Damage Points

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Damage Points represent the injuries sustained by a unit or  figure at any given time. Damage Points are, essentially, lost Hit Points. They are represented in several diferent ways in the game, most prominently by the  Darkened Heart icons that replace the  Bright Hearts in the unit statistics window. This icon also signifies both  Damage Points, and  damage in general throughout the wiki.

Units can suffer Damage Points in a multitude of ways, collectively termed "attacks". Should their amount equal or exceed the unit's  Hit Points, that unit is completely destroyed. Thus, the primary way to kill a unit is to inflict a sufficient number of Damage Points on that unit.  Multi-Figure units further consist of multiple individual  figures. At regular intervals of  damage taken, they will lose one of these  figures, weakening their offensive combat capabilities.

 Damage can be healed in several ways, particularly by a process known as "natural healing", whereby the Damage Points sustained by the unit are reduced by a certain amount at the beginning of each overland turn. Units can also be healed artificially with magic, or thanks to the powerful Regeneration ability.

Concept

Damage is the loss of structural integrity. As such, it is often not measured itself beyond the amounts that directly result from attacks. Instead, most games choose to measure the integrity itself. On one end of the scale, in role-playing games there is the physiological-, or bodily integrity of creatures or characters. This is sometimes called simply "health" or "life" but, more often, the term used is  Hit Points, or "HP". This originates from the fact that this attribute determines how many "hits" the character or creature can take before being incapacitated or slain. Which means it really measures the ability to take Damage in the first place.

On the other end of the scale are strategy games. After a certain point, the differences between the sturdiness of individual creatures or soldiers become just too insignificant when considering the power of hundreds or thousands of these entities. Sure, it may still be a listed attribute, but what really matters is the amount of troops that are still battle-ready. Here, Damage is typically a measure of the soldiers lost from a unit.

Whatever the scale though, most games place a higher emphasis on the remaining health or troop count, and this is what is stored or written down. Master of Magic does the exact opposite: it only actually records damage taken. In other words, Damage Points. Remaining  Hit Points, as well as  figure counts and "top figure damage", are always a function of this information, combined with the unit's base statistics and any applicable special effects.

Effect

Units in Master of Magic consist of individual entities called  figures. Some, most notably Heroes, ships, war machines, and powerful summoned creatures, contain only a  Single Figure. Others, like early Normal Units, and the more common Fantastic ones, have somewhere between 2 and 8. The 9 heads of the mighty Hydra are also considered to be  figures for all intents and purposes. The maximum amount of  figures in a unit is one of its base attributes. This will also be their initial count whenever the unit is recruited or summoned.

Each unit also has a separate statistic called  Hit Points or, more accurately,  Hits per  figure. The total (starting) "health" of an entire unit is thus its  Hits times its  figure count. Naturally, for  Single Figure units, such as Heroes, the  figure health translates directly into unit health. In either case though, this value represents the amount of Damage Points it takes to slay or destroy the entire unit.

Every time Damage Points are inflicted on a unit, the game recalculates how many  figures are left standing. First, it takes the above product representing the overall sturdiness of the unit. Then, it subtracts from that the total  damage taken so far, including that of the last attack. If the result is 0 or lower, the unit is destroyed. Otherwise, the difference is divided by the  Hit Point (per  figure) value, and rounded up, to get the remaining  figure count.

Top Figure Damage

For the purpose of dealing Damage Points, the process actually ends here. However, to display accurate information to the player, the game also stores one more variable, most commonly known as the "lead-", or "top figure damage". This is essentially the remainder of the total Damage Points divided by the  Hit Points per  figure. It is displayed in the unit statistics window first and foremost as a number, but it also determines the amount of  Hit Point icons that are  greyed out when inspecting the unit.

In terms of game mechanics though, this value has very little relevance. The only Damage Type that gives any consideration to it is Area Damage which, by design, is limited to deal at most as much Damage Points as a  figure has current  Hit Points. For other types of Conventional Damage, that allow multiple Defense Rolls as  figures are slain, "top figure damage" is actually ignored entirely. The new rolls always take place when the  damage exceeds the unit's  Hits per  figure instead. This may be worth remembering as it is somewhat counter-intuitive, and means that the sole purpose of displaying "top figure damage" is simply to give the player an opportunity to calculate a unit's total remaining  Hit Points if they so wish. Every  figure apart from the "lead" one always has full  Hit Points.

