[B0rsuk]

Last time I checked 'specialised' heroic abilities gave more bonus than ones that boost multiple skills. So Battle Prowess would give more attack bonus than Agility.


Some wild speculation:

The heroic ability a commander gets may be related to his actions in battle.
The only time (as far as I remember) I got Adept Researcher was with Black Duke of Ulm. It's a SC from 'epic heroes' mod. I don't like the mod, but that's not the point. If I remember correctly, the Duke attacked enemies in melee, which is quite unusual for a spellcaster. The Duke of Ulm has some magic skills in 3 or even more paths.

The following is completely ungrounded speculation. Heroic Stupidity may be granted to commanders who actually do something very stupid, such as accidentally killing lots of allies. If true, it should appear quite often on machakan/black sorcerers (it doesn't).

Perhaps some heroic abilities only seem less common because we don't know what triggers them ? Some ideas for tests:
- test a bunch of ordinary melee commanders (with and without leadership to see if it affects presence/awe like abilities; big and small thugs separately)
- test some evocation mages (I often see endurance, quickness, precision on machakans)
- test some commanders with ranged weapons like bows
- test smiting priests

I'm not familiar enough with map editing, so these tests would be too time-consuming for me.

About obscure heroic abilities: I believe pale ones get Second Eye :-).