This guide is designed with the intent of attempting to explain the pros and cons of the Special Abilities. I have also attempted to explain, on a very basic level, some of the interesting ways in which they can be implemented.
Here we go:
Uses: The most common use for figures with the Healing attribute is to use them in armies that implement a lot of Magically Immune figures. Figures with this version of healing are the only ones, so far, that can mend your magically immune troops.
Drawbacks: The biggest drawback for Healing is that you must be in base to base contact with the figure that you are attempting to heal. In other words, the healer usually has to wade knee deep into combat along with the fighters that he's attempting to preserve. You also cannot heal a figure while either your healer is in base to base contact with an enemy figure or the figure it is trying to heal is in base to base with an enemy figure.
Uses: Weapon Master is, hands down, the best close combat ability that a figure can possess. Most of the figures that have weapon master have damage scores of only two (with Weapon Mastery) at some point on their damage dial. This means that you have an 83% chance of rolling higher than the base damage that your figure already does. In my opinion, this ability should be used at any point that your base damage is 2 or less and possibly 3 or less, if you have managed to be the first striker. This is because the average die roll of a single die is 3 1/2.
Drawbacks: The only real drawback to this Special Ability is the fact that you must make base to base contact before it becomes relevant. Since most games are decided upon by effectiveness of your ranged units, this ability is rarely used unless the figure has been Magically Levitated into it's attack position.
Uses: Magic Blast is one of the most desired Special Abilities that a character can possess. The main reason for this is because it totally bypasses all terrain features and all figure bases. With this Special Ability a figure can fire at enemy units from the relative safety of a few blocking units.
Drawbacks: The worst drawback to this Special Ability is the fact that most of the figures that possess this ability have a very low attack value. The figures, with Magic Blast, that don't have a low attack value are generally very expensive.
Uses: This Special Ability is, by far, one of the most popular Abilities in Mage Knight because of it's ability to damage several figures at once. It is also one of the rarest Special Abilities in the game because it is only found on 7 of the standard figures in the game. This Ability is almost always used in conjunction with the Magic Enhancement ability in order to upgrade it's effectivness.
Drawbacks: Most veteran players know the extremely destructive power of this Special Ability and will throw everything in the book at destroying these figures. Make sure that these figures have adequate protection when going into combat.
Uses: This ability is useful only when you are facing a swarm of weenies with low defense scores. Otherwise, you would be better off spending your points elsewhere.
Drawbacks: In my opinion, this ability is one of the least useful abilities in the game. While it is capable of damaging figures in a small radius from it's center, it can only do one damage. This one damage, according to rulings by the game designers cannot be enhanced. There are better figures to spend over 30 points on, in my opinion.
Uses: This is the second best close combat Special Ability in the game. While it does not help you to do any more damage to the figure you are facing, it does allow you to heal yourself with each successful hit. If you are the first striker in an evenly matched fight and your figure has this Special Ability, then you will most likely come out of the fight with barely a scratch.
Drawbacks: This Ability has the same drawback as all close combat special abilities; you have to make it to your target alive. Good use of blockers make figures that use this Special Ability much more effective.
Uses: This is, above and beyond, the best method in the game for restoring your characters health. The reason for this is because all of the figures that possess this Ability have a ranged attack. In other words, these figures to do have to wade very deep into battle in order to keep your units in their prime. However, they can heal units that they are in base to base contact with (As per ruling by Mage Knight Authorities) despite the misleading wording on the Special Ability card.
Drawbacks: The most obvious drawback for this Special Ability is it's inability to heal Magically Immune figures. Otherwise, this ability is incredibly useful.
Uses: Battle Armor is extremely useful because of one important aspect of the game; most games are determined by the effectiveness of your ranged units. It should be obvious, then, that an Ability that gives bonuses to your defense against ranged attacks would be worth it's point costs. Figures with this ability are much more effective when advancing upon ranged units, even if they do not have blocking units for protection.