Figure Loss

The amount of  figures that are still standing in a unit is only indicated visually in the game. The only exception is the afore mentioned Hydra, whose graphics remain the same, and its "head count" is shown as a number instead. For all other units, the  figures need to be counted while looking at them in combat, or by checking their image in the unit statistics window. While selecting units overland, their unit cards also display an overall health gauge, but this is often not enough to get an accurate  figure count.

For  Single Figure units, the loss of that  figure naturally means the destruction of the unit itself. On the other hand, injuries do not affect these units' performance otherwise. The exact opposite is true for  Multi-Figure units. While for them, losing a  figure does not mean the end of the unit, unless it was the last one; their offensive power does come directly from their numbers. Thus, the more  figures that are lost, the less capable the unit becomes at inflicting Damage Points itself on the enemy. Granted, having a large amount of initial  figures also reduces the impact of losing a single one.

Example #1

A Stone Giant is a  Single Figure unit. It has  20 Hit Points per  figure, so the unit as a whole also has  20 Hit Points. This means it can take up to  19 Damage Points before dying. However, none of that  damage is going to hinder its combat performance in any way, although the risk of the giant falling to the next attack does keep steadily increasing as it is taking more and more  damage. Once it suffers the  20th point though, the  figure, and along with it, the entire unit, is destroyed.

Example #2

A fresh Recruit High Men Cavalry unit contains  4 figures and has a  Hits per  figure statistic of  3. The overall "health" of this unit is thus  3 ×  4 =  12. Its base Attack Strength is  4, which means that at full strength, it can execute 4 attacks at strength  4 each. Taking  1 or  2 Damage Points will not change this situation, although the unit statistics window would reflect this both in its row of  Hit Point icons, and separately as a "Damage" number.

Should the cavalrymen take a third point of  damage, they will lose a  figure. Although this seems trivial based on the fact that the unit has  3 per  figure, the game actually goes through the following calculation instead:

ceil(( 3 ×  4 -  3) /  3) =  3 figures remain

At this point, the image displayed when opening the unit statistics window will now only show 3 cavalrymen. At the same time, a full  3 icons return, indicating that the "lead"  figure has all of its  Hit Points fully intact. However, should the unit engage in battle now, it can only make 3 attacks instead of 4, although its Attack Strength is still  4. That is, it has lost 25% of its offensive capability.

The next two Damage Points repeat the first procedure, and no  figures are lost (the above equation will still yield the same result). The only impact is the  damage visible in the unit statistics window. Then, at  6, another  figure dies, reducing the unit's effectiveness to a mere 50% of its original. This cycle then keeps repeating until finally, at  12, the last  figure perishes, and the unit is destroyed.

Sources of Damage

 Damage can be caused in a myriad of ways, collectively called attacks. However, they generally use one of two common mechanics, that differ in both the way they are resolved, and the defensive attribute that might be used mitigate their  damage.

Conventional Damage

Main article: Conventional Damage

Conventional attacks are by far the most common sources of Damage Points. Melee Attacks, Ranged Attacks,  Thrown Attacks,  Breath Attacks, and even  direct damage spells all use the same generic procedure the determine their  damage. They start with an Attack Strength, that sets out their damage potential. An amount of 10-sided dice equal to this value are then used to find out how much of this potential is realized with that specific attack. This is called an Attack Roll, and it introduces the concept of "raw", or "unmitigated"  damage, sometimes also called "successful hits". This is  damage that is not yet fully processed, and as such is typically not ready to be applied directly as Damage Points.

The reason for this is that in most cases, Conventional Damage can be reduced, or possibly avoided entirely, using the  Defense attribute. This allows a defending unit to use their own set of 10-sided dice, equal in number to this statistic, to also perform a Defense Roll. Every die that is deemed "successful" here (the base chance of success is 30% per die in both sets of rolls) will reduce the incoming "raw damage" by  1 point. If the remainder is more than the unit's  Hit Points per  figure value, then that much is slated to be delivered, and a new Defense Roll can commence to further reduce whatever is left over. This can repeat as many times as necessary, until all the  damage is accounted for. Only then is it final, and ready to be applied as actual Damage Points. However, as noted below, the process is still not entirely complete.

Special Damage

Main article: Special Damage

The other major sources of  damage are Special Attacks and  Resistable spells. These are far less common than "Physical Damage". They are typically defended against with the  Resistance statistic, although in a completely different manner. This mechanic also uses 10-sided dice. However, in this case, the target number is always the unit's attribute score. If the roll is equal to or lower than this, then it was successful. If it is above the score however, the check was a failure. This means that the higher the score, the better the chance that the unit "resists" these sources of  damage. Many effects apply a temporary  Resistance modifier however, to make the checks either easier or more difficult to pass.

