The Expansion

[Blaspheme]

Hi!!

I know it’s a bit early, but I think now is the time to start sending in ideas for an “eventual” expansion-pack as they maybe already started.
My expansion proposal contains one new town and twenty-one new neutral creatures, most creatures appeared in earlier HOMM-games but they have unique never-seen-before special abilities that you might want to consider putting into the game’s expansion. There are also a couple of new creatures that in my opinion are missing in the HOMM-series (Spider-creature and Werewolf).

NEW TOWN --> THE STRONGHOLD
I’m not really into the gods and storyline, so maybe somebody else can make that up for me.

NOTE: The special abilities are described under the proposed town and neutral creatures.
NOTE: Most upgraded creatures also contain the special abilities of their pre-evolution.

LEVEL 1
GOBLIN
Creature upgrade: HOBGOBLIN
Goblins Special Abilities: First Strike / Concurrence
Hobgoblins Special Abilities: Item Thief / Poison Immunity
Creature's Alignment: Evil
Creature Description: Small, mischievous looking humanoids armed with small daggers. Hobgoblins have a sick-yellow skin and also hold a shield.

LEVEL 2
ORC
Creature upgrade: BERSERKER (Or Boar Raider)
Orcs Special Abilities: First Strike
Berserkers Special Abilities: Berserk / Endeavour
Creature's Alignment: Evil
Creature Description: Orcs look like green humanoids with force posture. Berserkers have some boar-like parts and they also are mounted upon a large war-boar.

LEVEL 3
HAG
Creature upgrade: HARPY
Hags Special Abilities: No Retaliation / Brick Break
Harpies Special Abilities: Swoop Attack / Screech of Pain / + Flight
Creature's Alignment: Evil
Creature Description: Hags look like a freshly-decayed grandma with enormous teeth and even larger nails. Harpies have the upper body of a hag and the lower body of a prehistoric flying reptile.

LEVEL 4
OGRE
Creature upgrade: SHAMAN
Ogres Special Abilities: Stun
Shamans Special Abilities: Spellcaster (Blood & Flesh-based spells: Blood Lust / Carnage / Clone / Blood Barrier)
Creature's Alignment: Neutral
Creature Description: Ogres look like green skinned giants packed in simple armor and armed with large clubs. The shaman is dressed in shaman-like clothes and has a skull on its club and also wears a ram-like skull as mask.

LEVEL 5
ROC
Creature upgrade: THUNDERBIRD
Rocs Special Abilities: Ram
Thunderbirds Special Abilities: Magnetic Storm / Lightning Attack / Weather Immunity
Creature's Alignment: Neutral
Creature Description: The roc looks like a giant black eagle and the thunderbirds look like giant blue/gold/black eagles with lightning leaking from their eyes.

LEVEL 6
CYCLOPE
Creature upgrade: GIGANTE
Cyclops Special Abilities: Area Damage
Gigantes Special Abilities: Throw object / Magic Eye
Creature's Alignment: Evil
Creature Description: Just the giant with one eye and a stone in his arms, the Gigante looks like a cyclope with good armor and four arms.

LEVEL 7
BEHEMOTH
Creature upgrade: GRENDEL
Behemoths Special Abilities: Strength
Grendels Special Abilities: Castle Terror / Devour
Creature's Alignment: Neutral
Creature Description: The behemoth looks like a large, hungry, monstrous bear creature and Grendel's are armed in a spiky armor.



NEW NEUTRAL CREATURES:

ANTARES (OR BLACK SCORPION)
Creature upgrade: STINGER (Or Scorpion Lord for people who HATE D&D)
Creature's Level: 5
Antares Special Abilities: Slow Poison / Triple Attack
Stingers Special Abilities: Implant
Creature's Alignment: Evil
Creature Description: The antares looks like an enormous, black scorpion. Stingers look like centaurs, but their lower body is that of an giant black scorpion, their humanoid upper body has a deep red color and they wear a crown that looks like a gold scorpion, his arms end in giant scissors much like that of a true scorpion.

MEDUSA
Creature upgrade: GORGON (NOT THE COW!!!)
Creature's Level: 5
Medusas Special Abilities: Stone Gaze / Unlimited ranged attacks
Gorgons Special Abilities: Animate stone / Stone Aura / Stone Skin
Creature's Alignment: Evil
Creature Description: While the Medusa has humanoid legs, the Gorgon has the lower body of a large snake. Both are unarmed.

TROLL
Creature upgrade: REGENERATOR
Creature's Level: 5
Trolls Special Abilities: Regeneration / Corpse Feed
Regenerators Special Abilities: Regenerator Aura / Mind Immunity / Synchronize
Creature's Alignment: Evil
Creature Description: Trolls appear as green giants armed with a large bone. Regenerators look like normal trolls except for their second head.

DWARF
Creature upgrade: RUNE MASTER
Creature's Level: 3
Dwarves Special Abilities: Magic Resistance / Mining
Rune Masters Special Abilities: Rune-stone / Elemental Manifestation / Zorbo
Creature's Alignment: Good
Creature Description: Dwarfs look like they normally do armed with a war-axe. Rune Masters have short beards, their entire skin crawls with (as it seems) living tattoos and they hold a large war-hammer with gems in it. On their forehead is a large purple-gem that serves as a third eye.

HALFLING
Creature upgrade: SLINGER
Creature's Level: 1
Halflings Special Abilities: Lucky
Slingers Special Abilities: Giant Slayer / Nature’s Embrace
Creature's Alignment: Good
Creature Description: Both look pretty much the same as they did in previous homm-games.

FAUN
Creature upgrade: SATYR
Creature's Level: 2
Fauns Special Abilities: Fortune / Mirth
Satyrs Special Abilities: Evasion
Creature's Alignment: Neutral
Creature Description: While the playful fauns share more characteristics with their sprite cousins the more savage satyrs share more characteristics and appearance with mountain goats and chamois’s.

BASILISK (WITH WYVERN LIKE ABILITIES)
Creature upgrade: VENOM GAZER
Creature's Level: 5
Basilisks Special Abilities: Toxic Gaze / Freedom of Movement
Venom Gazers Special Abilities: Terror Gaze / Venom Booster
Creature's Alignment: Neutral
Creature Description: The basilisk looks like a large six-legged reptile with yellow-hellish eyes. The Venom gazer looks pretty much the same but it has a giant colorful-colar around its neck and it has eight legs instead of six, its eyes glow with the same poison-green colour it infests its prey with.

MANTIS
Creature upgrade: SLAYER (Or Lurker, Stalker or Hunter)
Creature's Level: 6
Mantises Special Abilities: Ensnare
Slayers Special Abilities: Critical Strike / First Strike / Anchor
Creature's Alignment: Neutral
Creature Description: While the mantis shares every look with its much smaller cousins the slayer appears to be a sick merge between demon, humanoid and mantis.

BEHOLDER
Creature upgrade: OVERSEER (Or Evil Eye)
Creature's Level: 4
Beholders Special Abilities: Eye Rays / Oracle
Overseers Special Abilities: True Seeing
Creature's Alignment: Evil
Creature Description: Beholders are large eyes with tentacles hanging beneath them; the Overseer also has smaller eyes on small tentacles growing from its central eye. Beholders have a flesh color while the overseer has a demonic-red color.

NOMAD
Creature upgrade: CHIEFTAIN (Or Sand Raider)
Creature's Level: 3
Nomads Special Abilities: Freedom of movement / First Strike
Chieftains Special Abilities: Spellcaster (Sand + Speed-based spells: Sandstorm / Haste / Slow / Sand Claw / Freedom of movement spell / Quicksand)
Creature's Alignment: Neutral
Creature Description: Normal nomads travel on normal horses while chieftains travel on magical horses that have strong legs, wild fiery, orange manes and orange glowing eyes.

MUMMY
Creature upgrade: PHARAOH (Or Mummy Lord)
Creature's Level: 5
Mummies Special Abilities: Curse / Undead
Pharaohs Special Abilities: Plague Cloud / Death throes
Creature's Alignment: Evil
Creature Description: Normal mummies look pretty much like the mummies from homm IV and the Pharaoh looks pretty much like the mummies from HOMM III Expansion.

MERMAN (REPLACEMENT FOR MERMAID)
Creature upgrade: AQUALOI
Creature's Level: 4
Mermen Special Abilities: Sea Bonus / Slippery
Aqualois Special Abilities: Cast Spells (Water-based spells) / Sea Evasion
Creature's Alignment: Evil
Creature Description: Mermen have a trident weapon and the lower body of a fish. The Aqualoi adapted more to land and so has grown legs; it has a large fin on its back that looks pretty much like the one Rikuo has in darkstalkers (fighting game)

WEREWOLF (REPLACEMENT FOR DISCOVERY CHANNEL WOLF)
Creature upgrade: WORG
Creature's Level: 1 (human form) / 5 (werewolf form + worg)
Werewolves Special Abilities: Dark Transformation / No Retaliation (When in werewolf form)
Worgs Special Abilities: Lycanthropy / Lunar Embrace
Creature's Alignment: Evil
Creature Description: Werewolfs look like feral-peasants while fighting above the ground but turn into humanoid-wolfs when fighting in the cover of darkness beneath the ground. Worgs always look like humanoid-wolfs even when they fight out of the underground.

MIMIC (NEW CREATURE!)
Creature upgrade: DOPPELGANGER
Creature's Level: ? (The level of the creature they copied or killed)
Mimics Special Abilities: Disjunction / Mimic Ability
Doppelgangers Special Abilities: Shapeshift
Creature's Alignment: Neutral
Creature Description: Much like a feature-less humanoid with large black eyes and pale-white skin. Doppelgangers only have longer fingers and elvish-like ears but they mostly appear as another creature anyway.

ARACHNOID (NEW CREATURE!)
Creature upgrade: BLACK WIDOW
Creature's Level: 4
Arachnoids Special Abilities: Ageing poison / No Retaliation
Black Widows Special Abilities: Web / Spider Climb / Charm
Creature's Alignment: Evil
Creature Description: Arachnoids look like enormous black spiders with red spots. Black Widows are pretty much like centaurs but the horse parts are those of a black spider and the human parts are those of a female dark elf.

SPHINX (REPLACEMENT FOR MANTICORE)
Creature upgrade: GYNOSPHINX
Creature's Level: 7
Sphinxes Special Abilities: Silence / Devour Magic
Gynosphinxes Special Abilities: Amnesia Aura / Magic Mirror
Creature's Alignment: Good
Creature Description: The sphinx appears as a lion with the face of a female human. The Gynosphinx appears as a winged-lion with female face dressed in Egyptian-like golden armor.

