A commander is a creature that is capable of acting independently on the strategic map - in other words, the player can give it orders. This distinguishes commanders from ordinary units, which are incapable of acting independently and will sit in a province's garrison until placed under the leadership of a commander.

Commanders have a huge range of functions in Dominions 6, ranging from ordinary army leaders who exist to ferry troops around, to priests who bless sacreds and improve morale, to mages who research new magic spells and cast those spells as rituals or in combat.

On battle reports, the names of commanders are indicated in different colours depending on their magical abilities, while ordinary units are written in white font. Note that the battle report colours are based on the base form of the commander and do not take into account paths that were given after creation, such as by making a mundane commander a prophet or empowering a commander into a mage.

• Mundane commanders with no magic paths have light blue names.
• Priest commanders with only holy magic paths have light yellow names.
• Mages with non-holy magic paths have pink names.