Introduction
The Wizard in Tales of the Valiant is the broadest spellcaster in the game. No other class accesses as many spells, adapts as flexibly between sessions, or collects the same depth of magical utility over a full campaign.
Wizards draw from the Arcane spell list with INT as their spellcasting ability. At 1st level, a Wizard chooses three cantrips, puts six 1st-circle Arcane spells in a spellbook, and chooses one Arcane ritual separately. The prepared list is INT modifier + Wizard level spells, and it can be changed during a long rest. A spell remains prepared after casting; the spell slot is what is spent.
The two practical advantages are the spellbook and rituals. Each Wizard level adds two eligible Arcane spells to the book. An Arcane spell of 1st circle or higher can also be copied when it is from a circle the Wizard can prepare, taking 2 hours and 50 gp per circle. Rituals are separate learned spells: they do not need preparation and do not consume slots, but they must be known and recorded in the book.
The Old Margreve expands the Wizard's Arcane list with wilderness pursuit, route manipulation, shadow scouting, and movement harassment. These spells do not replace shield, fireball, hypnotic pattern, or wall of force. They matter because the Wizard is the class that can afford to collect niche answers and keep them ready in the spellbook until the campaign makes them brilliant.
The Labyrinth Worldbook expands the Wizard in a more planar direction: Void Speech, dream magic, metal control, pocket demiplanes, portals, constructs, voidborn summons, gravity wells, and devastating high-circle control. The big lesson is the same as always: copy everything you can afford, prepare only the pieces that solve tomorrow's problem better than the core Arcane list.
Player's Guide 2 is the practical Arcane expansion. It adds luck manipulation, movement disruption, projectile tricks, metal punishment, psychic pressure, spell-delay tools, spell absorption, petrification, and rituals that make the spellbook feel even more unfair. Wizards did not need another reason to buy ink. They got one anyway.
The subclass at 3rd level further defines your identity. Battle Mage adds martial-adjacent offensive options and bonus action cantrip cycling. Cantrip Adept supercharges your cantrip damage and flexibility. Each shapes how you build your prepared list.
How to Use This Guide
Ratings are for the Wizard specifically, accounting for spellbook access, ritual availability, and INT-based casting.
Ritual ratings assume the Wizard has learned the ritual and recorded it in the spellbook. A ritual appearing on the Arcane list is not automatically known.
- ● Avoid it unless a specific table need changes the calculation.
- ● Situational. Keep it available for the right adventure.
- ● Strong. Prepare it regularly when its role fits the day.
- ● Excellent. A reliable default preparation.
Cantrips
Wizards start with 3 cantrips and scale to 5. These are permanent: your free-action damage and utility all day.
Fire Bolt ● — 1d10 fire at 120 feet, scaling to 4d10. Standard ranged attack cantrip. Fire is commonly resisted, but range and damage are best in class. Your default.
Corrosion (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Destroys a small unattended nonmagical object. It cannot handle locks or complex mechanisms, so it is more forensic sabotage than dungeon-solving. Useful flavor, not a priority cantrip.
Crimson Forge (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Turns blood, bone, flesh, or vegetation into simple weapons or ammunition. Wizards rarely need this, but it is a neat spellbook-worldbuilding pick for grim, resource-starved campaigns.
Crushing Curse (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — WIS save for psychic damage and deafened. Psychic damage is excellent, and deafening matters against sound-based threats, but it competes with Fire Bolt and Word of Misfortune for your action.
Doorbind (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Bonus-action door or hatch lockdown with disadvantage on interaction rolls. Great chase tech, mediocre permanent cantrip choice unless the campaign loves doors, gates, and escape-room pressure.
Hamstring (The Old Margreve) ● — Ranged force cantrip that prevents the target from taking reactions until the start of its next turn. The damage is low, but force is reliable and reaction denial is real party utility when an ally needs to move, disengage, or reposition.
Hobble (The Old Margreve) ● — Bonus-action DEX save cantrip that halves a target's speed until the end of its next turn. It is not a damage cantrip, but it gives Wizards a rare low-cost way to spend a spare bonus action on battlefield control.
Influence (Player's Guide 2 / Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Advantage on CHA checks with one nonhostile creature, followed by the target realizing you used magic. Too socially messy for a Wizard who can solve the same scene with better prep and fewer consequences.
Luck Bait (Player's Guide 2) ● — Low-cost roll manipulation for the next important attack or save. Wizards are already rude when they choose the right spell; Luck Bait helps the dice notice.
Electric Jolt (Player's Guide 2) ● — A clean lightning cantrip option when fire resistance is common or your Battle Mage wants elemental variety.
Measure (Player's Guide 2) ● — Practical investigation and planning utility. It is not combat power, but Wizards love exact information because exact information becomes exact nonsense later.
Canteen Catch-All / Conjure Missile (Player's Guide 2) ● — Handy utility cantrips for resource, ammo, or travel-focused campaigns. Copy the vibe, not the whole grocery list.
Ray of Frost ● — 1d8 cold and -10 ft speed. Speed reduction limits enemy repositioning. Valuable in encounters where enemy movement matters.