GLADIATOR (NEW CREATURE!)
Creature upgrade: HERO
Creature's Level: 4
Gladiators Special Abilities: Stun / Coliseum Bonus
Heroes Special Abilities: Swing Attack / Coliseum Champion
Creature's Alignment: Neutral
Creature Description: Gladiators are armed with large claw-weapons while the Hero is armed with a ball-on-chain weapon. The Hero is dressed in heavy armor and the Gladiator is armed in simple armor.

KRAKEN (REPLACEMENT FOR SEA-MONSTER)
Creature upgrade: LEVIATHAN
Creature's Level: 7
Krakens Special Abilities: All-around attack / Blind
Leviathans Special Abilities: Ship Terror / Destroy Ship
Creature's Alignment: Neutral
Creature Description: Krakens appear as giant octopuses with blue-glowing rings all over their bodies. The leviathan is much larger and has red glowing rings instead of blue ones.

YETI (REPLACEMENT FOR ICE DEMON)
Creature upgrade: WENDIGO
Creature's Level: 6
Yetis Special Abilities: Freeze / Cold Immunity
Wendigo’s Special Abilities: Winter’s Wrath / Absorb Cold
Creature's Alignment: Neutral
Creature Description: Yetis look like large white-haired gorilla apes with icy skin. The Wendigo looks more feral and evil with large teeth and claws.

AMAZONE (REPLACEMENT FOR PEGASUS)
Creature upgrade: VALKYRIE
Creature's Level: 6
Amazones Special Abilities: Spirit Link / Holy Arrows / First Strike / No Melee penalty.
Valkyries Special Abilities: Holy Corpse / Flight / Charge.
Creature's Alignment: Good
Creature Description: Amazones look like female warriors armed with bows and silver armor. Valkyries ride upon Silver Pegasus-like creatures and hold a large spear for weapon.

WARLOCK (NEW CREATURE)
Creature upgrade: DARK CASTER
Creature's Level: 7
Warlocks Special Abilities: Scholar
Dark Casters Special Abilities: Mana Barrier / Spell Thief / Symbol of Greed
Creature's Alignment: Evil
Creature Description: Look like evil mages with red-glowing signs carved into their dark-humanoid flesh.

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SOME OF THE !NEW! SPECIAL ABILITIES:

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***Goblin & Hobgoblin***

CONCURRENCE - The more goblins or hobgoblins are upon the battlefield (different groups) the better their damage.

ITEM THIEF - Hobgoblins can steal items from heroes and have a small item-stash of their own. The items can be regained by taking them from their corpses.

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***Orc & Berserker***

ENDEAVOUR - When the top berserker is low on health the group does more damage than when they do when the top creature is healthy. So low HP means gruesome damage, and high HP means normal damage.

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***Hag & Harpy***

BRICK BREAK - Hags and harpies attack with such an incredible force that they ignore barriers, force fields, shields and armor in their attack.

SWOOP ATTACK - Harpies attack every creature that crosses their path on their way to the actual target/location.

SCREECH OF PAIN - Sometimes a harpy will screech instead of attack and when this happens she curses the victim(s) into unstoppable pain, the target(s) can't be healed or take any other positive effect (such as bloodlust, haste or stone skin) for as long as the effect lasts. Also all attacks made against the cursed targets will do double damage.

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***Ogre & Shaman***

BLOOD LUST - Bloodlust can be cast upon allies but also upon enemies, the effect on both is somewhat different. When the shaman casts bloodlust upon an ally it will gain the usual effect of doing more damage, but when the shaman casts bloodlust upon an enemy it will fly into an unstoppable anger and becomes a berserked (the player is unable to control this unit in it's actions) unit for as long as the battle lasts.

CARNAGE - When a shaman casts the carnage spell all the enemy creatures that are under it's bloodlust spell-effect will receive gruesome damage + they are unable to move for 1 round.

CLONE - Every group of shamans carries its own clone-book which enables it to clone creatures which it killed throughout the entire game. So when your group of ogre shamans kills the last hydra of an enemy group they will gain the hydra's blood-sample into their clone-book and they can summon a number of hydras upon the battlefield based on their mana. When you split your shaman group, both groups can summon hydra's and when you let other ogre shamans join the group they automatically learn to clone hydras upon the battlefield. The clone book can contain 5 different creatures. The clone book lasts the entire game. Undead, Dragon, and elemental creatures can't be cloned.

BLOOD BARRIER - Ogre shamans can destroy corpses and turn the blood into a solid barrier, they gain:
+1 Defence for each level 1 corpse
+2 Defence for each level 2 corpse
+3 Defence for each level 3 corpse
+4 Defence for each level 4 corpse
+5 Defence for each level 5 corpse
+6 Defence for each level 6 corpse
+7 Defence for each level 7 corpse
+ Fire Immunity for each Fire Elemental corpse
+ Cold Immunity for each Yeti or Water Elemental corpse
+ Earth Immunity for each Earth Elemental corpse
+ Air Immunity for each Air Elemental corpse
+10 Defence and + Rebirth Ability for each Phoenix corpse
Undead and demonic creatures will lower the shamans defence however so watch what you’re doing.

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***Roc & Thunderbird***

AIR RAM - Rocs do extra damage against other flying units.

MAGNETIC STORM - A thunderbird is always followed by a dangerous lightning storm. Each round there is a chance of 10% that a random enemy creature group (most of the time the highest level creature) is hit by a furious lightning bolt. When there are treants or titans upon the battlefield the lightning will always hit them. Another feature of this ability is that all flying enemy units will lose ½ of their speed when there are thunderbirds on the battlefield but the flying allies of the thunderbirds gain +3 extra speed.

WEATHER IMMUNITY - A thunderbird is immune to any weather effect such as blizzard, lightning attacks and sandstorms.

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***Cyclope & Gigante***

MAGIC EYE - The large eye of a gigante radiates a strange aura that makes other friendly ranged units around the gigante gain the no ranged penalty ability.

THROW OBJECTS - Cyclops can pick up enemy units and throw them away toward other enemy creatures, doing damage to both groups.

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***Behemoth & Grendel***

STRENGTH - Behemoths and Grendels can't be drained of their strength by any means, their attacks do always the same number of damage + every round their damage-factor grows with 1 extra damage point. When the battle is over however, their damage-factor returns to its normal number.

CASTLE TERROR - 50% chance of killing all level 1 creatures protecting a castle. So when you attack a Inferno-castle with your grendels, there is a chance of 50% that all imps protecting this castle will be eaten at the start of the battle, so the imps won’t appear on the castle-battlefield anymore.

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***Antares & Stinger***

SLOW POISON - Robs enemies from ½ their normal speed + does poison damage every round.

TRIPLE ATTACK - There is a chance that you’re antares or stingers attack the enemy 3 times in a row. 2 scissor attacks + 1 sting attack. Only when the antares or stinger uses its sting attack it has a chance of poisoning or implanting the victims.

IMPLANT - When you are lucky and the stingers use their sting attack instead of their scissor attacks there is a chance of 20% that the stingers implant an antares into the victim’s bodies. For each implanted enemy killed there will be an antares coming from its corpse to fight for you until the battle is over. So when 24 goblins are infected with the stingers implant ability than all 25 goblins will spawn an antares from their corpse, so you can gain 24 antares units. Undead and Elemental creatures are immune to this effect.

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***Medusa & Gorgon***

STONE GAZE - Medusa's and gorgons have a small chance of turning the enemy groups into statues. The medusa has a chance of 5% of turning the entire enemy group into statues and the gorgon has a chance of 10% of turning the enemies into stone. Enemies can only be freed from their stone-prison by means of magic or potions, when such items aren't within the player’s inventory the creatures are doomed to stay a statue forever.

ANIMATE STONE - Gorgons are masters over stone and rock and can make an attempt to animate their petrified victims into golem-like minions to fight for her. The golem-like minions have the same stats as the true creatures but there special abilities are disabled. There is a 25% chance the spell will work, the spell can also be cast upon golems and gargoyles to take control over them but than the effect will be only of short period.

STONE AURA - This aura will slow all close enemy units with ½ of their normal speed, so when a cyclope normally can walk 10 spaces it now can only walk 5.

STONE SKIN - This spell gives friendly units +5 armor/defence points.

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***Troll & Regenerator***

CORPSE FEED - Trolls can feed off corpses and so gain extra life points based on the corpse that it eats.
Level 1 corpse = Gain 10 hitpoints
Level 2 corpse = Gain 20 hitpoints
Level 3 corpse = Gain 30 hitpoints
Level 4 corpse = Gain 40 hitpoints
Level 5 corpse = Gain 50 hitpoints
Level 6 corpse = Gain 60 hitpoints
Level 7 corpse = Gain 70 hitpoints
Eating the ashes of a phoenix gives the trolls or regenerators + 100 hitpoints.

REGENERATOR AURA - Close allies of the regenerator gain the regeneration ability.

MIND IMMUNITY - Because they have two heads the regenerators are immune to mind-based abilities such as charm and such.

SYNCHRONIZE - Regenerators share all positive effects with their close allies and all negative effects with their close enemies. So when the regenerator is healed by a heal-spell all close friendly units benefit from this heal spell and when the regenerator is poisoned all close enemies are poisoned aswel.

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***Dwarf & Rune Master***

MINING - Extra gold + crystal income for each dwarf in your group.

RUNE-STONE - Rune Masters can summon a large rune-stone upon the battlefield that can be attacked by enemy units, this rune gives all friendly units 50% elemental-resistance and all enemy units + 50% weakness to elemental damage. The effect lasts until the rune is destroyed by enemies which can attack the rune.

ZORBO - The defences and resistances of a Rune Master are based on the ground he walks upon. When the rune master fights upon a snowy field he will absorb the snow into its magical skin and so gain resistance to cold attacks or when he fights upon a mountain-based field he will gain extra defence as its body turns into solid rock. Every tile set has its own effect upon the Rune Masters.

ELEMENTAL MANIFESTATION - When you cast an elemental-based spell against rune masters they will turn into an elemental creature all togheter. So when the group is hit by a fireball they will turn into a different creature (a dwarf made of fire in this case) and gain different abilities. The next time the dwarf is hit by a fireball it will be immune to the damage + its attacks do fire damage. This ability has its weakness however as when you are in this fire-form and you are attacked by water-based magic the rune masters will receive double damage + they will turn into an water-based creature that on its turn can receive double damage from electric (air) spells and attacks.
Note: When the elemental manifestation ability is in motion the ZORBO ability will be disabled for as long as the battle lasts.

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***Halfling & Slinger***

GIANT SLAYER - 50% extra damage against level 6 + 7 units + chance of stunning them.

