Tales of the Valiant Spell Guides

Introduction

Tales of the Valiant restructures spellcasting in ways that matter. Four source lists replace the single spell list of older editions: Arcane, Divine, Primordial, and Wyrd. Every spellcasting class draws primarily from one of these, with a handful of classes gaining deliberate access to a second or third. Circles replace spell levels: same mechanics, cleaner terminology. Ritual casting is decoupled from spell slots across the board, which means your utility magic no longer competes with your combat magic for resources.

Full casters (Bard, Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, Theurge, Warlock, Witch, and Wizard) progress through all nine circles and treat spellcasting as the engine of their class. Half casters (Paladin and Ranger) cap at 5th circle, gain slots on a slower track, and use magic as a multiplier on their martial foundation.

The Old Margreve expands the spell pool with a forest-forward package: tracking magic, hunting curses, animal and plant support, terrain rituals, shadow scouting, and high-circle forest protection. Most of the expansion lives on the Primordial list, which means Druids and Rangers gain the most, but Arcane, Divine, and Wyrd casters all receive meaningful tools.

Labyrinth Worldbook pushes in a stranger direction: void magic, maze control, short-range portals, dream rituals, smites, construct creation, metal punishment, and high-circle cosmic horror. It is especially relevant for Theurges because they read the expansion through both Arcane and Divine access before Sacred Learning even enters the conversation.

The guides below cover every spellcasting class in depth and break down the spell pool circle by circle. Start with the class guide for your character, then use the circle guides to evaluate specific picks at each tier.

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Browse by Class

Each guide covers spell selection, rating every spell on the class list, and identifying the picks that define strong play.

• Bard Spell Guide — The Arcane caster with the widest cross-list reach; one spell from any source at 1st level makes early builds uniquely flexible.

• Cleric Spell Guide — Divine magic at full depth; the best healing, the best battlefield control, and some of the most situationally decisive spells in the game.

• Druid Spell Guide — Primordial caster with unmatched area control and sustained damage; built around the land and the creatures that inhabit it.

• Paladin Spell Guide — Half caster with a tight Divine list; every spell slot counts, and the best picks amplify the burst damage of Divine Smite rather than compete with it.

• Ranger Spell Guide — Half caster drawing from Primordial and a narrow selection of utility spells; lean on concentration effects and action economy over raw slot count.

• Sorcerer Spell Guide — Arcane caster with the tightest spells-known list and the most spells-per-day through Sorcery Points; knows fewer spells than a Wizard but casts them more aggressively.

• Theurge Spell Guide — Arcane and Divine caster with unmatched list breadth; combines staple support, control, blasting, healing, and sourcebook additions.

• Warlock Spell Guide — Wyrd magic on short-rest slot recovery; a small slot pool that resets frequently forces high-density picks — every slot-consuming spell should be your best spell.

• Witch Spell Guide — Wyrd caster built around Hexes, familiar play, save pressure, rituals, and weird sourcebook additions.

• Wizard Spell Guide — Arcane caster with the largest spell list and a spellbook that grows by scribing; unmatched versatility at the cost of per-day raw output.

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Browse by Circle

The circle guides evaluate all spells available across source lists at that tier, making them useful when you want to understand what's available rather than what a specific class gets.

• Cantrips Guide — The spells you'll cast most often. Cantrips scale with character level across all source lists — picking the right ones compounds over an entire campaign.

• 1st Circle Spell Guide — The tier where your class identity forms. First circle picks establish your action economy and determine how hard you carry early-game sessions.

• 2nd Circle Spell Guide — Concentration effects start doing serious work here. The spells that define mid-tier combat and exploration come online at 2nd circle.

• 3rd Circle Spell Guide — The power tier where full casters pull decisively ahead. Several of the strongest spells in the game across any source list are 3rd circle.

• 4th & 5th Circle Spell Guide — High magic, big swings. This is the ceiling for half casters, and the transition into campaign-altering spell territory for full casters.

• 6th–9th Circle Spell Guide — Spells that end encounters, reshape the world, and define end-game play. These slots are scarce — understanding which spells are worth the investment matters more at this tier than any other.

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The Old Margreve Spell Expansion

The Old Margreve adds a specialized but useful spell package. The standout theme is pursuit: finding prey, hiding tracks, reshaping travel routes, punishing enemies who flee, and turning the forest itself into a tactical asset. Druids and Rangers benefit the most because the Primordial list receives the largest share, but Wizards, Bards, Sorcerers, Clerics, Warlocks, Witches, and Theurges can still pick up relevant tools depending on their source access.