Most Special Damage attacks deal  figure-based  damage. That is, on a failed  Resistance roll, the target unit suffers as many Damage Points as its  Hit Points per  figure value, effectively slaying one  figure. How many  Resistance checks are required depends on the attack. Touch Attacks, for instance, activate once for each  figure delivering one. Gaze Attacks and spells, on the other hand, call for one roll for each standing  figure in the target unit.

There are also a few Special Damage attacks that affect units as a whole. Poison Damage forces the target to make one  Resistance roll for every point of its strength, and inflicts  1 on the unit for each failed one. Life Stealing Damage causes as many Damage Points as the target fails a single  Resistance check by. Finally, Disintegrate and Cracks Call do not even allow for a roll. The former will automatically work so long as a unit can fail its check against it, while the latter has a flat 25% chance to succeed unless the target is Flying or Non-Corporeal. Both inflict a fatal  200 Damage Points, more than enough to destroy even the most powerful units in the game.

Applying Damage

There are a few more quirks that may be worth remembering about Damage Points. First and foremost is that during battles, the game tracks three different types of Damage Points, not just one. When exaclty are the points applied, and how much  damage can be dealt to a single unit, are also not trivial questions to answer.

Types of Damage Points

On the overland map, the game only tracks Damage Points in general. However, in combat, there are also two more types that can be applied by certain spells and abilities. "Regular", or "normal"  damage is the generic kind. This is the type dealt by the majority of attacks, and is the one tracked overland. Whenever a battle ends, the other two types are automatically converted into regular  damage. That is, any effect that they may have will not be carried with the unit from battle to battle, and is only considered during the one fight that they are applied in.

However, if either of their main effects do trigger, those are entirely permanent. This is because they only activate if the unit is destroyed during the battle. Essentially, these two types of Damage Points control whether the unit can be brought back from the dead.

Create Undead Damage Points

Injuries caused by Life Stealing Damage, and the  Melee- and Poison Touch attack of Ghouls, has the power to bring slain units back as Undead under the control of their attacker. This mechanic is implemented by using special Damage Points that are only applicable during combat. Should a unit be destroyed in a way that is considered to be primarily "Create Undead Damage", the effect activates, and has the following consequences:

• The unit is no longer a valid target for the Raise Dead spell.
• Even if the unit has the Regeneration ability, it will no longer return to life if its side wins the battle.
• If the unit's original owner loses the battle, it will rise as an Undead unit, under the control of the victorious player. It should be noted though, that this specific effect does not work on Heroes and Death units (including those that are already Undead).

To trigger any of the above, the amount of "Create Undead" Damage Points must at least equal to the regular  damage suffered by the unit, and must be at least one point higher than any Irreversible Damage Points. To assist with this though, if a unit has both "Create Undead" and regular Damage Points inflicted on it, then all combat healing effects are set to remove the regular  damage first. However, that does not mean that "Create Undead Damage" can not be healed. For example, if a unit has suffered  3 "Create Undead" Damage Points and  2 points of regular  damage, a Healing spell cast on it will still remove all  5.

"Create Undead Damage" also does not work against units that possess Magic Immunity. That is, all such Damage Points are automatically converted to regular  damage before being applied. The Unofficial Patch 1.50 also extends this mechanic to units with Death Immunity.

Irreversible Damage Points

Some attacks cause injuries so severe that they can not be recovered from while in combat. No healing spells or effects, not even the Regeneration ability can remove these "Irreversible" Damage Points during the battle. Should the unit survive though, they can be healed normally afterward, as they are converted to regular  damage. On the other hand, units that are destroyed primarily by  damage like this are lost forever. This effect triggers if the amount of Irreversible Damage Points dealt to the unit are at least as much as both the regular and any "Create Undead Damage". That is, if it is the highest (or equal) out of the three types.

Units destroyed this way are no longer valid targets for either Raise Dead or Animate Dead. Regeneration will also not bring them back, even if their side wins the battle. Naturally, since the requirements conflict with those of "Create Undead Damage", that may not take effect either, and neither can the unit be affected by Zombie Mastery. If a Hero is slain this way, not only do they become unavailable for Resurrection, any Magical Items they carry are also destroyed along with them, and can not be recovered after the battle. However, it still remains possible to summon Torin the Chosen again using the Incarnation spell, and he does get to keep his level and abilities.