NATURES EMBRACE - Halflings are favoured by mother Gaia and so receive less damage from nature-based attacks. Natural-disasters and elemental based spells do less damage to halflings.

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***Faun & Satyr***

EVASION - There is a chance of 50% that satyrs will evade the attack (magical, ranged or melee) of an enemy.

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***Basilisk & Venom Gazer***

TOXIC GAZE - This is just a ranged poison attack pretty much like the attack of the venom spawns from HOMM VI

POISON BOOSTER - This terrible aura will boost any poison damage in the area, all enemy creatures that are poisoned will lose more hitpoints when there is a venom gazer on the battlefield.

TERROR GAZE - Gaze inflicts terror poison. (4% chance)
Terror Poison: Terror poison is more dangerous than normal poison as it cuts the HP of the entire group in half every turn. So when the venom gazer attacks halflings (30 HP each) and they receive terror poison they all lose ½ of their hitpoints in the first round leaving them with only 15 HP the next round they will lose another half of their hitpoints leaving them with only 7 HP (because 15 can't be split the number will be -1) and so on.

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Nomad & Chieftain***

FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT - Basilisks and Venom Gazers + Nomads and Chieftains can't be ensnared or slowed by any means (magical or abilities), they ignore travel penalties all togheter.

SANDSTORM – Chieftains can summon sandstorms on the battlefield, the entire enemy group will suffer penalties in their movement speed + there is a chance of 50% that an enemy unit will miss its target during a sandstorm. The sandstorm lasts for 3, 4 or 5 turns.

SAND CLAW – This spell summons a giant claw of sand that strikes the enemy one or two times, there is a chance of 75% that the sand-claw blinds its target.

QUICKSAND – This spell summons 4 random quicksand-traps upon the battlefield, when creatures step on such tiles they will be stuck for the entire battle, they can only retaliate and attack close creatures. Some spells can free the victims from the quicksand trap.

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***Mantis & Slayer***

ANCHOR - When there are slayers on the battlefield you can't flee.

CRITICAL STRIKE - There is a chance that the slayers do 2, 3 or even 4 times their original damage.

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***Beholder & Overseer***

EYE RAYS - Same as the beholders ability in HOMM VI, but with more different effects.

ORACLE - Gives your team a wider view on the adventure map.

TRUE SEEING - Spots invisible units and traps, destroys illusions, mirror images and other such spells.

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***Mummy & Pharaoh***

PLAGUE CLOUD - This works pretty much like the poison cloud attack of the lich, but plague cloud infects weakness instead of poison and every creature killed within the cloud becomes a mummy.

DEATH THROES - When you kill a pharaoh it will leave an extra large plague cloud upon the battlefield.

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***Merman & Aqualoi***

SEA BONUS - Pretty much like the pirate’s ability from HOMM VI + merman gain + 30 extra HP when fighting upon ships.

SEA EVASION - When fighting upon ships there is a chance of 75% that your melee, ranged or magical attacks miss the aqualoi.

SLIPPERY - Some abilities won't work on merman, some examples: The Gigantes throw ability, the treants entangle ability and some spells.

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***Werewolf & Worg***

DARK TRANSFORMATION - While normally appearing as a wild, savage human not much stronger than the average peasant, the werewolf transforms into an evil savage wolf-like humanoid when fighting in the cover of darkness. When fighting underground the werewolf transforms into a level 5 creature and so all its stats change into more reasonable ones.

LUNAR EMBRACE - When fighting underground the worg receives extra HP, strength, defence and speed points.

LYCANTHROPY - Worgs can infest other human creatures to become infested with lycanthropy. The bad thing is that when lycanthropy occurs (when the infected units fight underground) they become savage creatures that attack everything that is close (in most cases first their friends as those are closest to them when the battle starts.)
This form of lycanthropy can be healed by potions and magic however, when it isn't removed its best to depart from the units when you enter a cave.

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***Mimic & Doppelganger***

DISJUNCTION - Disjunction disables all good effects from their targets. (So pretty much like the dragon flies ability from HOMM III.)

MIMIC ABILITY - Mimics are strange creatures that mimic the special abilities from all the creatures which they attack. So when the mimic attacks an antares there is a chance that the mimic inflicts slow poison into the antares and when it attacks a medusa it has a chance of turning her into stone.

SHAPESHIFT - Doppelgangers can shapeshift into anything they have killed. So when they kill an imp they change into an imp, and when they kill a titan they can shapeshift into a titan. The unique thing is that they have exact the same stats, this can hold a negative and positive effect as doppelgangers are rare and expensive they don't come in great numbers and so its better not to attack weaker creatures with them as they then morph into such low-level creatures and with their low number its impossible to survive or kill higher level creatures to take their shape.

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***Arachnoid & Black Widow***

AGEING POISON - The poison of the black widow and the arachnoid inflicts rapid ageing. Aged creatures become slow and weak in both defence and attack power. The poison of the evolved Black Widow is even worse because when not cured from the poison in 3 rounds the victims age into skeletons that will fight for the Black Widow.

CHARM - Charms a creature into fighting for the black widow for 1/2/3 or 4 rounds.

WEB - Black Widows can bind aerial creatures onto the ground where they suffer more penalties.

SPIDER CLIMB - Black Widows and Arachnoids ignore obstacles and walls, they can't cross water however.

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***Sphinx & Gynosphinx***

SILENCE - When cast upon a creature or hero it can't cast spells anymore + creatures will lose all their special abilities. The effect stays for 4 turns.

DEVOUR MAGIC - Sphinxes can eat the mana from their enemies to gain lost hitpoints + mana for their own.

AMNESIA AURA - The gynosphinxs their aura hurts enemy spellcasters when they cast spells, also the spells cost double the amount of mana + the spell may fail (25% chance).

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***Gladiator & Hero***

COLISEUM CHAMPION - When fighting coliseum battles the gladiators and heroes (upgrade gladiator) give their entire team 50% extra morale (gladiator) or 100% morale (hero).

Coliseum battles: Coliseum battles are new, you can enter a coliseum and battle 7 rounds against random creatures from level 1 (battle 1) to level 7 (battle 7) when you defeat all the creatures you earn a special object, some creatures that join your team or just many gold.

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***Kraken & Leviathan***

SHIP TERROR - This ability works pretty much like the castle terror ability from the grendels. When a kraken attacks a ship all level 1 creatures from the enemy are slain instantly.

DESTROY SHIP - You can sacrifice 5 krakens to destroy 1 enemy ship. The heroes that are on board of the enemy ship will end in prison and the creatures are all dead. Imagine that finding krakens is a hard thing to do!

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***Yeti & Wendigo***

WINTER'S WRATH - There is a chance of 5% that the wendigo will summon a blizzard at the begin of every battle, this blizzard lasts the entire battle and only slows the enemies.

FREEZE - The yeti and wendigo can freeze their victims solid. Frozen units can't move and also feed the wendigo who holds the absorb cold ability. Frozen units suffer damage every round they are frozen.

ABSORB COLD - Wendigos absorb any cold influence on the battlefield and turn it into lost hp points.
They absorb hitpoints from cold magic, cold abilities, frozen units and frozen battlefields.

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***Amazone & Valkyrie***

SPIRIT LINK - An amazone can link the spirits of up to 3 creatures, these creatures (enemies or allies) now share their hp and every damage made against one of the 3 will split and spread among the three, they all get the same amount of damage.

HOLY ARROWS - These arrows can blind non-undead units and will do massive damage against undead creatures. There is a chance of 10% that an amazone shoots a holy arrow.

HOLY CORPSE - This ability has 2 effects:
1 - Valkyrie can sacrifice friendly corpses into hp for the entire team.
2 - When the Valkyries die their corpses will disappear and all friendly creatures will regenerate all lost hitpoints.

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***Warlock & Dark Caster***

MANA BARRIER - Warlocks can use their mana as extra HP.

SCHOLAR - A warlock learns all the spells that are used against him and his allies, so when the enemy casts a fireball spell or Armageddon spell against him or his allies the next round the warlock may use the same spell against the enemy who casted it. All spells the warlock group learns remain in the spellbook until the game ends or until they die, new members learn them aswel, but new groups must start all over again with collecting spells. A spellbook of a warlock may contain all kinds of spells.

SPELL THIEF - Warlocks can steal the effects of their enemies and give these effects to their allies. So when a shaman casts bloodlust on its goblin allies the warlock may steal the bloodlust effect and give it to his own allies, or use the effect for its own cause.

SYMBOL OF GREED - This evil symbol will turn a creature extremely greedy. The creature that became greedy won't heal or share auras and useful boost abilities with its allies anymore. So when an archangel is under the effect of symbol of greed it won’t resurrect its allies anymore and clerics won’t heal their allies anymore, only itself.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Here are some annoying complains from me about the actual game: (Only the creatures to start with)

Matrons, Matriarchs and Witches are all look-alikes! Don’t really like that… The matriarchs could be given a lower body of a snake or something, or maybe the witch could actually be a harpy.

Creatures that look pathetic:
GARGOYLE – MAGE – IMP – GENIE – TREANT – FIRE ELEMENTAL – NIGHTMARE

Creatures that look fantastic:
UNICORN – RAKSHASA – WAR DANCER – BLACK DRAGON – HYDRA – DRUID – GOLEM – GRIFFON – LICH – WRAITH – VAMPIRE – GREMLIN – PIT LORD – RAVAGER – ASSASSIN – SPRITE – ZOMBIE – EARTH ELEMENTAL – DEATH KNIGHT

Creatures with boring special abilities:
SUCCUBUS – Charm?? Souls?? Sins??
NIGHTMARE – Sleep?? Nightmares??
BONE DRAGON: Fear?? Bones??
TITAN: Electricity??
RAKSHASA: I would make this unit a spell-caster or an anti-spellcaster.

Some ideas for creatures in the future:

NIGHTMARE – When you leave the centaurs out you know you get complains from fans… So if you’re smart you combine 2 creatures into 1 creature… How about merging the Nightmare with the centaur, this would be ONE HELL AWSOME CREATURE!!! A nightmare that looks like a demonic centaur would be my wish for future HOMM games. The unicorn already resembles the horse-creature anyway, so one horse creature and one horse-man creature would be much better.
+ I could make up maybe 2 special abilities for the normal centaur, but I could make up ten or maybe more special abilities for the nightmare-centaur…

SUCCUBUS – These should be turned into falling angels, beautiful females (if that is possible, as I don’t feel attracted to females at all :-P) with minimal clothes and large black angel wings and dark twisted demonic features hidden all over their bodies, their weapons would be pure famine, like sai-swords or the whip, in fact the Matriarch would be a perfect succubus if you add some black angel wings, and turn some parts, like her feet, tail and horns more demonic.

