Posts from Characters, attributes, races, and classes.

Once you click the "Start Game" button in the main menu, the hero creation screen will appear. This is where you create all four members of your team. If you don't feel like doing this, or you don't see much difference in who you play as, there's a button on the bottom right that immediately loads a standard team.
When choosing a hero's portrait, you also determine their gender and race. So, you won't be able to create a cool half-orc that looks like a beautiful elf. There are only four races, and they are all familiar: humans, elves, mountain dwarves (meaning Dwarfs), and half-orcs. You can also choose the character's voice.
Each hero already has a name, but you can change it by simply clicking on the name and typing in a new one.
Next, you need to distribute the bonus points among the hero's stats and choose their class. Each hero is given 10 bonus points. In addition, you can take away a few points (the number is limited) from the qualities that you consider not very useful.
When creating a character, you can choose two starting skills. Right-clicking on a skill in the list will display its description, allowing you to determine if it's really needed for your hero. The sets of available skills for a mage and a warrior are different. Keep in mind that you will receive one "Disarm Trap" and one "Identify Item" scroll at the very beginning of the game, and you will be able to teach one of the heroes these skills.
A convenient new feature has been added: the ability to compare the new hero with the other members of the team at the moment of their creation.

After all, humans are remarkably modest creatures. You can only find phrases like "the pinnacle of creation" in the works of romantic poets. Game developers would more likely call humans a "starting point." Meaning, an absolute mediocrity, a middle ground, neither fish nor fowl, or, finally, a well-rounded personality. A little bit of everything, and nothing outstanding. In general, as usual.
Elves are terrible bodybuilders (for every point of endurance, you have to give up two bonus points; we talked about bonus points in the "Building a Team" section), but their accuracy is top-notch. Each bonus point increases accuracy by two.
Dwarves, on the other hand, are pleasantly rounded and stable. Including resistance to external influences. Endurance increases by 2 for each bonus point, but magic... Two bonus points for increasing magic by one completely discourages including a dwarf illusionist in the team.
Half-orcs. They have strength, and they are also quite intelligent, but they are a little thoughtful. Strength increases twice as easily, and speed twice as difficult, compared to humans.

The class system has changed significantly. Now there are only two starting classes: Fighter and Initiate.
However, each starting class is split into two "advanced" classes, and each advanced class is further split into two "elite" classes. This results in 8 final development points, 8 different combinations of advantages and disadvantages.
For example, over time you can turn a Fighter into a Mercenary) or a Crusader). A Mercenary becomes an Assassin) or a Gladiator). Clearly, the history of Chedian differs greatly from that of Earth. In our world, you could only make a mercenary into a gladiator by capturing them as a slave. Hardly what you'd call a successful career. In turn, a Crusader converts into a Ranger) or a Paladin.
Another possible development path is the magical one, from Initiate to a student or Scholar (Scholar is translated exactly as such) or to a Healer). After defending a doctoral thesis, a Scholar turns into a Mage) or a Lich). The second path brings to mind an old song:
“...I'll gather you all together, unless in a foreign land
I happen to die from my own Latin.
Unless the Romans and Greeks drive me mad,
who composed volumes for the library.
Unless those professors who teach the students,
torture the poor Scholar to death...”
Now you and I know how Liches are made.
Finally, a Healer, through perfection, becomes either a Priest) or a Druid).
There's nothing to say about the starting classes; it's obvious—it's Might & Magic—so read the brief descriptions of the advanced and elite classes below.
Mercenary Mercenaries are pure fighters. They do not use magic, but are strong in melee combat.
Gladiator. Gladiators are a direct development of mercenaries; no magic, but very high combat abilities, primarily in melee combat.
Assassin. Assassins are not as good at attacking, but are more elusive. And since they are harder to hit, they serve as even better cover for mages than gladiators.
Crusader. Crusaders are a hybrid class. They gain some magical abilities, but as a result, they are not as strong in melee combat as mercenaries.
Paladin. Paladins retain the combat abilities of crusaders but, additionally, are experts in Light and Spirit magic.
Ranger. Rangers, unlike paladins, specialize in Elemental and Spirit Magic.
Scholar. The analogue of the wizard in M&M8. Specializes in Elemental, Light, and Dark magics.
Mage. A Scholar can successfully master both light and dark magic, but there comes a moment when a choice must be made. A Mage is a scholar who has taken the light path. He specializes in Elemental and Light magics.
Lich. As you have already understood, a Lich is a master of Elemental and Dark Magic.
Healer Healers, of course, are more similar to the Cleric from M&M8 and are strong primarily in healing (Spirit Magic), as well as in light and elemental magic.
Priest. Priests are healers who have finally chosen the path of good. Their assets are Spirit and Light magic. The study of dark magic is limited to the expert level.
Druid. Now here's the letdown. One can imagine 6 combinations of magic: Light & Dark, Light & Elemental, Light & Spirit, Dark & Elemental, Dark & Spirit, Elemental & Spirit. One of the combinations is clearly irritating in its lack of principle (Light & Dark), leaving five.
Four of them are implemented in the Mage, Priest, Lich, and Ranger classes. But the Druid is not the remaining Dark and Spirit option (“evil priest”), but Elemental and Spirit! That is, the same as a Ranger, only worse at fighting and better at casting. That's how it is.
Thus, of the 5 “permissible specializations,” two appear twice (Paladin and Priest, Ranger and Druid), two appear once (Mage and Lich), and one is missing (Dark, Spirit). Although some interesting spells (Dark Spirit, Death's Touch) use this specific combination of magic types.
You can transition to a more advanced class by completing a special quest (Promotion quest). Besides moral satisfaction, promotion provides an increase in the number of hit and spell points added when moving from level to level, as well as the ability to learn new skills. Or to achieve greater perfection in those already known.

