Magic

This game is called Heroes of Might and Magic for a reason: Magic is a huge part of the game. All heroes can cast spells, and indeed, without magic, you are almost assured of losing. Certain town types need magic to compensate for weaknesses. Other towns become unstoppable by virtue of their magic. In Heroes III, there are two types of spells: adventure spells and combat spells.

Adventure Spells: These spells are spells you cast on the strategic map when you are not in combat. They tend to be movement or information spells. While the benefits of these spells aren't as obvious as a great fireball, they should not be overlooked. Certain spells like fly and dimension door give you unparalleled freedom of movement, allowing to jump across obstacles to flee enemies or find hard to reach spots with hidden riches. It's not unheard of for gold mines to be placed in nearly inaccessibly parts of the map, but with a fly spell, you can simply bypass all the tricky terrain. Adventure spells also include a few spells that can tell you the location of mines and artifacts or the exact strength of an enemy army. These spells are also useful because they give you valuable information that could be hard to come by otherwise. Of all adventure spells, dimension door and town portal are probably the most useful, as they give you the ability to teleport across the map. The benefits of these two spells are great, especially on large maps where it would take you too long to walk back to town and replenish your troops.

Combat Spells: These spells are easy to understand - they are cast in combat to further your goal of winning. Some spells are offensive in nature, meaning they deal direct physical damage to the enemy or weaken the enemy in some way. Other spells are beneficial, meaning they can be cast to enhance your army's strength and speed. There are also protective spells that can reduce your chance of harm. Then there are miscellaneous spells that are hard to classify, such as resurrection and animate dead. All these spells have their uses and it is the wise Heroes III player who studies the spells and brings them fully to play in combat.

We've organized this section by schools of magic. Dividing all the game's spells into the four schools of magic - air, earth, fire, and water - is a new concept for Heroes III. You can still cast any spell you want, provided you have the secondary skill of wisdom, without every worrying about the schools of magic, but you wouldn't be taking full advantage of the game's magic system. Because every spell falls into a school, by learning the secondary skill pertaining to that school, you can cast a particular spell with increased effect. An expert in fire magic would cast a fireball spell with greater effect at a lower cost than a spellcaster who didn't know the skill. Both expert and novice could cast the fireball, but whereas the novice's spells would barely singe the enemy, the expert's fireball could obliterate an entire stack. So obviously, if you are going to play to win, you want to master the game's four schools of magic.

This section deals with the schools of magic and lists the most powerful and useful adventure and combat spells in that school. This method should show you exactly why you want to master a particular school of magic so next time you have the choice of learning fire or earth magic, you can make an informed choice. You'll also learn which spells are the must-have incantations to put in your spell book, because only the most useful spells of each school will be listed. Let's take a look at just how powerful each school can be.