The end??
Well I really like the new style of the HOMM series this Warcraft-like style really suit me fine! But some creatures really should change as they look horrible, most of all, the gargoyle!

[DaemianLucifer]

Or Evil Eye

Oh god,please no!!Ill buy ten copies,just dont put the evil eye in the game!!!!!

Anyhow,some of those creatures look too powerful.Behemot,for example.Killing all level ones is too much.Maybe something else like scatering a portion of them before the fight would be better.Mimic would be a nice addition.And so would the werewolf(but its upgrade being a worg somehow doesnt fit).Dwarves need a town of their own.I dont want them as neutrals.Hero cant be a creature,a new name is required.Also,at least neutrals should be without an upgrade.Why must every creature have an upgrade?Its not just illogical,but lasy and gives us the idiotic names we have now.

[BenchBreaker]

upgrade of werewolf could be lycanthrope, or the other ways round.

chieftain is not a very good name because it's too vague, i mean chieftain of what? better not be the mighty peasant chieftain. maybe warlord?

kraken & leviathan - like the idea very much, much better names than the sea monster and the mutated gaint whale

never liked the idea of yeti personally and why should the manticore be replaced by the sphinx, they are nothing alike and the manticore is soooooo much cooler.

[ChimTheGrim]

I think they should add 2 new towns...

Stronghold (like you said)

and either

Fortress (except better than HoMM3) or a Dwarf and Blood Elf type town.

[ThunderTitan]

Blood Elf type town.

I swear, if they make another Elf town there's gonna be Blood...

[Toejam]

Blood Elf type town.

I swear, if they make another Elf town there's gonna be Blood...

Second that wood elf,dark elf, elf elf ...

[theLuckyDragon]

Troll -> Regenerator = awkward
Gynosphinx (or whatever) = awkward
Cyclope -> Gigante = especially awkward
Antares = awkward (why not Camelopardalis?:D)

Other than that, things look interesting. Of course, a Blood Elf town would be useless, as TT pointed it out. (a better solution would be differentiated towns for Vanyarin, Noldorin, Telerin and Sindarin elves)

[BenchBreaker]

(a better solution would be differentiated towns for Vanyarin, Noldorin, Telerin and Sindarin elves)

couldn't agree more , although you forgot to mention behemoth -> grendel = most awkward

[Qurqirish Dragon]

I am only commenting on aspects that I think are wrong for some reason- if I leave something out, it probably means I do not have any input to give. Do not think that since I am only commenting this way, I do not like your ideas!

Hi!!
NEW TOWN --> THE STRONGHOLD
LEVEL 1
GOBLIN
Creature upgrade: HOBGOBLIN
Goblins Special Abilities: First Strike / Concurrence
Hobgoblins Special Abilities: Item Thief / Poison Immunity

The item thief skill seems extremely powerful for a level 1 creature. It is effectively a mass spell that negates the power of an artifact- for example, if it steals an attack-boosting artifact, it has cast a mass weakness (that cannot be dispelled!) Similarly, other stolen artifacts give the effect of mass disruption, magic resistance, remove enemy magic resistance, or even remove a secondary skill level from the opposing hero! I envision a hit-and-run tactic where a hero attacks with a goblin-bomb- have several stacks steal, and then surrender or flee, taking all the artifacts (which may very well be worth much more than beating the hero in the first place!)

LEVEL 3
HAG
Creature upgrade: HARPY
Hags Special Abilities: No Retaliation / Brick Break
Harpies Special Abilities: Swoop Attack / Screech of Pain / + Flight

Brick beak seems like an improvement on the behemoth ability for H3. and being able to break through "barriers" and "force fields" implies that they will always do tremendous damage. Combine this with attacking every creature in the attack path (whether this is without retaliation or spoiling same is still very strong) and again you have a low-level creature that is devistating in strength.
The screech of pain is even worse- it mimics a hero ULTIMATE secondary skill (absolute luck), plus allows luck on top of it, and weakens the enemy further without the chance to cure.
Unless this creature's stats are SIGNIFICANTLY lower than all other creatures (with the possible exception of level 1s), this is way too overpowered.

LEVEL 4
OGRE
Creature upgrade: SHAMAN
Ogres Special Abilities: Stun
Shamans Special Abilities: Spellcaster (Blood & Flesh-based spells: Blood Lust / Carnage / Clone / Blood Barrier)

Carnage, again, is overpowered. Once an enemy creature is bloodlusted, it is already effectively out of the battle. Now you want to allow instant damage, and since the creature loses 1 turn, that means that before it can go again, the carnage can be used again, making it lose another turn. These abilities better not be usable more than 1 or 2 times MAX per battle. At least since they are spells, this can be limited by low spell-points

LEVEL 5
ROC
Creature upgrade: THUNDERBIRD
Rocs Special Abilities: Ram
Thunderbirds Special Abilities: Magnetic Storm / Lightning Attack / Weather Immunity

Is the effect on flying creatures' speed always in effect, or only 10% chance, as with other storm effects? I think that in the latter case, it would be fine, but overpowered in the first case.

LEVEL 7
BEHEMOTH
Creature upgrade: GRENDEL
Behemoths Special Abilities: Strength
Grendels Special Abilities: Castle Terror / Devour

The Castle Terror ability is way too strong. I think a better idea, which also fits with the terror idea, is to reduce the morale of level 1 through 4 creatures by 4, 3, 2, and 1, respectively. Perhaps haev a chance that a nightmare-like fear effect any low-level stack that comes within 2 or 3 squares of behemoth stack.

NEW NEUTRAL CREATURES:
ANTARES (OR BLACK SCORPION)
Creature upgrade: STINGER (Or Scorpion Lord for people who HATE D&D)
Creature's Level: 5
Antares Special Abilities: Slow Poison / Triple Attack
Stingers Special Abilities: Implant
Creature's Alignment: Evil

I think that the implant should work differently. The implant ability should not be random, but rather a combat skill, limited to a certain number of uses per battle. The effect could be similar to that necromancer's skill to raise wights from killed enemy stacks- the number of stingers that hatch should be proportional to the number in the implanting stack, and possibley limited by the total HP of the implanted stack.

MEDUSA
Creature upgrade: GORGON (NOT THE COW!!!)
Creature's Level: 5
Medusas Special Abilities: Stone Gaze / Unlimited ranged attacks
Gorgons Special Abilities: Animate stone / Stone Aura / Stone Skin

The stone gaze ability- does it wear off ever? If not, then it really cripples might heroes or heroes from towns without light magic. Granted, it is a small chance, but it does effectively destroy an entire stack. Even the old heroes 1/2 genies weren't that nasty (and they were top-level troops in those games!)

FAUN
Creature upgrade: SATYR
Creature's Level: 2
Fauns Special Abilities: Fortune / Mirth
Satyrs Special Abilities: Evasion

Evasion (which is effectively 'incorporeal') is too strong for a level 2 creature. Even the necromancer's ghosts are tier 3 - and they don't have other special abilities on top of it.

BASILISK (WITH WYVERN LIKE ABILITIES)
Creature upgrade: VENOM GAZER
Creature's Level: 5
Basilisks Special Abilities: Toxic Gaze / Freedom of Movement
Venom Gazers Special Abilities: Terror Gaze / Venom Booster

Terror gaze seems like it is either useless or too powerful (depending on the chance of occurring). If the percentage is too low (like the 4% you give it), then it will be useful so seldom that the action would be better spent with a normal toxic gaze. If it is part of the normal attack, then the lingering effect is way too strong. Compare with the Wyvern Monarch in heroes 3, where the poison is only 10% health per round, to a maximum of 50% (and only 3 rounds from a single poisoning). Here, you are doing 50% of the stacks health per round, not considering the fact that it is already taking damage each round from the "normal" poison.

BEHOLDER
Creature upgrade: OVERSEER (Or Evil Eye)
Creature's Level: 4
Beholders Special Abilities: Eye Rays / Oracle
Overseers Special Abilities: True Seeing

True seeing seems to be redundant. There are no invisible units, and mirror images can be dispelled by any attack (unless this is a mass effect). The ability to see traps (such as quicksand or landmines) may be useful.
Not having played heroes 4, I cannot comment about the eye rays ability.

NOMAD
Creature upgrade: CHIEFTAIN (Or Sand Raider)
Creature's Level: 3
Nomads Special Abilities: Freedom of movement / First Strike
Chieftains Special Abilities: Spellcaster (Sand + Speed-based spells: Sandstorm / Haste / Slow / Sand Claw / Freedom of movement spell / Quicksand)

Freedom of movement, as you have it, doesn't make sense. Why should they be immune to magical slowing? I can understand immunity to movement-restricting effects related to themselves (quicksand, sandstorm, &.), but magical slowing should still effect them. Perhaps chieftains, since they use magical movement spells could be justified for having that.
Sandstorm is quite powerful for a level 3 creature- basically makes all your units incorporeal for the length of the storm. That's a bit too much.
There is a danger with quicksand- since it is permanent, if both sides of a battle have chieftains, then it is possible that both sides will get a unit stuck with no way to fight the other. This reminds me of the troll-vs-troll problem that occurred on occasion in heroes 1,2, and 3, where neither side could kill the other. You do not want ways for a battle to end up a stalemate!

MERMAN (REPLACEMENT FOR MERMAID)
Creature upgrade: AQUALOI
Creature's Level: 4
Mermen Special Abilities: Sea Bonus / Slippery
Aqualois Special Abilities: Cast Spells (Water-based spells) / Sea Evasion

Just a note- you have several creatures with the incorporeal ability (in different names, but the same basic idea) I think this introduces way too much luck into battles, as well as reducing the special feeling of teh necro troop's ability. Note that they removed that ability from some of the necros between the beta and the demo. I'm certain that is not because is was uninteresting. A flat-out damage reduction would serve a similar, but not annoying effect.

MIMIC (NEW CREATURE!)
Creature upgrade: DOPPELGANGER
Creature's Level: ? (The level of the creature they copied or killed)
Mimics Special Abilities: Disjunction / Mimic Ability
Doppelgangers Special Abilities: Shapeshift

The shapeshift ability is a very hard thing to balance properly. We had a lot of discussion in WoG when creating the metamorph (which is very similar to this). However, this can be a very interesting unit, properly done.

ARACHNOID (NEW CREATURE!)
Creature upgrade: BLACK WIDOW
Creature's Level: 4
Arachnoids Special Abilities: Ageing poison / No Retaliation
Black Widows Special Abilities: Web / Spider Climb / Charm

As with many of your abilities, the aging poison is too powerful for a level 4. Even the base effect is quite strong, without the 'possession' ability of the upgrade.

