Posts from - A reference guide and manual in Russian for Heroes 3.

if as a result of RND the Knight's damage was determined to be 20, then in the event that luck triggers he will deal 40 damage, and if double damage also triggers - 60.

With very high probability, it will work exactly like that. The only caveat is that to verify this in practice (I haven't checked), one would need to find a way to bypass the limitation of the Knight's base damage range of 15-30.

Or approach it from the opposite direction - if, in the case of luck and double damage triggering simultaneously, the resulting damage is odd even once, one can safely assert that these parameters are not multiplied, meaning the theory proposed above is correct. But for verification, you would need either a lot of time or a lot of luck to wait for such an outcome... :)

It is very likely that everything will be exactly as described. The only caveat is that to verify this in practice (I haven't verified it), you need to find a way to bypass the limitation in the Knight's base damage range – 15-30.

Or, you can go the other way around – if, in the case of simultaneous triggering of luck and double damage, the resulting damage is odd even once, you can confidently assert that these parameters are not multiplied, which means the theory proposed above is correct. But to verify this, you need either a lot of time or a lot of luck to wait for such an outcome... :)

Yes, I agree that it may take a lot of time and luck. :)
Regarding the resulting damage, do you mean the two possible options:
- base damage (RND=20) + luck (RND=20) + double damage (RND=20) = 60;
- (base damage (20) + luck (20))*2 (double damage) = 80.
Therefore, in the second case, the damage will always be even.
:D It seems like a small thing, but it's interesting to get to the bottom of it:D

Yes, I agree that it may take a lot of time and luck :)
Regarding the resulting damage, do you mean the two possible scenarios:
- base damage (RND=20) + luck (RND=20) + double damage (RND=20) = 60;
- (base damage (20) + luck (20))*2 (double damage) = 80.
Therefore, in the second case, the damage will always be even.
:D It seems like a small detail, but it's interesting to get to the bottom of it:D

Yes, you have grasped the essence of my reasoning very clearly... :) The first option will be odd with a probability of almost 50%, while the second

Yes, you have grasped the essence of my reasoning very clearly... :) The first option has almost a 50% chance of being odd... The second one is always even.

That's essentially what I was interested in :) The only thing left is to find enough time to check all of this:D :D :D

Well done! This is exactly what was needed 7 years ago, and it is still relevant now!

Well done! This is exactly what was needed 7 years ago, and it's still relevant now!

It might be late to post this, but for those who love digging into the details, it might come in handy someday... The detailed methodology for calculating damage dealt in battle is as follows:

***

There are four main parameters, the sum of which determines the total amount of damage
D(sum) that your unit can deal to an opponent:

1. Your unit's base damage D(bas).
2. The base damage modifier MD(bas), which depends on the comparative characteristics of your unit's Attack and the victim's Defense.
3. The offense modifier M(of), which depends on the presence and level of the Offense secondary skill for your hero and the Armor skill for the enemy hero.
4. The luck modifier M(luck), which manifests if Luck is triggered in the current battle round (Note: we are not considering Morale triggers, as that is simply an opportunity to repeat a turn in the current battle round, and total damage calculation in that case is done separately).

D(sum) = D(bas)+MD(bas)+M(of)+ M(luck)

All other modifiers, including all possible spells, hero specializations, and unit specializations, only modify one or more of the parameters listed above.

Let's examine these parameters in more detail:

1. Unit Base Damage

One of the main skills listed in the unit characteristics. Each unit has a certain value range [Dmin;Dmax], within which the base damage is taken to calculate the total damage amount. The value is chosen randomly in each battle round. A few units are exceptions, as they have strictly fixed base damage: Peasant (1), Wizard (14), Naga (20), Royal Naga (30), Angel and Archangel (50), Rust Dragon (50).

There are two spells in the game capable of modifying base damage (we will consider only the expert skill of the school of magic):

* Bless – all units deal fixed base damage equal to (Dmax + 1).
* Curse - all units deal fixed base damage equal to 0.8*(Dmin -1).

Base damage is a mandatory component for calculating the final damage sum.

2. Base Damage Modifier

This criterion is the most significant in the total damage calculation and depends exclusively on the comparative characteristics of your unit's attack value and the enemy unit's defense value.

Attack (Att) is defined as the sum of the attack power set by the developers for each unit (a constant value) and your hero's primary Attack skill (including all equipped artifacts), while also accounting for all active spells modifying the unit's attack.

Similarly, the victim's defense (Def) consists of the unit's own defense value plus the enemy hero's primary Defense skill value (including artifacts) and all spells modifying the opponent's defense.