Cantrips

• Hamstring (The Old Margreve) — Arcane and Wyrd ranged force cantrip that prevents reactions on a hit. This is a control cantrip first and a damage cantrip second.
• Hobble (The Old Margreve) — Arcane bonus-action slow effect. Useful when your action is already committed and you need to interfere with enemy movement.
• Tree Heal (The Old Margreve) — Divine and Primordial plant-only healing cantrip. Mostly campaign-specific, but excellent in plant-heavy parties or Margreve adventures.

1st Circle

• Bloodhound (The Old Margreve) — Primordial tracking buff that grants advantage on smell-based Perception and Survival checks. Rangers and wilderness Druids should care.
• Cobra Fangs (The Old Margreve) — Primordial natural-weapon buff with poison damage. Better for beast-form, pet, and odd melee concepts than generic casters.
• Cure Beast (The Old Margreve) — Primordial bonus-action healing for Beasts. Stronger in parties with animal companions, summoned beasts, mounts, or Beast-heavy encounters.
• Feed the Forest (The Old Margreve) — All-source spell that suppresses the Margreve spellcasting penalty while in the forest. Essential in that campaign, mostly irrelevant outside it.
• Forest Native (The Old Margreve) — Primordial forest-travel buff that beats difficult vegetation and environmental hazards. A practical exploration pick.
• Hunter's Endurance (The Old Margreve) — Primordial pursuit spell that lets you relentlessly track a quarry while suspending exhaustion from the hunt.
• Illuminate Spoor (The Old Margreve) — Primordial tracking divination that makes a creature's tracks visible and easier to follow.
• Mud Pack (The Old Margreve) — Primordial ritual for environmental protection and slow-travel stealth.
• Scentless (The Old Margreve) — Primordial anti-scent utility. Excellent against smell-based trackers and ambush predators.
• Step Like Me (The Old Margreve) — Arcane and Primordial track-swapping utility for deception, pursuit, and misdirection.
• Tree Speak (The Old Margreve) — Primordial divination that asks a tree what happened nearby. Strong in forest investigation scenes.

2nd Circle

• Bestial Fury (The Old Margreve) — Primordial combat enchantment for turning a creature into a more aggressive threat.
• Bleating Call (The Old Margreve) — Arcane and Primordial lure spell that pulls creatures toward an illusory sound.
• Bombardment of Stings (The Old Margreve) — Primordial cone damage with poison rider. A flavorful area option for insect-themed casters.
• Instant Snare (The Old Margreve) — Primordial trap spell that restrains and alerts you when triggered.
• Mark Prey (The Old Margreve) — Arcane and Primordial bonus-action tracking and attack-advantage spell. One of the cleanest Ranger upgrades in the book.
• Nip at the Heels (The Old Margreve) — Arcane illusion that imposes disadvantage through illusory dogs. Good against grounded targets, weaker against flying or elevated enemies.
• Spy My Shadow (The Old Margreve) — Arcane and Wyrd shadow-scouting spell. Excellent for infiltration when familiar scouting is risky or unavailable.

3rd Circle

• Blood Offering (The Old Margreve) — Divine and Wyrd corpse-based self-healing. Dark, situational, and best for grim campaigns.
• Cynophobia (The Old Margreve) — Arcane and Primordial fear curse against targets near canids. Niche, but brutal in a wolf-heavy campaign.
• Going in Circles (The Old Margreve) — Arcane ritual that turns natural terrain into an illusory navigation trap.
• Legion of Rabid Squirrels (The Old Margreve) — Primordial forest-only summon using a squirrel swarm. Highly table-dependent, but memorable.
• Monstrous Empathy (The Old Margreve) — Primordial charm effect for low-Intelligence Monstrosities.
• Putrescent Faerie Circle (The Old Margreve) — Primordial fungal control zone with necrotic, poison, poisoned, and paralysis pressure.
• Tracer (The Old Margreve) — All-source tracking beacon delivered through ranged ammunition. Strong for archers and pursuit-heavy parties.

