Posts from Ideas and suggestions.

The item is good, but it should be noted that in Heroes of Might and Magic V, there is no mentor by default in multiplayer maps and most of the random map generator templates. Plus, the cost of changing skills is simply exorbitant (considering the randomness) and is only justified in the very late game. That is, if you introduce a mentor in Heroes of Might and Magic III, it is not clear how balanced it will be. But for single-player, it would be a good feature. Especially in campaigns, so that you don't have unnecessary problems due to poor character development.

Well, I guessed right about King's Bounty. But I actually like the randomness in Heroes. And as for useful skills, there are still more of them than a hero can possibly take.

Okay, credit to the scouts...

Scouting is, by the way, a very useful skill. It's often chosen voluntarily.

Vog simply steals ideas. I don't play his games. It's just that some factions are predisposed to having weak skills.

Well, I guessed right about Heroes of Might and Magic. But I actually like the randomness in the game. And regarding useful skills, there are still more of them than a hero can take.

So, the problem isn't the number of useful skills, but the fact that not all of them are useful.

Scouting, by the way, is a very good skill. It's often chosen voluntarily.

I was playing a multiplayer game recently, and I had an idea that combining "Scouting" and "Navigation" into one skill would give a very viable result, especially on maps with water. That is, it would be closer in effectiveness to something like "Logistics." Separately, of course... Well, I happily take these skills for minor heroes, but for my main hero, it feels risky.

The main hero's scouting is useless. Send a group of weak units ahead for scouting.

Scouting is useless for the main character.

When you jump through astral gates in the darkness, scouting might be useful, I suppose. The real question is, what do we lose because of it...

...the idea that combining "scouting" and "navigation" into one skill would yield a very viable result...

heroeswt.net :D

Yes, you get the Tazar navigation and then remove it.

combining "scouting" and "navigation" into one skill.

Without water, navigation on the GSC in HotA is useless. On fixed maps with water, navigation isn't much more useful than logistics.
Scouting, in its current form, is already one of the top 8 skills.

There is no water navigation in HotA without water on the GSC.

That's really great.

On fixed maps with water, navigation isn't much more useful than logistics.

Well, that's if there are no dungeons...

Scouting, in its current form, is already one of the top 8 skills.

Okay, I believe you, given the statistics :D

It's still a waste to lose a valuable skill because of it...

Is Scouting a weak skill? Given the expanded vision radius (compared to SoD) and the ability to play on truly large maps, scouting is a necessary skill alongside logistics (logistics increases move points, while scouting allows you to waste fewer of them).

If we are talking about useless skills, I would choose these:
1) First Aid. At the start of the game, the skill is useless because the tent heals more than the maximum HP of available creatures even without the skill. In the late game, the skill is useless because its effectiveness is incomparable to the damage dealt by existing stacks. It can only be useful in situations where, after every turn, the first unit in a fat flagship stack has about ten hit points left (in other words, slightly less than never).
Proposal for making tent mastery useful:
Without First Aid, the tent heals as it always did.
With Basic skill, the tent casts the "Cure" spell at basic level congruent to Magic Power 3, in addition to the existing heal that is unchanged for the current basic level.
With Advanced skill, the tent casts the "Cure" spell at advanced level congruent to Magic Power 3, in addition to the existing heal that is unchanged for the current advanced level.
With Expert skill, the tent casts the "Cure" spell at expert level congruent to Magic Power 3, in addition to the existing targeted heal that is unchanged for the current advanced level.

Healing does not work on magic immunes - the tent affects them in standard mode. The same applies to those immune to the water school. If a magic/water immune is chosen as the healing target, the cure spell will not work at all (since they cannot be a target for this spell). When using the tent on a water-magic immune, it will be processed by the tent's standard targeted heal.
A Cloak of Silence or a red orb blocks the First Aid skill, and the tent works in standard mode (only targeted heal works).

What this leads to: the possibility of useful use of this skill in PvP, as mass healing will remove harmful effects (including blinds, oil, etc.). From an outsider, first aid will become close to a must-have skill.
Giving the tent the ability to resurrect killed units in a stack is non-atmospheric imba. If you bring a corpse to a field medic, it remains a corpse - but giving a practicing, upgraded medic the ability to cast kind healing spells is acceptable.

Rion, Jem, and Verdish (FA specialists) will:
1) have a tent from the start;
2) increase the power of the cure spell congruent to +1 SP for every three levels.

