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Heroes III · CREATURE PROFILE

Thunderbird in Heroes III: stats, cost and abilities

Thunderbird in Heroes III: Mobile attacks and screening across obstacles. Practical use, abilities, weaknesses, recruitment and 60 base health.

Quick guide: where it fits

Mobile attacks and screening across obstacles

Use flying pressure against distant shooters or to finish a target.

Watch for: Rocs lack lightning.

Exact dwelling, growth and items →
Thunderbird — creature appearance in Heroes 3
Source · Game artwork

Stronghold · Tier 5

Thunderbird

Upgraded form

How to use this creature in practice

Mobile attacks and screening across obstacles

Use flying pressure against distant shooters or to finish a target. Thunderbirds add a chance of a separate lightning effect.

Watch for: Rocs lack lightning. The Thunderbird’s magical component has separate restrictions; the whole attack is not simply physical damage.

Timing, specific abilities and the follow-up plan

Speed 11 affects reach and order. Before Wait compare who still acts this round and who opens the next; delaying does not create a free extra attack.

  • Thunderbolt: An eligible hit has a 20% chance to apply an effect that adds special lightning damage scaled to attacker count. Matching immunities and effect conditions apply.
  • Effect scaling: Thunderbolt: Reference Thunderbolt strength is 10 per casting creature. Summon Demons is also limited by the available corpse and its health.

Example for 10 creatures: 110–150 base damage for one ordinary hit before hero, defense, spell and ability modifiers. Recalculate surviving creatures before a subsequent hit.

What changes between base and upgraded forms
Roc / Thunderbird
FormAttack / DefenseDamageHPSpeedCost each
Roc13 / 1111–15607600 gold
Thunderbird13 / 1111–156011700 gold

This compares recruitment prices and base parameters, rather than final damage or an automatic price for a particular map upgrade.

Attack
13
Defense
11
Damage
11–15
Health
60
Speed
11
Shots
0
Base weekly growth
3
AI value
1106
Occupied hexes
2

Cost per creature: 700 gold

Abilities and limitations

  • Flying

    Movement can cross obstacles. Devils and Arch Devils express this trait through teleportation; speed still determines reach.

  • Thunderbolt

    An eligible hit has a 20% chance to apply an effect that adds special lightning damage scaled to attacker count. Matching immunities and effect conditions apply.

  • Effect scaling: Thunderbolt

    Reference Thunderbolt strength is 10 per casting creature. Summon Demons is also limited by the available corpse and its health.

Heroes connected to this creature

Normal upgrade of the specialty line (1)

The normal upgrade belongs to the same specialty line in the pinned VCMI reference. Gelu’s and Dracon’s special conversions are separate from its normal upgrades.

Example in a tactical plan (3)

The creature is an example in our specific plan; this does not establish ownership or a starting army.

Reference ↗ · Ability reference configuration ↗

Where to obtain and develop this creature

This form uses the upgraded dwelling; construction cost is not the retraining price.

Growth and construction prerequisites (4)

Growth support is not another recruitment site. A prerequisite may unlock one of the recruitment forms.

Items with a specific creature relationship (2)

Read the exact item effect; the relationship may concern summoning or another function rather than a blanket buff to every form.

Reference stack cost and health

These values multiply every resource in the undiscounted reference price and full base health. Hero, equipment, spell, price and growth modifiers are excluded. This is neither final damage or battle survival nor a guarantee that the listed number is available to recruit.

Thunderbird · reference values before bonuses
CreaturesTotal costBase health
1
  • 700 gold
60
5
  • 3,500 gold
300
10
  • 7,000 gold
600

Reading this profile correctly

This profile uses Complete/SoD and the cited VCMI reference. HotA, WoG and other mod changes are not added. Body footprint and attack reach are separate properties.

Base growth excludes Citadel, Castle, external dwellings and other bonuses. AI value supports army generation and evaluation; it is neither a price nor experience. Ranged and melee penalties, immunity, resistance chance and spell-damage reduction are distinct effects. Neutral dragons can have higher editor levels than some internal rules use. Campaign scripts can alter ordinary recruitment.

Numerical reference source ↗

Original roster scope

141 Heroes III Complete / The Shadow of Death creatures: 126 town forms across nine factions and 15 neutrals. The Heroes 3 Wiki stat table is pinned to revision 194544; HotA branches and balance changes are removed. Abilities additionally identify the pinned VCMI reference; its internal identifiers are not blindly used as game names. War machines, siege towers and random editor placeholders are outside this creature count. Growth is the base weekly figure; costs are per creature and stats exclude hero, town and spell bonuses.