The primary stats, whose values you determine when creating a character, now number 6 instead of 8. Let's list them.
Might – strong heroes deal more damage to enemies in battle. In addition, Might is needed when performing many actions.
Magic – the amount of magical abilities determines the number of spell points, as well as the probability of success when casting a spell.
Endurance – this indicator affects the number of hit points (health units) of the character.
Accuracy – strangely enough, Accuracy does not affect the damage in ranged attacks, but the number of attacks per turn in battle.
Speed – high speed reduces the character's recovery time after an attack or spell casting in battle.
Luck – heroes with high luck are better at resisting magical attacks and can avoid damage from traps. It also helps a lot when opening chests.

Secondary stats depend on the primary stats.
Health (Hit points). Enemy attacks and traps reduce the number of hit points. When their number drops to zero, the hero loses consciousness. And when the hit points reach a negative value equal in magnitude to the hero's Endurance, he dies. Hit points are fully restored after eight hours of rest.
Magic (Spell points). Their number depends on the Magic ability. Spell points are restored after 8 hours of continuous rest. Healing in a church does not restore mana.
Armor Class. The better the armor, the higher the chance of avoiding an enemy attack. It is determined by what the hero is wearing and some abilities.

Finally, we can highlight "tertiary" stats, which determine how effectively your hero attacks and defends. They depend on many factors: primary and secondary stats, abilities, expert and master ranks, weapon bonuses, the character's condition, and spells cast on the squad. However, you won't have to calculate them using complex formulas – you can simply look at the character screen to see what they are equal to.
Melee damage – damage dealt to an enemy by your hero when hitting (of course, if he hits the monster).
Ranged damage – the same, but for bows, crossbows, and other long-range killing weapons.
Melee bonus – affects the probability of hitting a monster when hitting.
Ranged bonus – the same, but for all types of ranged weapons.
Resistance – the probability of reducing damage from a magical attack. For each type of attack (Elemental, Dark, Light, and Spirit), there is its own resistance. Interestingly, there is also such a funny thing as Physical Resistance. It is described as "the probability of minimizing damage from a physical attack caused by magical reasons." Simply put, this is the probability of surviving if a magical, but quite granite, stone is dropped on your head.
However, even maximum resistance does not provide absolute protection.