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| Thread: Must have skills for MP in HoMM4 |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 · NEXT» |
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Re-Animator
Adventuring Hero
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posted April 03, 2002 10:06 PM |
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Must have skills for MP in HoMM4
What skills do most of you playing foresee as being the most sought after when MP starts.
My choice right now is Resistance and to a lesser degree Combat. Heroes without Resistance are too vulnerable to spell damage (even if they're in the back line - a simple Displacement spell can push any troop out of the way to let your next spell caster blast the Hero). The beauty of Resistance in the game is that it has two effects. It gives you a set chance to resist a spell and also reduces the damage taken from any spell that does end up hitting you. Combat is necessary simply because it raises your defense values.
I'm sure a lot of people will choose Stealth (and the whole Scouting class), but I'm pretty sure maps will be made to limit its effectiveness. One thing that will hurt Stealth is that if an enemy hero runs into the tile a Stealth hero is hiding, the Stealth hero attacks automatically - usually resulting in its quick death.
As far as hero classes, my choice so far is the Assassin. That initial +3 speed boost will probably be critical in MP battles.
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undead_wolf_...
Adventuring Hero
Undead Wolf Wrangler
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posted April 03, 2002 10:21 PM |
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I completely agree...in multiplayer Tactics and Combat will be first choices. Protecting your Hero is huge now that they're vulnerable (especially early). Specifically Magic Resistance will be big for sure.
I think magic skills are just as important, but AFTER you get your Hero setup with the additional resistances and damage adjustments. But I do think they've balanced the Might and Magic this time, where Magic was probably a bit too powerful in HOMM3.
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"where's a damn werewolf when you need one?"
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sos
Known Hero
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posted April 04, 2002 12:12 AM |
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hehe Re-Animator, I know you are a big fan of resistance, but few people will agree with you here I think. The way things are now stealth is a MUST HAVE skill in MP games. It will be hard for mapmakers to limit it's use. Remember all those closed maps in heroes 3? Well, they will be closed no more, at least for stealthy heroes.
Magic resistance won't do you much good against wandering monsters, which you will fight most of the time. To see which skill is best play a game w/o that skill and compare. I bet a game w/o stealth wil hurt you more than a game w/o Magic resistance. Moreover nothing prevents you from developing any other skill on other heroes since your stealthy heroes dont take away experience from them.
I am pretty sure that you will never see a "no resistance" rule in heroes 4, but the way things are now the "no stealth" will be the first one.
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Re-Animator
Adventuring Hero
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posted April 04, 2002 12:53 AM |
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Stealth Killers
On the single-player maps right now Stealth is devastating, but like I said I have a feeling that a lot of MP maps will take into acount the placement of treasure, guarding of mines, and blocking of passes (sort of like no join monsters to take care of Diplomacy in HoMM3).
It also won't be that hard to build up a Stealth Hunter in this game. By level 10 you can have a GM Scouting/Pathfinding Hero whose sole purpose is to take out GM Stealth heroes.
But that's the beauty of this game (even though you don't seem to currently like it) - looking for all the tactics and counter-tactics.
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tortoise
Known Hero
Master of Reptiles.
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posted April 04, 2002 12:57 AM |
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Well this is just My opinion but i think a strict mage is where its at.. or necromancer rather? My first two heroes were both on lv 18 and still only necromancers.
Master Death Magic
Grand Master Occultism
Grand Master Deamonology
Grand Master Necromancy
I dunno about you guys , but his magic support was devastating so I didn't really need an offensive hero.
Mass Sorrow made all my units go first almost every time.
Next round cast mass curse (min dmg)
Next round cast mass weakness (25% less dmg ontop of curse)
And necromancy At grandmaster level ressurects vampires mostly. I think this will be my main strategy for games to come in multiplayer. And deamonology was just a perk for my death's call. (high lv animate)
Note: This was my main army with 30-50 vampires and 1 hero. That's it. I took out greatly outnumbered armies even up to 10 lv 4's!!!! One problem I did encounter however is some of their flying units attacked my vampires for no reall dmg but the next turn in a decent stack size could easily kill my hero in two turns. The way I countered this was Drain (steals # of hp's from every stack) so that put me back to full when fighting a big army.
Later I would probably try and develop either Nobility for its creature bonuses etc... or nature magic for its summoning skill.. (Grand Master Deamonology+Grand Master Summoning gives Summon Devils) Sounds nasty to me 
Anybody see any problems with this tactic?