As a result of comparing these two parameters, the base damage modifier is calculated according to the following scheme:

- in the case where the attacking unit's attack is greater than the victim's defense, for each unit of difference, the modifier increases by 5% of the base damage value

- in the case where the attacking unit's attack is less than the victim's defense, for each unit of difference, the modifier increases by 2.5% of the base damage value, whereby the modifier has a negative sign. That is, it ultimately reduces the unit's total damage

- in the case of equality between attack and defense parameters, the base damage modifier is zero.

МD(bas) = D(bas)*(Att -Def)*0.05 (if attack > defense) *
MD(bas) = D(bas)*(Att -Def)*0.025 (if attack < defense)

*It is important to remember that the maximum value the base damage modifier MD(bas) can take is +3.0*D(bas), and the minimum value is -0.7*D(bas). In the first case, attack exceeds defense by 60 points; in the second, defense exceeds attack by 28 points. Further growth of the attack/defense delta will no longer provide any advantage to anyone.

There are 8 spells in the game capable of modifying the attack and defense skills of both combatants, which automatically leads to a change in the balance of power and a recalculation of the damage modifier МD(bas). For ease of calculation, we will consider the effect of all modifier spells from the attacker's perspective; that is, we are primarily interested in the application of spells that can affect the damage dealt by this unit.

Changing the attacker's attack:

* Bloodlust – adds +6 to attack for all units
* Berserk - adds double the amount of defense points to the specified unit's attack (the unit's defense is reset to zero)
* Executioner – adds +8 to attack against all units of level 7 and above
* Prayer – adds +4 to attack, defense, and speed for all units
* Precision - adds +6 to attack for all shooting units
* Weakness – reduces the attack of all units by 6 points

Changing the victim's defense:

* Stone Skin - adds +6 to defense for all units
* Prayer – adds +4 to attack, defense, and speed for all units (listed again because this spell can be cast on both opponents, leading to a mutual compensation of the effect)
* Disintegrate Ray - reduces the defense of all units by 5 points. This is the only listed spell whose effect lasts until the end of the battle or until Dispel Magic is used. Another feature of this spell is that it can be cast multiple times on a single unit, and the effect will stack; meaning a unit's defense can be reduced to zero over several battle rounds.

A characteristic of using these spells is the possibility of simultaneous use, where spells with different vectors of action mutually compensate for each other but do not neutralize them. For example, Bloodlust and Weakness applied to one unit result in no change to its attack due to equal absolute values. However, after one of the spells expires, the effect of the second remains.

Thus, it is important to understand that all the above-mentioned spells affect only one of the parameters constituting total damage, namely - the base damage modifier. These 8 influence spells have no effect on any other total damage parameters.

And the effect of applying these spells will depend on the significance of the base damage modifier for each specific unit. For example, if the attacker's attack is greater than the victim's defense, the Bloodlust spell will increase total damage by 6*5%=30% (of the base damage value). The effect of this spell for such a unit exactly corresponds to the expert Offense secondary skill. However, if the attacker's attack is significantly less than the victim's defense, the effect of the spell will be twice as weak and amount to only 6*2.5%=15% of the base damage value.

Based on the above, it is easy to trace the advantages and disadvantages of a particular spell in each specific case. For example, for units such as Spearman, Fairy, Harpy, or Cerberus, which have a wide range of base damage, an expert Bless will look much more effective, increasing base damage at least twofold (and this will be reflected in all components of the sum!), than Bloodlust, which although it gives a seeming +6 strength in attack, ultimately brings only 30% of the base damage for only one of the four addends.

3. Offense Modifier M(of)

The third component of total damage - the offense modifier M(of) depends on the level of development of the Offense secondary skill (if it is present among the hero's skills) and amounts to 10-30% of the base damage D(bas). The base damage modifier is not applied in the calculation of this parameter; that is, none of the above spells or artifacts will change this component of total damage. It is strictly fixed and determined only by the random base damage in each battle round.

Special attention should be paid to heroes who have an Offense specialization (Crag Hack and Gundula). These heroes have a bonus that increases the offense modifier (and only it) by 5% for every level of experience achieved.

It should be noted that these percentages are relative, not absolute.
That is, a tenth-level Offense specialist with an expert Offense skill (bonus +30% base damage) will ultimately have M(of) = 30*(1+0.05*10 Level) = 45%, but not 30+5*10 = 80%, as is sometimes mistakenly calculated :)

Since an offense specialist initially has the basic Offense skill, their bonus at the start is M(of) = 10*(1+0.05*1 Level)=10.5% of base damage. The maximum achievable level in the game is 108 Level, which would allow a specialist in this case to have a bonus M(of) = 30*(1+0.05*108 Level) = 192% of base damage.