4th and 5th Circle

• Harry (The Old Margreve) — Arcane long-form fear and tracking spell. Strong when the goal is to break a target over time rather than win a single combat.
• Harrying Hounds (The Old Margreve) — Arcane and Primordial forced-travel fear effect. More adventure tool than arena spell.
• Heart-Seeking Arrow (The Old Margreve) — Divine and Primordial ranged-weapon burst spell. A serious Paladin/Ranger-style damage rider when ranged attacks matter.
• Hunting Stand (The Old Margreve) — Primordial ritual that creates a hidden, weatherproof shelter.
• Killing Fields (The Old Margreve) — Primordial ritual that turns natural terrain into a hunting preserve with pack tactics, extra weapon damage, and tracking/stealth benefits for chosen creatures.
• Looping Trail (The Old Margreve) — Arcane and Primordial ritual that makes a path loop back on itself.
• Maim (The Old Margreve) — Divine and Wyrd necromancy attack that permanently withers a body part until powerful magic removes it.
• Primal Infusion (The Old Margreve) — Primordial self-buff with temporary HP, advantage support, extra weapon damage, AC, and CON save proficiency. A major gish or martial-caster button.
• Storm of Wings (The Old Margreve) — Primordial and Wyrd movable area spell with bat, bird, or insect modes. The insect mode is especially punishing against spellcasters.
• Yarila and Porevit's Mantle (The Old Margreve) — Primordial plant transformation that rewards sunlight and vegetation with healing, exhaustion mitigation, and stealth.

6th to 9th Circle Rituals

• Conjure Forest Defender (The Old Margreve) — Primordial and Wyrd ritual that turns a Humanoid body into a vine-golem-style forest defender. Powerful, costly, and morally loaded.
• Forest Sanctuary (The Old Margreve) — 9th-circle Primordial ritual that protects a large forest area from environmental threats and can become permanent through repeated casting.

Hot Takes

Hot Take: Mark Prey (The Old Margreve) is the spell Rangers wanted Hunter's Mark to be.** Bonus action, long range, tracking support, invisibility denial, and attack advantage all point in the same direction: find the target, stay on it, and kill it. It competes for concentration, but it gives pursuit and combat value at the same time.

Hot Take: Spy My Shadow (The Old Margreve) is more interesting than another damage spell.** Arcane and Wyrd casters already have damage. What they often lack is a scouting tool that is not a fragile familiar walking into a trap. A two-dimensional shadow spy is exactly the kind of utility that changes how a party approaches a dungeon, manor, camp, or fey court.

Hot Take: The Old Margreve is secretly a Ranger spell book.** Druids get the biggest raw list, but Rangers get the most identity from it. Bloodhound, Hunter's Endurance, Illuminate Spoor, Mark Prey, Instant Snare, Heart-Seeking Arrow, Hunting Stand, and Killing Fields all support the same fantasy: relentless wilderness predator with magic that makes the hunt unfair.

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Quick Tips for ToV Spellcasters

• Concentration is your real resource. Spell slots are finite but predictable; Concentration is the bottleneck that actually limits caster power. One strong Concentration effect running for multiple rounds beats three slot expenditures. Build to protect it: Constitution saving throw proficiency or War Caster talent pay dividends all campaign.

• Rituals are free action economy. Detection, identification, and social utility spells with the ritual tag cost time, not slots. If your class has ritual casting, you should have at least two or three ritual-tagged spells in your kit at all times. The 10-minute cast time almost never matters outside of combat.

• Cross-list access can define a build. When a class feature gives you access to a spell from outside your primary list, read it carefully. A Divine spell on a Bard or Arcane spells on a Cleric are frequently better than anything available natively at the same circle. Old Margreve spells make this even more important because several of the best additions sit outside the lists that most obviously want them.

• Half casters should treat every slot as a premium resource. Paladins and Rangers have enough slots to participate meaningfully in combat, not enough to experiment freely. Prioritize spells that either dramatically extend the effectiveness of a turn (smite enablers, concentration buffs) or that cover a capability gap the party cannot otherwise fill.

• Upcast intentionally. Upcasting a 1st-circle spell with a 3rd-circle slot is sometimes correct, but not always. Before upcasting, ask whether a different 3rd-circle spell would simply outperform the upcast version. Many spells don't scale linearly. Know which ones do before spending higher slots on them.

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Final Notes

These guides cover the core ToV spellcasting classes, with sourcebook notes added where The Old Margreve and Labyrinth Worldbook meaningfully change the spell conversation. If you're looking for broader character-building context (lineage, heritage, ability score decisions, or subclass breakdowns), the Class Guides hub and Lineage Guides hub cover all of that in depth.

Spell selection is one decision in a system built around layered decisions. The class guides give you the full picture.