Now you know the town types and the units. Ready to choose a hero to lead your armies? We won't actually describe and rank the dozens of unique heroes, but we'll give you an overview of each town's hero type and their strengths and weaknesses. We're also providing a chart that lists the heroes' likelihood to gain secondary skills with level advancement. You can thus tell which heroes are more likely to gain leadership or wisdom. Unlike the rest of the guide, we won't divide this section up by town, instead describing the heroes in general.

The Heroes of Might and Magic

Each town has two hero types, a might character and a magic character. Obviously one is better in combat while the other gains better spell power. However, between each town type there are big differences in ability. The barbarians are the best attackers, better than even the knight class, while the warlock is always more likely to gain greater spell power than the druid. For a list of all heroes, check out the last section of the Heroes III manual.

Might Classes
The eight might classes are alchemist, barbarian, beastmaster, death knight, demoniac, knight, overlord, and ranger. So, which might character is most powerful? Well, the barbarian of the stronghold is hands-down the best in attack and is more likely to advance in attack than any other primary skill. The beastmaster of the fortress has the best defense and is more likely to advance in defense than any other primary skill. The alchemist is the weakest might character, but has the best magic skill of all might characters. The overlord is the second best spellcaster in this group. The ranger deserves special mention because it is close to the beastmaster in terms of starting defense. Here are the basic starting stats for all might characters (the numbers are attack, defense, power, and skill, respectively), as well as the percentage chance of advancement in each skill. Advancement in these primary skills levels out after ninth level for every class.

Magic Classes
The eight magic classes are battle mage, cleric, druid, heretic, necromancer, warlock, witch, and wizard. The most powerful spellcaster is the warlock, while the most knowledgeable is the wizard. Both these classes are atrocious fighters. The druid, like the ranger, has good defense, while the witch is a surprisingly able spellcaster. The battle mage is practically a fighter with a limited knowledge of magic. Here are the basic starting stats for all magic characters, as well as the percentage chance of advancement in each skill. Advancement in these primary skills levels out after the ninth level for every class.

While all heroes belong to a class, each hero is unique and thus has a unique ability. We classify them by the following groupings: creature specialists, spell geniuses, merchants, and talents. Creature specialists are found in the might classes, while spell geniuses are found in the magic classes. Merchants and talents can be found in both classes. These terms are not used by the game and were coined by us to more accurately identify the different groups of hero special abilities. What follows is what each category means and how useful they are.