Shocking Grasp ● — 1d8 lightning melee, prevents reaction. You are not a melee character. The reaction-prevention rarely justifies the range.
Acid Splash ● — 1d6 acid, one or two adjacent targets. Fire Bolt deals more damage to one target. Skip.
Vicious Mockery ● — Psychic damage plus disadvantage on next attack. Psychic is rarely resisted. Defensive cantrip that punishes the most dangerous enemy attack each round.
Mage Hand ● — Magical hand for simple tasks. Universal utility. Every Wizard should have this permanently.
Minor Illusion ● — Sound or image, 1 minute. Creative tool for distraction, communication, and ambush setup.
Prestidigitation ● — Dozens of minor magical effects. Indispensable for social and roleplay scenarios.
Swift Stash (Player's Guide 2 / Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Tucks a small object into an extradimensional pocket and retrieves it as a bonus action. This is exactly the kind of utility cantrip Wizards enjoy: smuggling, evidence handling, wand protection, and sleight-of-hand problem solving.
Light ● — Bright light. A torch is free. Skip unless the party desperately lacks light.
Grave Touch ● — Necrotic and prevents healing. Strong against regenerating targets. Excellent for Cantrip Adept subclasses.
Poison Spray ● — 10-foot range, poison is commonly resisted. Fire Bolt dominates this in every metric.
Message ● — Whisper at 120 feet. Situational utility. Mage Hand and Minor Illusion cover most communication needs.
Dancing Lights ● — Four floating lights. Functional lighting that requires concentration — a real cost.
Mending ● — Minor object repair. Situational roleplay tool.
Word of Misfortune (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Necrotic damage plus disadvantage on the target's next save before your next turn. This is the standout Labyrinth Wizard cantrip because it sets up your own save spells and your party's control. Cantrip Adepts should look here first.
1st Circle Spells
At 1st level, choose six 1st-circle Arcane spells for the spellbook and one Arcane ritual separately. Start with reliable preparations, then add specialized answers as the book grows.
Alarm ● — Set an audible or mental alert for intruders. RITUAL. Free camp security every long rest. Put it in the spellbook immediately; never prepare it — cast as ritual.
Agonizing Mark (The Old Margreve) ● — Concentration mark that can knock a target prone when you damage it. It asks you to keep attacking the same enemy, so it is best in boss fights or party focus-fire rounds rather than broad battlefield control.
Burning Hands ● — 3d6 fire in a 15-foot cone. Your best 1st-circle AoE option at low levels. Replace priority reduces as higher-circle blasts come online.
Charm ● — Charm a creature until it takes damage. Concentration. Strong social utility and temporary encounter neutralization.
Color Spray ● — Blind creatures in a cone by HP pool. Unreliable. Sleep generally outperforms this at 1st level.
Comprehend Languages ● — Understand any language. RITUAL. Free for 1 hour whenever needed. Every language barrier solved at zero slot cost. Spellbook, never prepare.
Delay Passing (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Question a creature that died within the last minute. It is not Speak with Dead, but Wizards love time-sensitive information tools. Spellbook it for investigations, murders, and battlefield interrogations.
Detect Magic ● — Sense magic within 30 feet. RITUAL. Free magic detection. This is one of the most-used utility spells in the game. Cast it before entering every dungeon room, identify magic items for free, detect hidden enchantments — all without spending a slot. Spellbook always.
Disguise Self ● — Change your appearance. Concentration. Useful in infiltration campaigns; not a daily-prepare spell. Spellbook only.
Dreamspan (Labyrinth Worldbook, Ritual) ● — Creates a phantom bridge or ladder. Once learned and recorded in the spellbook, it solves chasms, broken stairs, pit traps, and vertical travel without a spell slot. Excellent ritual acquisition.
Eclipse Sight (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Reaction curse that can blind a creature that damaged you. Shield is still the default defensive reaction, but Eclipse Sight is worth preparing when blinding one attacker buys the party a full round.
Expeditious Retreat ● — Bonus action Dash. Concentration. Too passive for Wizard combat contribution. Skip.
False Life ● — Temporary HP. No concentration. Pre-combat survivability for the d6-HD caster. Useful at low levels; replaced by higher-circle defenses.
Feather Fall ● — Stop fall damage, reaction. Spellbook only if your campaign has lots of vertical terrain. Strong in the right setting.
Feed the Forest (The Old Margreve) ● — Suppresses the Margreve Forest's penalty to your spell attacks and spell save DCs. This is a campaign tax, not a general-purpose Wizard spell. Mandatory in the Margreve if the forest's magic rules are active; nearly blank outside it.
Feed the Worms (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Consumes a fresh corpse and creates a hostile worm swarm. Gruesome and occasionally useful, but too corpse-dependent and uncontrolled to prepare over Sleep, Grease, Shield, or Mage Armor.
Fling (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Hurls an unattended object for bludgeoning damage. It is a fun environmental spell, but Magic Missile and Grease are more reliable early picks.