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All living things have a history. The history of the Tortoise is long and rich.
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bjorn190
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Jebus maker
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posted April 04, 2002 09:14 AM |
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Quote:
Anybody see any problems with this tactic?
Yes..
In a multiplayer game your hero would be blasted round 1 and die like the sissy he apparently is. Then your vampires would be gangbanged and taken out with spells, and you would lose so fast that you wouldn´t know what hit you.
You *need* GM combat and GM resist on your hero or you are dead.
Also, death magic kida sucks. You cant raise anything until something has died.. no really good spells. The only thing that is good about it is necromancy. Life magic or order magic is 10 times better. Even chaos magic is better. Possibly even nature magic.
But the vampires rock of course, if you accompany them with a good might hero, a good mage and an army.
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Ichon
Responsible
Famous Hero
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posted April 04, 2002 10:04 AM |
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I'm certain combat will be
Combat is a neccessity- no hero will live long enough to do anything without it. Resistance could be useful, but really I might go without it if I had enough potions of immortality or was life mage and could cast those great life magics;-) Because dying only to be reborn each round and still cast your spells is pointless, but if a ranged hero or flying/teleported unit could take out heroes it isn't such a loss as using a wasted spell which better used to buff or minus enemy buffs bonuses...
Stealth is pretty good right now, I can't see anyone daring to play without it really. Since only Order has the t-portal you can't have a stealthed hero take your town or even sometimes your important mines, it's game over then if you didn't even develop GM scouting on some hero. Adding quest guards only way to effectively block it without making a counter hero build, but quest guards would suck. Even worse than the 7th level closed maps in ToH. I think stealth will turn into same debate as H&R did H3 unless patch severly changes it. For instance early on- the stealth/pathfinding hero is fast and has enough HP that your counter scout/combat(or pathfinding) still can't kill it in one round, which means stealthed hero just retreats and tries it again from dif direction or something like that. At least some money or even better, can't be used till a week has passed or something after retreating would be better.
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jondifool
Promising
Adventuring Hero
extinct but alive!
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posted April 04, 2002 12:46 PM |
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Stealth !!
I don't get it !!
It has its uses but are they that good?
In early game!
if relying on stealth in the early game, your hero development gets slow. The hero can get some nice things right! But by not beating the stacks he doesn't get the exp needed! Well you can get that later, but the most limiting factor in early game is the restriction on where to go! to have to go to a place twice slows you!
having stealth means you are strongly developed in scouting. this again means that you hero adds nothing to an armys battle strength. So if going for stealth early in my gaming experience you risk getting far behind, when going to beat those stacks.And your increased move wont necaserry make up for it!
Now about the importance of stealth in multiplayer!
Mines can be retaken , and the stealth hero can do nothing about it. To be a stealth hero it means 10 level in GM Stealth and GM scouting And then some skillpoints in pathfinding to have movement to! This leaves how many skillpoints to be a battle danger!. No so Mines would be retaken. And except from the gold mine they are not that important! As trading is much easyer than before!
The danger comes from creature dwellings with loads of creatures to buy! Here A stealth Hero can buy an very surprising army, there threatens to take purely defended towns! But you get the warning when he defeat the guards!
The retreat option can get defending heros back to town very fast Without the army!
This is a bug in my opinion,and the correction should be when retreating or surrendering, heroes should be delayed in getting back to town , maybe with caravan speed, at least delayed for some days!
But with defending troops to buy in town and a strong castle and a hero coming in from retreat, the stealth hero might not be that big a treat!
I can much more imagine Pathfinding to be the must have skill in the scouting line!
I could be deadly wrong but I see stealth as annoying rather than dangerous!
with regards
Jondifool
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The Oxe is slow, but earth have patience
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Ichon
Responsible
Famous Hero
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posted April 04, 2002 01:25 PM |
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Edited By: Ichon on 4 Apr 2002
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yeah, you'd be deadly wrong I reckon
It's very hard to stop stealth hero even before GM levels. Because unless you have equal his stealth in scouting, you won't even see him. Equal will only let you see him when he is right next to you.