KRAKEN (REPLACEMENT FOR SEA-MONSTER)
Creature upgrade: LEVIATHAN
Creature's Level: 7
Krakens Special Abilities: All-around attack / Blind
Leviathans Special Abilities: Ship Terror / Destroy Ship

Ship Terror: see castle terror for comments.
Destroy ship is way too powerful- in any water-based map, the whole game will come down to who can sink more ships.It makes no difference how many you need to sacrifice to do this, because if the enemy is weaker than your stack of leviathans, then you'll just attack normally anyway (killing all level 1s in the process anyway!)

YETI (REPLACEMENT FOR ICE DEMON)
Creature upgrade: WENDIGO
Creature's Level: 6
Yetis Special Abilities: Freeze / Cold Immunity
Wendigo’s Special Abilities: Winter’s Wrath / Absorb Cold

In contrast to many of your other units, I think that these are underpowered for a level 6. Absorb cold is a limited version of regeneration, and a mass slow at the start of battle (with only 5% chanse) is nice, but not crippling. I think adding in an "iceball" spell to them would be nice.

Overall, I think you have many interesting ideas, and with a little tweaking could be a lot of fun. For non-town creatures, a certain amount of "overpoweredness" is acceptable, but the level really should be appropriate.

Also, not every creature needs to have an upgrade. With few exceptions, out-of-town creatures have never been upgradeable. (the only one I am not certain about is if a gold golem could be upgraded to diamond in H3. If no, then no neutral creature could be upgraded)

[Qurqirish Dragon]

Troll -> Regenerator = awkward

From the description of the mind-immunity ability, I think "ettin" is what he wants for the upgrade.

Gynosphinx (or whatever) = awkward

Not awkward, just redundant. Gynosphinx = female sphinx. Similar to androsphinx = male sphinx (or rather, what would be a male if the Sphinx -note the capital S- weren't female by definition!)

Cyclope -> Gigante = especially awkward

Well, since they changed "giant" into "colossus," maybe giant -> cyclopes?

[Linky]

The addition of an Orc town is a no-brainer for the expansion. The Ashan lore that I've read includes Orcs and from the Dark Messiah gameplay footage we saw that there were Goblins and Spiders very near Orc housing. From this you can draw out a conclusion that three creatures included in this faction would be:

Goblin
Orc
Spider

They'll probably stick with one faction for the first expansion. This is all the info I have that I think as 'very probable' material for the EP. Other than this would be just speculation on my part so I'll save it. Still, if I had to guess which level units these would be, I'd go for Goblins lvl1, Spiders lvl2, Orcs lvl3 or 4. The orcs looked mean enough to be potentially tough opponents.

[1979]

I agree with the previous poster who said no evil eye. I hated those!

I heartily second the idea for a stronghold. Those were awesome and we need them back.

[Blaspheme]

Thanks for the replies

About the evil eyes: Beholders are cool creatures!! Make perfect spies or oracles for evil lords.

Dwarves & MORE Elf Towns  I disagree… What creatures can you come up with for a dwarve town?
Golems and gargoyles already appeared in the mage-town… The only other creatures I can come up with are giant moles (LOL) and Anteus (But this Greek-mythology unit is to-much like the earth elemental)

Upgrades  I’m against upgrades aswel, but this is just fiction anyway, I just made up as many special abilities and creatures as possible, and my only wish is that they pick-up as many of these beasts and abilities as possible and I don’t care if they create only the harpy and not the hag and I also don’t care if they should give some of my made-up special abilities to new creatures (which they made up themselves)
So please don’t take the level-thing to hard, I just gave the creatures a random level and gave some of my favourite missing special abilities to the monsters I thought these abilities would fit the best.

Sphinx/Manticore  Well I just operated the Manticore and separated the different parts of it into new creatures. The lion/human thing was put into the sphinx creature and the scorpion parts are put into the antares creature. Sphinxes and Manticores are very alike… they are both lion/human/winged like creatures the only difference is their alignment. (Well… sphinxes can be evil aswel!)

Yeti  I dislike the Yeti aswel… But I simple ADORE and LOVE the wendigo! (Wendigo’s have different looks than they have in warcraft!!)
The wendigo is from Indian legends, and it is the most terrible/scary creature I ever saw in a picture. (D&D also has a scary version of the wendigo)
Short Explanation on the Wendigo: A human that eats another human’s flesh in the cursed forests of Canada turns into a wendigo the moment he dies. His features become beastical (Something like a HORRIBLE werewolf but more snow based) Wendigo’s only eat the flesh of their former kin, most are humans. Some wendigo’s appear as winged, demonic werewolves, others appears as spirits made of wind and others appear like humans do but more feral and evil looking.
It’s very much like lycanthropy, but far more worse as the wendigo’s terrible hunger forces it to eat its entire existence non-stop, when it doesn’t find prey in time it will feel the pain of all its victims at once, and wendigo’s like to torture victims before they start eating them alive.
Wendigo’s are said to be reality in the dark forests of Canada, much like the abominable snowman and Nessie… (folklore)

Gynosphinx  What’s wrong with this one? I first wanted to call it Chimera, but then some people will go berserk… I’ve learned to never EVER use that name again… As that boring creature (Sure you like a creature with the head of a goat, lion and dragon? What nonsense is that combination???) has many fans.

Antares  I stole this name from an old LUFIA game and I just like the sound of it! Camelopardel’s are panther-giraffes from D&D games… I don’t see the connection between a giant scorpion and a giraffe with monstrous parts that acts as a desert guardian…

About the Ability Comments from Qurqirish Dragon:
Its mostly about the idea of the abilities! I know most are imbalanced as hell but that wasn’t the real thought after it, I just gave them some ideas on many new special abilities. (As I think they use too much of the same special abilities, and some creatures don’t have special abilities at all, a waste!)

I agree! I’m too much into special-abilities! But that’s the fun thing of the game in my opinion. I’m just tired of all the creatures having the same special-abilities over and over again… Variation is the KEY! Balance it all isn’t my problem that’s something the game-directors and developers must do, I’m just a guy sharing his ideas with them and with all of you (to increase my own knowledge and ideas on some of the abilities thanks to some of your comments) :-)

========================================================================
<b>REMAKE STRONGHOLD TOWN</b>

LEVEL 1
GOBLIN
Creature upgrade: HOBGOBLIN
Goblins Special Abilities: First Strike
Hobgoblins Special Abilities: Concurrence / Item Morph
Creature's Alignment: Evil
Creature Description: Small, mischievous looking humanoids armed with small daggers. Hobgoblins have a sick-yellow skin..

LEVEL 2
ORC
Creature upgrade: BERSERKER (Or Boar Raider)
Orcs Special Abilities: Berserk
Berserkers Special Abilities: Endeavour
Creature's Alignment: Evil
Creature Description: Orcs look like green humanoids with force posture. Berserkers have some boar-like parts and they also are mounted upon a large war-boar.

LEVEL 3
HAG
Creature upgrade: HARPY
Hags Special Abilities: No Retaliation / Brick Break
Harpies Special Abilities: Swoop Attack / + Flight
Creature's Alignment: Evil
Creature Description: Hags look like a freshly-decayed grandma with enormous teeth and even larger nails. Harpies have the upper body of a hag and the lower body of a prehistoric flying reptile.

LEVEL 4
OGRE
Creature upgrade: SHAMAN
Ogres Special Abilities: Stun
Shamans Special Abilities: Spellcaster (Blood & Flesh-based spells: Blood Lust / Clone / Blood Barrier)
Creature's Alignment: Neutral
Creature Description: Ogres look like green skinned giants packed in simple armor and armed with large clubs. The shaman is dressed in shaman-like clothes and has a skull on its club and also wears a ram-like skull as mask.

LEVEL 5
ROC
Creature upgrade: THUNDERBIRD
Rocs Special Abilities: Air Ram / Air Transport
Thunderbirds Special Abilities: Magnetic Storm / Lightning Attack / Weather Immunity
Creature's Alignment: Neutral
Creature Description: The roc looks like a giant black eagle and the thunderbirds look like giant blue/gold/black eagles with lightning leaking from their eyes.

LEVEL 6
CYCLOPS
Creature upgrade: CYCLOPS ELDER
Cyclops Special Abilities: Area Damage / No ranged penalty
Elders Special Abilities: Throw object / Magic Eye
Creature's Alignment: Evil
Creature Description: Just the giant with one eye and a stone in his arms, the cyclops elder looks like a normal cyclops with good armor and four arms.

LEVEL 7
BEHEMOTH
Creature upgrade: ANCIENT BEHEMOTH
Behemoths Special Abilities: Strength
Ancient Special Abilities: Devour / Castle Terror
Creature's Alignment: Neutral
Creature Description: The behemoth looks like a large, hungry, monstrous bear creature and Ancients are armed in a spiky armor.



<b>REMAKE NEUTRAL CREATURES:</b>

Note: The levels are just tips it’s difficult to give them levels because my special-abilities may point otherwise. I don’t really care about which level or what stats they get my real point is that they will show up in the expansion.

STINGER (OR SCORPION LORD)
Level: 5 - 6
Special Abilities: Slow Poison / Triple Attack / Implant
Creature's Alignment: Evil
Creature Description: Stingers look like centaurs, but their lower body is that of an giant black scorpion, their humanoid upper body has a deep red color and they wear a crown that looks like a gold scorpion, his arms end in giant scissors much like that of a true scorpion.
Extremely vain and arrogant the Stingers are a slave-taking race that often works togheter with the Sand Raiders.

GORGON (OR MEDUSA)
Level: 5 - 6
Special Abilities: Stone Gaze / Spellcaster (Stone-based spells: Animate Stone / Stone Skin / Stone Aura)
Creature's Alignment: Evil
Creature Description: The Gorgon has the lower body of a large snake and her hairs are crawling cobras, taipans or rattlers.
Gorgons are masters over rock & stone they can take control over creatures that are made from stone or animate statues into golem-minions.

TROLL
Level: 4 - 6
Special Abilities: Regeneration / Corpse Feed / Synchronize / Fire Weakness
Creature's Alignment: Evil
Creature Description: Trolls appear as green giants armed with a large bone.
Trolls always trust on their extreme-regeneration abilities and do not fear the loss of their limbs or other bodyparts as those grow back in seconds.