Floating Disk ● — Carry 500 lbs. floating platform. RITUAL. Pure utility ritual; useful in treasure-heavy dungeon delves. Spellbook only.
Fog Cloud ● — Fog obscures an area. Concentration. Too passive. Your concentration is worth more.
Grease ● — Slippery terrain, prone on failed DEX save. No concentration. Persistent area control that requires no ongoing investment. Prone creatures give advantage to melee allies. Solid early-game pick.
Hideous Laughter ● — Incapacitate a Humanoid. Concentration. INT save limits effectiveness. Strong against Humanoid enemies; useless against monsters. Spellbook yes, daily prepare situationally.
Identify ● — Learn all properties of a magic item or spell. RITUAL. One of the most important utility rituals in the game. Always in the spellbook. Never spend a slot.
Illusory Script ● — RITUAL. Hidden writing. Niche ritual, but zero cost makes it worth having.
Longstrider ● — +10 ft speed, 1 hour. No concentration. Leave to martial classes. Your preparation slots are too valuable.
Mage Armor ● — AC 13 + DEX, 8 hours. No concentration. You have no armor. This is your only AC foundation. Prepare it every single day. With DEX 14, you reach AC 15 before anything else. Non-negotiable.
Magic Missile ● — Three auto-hit darts, no save, no attack roll. Scales up. The spell that cannot miss. Against high-AC targets that your other attacks struggle to hit, magic missile delivers reliable damage. Excellent utility pick.
Pendulum ● — Alter a target's next roll probability. No concentration. Force advantage or disadvantage on a critical upcoming roll. Clever, unique, and versatile.
Ruminate (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Distracts a creature with daydreams, but combat targets have advantage and damage breaks it. Spellbook it for social/infiltration plans, not combat days.
Shield ● — Reaction, +5 AC until your next turn. Blocks magic missile. Keep a 1st-circle slot perpetually available for this. The difference between a Wizard dying to a burst round and surviving with 3 HP is almost always shield. Prepare it daily. Use it reactively.
Silent Image ● — Small visual illusion. Concentration. Spellbook utility; not a daily prepare.
Sleep ● — Put creatures to sleep by HP pool. Excellent at low levels; scales poorly. Replace priority as you gain levels. Keep in the book for campaigns with lots of low-HP enemies.
Step Like Me (The Old Margreve) ● — Swaps the tracks you leave with a target's tracks and confuses tremorsense identification. Excellent for forensic wilderness play; too narrow for daily preparation unless the campaign cares deeply about spoor, pursuit, and frame jobs.
Thunderwave ● — Push and damage in a cube. You are not melee. Skip.
Truth of the Void (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Frightens a target, forces it to drop what it is holding, and makes it dash away for a round. This is a sharp 1st-circle panic button against weapon users, focus holders, and dangerous melee enemies.
Stumble (Player's Guide 2) ● — Movement denial and prone pressure at low circle. Grease is still the classic area answer, but Stumble is cleaner when one creature's movement is the problem.
Distance Dilation (Player's Guide 2) ● — Turns distance into a problem for the target. Great for kiting, chase scenes, and keeping melee threats one bad commute away from your robes.
Withering Gaze (Player's Guide 2) ● — Psychic/fear pressure for Wizards who want a debuff that feels less like math and more like a haunted mirror.
Follow Through (Player's Guide 2) ● — Ally-weapon support. Good in a coordinated martial party, but most Wizards prefer self-contained control.
Unseen Servant ● — RITUAL. Invisible servant for mundane tasks. Zero cost; occasionally useful. Spellbook only.
2nd Circle Spells
Acid Arrow ● — 4d4 acid + 2d4 next turn. Requires attack roll. Single-target damage spell. Reliable but not exceptional. Spellbook yes; daily prepare situationally.
Arcane Lock ● — RITUAL. Magically lock a door or chest. Useful dungeon security and puzzle-solving tool. Spellbook only.
Arcanist's Magic Aura ● — RITUAL. Make a creature or item read differently to divination. Strong deception and investigation tool in the right campaign.
Blindness/Deafness ● — Blind or deafen a creature. No concentration. CON save. A blinded creature attacks at disadvantage and is attacked with advantage. No concentration cost means you can maintain a concentration spell simultaneously. Excellent combat debuff.
Bleating Call (The Old Margreve) ● — Draws creatures with an illusory call. This is a lure, distraction, and encounter-shaping spell, not a combat staple. Spellbook it for wilderness ambushes or monster-herding plans.
Blur ● — Attackers have disadvantage against you. Concentration. Survivability for the d6-HP caster who is being targeted. Useful when you cannot maintain distance.
Continual Flame ● — Permanent heatless flame. 50 gp ruby dust cost. Utility; spellbook only.
Corrupting Sheath (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Bonus-action acid retaliation against creatures that touch or hit you. The no-concentration duration is nice, but a Wizard should not plan around being hit in melee.
Darkness ● — Magical darkness. Concentration. Wizards lack darkvision by default. Less effective than for Warlocks built around magical-sight tricks. Situational.
