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 resources).

Secondary skill specialties

Common Secondary skill specialties

Common secondary skill specialties increase the secondary skill by 5% per level. It can be visualized with the following formula: Total skill bonus = A * (1 + (0.05 * B)) where A is the Secondary skill's effect percentage and B is the Level of the hero.

For example, A level 20 Offense specialist (B = 20) with Expert Offense (A = 30) would increase creature damage by: 30 * (1 + (0.05 * 20)) = 30 * (1 + 1) = 60%.

Common Secondary skill specialties

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

Unique Secondary Skill specialities

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

Unique Secondary skill specialties

Hero	Skill	Effect
Beatrice  Miriam  Wynona	Scouting	Increases the scouting radius by 1 every 6 levels.
Adrienne	Fire Magic	Increases the damage of Fire spells by 50%. Starts with Expert Fire Magic.
Melchior  Oidana	Diplomacy	Receives a 5% per level bonus to Diplomacy skill percentage only when surrendering.
Ergon	Pathfinding	Receives a 5% reduction to the cost of moving on rough terrain.

Spell specialties

All heroes who specialize in a spell start with it. In addition, any spells cast by combination artifacts are also improved by hero specialties. These include:

Combo Artifacts improved

Artifact	Spell	Specialist
Angelic Alliance	Prayer	Loynis
Armor of the Damned	Weakness	Cuthbert, Olema, and Mirlanda, Eanswythe
Ironfist of the Ogre	Haste	Cyra, Terek, Brissa
	Bloodlust	Ash, Inteus, Akka

Common spell specialty

The normal/common spell specialty increases the efficiency of the spell (after spell power and base spell effect is calculated) by 10% 3%  per level, divided by target creature's level. It can be visualized with the following formula: C*(1+0.1 * L / n) 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).

For Meteor Shower, Chain Lightning, Resurrection and Animate Dead specialties, this effect is 5% instead (i.e. using the formula C*(1+0.05 * L / n)).

Common spell specialties

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

Unique spell specialty

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

Unique spell specialties

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 1-4 1-2  creatures +2 points to the effect for level 5-6 3-4  creatures +1 point to the effect for level 7 5-6  creatures
Loynis	Prayer
Cuthbert Olema Mirlanda Eanswythe	Weakness	Regardless of hero level, increases the effect of the spell: +4 3  points to the effect for level 1-2 creatures +6 2  points to the effect for level 3-4 creatures +8 1  points to the effect for level 5-6 creatures +10 points to the effect for level 7 creatures
Zubin	Precision	Regardless of hero level, increases the effect of the spell: +10 3  points to the effect for level 1-2 creatures +8 2  points to the effect for level 3-4 creatures +6 1  points to the effect for level 5-6 creatures +4 points to the effect for level 7 creatures
Xsi Darkstorn Merist Labetha	Stone Skin
Ash Inteus Akka	Bloodlust
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 25% 100% , regardless of hero level.
Aenain	Disrupting Ray	+10 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: +20 4  points to the effect for level 1-2 1  creatures +16 3  points to the effect for level 3-4 2  creatures +12 2  points to the effect for level 5-6 3  creatures +8 1  points to the effect for level 7 4  creatures
Uland Astra	Cure	Casts Cure with effect increased by 10% 3%  for every (8 - N) N  hero levels, where N is the level of the target creature.
Zilare	Forgetfulness	Increases the number of units affected by Forgetfulness in the target stack by 10% for every N hero levels, where N is the level of the target creature.

Spells with no specialist

Some spells have no hero specializing in them. Possible reasons for this include:

1. The spell is already extremely powerful and a specialist would be too good.
2. The spell has no obvious way of being improved by a specialist.
3. The spell is very niche and a hero with this specialty would be very weak.

Spells with no specialty

School of Earth Magic	School of Air Magic	School of Fire Magic	School of Water Magic
Shield   Slow  View Earth  Quicksand  Anti-Magic  Earthquake  Force Field  Protection from Earth  Sorrow  Town Portal  Implosion1  Summon Earth Elemental	View Air  Disguise  Lightning Bolt 1  Protection from Air  Air Shield   Destroy Undead1  Counterstrike  Dimension Door  Fly  Magic Mirror  Summon Air Elemental  Titan's Lightning Bolt1	Curse  Protection from Fire  Blind  Land Mine   Misfortune  Armageddon1, 2  Berserk  Fire Shield  Frenzy   Sacrifice  Summon Fire Elemental	Dispel  Protection from Water  Summon Boat  Remove Obstacle  Scuttle Boat  Forgetfulness   Mirth  Teleport  Clone   Water Walk  Summon Water Elemental
Visions

¹ Direct Damage spells are further improved by Sorcery specialists.
² Fire Direct Damage spells are further improved by Adrienne .

