Best Cleric Spells in Tales of the Valiant

Introduction

The Cleric in Tales of the Valiant draws from the Divine spell list — the most support-forward and healing-rich source of magic in the game. Unlike the Wizard who knows spells or the Bard who picks from a fixed list, the Cleric prepares spells fresh each long rest, choosing from the entire Divine list up to their maximum circle. That flexibility is the defining mechanical feature of the class and its greatest strategic asset: you can be a healer for one dungeon and a blaster for the next.

Your spellcasting ability is Wisdom, which also drives your Perception, Insight, and many social skills. The class naturally incentivizes investing in WIS both for better spell DCs and a larger prepared spell count (WIS modifier + Cleric level). High WIS is the core of what makes the Cleric function, not an optional stat to dump.

The Divine list is defined by three things: exceptional healing, strong radiant damage, and powerful buffs like Bless and Aid. What it lacks is arcane utility (no Counterspell on the base list, no Invisibility), pure crowd control (no Hypnotic Pattern), and raw damage at scale. The Cleric wins fights by keeping allies operational, positioning aggressively with Spirit Guardians, and providing the sustained healing that other casters cannot.

Labyrinth Worldbook expands the Divine list in a darker, stranger direction: Void panic, corpse interrogation, anti-melee repositioning, smite riders, necromantic walls, soul theft, and ritual-scale travel. These spells do not replace Bless, Healing Word, Spirit Guardians, or Revivify, but they give Clerics sharper tools for dungeon pursuit, occult investigations, and Void-heavy campaigns.

Player's Guide 2 expands the Divine list in a more practical direction: luck nudges, battlefield auras, infernal protection, ranged radiant tools, smites for weapon Clerics, and rituals for travel, wards, and omens. For circle-by-circle context across all classes, see the cantrip guide, 1st-circle guide, 2nd-circle guide, 3rd-circle guide, 4th-5th-circle guide, and 6th-9th-circle guide.

Domain subclasses — Life, Light, and War — each amplify a different facet of the Divine list. This guide rates spells for general Cleric play. Notes on domain synergies are included where relevant.

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How to Use This Guide

• ● Avoid — Bad. Don't prepare this.
• ● Situational — Excellent in specific scenarios, weak as a default.
• ● Good — Reliable and generally worth preparing.
• ● Fantastic — Prepare this in almost every loadout.

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Cantrips

Clerics get cantrips that scale but the list is narrow. Choose wisely.

• ● Sacred Flame — Radiant damage on a DEX save (not an attack roll), ignoring cover. The target's DEX save is usually worse than their AC. The "ignore cover" clause is quiet but real — it reaches enemies hiding behind barriers. Your primary damage cantrip; take it every time.
• ● Guidance — Ally adds 1d4 to any ability check. No action cost in exploration, usable on every skill check. Probably the most valuable out-of-combat cantrip in the game. If you're not in initiative, this should be going off constantly.
• ● Resistance — Ally adds 1d4 to one save, concentration for up to 1 minute. Slightly awkward because it eats concentration before combat, but in social encounters or against environmental hazards it's a reliable passive boost.
• ● Thaumaturgy — Harmless magical effects: booming voice, trembling ground, lighting candles. Pure roleplay utility with zero game mechanics cost. Worth taking for the social intimidation applications.
• ● Light — Object emits bright light for 1 hour. If anyone in your party lacks darkvision or you run out of torches, this is your answer.
• ● Invigorate (Player's Guide 2) — Divine support cantrip that helps a wounded ally keep moving. It is not Healing Word, but it keeps the Cleric doing Cleric work even when slots are not worth spending.
• ● Luck Bait (Player's Guide 2) — Arcane/Divine near-miss fixer. On a Cleric it pairs naturally with Bless, which means your party gets multiple tiny math nudges and the monsters get to complain to accounting.
• ● Upright (Player's Guide 2) — Divine cantrip for getting a prone ally back into the fight. It looks small until the alternative is watching your frontliner spend movement and dignity at the same time.
• ● Infernal Fire (Player's Guide 2) — Divine damage cantrip with an anti-concentration angle. It is good into enemy casters, but Sacred Flame remains the cleaner default radiant button.
• ● Measure (Player's Guide 2) — Arcane/Divine utility cantrip for precise measurements. Great for traps, rituals, and "is this suspiciously exact" puzzles; not a default Cleric pick.
• ● Doorbind (Labyrinth Worldbook) — Arcane/Divine/ Primordial/Wyrd cantrip that makes doors, hatches, and similar barriers harder to open. It is narrow, but Clerics in dungeon crawls, retreats, and chase-heavy campaigns can turn a bonus-action door trick into real survival.
• ● Tree Heal (The Old Margreve) — Divine/Primordial cantrip that heals a plant or Plant creature, cures one plant disease, or removes pests from a plant. Great in a plant-heavy Margreve campaign, nearly blank in a normal dungeon.
• ● Mending — Repairs minor damage to an object. GM-dependent value. At tables that track equipment degradation or use environmental storytelling, this earns its slot. Everywhere else, skip.
• ● Spare the Dying — Stabilize a dying creature at 0 HP as an action. Potentially saves a party member's life at the cost of an action. Healing Word is almost always better since it also gets them back in the fight. Take this only if someone else handles the healing and you just need a stabilizer.

