New hero abilities - suggest them all!

[Sandman]

Wheeeeee, more suggestions, ripped off from assorted similar games, or just made up by me:

Enchanter, Conjurer, Thaumaturg, etc: Casts the corresponding spell school with improved effect.

Armourer, Offense, Archery, etc: Shamelessly ripped from HOMM3, or Warcraft 3. Leaders with these skills give their units a hefty bonus. This would be a nice way to beef up the mundane units and commanders versus magical stuff.

Chosen: The hero is rendered immune to curse, horror mark and certain afflictions.

Creature Specialist: Creatures of a certain type get a boost when commanded by this commander.

Spell Specialist: Spell X has an improved effect when cast by this commander. This is already in the game for the Vine Men/Ogre spells, and a few others.

Crusader: The hero gains sailing, siege skills, supplies and perma-blessing.

Conquistador: The hero gains sailing, supplies, pillaging and patrolling. And spreads disease among the natives.

Raider: This ability allows ground commanders to initiate an attack from two or more squares away, like flying units.

Weaponsmaster: The commander can replace the weapons wielded by troops under their command with weapons from the province the army is currently occupying. This process costs resources.

Pilgrim: This hero gains increased experience and skills for each temple or holy site visited at least once.

Explorer: As above, but for each previously unentered (by your forces) province.

Wanderer: As above, but instead of stats, this hero gains research skills for each lab visited. Might need to be capped at some point. Same for all the 'traveller' skills.

Scavenger: The ability allows a modest % of gold and gems to be recovered from destroyed units in the aftermath of a battle. Enemy items are very likely to be recovered.

Freelancer: This hero can summon a mercenary camp and freely trade units for gold, gems or other creatures.

Forge Scrying: A unit using this skill can detect any magical items forged anywhere in the world (but not items gained in other ways). At high levels, the forging nation can be determined, rather than guessed at. At divine levels, enemy item stocks can be observed.

Incorruptible Essence: Anyone trying to use lifedrain techniques on this hero will take enormous damage, or, in certain cases, be mind-enslaved to the 'victim'.

Slayer: Grants substantial bonuses when fighting against certain classes of enemy; skeletons, devils, trolls etc.

Guerilla: Allows the hero and/or commanded troops to join the battle from the side or even behind. Some measure of stealthyness should be needed to use this skill.

Partisan: This hero can recruit troops from enemy-held provinces. The troops must be stealthy, of course. Maybe not high-level national stuff.

Terminator: If this assassin manages to kill his target quickly enough, the enemy will not even get to view a battle (and thus be unaware of the assassin's nationality or equipment). They just get a message saying that their unit has vanished without a trace.

Pioneer: This unit can perform the command 'colonise' which greatly boosts the growth rate of under-populated provinces.

Initiative: This commander attacks so quickly that the enemy doesn't have enough time to form up properly. All enemy units are slightly displaced from their intended positions.

Smuggler: Grants sailing, stealth and the ability to steal gold from enemy provinces that are adjacent to yours or one sea province away. It's twice as effective in coastal and river provinces.

[Saber Cherry]

Sandman said:
Wheeeeee, more suggestions, ripped off from assorted similar games, or just made up by me:

Some of these would make really good spells or normal abilities, too.

Enchanter, Conjurer, Thaumaturg, etc: Casts the corresponding spell school with improved effect.

A great ability for the untis that are actually NAMED Enchanter, Conjurer, Thaumaturg, and etc

Chosen: The hero is rendered immune to curse, horror mark and certain afflictions.

Sounds good - hard to say how it could improve over time, though.

Raider: This ability allows ground commanders to initiate an attack from two or more squares away, like flying units.

This would also make a good special abiilty for leaders of barbarians, tribal cavalry, and BK Tien Chi.

Weaponsmaster: The commander can replace the weapons wielded by troops under their command with weapons from the province the army is currently occupying. This process costs resources.

I'm not sure this would work very well... Giving all troops under the commander a a gradual increase in weapon damage (+1, +2, ... after a long, long time, +3) might be possible, but replacing weapons would wreak havok with 2-handed weapons, mixed troop types, unit icons, and so forth.

Pilgrim: This hero gains increased experience and skills for each temple or holy site visited at least once.

Especially for "visiting" enemy temples I like this one. Wierd to say "I'm a heroic pilgrim, world-reknowned for my pligrimage," though. Perhaps certain sacred units (like flagellants) could get a special "Pilgrim" ability, gaining +3xp per turn while at a holy site and another +1 xp per turn while at a temple, and +10xp for desecrating and burning an enemy temple... much easier to implement.

Scavenger: The ability allows a modest % of gold and gems to be recovered from destroyed units in the aftermath of a battle. Enemy items are very likely to be recovered.

Great ability for huge battles, though not very heroic-sounding Treasure Hunter sounds much nicer!