Drawbacks: This special ability is highly useful when your figures are fighting at a distance, but if you happen to become entangled in close combat, then these figures tend to become a lot less useful.
Uses: The uses of this ability in armies that are intended for tournament play are fairly limited. One popular, yet not very successful use of this ability is to create a circle of figures with this Ability and Magically Levitate enemy figures into the circle and thereby causing several points of damage. This ability is also not nearly as effective against the charge ability as people are hoping, since most players will just deal with these figures from a distance before moving their charge units in.
Drawbacks: For this Ability to be effective, your enemy must voluntarily make base to base contact with these figures. Most players are saavy enough to avoid initiating combat with them.
Uses: This Special Ability is quite useful for two reasons. The first reason is because it is solid prevention against Magic Blast units. The second reason is because it negates any extra damage caused by magical enhancement.
Drawbacks: The main drawback for this Special Ability is that the characters that currently possess this ability are over priced in point costs. The second drawback is that only non magical healing can restore these figures to health.
Uses: Toughness is one of the best defense abilities in the game. If two figures are fairly evenly matched, then the winner of the outcome will usually be the character with toughness, even if he does not manage to be the first striker.
Drawbacks: There is no drawback to Toughness except that it does not prevent pushing damage, Shockwave damage or Pole Arm damage which aren't really life threatening damage amounts for most of the characters with Toughness.
Uses: This is the best, current, defense Special Ability in the game. If it is used in conjunction with figures that have other such abilities as Toughness and Battle Armor, then the amount of damage prevention that is capable is astounding.
Drawbacks: The only real drawback to Defend is that it is ignored when totaling up Shockwave damage.
Uses: This Special Ability is really only useful after combat. At that point you can attempt to use the ability to regenerate up to four points of life.
Drawbacks: This Special Ability is, quite possibly, the worst defense Ability there is. Unlike all other forms of healing, there is a decent chance of total failure in which your figure effectively wastes an action in an attempt to heal back an average of 1(!) point. My opinion; don't waste the action.
Uses: The true uses of this ability will not be fully known until we have some figures to experiment with that actually have this Ability.
Uses: This is one of the most awaited Special Abilities in the game so far. One possible use for this ability will be to start the turn in base to base contact with a figure who has Magic Levitate. Then the figure can move into contact with an enemy figure, attack it and be levitated back to the Magical Levitate figure.
Drawbacks: This ability does not, fortunately, have the same drawbacks that other close combat figures have. In fact, I can't think of any drawbacks.
Uses: Quickness is the most useful ability that a blocking unit can possess. It allows the blockers for your army to move at the same time as the units it's protecting without spending an action. One of the best parts of this ability is it's found on a wonderful range of figures, from incredibly cheap point values to incredibly expensive point values.
Drawbacks: The obvious drawback is that these units cannot move in formation, but it doesn't cost an action to move them so it doesn't really matter.
Uses: This ability is extremely rare and extremely useful. It is capable of taking all of your figures that do not have the Charge or Bound Special Ability and gives it to them. Use figures with this Special Ability as little catapults by throwing your melee units into battle.
Drawbacks: This ability allows to levitate up to ten inches away, but a few ranged units on a board have ranges of ten and above which means that they can pick you off before you can catapult your death at them.
Uses: The best part of this ability is the ease with which you can break away from enemy figures. It allows you to be able to make base to base contact with enemy figures and have the peace of mind that you will be able to escape from the battle if things are not going your way.
Drawbacks: Players must know when the Flight ability goes away on each character that they are using so that they will know when to time a breaking away maneuver in order to receive healing. The other drawback is that there are no formations wit Flight, so you can't send all of your Feral Bloodsuckers to pounce on one guy in the same turn.
Uses: This ability is quite useful for two different actions. The first is that you can hide your figures with Aquatic in deep water and avoid melee combat. The second, more fun, use is to capture enemy units and then take them into deep water where they will promptly drown. Since a tough Deep Spawn has an attack value of eleven, it is not very difficult to pull this maneuver off.