Creature specialties

There are four three  types of creature specialties: Fixed stat creature specialties (which includes the Dragon specialty), creature upgrade specialties, and standard creature specialties and creature ability specialties .

Heroes who specialize in level 1-2 creatures (as well as Gelu, and 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 The Shadow of Death ), who only specializes in  Crusaders and not  Swordsmen (fixed in Horn of the Abyss)  .

Fixed stat creature specialties

These specialties are only mostly  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.

Fixed stat creature specialties

Hero	Creature	Attack	Defense	Damage	Speed
Sir Mullich	All creatures				+2
Mutare Mutare Drake	Dragons	+10 5	+10 5
Xeron	Devil and Arch Devil	+10 4	+10 2		+1
Haart Lich Lord Haart	Black Knight and Dread Knight	+10 5	+10 5	+10
Kilgor	Behemoth and Ancient Behemoth	+10 5	+10 5	+10
Lacus Kalt	Water Elemental and Ice Elemental	+12 2
Ignissa Fiur	Fire Elemental and Energy Elemental	+3 1	+4 2	+2
Thunar Erdamon	Earth Elemental and Magma Elemental	+3 2	+2 1	+5
Pasis Monere	Psychic Elemental and Magic Elemental	+5 3	+5 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".

Creature-upgrade specialties

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

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 (unlike the native terrain speed increase). They also increase the creature's Attack and Defense by 20% 5%  every n levels, where n is the level of the creature they specialize in ( with the exception of level 1 creatures, whose stats grow by 10% every level, starting at level 2). Thus heroes who specialize in: level 1 creatures double their Attack and Defense at level 11 21 , level 2 creature at level 10 40 , and level 3 creatures at level 15 60 , etc.

Standard/Fixed stat creature specialties

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

NOTE: Sir Mullich is excluded from this table as his specialty applies to all creatures.

NOTE¹: Hero has a fixed stat creature specialty.

Town	Creature Level
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Castle
	(none)	Valeska	Edric	Sorsha Catherine Roland	Ingham	Tyris	(none)
Rampart
	(none)	Ufretin	Ivor	Aeris	Ryland	Clancy	Mutare1 Mutare Drake1
Tower
	(none)	Piquedram	Josephine	Theodorus	Iona Thane	Fafner	(none)
Inferno
	Ignatius	Calh	Fiona	Marius	Nymus	Rashka	Xeron1
Necropolis
	Galthran	Galthran	Straker	Charna	Vokial	Moandor	Tamika Haart Lich1 Lord Haart1	Mutare1 Mutare Drake1
Dungeon
	Shakti	Lorelei	Ajit	(none)	Dace	Synca	Mutare1 Mutare Drake1
Stronghold
	Gretchin	Tyraxor	Jabarkas	Vey Krellion Boragus	Shiva	Yog	Kilgor1
Fortress
	Drakon	Wystan	Korbac	Bron	Alkin	Broghild	(none)
Conflux
	(none)	(none)	Lacus1 Kalt1	Ignissa1 Fiur1	Thunar1 Erdamon1	Pasis1 Monere1	(none)
Cove
	Cassiopeia	Derek	Anabel	Illor	Casmetra	Tark	(none)
Factory
	Henrietta	Sam	Celestine	Todd	Agar	Tancred	(none)
Bulwark
	Kynr	Eikthurn	Dhuin	Spadum	Kriv	Creyle	(none)
Neutral
	(none)	(none)	(none)	(none)	(none)	(none)	Mutare1 Mutare Drake1

Creature Ability specialties

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

Unique Creature specialties

Hero	Creature	Effect
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.

War Machine specialties

Hero	War Machine	Effect
Torosar Arlach Christian Gerwulf Gurnisson Pyre Ranloo  Morton	Ballista	Increases the Attack and Defense skills of the Ballista by 30% 5%  for every 5 levels (rounded up).
Jeremy	Cannon	Increases the Attack and Defense skills of the Cannon by 20% for every 6 levels (rounded up).

Resource 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, depending on the situation, this way of collecting magical resources may be preferable to building resource silos for the cost of 5000 gold and 5 ore.

Resource specialties

Hero	Bonus
Rissa	+1
Calid	+1
Sephinroth Andal	+1
Saurug	+1
Aine Caitlin Clavius Damacon Gelare Grindan Jenova Nagash Octavia Bertram  Leena  Vehr	+350

NOTE: For a comparison between Lord Haart's Estates specialty and the +350 specialty, see Lord Haart#Specialty.

See also

• List of hero specialties
• Comparison of Creature Specialties