Incorruptible Essence: Anyone trying to use lifedrain techniques on this hero will take enormous damage, or, in certain cases, be mind-enslaved to the 'victim'.

This would make a great magical spell: "Soul Poison: renders the life-force of friendly units in the affected area toxic to creatures that feed on souls. Any lifedrain attacks will do equal damage to both victim and attacker." Or a special ability to certain fodder troops, like Ghouls and Crossbreeds. If it could be deployed en mass rather than be a heroic ability, it would be a great defense against Lifesteal supercombattants.

A holy spell "Sanctify Blood" could similarly give a holy essence to the blood of sacred units, that damages undead and demonic life-draining attackers. Sounds overly specific, but it would be extremely useful in practice.

Guerilla: Allows the hero and/or commanded troops to join the battle from the side or even behind. Some measure of stealthyness should be needed to use this skill.

Quite a killer ability! How about this: the commander can position stealthy units under his command over a larger positioning map (the green thing you position troops on) than normal commanders. The higher the ability grows, the bigger the positioning map, such that at a very high level the troop-positioning map encompasses the entire real battlefield.

Partisan: This hero can recruit troops from enemy-held provinces. The troops must be stealthy, of course. Maybe not high-level national stuff.

Cool... The gold/resource budget could grow with the skill.

Terminator: If this assassin manages to kill his target quickly enough, the enemy will not even get to view a battle (and thus be unaware of the assassin's nationality or equipment). They just get a message saying that their unit has vanished without a trace.

My favorite so far!

Pioneer: This unit can perform the command 'colonise' which greatly boosts the growth rate of under-populated provinces.

Just like Heroic Stamina, but not quite as dirty...

Smuggler:Grants sailing, stealth and the ability to steal gold from enemy provinces that are adjacent to yours or one sea province away. It's twice as effective in coastal and river provinces.

This is pretty cool too! Sounds like a good ability for indy Smugglers, recruitable commanders from a level 0 coastal water site, "Smuggler's Cove."

[Sandman]

Some of these would make really good spells or normal abilities, too.

Yeah, I'm just brainstorming.

Sounds good - hard to say how it could improve over time, though.

That's true, Chosen is a nice ability, but not a Hall of Fame one. If I had to choose, I'd probably give it as a reward to human heroes who defeat mighty monsters.

This would also make a good special abiilty for leaders of barbarians, tribal cavalry, and BK Tien Chi.

Absolutely. The Raider ability would make hordes of horsemen something to be feared. It should probably be given to BK, and any Arabic or Ottoman themed nations that turn up.

I'm not sure this would work very well... Giving all troops under the commander a a gradual increase in weapon damage (+1, +2, ... after a long, long time, +3) might be possible, but replacing weapons would wreak havok with 2-handed weapons, mixed troop types, unit icons, and so forth.

True enough, I just wish there was a way to upgrade national troops. Another idea I had (for Ulm) was upgrading their armour as they advance in Construction. At Con-10, their armour would be super-strong, almost weightless and ultra-flexible.

Quite a killer ability! How about this: the commander can position stealthy units under his command over a larger positioning map (the green thing you position troops on) than normal commanders. The higher the ability grows, the bigger the positioning map, such that at a very high level the troop-positioning map encompasses the entire real battlefield.

The way I imagined it was that the guerilla troops would not be placed on the map at all; they'd just be shunted to a kind of nether-zone of upper flank, lower flank or rear. When the battle begins, they're not in a coherent formation, just in a line like wolves summoned with howl. If you give them 'hold' orders, they won't appear on the battlefield until they're ordered to attack or fire or whatever. Their irregular formation creates a realistic limitation for this ability.

Cool... The gold/resource budget could grow with the skill.

It is a cool ability. I like the idea that the gold/resource budget grows. Whilst the troops recruitable (woodsmen, villains, vaetti, satyrs, other rare units) would be limited although still potentially useful, being able to recruit scouts in enemy territory would be very handy. And with spies and assassins you could create an ever-growing, self-sufficient insurgency...although you may have the strange situation of avoiding taking an enemy fort so your partisan can continue to recruit their stealthy units.

This is pretty cool too! Sounds like a good ability for indy Smugglers, recruitable commanders from a level 0 coastal water site, "Smuggler's Cove."

I'd like to see it as part of a revamped CotS Marignon, or a full-on sailing nation in Dom3. It should probably cause a wee bit of unrest. Oh, and spells which prevent sailing would prevent overseas smuggling from working as well.

You could really rake in the cash if you were well set up to exploit this ability. By taking control of an island, you could set it up as a smuggling base, sending smugglers to a dozen or more overseas provinces, with all the loot being siphoned through the island. Such islands would be very valuable... worth fighting over, either to deactivate the smuggling rings permanently, or set up your own.