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1st Circle Spells

Your first circle is your resource bread-and-butter at low levels and your upcast engine later. Prioritize spells that scale well.

• ● Healing Word — Bonus action heal for 1d4+WIS at 1st circle, scaling with upcast. The action economy advantage over Cure Wounds is enormous in combat. Pick up an ally, then use your action for an attack or cantrip; the bonus-action spell rule prevents another 1st-circle-or-higher spell that turn. Prepare this every day, always.
• ● Bless — Three creatures gain +1d4 to attack rolls and saves for 1 minute, concentration. The math impact is exceptional: sustained across a combat with three party members making multiple attack rolls, this spell adds more expected damage than most high-circle damage spells. Scales beautifully with upcast (one more creature per slot level).
• ● Guiding Bolt — Ranged attack for 4d6 radiant with advantage on the next attack roll against the target. The radiant damage is your best opener at early levels, and the advantage gift to your next attacker is compounding value. Best used on a boss-level threat immediately before your Fighter attacks.
• ● Cure Wounds — Average heal (1d8+WIS) as an action. Excellent out of combat where the action economy doesn't matter. In combat, use Healing Word unless you need the extra dice.
• ● Shield of Faith — Target gets +2 AC for up to 10 minutes, concentration. On your Fighter or Paladin, this is reliable passive defense for an entire encounter. Small modifier, but AC is multiplicative — the 5% swing across 10+ attack rolls adds up.
• ● Bane — Up to three creatures subtract 1d4 from attack rolls and saves for 1 minute, concentration. The anti-Bless. Against saving throw-dependent enemies or heavily attack-reliant bosses, this is substantial. Competes with Bless for your concentration slot.
• ● Protection from Evil and Good — Ward against aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead. Concentration. In campaigns where those creature types are prevalent, this is a blanket defense on your most vulnerable party member.
• ● Sanctuary — Ward a creature so attackers must make a WIS save to target them. If they fail, they must pick a different target. Use it on your healer or a downed party member to give them a round of safety.
• ● Bleed (The Old Margreve) — Bonus-action concentration spell for a slashing weapon: extra necrotic damage and a stacking bleeding rider until the wound is staunched or magically healed. War Clerics can consider it; most Clerics should spend concentration elsewhere.
• ● Feed the Forest (The Old Margreve) — Divine/Arcane/Primordial/Wyrd spell that offsets the Margreve Forest's spellcasting penalty for 1 hour. Mandatory when that rule is active, dead text outside that specific campaign pressure.
• ● Truth of the Void (Labyrinth Worldbook) — Arcane/Divine/Wyrd illusion that can frighten a creature, make it drop what it is holding, and force it away. Clerics do not get many low-circle panic buttons; this one is short-lived but tactically sharp.
• ● Guiding Counsel (Player's Guide 2) — Divine support magic for ability checks. It is exactly the prepared-caster kind of spell: not always needed, excellent when the session is negotiations, trials, research, or dangerous skill scenes.
• ● Infernal Shield (Player's Guide 2) — Divine protection with an infernal skin. Strong when one ally is about to eat the dangerous attacks; check the theology at your table before your holy champion starts outsourcing to imps.
• ● Radiant Smite (Player's Guide 2) — Divine weapon burst for War Clerics and other weapon-forward builds. It is not for every Cleric, but it gives the weapon Cleric a clean radiant payoff.
• ● Bountiful Stamina (Player's Guide 2) — Divine endurance support. Prepare it for forced marches, fatigue pressure, and survival days; skip it in normal room-by-room dungeon fights.
• ● Corpse Limn (Player's Guide 2) — Divine investigation magic for dealing with the dead. Useful in murder mysteries and undead plots, not daily prep.
• ● Deathblindness (Player's Guide 2) — Divine occult utility against corpses and Undead awareness. Campaign-shaped, not a generic combat spell.
• ● Follow Through (Player's Guide 2) — Arcane/Divine ally attack support. Good in weapon parties, especially if you are comfortable spending low-circle slots to improve someone else's turn.
• ● Feed the Worms (Labyrinth Worldbook) — Arcane/ Divine/Primordial necromancy that consumes a recently dead body and turns it into a horrific corpse-based problem. Useful in grim campaigns and against resurrection politics, but too dark and conditional for default Cleric prep.
• ● Command — Force a creature to obey a one-word order on their next turn. "Drop," "Flee," "Grovel" — each has tactical value in the right moment. Falls off at higher levels as single-target 1st-circle spells lose impact.
• ● Detect Evil and Good — Know the presence and type of aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead within 30 feet. On the ritual list; cast without a slot in exploration contexts.
• ● Divine Favor — Weapon deals an extra 1d4 radiant on each hit for up to 1 minute, concentration. Only for Clerics who are consistently making weapon attacks — mostly War Clerics. Everyone else has better concentration options.
• ● Inflict Wounds — Melee spell attack for 3d10 necrotic, scaling per upcast. High damage ceiling but requires you to be in melee range. The risk-reward rarely justifies taking this over Guiding Bolt unless your build is specifically melee-focused.
• ● Heroism — Immunity to frightened and temporary HP equal to your WIS modifier each turn. Strong against fear-heavy encounters; otherwise niche.
• ● Detect Magic — On the ritual list. Never prepare this as a regular spell — cast it ritual and save your prepared slot for something useful.
• ● Purify Food and Drink — Transmutation ritual that removes poison from food. Useful at exactly one moment in most campaigns. Ritual list; never a prepared spell.