2). Mysticism. Absolutely useless for both warrior and mage. Only a lazy person would fail to build a Mage Well on a good template.
However, the skill can be made much more useful.
Without mysticism: the hero restores 1 spell point per day.
Basic mysticism: the hero restores 2 spell points + 2% of maximum spell point reserve per day.
Advanced mysticism: the hero restores 3 spell points + 3% of maximum spell point reserve per day.
Expert mysticism: the hero restores 4 spell points + 4% of maximum spell point reserve per day.

Thanks to such a change, the skill will be useful even at the start of the game for a starting mage (allowing them to be less dependent on wells and cities with guilds), adding mobility to the mage. In the late game, it will also be quite good (better than now: a hero with 40 knowledge will restore 20 spell points per day with expert mysticism, rather than 4 as it is now). The difference is noticeable.

Mysticism specialists will receive +1 restored spell point and +1% of the possible maximum for every 7 hero levels.

3) Eagle Eye. This is one of those skills that makes you want to cry upon seeing it.
Proposal: strengthen Eagle Eye by giving it fundamentally new capabilities while leaving the existing combat functionality intact.
Basic Eagle Eye: Ability to view spells of level 2-3 in a level 1 Mage Guild without building levels 2-3. Resources for the 2nd-3rd floor of the guild appear quite late - but using this knowledge, the player can plan further game tactics.
Advanced Eagle Eye: Ability to view spells of level 2-4 in a level 1 Mage Guild. Similarly.
Expert Eagle Eye: The same, but levels 2-5.

What will this lead to? To the ability to better plan the magic strategy at the start of the game. To the ability to avoid unnecessary resource spending in the late game - if you check the MG in a captured city, it will be immediately clear whether you need to spend another 20-20 ore-wood and 28 rare resources each for building levels 2-5. Of course, no one in their right mind would take this skill as a primary - but for a noob, it will always be exceptionally pleasant.
Furthermore, with the planned expansion of the spellbook with new spells, variance will increase. Having a noob with good Eagle Eye will provide better orientation.
As an option for how the skill works: show the spell in a pop-up window when right-clicking on a collapsed scroll. Doing it like in VoG (I don't remember what handled guild viewing there, honestly) is bad tone.

Eagle Eye specialists will have the same bonuses as they do now - no need to reinvent the wheel. Eagle Eye artifacts will not lose their functionality (although we admit they remain trash).

Throw tomatoes, comrades. If I am wrong, I would like to hear constructive criticism with arguments. At the same time, the argument that "this was already in VoG/Heroes 7/The Simpsons" is not an argument, IMO.

I agree, the current Eagle Eye/Mysticism skill is useless. Also, I'd like to mention the weak Water magic, which no one will choose compared to other magic types. The spells are terrible; it's better to take scouting skills instead. Thanks, I'll try playing around with scouting! The tent is generally a weak item anyway; it's only good for removing blindness.

Suggestions for changing artifacts.

After reading this thread, I noticed how many people dislike the red orb and cloaks. And this is quite fair, because on large maps, with these artifacts, "Heroes of Might and Magic" turns into "Heroes of Might without Magic," which significantly shifts the balance in favor of warrior heroes. At the same time, there is simply no way to counter this. So...

1. Sphere of Inhibition - grants all troops (including the carrier and their opponent) 50% resistance to shock magic (like stone golems) and resistance to both positive and negative prolonged spells, also 50% (more than combat gnomes). Adjust the sphere so that it also works on the effects of the Alliance of Angels, Cursed Armor, and Iron Fist of Ogres.
If the sphere is present with both the hero and their opponent, the effects are cumulative (i.e., magic does not work in that particular battle). They can also be multiplied, however (i.e., an effect of 75% instead of 50%), but this is more difficult to understand.
Two spheres on one hero in battle act as one.
If there is only one sphere, spells can still be used - however, with significantly less effectiveness and with significantly lower chances of success.
Thus, a warrior hero can greatly hinder a combat mage, without depriving them of the opportunity to use the fruits of their labor from the spellbook. Of course, such a sphere will introduce randomness and variance into each battle - and the fate of some parties will directly depend on whether the oil is cast on the right unit, etc.

2. Cloak of Silence. Remove the ban on magic levels 1-2. Instead, if the Cloak of Silence is present, the cost of casting all spells of levels 1-2 is tripled. If there are two cloaks in one battle, the effects are multiplied (i.e., 9 times - one oil will cost 36 spell points).
The effects of increasing/decreasing casting costs from the presence of pegasi/mages should be taken into account after calculating the presence/absence of the cloak, so as not to give the Rampart/Tower an unfair advantage.

3. Cloak of Negation. Similar to the Cloak of Silence - but for spells of levels 3-5. The effects are multiplied if there are two cloaks in one battle. In other words, casting Armageddon with two cloaks in battle will cost 180 spell points.
The effects of increasing/decreasing casting costs from the presence of pegasi/mages in the army should be calculated after calculating the presence/absence of the cloaks, so as not to give the Rampart/Tower an unfair advantage.

