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The Skills System

Information confirmed by various gameplay videos has confirmed that at least the Primary skills will work in a similar fashion to Heroes III. The main 4 returning: Offense, Defense, Spell Power and Knowledge. In addition to the Primary Skills, there are also Morale , Luck and Mana, which can be improved in different ways by varying abilities.

The skill levels will also revert back to a Heroes III guise, disregarding the two new levels of Master and Grandmaster introduced by Heroes IV. However, this is one of the few likenesses to the Heroes III skill system. The Heroes V system is a much more dynamic one, giving the hero a choice from 2 skills and 2 abilities. Skills do not have Secondary Skills as there were in Heroes IV, instead, there are anywhere between 3-5 abilities that are classed under a certain skill. These abilities, generally in the upper-end, require pre-requisites to be able to learn them, with these requirements not necessarily coming from the same skill line. For example, in order to learn the Dungeon-specific ability, Absolute Chains, the abilities of War Machines' Last Aid, Luck's Grail Vision, and Learning's Academy Award are needed. When counting these secondary abilities' pre-requisites, there are another eleven abilities needed, making 14 abilities in total required for Absolute Chains. This ensures the flexibility of the system, as in longer games even Absolute Chains can be learnt. The abilities tree is a complex assortment of both skills and abilities, and it requires the player to make informed choices with a view to the future when taking experience.

Each town has its own unique skill, which other races cannot learn. This is explored further in the Racial Abilities Section by Fabrice Cambounet. Unlike other skills, the Class-specific skills have 4 tiers, basic, advanced, expert, and ultimate, which have their own abilities that are again interwoven with the tree.

Primary skills are once again a factor in Heroes V, working in a similar manner to Heroes III. They are listed in the table below:

Primary Skills

	Attack Hero's attack skill number is added to the creature's attack statistic, which causes it to inflict additional damage.
	Defense Hero's defense skill number is added to the creature's defense statistic, which causes it to suffer less damage.
	Spell Power Spells power determines the effectiveness of a spell. This affects variables like spell duration, damage, and percentage.
	Knowledge Adds a certain number of mana to the hero's total, increasing the mana capacity of the hero.
	Morale Increases the chance of the creature attaining a 'good' morale - increasing the probability of it attacking twice.
	Luck Increases the chance of the creature attaining 'good' luck - increasing the probability of it attacking with double damage.
	Mana The number of spell points a hero has with which to cast spells.

The sheer depth of skill tree enables the hero to construct a unique repertoire of abilities to suit the player's style and the map they're playing on. For example, in a resource rich map, Fortunate Adventurer is more valued than in a more barren map. Toughness is useful for creatures with low Hit Points and in high numbers, such as Skeleton Archers, while Death Scream may be useless in a Necropolis vs. Necropolis map, it will still be needed to develop Dead Luck. Such is the diversity of the skill and abilities system.

Thanks to ThE_HyDrA for creating and looking after the Heroes 5 section of Age of Heroes!

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