Warlords Battlecry III Interview

GameZone Online has conducted an interview with Infinite Interactive's Steve Fawkner, asking the lead designer several questions about Warlords Battlecry III. An excerpt:
Q: Warlords Battlecry III has a new hero system. Could you give us some details about it?

A: We have made two significant changes to our hero system since Battlecry II. These changes have completely changed the way that a player deals with their hero.

Firstly, heroes now level up during a battle (instead of at the end of the battle). This meant that the level-up system needed to be simpler than previous titles, because players would need to do it in the midst of managing a war. We settled for a system very much like Diablo II, where a player increases one of their stats, and then increases one of their skills. It's a very elegant system and still has plenty of depth and variety to it.

Secondly, we made magic items far more interesting. Now there is so much more variety. Items can affect all types of things from life regeneration to armor to spell range. Some powerful items can even cast spells!