DWARF RUNE MASTER
Level: 3 - 5
Special Abilities: Mining / Rune Stone / Elemental Manifestation / Zorbo
Creature's Alignment: Good
Creature Description: Rune Masters have short beards, their entire skin crawls with (as it seems) living tattoos and they hold a large war-hammer with gems in it. On their forehead is a large purple-gem that serves as a third eye.
Rune Masters are noble dwarves that choose the way of magic instead of the brute strength their dwarven brothers use. Rune masters love to search for precious gems which they use to upgrade their elemental-based abilities.

HALFLING
Level: 1 - 2
Halflings Special Abilities: Lucky / Giant Slayer / Nature’s Embrace
Creature's Alignment: Neutral
Creature Description: They look pretty much the same as they did in previous homm-games.
Halflings are extremely xenophobic, and their trust in both evil and good is minimal.

FAUN (OR SATYR)
Level: 2 - 4
Special Abilities: Fortune / Mirth / Mega Balance
Creature's Alignment: Neutral
Creature Description: The playful faun is a split between a friendly male-sprite and a savage chamois-goat.
Fauns have multi-attitudes problems and can change from friendly neighbours into savage enemies without any reason to it.

BASILISK
Level: 4 - 7
Special Abilities: Toxic Gaze / Freedom of Movement / Venom Booster
Creature's Alignment: Evil
Creature Description: The basilisk looks pretty much the same as it did in HOMMIII, it has a giant colorful-colar around its neck and it has six legs, its eyes glow with the same poison-green colour it infests its prey with.
Nobody knows why the basilisks gaze-effect changed into a poisonous-one, but scholars think it has something to do with the disappearance of the wyverns and with the evil warlocks that often are found among groups of these intelligent reptilian creatures.

SLAYER (Or Lurker, Stalker or Hunter)
Level: 4 -7
Special Abilities: Ensnare / Critical Strike / First Strike / Anchor / Stealth (invisibility)
Creature's Alignment: Evil
Creature Description: The slayer appears to be a sick merge between demon, humanoid and mantis.
While the demons created these mantis-monsters by infusing the mantises with demonic blood they couldn’t control the furious creatures, soon their own experiments turned against them. Slayers favour the flesh of demons above all else.

BEHOLDER
Level: 2 - 6
Special Abilities: Eye Rays / Oracle / True Seeing / Blind Immunity / Eye Scout / Aura of Vision
Creature's Alignment: Evil
Creature Description: Same as the evil-eyes from HOMMIII
These large demonic eyes often work for warlocks or pit lords as spies, guardians and oracles.

SAND RAIDER (Or SAND CASTER / SAND NOMAD)
Level: 4 - 6
Special Abilities: First Strike / Freedom of Movement / Spellcaster (Sand + Speed-based spells: Sandstorm / Haste / Slow / Sand Claw / Quicksand / Sleep)
Creature's Alignment: Neutral
Creature Description: These look like black-dressed humanoids dressed entirely (Face and all) in black clothes, they appear human but in fact they are made entirely from sand. They ride upon a horse made out of sand, but when they attack their horse turns into a giant cobra made from sand, by defence it turns into a shield or fist made of sand.

MUMMY LORD
Level: 3 - 6
Special Abilities: Curse / Undead / Plague Cloud / Death throes
Creature's Alignment: Neutral
Creature Description: They look pretty much like the mummies from the HOMMIII Expansion.
While you would think all undead are evil and mindless creatures the mummy lords would make an exception. Mummies only attack other creatures when such come near their graves or when they stole the mummies ancient treasures.

AQUALOI (REPLACEMENT FOR MERMAID)
Level: 2 - 3 (when outside water) Level 4 – 6 (when on ships)
Special Abilities: Sea Bonus / Slippery
Creature's Alignment: Neutral
Creature Description: Aqualoi have a trident weapon and the lower body of a large indigo fish. Their upperbody resembles a handsome, indigo haired elf with indigo scales around his eyes.
These fish-creatures are hunted and captured for their knowledge over the treasures of the ocean. There isn’t a location in the ocean the aqualoi wouldn’t know something about. Some scholars believe that the aqualoi were created by Neptunes to serve as his scouts and bodyguards.

WEREWOLF
Level: 1 (human form) / 4 - 6 (werewolf form)
Werewolves Special Abilities: Dark Transformation / No Retaliation (When in werewolf form) / Lycanthropy
Creature's Alignment: Evil
Creature Description: Werewolfs look like feral-peasants while fighting above the ground but turn into humanoid-wolfs when fighting in the cover of darkness beneath the ground.
Lycanthropy can only occur on humanoids as it stimulates their dark, hidden animal characteristics.

DOPPELGANGER
Level: ? (The level of the creature they copied or killed)
Mimics Special Abilities: Mimic Ability / Shapeshift
Creature's Alignment: Neutral
Creature Description: Much like a feature-less humanoid with large black eyes and pale-white skin.
Doppelgangers are the paranoid’s worst nightmare; a monster who can eat your best friend’s brain and then not only look like him, but talk like him, have all of his memories , and wield all of his abilities, it’s not strange that doppelgangers are often used as assassins and spies

BLACK SPIDER
Level: 3 - 6
Special Abilities: Ageing poison / Web / Spider Climb
Creature's Alignment: Neutral
Creature Description: Black Spiders are like enormous black spiders with red spots.
These enormous spiders are the nightmare of many. Their webs, which they can shoot from their mouth aswel, are strong as adamantium and their bite can turn a youngster into an oldtimer or worse within minutes.

SPHINX
Level: 5 - 7
Special Abilities: Silence / Devour Magic / Amnesia Aura / Magic Mirror
Creature's Alignment: Good
Creature Description: The sphinx appears as a winged-lion with female face dressed in Egyptian-like golden/blue armor.
Few creatures are as wise and intelligent as the respectful sphinx. A sphinx believes that words can solve any problem and they often try to start a conversation before they attack, most creatures however (even mages) dislike speaking with a sphinx as they talk in riddles.

GLADIATOR
Level: 2 - 5
Special Abilities: Stun / Swing Attack / Coliseum Champion / Fearless
Creature's Alignment: Neutral
Creature Description: Gladiators are armed with a ball-on-chain weapon.
Gladiators are prisoners who are forced to fight other prisoners to the death. When the human forces face a powerful enemy in battle however the gladiators are used as reserve forces. Gladiators are masters of the coliseum and armed with their ball on chain weapons they are fearsome indeed.

KRAKEN (REPLACEMENT FOR SEA-MONSTER)
Level: 7+
Special Abilities: All-around attack / Blind / Ship Terror
Creature's Alignment: Neutral
Creature Description: Krakens appear as giant octopuses with blue-glowing rings all over their bodies.
Krakens are famous for their attacks on ships. For this the krakens are hunted by human-society as they form a terrible danger for the sea-economy.

WENDIGO (REPLACEMENT FOR ICE DEMON)
Level: 4 - 6
Special Abilities: Freeze / Cold Immunity / Winter’s Wrath / Absorb Cold
Creature's Alignment: Evil
Creature Description: Wendigo’s look like white, horrid werewolves with yellow eyes that haunt your dreams for an eternity.
These ice-based creatures hunger for the flesh of their former kin. A wendigo looks so scary that even the mighty black dragon fears its appearance.

VALKYRIE
Level: 6 - 7
Special Abilities: Spirit Link / First Strike / Holy Corpse / Flight / Charge
Creature's Alignment: Good
Creature Description: Valkyries ride upon Silver Pegasus-like creatures and hold a large spear for weapon. Their armor is pure-silver with golden highlights.
When not fighting a war against evil, these beautiful amazons transport the spirits of the dead toward the portals of heaven.

WARLOCK (NEW CREATURE)
Level: 5 - 7
Warlocks Special Abilities: Scholar / Mana Barrier / Spell Thief / Symbol of Greed / Teleport
Creature's Alignment: Extremely Evil
Creature Description: Look like evil mages with red-glowing signs carved into their dark-humanoid flesh.

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SOME OF THE !NEW! SPECIAL ABILITIES:

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***Goblin & Hobgoblin***

CONCURRENCE - The more goblins or hobgoblins are on the battlefield (different groups) the better their damage.

ITEM MORPH - Hobgoblins have their own small inventory that can contain 1 item. The magical effects of the weapons and shields will fade but the weapons they hold will actual change:
Shields – Hobgoblins gains a shield + 3 defence points
Bows – Hobgoblins gain ranged attacks
Weapons – Hobgoblins gain +3 extra damage
Staffs – Hobgoblins can cast Magic Arrow ones every battle.
Boots – Hobgoblins gain +3 speed & Movement

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***Orc & Berserker***

ENDEAVOUR - When the top berserker is low on health the group does more damage than when they do when the top creature is healthy. So low HP means gruesome damage, and high HP means normal damage.

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***Hag & Harpy***

BRICK BREAK - Hags and harpies attack with such an incredible force that they ignore barriers, force fields and shields in their attack.

SWOOP ATTACK - Harpies attack every creature that crosses their path on their way to the actual target/location.

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***Ogre & Shaman***

BLOOD LUST - Bloodlust can be cast upon allies but also upon enemies, the effect on both is somewhat different. When the shaman casts bloodlust upon an ally it will gain the usual effect of doing more damage, but when the shaman casts bloodlust upon an enemy it will fly into an unstoppable anger and becomes a berserked (the player is unable to control this unit in it's actions) unit for as long as the battle lasts.

CLONE - Every group of shamans carries its own clone-book which enables it to clone creatures which it killed throughout the entire game. So when your group of ogre shamans kills the last hydra of an enemy group they will gain the hydra's blood-sample into their clone-book and they can summon a number of hydras upon the battlefield based on their mana. When you split your shaman group, both groups can summon hydra's and when you let other ogre shamans join the group they automatically learn to clone hydras upon the battlefield. The clone book can contain 5 different creatures. The clone book lasts the entire game. Undead, Dragon, and elemental creatures can't be cloned.

BLOOD BARRIER - Ogre shamans can destroy corpses and turn the blood into a solid barrier, they gain:
+1 Defence for each level 1 corpse
+2 Defence for each level 2 corpse
+3 Defence for each level 3 corpse
+4 Defence for each level 4 corpse
+5 Defence for each level 5 corpse
+6 Defence for each level 6 corpse
+7 Defence for each level 7 corpse
+ Fire Immunity for each Fire Elemental corpse
+ Cold Immunity for each Yeti or Water Elemental corpse
+ Earth Immunity for each Earth Elemental corpse
+ Air Immunity for each Air Elemental corpse
+10 Defence and + Rebirth Ability for each Phoenix corpse
Undead and demonic creatures will lower the shamans defence however so watch what you’re doing.

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***Roc & Thunderbird***

AIR RAM - Rocs do extra damage against other flying units.

