Magic Skills

There are 9 primary skills in Heroes of Might and Magic IV - 4 Might and 5 Magic primary skills. A hero may learn up to 5 primary skills. Each primary skill has three associated secondary skills. To learn the secondary skills, their parent primary skill must be learned first. Once the primary skill is learned, you will be able to learn all of its associated secondary skills. Each skill, primary or secondary, has five levels of mastery.

The manual describes some skills incorrectly. There are even some errors in the in-game descriptions (for example, Master Combat description says that it is required for Grandmaster Melee, when it is clearly not). I've tested the below descriptions to make sure they are accurate.

Unlike Might Skills, Magic Skills are identical in terms of development structure and offer exactly the same bonuses in their respective magic, except for the third Secondary Skill, and except for Demonology, which teaches additional spells in combination with Nature Magic.

The varying third Secondary Skill is focused on having more creatures in the army, with the exception of Chaos magic, where the third Secondary Skill is focused on magic spell damage.

Most of the time the choice of which Magic Primary Skill to learn depends on what spells are available in your town/s. An exception to this is when you want to gain a particular third Secondary Skill, such as Resurrection or Sorcery. Before you decide how far to develop a particular Magic Skill, you should fully build every mage guild that teaches spells of relevant alignment. You might not have useful high-level spells for that magic school in your guilds, and knowing this will allow you to invest valuable hero levels into another skill.

Remember that by investing a few levels into three magic schools, your hero can become an Archmage (advanced hero class) and gain a +20% bonus to effects of all spells. Remember that the Archmage will replace any other advanced hero class.

LIFE MAGIC - Primary Skill

Gives hero the ability to cast Life Magic spells. Basic: hero can cast level 1 Life Magic spells. Gives one level 1 Life Magic spell. Advanced: hero can cast level 2 Life Magic spells. Requires Basic Healing. Expert: hero can cast level 3 Life Magic spells. Requires Advanced Healing and Basic Spirituality. Master: hero can cast level 4 Life Magic spells. Requires Expert Healing and Expert Spirituality. Grandmaster: hero can cast level 5 Life Magic spells. Requires Grandmaster Healing and Grandmaster Spirituality.

Healing - Life Magic Secondary Skill

Gives the hero extra spell points and increases spell point recovery. Basic: +10 spell points, +2 spell points recovered per day. Advanced: +20 spell points, +4 spell points recovered per day. Requires Advanced Life Magic. Expert: +30 spell points, +6 spell points recovered per day. Requires Expert Life Magic. Master: +40 spell points, +8 spell points recovered per day. Requires Master Life Magic. Grandmaster: +50 spell points, +10 spell points recovered per day.

Spirituality - Life Magic Secondary Skill

	Increases the effectiveness of Life Magic spells. Basic: +20%. Requires Advanced Life Magic. Advanced: +40%. Requires Expert Life Magic. Expert: +60%. Master: +80%. Requires Master Life Magic. Grandmaster: +100%.

Resurrection - Life Magic Secondary Skill

	Allows the hero to resurrect a percentage of friendly creatures who die in combat. Undead, mechanical and elemental creatures cannot be resurrected. Basic: 20%. Advanced: 30%. Expert: 40%. Requires Advanced Life Magic. Master: 45%. Grandmaster: 50%. Requires Expert Life Magic.

Life Magic focuses on healing, blessings and protection. The only direct damage spells in Life Magic are against undead. A notable feature of Life Magic are ward and mass ward spells that can offer a significant defence against both might and magic of a particular alignment. Basically, it will feel like God is protecting your army.

When learning Life Magic, it's a good idea to invest a couple of levels into Tactics - that will make your hero into a Crusader (advanced class) and give him/her a maximum morale for plenty of extra turns in combat. Also consider combining with Nobility (+5% to Resurrection), Combat (hero gets Death Ward) or Order Magic (hero gets Chaos Ward).