The danger is early in the game before you afford castle. I've raced my advanced pathfinding, expert stealth, expert scouting hero all way across most medium maps in week 1. You take 1 or 2 chests for gold, hit a tree of knowledge or even university or something to get a free combat or etc skill, and then the experience you get as you race around map avoiding armies through your stealth gains you the rest. By time you arrive enemies castle it's early week 2 and he out fighting somewhere- even if you only take his castle a couple days and waste a few of his mobs before his big hero comes back to retake it, will really screw him up. You can take town or mines, and retreat a lil ways, go around his hero sent to retake mines and come from a dif direction, hitting creature havens etc to just let loose armies. Unless enemy devotes at least 2 hero and several units to the chase, you'll always be ahead, and then with that much attention focused on your stealth guy, you've gotten initiative for the rest of game.
So- you can get scout hero 1500- 2500 gold, use 2 chests 1000-3000 experience, or 2000-4000 gold whichever way you want to look at it- use 5 gem on a tree which usually is one nearby, learning stone or if Asylum that +1000 experience building often worth it, and have nice stealth hero for that cheap price. If trouble with that build- let that hero be only hero first 2-3 battles and then take the chests etc. Never had trouble getting least expert in scouting and stealth by end of week 1. Add in pathfinding at some level and you've got quick scout which just goes around almost all the neutral armies delving deep into unexplored areas. Also- exploring is important in H4, even more than H3 I'd say since map is relatively smaller and thus who finds the strategic locations first has big advantage. A hero fighting thru all the monsters takes too long. You need a stealth hero just to run around and scout out locations go into enemy land and steal his chests, loose resources etc while your starting hero builds up like normal.
People going to have to start leaving enough units in town to defend vs sudden appearance of stealth hero + either summoned units if he got nature magic somewhere(even low level this can overwhelm if you left small amount of guards) or units bought from a unit haven 1 day away. But, since you are forced to leave your units to guard, and stealth are always strong in scouting too, I'll know what you left in town and probably good idea what you have on your main hero- leading me to try get into battle right then if it looks good as I'll equal odds that otherwise in favor of defender because defender always will have more units with no chaining.
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tortoise
Known Hero
Master of Reptiles.
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posted April 04, 2002 08:30 PM |
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hey bjorn, when multi comes out, I CHALLENGE YOU! then we'll see if my strat is no good eh? besides, vampires do not by any means get gang raped, if you have about 20 of them (possible with gm necromancy) you can take out most stacks of lv 1's from 50-100 in one hit. lv 2's? probably kill about 30, and if you have a decent might hero with bonuses make it 40. lv 3's? they can take out as many vamps as they kill basically, and no retal helps, lv 4's? not enough numbers to do enough damage on the vamps... and omg necro magic sucks? BE QUITE WHOLY snow! i'm just gonna say this, i had a magic hero, strictly a necromancer, finally an army made a match for my vampires and their numbers were dwindling fast, started with about 30, was down to 10. and i cast death's call, (high lv animate) and what do you know? 10 vamps come back.... yay me! i won btw... so ya, i disagree, i think necropolis will be one of the more flexible town types..
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All living things have a history. The history of the Tortoise is long and rich.
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bjorn190
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Jebus maker
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posted April 04, 2002 08:45 PM |
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Quote:
hey bjorn, when multi comes out, I CHALLENGE YOU!
ok, I accept.. but by aware that I will play with order town and hire a necromancer of my own, just to get vampires. in main fight I will probably use 1 order mage, 1 life mage, i knight, dragon golems, halflings, genies and vampires =)
I hope you will play for toh
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Re-Animator
Adventuring Hero
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posted April 04, 2002 09:04 PM |
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Quote:
For instance early on- the stealth/pathfinding hero is fast and has enough HP that your counter scout/combat(or pathfinding) still can't kill it in one round, which means stealthed hero just retreats and tries it again from dif direction or something like that. At least some money or even better, can't be used till a week has passed or something after retreating would be better.
The counter hero (Stealth killer) can always travel with enough troops to kill the Stealth hero in one round. Remember, he only needs GM scouting (and maybe some Tactics to increase the combat speed/iniative of whatever troops he's carrying) and doesn't have to worry about not being seen by other troops. At the very least he or one of his troops could cast a devastating spell on the hero.
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jondifool
Promising
Adventuring Hero
extinct but alive!
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posted April 05, 2002 01:30 AM |
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response to Icon: Some good argument, though I am not sure I agree
all the things you say yo can do comes at a price. If you go for terrorrising enemy land early, you have 1 less hero to clear you own. So every effect you create by doing ot should be put up against what you don't achive by having 1 hero less in your home area!
It might be worth doing , but at a price!