Irreversible  damage is only available from Special Damage sources. Effects that cause petrification ( Stoning Touch, Stoning Gaze, the Petrify spell, and the Stoning Item Power) always cause this type of  damage, as do combat banishment effects (Dispel Evil, Holy Word, and Banish, the Dispel Evil ability, and its corresponding Item Power Holy Avenger). In addition to these, the Destruction Item Power; and the Word of Death, Disintegrate, and Cracks Call spells also all deal Irreversible Damage Points, with this last two causing a fixed  200 each, instead of dealing  figure-based  damage like all of the other effects.

Simultaneous Damage

Damage Points are often not applied immediately after resolving an attack. Or, to be more precise, it is actually not all that common for an individual attack to to be performed by itself. This practically only happens when single target Conventional Damage-, or unit-based Special Damage spells are cast; or when  Single Figure units perform Ranged Attacks with no "added effects".

In all other scenarios, the target unit will be hit by multiple attacks at the same time. As a general rule of thumb, the game will always resolve all of these attacks before applying any of their  damage. For example, when executing conventional attacks, all eligible  figures in a  Multi-Figure unit will perform that attack. However, no Damage Points are registered to the defender until all of these are resolved. The same is true for Special Attacks that are delivered as "added effects". The Special Damage is also evaluated before the Conventional is dealt.

The situation is slightly different when two units engage in  Melee. This is a multi-stage process by itself, and  damage does get applied at the end of each of its phases. However, units are not destroyed here regardless of the amount Damage Points they took. The entire sequence is always played out as if both units were still present. Since slain  figures can't perform any attacks, this does not matter in terms of  damage caused to the surviving side, but it can make all the difference when considering the types and amounts of Damage Points done to the destroyed unit, as illustrated in the examples below.

The Melee Sequence is also typically finished with a mutual attack phase, where both combatants strike at each other simultaneously. In this stage, all  damage from both sides, whether Conventional or Special, is delayed until every standing  figure of each unit has concluded all of their available attacks. For example, two unhurt units of Nightblades fighting each other would make 12 individual  Melee attacks and another 12 Poison Damage attacks before either of them suffers any  damage from the other.

Overkill Damage

Damage Points are by no means limited to the total health of a unit. The game does not stop tracking or applying them just because there's already enough inflicted on a unit to destroy it. This is most prominent during  Melee combat, where a unit that perishes to short-range attacks ( Thrown,  Breath, or Gaze) will still be dealt  Melee Damage. However, it also happens almost every other time a unit is destroyed, and can be very important to consider when trying to create Undead units through Life Stealing Damage. The only exception is Area Damage, which is incapable of inflicting more  damage on a unit than it has remaining  Hit Points.

In any case though, Damage Points do have a hardcoded limit of  200 each, to prevent excessive amounts from wrapping around and actually reducing the  damage inflicted. This is more than the double of the total  Hit Points of a Hydra, the unit that has by far the most  Hit Points in the game (twice as much as any other contender).

Examples

The following examples should help understand most of the quirks of applying Damage Points.

Stoning Touch vs Gaze

A unit of Cockatrices is facing off a Basilisk in a Nature Node (+2 to all stats for both units). Since neither has a Ranged Attack, they have to duke it out in  Melee combat. Both can attack the other, and who initiates the engagement has no impact on the outcome. The Basilisk's Stoning Gaze goes first, as it always happens before mutual  Melee in the sequence.

This is an ordinary Gaze Attack, which means it is performed as an "added effect" to an otherwise hidden short-range attack that matches the Realm of the Special Attack itself. Because it is enhanced by the Nature Node, it has an Attack Strength of  3. The Basilisk rolls 3, 4, and 9 which, counting in its universal  +1 To Hit, means it registers 2 "raw" points of  damage. Cockatrices have a natural  Defense score of  3, which is also boosted to  5 because of the Node. They make their Defense Roll, and get 2, 5, 6, 6, and 9. There are no modifiers To Block in play, so only one of these rolls is "successful", blocking  1, and leaving the other  1 slated to be delivered.

Before that however, the Gaze effect takes place. It has an innate modifier of -1, but again the Node Aura grants  +2, bringing the Cockatrices' score to a total of  8 against the attack. Since Gaze Attacks require as many  Resistance checks as the target unit has  figures remaining, the Cockatrices have to make 4. The dice come up as 2, 3, 6, and 9. That's three successes and one failure, meaning that the attack will deal one  figure's worth of  Hit Points in  damage. In this case, this is  3, as this attribute is not enhanced by the Node.

