty Heroes

Hero	Spell	Effect
Adela	Bless	In addition to the normal effect, the spell also increases damage of the target unit based on the following equation: base damage * 0.03 * hero level / unit level Example: At level 18 Adela will provide a 54% damage bonus to halberdiers, 27% to marksmen, 18% to royal griffins, 13.5% to crusaders, 10.8% to zealots, 9% to champions, and 7.1% to archangels.
Cyra Terek Brissa	Haste	Regardless of hero level, increases the effect of the spell: +3 points to the effect for level 1-2 creatures +2 points to the effect for level 3-4 creatures +1 point to the effect for level 5-6 creatures
Loynis	Prayer
Zubin	Precision
Xsi Darkstorn Merist Labetha	Stone Skin
Ash Inteus	Bloodlust
Cuthbert Olema Mirlanda Eanswythe	Weakness
Daremyth Melodia	Fortune	Always give +3 luck, regardless of the Air Magic expertise or hero level.
Ciele	Magic Arrow	Increases the damage of the spell by 50%, regardless of hero level.
Luna	Fire Wall	Increases the damage of the spell by 100% (25% ), regardless of hero level.
Aenain	Disrupting Ray	+2 points to the effect, regardless of hero level.
Eovacius	Clone	The first time it is cast in a given battle, an extra clone appears.
Coronius	Slayer	Regardless of hero level, increases the effect of the spell: +4 points to the effect for level 1 creatures +3 points to the effect for level 2 creatures +2 points to the effect for level 3 creatures +1 point to the effect for level 4 creatures
Zilare	Forgetfulness	Spell duration is doubled.

Creature specialties

There are five types of creature specialties: Fixed stat creature specialties, creature upgrade specialties, Dragons specialty, standard creature specialties and creature ability specialties .

Heroes who specialize in level 1-2 creatures (as well as Gelu, Dracon, Tark and Frederick ) have their entire starting army consisting of 3 stacks of the creatures they specialize in.

Heroes who specialize in level 3 creatures (as well as Bron, Illor and Todd ) have their specialized creature stack in their starting army instead of 2nd level creatures.

Creature specialties apply to both upgraded and unupgraded units. The only exception to this is Catherine (in Shadow of Death ), who only specializes in Crusaders and not Swordsman (this was fixed in Horn of the Abyss ).

Fixed stat creature specialties

These specialties are only present in banned-by-default campaign heroes and Planeswalkers. Fixed stat creature specialties provide a fixed bonus to attack, defense, damage, and/or speed, regardless of hero level.

List of Fixed stat creature specialty Heroes

Hero	Creature	Attack	Defense	Damage	Speed
Xeron	Devil and Arch Devil	+4	+2		+1
Haart Lich	Black Knight and Dread Knight	+5	+5	+10
Kilgor	Behemoth and Ancient Behemoth	+5	+5	+10
Lacus Kalt	Water Elemental and Ice Elemental	+2
Ignissa Fiur	Fire Elemental and Energy Elemental	+1	+2	+2
Thunar Erdamon	Earth Elemental and Magma Elemental	+2	+1	+5
Pasis Monere	Psychic Elemental and Magic Elemental	+3	+3

Creature-upgrade specialties

These specialties are only present in banned-by-default campaign heroes. Creature-upgrade specialties allow the hero to upgrade specific creatures into the creature they specialize in, as long as they are placed in their army. The cost is equal to the difference in costs between the owned creature and the "upgrade".

List of Creature-upgrade specialty Heroes

Hero	Base Creature(s)	Upgrade Creature
Gelu	Archer and Marksman Wood Elf and Grand Elf	Sharpshooter
Dracon	Monk and Zealot Mage and Arch Mage	Enchanter
Bidley	Pirate and Corsair	Sea Dog

Dragons specialty

This specialty is only present in the banned-by-default campaign heroes: Mutare and Mutare Drake . It provides 5 Attack and 5 Defense to all Dragons, including both their upgraded and unupgraded forms.

Standard creature specialties

Standard creature specialties, regardless of hero level, provide +1 speed to the creatures they specialize in. This bonus applies outside of combat and can therefore increase hero's Movement. They also apply +5% Attack and +5% Defense bonuses every n levels obtained after nth level, where n is the level of the creature they specialize in. Thus heroes who specialize in level 1 creatures double their Attack and Defense at level 21; heroes who specialize in level 2 creature at level 42, those who specialize in level 3 creatures at level 63, etc.

List of Standard/Fixed stat/Dragon creature specialty Heroes

NOTE: Orange cells mean the specialty is only available to banned-by-default heroes.

NOTE¹: Hero has a Dragon creature specialty.

NOTE²: Hero has a fixed stat creature specialty.

Town	Creature Level
Town	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Castle
Castle	(none)	Valeska	Edric	Sorsha Catherine Roland	Ingham	Tyris	(none)
Rampart
Rampart	(none)	Ufretin	Ivor	Aeris	Ryland	Clancy	Mutare¹ Mutare Drake¹
Tower
Tower	(none)	Piquedram	Josephine	Theodorus	Iona Thane	Fafner	(none)
Inferno
Inferno	Ignatius	Calh	Fiona	Marius	Nymus	Rashka	Xeron²
Necropolis
Necropolis	Galthran	Straker	Charna	Vokial	Moandor	Tamika Haart Lich²	Mutare¹ Mutare Drake¹
Dungeon
Dungeon	Shakti	Lorelei	Ajit	(none)	Dace	Synca	Mutare¹ Mutare Drake¹
Stronghold
Stronghold	Gretchin	Tyraxor	Jabarkas	Vey Krellion Boragus	Shiva	Yog	Kilgor²
Fortress
Fortress	Drakon	Wystan	Korbac	Bron	Alkin	Broghild	(none)
Conflux
Conflux	(none)	(none)	Lacus² Kalt²	Ignissa² Fiur²	Thunar² Erdamon²	Pasis² Monere²	(none)
Cove
Cove	Cassiopeia	Derek	Anabel	Illor	Casmetra	Tark	(none)
Factory
Factory	Henrietta	Sam	Celestine	Todd	Agar	Tancred	(none)

Unique Creature specialties

These specialties are only present in banned-by-default heroes in Horn of the Abyss.

List of Unique Creature specialty Heroes

Hero	Creature	Effect
Sir Mullich	All	Increases combat speed of all creatures under his command by 2.
Frederick	Automaton and Sentinel Automaton	Increases the damage dealt by the detonation at death ability by 5% per level.

War Machine specialties

These specialties increase the effectiveness of specific war machines.

List of War Machine specialty Heroes

Hero	War Machine	Effect
Torosar Arlach Christian Gerwulf Gurnisson Pyre Ranloo Morton	Ballista	Increases the Attack and Defense skills of any Ballista by 5% for every 5 levels (rounded up).
Jeremy	Cannon	Increases the Attack and Defense skills of any Cannon by 5% for every 6 levels (rounded up).

Production specialties

Some heroes' specialties increase a kingdom's daily income of gold or magical resources. No hero produces the resource needed to recruit the level 7 creature of their native town. These specialties do not improve with the hero's level, and thus their usefulness may decrease over the course of the game as the impact of other specialties becomes greater.

This effect remains in place even when the hero in question is garrisoned in a town and no longer counts towards the limit of 8 adventuring heroes. As hiring a hero only costs 2500 gold, this way of collecting magical resources may, depending on the situation, be preferable to building resource silos for the cost of 5000 gold and 5 ore.

List of Production specialty Heroes