Any hero, even a might hero, should consider learning Life Magic for Resurrection. By investing just three levels: Basic Life Magic, Basic Resurrection and Advanced Resurrection, your hero can resurrect 30% of battle casualties (35% if your hero only has Nobility and Life Magic)! Add four more levels: Basic Healing, Advanced Life Magic, Expert Resurrection and Master Resurrecton - and your hero will resurrect 45% of fallen allies (50% if your hero only has Nobility and Life Magic). Then you will need another 4 levels to get an additional 5% of Resurrection, so don't bother Grandmastering it.

Necropolis army will not be able to use Resurrection. Academy army consisting of Gold Golems, Genies and Dragon Golems will find Resurrection similarly useless. Academy army of Mages, Nagas and Titans can make full use of Resurrection. Haven players should note that Ballista cannot be resurrected when making a level 2 building decision.

ORDER MAGIC - Primary Skill

Gives hero the ability to cast Order Magic spells. Basic: hero can cast level 1 Order Magic spells. Gives one level 1 Order Magic spell. Advanced: hero can cast level 2 Order Magic spells. Requires Basic Enchantment. Expert: hero can cast level 3 Order Magic spells. Requires Advanced Enchantment and Basic Wizardry. Master: hero can cast level 4 Order Magic spells. Requires Expert Enchantment and Expert Wizardry. Grandmaster: hero can cast level 5 Order Magic spells. Requires Grandmaster Enchantment and Grandmaster Wizardry.

Enchantment - Order Magic Secondary Skill

Gives the hero extra spell points and increases spell point recovery. Basic: +10 spell points, +2 spell points recovered per day. Advanced: +20 spell points, +4 spell points recovered per day. Requires Advanced Order Magic. Expert: +30 spell points, +6 spell points recovered per day. Requires Expert Order Magic. Master: +40 spell points, +8 spell points recovered per day. Requires Master Order Magic. Grandmaster: +50 spell points, +10 spell points recovered per day.

Wizardry - Order Magic Secondary Skill

	Increases the effectiveness of Order Magic spells. Basic: +20%. Requires Advanced Order Magic. Advanced: +40%. Requires Expert Order Magic. Expert: +60%. Master: +80%. Requires Master Order Magic. Grandmaster: +100%.

Charm - Order Magic Secondary Skill

Hero can convert a percentage of greatly outnumbered hostile creatures to his side. Surrendering cost is reduced. Basic: 15% of creatures, but no more than 60 experience points +10% per hero level. Surrendering cost = 90%. Advanced: 20% of creatures, but no more than 120 experience points +10% per hero level. Surrendering cost = 80%. Expert: 25% of creatures, but no more than 180 experience points +10% per hero level. Surrendering cost = 75%. Requires Advanced Order Magic. Master: 30% of creatures, but no more than 240 experience points +10% per hero level. Surrendering cost = 70%. Grandmaster: 35% of creatures, but no more than 300 experience points +10% per hero level. Surrendering cost = 65%. Requires Expert Order Magic.

Order Magic focuses on confusing the enemy, hindering or preventing their attacks and spells, battlefield mobility, strengthening ranged advantages, and offers low level direct damage spells. Basically you're going to mess with people's minds ;)

The best advanced class resulting from Order Magic is clearly the Wizard (Order + Chaos Magic), which reduces the spell point cost of all spells by 2. Many other advanced classes arising from Order Magic are not that good. Charm is only half as effective as Diplomacy (Nobility Secondary Skill), but advantage of Charm is that you don't have to pay for these creatures. It is an option to do the same 3 or 7 level trick (see Life Magic comments) with Charm, but I think Resurrection is a much better deal.

Charm Secondary Skill is useful on maps with lots of guards, especially if a lot of them are of your alignment. Charm gives you some of the army that you are about to attack for free. You can use the free creatures to guard captured towns, scout the map, man the garrisons, block passages against enemy scouts etc. But if the map does not have many guards, consider spending those five levels on another skill - Charm is entirely optional in Order Magic.