This concludes the Gaze Attack, and the short-range attack phase also ends with it. The Cockatrices take a total of  1 +  3 =  4, which is now applied. They lose one  figure, leaving them with  3 for the rest of the sequence. The extra  1 "top figure damage" does not have any effect on their performance.

Continuing to the actual  Melee phase, the Basilisk has a modified Attack Strength of  17. Rolling a fairly average series, it scores 7 "successful hits". The Cockatrices roll better than last time though, and with their 1, 3, 3, 6, and 10, manage to block  3. However, the remaining  4 is still above their  Hits per  figure value, so the computer records  3 for delivery, and makes another Defense Roll against the remaining  1. This time, the beasts roll 2, 3, 4, 7, and 8. Although this is enough to block  2, it unfortunately can not affect  damage already slated for delivery. That is, it blocks only the remaining  1, with one success becoming effectively wasted. Thus, the total  damage that the Cockatrices will take is  3.

Before that can happen though, they also get to strike this time. With their remaining  3, they perform 3 attacks at an enhanced  6 each, against the Basilisk's also boosted  6. Unlucky for them, even with their  +1, only one of them manages to get through, with  2 left after the Basilisk's Defense Roll. Despite this however, all three of them also get to execute their Stoning Touch. It is not required for their conventional attack to do  damage for this to happen, it simply has to be capable of doing so (i.e. must have an Attack Strength of at least 1).

The Basilisk has a natural  7, enhanced to  9 by the Node. However, the Cockatrices impose a penalty of -3 on their Touch Attack, bringing this down to  6. The Basilisk has to make 3 saves, one against each attacking  figure's Stoning Touch. It rolls a rather unlucky 6, 8, and 9, meaning it fails two out of the three rolls. Since it has  30 per  figure, this means it will suffer a whopping  60.

As all attacks are now resolved,  damage can be applied to both units. The Cockatrices suffer  3, and lose one more  figure. They emerge from the battle with a total of  7 Damage Points, out of which the unit statistics window will show 1. The Basilisk, on the other hand, is completely annihilated, as it takes a total of  62 versus its  Hit Points of  30.

It may also be worth noting that a simple Resist Elements spell could have helped the Cockatrices avoid more than half of the  damage they took. It would have made them immune to the Gaze effect entirely by raising their  Resistance to  11, while also providing an extra  +3 against the hidden Conventional Damage component.The same spell cast on the Basilisk would still only have resulted in  9, meaning that over the course of multiple engagements with multiple enemy  figures, it would still have had a fair chance of being slain.

Multi-Gaze

Tauron is trying to crack open a Tower of Wizardry with his Chaos Spawn, so he can get some Settlers over to the  Power-rich Myrror. His scouts report a Hydra inside. Unfortunately, when he enters the battle, he is greeted by an additional 8 Fire Elementals supporting the beast. This instantly foils his grand plan of Fireballing it into oblivion, as he will need to save his Spell Casting Skill to deal with the elementals.

Confident in the spawn though, he sends it forward, stopping just so that it can get the jump on the advancing Hydra. The elementals can't attack the Flying spawn, so there's no need to worry about them for the time being. Sure enough, the 9-headed monstrosity steps right up to the Chaos Spawn, and in so doing exhausts its Movement Allowance. Thus, the spawn can attack first without having to worry about any incoming Fire Breath.

Unlike the single Gaze Attacks of other creatures, the Chaos Spawn's "Multi-Gaze" does not require a hidden conventional attack to attach the gaze effect to. This is because the Doom Gaze already delivers Conventional Damage, which Special Damage attacks can be added to. So much so, that even the creature's Poison Touch is triggered from it. That will not be considered in this example though, as it has no effect on any of the enemies here.

As the spawn is attacking, the Melee Sequence starts with its Gaze Attacks. The Doom Gaze is easy to resolve, as it deals Doom Damage, which requires neither Attack-, nor Defense Rolls, and does a fixed amount of  4 Damage Points to the Hydra. These can not be applied yet though, as along with this attack come two more gaze effects (and a Poison Damage attack that fails to do any  damage because of the opponent's high  Resistance).