MAGNETIC STORM - A thunderbird is always followed by a dangerous lightning storm. Each round there is a chance of 10% that a random enemy creature group (most of the time the highest level creature) is hit by a furious lightning bolt. When there are treants or titans upon the battlefield the lightning will always hit them. Another feature of this ability is that all flying enemy units (20% chance) will lose ½ of their speed when there are thunderbirds on the battlefield but the flying allies of the thunderbirds gain +3 extra speed.

WEATHER IMMUNITY - A thunderbird is immune to any weather effect such as blizzard, lightning attacks and sandstorms.

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***Cyclope & Elder***

MAGIC EYE - The large eye of a gigante radiates a strange aura that makes other friendly ranged units around the gigante gain the no ranged penalty ability.

THROW OBJECTS - Cyclops can pick up enemy units and throw them away toward other enemy creatures, doing damage to both groups.

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***Behemoth & Ancient***

STRENGTH - Behemoths and Grendels can't be drained of their strength by any means, their attacks do always the same number of damage + every round their damage-factor grows with 1 extra damage point. When the battle is over however, their damage-factor returns to its normal number.

CASTLE TERROR - When an Ancient Behemoth attacks a castle all defending level 1 – 4 creatures suffer low morale.

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***Stinger***

SLOW POISON - Robs enemies from ½ their normal speed + does poison damage every round.

TRIPLE ATTACK - There is a chance that you’re stingers attack the enemy 3 times in a row. 2 scissor attacks + 1 sting attack. Only when the stinger uses its sting attack it has a chance of poisoning or implanting the victims.

IMPLANT - When you are lucky and the stingers use their sting attack instead of their scissor attacks there is a chance of 20% that the stingers implant a small scorpion into the victim’s bodies. For each implanted enemy killed there will be an scorpion coming from its corpse to fight for you until the battle is over. So when 24 goblins are infected with the stingers implant ability than all 25 goblins will spawn a scorpion-unit from their corpse, so you can gain 24 scorpion units. Undead and Elemental creatures are immune to this effect.

Scorpion Unit  These small scorpions are level 1 creatures that can only be created by the implant ability, they don’t wander the map or can be hold for long as they die the hour after spawned.

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***Gorgon***

STONE GAZE - Gorgons have a small chance of turning the enemy groups into statues. There is a chance of 5% to turn the enemies into stone. Enemies can only be freed from their stone-prison by means of magic or potions, or to win the battle when such items aren't within the player’s inventory the creatures are doomed to stay a statue the entire battle.

ANIMATE STONE - Gorgons are masters over stone and rock and can make an attempt to animate their petrified victims into golem-like minions to fight for her. The golem-like minions have the same stats as the true creatures but there special abilities are disabled. There is a 25% chance the spell will work, the spell can also be cast upon golems and gargoyles to take control over them but than the effect will be only of short period.

STONE AURA - This summonable-aura will slow all close enemy units with ½ of their normal speed, so when a cyclope normally can walk 10 spaces it now can only walk 5.

STONE SKIN - This spell gives friendly units +5 armor/defence points.

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***Troll***

CORPSE FEED - Trolls can feed off corpses and so gain extra life points based on the corpse that it eats.
Level 1 corpse = Gain 10 hitpoints
Level 2 corpse = Gain 20 hitpoints
Level 3 corpse = Gain 30 hitpoints
Level 4 corpse = Gain 40 hitpoints
Level 5 corpse = Gain 50 hitpoints
Level 6 corpse = Gain 60 hitpoints
Level 7 corpse = Gain 70 hitpoints
Eating the ashes of a phoenix gives the trolls or regenerators + 100 hitpoints.

SYNCHRONIZE - Trolls share all positive effects with their close allies and all negative effects with their close enemies. So when the troll is healed by a heal-spell all close friendly units benefit from this heal spell and when the troll is poisoned all close enemies are poisoned aswel.

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***Dwarf Rune Master***

MINING - Extra gold + crystal income for each dwarf in your group.

RUNE-STONE - Rune Masters can summon a large rune-stone upon the battlefield that can be attacked by enemy units, this rune gives all friendly units 50% elemental-resistance and all enemy units + 50% weakness to elemental damage. The effect lasts until the rune is destroyed by enemies which can attack the rune.

ZORBO - The defences and resistances of a Rune Master are based on the ground he walks upon. When the rune master fights upon a snowy field he will absorb the snow into its magical skin and so gain resistance to cold attacks or when he fights upon a mountain-based field he will gain extra defence as its body turns into solid rock. Every tile set has its own effect upon the Rune Masters.

ELEMENTAL MANIFESTATION - When you cast an elemental-based spell against rune masters they will turn into an elemental creature all togheter. So when the group is hit by a fireball they will turn into a different creature (a dwarf made of fire in this case) and gain different abilities. The next time the dwarf is hit by a fireball it will be immune to the damage + its attacks do fire damage. This ability has its weakness however as when you are in this fire-form and you are attacked by water-based magic the rune masters will receive double damage + they will turn into an water-based creature that on its turn can receive double damage from electric (air) spells and attacks.
Note: When the elemental manifestation ability is in motion the ZORBO ability will be disabled for as long as the battle lasts.

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***Halfling***

GIANT SLAYER - 50% extra damage against level 6 + 7 units + chance of stunning them.

NATURES EMBRACE - Halflings are favoured by mother Gaia and so receive less damage from nature-based attacks. Natural-disasters and elemental based spells do less damage to halflings.

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***Faun***

MIRTH - Mirth gives a friendly unit + 50 temporal hitpoints. It can only be cast once every battle.

MEGA BALANCE - Gives the fauns immunity to confusion.
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***Basilisk***

TOXIC GAZE - This is just a ranged poison attack pretty much like the attack of the venom spawns from HOMM VI. There is a chance of 3% that the poison will act as terror poison.

TERROR POISON – Terror poison is much worse than normal poison as it drains the hitpoints away at much higher rate + it can’t be healed by means of magic.

POISON BOOSTER - This terrible aura will boost any poison damage in the area, all enemy creatures that are poisoned will lose more hitpoints when there is a basilisk on the battlefield.

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***Sand Raider***

FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT - Basilisks and Sand Raiders can't be ensnared or slowed by any means (magical or abilities), they ignore travel penalties all togheter.

Basilisk - Basilisks have 6 legs and so its impossible to slow them down as slow only affects 2 or 4 legs at once. Scholars haven’t invented a way to affect 6 legged creatures with this spells yet.

Sand Raider - Are magically immune to the effects of slowness and speed-based spells that affect them negatively.

SANDSTORM - Sand Raiders can summon sandstorms on the battlefield, the entire enemy group will suffer penalties in their movement speed + there is a chance of 50% that an enemy unit will miss its target during a sandstorm. The sandstorm lasts for 2 turns.

SAND CLAW - This spell summons a giant claw of sand that strikes the enemy one or two times, there is a chance of 75% that the sand-claw blinds its target.

QUICKSAND - This spell summons 2 random quicksand-traps upon the battlefield, when creatures step on such tiles they will be stuck for 2/3 or 4 turns, they can only retaliate and attack close creatures. Some spells can free the victims from the quicksand trap.

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***Slayer***

ANCHOR - When there are slayers on the battlefield you can't flee.

CRITICAL STRIKE - There is a chance that the slayers do 2, 3 or even 4 times their original damage.

STEALTH - Slayers are invisible for level 1 – 5 creatures on both the map and the battlefield.

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***Beholder***

EYE RAYS - Same as the beholders ability in HOMM VI, but with more different effects.

ORACLE - Gives your team a wider view on the adventure map.

TRUE SEEING - Spots invisible units and traps, destroys illusions, mirror images and other such spells. This is an active effect and is always in motion, so when there are beholders on the battlefield enemies can’t summon effective mirror-images.

EYE SCOUT – Beholders can summon smaller eyes to spy for them on the adventure-map. These small eyes can’t be attacked so you can easily scout an dangerous area without risking any creature, ofcourse there is a limit of its fly-range.

AURA OF VISION –
Effect 1: Guide blind units with an extra eye, so when blind-friendly units are close to the beholder their blindness loses its effect as the victims can see through the eyes of the beholder.
Effect 2: Close friendly units gain a second shot. (50% chance)

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***Mummy Lord***

PLAGUE CLOUD - This works pretty much like the poison cloud attack of the lich, but plague cloud infects weakness instead of poison and every creature killed within the cloud becomes a skeleton.

DEATH THROES - When you kill a mummy it will leave an extra large plague cloud upon the battlefield. Creatures killed by the cloud will turn up as zombies instead of skeletons

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***Aqualoi***

SEA BONUS - When aqualois fight upon ships they gain many benefits:
1: + Regeneration
2: Wider Sea View + more sea-travel points for team
3: + Evasion
4: Morale for entire team is higher
5: Higher overall stats (Strength, Damage, Defence, Speed)

SLIPPERY - Some abilities won't work on merman, some examples: The Cyclops Elders throw ability, the treants & slayers entangle/ensnare ability and some spells.

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***Werewolf***

DARK TRANSFORMATION - While normally appearing as a wild, savage human not much stronger than the average peasant, the werewolf transforms into an evil savage wolf-like humanoid when fighting in the cover of darkness. When fighting underground the werewolf transforms into a level 5 creature and so all its stats change into more reasonable ones.

LYCANTHROPY - Werewolves can infest other humanoid creatures to become infested with lycanthropy. The bad thing is that when lycanthropy occurs (when the infected units fight underground) they become savage creatures that attack everything that is close (in most cases first their friends as those are closest to them when the battle starts.)
This form of lycanthropy can be healed by potions and magic however, when it isn't removed its best to depart from the units when you enter a cave.

Units that can be infested: Elves, Humans, Dwarves, Halflings, Dark Elves and other creatures that appear as humans.

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***Doppelganger***

MIMIC ABILITY - Doppelgangers are strange creatures that mimic the special abilities from all the creatures which they attack. So when the doppelganger attacks an stinger there is a chance that the doppelganger inflicts slow poison into the stinger and when it attacks a gorgon it has a chance of turning her into stone.

SHAPESHIFT - Doppelgangers can shapeshift into anything they have killed. So when they kill an imp they change into an imp, and when they kill a titan they can shapeshift into a titan. The unique thing is that they have exact the same stats, this can hold a negative and positive effect as doppelgangers are rare and expensive they don't come in great numbers and so its better not to attack weaker creatures with them as they then morph into such low-level creatures and with their low number its impossible to survive or kill higher level creatures to take their shape.