4. Ring of the Mage (assembled from a collar, a mantle, and a ring). Nullifies the effect of the Sphere of Inhibition if it is present with the opponent, in addition to the existing bonuses.

5. Well of the Mage (assembled from an amulet, a talisman, and a mana medal). Nullifies the effect of the Cloak of Silence/Negation if they are present with the opponent, in addition to the existing bonuses. The daily spell point regeneration of the well can be reduced to 10% + 6 spell points - due to the new and very good combat property. In addition, such a nerf to the well will make mysticism a truly more useful secondary skill.

6. Necklace of the Clear Sky. New artifact, major, worn on the neck. Effect - ban on casting the "Armageddon" spell in battle. This will prevent mages who want to decimate the enemy army with hit-and-run attacks, followed by retreating to the tavern, from doing so. If the Sphere and Cloak are stripped of the ability to ban such a powerful spell, a new artifact will be needed to protect against the "hit and run" tactic.

Suggestion for new effects on the battlefield/adventure map.

The game engine may not support this, I'll say right away. This is not classic, and there was nothing like it in Heroes (neither in the third game, nor before or after, as far as I know).
Introduce the factor of magical instability into the game. Its essence lies in several possibilities:
- shock magic in battle may not work on the unit it was cast on (either on another enemy, or even on one's own);
- targeted buffs and curses may not work on the intended unit (or you can curse your own/buff an enemy);
- mass buffs and curses may work illogically (completely curse your own troops/completely buff the enemy army/or curse/buff absolutely random units on the battlefield);
- force fields and fire walls may appear not where they were intended to be placed;
- area-of-effect spells may misfire (it will probably be unpleasant to wipe out a stack of your archers along with a living wall with a meteor shower);
- summoning spells may spawn enemy elementals or an enemy clone;
- any spells in battle may simply fail, even though mana and an attempt to do so are spent;
- spells on the adventure map may simply not work (spell points and daily attempts are spent on this) or work differently than intended (a teleport spell that moves not the specified city, or a dimension door that throws the hero in the opposite direction of the cast).

Based on this effect, the following can be done:
- a secondary skill (will spoil the fun for those who rely on magic in battles);
- artifacts (three pieces, 5-10-15%, treasure-minor-major classes, with the possibility of assembling a set +30% to the effect);
- a new race, which hates magic (as an example - the barbarians from the fourth Heroes), with a new city;
- a five-story building in the new city, replacing the guild of mages and increasing instability by n% for each floor, affecting not only combat magic, but also all spells cast on the adventure map (control nerf);
- a grail in the new city, which significantly enhances this effect (an even more severe control nerf).
This idea is raw, I know that myself. I share it as is - if I come up with something more, I will be happy to explain and smooth out the rough edges.
If the game engine allows this (in my opinion, it is possible - in WOG, the eagle eye worked in a similar way in battle), it will be fun, because in theory, on the map, you can create a real chaos with folders who are afraid to use control magic, and ubermages who are afraid to even look into the spellbook in battle. If a campaign scenario (a plot explanation of the feature) is required to implement this idea in HotA, I will be happy to help the developers. I know the world of Heroes, and I have experience in writing such things.

Added 21 minutes ago
AstralLein, is water magic weak? *choked on tea*
But what about such things as:
- mass bless (when playing with stacks and high damage - a must-have!);
- mass forgetfulness (when clearing shooting neutrals when any losses are critical - very useful);
- mass prayer (in my opinion, better than mass haste, because it increases characteristics);
- mass healing (when you don't have mass haste to remove the oil, it's ideal);
- mass dispel (hello cursed armor, although it is rarely used);
- RESURRECTING CLONE OF ARCHONS!!1!
If we are talking about the most useless magic, then it is fire. Of all the fire spells, only Armageddon, Berserk, and Blind are useful (sometimes - mass curse and mass bloodlust). We will not consider individual cases with the Moon. If we are talking about the uselessness of a school of magic as a whole, then there is no completely useless school - in each there is something that can be used with great benefit in a particular case. Air and earth are far ahead (i.e., a must-have) only due to the fact that they have control over the adventure map (fly, Dimension Door, Town Portal).
But to put water magic (even fire magic) on the same level as the current Priest or Necromancer - is not quite correct.

It is said that the upcoming version will fix a number of bugs (watering hole, etc.). Some are related to mirrored map templates. I have identified (most likely) a rare bug: if you enter a +1 level tree on a 3D map, you cannot enter the same tree from the other side with the same hero. They say it has already been addressed.