If you spend 2 weeks to get to spoil an enemy castle for a couple of days in the early game, chances is that you didn't achive the same as the opponent regarding taking mines in the same time. So who is best off? If you spend 2 weeks to take an enemy castle , and can hold it you offcause you should win the game, and that has to be defended against. But if you go for that you would not have taking enemy mines on the way, (don't give a warning if wanting to come by surprise!) getting further behind in the resource struggle.
I agree that stealth has the potential to be devasting, but in practical play wouldn't it actual put you behind in development to go to strongly for??
By the way, Have you ever tried to be locked with a stealth hero ! I have , suddenly no places to go didn't get it to Master level and just can't pass anything in that area of the game , have to spend a week sneaking back! The stealth approach can go wrong too ,though I have no idea how likely that is, i have just experienced it once!
with regards
Jondifool
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The Oxe is slow, but earth have patience
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wiggy_wam
Promising
Famous Hero
local pirate
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posted April 05, 2002 05:08 AM |
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eh, who needs resistance unless your opponent has magi or genies?
just drink a potion of immortality and let them blast at ya. 
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Oldtimer
Honorable
Supreme Hero
Please leave a message after..
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posted April 05, 2002 05:54 AM |
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Stealth Hero running around collecting intelligence and maybe taking a castle early, but if you catch him, you had better kill him in the first volley or he will just retreat and show up at the nearest town, and set out to steal mines and buildings again.
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<PLEASE DO NOT WAKE THE OLD MAN!>
"Zzzz...Zzzz...Zzzz..."
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Ichon
Responsible
Famous Hero
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posted April 05, 2002 09:05 AM |
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GM scouting...
Th problem with getting GM scouting is it takes more experience than a suffeciently capable stealth hero. It's much more difficult to get high level of experience for one hero quickly in H4 with no chaining and limited to slowest units speed. So it takes you more experience and time to construct GM scout which also is a waste given that it is doing nothing constructive sitting around home base. Of course, if both people just accept the need to make both stealth and scout... but if only one makes stealth, and other scout- the stealth will almost always win. Initative is most valuable in strategy games.
The othe problem with scout, is early in game units are slow- the scout won't be able to catch the stealth/pathfinding who is running by himself. It's why I said this debate will be same as H&R in H3. Similiar principles really, and there are counters, but not as good as in H3 because you could chain in H3 and that made a huge dif for counter to H&R. With the move sequence alot dif in H4, H&R not as viable, though still possible.
Also- in the first 3 weeks of game, when you going to have a stack big enough to kill 120 HP hero across battlefield in first round? I think that'll be rare... running around with stack that large means less to units to use other places.
I just think the stealth option will always be ahead of the defense, it is cheaper to attack that way than any defense against it, so just like zergling rush in starcraft or kmkm in AoE2 etc... anyone who doesn't do it will be in trouble. Of course, if we play closed maps it isn't as dangerous- but, player who doesn't use a stealth hero mises out on the early resources a stealth hero can nab way before a hero which fights for the whole map.
Jondifool- just as in the use of 8 heroes in H3, buying a stealth and upgrading him pays off everytime. Whoever plays without one... just can't see it. It doesn't take enough resources to make your other hero totally weak, and with the extra gold and resources your stealth bring in, you can afford the dwellings and creatures to attack larger mobs groups earlier and gain back the experience difference many times over.
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Abazagaroth
Hired Hero
Paladin of Knowledge
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posted April 05, 2002 11:26 AM |
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Beyond the stealth issue, I like tactics and combat for "might" type heroes, and life, order, and nature magic for "magic" types. Except for campaigns, I don't see many times where you can get those maxed (or what you want for the magic types) in time to get others. But that's just for my "main" armies.
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C. David Kreger
dkreger@yahoo.com
[url]http://www.modernhumanorigins.com[/url]
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jondifool
Promising
Adventuring Hero
extinct but alive!
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posted April 05, 2002 11:57 AM |
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to Icon writing!:
""Th problem with getting GM scouting is it takes more experience than a suffeciently capable stealth hero. It's much more difficult to get high level of experience for one hero quickly in H4 with no chaining and limited to slowest units speed. So it takes you more experience and time to construct GM scout which also is a waste given that it is doing nothing constructive sitting around home base. Of course, if both people just accept the need to make both stealth and scout... but if only one makes stealth, and other scout- the stealth will almost always win. Initative is most valuable in strategy games.""
This is not clear.