DEATH MAGIC - Primary Skill

Gives hero the ability to cast Death Magic spells. Basic: hero can cast level 1 Death Magic spells. Gives one level 1 Death Magic spell. Advanced: hero can cast level 2 Death Magic spells. Requires Basic Occultism. Expert: hero can cast level 3 Death Magic spells. Requires Advanced Occultism and Basic Demonology. Master: hero can cast level 4 Death Magic spells. Requires Expert Occultism and Expert Demonology. Grandmaster: hero can cast level 5 Death Magic spells. Requires Grandmaster Occultism and Grandmaster Demonology.

Occultism - Death Magic Secondary Skill

Gives the hero extra spell points and increases spell point recovery. Basic: +10 spell points, +2 spell points recovered per day. Advanced: +20 spell points, +4 spell points recovered per day. Requires Advanced Death Magic. Expert: +30 spell points, +6 spell points recovered per day. Requires Expert Death Magic. Master: +40 spell points, +8 spell points recovered per day. Requires Master Death Magic. Grandmaster: +50 spell points, +10 spell points recovered per day.

Demonology - Death Magic Secondary Skill

Increases the effectiveness of Death Magic spells. Teaches spells if combined with Nature Magic skill. Basic: +20%. Teaches Summon Imp spell if hero also knows Basic Nature Magic. Requires Advanced Death Magic. Advanced: +40%. Teaches Summon Cerebus spell if hero also knows Advanced Nature Magic. Requires Expert Death Magic. Expert: +60%. Teaches Summon Ice Demon spell if hero also knows Expert Nature Magic. Master: +80%. Teaches Summon Venom Spawn spell if hero also knows Master Nature Magic. Requires Master Death Magic. Grandmaster: +100%. Teaches Summon Devils spell if hero also knows Grandmaster Nature Magic.

Necromancy - Death Magic Secondary Skill

Hero raises a number of undead creatures equal to a percentage of strength of a defeated army. Maximum of 1 undead creature per 1 slain enemy. Undead, mechanical, and elemental creatures cannot be raised. Basic: 10% of defeated army strength, but no more than 40 experience points of undead +10% per hero level, raised as Skeletons. Advanced: 15% of defeated army strength, but no more than 80 experience points of undead +10% per hero level, raised as Skeletons. Expert: 20% of defeated army strength, but no more than 120 experience points of undead +10% per hero level, raised as Skeletons or Ghosts. Requires Advanced Death Magic. Master: 25% of defeated army strength, but no more than 160 experience points of undead +10% per hero level, raised as Skeletons or Ghosts. Grandmaster: 30% of defeated army strength, but no more than 200 experience points of undead +10% per hero level, raised as Skeletons, Ghosts or Vampires. Requires Expert Death Magic.

Death Magic focuses on curses, raising dead and vampirism. There is a high-level direct damage spell as well. Basically, that's what Necromancers do - curse, steal life and raise dead.

Most of advanced hero classes resulting from Death Magic give your hero a special melee attack, and melee is not what your Necromancer really wants to engage in. You could combine with Combat to become an Assasin and get +3 speed and movement, combine with Nobility to become a Dark Lord and get a demoralising melee attack, or combine with Life Magic and become a Dark Priest with a cool vampiric melee attack. The problem with developing Life Magic alongside Death Magic is that Resurrection will not work on your undead units.

A very interesting scenario is to go for the Demonologist advanced class (Death + Nature Magic) to get a +50% bonus to all Demon Summoning spell. To summon Ice Demons you will to spend 6 levels on Nature Magic, add another 4 for Venom Spawns and another 5 for Devils. It's a long road to summoning Devils, but for big maps it's a fun one to undertake. If you also find the artifact called Demonary, your Demonologist will literally raise hell!

Necromancy is useful only for Necropolis as the morale penalty from having undead in a living army is severe. Death Magic, except for curses, is not very useful to any other alignment due to its strong focus on undead creatures.

Expert Necromancy will enable the raising of Ghosts. If you don't want Ghosts - fill all slots of the army that has no Ghosts but has Skeletons, and your hero will raise Skeletons again. By default, the hero will raise the best creature. Grandmaster Necromancy is the grand goal - Vampire is an excellent creature that can drain life to regenerate itself. With a cost of 1100 gold per Vampire, you'd want some for free, wouldn't you? Another advantage of raising Vampires or Ghosts is that you won't be restricted to fighting numerous weak creatures to reap the benefits.

