Heroes of Might and Magic IV
Heroes of Might & Magic IV was released on March 28, 2002 and had many major changes from Heroes of Might & Magic III. Heroes of Might & Magic IV is organized around the six types of towns; nature, chaos, death, might, life, and order. Each town is connected to two others and has a unique magic school aside from the might town. Each town has a might and magic hero but unlike Heroes of Might & Magic III, they don't have a specialty which makes each of them unique but instead every hero starts out with the same starting skill. When a hero gets two or more skills they will become an advanced class that provide a bonus. The logic behind this was to have the heroes start out the same but become vastly different as they gain in skills unlike the heroes in Heroes of Might & Magic III which start out different but end up with similar skills.
There is a total of nine skill classes the heroes can learn which has four skills; combat (archery, resistance, melee), nobility (diplomacy, estates, mining), scouting (pathfinding, seamanship, stealth), tactics (defense, offense, leadership), chaos magic (conjuration, sorcery, pyromancy), death magic (demonology, occultism, necromancy), life magic (healing, spirtuality, resurrection), nature magic (herbalism, meditation, summoning), and order magic (wizardry, enchantment, charm). Each hero can learn five skills each of which has five levels (Basic, Advanced, Expert, Master, Grandmaster).
The six campaigns introduce each of the towns and have nothing to do with each other and so there is no bonus level.
- The True Blade consists of five maps and is the Life campaign as Lord Lysander proves that Sir Worton isn't the last remaining Gryphonheart.
- The Price of Peace consists of eight maps and is the Order campaign as Emilia Nighthaven creates the kingdom of Great Arcan and defends it from being taken over by the Immortal King.
- Elwin and Shaera consists of five maps and is the Nature campaign as Elwin wins Shaera's heart and prevents the Elven kingdom from collapsing.
- Half-Dead consists of five maps and is the Death campaign as Gauldoth creates a new kind of Necromancer kingdom.
- A Pirate's Daughter consists of five maps and is the Chaos campaign as Tawni Balfour becomes Pirate Queen of the Gold Sea.
- Glory of Days Past consists of four maps and is the Might campaign as Waerjak unites the warring Barbarian tribes into one united kingdom.