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2nd Circle Spells

Second circle is where Clerics start separating from other healers. The buffs here last longer, hit harder, and set up the engine that carries you to mid-game.

• ● Spiritual Weapon — Bonus action summons a spectral weapon that attacks as a bonus action each turn for 1 minute. No concentration. This is exceptional: it occupies your bonus action rather than your concentration, meaning you run Spirit Guardians or Bless simultaneously. The weapon deals force damage, resisted by almost nothing.
• ● Aid — Raise the current and maximum HP of up to three creatures by 5 each for 8 hours. No concentration. The 8-hour duration means you cast this before the dungeon and it lasts the session. It is a durable hit-point buffer, not healing or a replacement for the spell slot spent to cast it.
• ● Hold — Paralyze a Medium creature for up to 1 minute, WIS save repeating each turn. Paralyzed creatures are auto-hit for critical hits from melee attacks. Strong single-target lockdown for a high-value enemy. Upcast it for larger targets.
• ● Silence — 20-foot radius of magical silence for 10 minutes. Concentration. Shuts down all verbal spellcasting inside the sphere. Drop it on an enemy spellcaster's position and they're neutralized without a save.
• ● Warding Bond — Ally gains +1 AC and +1 to saves, resistance to all damage, but you take half the damage they would take. It does not require concentration, but the linked ally must stay within the spell's range limit. Huge sacrifice - but on the right fighter who is absorbing half the combat damage anyway, the math works out.
• ● Restoration — Cure disease or end one condition: blinded, deafened, paralyzed, or poisoned. It is a 2nd-circle Divine spell and uses a spell slot when cast normally. Vital utility for clearing debilitating conditions mid-combat.
• ● Zone of Truth — 15-foot sphere where creatures cannot lie for 10 minutes. Concentration. The information gathered in one casting of this spell can reshape an entire investigation arc. Campaign-defining for social-heavy tables.
• ● Suggestion — Creature obeys a reasonable order for up to 8 hours. WIS save. Social engineering at its finest. The 8-hour duration means your Suggestion before a negotiation can run the entire session.
• ● Shadow Guardians (Player's Guide 2) — Divine defensive shadow magic that makes enemies worse at reaching or hurting the protected side of the fight. It is not Spirit Guardians; it is "please stop hitting my friends" in a spooky coat.
• ● Star Bolt (Player's Guide 2) — Divine radiant offense with a useful rider. Clerics appreciate ranged radiant buttons that do something more interesting than "I also dealt damage."
• ● Perceive Vulnerability (Player's Guide 2) — Arcane/Divine setup magic for weapon-heavy parties. Prepare it when the Fighter, Rogue, Paladin, or Ranger is ready to cash in.
• ● Psychic Block (Player's Guide 2) — Arcane/Divine mental interference for making one creature's targeting worse. It is a good defensive prep when the enemy has one obvious dangerous attacker.
• ● See Invisibility — See invisible and ethereal creatures for 1 hour without concentration. Situationally crucial against stealth-heavy enemies.
• ● Prayer of Healing — 10-minute cast that heals up to six creatures for 2d8+WIS each. Pure out-of-combat healing. The cast time makes it useless in combat but excellent for recovering after a fight without burning long-rest resources.
• ● Blindness/Deafness — Blind or deafen a foe for 1 minute, no concentration. Blinding a powerful melee attacker halves their effectiveness. Deafening an enemy spellcaster restricts verbal spell components.
• ● Ray of Enfeeblement — Halve a foe's STR-based damage. Strong against melee-heavy bosses; irrelevant against spellcasters.
• ● Calm Emotions — Suppress charm effects and strong emotions among up to 12 Humanoids. Excellent for de-escalating social situations or suspending a charm/fear effect on your own party. Narrow use case but invaluable when it applies.
• ● Gentle Repose — Preserve a corpse from decay and prevent it from rising as undead for 10 days. Ritual list; never use a spell slot. Tactically relevant in undead-heavy campaigns.
• ● Branding Smite — Weapon deals extra radiant and the target emits light, preventing invisibility. Cleric-as-attacker option. Mostly a War Cleric tool.
• ● Feather Guard (Labyrinth Worldbook) — Divine reaction defense that lifts or repositions you after a hostile melee hit. War Clerics and front line support Clerics appreciate anything that turns one bad melee exchange into distance.
• ● Luminous Smite (Labyrinth Worldbook) — Divine/Wyrd weapon smite that adds radiant damage and makes the target easier for allies to hit. Best on War Clerics, but even support Clerics should respect the advantage-style team payoff.
• ● Sapping Smite (Labyrinth Worldbook / Player's Guide 2) — Divine/Wyrd necrotic smite that slows and wears down a target. Good for weapon Clerics fighting one durable enemy; poor if your build rarely makes weapon attacks.
• ● Eldritch Smite (Player's Guide 2) — Divine weapon magic for War Clerics who want their attacks to carry more than damage. Everyone else should treat it as Paladin-adjacent tech.
• ● Vengeful Smite (Labyrinth Worldbook / Player's Guide 2) — Divine/Wyrd psychic smite with fear pressure. Stronger on Paladins and weapon-first Clerics than on a normal backline caster.
• ● Protection from Poison — Neutralize one poison and grant resistance to poison damage for 1 hour. Prepare this only if your campaign features heavy poison use. Otherwise skip.