Darkvision ● — 60-ft darkvision, 8 hours. No concentration. Prepare once before a dungeon delve and forget about light for the session.
Detect Thoughts ● — Read surface thoughts. Concentration. Social and investigation powerhouse. Prepare when social encounters are expected.
Destructive Resonance (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — 15-foot psychic cone with reaction denial. Psychic is good, but Wizards should not spend many turns in short cone range unless the build is unusually durable.
Dream Lance (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Long-range psychic attack with a rider that can halve speed, block reactions, or frighten toward another creature. Solid single-target control for INT-save pressure, especially when you want damage plus positioning disruption.
Elemental Blade ● — Melee elemental damage. You are not a melee caster. Battle Mage subclass bumps this to orange for close-quarters builds.
Enlarge/Reduce ● — Enlarge an ally or reduce a foe. Concentration. Enlarge on your Fighter ally deals +1d4 damage and grants advantage on STR checks. Reduce on an enemy imposes disadvantage on STR attacks. Flexible concentration investment.
Flaming Sphere ● — Moving fire sphere, bonus action attack, 2d6. Concentration. Consistent damage generation without repeated action investment. Roll the sphere into a chokepoint; let it burn.
Gear Barrage ● — Cone of gears deals slashing. Too narrow for a daily prepare.
Glitter Dust (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Outlines invisible creatures and can blind a cone of targets. This is a strong anti-invisibility spellbook answer that can become a daily prepare when hidden enemies are expected.
Gust of Wind ● — Wind pushes and disperses. Concentration. Too passive for your concentration slot value.
Heat Metal ● — 2d8 fire per round to armored target, disadvantage on attack rolls and checks. Concentration. Against armored or weaponized foes, this is sustained damage and debuff simultaneously. Bonus action to reactivate the damage. Strong against specific enemy types.
Hold ● — Paralyze a Medium creature, CON save each turn. Concentration. Paralyzed creatures fail STR and DEX saves; melee attacks are automatic crits. The most powerful single-target control at 2nd circle. Every melee ally becomes a critical hit machine while this holds. Daily prepare for combat-heavy sessions.
Invisibility ● — Invisible until attacking or casting. Concentration. Strong pre-combat setup and infiltration tool.
Knock ● — Open a lock, loudly. Arcane Lock as a ritual covers this ground. Spellbook only.
Levitate ● — Float target up to 20 feet. Concentration. Neutralize a melee-only threat permanently. Also works for self-positioning above ground effects.
Locate ● — RITUAL. Find a creature or object. Important investigation ritual. Spellbook only; cast as ritual.
Magic Mouth ● — RITUAL. Recorded message on an object. Niche; spellbook only.
Magic Weapon ● — Enchant a weapon. Concentration. Leave to the martial classes.
Maddening Whispers (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — CHA save or incapacitated with speed 0, sustained by your bonus action and broken by damage. This is fragile, but it is a real single-target lockdown option against low-CHA brutes.
Magnetize (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Push or pull metal objects up to 1,000 pounds, including contested worn or carried objects. Wizards should copy this immediately; it turns armor, weapons, portcullises, keys, anchors, and dungeon machinery into tactical assets.
Mark Prey (The Old Margreve) ● — Bonus-action concentration mark that helps you track a target, ignore its invisibility, and gain advantage on your own attack rolls against it. Better for attack-roll Wizards, Cantrip Adepts, and pursuit-heavy games than for standard save-spell control builds.
Misdirect (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — WIS-save movement scramble that can force reaction movement, prone, speed 0, or random movement. Bonus-action reapplication on later turns makes it efficient battlefield harassment.
Mirror Image ● — Three decoys absorb hits. No concentration. Layered with mage armor, you have three additional hit chances before attacks reach you.
Misty Step ● — Bonus action teleport, 30 feet. No concentration. You are the enemy's primary target because you end encounters. You need an escape. Misty step is that escape. Prepare it daily.
Nip at the Heels (The Old Margreve) ● — No-concentration WIS save debuff that imposes disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls, with repeat saves. The flying/elevated-target rider limits it, but no concentration makes it much easier to justify than many 2nd-circle debuffs.
Protection from the Void (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Touch-range resistance to necrotic or psychic damage. A strong spellbook answer for Labyrinth, undead, aberration, and Void-heavy arcs, though not an everyday preparation.
Ray of Enfeeblement ● — Halve STR damage. Concentration. Competing with hold and hypnotic pattern. Skip.
Rope Trick ● — RITUAL. Extradimensional rest space. Strong in high-danger campaigns where long rests are interrupted. Spellbook only.
Scorching Ray ● — Three fire rays, 2d6 each. Separate attack rolls per ray. Flexible damage distribution. Scales well at higher spell circles (upcasting adds rays).
See Invisibility ● — See invisible. No concentration. Spellbook only; prepare when you know invisible enemies are present.
Shatter ● — 10-foot radius thunder, 3d8. Strong early AoE. Disadvantage on CON saves for crystalline creatures. Replaces burning hands as your mid-level area damage spell.
