Any chance of getting this put up on the web in electronic form?  I assume you're referring to the collector's ed perk hardcopy. Because the Heirgamenon on the website is limited to tech trees (as far as Ive seen), and the Lore section has portraits of the leaders but not much else.

I'm probably being really stupid and missing some electronic file or wiki somewhere where this is all laid out.

I was going to post some ideas ... and see that most have  already been posted above.  So, just let me say, i concur!

I would like to suggest some sort of environmental adjustments.  Perhaps the ability to create sand storms that sweep into an area and obliterate improvements (the 'built' part - not the actual tile), and would also disrupt food or gold production, etc.  The ability would start very small, and scale up.

What about a SOV that has mental connections with his/her offspring, allowing SOV to influence him/her even when in another faction?  (Or a hero that is traded, sold to another faction?)

Perhaps affinities for certain schools of magic (based on the shards) that would increase/decrease mana cost / strength of spells, summons, of that type.  Example:  SOV chooses affinity of fire magic.  Get SMALL bonus w fire spells, AND small negative with Water spells.  Same for Air vs Earth.  Might even have affect tied to (or enhanced by) physical radus of shard?

What about small bonus / weakness, etc based on terrain units are on?  Some racial types / sov absolutely HATE grassland (or fallen) etc. 

How about a sovereign with an affinity for nature? Every x number of turns this hero gets an animal unit (spider, wolf and such, not too powerful early game, but helpful). After x number of turns the ability gives a strong unit, but then does no more.

How about an experienced traveller sovereign. He gets a bonus level to his adventure skill so that he can see and take level 2 quests/locations (cant remember, I am on red wine here).

How about a commanding sovereign that gives +10 exp to all new units.

Passive Ability: BLINK

Description: Base movement points converted into a short range teleport equal to the sovereigns normal movement not counting upgrades.

Advantages: Now the sovereign cannot be easily blocked, walled in and provides flexibility.  Plus it's cool.

(minor) Disadvantages: Any movement points beyond base speed teleport will be normal movement only.  Mounts don't enhance your blink.

I would do questing for an ability or item like this.

I think there's a lot that can be done with existing research by having them unlocked by the sovereign.

For example, one sovereign maybe unlocks the Raze ability so you don't have to research it. Another one you can build shards from the start with. Maybe one sovereign is very good at some profession (like green thumb), and in 1.1 buildings of that sort cost less population to maintain.

There's also a lot that can be done in tactical combat, like forcing an enemy to flee the combat, or making them lose control of the unit for a turn or two (the unit moves and attacks randomly).

Summoned units in tactical combat would be cool too, like ghost wolves or raise dead (*cough* wow reference).

I think it would be cool if some sovereigns started with a pet unit that acted like a champion - ie it starts out weak but grows as it levels. Maybe one sovereign starts with a spouse.

Maybe one sovereign can travel across mountains.

Maybe one sovereign disables the negative effects of being in hostile environments (minus defense and attack gone) - maybe another sovereign improves the bonuses in friendly territory.

Maybe one sovereign makes units in his army regenerate life faster outside combat. Maybe one sovereign can summon buildings in the wastes to protect his party/army, they would last until the sovereign left (these buildings would have bonuses like... extra defense, extra regeneration, extra sight).

Leadership abilities that provide small bonuses to the army would be nice.

Its a balancing act, either extreme is bad.  We want something that feels flavorful for that unit but we have a bunch of abilities, spells, items, etc and we don't want any one to be to overpowering.

The suggestion of the +1 attack/lvl for Verga and +1 mana when Ceresa kills an opponent are probably about the right strength.  Strategic, flavorful and useful without being overpowering.

Great custom hero abilties? Oh man please log on your WarCraft 3 Game and play some custom maps.

Simple Abilities and my favorites.

1. Champion Critical Strike - %Chance + %Dmg

2. Dodge %Chance to avoid melee.

3. Ninja Dodge %Chance to dodge and on dodge you turn invisible and release a clone of yourself.

4. Invisibility duration based on level...

There are soooo many cool skills people have made on WC3 I would recommend doing some research there. Also some DotA type games have really cool skills/abilities/spells to inspire anyone. Try playing WC3 Original DotA and see why people love HEROES and why DotA was so much fun. By the way I don't really like DotA games, but I can admire the abilties/magic people have created. This also applies to equipment WC3 has... Really overall WC3 would probably inspire this game far as heroes and equipment ect to its max IMO.   I also loved the editor! Fun unit making! SC2 editor is to complex for me no fun....

So please be inspired by what the Warcraft 3 community has created.

Edit: Another source for great abilities and magic ect would be Neverwinter Nights 1-2 "Feats and Spells". The community there has also made some amazing stuff. If I made a list of abilties I would like to see in Elemental im sure the list would be never ending so.. thats  that.

I would love to see "Family guy" special ability: 50% chance to get twins when married.

I hope its understandable. If not, pls ask and i try to explain what i mean. -.- I know at the moment there is no initiative, but as i understand it, it will implemented for tactical battles?! If not some of my (raw) ideas a totaly nonsense.

Lord Relias:

- magical increase of initiative for all units for a short time, 1 use per battle
- wider sight

Lady Procipinee:

- 1 blinding spell per battle (blindness for short time) - targeting 1 unit
- increased prestige while in town

Lord Enil Markinn

- lowered costs for terraforming spells
- 1 spell per battle, targeting 1 unit, increase the defence for short time

General Carrodus

- Battlecry, increase the moral for a short time
- higher chance for critical strikes

Lady Irane

- archers have increased initiave
- no penalty while walking trough woods

Already lots of suggestions here...

For strategic abilities I'm leaning more towards passive abilities because pressing the same button every few turns just isn't fun.
I won't even try to assign these to a specific sovereign. I neither know about nor care for "the lore". =P
 

Without knowing anything about how magic will be like and what spells will be there, it's hard to suggest "magical stuff".

Maybe "Summoner" trait for lower summoning / upkeep costs and one tactical Banish Summoned spell per battle?

Something on character development that goes into the same direction but is not strictly a "generation trait".
However, it could be made one if you enable this with a trait pick at generation...
It would mean "wasting" points on no direct power early on but gaining the potential to grow into a more powerful caster as the game progresses.

Ideas like this one would be a lot easier to implement with the changes to the magic system (especially "multiple effects") that I suggested in the same thread.
The "trigger" would just be added to the spell as an additional effect and the character trait "Quick Learner" would make it work more efficiently.