Abilities (Warlords III)

**Abilities** (or **Bonuses**) provide additional benefits to Armies and Heroes in combat beyond their standard Statistics. Every army has at most one innate ability, although the presence of heroes and Spells can grant them additional ones. Heroes will themselves gain a wide variety of abilities as they level-up, cast spells, and acquire Items.

*For more information on the interactions of abilities with army stacks, fight orders, and actual combat, refer to the section on Combat.*

## Stack Bonuses

**Stack Bonuses** either increase the Strength of every army in its stack ('strength-increasers'), or decrease the strength of every army in the opposing stack ('strength-decreasers'). There are three tightly-coupled **Stack Bonus Pairs**, each with one strength-increaser and one thematically opposed strength-decreaser:

* Only the single most powerful stack bonus of each type is used; they are not cumulative, and inferior bonuses are ignored
* When heroes are present in a stack, the best item bonus and the best spell bonus from amongst them are each added to the above
* For each stack bonus pair, the effect is capped to between *Strength -1* and *Strength +5*
* The total bonus from all three stack bonuses pairs is capped to between *Strength -3* and *Strength +5*

 Fear
 Fortify
* A rare ability that can only be found on one army and a small selection of heroes, spells, and items.
 Siege
 Leadership
 Chaos
* A moderately common bonus that can be found on most things (armies, heroes, spells, items).

## Combat Abilities

All **Combat Abilities** provide a benefit to the army when it is engaged in combat. Precisely *when* the benefit comes into play depends on the ability. The unofficial sub-categories used below are intended to help players understand at which points *within* combat these abilities become relevant.

### Pre-Combat Abilities

These abilities are always in effect.

* Strength bonus does not change *during* combat, even as their brethren are slain.
* Different types of banding units do not count to each others' bonuses.
 Warding +N

* This effect is never consumed; it persists against any and all checks.
 Group Warding +N

* Only the strongest *Group Warding* bonus is used for the stack.
* If an army already has *Warding*, this stacks on top of it.

### Start-of-Combat Abilities

These abilities are checked across the entire stack, before the combat screen is seen, and before individual armies square-off against each other.

All Start-of-Combat Abilities:

* Have an ability strength of M, which is the SUM OF ALL INDIVIDUAL +N BONUSES OF ALL ARMIES IN THE STACK (e.g. a stack of 4x *Giant Spiders (Poison +3)* would have a total *Poison* strength of +12).
* Are checked against each opposing army individually (i.e. every opposing army gets to make its own saving throw).
* Provide immunity to that same ability (e.g. a *Giant Spider* cannot be poisoned).
* Cannot affect an army that is Blessed (except for *Curse*).
* Have status effects that persist after combat.

 Poison +M
 Disease +M
 Paralysis +M

### Front-of-Stack Abilities

These abilities come into play only when the army is at the front (or 'top') of the stack, squaring-off against the opposing top stack, but *before* any normal combat rolls are made.

All Front-of-Stack Abilities:

* Obey an 'offset rule' where if two armies with the same ability square-off against each other, the army with the weaker ability does not get a roll, while the army with the stronger ability gets a penalised roll. The strength of this penalised roll is equal to the difference in ability strengths (e.g. if a *Black Dragon (Acid +5)* faced a *Green Slime (Acid +2)*, the *Black Dragon* gets an *Acid +3* roll while the *Green Slime* gets none). If both armies have the exact same ability strength, no rolls take place.
* Always occur at the beginning of individual combat, *before* normal combat rolls are made.

* This ability triggers EACH time this army squares off against a new opposing army.
* If the opposing army's strength is 1, it is destroyed.
 Lightning +N

* This ability triggers EACH time this army squares off against a new opposing army.
* If the opposing army's hits is already 1, it is destroyed.
 Assassination +N

* This ability triggers ONCE and is then consumed, regardless of if it succeeded.
* This ability is also consumed when used to offset an opposing *Assassination* attempt.
 Missiles +N

* These N rounds of missile combat carry over between opponents (if there are any left).
* These N rounds are consumed when offsetting an opposing *Missiles* attempt.
* Armies that begin combat with 4 hits are immune to *Missiles* and will soak all N rounds.

### On-Hit Abilities

These abilities come into play only when the army makes a successful combat roll.

* This additional damage does not 'blow through' the stack to the next army.
 X Slayer

* If *any* army in a stack has a slayer ability, then *every* army in the stack gets the slayer roll.
* There are 8 slayer abilities: Dragonslayer, Demonslayer, Deathslayer, Manslayer, Dwarfslayer, Elfslayer, Gnollslayer.
* If a hero has a slayer ability, the chances are based on the hero's level: 1-4:10%, 5-7:20%, 8-9:30%, 10:40%.
* If an Item provides a slayer ability, this increases this chance by +20%.
* If a spell provides a slayer ability, it increases this chance by +10/20/30% depending upon the level of the caster.

## Non-Combat Abilities

These abilities are exclusively attached to heroes and provide an array of benefits outside of combat.

 Income +N
 Renown +N
 Necromancy +N

* Can summon Skeletons, Wights, Wraiths, Undead Beasts, or Undead Dragons
* The number and quality of undead depends upon the number of enemy armies destroyed and N.
 Movement Bonus

Warlords III
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