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3rd Circle Spells

Third circle is where the Cleric becomes the most powerful sustain-and-control engine in ToV. Two spells at this circle define an entire playstyle.

• ● Spirit Guardians — 15-foot radius aura of spirits for 10 minutes, concentration. Every creature that enters or starts their turn in the radius takes 3d8 radiant (or necrotic) damage on a failed WIS save, or half as much on a success, and has their speed halved. Combined with Spiritual Weapon as your bonus action, you become a damage zone that is also healing allies. This is one of the strongest combat spells on the Divine list.
• ● Revivify — Resurrect a creature that died within the last minute. The time limit is strict but the circle cost is low enough to prepare this without guilt. The difference between a party wipe and a close fight often comes down to whether the Cleric had Revivify ready.
• ● Mass Healing Word — Bonus action heal up to six creatures for 1d4+WIS each. The numbers are modest but the action economy is extraordinary: you heal the entire party with your bonus action and still attack or cast a cantrip. As with Healing Word, you cannot also cast another 1st-circle-or-higher spell with your action that turn. Use this after a bad round where multiple allies took significant damage.
• ● Beacon of Hope — Allies have advantage on WIS saves and death saving throws, and heal maximum when healing is applied. Concentration. The maximize healing component doubles your Cure Wounds output. In a difficult fight where you need maximum healing efficiency, this turns your 2nd-circle slots into nearly full-circle equivalents.
• ● Dispel Magic — End a magical effect. Automatic for 3rd circle or lower; ability check for higher. Essential. Having this prepared is insurance against enemy concentration spells and magical barriers.
• ● Remove Curse — End all curses affecting a creature. Campaign-critical in modules with heavy curse content. Prepare it when you know you'll need it; don't carry it every day.
• ● Tongues — Understand any language for 1 hour. Ritual list; cast without a slot. Invaluable in first contact with new creature types.
• ● Sending — 25-word message anywhere in the world. Long-range communication that crosses distances no other 3rd-circle spell touches.
• ● Daylight — 60-foot radius of bright light for 1 hour. Dispels darkness spells of 3rd circle or lower. Invaluable against vampire lords, shadow creatures, or any enemy with a darkness feature.
• ● Bestow Curse — Impose a significant curse on a creature: disadvantage on saves, ability checks, or attacks, or make them waste turns. Concentration. No damage, pure debuff — best used on a boss who needs to be weakened for the rest of your party.
• ● Blood Offering (The Old Margreve) — Divine/Wyrd necromancy that consumes life force from a recently dead creature you helped damage, healing you based on its challenge rating and complicating resurrection. Flavorful and grim, but too conditional to prepare by default.
• ● Tracer (The Old Margreve) — Divine/Arcane/Primordial/Wyrd bonus-action tracking beacon tied to ammunition. Useful when the adventure is about finding a fleeing enemy; unimpressive if your Cleric is not making ranged weapon attacks.
• ● Forceful Courser (Labyrinth Worldbook) — Divine/Primordial/Wyrd conjuration that sends spirit beasts through the battlefield for force damage and knockdown pressure. It is not Spirit Guardians, but it is a good non-radiant burst option when prone matters.
• ● Golden Bull (Labyrinth Worldbook) — Divine/Wyrd abjuration that punishes creatures who close on you with force damage and pushback. Excellent for War Clerics holding space and for support Clerics trying to make melee enemies pay the entry tax.
• ● Star's Radiance (Labyrinth Worldbook) — Arcane/Divine abjuration that gives nearby allies better protection against Wisdom-save pressure. Prepare this when fear, charm, confusion, or Void effects are the encounter's main danger.
• ● Aura of Bane (Player's Guide 2) — Divine aura pressure that makes nearby enemies worse at doing the things they came here to do. Excellent until you remember Clerics have to stand close enough for enemies to complain in person.
• ● Abjuring Smite (Player's Guide 2) — Divine smite tech for weapon Clerics who need a protective rider. Good build spell, mediocre general prep.
• ● Venomous Smite (Player's Guide 2) — Divine smite pressure for weapon Clerics. Poison themes are swingy by monster roster, so this stays situational.
• ● Vampiric Touch — Melee attack for 3d6 necrotic, healing you for half. Requires you to stay in melee every round. Life Clerics and War Clerics can consider this; other builds have better concentration options.
• ● Animate Dead — Create a skeleton or zombie under your control. No concentration, lasts 24 hours with maintenance. The minion itself is modest, but stacked across multiple casts it compounds. Primarily a necromancy-flavored campaign tool.
• ● Clairvoyance — Remote viewing or hearing up to 1 mile for 10 minutes. Ritual list. Intelligence gathering before a fight is legitimate strategic value.
• ● Create Food and Water — 45 pounds of food and 30 gallons of water. Pure survival utility. If your campaign is running resource attrition, this changes the math. Most campaigns don't need it.
• ● Magic Circle — Ward against creature types in a 10-foot circle. Ritual list; use it during long rests in hostile territory.
• ● Protection from Energy — Ally resists one damage type for 1 hour. Good against an encounter you know the damage type for in advance.
• ● Spirit Guardians Upcast — (Spirit Guardians is always the best use of upcasted 3rd+ slots in most situations. When you upcast it, it hits harder; when you upcast Mass Healing Word, you heal more. These are the two vectors for Cleric slot spending.)

