We should immediately revise the entire block of rules on hero restrictions. Here's what's there now:
5.10.1. Sir Mullich of 3rd level or higher may not attack heroes, towns, garrisoned mines, or neutral monsters.
5.10.4. All 4th-level spell specialist heroes, as well as Thant (who has the 3rd-level spell Animate Dead) may use their specialized spells against an opponent when one of the following conditions is met:
a) The 4th level of the Mage Guild is built in any of the controlled castles (for Thant, the 3rd level is required). If your castles lack the required Mage Guild level, you must fully build the Mage Guild to all levels in any two castles you own. Visiting this castle with a hero is not mandatory. If the condition is met, it does not matter whether the castles with the built Mage Guild levels are subsequently controlled.
b) The corresponding spell has been obtained by any of your heroes from a Pandora's Box (even if that hero does not have sufficient Wisdom skill to learn the spell) or after visiting a Scholar, or a tome of the required magic school has been found;
c) For using Thant's specialized spell by any of your heroes, the Shrine of Magic Thought containing the Animate Dead spell has been found and visited.
*Against neutral monsters, as well as against the computer (if present on the map), 4th-level spell specialists and Thant may use their specialized spell without the above restrictions.
5.10.5. 4th-level spell specialists and Thant may pass their spells to other heroes, but until any of the conditions 5.10.4.a, b, or 5.10.4.c for Thant are met, these spells cannot be used against neutral monsters, the computer, or the opponent by the trained heroes.
I propose removing this block entirely and allowing full unrestricted play for all 4th-level specialists, Thant, and Mullich. This would slightly boost the underdog Tower on some templates, but overall would have virtually no impact on gameplay: practically no one would start with specialists on Meteor Shower, playing as Necropolis or Dungeon anyway, and the rest of the 4th-level heroes are hardly worth mentioning, same for Thant. Honestly, it's even a bit awkward that we still have such an inflated block of rules on such a trivial topic. Let's give the mages a chance. I also propose completely unbanning Mullich — after all, the Castle hero progression line is rather weak + Leadership from the start, and anyway, you can't start with them. In general, Mullich would almost always lose to top-tier heroes from other towns when it comes to deciding who to include in folders.
5.10.2. Izya and Vidomina are only allowed to upgrade the 'Sorcery' skill to 'Expert' level if it is the last skill offered. In this case, there are no further restrictions on use.
5.10.3. Izya and Vidomina who acquire the Expert Sorcery skill in a manner other than specified in clause 5.10.2. may not attack heroes, towns, garrisoned mines, or neutral monsters.
This, of course, is also archaic.
I partially agree with those who commented above that the overpoweredness of Izya and Vidomina from prison is greatly exaggerated; heroes like Greg/Taz or logistics specialists are almost always stronger (with very few exceptions). I also believe that rules should be changed only towards simplification and support the idea that familiar imbalanced elements, such as the Griffin Conservatory on Template 111, logistics specialists, Taz, convenient external dwellings, etc., have become so commonplace that they are simply overlooked, while with some ingrained, almost instinctive feeling, people still look back at the rules and reject things that are hardly comparable in power level.
Therefore, I propose reformulating the clause about Izya and Vidomina as follows:
Izya and Vidomina are only allowed to upgrade the 'Sorcery' skill to 'Expert' level if it is the last skill offered. If these heroes were freed from prison already possessing Expert 'Sorcery', they may be used without restrictions.
That is, it's clear that a 1st-level Izya and Vidomina from prison are no different from those bought in the tavern. In all other cases, we use them without restrictions; their overpoweredness will not increase significantly from this, and in some cases their advantage will be dubious altogether.
Regarding your other proposals:
- dismissing skeletons — as I've said many times before — this is complete nonsense, wasting precious time and creating a host of unpleasant nuances.
- allowing them to fight for only 1 day — bloats the rules and is not entirely fair from a strategic perspective. Again, there are minor random occurrences, such as attacks on lightly guarded enemy objects, which sometimes, at the opponent's will, could end in a technical loss, etc.
IN SUMMARY, the rules on hero restrictions should look like this:
5.10 Izya and Vidomina are only allowed to upgrade the 'Sorcery' skill to 'Expert' level if it is the last skill offered. If these heroes were freed from prison already possessing Expert 'Sorcery', they may be used without restrictions.
That's all.