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***Black Spider***

AGEING POISON - The poison of the black spider inflicts rapid ageing. Aged creatures become slow and weak in both defence and attack power. The poison can become even worse because when not cured from the poison in 5 rounds the victims age into skeletons that will fight for the Black Spider.

WEB - Black Spiders can bind aerial creatures onto the ground where they suffer more penalties.

SPIDER CLIMB - Black Spiders ignore obstacles and walls, they can't cross water however.

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***Sphinx***

SILENCE - When cast upon a creature or hero it can't cast spells anymore + creatures will lose all their special abilities. The effect stays for 4 turns.

DEVOUR MAGIC - Sphinxes can eat the mana from their enemies to gain lost hitpoints + mana for their own.

AMNESIA AURA - The sphinxs aura hurts enemy spellcasters when they cast spells, also the spells cost double the amount of mana + the spell may fail (25% chance).

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***Gladiator***

FEARLESS - Immunity to fear-effects.

COLISEUM CHAMPION - When fighting coliseum battles the gladiators ensure their entire team with 100% morale.

Coliseum battles: Coliseum battles are new, you can enter a coliseum and battle 7 rounds against random creatures from level 1 (battle 1) to level 7 (battle 7) when you defeat all the creatures you earn a special object, some creatures that join your team or just many gold.

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***Kraken***

SHIP TERROR – When a kraken attacks a ship, it will instantly devour (kill) a number of level 1 creatures based on the number of the krakens attacking the ship.

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***Wendigo***

WINTER'S WRATH - There is a chance of 5% that the wendigo will summon a blizzard at the begin of every battle, this blizzard lasts the entire battle and slows the enemies. The blizzard only damages fire-based creatures.

FREEZE - The wendigo can freeze their victims solid. Frozen units can't move and also feed the wendigo who holds the absorb cold ability. Frozen units suffer damage every round they are frozen.

ABSORB COLD - Wendigos absorb any cold influence on the battlefield and turn it into NEW HP points. Every different cold-effect will give the wendigo +2 HP points.
They absorb hitpoints from cold magic, cold abilities, frozen units and frozen battlefields.
Wendigos also have bonuses within their stats when fighting upon snow-battlefields or when a blizzard rages over the battlefield.

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***Valkyrie***

SPIRIT LINK – An valkyrie can link the spirits of up to 3 creatures, these creatures (enemies or allies) now share their hp and every damage made against one of the 3 will split and spread among the three, they all get the same amount of damage.

HOLY CORPSE - This ability has 2 effects:
1 - Valkyrie can sacrifice friendly corpses into hp for the entire team.
2 - When the Valkyries die their corpses will disappear and all friendly creatures will regenerate all lost hitpoints.

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***Warlock***

MANA BARRIER - Warlocks can use their mana as extra HP.

SCHOLAR - A warlock learns all the spells that are used against him and his allies, so when the enemy casts a fireball spell or Armageddon spell against him or his allies the next round the warlock may use the same spell against the enemy who casted it. All spells the warlock group learns remain in the spellbook until the game ends or until they die, new members learn them aswel, but new groups must start all over again with collecting spells. A spellbook of a warlock may contain all kinds of spells.

SPELL THIEF - Warlocks can steal the effects of their enemies and give these effects to their allies. So when a shaman casts bloodlust on its goblin allies the warlock may steal the bloodlust effect and give it to his own allies, or use the effect for its own cause.

SYMBOL OF GREED - This evil symbol will turn a creature extremely greedy. The creature that became greedy won't heal or share auras and useful boost abilities with its allies anymore. So when an archangel is under the effect of symbol of greed it won’t resurrect its allies anymore and clerics won’t heal their allies anymore, only itself.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

<b>As for the already-existing units some changes to them in the expansion may be cool.</b>

BUILD MACHINE (Master Gremlin): Build ballista, catapults ect on the battlefield. It takes around 3 turns to complete these war machines.

SABOTAGE (Master Gremlin): Extra damage against mechanical opponents as they know the weak-spots.

SKELETAL (Skeletons + Skeleton Archers + Bone Dragons): Resistances for ranged attacks.

MANA BEACON (Familiar): Gives friendly casters more mana/spell points.

MAGICAL SWORDS (War Dancer): Blades can upgrade into elemental-based swords that do elemental-damage. The more creatures a War Dancer kills the better the effect becomes.

DOOM HOWL (Hounds): Lowers morale of close creatures.

GUARDIAN (Cerberus): Enemy creatures can’t flee. + When you let your Cerberi guard a mine or other map-building level 1 – 4 creatures can’t attack that mine without the help of higher level creatures or heroes.

ELEMENTAL ARROWS (Hunters): Chance of shooting elemental-damage arrows such as fire arrows, frost arrows, light arrows, lightning arrows or dark arrows, every arrow holds its own effect)

CHARM (Succubus Mistress): Same as mermaid from HOMMVI.

WISH (Djinn Sultan): Cast a random useful effect upon friendly units. Can be used 3 times in one battle.

MIRROR IMAGE (Djinn Sultan): Same as before.

SLEEP (Nightmare): Puts a creature asleep for a couple of turns.

DREAM HAUNTING: All sleeping creatures on the battlefield receive damage from the nightmares as it haunts their dreams. Sleeping creatures that receive damage this way won’t wake up yet because they receive damage inside their dreams. This ability is ALWAYS active and it doesn’t cost the nightmare mana or a turn.

BLACK BOX (Archlich): The archlich has a special black-box which keeps its soul while the lich can be defeated it will be coming back unless its black-box is destroyed. The archlich has a black-box on the battlefield (I guess it will be good to put it behind him) enemies have to destroy the black-box first before they can destroy the actual archliches. The black-box is immune to ranged attacks.

CHARGE (Unicorns): Same as Paladins ability.

SPIRIT LINK (Rakshasa Raja): Links up to 3 creatures by spirit, these 3 creatures (enemy or friendly or mixed) now share their damage and hp.

SPIRIT CAGE (Rakshasa Raja): Everytime a creature dies on the battlefield the Raja will keep its spirit at a safe place, so necromancy or resurrection is impossible while there is a Raja on the battlefield. + Everytime a creature dies on the battlefield (good or evil) the Raja will regenerate all lost hitpoints.

SHADOW SHIFT: Shadow Dragons are invisible when fighting/waiting underground. This works pretty much like stealth from the HOMMVI bandits but it is area-bound.

LIGHTNING ROD (Treants): Treants are always hit by enemy lightning-attacks, they aren’t resistant and take normal damage from them but shield their allies from them.

LIGHTNING MAGNET (Titan): Titans absorb all lightning-based spells and turn it into shots + HP for their own use.

HOLY MARK (Archangel): This mark protects units from harmful effects and ability-draining spells.

DEMONIC PORTAL (Arch Devil): Instead of only summoning Pit Lords on the battlefield I think it would be better that he could summon a random demon-unit. This would be more exciting because you don’t know if you gonna summon a worthless imp or a masterful Pit Lord.

UNHOLY MARK (Arch Devil): When cast upon enemy units they will suffer more from harmful effects and ability-draining spells have greater effect.

EMERALD AURA (Emerald Dragon): Emerald Dragons absorb all damage done by nature-based spells (to their allies) into lost HP points. + Nature based spells do more damage toward enemies.

[ThunderTitan]

About the evil eyes: Beholders are cool creatures!! Make perfect spies or oracles for evil lords.

Dwarves & MORE Elf Towns  I disagree… What creatures can you come up with for a dwarven town?
Golems and gargoyles already appeared in the mage-town… The only other creatures I can come up with are giant moles (LOL) and Anteus (But this Greek-mythology unit is to-much like the earth elemental)

DL has nothing against Beholders, it's the name Evil Eye he hates.

And if you ever played Disciples 2 you would know that there are plenty of creatures for a Dwarven town, like Giants or Yetis or Valkiries. And there's always the Dragon Golem...

[Blaspheme]

About the evil eyes: Beholders are cool creatures!! Make perfect spies or oracles for evil lords.

Dwarves & MORE Elf Towns  I disagree… What creatures can you come up with for a dwarven town?
Golems and gargoyles already appeared in the mage-town… The only other creatures I can come up with are giant moles (LOL) and Anteus (But this Greek-mythology unit is to-much like the earth elemental)

DL has nothing against Beholders, it's the name Evil Eye he hates.

And if you ever played Disciples 2 you would know that there are plenty of creatures for a Dwarven town, like Giants or Yetis or Valkiries. And there's always the Dragon Golem...

Hmmm but if HOMM-games would just copy towns from other games it would be a bit cheap uh?
I never really liked dwarves.. and this aint warcraft (the graphics would make you believe otherwise) or age of wonders... The only thing I like about dwarves is that they can become Rune Masters, and rune masters are COOL! :-)

[ThunderTitan]

Hmmm but if HOMM-games would just copy towns from other games it would be a bit cheap uh?

Ever heard of Warhammer? Or of the Forgotten Realms setting of D&D?

And I wasn't advocating copying from D2 anyway, just saying that there are other creatures they can use.

[DaemianLucifer]

Hmmm but if HOMM-games would just copy towns from other games it would be a bit cheap uh?

Yet having minotaurs,medusas,scorpycores,treants,elves,dark elves,...Is not cheap?

I never really liked dwarves.. and this aint warcraft (the graphics would make you believe otherwise) or age of wonders... The only thing I like about dwarves is that they can become Rune Masters, and rune masters are COOL! :-)

If we can have elf this and elf that,why not dwarf this and dwarf that?All the dwarfs are the same,but humans and elves are so diverse that they need two towns each?

[dragonn]

I must say this: very nice ideas! I congratulate Blaspheme for his hard work of creating and writing down such a bestiary...

but...

The game would be unplayable with such strong creatures: Castle Terror!? I see computer player making use of that one . How do you supose a Kraken or a Sea Monster would travel across the battlefield? Poor things, what a torment would it be to swim through the toxic marshes of Necro land or molten lava rivers of Infernos. Yeah I know sea creatures are sea creatures so you could run into them only by traveling by sea. But I don't want the situation from H4 were I couldn't buy Sea Monsters or mermaids. And like it was said before, too many references to games and fantasy series like Warcraft III, Disciples series, etc.

[ThunderTitan]

And like it was said before, too many references to games and fantasy series like Warcraft III, Disciples series, etc.

Yeah, because Heroes wasn't influenced by D&D at all.

There's nothing wrong with some inspiration, as long as it isn't too prevalent or completly changes a creature we already had.

[soupnazii]

Yet having minotaurs,medusas,scorpycores,treants,elves,dark elves,...Is not cheap? |

those are all common mythical creatures, and are well-known enough to be used in basicaly any game as long as they apoximate apearance wasnt the same.