4. Luck Modifier M(luck)

The simplest and most understandable modifier of the four. Because in the event that luck triggers during an attack, the unit deals additional damage equal to the base damage D(bas) determined for this battle round. Obviously, if a Bless spell is cast on the unit, for example, the luck damage will be (Dmax + 1).

The only known feature of this modifier is that when calculating damage from a unit that can attack several enemy stacks at once (Hydras, Psychic Elementals), luck applies only to the unit actually being attacked. The others receive standard damage without considering the luck modifier.

5. Total Damage Modifiers

5.1. Spells

It is necessary to separately mention the three remaining spells that modify the total damage dealt to a unit.

* Shield – reduces by 30% the total damage dealt to a unit in melee combat. That is, it simultaneously affects all four components of the attacker's total damage.
* Air Shield - reduces by 50% the total damage dealt to a unit from ranged attacks.
* Forgetfulness - reduces the total damage dealt by all shooting units by 50% (at basic Water Magic skill); at advanced and expert levels, the unit loses the ability to shoot until the spell expires. The unit's ability to attack in melee is preserved.

The first of the two proposed spells is often paired with the Stone Skin spell, and almost every player has probably asked themselves which of these two spells is more effective. Well, my opinion is that if there is a choice between Stone Skin and Shield, Shield will be more effective because Stone Skin reduces only the attacker's base damage modifier (one of the total damage addends) by 15-30%. At the same time, Shield removes 30% of the entire total damage value (which is always more effective).

The effect of the second of the two proposed spells is essentially similar to the first; however, there is one significant bug that must be considered when using Air Shield – if this spell is cast on a unit, instead of half damage, it receives double damage from shooting towers during a city siege. This can significantly complicate the capture process if you are unaware of this nuance.

5.2. Armor Secondary Skill

Similar to the Shield spell, the Armor skill affects the total damage dealt to a unit and reduces it by 5-15% depending on the level of development of this skill. For specialists in the Armor secondary skill (Mephala, Niel, Tazar), we apply the same calculation mechanism as for Offense specialists - for every level of experience achieved, the secondary skill bonus increases by 5% (relative).

Also, I think it should be undisputed that an expert in the Armor skill will in most cases save more hit points from an attacker than an expert Offense secondary skill would bring to that same attacker, even considering that in relative terms (15% vs 30% for Offense) it looks less impressive. It is applied last in the calculation and complements the effect of the Shield or Air Shield spell.

***

That's probably all the information on this murky topic.
If anyone has questions or comments - send emails, we'll discuss... :)

Similar to the Shield spell, the Armor skill affects the total damage dealt to a unit and reduces it by 5-15%, depending on the level of this skill. There are no specialists for the Armor skill in the game, so using this modifier should not cause any difficulties.

Dear AmberSoler! If I understand correctly, you are saying that there are no heroes in the game who specialize in the Armor skill?
But what about Tazar, Niela, and Mephala?

Dear AmberSoler! If I understand correctly, you are saying that there are no heroes in the game who specialize in the Armor skill?
What about Tazar, Niela, and Mefala?

I missed that... sorry. Thank you for pointing it out.
I've uploaded the corrected version to maintain the integrity of the image.

AmberSoler, I have a few comments regarding your guide.
p. 5
Creature bonus: Skeletons - increases the Defense and Attack skills of any Skeleton or Skeleton Warrior for each level gained after level 1
The specialization description states exactly that, but the defense and attack of skeletons increase every 4-5 levels.

p. 14:
Magic Well
An object on the adventure map that, upon each visit, replenishes mana up to 10*M, where M is the current value of the hero's primary skill "Magic Power."
The Magic Well restores all of the hero's mana.
According to your formula, if a hero has 50 knowledge and 1 magic power, the well will replenish mana to 10 out of a possible 500!

Magic Stream
An object on the adventure map that replenishes mana up to 20*M once a week, where M is the current value of the hero's primary skill "Magic Power." Re-visiting the source before the end of the current week by this or another hero has no effect. Note: the magic source has two independent points (left and right of this object), by visiting which the hero can replenish mana. That is, essentially one source works as two.

The Magic Stream replenishes the hero's mana up to twice the maximum mana, regardless of magic power.

Mage Guild
An object in a town that restores mana to a value of 10*M for each hero who spends the night there. The absence of a Mage Guild in the town will prevent the hero from replenishing mana.