First is the Death Gaze. While the Hydra has a rather high  11, the spawn also applies a penalty of -4 to this attack, bringing that down to only  7. Having  9 figures (each head counts as one), the Hydra is in big trouble, and has to make 9 individual  Resistance checks. It rolls fairly well: 1, 1, 3, 5, 6, 6, 7, 8, and 10. Only the last two of these are failures, meaning it will suffer two  figure's worth of  Hit Points in  damage. Since each of its heads has  10, this is a total of  20 Damage Points.

Before that can be finalized though, the Chaos Spawn has yet another Gaze Attack: a Stoning Gaze. This also entails a penalty of -4, so the Hydra has the same  7 against it. However, because none of the above  damage could be applied just yet, it is still considered to have all of its heads, or  figures. Thus, it now has to make another 9  Resistance checks. It rolls much worse this time: 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 7, 8, 9, and 10. That's a total of 3 failures, translating into a full  30 Damage Points.

With the Multi-Gaze resolved, the short-range attack phase ends, and the Hydra is dealt the entire  4 +  20 +  30 =  54 Damage Points. It loses 5 out of its 9 heads, with one more slightly damaged, but mutual  Melee can now commence. Although the Chaos Spawn also has the Cause Fear ability, it has no  Resistance modifier, and so the Hydra shrugs it off just like the poison. The same thing happens with the spawn's actual  Melee attack. It has an Attack Strength of only  1, with no  To Hit modifiers, and fails to score a hit entirely with a single roll of 9.

It is now the Hydra's turn to strike back. It has  4 figures remaining, so it can attack 4 times with a strength of  6. It also has  +1 To Hit, making it slightly more likely to do some  damage against the spawn's  6. It gets 2, 3, 2, and 4 successes on the Attack Rolls, while the Chaos Spawn manages 3, 1, 2, and 1 on its Defense ones. The first head thus deals no  damage, the second  2, the third again none, while the last one does  3, for a total of  5. Since there are no more attacks, these  5 Damage Points are applied to the spawn, while the Hydra does not get hurt this time.

Tauron, trusting the monster's lack of intelligence, decides to use the remaining 0.5 of the Chaos Spawn to withdraw instead of commencing with another attack, and the combat turn ends. The Hydra, unfazed by its injuries, follows the retreating enemy, again sacrificing the advantage of its  Breath Attack. It does regenerate  1 point since not all of the  damage done to it was Irreversible. This reduces its total Damage Points to  53, but does not allow for any of its heads to regrow.

It is again the spawn's turn, and it moves in to attempt a finishing blow. Its Doom Gaze deals the same  4 unblockable Damage Points. However, this time, the Hydra only has  4 figures left for the other two Gaze Attacks. Unfortunately for the beast though, that's still two times four  Resistance checks, as any  damage done by one gaze will not be applied until both are resolved. It rolls 4, 6, 8, and 9 for the Death Gaze; and 2, 2, 4, and 8 for the Stoning Gaze. Alas, that's two failures on the first set, and one on the second, resulting in a total of  4 +  20 +  10 =  34 Damage Points dealt to it at the end of the short-range attack phase.

Things look grim for the Hydra. It has now suffered a total of  87 Damage Points, and has only a single head remaining. Although it does avoid the spawn's  Melee attack entirely again, it also fails to inflict any  damage on it. Its single successful die gets blocked by the spawn's own one, ending this  Melee round.

Realizing that the Hydra can no longer survive even just the Doom Gaze, Tauron orders the Chaos Spawn to attack again this time, obliterating the monster. Even though it manages to  Resist both of the other gazes, the total  damage done to it is  91, and its last head falls at the end of the short-range attack phase. As it has no more  figures left, it can inflict no  Melee Damage to the spawn, who survives the "duel" with  10 Hit Points remaining. Aided by Tauron's entire Casting Skill, the elementals are now no match for it despite their numbers and immunities, leading to the swift capture of the Tower for the Chaos Wizard.

Undead Through Life Stealing

Rjak has just arrived on Myrror, conquering a Tower of Wizardry with his Wraiths. Two turns later, while scouting the vicinity, he spots a small Dwarven Town nearby. Although his Wraiths have sustained some  damage in the previous fight, and are logging  4 Damage Points, they are very strong against Normal Units, so he decides to attack the hamlet anyway. It is defended by 5 units of Halberdiers: two Veterans, two Regulars, and a single Recruit.

Since the Dwarves don't have any Ranged- or short-range attacks, the Wraiths are free to pick and choose their targets. To maximize the chances of gaining an Undead garrison, Rjak starts the battle with Black Prayer, inflicting penalties of  -1,  -1, and -2 on all of the Halberdiers. Since most of his other spells would only hinder his goal in this scenario, he dumps the rest of his Spell Casting Skill into a Life Drain instead. It's just enough to fully empower the spell. He targets one of the Veteran Dwarves, the same one he intends to attack first with the Wraiths.

