Hero specialty
Hero specialty is a characteristic of every hero that typically improves their performance in combat. Specialties can be categorized into four primary types (i.e. secondary skills, spells, creatures, production) as well as a few unique specialties that do not fit nicely into these categories.
Secondary skill specialties
All secondary skill specialties (e.g. 
Kyrre with Logistics, 
Crag Hack with Offense or 
Neela with Armorer) work in a similar way. They all 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 Secondary skill specialty Heroes
| Skill | Hero |
| ??? |
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 |
| ??? |
Unique spell specialty
However, the spell specialty of some heroes changes the base spell in some other 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:
Example: At level 18 Adela will provide a 54% damage bonus to halberdiers, 27% to marksmen, |
 Cyra Terek Brissa
|
 Haste
|
Regardless of hero level, increases the effect of the spell:
|
 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:
|
Creature specialties
Devils, 
Behemoths, and Dragons, as well as every creature from level 1 to 6 in every town, except 
Gremlins, 
Centaurs, 
Pikeman, 
Pixies, 
Air Elementals and 
Medusas has a hero who specializes in them (Note: 
Galthran, the only 
Skeleton specialist, is banned by default in Horn of the Abyss and so is 
Tark , the 
Nix specialist, 
Xeron 
, the Devil specialist, 
Kilgor , the Behemoth specialist and 
Mutare and 
Mutare Drake , Dragon specialists). Creature specialties apply to both upgraded and unupgraded units, as long as the hero specializes in the unupgraded version of the unit. In Shadow of Death, 
Catherine specializes in 
Crusaders, and therefore 
Swordsman do not receive any bonuses. No heroes specialize in any of the neutral creatures, except 
Gelu 
and 
Dracon , who specialize in 
Sharpshooters and 
Enchanters, respectively, although they have creature-upgrade specialties. No heroes specialize in upgraded creatures only, except for Catherine (only in Shadow of Death , fixed in Horn of the Abyss ) and 
Bidley , but his specialty is a creature-upgrade one.
There are four types of creature specialties: Fixed stats creature specialities, creature upgrade specialties, Dragons specialty and the standard creature specialties.
Heroes who specialize in level 1-2 creatures (as well as Tark , Gelu , Dracon and 
Frederick ) have their entire starting army consisting of 3 stacks of the creatures they specialize in. Thus, 
Shakti may be hired with up to three groups of 30 to 40 
Troglodytes, and 
Valeska with up to three groups of 4 to 7 
Archers.
Heroes who specialize in level 3 creatures, as well as 
Bron, 
Illor and 
Todd , instead of the 2nd level creatures, have their specialized creature stack in their starting army.
Despite their specialty in different creatures, Xeron starts with a starting army identical to 
Fiona, the 
Hell Hound specialist, and 
Pasis and 
Monere start Air Elementals instead of 
Water Elementals.
Fixed stat creature specialties
These specialties are only present in banned-by-default campaign heroes and Planeswalkers. Fixed-stats creature specialties can provide a fixed attack, defense, damage, hp or speed (or multiple of these) bonuses to a creature, regardless of hero level. No hero increases creature HP.
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 Tarnum (Ranger)
|
 Archer and Marksman  Wood Elf and Grand Elf
|
Sharpshooter
|
Dracon Tarnum (Wizard)
|
  Monk and Zealot  Mage and Arch Mage
|
Enchanter
|
| Bidley
|
  Pirate and Corsair
|
 Sea Dog
|
Dragons specialty
This specialties is only present in the banned-by-default campaign heroes: Mutare, Mutare Drake and 
Tarnum (Overlord). 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 creature specialty Heroes
| Hero | Creature |
| ??? | (NOTE: Maybe arrange these in a [Town] x [Creature Level] grid?) |
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
| Bonus | Hero |
+1 
|
 Rissa
|
+1 
|
 Calid
|
+1 
|
 Sephinroth Andal
|
+1 
|
 Saurug
|
+350 
|
 Aine Caitlin Clavius Damacon Gelare Grindan Jenova Nagash Octavia Bertram  Leena
|
NOTE: For a comparison between 
Lord Haart's Estates specialty and the +350 specialty, see Lord Haart#Specialty.
Unique specialties
Sir Mullich (replaced by default by Lord Haart in Armageddon's Blade, Shadow of Death, and Horn of the Abyss) increases combat speed of all creatures under his command by 2.
Frederick increases the damage dealt by 
Automaton's Detonation at death ability by 5% per level.
Adrienne starts with Expert Fire Magic and Wisdom.