Fortress Abilities

The town, the Fortress, is similar in name only to its Heroes III counterpart, as its inhabitants are Dwarves rather than a mixture of reptiles and beasts. The Dwarf hero is the Runemage, and their mount of choice is the Mammoth.

The dwarves use runes to tame and use fire magic. Their link to the Fire Dragon manifests in gouts of flame, fireballs, and explosions.

Dwarven creatures, while having an abundance of powerful special abilities, are rumoured to be rather less potent in terms of raw statistics. However, the Dwarven Racial ability, Rune Magic, which is explained below, plans to counteract that.

Dwarven Racial Skill: Rune Magic

Runes can only be utilised by Rune Magic, and the runes themselves do not deal any direct damage, rather, they are only blessing spells. After the spell has been cast, the Rune is destroyed and needs to be renewed - this can also be done via a spell. Runes are separated into circles like other spells. For each level of the Runic Guild built up, one Rune Magic spell is provided. In combat, a list of Runes appears above the ATB Bar, and they can be cast at any time before a stack's turn. However, they cost resources rather than mana points. Some examples of Runes can be found below:

Rune of Charge. (First Circle) Creature's defense is increased by 100% for one turn. Cost: 1 wood.

Rune of Berserking. (First Circle?) Creature will perform two Melee Attacks instead of one against the same target next turn (at least one friendly creature from this friendly stack must be killed before this rune can be placed on it). Cost: 1 ore.

Rune of Exorcism. (Second Circle) Dispels all negative effects from the stack. Cost: 1 sulfur.

Rune of Elemental Immunity. (Third Circle) The stack gains immunity to 2 magic schools. Duration: until the end of battle. Cost: 1 mercury.

Rune of Stunning. (Fourth Circle) Unknown effect. Cost: 1 wood + 1 mercury.

Rune of Battle Rage. (Fifth Circle) On it's next turn, the stack will attack all adjacent enemy stacks. Cost: 1 ore + 1 crystal.

Dwarven Abilities

Not much is known on the specific abilities available to the dwarfs yet:

Eternal Light (Light Magic): Hero's light spells are twice as hard to dispel.

Thanks to ThE_HyDrA for creating and looking after the Heroes 5 section of Age of Heroes!