Fire Magic | Information about gameplay Heroes III HD Edition Guide

Last update: 11 May 2016

Magic Arrow

Cost: 5 Level: 1 Duration: - Description: Target, enemy unit receives (Power*10)+10 damage. Advanced level: Target, enemy unit receives (Power*10)+20 damage. Expert level: Target, enemy unit receives (Power*10)+30 damage.

The first offensive spell in the game, which can almost always be found in any first level Mage Guild. It's mainly used during the early rounds, because even those heroes who lack Power can deal significant damage - later on the effectiveness falls off considerably, because it lacks a good Power-damage ratio.

Protection from Fire

Cost: 5 Level: 1 Duration: 1 round Description: Protects the selected unit, reducing damage received from Fire spells by 30%. Advanced level: Allied unit receives 50% less damage from fire spells. Expert level: All allied units receive 50% less damage from fire spells.

Protection from Fire is probably the most (if not the only) reasonable protection from element spell, because there's a high chance that the enemy will be using one of the powerful fire-based offensive spells. Your biggest concern is, obviously, the Armageddon spell - if you see an enemy hero, who has a lot of Power, and his/her army consists mainly of units immune (Black and Gold Dragons, Efreets), or with a considerable amount of immunity (Golems, Dwarves) to fire magic, immediately cast Protection from Fire, as there's a huge chance that the enemy is preparing the mentioned spell - Armageddon deals immense amounts of damage, so it's crucial to be prepared for it.

If, however, the enemy lacks any significant amount of Power (less or equal to 5), you can easily ignore this spell - even if the enemy casts Armageddon, it won't deal serious damage.

Curse

Cost: 6 Level: 1 Duration: 1 round Description: The enemy unit will deal its minimum damage while attacking. Advanced level: The enemy unit will deal its minimum damage (-1) while attacking. Expert level: All enemy units will deal their minimum damage (-1) while attacking.

The Curse spell is basically the opposite of Bless - enemy unit (or units) effected by it will deal their minimum possible damage. What does that mean? It means, that if the enemy unit has a damage range of 2-7, in normal non-cursed conditions its attack would deal 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 (for each unit in the group) damage. While under the influence of the Curse spell, its damage will always be 2. If you have Advanced Level of fire magic, its attacks will now deal minimum damage (-1) - for a unit with 2-7 attack it will be 1, and for a unit with 4-10 it will be 3, and so on.

As you can see, this is an extremely powerful spell, which, with proper composition of the enemy army, can severely decrease its effectiveness - if the enemy army consists of units with a big "spread" in their minimum/maximum damage, it's worth to cast Curse on them.

Bloodlust

Cost: 5 Level: 1 Duration: 1 round Description: Increases the Attack attribute of a unit by 3. Advanced level: Increases the Attack attribute of a unit by 6. Expert level: Increases the Attack attribute of all units by 6.

A good spell, which is useful in any situation - the majority of the damage you deal comes directly from your units, therefore increasing their attack attribute by 6 points will give them a significant boost. Remember, that for every point of Attack exceeding the defense of an attacked unit, the attacker will deal 5% additional damage - in extreme situations, it can cause your units to deal 30% more damage with each strike!

This spell should be used in combination with the Bless spell (Bless as the first one to cast). An exception to this rule, when it's not profitable to use them both together, is a situation, in which your units have rather "fixed" damage, without a lot of "spread", like "10-20", or "2-7" - in those situations you should use Bloodlust only.

Blind

Cost: 10 Level: 2 Duration: 1 round Description: Target, enemy unit is disabled until it is attacked. 50% chance for retaliation when attacking the blinded unit. Advanced level: Target, enemy unit is disabled until it is attacked. 25% chance for retaliation when attacking the blinded unit. Expert level: Target, enemy unit is disabled until it is attacked. The enemy won't retaliate after being attacked.

An extremely powerful spell, which can disable a unit from combat - a blinded unit will be useless for the enemy, unless he/she casts the Dispel spell on it, or a certain amount of time has passed. It's a perfect way of getting rid of a powerful enemy - the spell can be used on almost any unit in the game, besides those which are immune to mind spells (undead, Titans) or those completely immune to magic (all Dragons).

Remember about a few things - you can blind several enemy units during a single battle (but only a single one during a single round), and that a blinded enemy "comes back to life" when it is attacked.

Visions

Cost: 4 Level: 2 Duration: 1 day Description: Displays number of monsters in a wandering monster troop and whether or not the troop will offer to join the casting hero's army. Range is equal to Power or three, whichever is greater Advanced level: Additionally, it now shows the enemy hero's primary skills, as well as his army. Expert level: Additionally, it now shows the information about an enemy city.

Another very useful spell, which can be cast on the world map. After casting it, you must press and hold the right mouse button over an enemy hero to learn about a set of things - the amount of information depends on the highest level of proficiency in a given school of magic. Additionally, it's an useful spell while dealing with neutral monsters, as it allows you to estimate the chances of the enemy joining your army.