Drawbacks: Currently there are only three figures with this ability and they are not very useful except when attempting to drown opponent figures.
Uses: Stealth's strength lies in it's ability to render certain types of terrain malleable. Hindering terrain can switch between Blocking and Hindering at your whim. This is really useful when a character with Stealth needs to be healed. You can move it into hindering terrain and then turn off the ability to allow your healer to work his magic and then turn Stealth back on to hide from attackers. It is also useful for grabbing captives and then running into hindering territory for almost total protection.
Drawbacks: Again, the drawbacks come from the figures that have the Stealth Special Ability. It is best when paired with a good ranged attack, yet the highest ranged attack on a figure with stealth is currently eight inches.
Uses: Bound is probably the most useful Special Ability in the game. Since most games are won on the basis of how effective your ranged units are, then this makes ranged units into battle tanks. Being able to move into range and shoot in the same turn is incredibly decisive in a battle. This ability is also effective for flanking your enemy. Simply move twice the figure's speed stat on his first action in order to move out of your enemies' firing arcs, then move around behind your enemy on the figures second action and begin targeting support units. Also, if someone does manage to make base to base contact with your unit, then simply move away because there are no break away rolls with Bound units.
Drawbacks: If this ability has a drawback, then we don't know about it yet.
Uses: If you don't know, then read the rulebook again.
Drawbacks: All of the other Special Abilities have seven actual abilities. The Damage Special Abilities only have six due to this. (I'll stop whining now..)
Uses: This ability has more uses than some people are willing to admit. Figures with this awesome ability do not usually depreciate in value as they take damage. In some cases figures with this ability actually get better as they take damage such as the Troll Chieftan.
Drawbacks: If your figure had a ranged attack before this Ability kicked in, then you don't have one when it does. If this figure depends on it's ranged ability, then make sure it doesn't become Berserked.
Uses: Oh the sweet, sweet possibilities that this Special Ability has. When paired with a ranged figure, then you truly have a weapon to fear. It is very common for people to use two or three figures with Magical Enhancement in order to pump up the damage of one or two ranged figures.
Drawbacks: If you are enhancing a figure with several Magical Enhancement figures, then you are not spending points on other important facets of your army. Be careful of forming units that have to many Enhancement characters because they generally do not have very good attack values by themselves. Also important to remember is that any units with Magic Immunity will laugh at your attempts to pump up ranged units.
Uses: This Special Ability is the most common current ability found on a figure other than Demoralized. Nearly 36% of all figures have this ability. It comes in very handy when opposing armies that are bent on capturing your pieces. Also, most warriors with battle fury do not degenerate into complete weenies as they take more and more damage.
Drawbacks: Once this ability kicks in you cannot capture figures and the ones that you have previously captured will be released. It is important to remember which clicks of damage will make your character go into Battle Fury just in case you plan on making a capture attempt with it.
Uses: Despite nearly everyone's conception that Demoralized figures are useless, they still do have a very good use. They may not be able to Initiate combat anymore, but they can still block for the rest of your troops.
Drawbacks: You cannot initiate combat once this Special Ability becomes active.
Uses: Necromancy offers your characters a second chance at life and at least at battle. The most famous use is to have several Grave Robber characters spaced out on the playing area for the purpose of returning your lost figures back to life in a good position to resume fighting.
Drawbacks: The main drawback to Necromancy is that your figures will be returned to life with an average of 3 1/2 clicks of damage. This means that most characters will come back in a very bad state of livelihood. In other words, use this ability only on figures that actually improve as they take damage or Zombies and Skeletons.
Uses: Command is a wonderful ability that can turn the tide of a battle very quickly. By having an extra action during your turn you can do that last lethal point or two of damage to a crippled enemy figure or position your troops better than your enemy expected.
Drawbacks: This Ability has a very low chance of occurrence since there is only a one in six chance that it will be successful. In other words, do not depend on this Ability to save your worthless butt on the battle field. It just happens to be a handy "what if" ability that is attached to already decent figures in most cases.