Spider Climb ● — Wall-walking. Concentration. Spellbook only; situational.
Spy My Shadow (The Old Margreve) ● — Turn your shadow into a narrow-gap scout and perceive through it for 1 minute. The duration is short and concentration matters, but this is excellent door-crack, shutter, and dim-light reconnaissance before committing to Arcane Eye.
Suggestion ● — Reasonable suggestion, creature obeys. Concentration. Social and tactical versatility. Prepare when social encounters are expected or when you want battlefield compliance options.
Web ● — 20-foot cube of restrained web. Concentration. Area control that restrains multiple enemies simultaneously. Every restrained creature gives your party advantage on attacks. Strong battlefield control for the cost.
Redirect Missile (Player's Guide 2) ● — Projectile defense and revenge in one reaction-shaped package. Excellent when archers, thrown weapons, or ammunition-heavy fights are common.
Orbital Spheres (Player's Guide 2) ● — Defensive/offensive floating-magic tech for Wizards who like ongoing board presence. It is not as simple as Web, but it gives you something active around your space.
Paranoid Delusions (Player's Guide 2) ● — Strong disruption in social scenes, command structures, and fights where enemy coordination matters. Also a great way to make the villain's lieutenants start holding meetings without chairs.
Deadly Weapon / Imbue Projectile (Player's Guide 2) ● — Martial support spells. Good if your party has a reliable archer or weapon striker; less exciting if the Wizard is expected to solve the problem personally.
Psychic Block (Player's Guide 2) ● — Mental defense and psychic protection. A strong spellbook answer when the campaign gets weird, invasive, or professionally rude.
Perceive Vulnerability (Player's Guide 2) ● — Focus-fire support for coordinated parties. The more your group calls targets, the better this gets.
3rd Circle Spells
Blink ● — 50% ethereal shift each turn. No concentration. Pure survival — untouchable half the time with no concentration cost.
Counterspell ● — Reaction, interrupt an enemy spell. Automatic for 3rd circle or lower. Prepare daily in any campaign with enemy casters. The Wizard's most powerful defensive tool is shutting down the opposing caster.
Column of Cogs (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Self-lifting gear column with movement and slashing damage. It is visually excellent, but Fly and standard control spells are usually cleaner uses of concentration.
Conjure Ferryman (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Summons a ferry spirit and boat for water travel, with planar escalation at higher circles. It is risky if concentration drops, but Wizards should keep this in the book for rivers, Styx travel, and Labyrinth crossings.
Cynophobia (The Old Margreve) ● — Long-duration fear of canids. Devastating if the target must fight wolves, hounds, foxes, worgs, or a party built around that imagery; otherwise too specific for a prepared slot.
Dispel Magic ● — End a magical effect. No concentration, no attack, no save. Mandatory in any magic-rich environment. Prepare daily.
Fear ● — 30-foot cone, WIS save, frightened. Concentration. Frightened creatures cannot approach you and attack at disadvantage. Strong area debuff.
Fireball ● — 8d6 fire in a 20-foot radius. No concentration. The defining offensive spell of the Arcane list. Prepare every day. Use it liberally. At 3rd circle it deals average 28 fire damage to every creature in a 20-foot radius — more total damage than almost any other 3rd-circle option. Prepare it, throw it, let the Fighter clean up.
Fly ● — 60 ft. flying speed. Concentration. Flying makes you enormously harder to target: you are out of melee range, you can position behind cover, and you can reposition freely. In any encounter with physical space to exploit, fly wins. Prepare daily.
Gaseous Form ● — Become incorporeal gas. Concentration. Infiltration and escape. Spellbook; prepare situationally.
Going in Circles (The Old Margreve) ● — RITUAL. Turns a 1-mile cube of natural terrain into a confusing navigation trap for 24 hours. This is exactly the sort of spell Wizards love: rarely needed, zero-slot when ritual cast, and campaign-warping when travel routes matter.
Haste ● — Double speed, +2 AC, extra action. Concentration. Cast on your Fighter. They now have their normal extra attacks plus another action for an attack or dash. This is the single best buff you can put on a martial ally. Prepare every day for combat-heavy sessions.
Hypnotic Pattern ● — 30-foot cube, WIS save, charmed (incapacitated). Concentration. Multiple targets with no cap on number affected. This spell wins encounters by removing the most dangerous enemies from the field simultaneously. Prepare every day. Cast it first. Ask questions later.
Lightning Bolt ● — 8d6 lightning in a 100-foot line. Complements fireball in the blasting toolkit when enemies are arranged linearly.
Major Image ● — Complex illusion with all senses. Concentration. Creative tool for deception and battlefield manipulation. Prepare for investigations and social encounters.
Minor Maze (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — INT save or short-term banishment into a pocket maze. It is weaker than true Maze, but at 3rd circle it gives Wizards a single-target removal option against low-INT enemies far earlier.
Nondetection ● — Shield from divination. Concentration. Spellbook only; prepare when you know divination is a threat.
