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Hero Development Mod

The goal of this mod is to make hero development more interesting and diverse. What I mean by this is that I wanted to get away from my usual routine, which usually was “make every hero a ranged dps unless it is a warlord”. So I introduced 3 specializations to each class that a hero of that corresponding class could learn and would provide a different “route” of available hero upgrades which usually aimed at making the hero more suitable for a specific combat role. For further diversification I introduced racial hero upgrades, which while less important than class or specialization add some nice utility and style.

But let’s look at some hard facts:
– 3 specializations per class, usually one of them with a melee focus, ranged focus or support focus / melee and ranged mix
– each specialization consists of 4 tiers following the scheme below (with some exceptions):
— tier I unlocks 4 skills, available at lvl 1
— tier II unlocks 4 skills, available at lvl 5
— tier III unlocks 3 skills, available at lvl 9
— tier IV unlocks 2 skills, available at lvl 13
— for leaders tier I-III unlock 1 skill less (spells)
– in addition there is a pool of class skills that are learnable regardless of the chosen specialization

– racial hero upgrades feature a total of 7 race dependent skills
– they are unlocked at lvl 1,3,5,7,9,11,13

– general changes:
— hero upgrades unlocking spells cost 1 less (now 4 was 5)
— defense, melee and ranged damage upgrades increase in cost by 2 per level (was 1)
— removed some of the old hero upgrades (they still show up in the tome of wonders even though they shouldn’t)
— removed the class-dependent starting items

I haven’t counted the number of new abilities I created for this mod, but you can be assured that they are plenty ;)

*****Compatibility*********
- The mod only partially works with heroes from custom scenarios or mods. To make a hero compatible with the mod you need to remove the class-dependent starting item (musket, longbow, etc...) and give it the "Race X Hero (flag)" upgrade where Race X is the respective hero's race (e.g. an orc hero needs the "Orc Hero (flag)" upgrade)
- The mod should be compatible with any mod that doesn't directly change hero upgrades or leaders.
- here is a link to a Compatibility Mod for the Triumphant Heroes Mod of Tombles and Tibbles:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=526898048

*****Important Information*****
- There is a new starting spell "True Undead Heroes and Vampires" which has to be used when one of your necro heroes gets the Lich II or Vampire II hero upgrade or you transform a unit by using the vampire's kiss ability. Without using the spell those units will be treated as non-undead units by the game (stat boni/mali still apply) which e.g. results in being unable to be healed by the heal undead ability. This spell also fixes a problem with double protections and weaknesses that will occur if a hero gets those upgrades after harbingers of death was researched. Unfortunately that spell often has to be cast more than once (due to some technical reasons), so you best cast it until no more valid targets can be found.
- there is a complete documentation of my mod at http://aow.triumph.net/forums/topic/mod-hero-development-mod/

******Known Issues******
- units made devout by hero abilities won't be affected by holy war

******Credits**********
- a big thanks goes to Bagas for creating all those new icons in such an incredibly short time

******My other mod projects******
- Racial Heritage Mod: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=534176740&searchtext=
- Hero Professions Mod: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=616553983
- The Old Man and the Sea: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=688927870
- Beastman Dwelling Mod: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=766737160
- Archon &Tiefling Races Mod: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=897959715