Dwarf Halberdiers have a base  Resistance score of  8, the highest of any Race. Veterans also receive  +2 on top of this. However, Black Prayer effectively cancels this out with its -2 penalty, and a fully powered Life Drain carries a further -8. This brings the Dwarves' overall  Resistance against this attack down to  0, meaning that they will take  damage regardless of what they roll: they can not possibly succeed the check. Fortune does not favor them either, as the die comes up as a 7, and they take 7 -  0 =  7 points of "Create Undead Damage". As they have  3 Hit Points per  figure, they lose two of them to the spell.

Now the Wraiths attack them too. This is a  Melee only fight, and the ghastly creatures attack 4 times with  7 strength and  +2 To Hit. Their Attack Rolls yield 2, 4, 3, and 4 raw  damage. The Dwarves have a base  Defense score of  3, increased by  +1 from Experience, but also reduced by  -1 from Black Prayer. Their first Defense Roll is 3 failures, and they take  2 regular Damage Points. The second series does get a success, so they take  3 this time. The third set is even better and gets 2, reducing the  damage to a single point. However, the last roll is all failures again. Because they only have  3 per  figure though, they can roll again after the first  3 of the original  4 have beed recorded for delivery. This time, they do get a success, blocking the remaining  1.

The total regular  damage thus comes to  2 +  3 +  1 +  3 =  9. Before it is applied though, there is still the matter of the Wraiths' Life Steal. This is a unit-based Special Damage Touch Attack that causes Life Stealing Damage, similar to the above Life Drain spell. However, these creatures' ability carries a fixed penatly of -3, rather than an adjustable one. In addition however, they will be healed by the  damage they inflict with it. The spell can also grant Casting Skill points to Wizards, but that was ignored above, as it would not take effect during the battle anyway. If cast by Heroes though, Life Drain does also heal them much the same way as the ability would.

The Halberdiers have a final score of  8 +  2 -  2 -  3 =  5 against this Life Stealing attack, which is executed once for each attacking  figure. In this case, that is  4, so the Dwarves have to make 4  Resistance checks. They get fairly lucky with a 2, 4, 5, and 7. Three of these are successes, avoiding the  damage entirely. The last one does inflict 7 -  5 =  2 though, removing  2 Damage Points from the Wraiths in the process. With the previous Life Drain, this brings the "Create Undead Damage" done to these Halberdiers up to  9, and the total up to  18. This is exactly as much as the total  Hit Points of the unit, which means that they will be destroyed after their Counter Attack.

Dwarf Halberdiers start off with a  Melee strength of  4. This is improved by  +1 for Veterans, but they also get a  -1 from Black Prayer. Since two of their  figures were lost to the Life Drain spell beforehand, only  4 can actually attack. Their Attack Rolls are average, and generate 1, 1, 2, and 1 "raw"  damage. Unfortunately for them though, these Dwarves only wield normal weapons. This causes the Wraiths' Weapon Immunity to trigger, and the creatures'  Defense is raised to  10 from its original  6. They easily avoid all of the hits with success counts of 2, 3, 4, and 2 on their Defense Rolls.

The first Halberdiers units is now destroyed. They took a total of  9 of both regular- and "Create Undead Damage", thanks to the Life Drain. Because an equal amount of Damage Points does count for creating Undead, these Dwarves will rise again to serve Rjak, provided he wins the battle. However, the numbers demonstrate fairly well that without the spell, the Wraiths would not have accomplished the task on their own. Although they are in no real danger while fighting these Normal Units, the Dwarves high  Resistance means they take much less Special- than Conventional Damage.

The other Veteran unit proves this point quite amply. In their first attack, the Wraiths inflict  9 regular Damage Points, and only  6 "Create Undead Damage". The Dwarves survive this attack, forcing the Wraiths to attack again in order to eliminate them. However, this only increases the difference between the two types of Damage Points. This time,  10 points of regular  damage are dealt, but only  5 "Create Undead Damage". This yields totals of  19 versus  11, which is not even close to creating Undead. On the other hand, the Wraiths at least manage to get rid of all of their own Damage Points, as the Dwarves offer little in the way of doing  damage against them, more or less as expected.