Pocket Portal (Player's Guide 2 / Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Bonus-action linked spaces within line of sight. Concentration is expensive, but the tactical ceiling is high: bypass hazards, reposition allies, escape grapples, and move around hard cover without provoking.
Protection from Energy ● — Resistance to one damage type. Concentration. Pre-boss insurance. Prepare when you know the damage type in advance.
Sending ● — 25-word message. RITUAL equivalent for Arcane list — actually costs a spell slot. Spellbook only.
Slow ● — Six targets halved speed, -2 AC, -2 saves, limited actions. WIS save. Concentration. Six targets is extraordinary for one 3rd-circle slot. In clustered encounters, slow turns multiple dangerous enemies into half-speed, reduced-effectiveness threats simultaneously.
Star's Radiance (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Self-centered 10-foot aura granting you and nearby allies advantage on WIS saves. Strong against fear, charm, and mind control, but the small radius and concentration cost make it a situational defensive prepare.
Stinking Cloud ● — 20-foot radius nausea, CON save or waste action. Concentration. Area denial that removes offensive contributions from trapped creatures.
Dream Step (Labyrinth Worldbook, Ritual) ● — Observe and influence a sleeping creature's dream, then take exhaustion afterward. Excellent campaign magic, not a casual ritual. Spellbook for intrigue-heavy play.
Dreamward (Labyrinth Worldbook, Ritual) ● — Protects an area against dream intrusion and nightmares. In Labyrinth campaigns with dream magic, this is free security that Wizards should collect early.
Tiny Hut ● — RITUAL. Dome blocks passage; safe rest space. One of the most impactful rituals in the game. Cast during a long rest to guarantee no interruptions. Nothing enters without your permission. Prepare zero — cast as ritual always. The Wizard who has this ritual ends the "we can't rest here" problem permanently.
Tongues ● — Understand all language. Comprehend Languages ritual is cheaper. Spellbook only as a backup.
Tracer (The Old Margreve) ● — Tags ranged ammunition with a beacon that a weapon can point toward for 8 hours. Wizards usually do not want to spend combat turns firing ammunition, but the spell is useful if you coordinate with an archer or need a mundane-looking tracker.
Virulent Nightmare (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — WIS save psychic damage that jumps among nearby hostile creatures until a target succeeds or no hostile target remains. It is swingy, but psychic chain damage gives Wizards a useful non-fire blast profile.
Void Strike (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Concentration attack spell for necrotic damage and short frighten, with advantage in dim light or darkness. It is flavorful, but 3rd-circle concentration is brutal competition.
Vampiric Touch ● — Melee touch, necrotic + healing. You are not a melee caster.
Electrify Metal (Player's Guide 2) ● — Metal punishment for armored enemies, weapon users, gates, gearwork, and smug villains with too many buckles. Strong when the adventure has metal to bully.
Erratic Distraction (Player's Guide 2) ● — Interference magic for action-denial setups. Good when the party already has hazards waiting and you just need the target to behave badly.
Necrotic Pustules (Player's Guide 2) ● — Damage and debuff pressure stapled to a deeply unpleasant visual. Effective, memorable, and not recommended for dinner-table narration.
Water Breathing ● — Party breathes underwater. RITUAL. Spellbook only; campaign-specific.
Wind Wall ● — Wall of wind. Concentration. Too defensive for your concentration slot.
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Start Building4th Circle Spells
Arcane Eye ● — Invisible floating eye, 1 hour, 30 ft. darkvision. Concentration. This is perfect scouting. Send the eye through dungeons before the party enters. See every trap, every enemy position, every exit. Prepare before any exploration session.
Amorphous Form (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Turns a creature into an ooze form. It is funny utility and infiltration tech, but Polymorph is usually the cleaner 4th-circle transformation unless the ooze limitations are the point.
Banishment ● — CHA save or temporarily removed from the plane. Concentration. Against non-native plane creatures, holding concentration for 1 minute banishes them permanently. Hard-counter for fiends and elementals. Prepare situationally.
Bladed Wings (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Flight plus an emergency cone of blade-feathers. Greater Invisibility and Polymorph are stronger default prepares, but this is a good Battle Mage or mobile caster option when you want offense stapled to flight.
Compulsion ● — Charm targets to move as directed. Concentration. Competing with superior options at this circle.
Confusion ● — Random actions in 10-foot radius. Concentration. Reliable area confusion against groups with poor WIS. Less reliable than hypnotic pattern but broadens your crowd control coverage.
Conjure Minor Elementals ● — Summon elementals. Concentration. Action economy addition to pressure enemies. Prepare for extended dungeon sessions.
Dimension Door ● — 500-foot teleport with a companion. No concentration. Extraordinary range for repositioning, infiltration, or extraction.
Elemental Shield ● — Resist element, deal it when struck. Concentration. Boss-fight insurance with retribution value.
Freedom of Movement ● — Immune to difficult terrain and restraint. Concentration. Leave to Cleric or Druid.
Greater Invisibility ● — Invisible even while attacking or casting. Concentration. Cast on yourself. Every spell you cast is made while invisible — enemies attack you with disadvantage, and your spell attack rolls have advantage. This dramatically changes your combat survivability and offensive output simultaneously.