Fire Wall

Cost: 8 Level: 2 Duration: 2 rounds Description: Creates a 2-hex wall of fire on the battlefield. Enemy units crossing the wall will receive (Power*10)+10 damage. Advanced level: Creates a 2-hex wall of fire on the battlefield. Enemy units crossing the wall will receive (Power*10)+20 damage. Expert level: Creates a 2-hex wall of fire on the battlefield. Enemy units crossing the wall will receive (Power*10)+30 damage.

An interesting, but purely situational spell. Just as the Force Field, this spell is mainly used to block access to a certain target, like an important unit - the enemy unit can still reach it, but it will receive some damage, which, with proper amount of Power, can deal significant amount of damage.

Another application of the spell is blocking wall breaches, during the time when you are protecting your city against an enemy siege - setting up a Fire Wall onto a breach will cause the enemy to take some damage if they want to enter your castle and get to your units.

Fire Ball

Cost: 15 Level: 3 Duration: - Description: Target unit, as well as those in the immediate vicinity of it receive (Power*10)+15 damage. Advanced level: Target unit, as well as those in the immediate vicinity of it receive (Power*10)+30 damage. Expert level: Target unit, as well as those in the immediate vicinity of it receive (Power*10)+60 damage.

The first fire-based offensive spell. It deals moderate damage, but it's not the damage which distinguishes this spell - it's the area of effect. With it you will easily be able to affect 2-3 enemy units at a single time. If the enemy troops are scattered around and you are unable to hit more than a single one, use a different spell, as the damage is low when hitting a single target.

Additionally, remember, that both the enemy and yours units will be affected by the Fire Ball.

Mine Field

Cost: 18 Level: 3 Duration: until activated Description: Places 4 landmines on the battlefield. Allies can see the landmines and can freely pass them, but the enemies will trigger them, receiving (Power*10)+25 damage. Advanced level: Increases the amount of mines placed on the battlefield to 6. Mines now deal (Power*10)+50 damage. Expert level: Increases the amount of mines placed on the battlefield to 8. Mines now deal (Power*10)+100 damage.

Without a doubt one of the most useless spells in the game (only Quick Sands can rival it). Landmines, provided that an enemy unit steps on them, deal almost the same damage as a Fire Arrow, and with their mana cost it's clearly a better idea to cast a different offensive spell, such as Lightning Bolt, Ice Bolt, Fire Ball or any other - without a doubt you will be able to deal more damage this way.

Misfortune

Cost: 12 Level: 3 Duration: 1 round Description: Decreases the luck of an enemy unit by 1. Advanced level: Decreases the luck of an enemy unit by 2. Expert level: Decreases the luck of all enemy units by 2.

A spell, which, theoretically, can be effective, because it can significantly lower the luck of enemy troops, but it is weak because of one thing - decreasing luck does not decrease their combat effectiveness by a great deal.

Even if you are able to decease it from 3 to 1 (or to 0, if it originally was below 3), the effect is not worth it. Luck gives a small chance to inflict double damage - +1 luck gives a 4,2% chance, +2 is 8,3%, and with +3 a unit has 12,5% chance of double damage. In the best scenario you will slightly decrease their chance for that to happen - there are at least several spells which decrease the effectiveness of enemy units in a more reliable manner, such as Curse or Weakness.

Additionally, unlike Morale, Luck can't take negative values.

Berzerk

Cost: 24 Level: 4 Duration: until a single attack is performed Description: The affected enemy unit attacks the nearest group, whether it's an ally or a foe. Affects units in a range of 1 hex around the target. Advanced level: Increases the range of the spell to 7 hexes around the target. Expert level: Increases the range of the spell to 9 hexes around the target.

Immensely powerful, but equally expensive spell. It allows you to saw confusion into the enemy troops - suffice to say, that in the Expert level, you will be able to affect 3 units, before they can even make their move. Under the influence of the Berzerk spell, the unit will attack the nearest group, whether it's a foe or an ally - the hero of the unit loses any control over the said unit.

In some extreme situations it can allow you to affect almost the whole enemy army - all you have to do then is to watch as the enemy units are slaying each other. If your enemy lacks any means of disabling the spell, he/she may simply surrender, as he/she won't regain control over the units.

If your units get hit by this spell, use your Dispel or Cure magic to negate the effects of Berzerk. You can also use the Antimagic spell to protect key units from getting under its control.

Inferno

Cost: 16 Level: 4 Duration: - Description: Target unit, as well as those in the immediate vicinity of it receive (Power*10)+20 damage. Advanced level: Target unit, as well as those in the immediate vicinity of it receive (Power*10)+40 damage. Expert level: Target unit, as well as those in the immediate vicinity of it receive (Power*10)+80 damage.