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4th Circle Spells

• ● Death Ward — Ally automatically survives one event that would drop them to 0 HP, instead dropping to 1 HP. No concentration, 8-hour duration. Put this on your tankiest frontliner before entering a dangerous area and it costs you nothing more. Best insurance policy in the game for that cost.
• ● Guardian of Faith — Radiant sentry deals 20 radiant damage to approaching enemies for 8 hours without concentration. You summon it and walk away — the 20 radiant damage on a failed DEX save is significant, and 60 total damage capacity is often enough to discourage enemies from approaching protected allies entirely.
• ● Freedom of Movement — Ally can't be grappled, restrained, or slowed for 1 hour. No concentration. Your most vulnerable or movement-critical party member gets total immunity to the most common forms of battlefield control. Excellent in fights where grappling enemies are present.
• ● Banishment — Send a creature to another plane for 1 minute. Concentration. Against extraplanar enemies, this is a permanent removal. Against natives, it's a 1-minute lockdown that lets your party stabilize the fight.
• ● Control Water — Command water bodies in a 100-foot cube: flood, whirlpool, redirect, part. Concentration. In the right environment this reshapes the entire battlefield; most encounters lack water.
• ● Blight — 8d8 necrotic to a living creature, halved on a CON save. Plants automatically fail. Strong damage option when you need an offensive punch at 4th circle.
• ● Heart-Seeking Arrow (The Old Margreve) — Divine/Primordial bonus-action concentration spell that empowers your next ranged or thrown weapon attack with +6d6 weapon damage, half on a miss, and a harsh death rider. Stronger on Paladins and Rangers than Clerics; War Cleric archers are the exception.
• ● Castigation Glyph (Labyrinth Worldbook) — Divine abjuration that marks a target and punishes it for hurting you or nearby allies. This is a real Cleric control spell: it pressures enemy target selection instead of just adding damage.
• ● Spectral Wall (Labyrinth Worldbook) — Arcane/Divine necromancy wall that damages, frightens, and complicates movement. A strong alternative when Spirit Guardians cannot cover the space you need to defend.
• ● Wield Soul (Labyrinth Worldbook) — Arcane/Divine necromancy that draws knowledge or power from a creature that recently died. It is not daily prep, but in boss fights and occult investigations it can turn the dead enemy into the next solution.
• ● Aura of Mercy (Player's Guide 2) — Divine aura support for keeping nearby allies alive while the fight keeps moving. This is exactly what Clerics want from a 4th-circle expansion spell: party-facing value, not a lonely damage number.
• ● Otherworldly Orchestra (Player's Guide 2) — Arcane/Divine support and disruption. Bards get the obvious flavor win, but Clerics can still use the mechanics when a fight needs broad pressure.
• ● Faithful Hound — Invisible sentry that attacks intruders for 8 hours. No concentration. Camp protection and ambush prevention. Only valuable if your campaign includes rest interruption.
• ● Compulsion — Charm foes and direct their movement with a bonus action. WIS save. Strong crowd control if the targets fail; easily broken.
• ● Confusion — Targets act randomly on failed WIS saves for 1 minute. Concentration. Hits a cluster of enemies and wastes their turns but requires concentration you often want on Spirit Guardians.

