Spells and Magic

Heroes of Might and Magic 3 spells come in four schools, Air, Earth, Fire and Water, and five levels, and each is either a combat spell, cast once a round in battle, or an adventure spell, cast on the map, such as Town Portal and Dimension Door. A hero needs a Spell Book (500 gold at a Mage Guild, unless they start with one), learns spells by visiting towns with a Mage Guild, needs the Wisdom skill for spells above level 2, and pays for each cast with spell points, 10 per point of Knowledge (the official strategy guide, pp.16, 62-63). Power makes most spells stronger, and the skill of a spell's school (Air, Earth, Fire or Water Magic) lifts it to its Advanced or Expert effect and makes it cheaper. The spell list and numbers below are those of the 1999 Restoration of Erathia from Prima's official guide, which predates the expansions and patches.

Quick facts

How magic works

Learning spells. When a hero visits a town with a Mage Guild, every spell there the hero can learn goes into their Spell Book automatically. Magic heroes start with a book; others buy one in a Mage Guild for 500 gold, the only way to get one, and a Spell Book cannot be traded or taken from a defeated hero. Without Wisdom a hero learns only level 1 and 2 spells; Basic, Advanced and Expert Wisdom open levels 3, 4 and 5 (guide pp.23, 62). Heroes also learn spells from the Shrines of Magic Incantation, Gesture and Thought on the map (levels 1, 2 and 3), from a Pyramid (a level 5 spell, once), from each other with the Scholar skill, and from enemy casters with Eagle Eye (pp.62, 349-350). The skills are on Secondary Skills.

3:45 Spell points. A hero's maximum is 10 times their Knowledge; Intelligence raises it by up to double. A hero recovers 1 spell point a day, more with Mysticism, and is filled up by starting a day in an allied town with a Mage Guild or by visiting a Magic Well. Dungeon's Mana Vortex and the Magic Spring on the map double a hero's spell points for a while (pp.62-63, 107). Norovo explains in this clip, from his video on map objects (Nov 15, 2021), that a Magic Spring refills and doubles spell points once a week, and that its left and right sides count as two springs, so a hero can use it twice.

Power and the school skills. Power decides how much a spell damages or heals or how long it lasts; most durations are 1 round per point of Power. The guide stresses that a school's skill "is an equally large or larger factor in how powerfully a spell performs" (p.15): Basic, Advanced and Expert Air, Earth, Fire or Water Magic cast that school's spells at their Basic, Advanced or Expert effect, and many spells cover the whole army at Expert. Each school skill also makes the school's spells cheaper, by 1 point at level 1 up to 5 points at level 5 (p.63, Table 3-1). Sorcery adds up to 15% spell damage. The guide's recipe for a "mighty spellcaster" is high Knowledge, high Power, spells, Wisdom and the school skills together (p.16). Which classes do this best is on Heroes.

4:34 In battle, the hero casts one spell per round, and spells are a large part of Combat. Some creatures change the cost: Tower's Magi and Arch Magi cut their own hero's spell costs by 2, and Rampart's Pegasi make enemy spells cost 2 more (guide pp.147, 154). The clip, from Ubisoft's gameplay overview of the Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Remake, shows the same turn-based battles in which stacks take turns "moving and attacking and casting spells".

Schools of magic

The guide sums up each school (pp.21, 23, 63): Air Magic has "a good mix of combat and adventure spells", with Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning for damage, Haste, Fortune, Precision and Counterstrike to boost troops, and Fly and Dimension Door, "among the game's most valuable travel spells". Earth Magic "is primarily offensive in nature" and has spells for undead armies such as Animate Dead and Death Ripple, plus Slow and Town Portal. Fire Magic "is very offensively oriented": Fireball, Inferno, Armageddon, Berserk. Water Magic has "a mix of defensive, healing, and medium-strength offensive spells", from Bless and Cure to Prayer and Clone.

Magic Arrow and Visions are listed in all four schools, so any school's skill improves them (guide pp.64-90).

Spell list by level

From the guide's spell descriptions (pp.64-94); cost is in spell points, "x Power" means multiplied by the hero's Power, and the effect is the Basic one unless noted. "Adventure" spells are cast on the map.