With Grandmaster Necromancy,
Level 11 hero can raise a maximum of 2 Vampires, 12 Ghosts or 70 Skeletons per battle.
Level 21 hero can raise a maximum of 3 Vampires, 18 Ghosts or 103 Skeletons per battle.
Level 31 hero can raise a maximum of 4 Vampires, 24 Ghosts or 136 Skeletons per battle.

CHAOS MAGIC - Primary Skill

Gives hero the ability to cast Chaos Magic spells. Basic: hero can cast level 1 Chaos Magic spells. Gives one level 1 Chaos Magic spell. Advanced: hero can cast level 2 Chaos Magic spells. Requires Basic Conjuration. Expert: hero can cast level 3 Chaos Magic spells. Requires Advanced Conjuration and Basic Pyromancy. Master: hero can cast level 4 Chaos Magic spells. Requires Expert Conjuration and Expert Pyromancy. Grandmaster: hero can cast level 5 Chaos Magic spells. Requires Grandmaster Conjuration and Grandmaster Pyromancy.

Conjuration - Chaos Magic Secondary Skill

Gives the hero extra spell points and increases spell point recovery. Basic: +10 spell points, +2 spell points recovered per day. Advanced: +20 spell points, +4 spell points recovered per day. Requires Advanced Chaos Magic. Expert: +30 spell points, +6 spell points recovered per day. Requires Expert Chaos Magic. Master: +40 spell points, +8 spell points recovered per day. Requires Master Chaos Magic. Grandmaster: +50 spell points, +10 spell points recovered per day.

Pyromancy - Chaos Magic Secondary Skill

	Increases the effectiveness of Chaos Magic spells. Basic: +20%. Requires Advanced Chaos Magic. Advanced: +40%. Requires Expert Chaos Magic. Expert: +60%. Master: +80%. Requires Master Chaos Magic. Grandmaster: +100%.

Sorcery - Chaos Magic Secondary Skill

	Increases the hero's spell damage (with all magic types). Basic: +20%. Advanced: +40%. Expert: +60%. Requires Advanced Chaos Magic. Master: +80%. Grandmaster: +100%. Requires Expert Chaos Magic.

Chaos magic focuses strongly on direct damage, making your army more vicious and hindering the enemy. Basically, your hero and your army will whoop some serious ass ;)

If you aim to develop Chaos Magic to a high level, ignore Sorcery and focus on Pyromancy instead, as it increases both damage and spell effects (not just damage) and it is required to advance Chaos Magic. There are some excellent advanced hero classes to consider. With Scouting, your hero can become a Fire Diviner and get a +20% bonus to the effects of all fire-based spells. With Combat, your hero will become a Fireguard, gain immunity to fire-based spells and take half damage from fire-based attacks. Fireguard is a perfect Armageddon caster. If your opponent casts Chaos Wards to hinder your spells, invest in Life Magic to make your hero a Heretic who ignores the effects of all wards. Finally, combine Chaos and Order Magic Skills to make a Wizard - all spells will cost 2 spell points less to cast!

Sorcery really is a unique skill that will benefit all of your damaging spells. Even if you are using damaging spells of another alignment, it is a good idea to get Chaos Magic and develop Sorcery. By following a similar plan as described for Resurrection, you can invest 3 levels to boost your spell damage by 40%. 4 more levels and you have another additional 40% spell damage. Another 4 levels will only yield another 20%, so you might want to pass on that unless you also want to develop Chaos Magic.

NATURE MAGIC - Primary Skill

Gives hero the ability to cast Nature Magic spells. Basic: hero can cast level 1 Nature Magic spells. Gives one level 1 Nature Magic spell. Advanced: hero can cast level 2 Nature Magic spells. Requires Basic Herbalism. Expert: hero can cast level 3 Nature Magic spells. Requires Advanced Herbalism and Basic Meditation. Master: hero can cast level 4 Nature Magic spells. Requires Expert Herbalism and Expert Meditation. Grandmaster: hero can cast level 5 Nature Magic spells. Requires Grandmaster Herbalism and Grandmaster Meditation.