To get a GM stealth Hero, he needs 5 lvl Stealth, 5 lvl Scouting and 4 level pathfinding!Total 13 lvl equals 29.300 exp. The GM scout does needs 9 levels equals 12.900exp
In how many maps would players positions be seperated by 4 lvl creatures? My quess is that on a lot of maps we se a 4'th lvl creature you have to get into an adjectant tile to pass. This means that the 29.300 exp, you have to find in your own territory! Because you can't get into enemy land before reaching lvl 13.
So the Exp you get to take the stealth hero to lvl 13 is exp your other heroes doesn't get!
Alot of this depends on difficulty lvl. Because if neutral stacks can't be beaten in the first week(s) stealth is alot stronger. If troops can be beaten the non stealth path, (scout or not) would not be slower , remember that creatures can pick stuff. So the Hero would'nt waist move on that. But if you have to spend the first long time with only 1 army and having 2 heroes the stealth option is very viable. I relevant thing to take into account here is that having 2 heroes in an army sharing the exp, overall gets you having 2 heroes 4 level lover than if you only had 1! So this is how far behind in development they get if going together.
Defently i agree if first going for the scouting path in early game the stealth would be very tempting to do also!
""The other problem with scout, is early in game units are slow- the scout won't be able to catch the stealth/pathfinding who is running by himself. It's why I said this debate will be same as H&R in H3. Similiar principles really, and there are counters, but not as good as in H3 because you could chain in H3 and that made a huge dif for counter to H&R. With the move sequence alot dif in H4, H&R not as viable, though still possible.""
You don't have to catch him always, does you ? just clean up after him! In some cases the stealth hero would just be nuiceance, in others a grave problem.
Also you don't need creatures with you to catch him if your a scout! the question is do you need creatures to beat him?
If you can see him you can position a creature stack somewhere to join you when very close to him and then getting him. You are Hunting a fox in your field after all.
""Jondifool- just as in the use of 8 heroes in H3, buying a stealth and upgrading him pays off everytime. Whoever plays without one... just can't see it. It doesn't take enough resources to make your other hero totally weak, and with the extra gold and resources your stealth bring in, you can afford the dwellings and creatures to attack larger mobs groups earlier and gain back the experience difference many times over.""
I am not sure about that ,in early game if a stealth hero can be in enemy land and do trouble, well you might simply miss a strong hero to defend against a straight Tactic hero army advance! And who is worst off then. The one who have a spy doing trouble , or the one facing an invasion? You have 2 heroes max in week 1 , 3 in week 2 and 4 in week 3. When getting town 2 you get an additional a week. If spending the first weeks to make a GM stealth Hero! You would proberly miss a hero for defense ( or offense).
So to sum up all my thoughts about this. I see the stealth hero as a good trick to pull off. But in early game it could be creating trouble for yourself as there may be counters to the move! But a lot depends on maps !
With Regards
Jondifool
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The Oxe is slow, but earth have patience
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Ichon
Responsible
Famous Hero
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posted April 05, 2002 12:12 PM |
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suffiecently capable key words
Well, I don't say anything about GM stealth- you don't need that to be effective. Just enough to get past L2. The scouting has to be always 1 level above the stealth or else it only works when the scout hero is very close to the stealth hero.
I'm talking about a level 6-7 hero which is only 7,000 experience. If your hero start with basic stealth and pathfinding- only need a few upgrades to be useful. I've never seen 4th level guards on the maps game came with, but I am sure when multi comes out and ToHers butcher the maps there will be alot of closed maps with 4L guards.
Well, I am playing on expert level after my first few games and stealth is very useful. Even when I tried playing on intermediate it was useful because you can afford to upgrade him alot more then. The benefits come as much from the time saved since your stealth can bypass battles while your army fights with another hero somewhere else. With no chaining allowed its the only way to expand fast anymore, grabbing the resources without fighting for them. It's useful no matter the difficulty level. As for harrasing enemy with it- on closed maps it won't be as powerful, but as soon as the portal is opened, if you don't have a expert or so I'd say at least- scout, then how are you to know if the hero you saw came thru is the only hero that actually came through? I don't think you need a whole lot of stealth hero, 1-2 depending on map size since your L1 units can pick up alot of the loose resources close by, but try making at least expert stealth in the first week and send him sweeping out of your lands- even if there are some guards, you can make those guards your chief objective to kill week 2- scouting early will be important in multi, and you need a stealth hero to do that well. I'm not saying anything about GM stealth. I'd use only GM main heroes or perhaps a govenor.
