How to use this hero
Home faction: Rampart
Melee army · Dendroid Guard and upgrades
Ryland suits the Dendroid Guard / Dendroid Soldier line. Prepare a reachable target and compare retaliation with available follow-up attacks. Choose upgrades by abilities and cost too; the specialty alone does not fix a bad engagement.
What the profile establishes
Specialty · Dendroid Guard
Focuses on Dendroid Guard. The benefit matters when fielding this recruitment line; reassess the hero’s value when switching armies.
Listed starting skills
- Basic Diplomacy
- Basic Leadership
Suggested army and further development
The following is our recommendation. Creatures, spells and items must actually be acquired; this does not establish current inventory.
Maintain reinforcements for this line first. Then build on the listed skills and choose offensive or defensive support for the actual opponent. The specialty’s numerical effect is explained with the connected creatures.
Skills I would build around: Basic Diplomacy · Basic Leadership. Match further choices to available ranks and the current army.
Creatures I would consider
Equipment I would compare
Compare effect, slot and acquisition conditions on the item card. A suggestion does not establish that the hero starts with it.
Spells and suitable equipment
The reference profile assigns no starting spell. A scenario can change the starting state.
Equipment suggestions for the plan (2)
Editorial suggestions based on sourced magic or an army plan. These are not starting inventory or guaranteed finds. Check acquisition, slot and rules on the item card.
Centaur’s AxeSuggestionWhile equipped the item provides: Attack: +2.
For a plan based on the led army’s physical attacks. Its benefit depends on your creatures and opposing defense.
Shield of the Dwarven LordsSuggestionWhile equipped the item provides: Defense: +2.
For an army exposed to attacks; compare the protection with the actual incoming damage type.
Creatures connected to this hero
Dendroid Guard- Sourced specialty target
Dendroid Soldier- Normal upgrade of the specialty line
A specialty target, conversion and tactical example are different relationships. Check conversion costs and compare individual upgrade forms on creature cards. A tactical example is not a confirmed starting army.
For this standard specialty, the pinned reference adds +1 Speed to both base and normal upgraded creatures; Attack and Defense depend on hero development. Gelu’s and Dracon’s special conversions remain separate. Specialty rule ↗
Specialty in numbers · VCMI reference
Compare both forms in the army you actually field. This calculation adds only the specialty to the creature’s base attributes; account for the commander’s Attack and Defense, artifacts and spells separately.
Read the bonus and plan the army
- The +1 Speed applies even before the first percentage threshold. It benefits these two forms; compare their reach and action order with the opponent.
- In this reference, the percentage increases at multiples of tier 5: 5 × floor(level / 5) %. Attack and Defense are scaled separately from their own base values and rounded upward.
- A higher percentage may not immediately add another whole point. Use the next change shown for each creature rather than assuming every round hero level is a breakpoint.
- An upgrade changes the creature’s own Attack, Defense and Speed. The bonus is not an equal percentage increase in final damage and does not scale the hero’s attributes. Also compare the upgrade’s cost and abilities on its creature card.
Scope: the pinned VCMI implementation with its default 5% growth. This is not an independent measurement of the original Complete/SoD executable or a rule for HotA and mods. Ballista and fixed campaign specialties use separate rules.
Target and +1 Speed ↗ · Default growth ↗ · Level steps ↗ · Rounding ↗