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5th Circle Spells

• ● Mass Cure Wounds — Average heal (3d8+WIS) to up to six creatures in range. Compared to upcasting Healing Word, the numbers per creature are better but you lose the bonus action cast. Use this when multiple allies are critically low and you need the burst, not just one.
• ● Greater Restoration — Remove one of a list of severe conditions or reduce an ability score drain. Covers exhaustion, charm, curse, petrification, and ability score reductions. Prepare this on dungeons where these conditions appear. Invaluable when needed; skip when not.
• ● Flame Strike — 10-foot radius column of fire and radiant damage in two halves, each with a DEX save. The radiant half is rarely resisted. Against fire-resistant enemies, this still hits for the full radiant component. Your best offensive circle 5 option.
• ● Dispel Evil and Good — Send creature types back to their home plane or end charms/frights on allies. Strong defensive utility in extraplanar campaigns.
• ● Greater Hold — Paralyze any creature (no size limit) for 1 minute. The 5th-circle upgrade removes the size restriction from the 2nd-circle version. Against any boss-level threat, this is the "win button" when your party needs time to deal critical damage.
• ● Maim (The Old Margreve) — Divine/Wyrd melee spell attack for necrotic damage plus a permanent withering rider until remove curse, greater restoration, or similar magic. The body option can remove resistance or create vulnerability to bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage, which is devastating if your party is weapon-heavy. Risky range, high ceiling.
• ● Contagion — Sicken a creature with a disease after three failed CON saves. Concentration. Takes setup, but at level 9 fights last enough rounds for the payoff. The disease choices can cripple specific enemy types.
• ● Antilife Shell — 10-foot field that blocks living creatures from entering for 1 hour, concentration. Defensive bubble that prevents melee enemies from reaching you. Excellent in chokepoints.
• ● Aura of Order (Player's Guide 2) — Divine aura defense for parties that need stability against magic and chaos. It is a strong "hold the line" prep for Clerics expecting a real boss fight.
• ● Feathered Flock (Player's Guide 2) — Divine party mobility. Any spell that solves vertical terrain for multiple allies deserves respect, especially when the battlefield is not a flat moral lesson.
• ● Lifeblind (Player's Guide 2) — Divine sensory denial. Strong into specific creature senses and horror campaigns; not a default 5th-circle prep.
• ● Legend Lore — Learn detailed information about a legendary creature, place, or item. Campaign-defining intelligence. Prepare it when you need it; don't carry it as a default.
• ● Scrying — Spy on a creature anywhere on the same plane for up to 10 minutes. Concentration. Excellent for finding a specific NPC or creature whose location matters to the plot.
• ● Commune — Ask your deity three yes-or-no questions. Ritual. Never prepare this as a regular spell.

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6th–9th Circle Spells

• ● Heal (6th) — Restore 70 HP to a creature and end blinded, deafened, and diseased conditions. Single-action emergency heal that covers conditions simultaneously. The most efficient healing spell on the Divine list when someone is badly hurt and debuffed.
• ● Word of Recall (6th) — Teleport you and five allies to your sanctuary. Escape spell. When the fight goes wrong at 11th level, this extracts the entire party. The setup requirement (designating a sanctuary) rewards planning ahead.
• ● Divine Word (7th) — Banish, stun, blind, deafen, or kill extraplanar foes depending on their HP. No concentration, no attack roll. Against fiends, celestials, fey, and elementals, this one-actions out entire groups based on HP threshold.
• ● Mass Heal (9th) — Distribute 700 HP of healing among any creatures in range. Full-party resurrection in a single action. The only time you need to cast this is when the fight has gone catastrophically wrong, and when that happens, nothing else saves you.
• ● Power Word Recover (9th) — Fully heal one ally. No conditions, no dice — one creature goes from any HP total to full. The targeted version of Mass Heal for your most important party member.
• ● Sunbeam (6th) — Line of blinding radiant damage each round for 1 minute. Concentration. Radiant damage is broadly unresisted, and blinding is a powerful secondary condition. Strong in open-area fights.
• ● Life Drain (Labyrinth Worldbook, 6th) — Arcane/Divine necromancy that turns enemy vitality into survival value. It is not as universally important as Heal, but it gives Clerics a darker sustain option when offense and recovery need to happen together.
• ● Righteous Fervor (Player's Guide 2, 6th) — Divine party offense that feels like Bless after it got ordained, hired a trainer, and started taking names. If your group attacks often, this is one of the best PG2 Cleric additions.
• ● Greater Warding Bond (Player's Guide 2, 6th) — Divine protection for parties that need shared durability without pretending damage will politely hit one person at a time.
• ● Pronouncement of Doom (Player's Guide 2, 6th) — Divine judgment magic for making one enemy's future look grim. Strong when the party can focus on the doomed target immediately.
• ● Energizing Aegis (Player's Guide 2, 6th) — Divine defense with an offensive pulse. Useful, but it competes with Heal, Righteous Fervor, and other high-impact 6th-circle prep.
• ● Prismatic Longbow (Player's Guide 2, 6th) — Arcane/Divine ranged weapon magic. War Cleric archers can care; most Clerics should let the actual archer enjoy it.
• ● True Seeing (6th) — Ally sees truly for 1 hour. Essential in campaigns with illusion-heavy enemies or shape-changers.
• ● Harm (6th) — Reduce a creature's HP maximum by up to 14d6, leaving them with at most 1. The HP max reduction is devastating over a long fight — the target cannot be healed beyond the reduced maximum.
• ● Holy Aura (8th) — Allies emit light, have advantage on saves, enemies attacking them have disadvantage, and fiends or undead that hit allies are blinded. Passive raid-wide defense upgrade that can carry a lethal boss fight.
• ● Power Word Kill (9th) — Kill a creature with 100 HP or fewer. When a boss is at low HP, this ends it cleanly.
• ● Sunburst (8th) — 60-foot radius blinding radiant. Huge AoE, radiant damage, and blind on a failed CON save. The mass debuff is the value beyond the damage.
• ● Plane Shift (7th) — Send allies anywhere or banish an enemy to another plane. The offensive application on a failed CHA save removes an enemy permanently. The defensive application evacuates your party when a fight turns unwinnable.
• ● Blinding Revelation (Player's Guide 2, 7th) — Divine revelation that turns truth into battlefield pressure. Prepare it when sight, saves, and enemy clustering matter.
• ● Aura of Quietus (Player's Guide 2, 8th) — Divine high-circle aura pressure with a lethal mood. It is not your everyday defensive prayer; it is what you prepare when enemies need to regret standing near the holy person.
• ● Power Word Petrify (Player's Guide 2, 8th) — Arcane/Divine lockdown for turning a vulnerable problem into a statue. It is blunt, effective, and legally distinct from interior decorating.
• ● Infernal Dominion (Player's Guide 2, 9th) — Divine infernal control for campaigns where devils, contracts, and hellish politics matter. The source text reads like a big ongoing set-piece, so verify the table text before building your whole plan around it.
• ● Vision Voyage (Labyrinth Worldbook, 7th, Ritual) — Divine/Wyrd ritual for long-range supernatural exploration and campaign-scale discovery. It is excellent when the plot needs reconnaissance, terrible if you prepare it expecting a combat answer.
• ● Finger of Death (7th) — Major necrotic damage plus zombie creation on a killed Humanoid. Worth preparing in undead-themed campaigns.
• ● Storm of Vengeance (9th) — Increasing environmental harm for 10 rounds. Concentration. The damage output across a full 10-round combat is extraordinary, but fights rarely last that long. Situationally spectacular.
• ● Circle of Death (6th) — Large-radius necrotic AoE. Your biggest damage bomb. Worth preparing when you know a horde encounter is coming.
• ● Power Word Stun (8th) — Stun a creature with 150 HP or fewer until they make a CON save. Strong against mid-boss threats; unreliable against true bosses with high HP.
• ● Glibness (8th) — Your CHA check minimum becomes 15. A Cleric almost never has high CHA. Useless.
• ● Sun Cycle (Labyrinth Worldbook / Player's Guide 2, 9th, Ritual) — Divine/Primordial ritual magic with enormous environmental and narrative implications. It belongs in campaigns where the sky, daylight, or cosmic timing matters; it is not a normal daily 9th-circle combat preparation.