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Re-Animator
Adventuring Hero
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posted May 22, 2002 09:19 AM |
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The skills revisted
After almost two months here's my current opinion of the skills to look out for in MP. Also, I don't see many heroes being developed past the 15-20th levels in MP (and that's being generous). People will probably develop 3 heroes in this range and then have a few more heroes in the 5-10th level range (mainly Nobles and Scout/Pathfinders)
Skills I'm willing to bet will be absolutely key for MP success:
1. Tactics, Offense, and Leadership. With long-lasting games where you're able to build up a sizeable army, this combination puts even GM Combat heroes in jeopardy in round one. Even in shorter games the combat advantage is tremendous.
2. Estates and Nobility. On smaller maps or maps with fewer towns the boost both of these skills give you is enough to significantly alter the balance of power.
Skills everyone will/should get:
1. Combat and Resistance. Both need to be at least Expert level to really protect you in MP. I no longer consider them key skills for the simple reason that I believe heroes are going to get killed early in battles unless they can somehow get Sanctuaried. Martyr, Regeneration, Potions of Immortality, and any other protective spells will be rendered useless/wasted by simple Dispels and Cancellations. I still think they're very important because if you can last longer than your opponents heroes you'll have a huge advantage.
2. Basic Order magic. Dispel is still one of the most useful spells in the game. With it you can neutralize nearly any negative spell against your troops/heroes and cancel most benificial spells on your enemy.
Skills that will come in handy and will likely be picked, but aren't really must have skills:
1. Basic Death and Life magic. Life magic mainly for Healing (which at high levels may keep your heroes alive longer) and Exorcise. Death Magic mainly for Cancellation, but Poison and Animate Dead will be usefull for any army.
2. Pathfinding. The extra movement will come in handy certainly, but I'm wondering how many people want to devote the necessary levels for a hero that will be killed in battle quickly (or you will at least lack in some other skill).
3. Archery. Again I say that heroes will be killed more easily in MP than people are hoping for. To devote the necessary skills for archery means you neglected something else more useful.
Skills I'm not quite sure on:
1. Charm/Diplomacy. Combined with a good Tactics/Leadership hero (not necessarily the same hero of course) the extra creatures could come in handy, but this is going to be a map-determined benefit. They do force your opponent to accept your surrender though.
2. Summoning. It's still too early to tell whether those 7 extra Water Elementals/week are going to make a significant difference enough times to warrant getting this skill. Basically the distance to your army resupply castle will be the determing factor. It does come in handy for using extra critters to garrison in enemy mines to increase scouting radii.
Skills to usually not bother with (there will be exceptions of course):
1. Resurrection. Remember that this is MP. Against wandering monsters you're usually smart/good enough not to lose significant troops in the first place. Against humans any major battle is likely going to be your "one big final battle" and even if it isn't the fact that you defeated them means they're hurting more anyway.
2. Melee. Heroes are too valuable to risk in needless HtH encounters. They should have something better to do (like casting spells or using Potions).
3. Stealth. I don't care what anyone says about the ability to sneak around the map - it's just not as usefull as people think. Once you've built your main town up it doesn't really matter whether some Stealth hero flags all your mines. The Stealth hero really can't do anything else as he/she has spent 13-15 levels getting to the GM level. He/She will be easy pickings for a few lvl 3-4 monsters you may leave as guards in important places. Any artifacts that you plan on stealing would likely have been just as easy to get with an army. At the very least your opponent can build a GM Scout a lot more quickly than you can a GM Stealth hero and constantly hunt him down. Consider this: a GM Stealth hero moves at a basic 22 moves/day plus the bonus from Pathfinding (50% at GM). So at most he moves 33 tiles. A GM Scout with somethig as simple as an Imp will move at a basic 30 moves/day and 45 moves/day with GM Pathfinding. The Stealth hero doesn't get the benefit of traveling with a creature (and thus using its movement rating as its own) because to do so would defeat the purpose of being Stealthful. It will just be too easy to counter/nullify the benefits of a Stealthy hero.
As far as the other skills, obviously the Magic skills will be on a game-by-game basis. Necromancy and Seamanship will also be on a game-by-game, map-by-map basis. But I will say this for Necromancy - I haven't yet found a town type that doesn't benefit from producing Undead creatures (especially Ghosts and Vampires) as long as you have a Leadership hero.
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