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

Level 5

Key spells

Town Portal (Earth, level 4): at Basic it teleports the hero to the nearest allied town; at Advanced to any allied town with no visiting hero; it costs 3 tiles of the hero's movement, 2 at Expert (guide pp.77-78). The guide suggests it for bringing a hero and army home to defend a town (p.193).

Dimension Door (Air, level 5): teleports the hero to any visible, empty spot, 2, 3 or 4 times a day at Basic, Advanced and Expert, each cast costing 3 tiles of movement (2 at Expert) (p.69). Fly (Air, level 5) lets the hero fly over obstacles for 60%, 80% or 100% of normal movement (p.70). The guide counts the two among "the game's most valuable travel spells" (p.63), and Adventure Map explains the movement they save.

5:02 Armageddon (Fire, level 4) hits every troop on the battlefield, your own included, for (Power x 50) + 30, 60 or 120 (p.83). Creatures immune to it come through untouched: Inferno's Efreet are immune to Fire Magic, and Black and Gold Dragons to all spells (guide pp.133, 140, 148). The Remake's gameplay overview shows the pairing in this clip: "Unleash Armageddon while your spell resistant Black Dragons tear through packed lines."

6:37 Implosion (Earth, level 5) is the biggest single-target damage spell, (Power x 75) + 100 to 300 (p.78), and Chain Lightning (Air, level 4) jumps between four troops, five at higher levels, and can hit your own (p.68). In the Remake's gameplay overview, Ubisoft names Solmyr, the Wizard whose specialty is Chain Lightning, as "feared for his mastery of chain lightning", and Luna, whose Fire Wall damage is doubled, as setting "death traps with her Firewall spell" (AB manual p.22).

7:08 Resurrection (Earth, level 4) restores (Power x 50) + 40, 80 or 160 health of dead creatures: at Basic only for the current battle, at Advanced and Expert for good (p.77). Norovo's beginner tips (Dec 23, 2020) point out the difference from Animate Dead in this clip: only Animate Dead brings units back permanently for a hero without Earth Magic, and it turns up more often in a Necropolis Mage Guild than Resurrection does elsewhere, so he calls it "probably the slightly more reliable spell overall".

Slow and Haste are the guide's picks among the battle boosts: Haste "is one of the most effective creature-boosting spells in the game, especially when cast at the expert level" (p.64), and Expert Slow halves the speed of every enemy troop (p.72).

5:26 Earthquake (Earth, level 3) is the siege spell: it does one point of damage to 2, 3 or 4 random castle walls at Basic, Advanced and Expert (guide p.76), so an attacker can open walls without waiting for the Catapult. Ubisoft's Remake overview makes the same point in this clip: towers and moats defend a town, "but a single spell like Earthquake or a retinue of boulder throwing Cyclops can turn defeat into triumph".

Mage Guilds by town

3:38 Every town can build a Mage Guild, and each level adds spells of one level: Mage Guild I has five level 1 spells and sells Spell Books, II four level 2 spells, III three level 3 spells, IV two level 4 spells and V one level 5 spell. Mage Guild I costs 2,000 gold, 5 wood and 5 ore, and each later level costs 1,000 gold with wood, ore and growing amounts of the rare resources (guide p.107, Table 5-3). A Mage Guild I is also needed for the City Hall. In the Remake's gameplay overview, the narrator weighs the same choice: build a Capitol for gold, or "Invest in a new Mage Guilds level for game changing spells".

Scrolls, tomes and other magic items

Some Artifacts carry spells (guide pp.345-348): a Spell Scroll puts its one spell in your Spell Book as long as you carry it; the four Tomes of Air, Earth, Fire and Water Magic give every spell of their school while equipped; and Spellbinder's Hat lets the hero cast all level 5 spells. The four Orbs (of the Firmament, Silt, Tempestuous Fire and Driving Rain) make one school's spells deal 50% more damage, and the Collar, Ring and Cape of Conjuring lengthen spells by 1, 2 and 3 rounds. Recanter's Cloak stops both sides from casting level 3 or higher spells in combat. In The Shadow of Death, Titan's Thunder adds a permanent Spell Book and a free 600-damage Lightning Bolt, and the Wizard's Well refills all spell points every day (Combination Artifacts).