Inferno is basically a stronger version of Fire Ball - it deals slightly better damage, but the thing that matter the most, is the significantly increased area of effect. This spell, excluding the Armageddon and the Death Ripple spells, can harm the biggest amount of units with a single use - with a little bit of luck and / or planning, you will easily be able to hit 5 enemy units.

The spell is perfect to harass enemy shooters - if they are stationed near a catapult / ammo cart or any other siege equipment, all you have to do is target the said equipment and the shooters close to it will be in the area of effect as well.

Armageddon

Cost: 24 Level: 4 Duration: - Description: All units on the battlefield receive (Power*50)+30 damage. Advanced level: All units on the battlefield receive (Power*50)+60 damage. Expert level: All units on the battlefield receive (Power*50)+120 damage.

A typical double-edged sword type of a spell - it deals damage to your enemies, as well as to your own units. Additionally, it has the greatest damage of all the other offensive spells in the game (Implosion can deal higher damage, but it's a single-target spell) - the amount of damage easily go into the thousands.

An ideal tactic, which you can use the spell with, is to use units completely immune to magic (Black and Gold Dragons, both Efreets) or with a high amount of resistance (Dwarves, all types of Golems) to fire magic. If your army consists of those units, you can freely cast Armageddon each round - after two, three casts, the enemy army will be no more (provided that they don't have any immune creatures, as well).

if you see an enemy hero, who has a lot of Power, and his/her army consists mainly of units mentioned above, immediately cast Protection from Fire, as there's a huge chance that the enemy is preparing the mentioned spell to annihilate your army.

Slayer

Cost: 16 Level: 4 Duration: 1 round Description: Target, allied troop's attack rating is increased by eight against behemoths, dragons, and hydras Advanced level: The attack bonus also affects devils and angels. Expert level: The attack bonus also affects titans.

Theoretically, an immensely powerful spell, as it increases the attack attribute of your units when dealing with 7th level units, but it has one, major flaw - you can cast it on a single allied unit during a single round. It makes it inferior to spells such as Prayer, Bloodlust, or even Bless or Haste, as they are more effective because they can be cast on your entire army. The only exception to this rule is when your hero has only 1-2 units under his command, which can easily be targeted by the spell, and the enemy's army consists mainly of 7th level units - such a situation has almost zero chances of happening though.

Frenzy

Cost: 16 Level: 4 Duration: 1 round Description: The attack attribute of a given unit is increased by 100% of the troops defense attribute. The defense is reduced to 0. Advanced level: The attack bonus is now 150% of unit's defense value. Expert level: The attack bonus is now 200% of unit's defense value.

Another very situational spell. After casting it, the attack of your unit can increase by several points, increasing the damage it can dish out even by hundreds (!) percent, but its defense will be reduced to 0 - it means, that every unit that decides to attack it will deal colossal bonus damage (a 7th level unit with an attack equal to 30 points will deal 150% extra damage!).

This spell is useful in a couple of situations - when you want to deal extreme damage and you are entirely sure that your enemy won't be able to retaliate, or enemy army lacks any shooters, or units with high mobility, so that your "buffed" unit remains unharmed. In any other scenarios you shouldn't use this spell, as it can greatly benefit you, or cause you to lose the entire battle.

Fire Shield

Cost: 16 Level: 4 Duration: 1 round Description: 20% of melee damage dealt to the unit affected by the spell is reflected back to the attacker. Advanced level: 25% of melee damage dealt to the unit affected by the spell is reflected back to the attacker. Expert level: 30% of melee damage dealt to the unit affected by the spell is reflected back to the attacker.

The spell, which at the same time is the ability of the Sultan Efreets - any enemy unit attacking the creature affected by the Fire Shield in melee will receive a percentage of the damage back. It can be used in several effective ways - you can cast the spell on a very mobile, preferably flying unit (like Griffins, Archangels, Archdevils, or any flying creature - Dragons can't be used, as they are immune to magic) and then attack the enemy shooter with it. Your enemy will have two options - he/she can either attack the unit, suffering extreme loses due to the effect of the spell, or ignore it, while your unit blocks the enemy shooter.

Additionally, it's a good method of protecting your own shooters - the enemy will sustain severe loses once he/she decides to gang up on your shooters with melee units.

Fire Elemental

Cost: 25 Level: 5 Duration: whole battle Description: Summons (Power*2) Fire Elementals. You can't summon more than one type of elemental during a single battle, but several of the same time can be summoned. Advanced level: Summons (Power*3) Fire Elementals. Expert level: Summons (Power*4) Fire Elementals.

This spell, coupled with high Power attribute of the hero casting it, allows you to summon quite an amount of elementals to aid you, but there's one single problem - summoning Earch Elementals, from the Earth Magic school, is a lot more efficient, because those units are simply stronger. However, if you lack the ability to summon other elementals, using this spell is by no means any waste.