Similar to the Magic Well, it restores all of the hero's mana, regardless of magic power.

Mana Vortex
A special building in the Dungeon castle that allows the hero to replenish mana up to a value of 20*M once a week, where M is the current value of the hero's primary skill "Magic Power." Re-visiting the castle before the end of the current week by this or another hero has no effect.

Replenishes the hero's mana up to twice the maximum mana, regardless of magic power.

p. 45
Ballista - ammunition - 24.
In reality, the ammunition is unlimited, but after 24 shots, it goes into the negative.
That is, if the ballista fires 30 times, the "ammunition" line will show a value of -6.

1. Regarding hero specialization, this is perhaps one of the least explored topics to date. Attempts to figure out what's what have been made repeatedly, but, unfortunately, they haven't been fully completed. Because this can only be determined through lengthy testing, and this was done before, but no clear system in the frequency of skill improvement has been observed. This applies not only to skeletons but to all units.

2. Magic. There is an inaccuracy in the terminology in the reference guide. "Magic Power" should be replaced with "Knowledge," and everything will fall into place...

3. The number of shots for the ballista has already been corrected :) It's just that the new version of the reference guide hasn't been released yet... :) Although it's long overdue.

Thank you for all the comments.

2. Magic. There is an inaccuracy in the terminology in the reference guide. "Magic Power" should be replaced with "Knowledge," and everything will fall into place...

For example, a hero has 50 "Knowledge" and expert intelligence. The total mana is 1000.
When visiting a well, the mana should replenish to 500 according to the formula, but in practice, it replenishes to 1000.
Expert Intelligence
doubles the hero's normal maximum spell points.

It is possible that intelligence doubles the "Knowledge" (although the number of Knowledge in the hero's characteristics remains the same

It's possible that intelligence doubles the "knowledge" (although the number of knowledge in the hero's stats remains the same), which in turn doubles the hero's mana.
This point still remains unclear to me.

Well, this is again a matter of terminology, which doesn't affect the essence. After all, knowledge is only a parameter for the amount of mana... Increasing mana by 25% (for the base intelligence) would not be difficult, but increasing knowledge by 25% is problematic because it leads to fractions... The developers bypassed this by not changing the "Knowledge" parameter, although in essence, it's the same thing.

Increasing mana by 25% (for basic intelligence) will be no trouble

If the mana is indeed increasing, then the formula is incorrect.

but increasing knowledge by 25% is problematic because fractions appear...

So what if there are fractions? What prevents multiplying a fractional number by 10 (to calculate mana) and then rounding it to the nearest whole number?

For example, a hero has 10 knowledge and receives basic intelligence.
Calculating by mana: 10 knowledge * 10 mana * 1.25 (basic intelligence coefficient) = 125 mana
Calculating by knowledge: 10 knowledge * 1.25 * 10 mana = 125 mana
Looking at these formulas, it is clear that they are the same; only the multipliers change places.

For example, if a hero has 10 Knowledge points and gains base Intelligence.
We calculate using mana: 10 Knowledge * 10 mana * 1.25 (base Intelligence coefficient) = 125 mana
We calculate using Knowledge: 10 Knowledge * 1.25 * 10 mana = 125 mana
If you look at these formulas, it's clear that they are the same; the multipliers simply change places.

I'm not talking about that... In the hero's stats (where the primary skills are), a new value for the number of Knowledge points will not appear after acquiring base Intelligence. Although that would be logical. But the developers don't know how to indicate the parameter 1.25 (I was talking about these fractions). Therefore, they still leave it at 10. But the mana is not 100, but 125...

There is no contradiction – it is the primary "Knowledge" parameter that increases, only it is not displayed... Although all of this is just speculation that has no impact on the essence. Everything is correct there...

I wasn't talking about that... In the hero's stats (where the primary skills are), the new value for the number of Knowledge points won't appear after acquiring the base Intelligence. Although it would be logical. But the developers don't know how to indicate a parameter of 12.5 (I was talking about these fractions). So, they still leave it at 10. But mana doesn't become 100, it becomes 125...

So, I misunderstood you at first...

There is no contradiction - it is the primary "Knowledge" parameter that increases, it just isn't displayed... Although all of this is just speculation that doesn't affect the main point. Everything is correct there...

Okay, it really doesn't matter much. The main thing is that the well replenishes all mana (which is calculated according to the formula you provided).
P.S. Although, personally, I find the text "the well restores all of the hero's mana" more understandable than "replenishes mana up to 10*knowledge".
And even better: "the well restores all of the hero's mana, which is calculated according to the formula 10*knowledge"