I don't want to use the Scanner, and without it, I might fail to level up Special Abilities, even though it's easier to get them in 3.0 than in 1.x. Then I'll end up with a weak mage without magic. This is what I dislike most about Special Abilities for mages. But it's easy to get native light and summoning. For other races, even if a hero fails to get Special Abilities, they will still be combat-capable.
I also didn't level up Special Abilities for Faidean. Elven luck, chaos, empathy, alternative druids, and a rain of enchanted arrows – that's a formidable force. All of this is much easier to get than Special Abilities. However, to make all of this work, I took Magic Attraction. Otherwise, even druidic mana won't be enough. Instead of elven luck with chaos, it would have been better to get sorcery, but I was afraid that I wouldn't have enough mana. Sorcery was offered to me, but I took something else.