Herbalism - Nature Magic Secondary Skill

Gives the hero extra spell points and increases spell point recovery. Basic: +10 spell points, +2 spell points recovered per day. Advanced: +20 spell points, +4 spell points recovered per day. Requires Advanced Nature Magic. Expert: +30 spell points, +6 spell points recovered per day. Requires Expert Nature Magic. Master: +40 spell points, +8 spell points recovered per day. Requires Master Nature Magic. Grandmaster: +50 spell points, +10 spell points recovered per day.

Meditation - Nature Magic Secondary Skill

	Increases the effectiveness of Nature Magic spells. Basic: +20%. Requires Advanced Nature Magic. Advanced: +40%. Requires Expert Nature Magic. Expert: +60%. Master: +80%. Requires Master Nature Magic. Grandmaster: +100%.

Summoning - Nature Magic Secondary Skill

Hero summons creatures into his/her army every day. Basic: summons Leprechauns, Sprites or Wolves at a rate of 10 experience points of creatures per day. Advanced: summons Leprechauns, Sprites or Wolves at a rate of 20 experience points of creatures per day. Expert: summons Elvel, Satyrs or Tigers at a rate of 30 experience points of creatures per day. Requires Advanced Nature Magic. Master: summons Elvel, Satyrs or Tigers at a rate of 40 experience points of creatures per day. Grandmaster: summons Earth, Air, Fire or Water Elementals at a rate of 50 experience points of creatures per day. Requires Expert Nature Magic.

Nature Magic focuses on summoning and strengthening your creatures. Basically, while enemy is busy fighting your creatures in battle, your hero can be producing reinforcements.

If you cast the same summoning spell twice, it will increase the creature stack that you've already summoned - this way you hero can replenish and build up one strong creature rather than having many weakings. Summoning spells are weak unless you really focus on them, so I suggest that you learn Nature Magic only if you want your hero to become a full-time summoner.

In terms of advanced hero classes, avoid the Beastmaster (Combat + Nature Magic) - you won't be using that Summon Wolf bonus for too long. The Demonologist (Nature + Death Magic) path is described under Death Magic above. Warden is an excellent class to aim for (Tactics + Nature Magic) - to add +10% to melee/ranged defence of all your creatures just invest a couple of levels into the Tactics skill.

Summoning Secondary Skill has caused a lot of debate. On one hand it gives you free creatures. On the other hand you have limited control over which creatures your hero will summon. You can fill up your army with stacks of sprites for instance, then your hero will only summon sprites. But if you have empty slots in your amy, you might end up with a different type of creature summoned every day. So choose what creatures you wish to summon and control it by filling up empty spaces of your army. Sprites are good due to their adventure map speed and no retaliation. Leprechauns are pretty useless. Boosting your Elves or Tigers is also handy. When you get to elementals, choose Air for adventure map speed, Fire for range attacks or Water for magic. Earth Elementals are too slow - not recommended. You can give Summoning skill a significant boost by making your hero a Summoner - Nature + Life Magic combination grants this advanced hero class +20 experience points of creatures per day bonus to Summoning.

Here's how many experience points each creature requires to be summoned: Sprite - 7, Leprechaun - 7, Wolf - 11, Satyr - 39, Elf - 43, White Tiger - 54, Water Elemental - 73, Air Elemental - 74, Fire Elemental - 75, Earth Elemental - 77. Summoning experience points are never lost - leftovers are stored for the next day. With Grandmaster Summoning, your hero will summon about 233 gold worth of Elementals per day (326 gold if the hero is a Summoner). Go for Nobility instead, which will give you more money, boost town population, and avoid the empty army slot filling hassle. Instead of putting 5 levels into Summoning, put 2 into Nobility and 3 into Estates and you'll come out better off. Don't forget to add six points into Tactics as it will give your hero a better advanced class than the Beast Lord (+20% to Summon Wolf and Summon White Tiger spells from Nature Magic + Nobility).