Hallucinatory Terrain ● — RITUAL. Terrain appears different. Spellbook only; excellent ambush setup.
Harry (The Old Margreve) ● — Concentration pursuit curse that frightens a target in your line of sight, worsens its stealth against you, helps you track it, and prevents its long rest while it lasts. Flavorful and mean, but concentration at 4th circle keeps it below your premium combat options.
Ice Storm ● — 20-foot radius, 2d8 + 4d6 cold, difficult terrain. No concentration. Backup AoE for fire-resistant encounters. The difficult terrain is a meaningful bonus.
Looping Trail (The Old Margreve) ● — RITUAL. Reconfigures a trail, path, or road up to 1 mile long so it loops back on itself. It is not a dungeon spell, but in wilderness games it is a terrific ambush, delay, escape, and settlement-defense tool.
Nether Weapon (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Adds necrotic damage and anti-healing to a weapon. Excellent on a martial ally in theory, but Wizards rarely want to spend 4th-circle concentration on weapon damage over Polymorph, Banishment, or Wall of Fire.
Personal Cannibal (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Adds a die to mental checks, attacks, and saves while subtracting from physical ones. It is tempting for save-heavy Wizards, but the CON-save penalty is dangerous on a fragile concentration caster.
Phantasmal Killer ● — Fear and psychic per round. Concentration. Hypnotic pattern does more with less investment.
Polymorph ● — Transform a creature into a Beast. Concentration. Turn a battered ally into a fresh combat form, turn an enemy into a harmless animal, or turn yourself into a travel form when fly runs out. One of the most versatile spells in the game — prepare it daily.
Private Sanctum ● — RITUAL. Secure an area against magical intrusion. Strong for base-of-operations play and extended rests in hostile territory.
Resilient Sphere ● — Indestructible sphere, target cannot act. Concentration. Hard remove of one threat while you handle everything else.
Secret Chest ● — RITUAL. Hide a chest in the Ethereal Plane. Situational. Spellbook only.
Spectral Wall (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Cold and necrotic wall with fear pressure and difficult terrain. Wall of Fire is cleaner damage, but Spectral Wall is a strong alternate when fire resistance, fear, or half-cover geometry matters.
Wall of Fire ● — 60-foot wall of fire, 5d8 per round. Concentration. Area denial channeling enemy movement. Prepare when battlefield control is the priority.
Wield Soul (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Steal one spell, action, bonus action, or reaction from a fresh corpse for one later use. It is a spectacular spellbook oddity, but corpse timing and GM-facing stat knowledge keep it situational.
Freeze Metal (Player's Guide 2) ● — The cold-side cousin to metal punishment. Strong into armored foes, weapons, gates, chains, and machinery; less useful in a swamp full of things that own no pants.
Acid Rain (Player's Guide 2) ● — Area damage with a different resistance profile than fire and cold staples. Good when your Wizard wants AoE that does not sound like "I cast fireball again."
Burning Pitch (Player's Guide 2) ● — Sticky fire control for ground fights and chokepoints. It is not Wall of Fire, but it has the right nasty dungeon energy.
Otherworldly Orchestra (Player's Guide 2) ● — Strange sound-based scene control. Excellent flavor, best in social, fey, or horror sessions where the music can do more than annoy the guards.
5th Circle Spells
Animate Objects ● — Ten Tiny constructs, bonus action attack, 1d4+4 each. Concentration. Extraordinary action economy — ten independent attacks as a bonus action. Complex but powerful.
Arcane Hand ● — Giant force hand that strikes, grapples, pushes, or blocks. Concentration. Versatile battlefield manipulation.
Cloudkill ● — 20-foot radius poison cloud, 5d8 per turn. Concentration. Sustained area damage that persists and can be repositioned.
Cone of Cold ● — 8d8 cold in 60-foot cone. No concentration. Your highest-damage no-concentration blast. Prepare when you need guaranteed burst damage.
Contact Other Plane ● — RITUAL. Ask an entity five questions. Campaign intelligence. Free information about any topic from an entity with cosmic knowledge. The INT save on failure is punishing but the cost is zero slot.
Conjure Elemental ● — Powerful elemental. Concentration. If concentration holds, a CR 5+ elemental acts as a second frontliner independently. Prepare in extended combat sessions.
Conjure Minor Voidborn (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Summons multiple low-CR Aberrations or Fiends. The action economy is real, but command costs psychic damage and a concentration break can leave hostile creatures behind. Prepare when the risk is worth the pressure.
Create Construct (Player's Guide 2 / Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Creates a friendly Construct servant from raw material and a gemstone. This is cleaner than voidborn summoning because the creature acts on your initiative and follows commands without hurting you.
Creation ● — RITUAL equivalent for Arcane list (takes a slot). Create an object from shadow. Spellbook only.
Detonate Metal (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Explodes a manufactured metal object for 8d12 force in a 20-foot radius, with disadvantage for creatures touching it. This is a brutal anti-armor, anti-weapon, anti-war-machine spell when metal is present.