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Top 10 Spells + Expansion Picks

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Spell Synergies

Spirit Guardians + Spiritual Weapon Spirit Guardians uses concentration. Spiritual Weapon does not. Both are active simultaneously. Every turn you move toward enemy clusters (triggering Spirit Guardians) and attack with Spiritual Weapon as a bonus action. You are doing meaningful damage and slowing enemies down while your main action handles healing or casting support spells. This is the core Cleric combat loop and it is extremely efficient.

Bless + Guiding Bolt on the Same Turn At level 1, the tension is action economy, not concentration. Guiding Bolt is a strong opener because it deals radiant damage and gives advantage to the next attacker, while Bless is the better sustained combat plan if the fight will last. Open with the one that matches the encounter: spike now, or math all fight.

Beacon of Hope + Mass Cure Wounds Beacon of Hope makes all healing deal maximum. Mass Cure Wounds heals up to six creatures for 3d8+WIS. Under Beacon, that becomes a flat maximum 24+WIS per creature. Against a party that has taken a punishing round of AOE damage, this double-action combination can reset the fight's health economy entirely.

Death Ward + Your Best Tank Cast Death Ward before the dungeon. Your Fighter now has a free life insurance policy that prevents their next knockout. This alone statistically prevents more deaths than most preparation ever does and costs one 4th-circle slot and a bonus action before combat.

Aid + Long Dungeon Runs Aid lasts 8 hours. If you cast it at the start of every day on your three tankiest party members, you're adding 5 HP to their effective maximum for the entire session — no concentration, no upkeep. Over 10 encounters, that's invisible HP that scales your party's durability without touching your in-combat resources.

Maim (The Old Margreve) + Weapon Party If your party has a Fighter, Barbarian, Rogue, Ranger, or Paladin ready to capitalize, maim can turn a durable enemy into a liability by stripping resistance or creating vulnerability to bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage. Do not cast it just for the 4d6 necrotic hit. Cast it because the next four weapon attacks become much scarier.

Heart-Seeking Arrow (The Old Margreve) + Guided Strike War Clerics who actually use ranged or thrown weapons can pair heart-seeking arrow with accuracy support to avoid wasting the setup. The half-damage-on-miss clause helps, but the spell still asks for concentration, a 4th-circle slot, and a weapon attack plan. If that is not your build, prepare something else.

Truth of the Void (Labyrinth Worldbook) + Disarm Windows Truth of the Void is strongest when the dropped item matters. Use it against wand users, weapon duelists, key holders, or anyone carrying the object the party came to steal. If the target only runs for a turn, the spell is fine; if they drop the plot object, it is excellent.

Star's Radiance (Labyrinth Worldbook) + Fear-Heavy Encounters When the enemy plan is charm, fear, confusion, or Void pressure, star's radiance turns your Cleric into a small WIS-save anchor. It is not better than Spirit Guardians in normal fights, but it is better than pretending Spirit Guardians solves a mind-control encounter.