Magic resistance and immunity

Several things make spells fail or stop working (guide pp.20, 125-157, 345-347):

• The Resistance skill: enemy spells on your troops fail 5%, 10% or 20% of the time.
• Creatures: Dwarves and Unicorns resist 20% of spells, Gold Golems 85% and Diamond Golems 95%; Stone Golems take half damage from spells; Green Dragons are immune to spells below level 4 and Red Dragons below level 3, while Gold and Black Dragons are immune to all spells. More are on Creatures.
• Artifacts: the Garniture of Interference (5%), Surcoat of Counterpoise (10%) and Boots of Polarity (15%) add magic resistance, and the Pendants each give immunity to one spell or pair of spells, such as the Pendant of Negativity against Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning. The Orb of Vulnerability cancels every creature's natural magic resistance.
• Anti-Magic and Protection spells shield one troop or, at Expert, the army.

The Shadow of Death added special terrains that change magic: Magic Plains cast every spell at Expert level, Cursed Ground "Prevents the use of level 2, 3, 4, and 5 spells", and four others cast one school's spells at Expert (SoD manual p.17).

Which town has the best magic

15:52 The official guide does not rank towns for magic, but it says "Having a lot of Tower and Dungeon towns offers significant advantages to spellcasters", because Castle, Stronghold and Fortress cannot build a level 5 Mage Guild, and it names the Warlock (Dungeon) the best spellcaster class with the Wizard (Tower) as runner-up (guide p.60). Tower adds the Library's extra spells and Dungeon the Mana Vortex. In his Dungeon guide (Mar 21, 2021), Norovo grades Dungeon's Mage Guild an A in this clip: it reaches level 5, it can offer almost any spell, and a level 3 Mage Guild is needed for Black Dragons anyway; he calls the Mana Vortex "one of the best unique buildings in the game", though it works only once a week.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best spells in Heroes 3? Heroes of Might and Magic 3 has no official spell ranking; the official strategy guide calls Haste "one of the most effective creature-boosting spells in the game" and Fly and Dimension Door "among the game's most valuable travel spells", while Implosion deals the most damage to a single troop of any spell in its list.

How do you learn spells in Heroes 3? In Heroes of Might and Magic 3 a hero with a Spell Book learns every spell they can from a town's Mage Guild just by visiting, and also from Shrines, Pyramids, other heroes (Scholar) and enemy casters (Eagle Eye). Spells above level 2 need the Wisdom skill.

What does Wisdom do in Heroes 3? Wisdom lets a Heroes of Might and Magic 3 hero learn level 3 spells at Basic, level 4 at Advanced and level 5 at Expert; without it a hero learns only level 1 and 2 spells.

How many spell points does a hero have in Heroes 3? A Heroes of Might and Magic 3 hero has 10 spell points per point of Knowledge, raised by the Intelligence skill, and recovers 1 a day, or all of them in a town with a Mage Guild.

Which town has the best magic in Heroes 3? The official Heroes of Might and Magic 3 guide says Tower and Dungeon towns give spellcasters "significant advantages", and Castle, Stronghold and Fortress cannot build a level 5 Mage Guild.

How does Town Portal work in Heroes 3? Town Portal is a level 4 Earth spell in Heroes of Might and Magic 3 that teleports the hero to the nearest allied town at Basic, or to any allied town without a visiting hero at Advanced and Expert, for 16 spell points.

Does Armageddon hurt your own army in Heroes 3? Yes: in Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Armageddon damages every troop on the battlefield, your own included, though creatures immune to it, such as Efreet (immune to Fire Magic) or Black and Gold Dragons (immune to all spells), take no damage.

Sources

• Heroes of Might and Magic III: Prima's Official Strategy Guide, Prima Publishing, 1999, pp.15-23, 60-94, 107, 113, 119, 125-157, 193, 345-350
• Heroes of Might and Magic III: Armageddon's Blade manual, The 3DO Company, 1999, p.13
• Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Shadow of Death User Manual, The 3DO Company, 2000, pp.17, 26-27
• Heroes of Might and Magic III Remake - Gameplay Overview Trailer, Ubisoft, Aug 26, 2026 (video)
• Heroes 3: 20 Tips and Secrets of Adventure Map Objects, Norovo, Nov 15, 2021 (video)
• Heroes 3: 14 Beginner Tips & Tricks to Instantly Improve Your Play, Norovo, Dec 23, 2020 (video)
• Heroes 3: DUNGEON Town Overview / Strategy Guide, Norovo, Mar 21, 2021 (video)