The chances of raising Undead improve slightly against the Regular Halberdiers, but still not quite enough. These units have both  Defense and  Resistance one point lower than Veterans, but the latter is still too high in comparison. The first one takes  11 regular- and  9 "Create Undead Damage"; while the second, again requiring two attacks to take out, receives  22 and  16, still in favor of the regular  damage.

Finally, with the Recruits, the chances start to at least even out. They have yet again one point less  Resistance which, with the penalties from Black Prayer and the Wraiths' ability yields a final score of only  3. This results in an expected average Life Stealing Damage of  2.8, although the variance here is still quite high. With 4 attacks however, and the expected Physical Damage also being only an average  2.9 per Wraith, the chances of whether the unit will turn or not are fairly close to equal, since the regular  damage has to be higher for the unit to not turn.

Rjak and the Wraiths get lucky this time. With a single attack, the Wraiths deliver  11 points of regular  damage, but also  12 "Create Undead" Damage Points to the last Dwarf Halberdiers unit. Since this unit will also turn, Rjak gets a total of 2 Undead units for his garrison, enough to reduce Unrest by 1 without having to produce any living units. The Wraiths also emerge from the fight fully healed, as the Recruit Halberdiers ultimately fail to inflict any  damage on them. Even though they make 6 attacks, their Attack Strength of  3 proves to be no match for the  10 granted by Weapon Immunity. Should they have landed a point of  damage though, the Wraiths would have sustained it in the end.

Healing Damage

Finally, the vast majority of units are living creatures, capable of slowly recovering from injuries. Thus, the amount of  Damage a unit is suffering from will gradually decrease over time as wounds are healed and/or as reinforcements rejoin that unit.

For some units, particularly the Fantastic Units associated with the Death realm (including the Undead), any  Damage they take is permanent: there is no way to undo injuries suffered by such a unit. As it participates in more and more combat, it will eventually suffer enough damage and will be destroyed.

However, for the great majority of units,  Damage is a transient property: it will slowly diminish over time, and can be removed by use of various types of healing spells and effects.

First of all, all non-Death units will lose a certain amount of  Damage at the start of each overland turn. This is called "natural healing". The amount of  Damage removed each turn is equal to at least 5% of the unit's total maximum  Health, and increases if the unit is garrisoned in a Town, or if accompanied by a Healer unit. This means that any injured unit that's allowed to heal naturally will return to full health within no more than 20 turns, assuming it does not suffer additional  Damage in the meanwhile.

Secondly, the Life Realm and Nature Realm possess several spells that will instantly heal the injuries of a unit (or several units) by a certain amount. The Life Realm specializes in doing so during combat, while the Nature realm has overland spells for the same purpose.

Finally, the Regeneration ability and spell allow a unit to regain  1 Hit Point automatically each turn during combat, and can completely heal a unit after a battle is over (including, as mentioned earlier, bringing dead units to life). As a result, Regeneration is one of the most coveted Unit Abilities in the game, and many Nature wizards rely heavily on it to keep their units alive almost indefinitely.

Each of these methods of healing is discussed in greater detail on the article regarding Hit Points.

Regaining Figures

As  Damage is healed, a  Multi-Figure Unit will potentially regain any  Figures it has lost, one by one, until eventually the unit returns to full strength (having as many  Figures as it had when first created).

This is done on a figure-by-figure basis, in a process exactly inverse to how such a unit suffers  Damage. The "lead" figure in the unit will always be the first to receive any healing. Once that figure is at full health, additional healing points will restore the next  Figure to life, and heal it accordingly. Eventually, with sufficient healing, the unit will have regained all of its  Figures this way, and will therefore have returned to full combat effectiveness.

For example, once again we'll take a High Men Cavalry unit, with  4 Figures and  3 Hit Points per figure. This time we'll assume that the unit has just lost  2 Figures in combat, and that figure #3 in the unit is slightly injured, currently suffering from  1. In total, we can say that this unit has  7 points of Damage - 3 for each dead Cavalryman, plus 1 for the injured cavalryman.

If we heal  1, that will go towards the injured cavalryman, who is now back to full health. The next healed point will actually restore one of the dead cavalrymen (who returns with  1), and subsequent healing will go towards bringing this cavalryman back to full health ( 3). Once he's fully healthy, any additional healing will first restore the last missing cavalryman, and then work towards bringing him back to full health. At this point the unit has all 4 of its  Figures back, with each figure being fully healthy ( 3).

For a more thorough explanation, see the article on Hit Points, where healing processes are explained in more detail.