Spectral Wall (Labyrinth Worldbook) + Spirit Guardians Use spectral wall to define where enemies do not want to cross, then stand with Spirit Guardians where they still have to go. The wall shapes the lane; the aura punishes whatever survives the lane.

Luck Bait (Player's Guide 2) + Bless Bless already turns misses and failed saves into near misses. Luck bait is another tiny correction tool for those "missed by one" moments. It is not dramatic, but neither is accounting, and accounting wins fights.

Shadow Guardians (Player's Guide 2) + Backline Protection Use shadow guardians when the fight is about protecting allies rather than grinding enemies through your aura. It is the defensive cousin of your usual stand-in-the-middle plan.

Righteous Fervor (Player's Guide 2) + Weapon Party Righteous fervor gets better as your party makes more attacks. Fighters, Rangers, Paladins, and aggressive Rogues all turn it into a real damage plan; a caster-heavy party makes it merely stylish.

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Hot Takes

Hot Take: The "pure healer" Cleric is a trap. A Cleric who spends every turn casting Cure Wounds is doing half the work of a Cleric who runs Spirit Guardians, attacks with Spiritual Weapon, and uses Healing Word as a bonus action to pick up downed allies. The healing output is similar. The offensive contribution is not. The best Cleric in the party does damage and heals; the worst one just waits for someone to go down.

Hot Take: Bless is better than any offensive spell you can prepare. A 1st-circle spell that gives three allies +1d4 to every attack roll and saving throw for an entire combat outperforms a 3rd-circle damage spell in almost every fight that lasts more than two rounds. Bless scales with encounter length in a way no single-cast damage spell does. Prepare it. Cast it first. Keep concentration on it.

Hot Take: Revivify is worth more than any 9th-circle spell you'll cast this session. The correct time to prepare Revivify is every session, regardless of whether you think you'll need it. The one session you don't prepare it is the session the Fighter drops and doesn't get back up. The spell costs 300 gp in material components; the cost of not having it is the party's momentum and potentially the campaign. There is no argument against preparing Revivify.

Hot Take: Maim (The Old Margreve) is not a damage spell. If you cast it because 4d6 necrotic looks exciting, you are wasting a 5th-circle slot. If you cast it to make the boss vulnerable to the party's weapon damage, it can outperform most Cleric offense in one round of follow-up attacks.

Hot Take: Heart-Seeking Arrow (The Old Margreve) is a Paladin and Ranger spell wearing a Divine tag. Clerics can technically prepare it, but most Clerics are not built around ranged weapon attacks, and concentration is too valuable to spend pretending otherwise.

Hot Take: Doorbind (Labyrinth Worldbook) is not bad because it is narrow. It is bad when the dungeon has no doors and excellent when the party is retreating through three doors with angry monsters one move behind them.

Hot Take: The Labyrinth Worldbook smites are War Cleric spells, not Cleric spells. Luminous Smite, Sapping Smite, and Vengeful Smite all ask the same question: are you actually making weapon attacks, or are you roleplaying as someone who does?

Hot Take: Spectral Wall (Labyrinth Worldbook) is the Labyrinth Cleric spell most likely to overperform. Clerics already win by standing in the right place; a wall that makes the wrong place hurt is exactly their kind of magic.

Hot Take: Righteous Fervor (Player's Guide 2) is Bless after it got ordained, hired a trainer, and started taking names.

Hot Take: Shadow Guardians (Player's Guide 2) is not Spirit Guardians. It is "please stop hitting my friends" in a spooky coat, and that is a valid pastoral service.

Hot Take: Aura of Bane (Player's Guide 2) is excellent until you remember Clerics have to stand close enough for enemies to complain in person.

Hot Take: Star Bolt (Player's Guide 2) gives Clerics a ranged radiant button that does something more interesting than "I also dealt damage." That should not be rare, but here we are.

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Final Notes

The Cleric's prepared spell system is what separates good Cleric players from great ones. The spells listed here are rated for general play, but the single highest-skill expression of Cleric is reading upcoming encounters and preparing the exact right loadout for them. An optimized Cleric who prepared the wrong spells loses to a thoughtful Cleric who prepared the right ones.

Spirit Guardians into Spiritual Weapon, topped off with Healing Word when allies go down: that loop is the engine. Everything else is situational customization around it.

The Labyrinth Worldbook spells are part of that customization layer. Prepare them when the adventure is about Void pressure, doors, pursuit, melee punishment, soul magic, or occult travel. Do not let them push out the core Cleric package unless the scenario clearly rewards the swap.

Player's Guide 2 is a stronger day-to-day Cleric expansion than it first looks. Invigorate, Luck Bait, Guiding Counsel, Shadow Guardians, Star Bolt, Aura of Bane, Aura of Mercy, Aura of Order, Righteous Fervor, and Aura of Quietus all reinforce actual Cleric jobs: keep allies functional, make enemies worse, and turn the middle of the battlefield into your office.

For more on the Cleric's class mechanics, domain features, and combat role, see the full Cleric class guide.

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For the class and circle index, return to the Tales of the Valiant Spell Guides.

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