Dominate ● — Control a Medium creature. Concentration. Turn an enemy against their allies. The action economy swing of having the enemy's most dangerous member fight for you is massive. Prepare daily for combat-heavy sessions.
Dream ● — RITUAL equivalent. Visit a target's dream. Spellbook only; campaign specific.
Empty Rain (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Cold and necrotic rain that can shut down spellcasting inside the area. This is one of the best Labyrinth Wizard combat prepares against enemy casters because it attacks both HP and their ability to respond.
Flash Freeze (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Freezes creatures in ice for cold damage and restraint-style lockdown. It is a strong no-nonsense disable when Wall of Force is overkill or you need damage attached.
Geas ● — Compel obedience, 5d10 psychic for violations. One minute casting time. Too slow for combat. Strong in downtime situations. Spellbook.
Harrying Hounds (The Old Margreve) ● — Long-duration direction control that makes failed targets flee from an imagined pursuit. Powerful for wilderness routing, sieges, and forcing movement across a map; not a normal combat spell because the effect suspends when targets engage in combat.
Greater Hold ● — Paralyze any creature, no size limit. Concentration. No restriction on creature type. Automatic critical hits on the paralyzed target. The upgrade to hold that you have been building toward since 2nd level. Prepare daily alongside hold or as a replacement.
Hidden Path (Labyrinth Worldbook, Ritual) ● — Creates a safe extradimensional route between locations you have visited within 100 miles. This is premium Wizard ritual infrastructure for travel-heavy campaigns.
Legend Lore ● — Instant knowledge about a legendary subject. No concentration. Intelligence about specific items, places, or creatures. Campaign-defining in the right situation. Prepare when you need answers.
Mislead ● — Become invisible, create illusory double. Concentration. Superior to standard invisibility because you can still perceive through the double.
Modify Memory ● — Alter memory of last 24 hours. Concentration only during alteration. Social power at its peak.
Passwall ● — Open a passage in solid surfaces. No concentration. Dimension door covers most uses, but passwall creates a passage that others can follow through.
Scrying ● — RITUAL equivalent for Arcane list (costs a slot). Spy on any creature. Spellbook; prepare when you need intelligence.
Seeming ● — Disguise many creatures. 8 hours. Spellbook only.
Starbright (Player's Guide 2 / Labyrinth Worldbook) ● — Creates stars you can fire at foes. A solid sustained damage spell, though it sits in the same crowded tier as Wall of Force, Dominate, and the new Empty Rain/Flash Freeze options.
Telekinesis ● — Move massive objects or creatures. Concentration. Reliable long-duration control against physical threats.
Teleportation Circle ● — RITUAL. Teleport party to permanent circles. Building a network of permanent circles turns cross-map travel from a session-eating slog into a non-issue at high levels. Spellbook always; cast as ritual.
Wall of Force ● — Impenetrable wall. Concentration. The most powerful battlefield division spell in the game. Separate the boss from their minions; eliminate everything else. Prepare daily from 9th level on.
Wall of Stone ● — Permanent stone wall after 10 minutes. Concentration. Creates lasting terrain modification. Combine with conjure elemental for fortified positions.
Psychic Barrage (Player's Guide 2) ● — High-quality mental offense at a crowded circle. It gives Wizards another serious non-fire pressure button, which is rude but efficient.
Loan (Player's Guide 2) ● — Utility and resource weirdness. Wizards should copy it because Wizards copy things, but it is not beating Wall of Force in a fair fight. Very few things do.
6th–9th Circle Spells
Blade Barrier ● (6th) — Wall of blades, 6d10 slashing. Concentration. Dangerous traversal requirement for any creature crossing it.
Chain Lightning ● (6th) — 10d8 to primary, 4d8 to three more. No concentration. Multi-target guaranteed damage with no saving throw on secondary strikes. Exceptional value.
Circle of Death ● (6th) — 60-foot radius necrotic, 8d6. No concentration. Mass battlefield clearing.
Disintegrate ● (6th) — 10d6+40 force. If reduced to 0, disintegrated. Finisher spell with unique "no resurrection" clause on disintegrated creatures.
Globe of Invulnerability ● (6th) — Block all spells of 5th circle or lower in 10-foot radius. Concentration. Absolute protection against lower-circle spells in a bubble around you.
Irresistible Dance ● (6th) — No initial save, target dances. Concentration. Guaranteed debilitation for at least one round against any target. The boss does not save when they have no initial save to make.
King of Nothing (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● (6th) — CHA save psychic erosion that can make a weakened Humanoid hazy and partly insubstantial. Cool villain spell, but too Humanoid-specific and less decisive than Irresistible Dance, Disintegrate, or Mass Suggestion.
Life Drain (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● (6th) — 15-foot-radius necrotic burst that heals chosen creatures for half the damage dealt. This is a rare Wizard mass-damage plus team sustain option, especially strong when several enemies are clustered.
Mass Suggestion ● (6th) — Reasonable suggestion to 12 creatures. Concentration. Extraordinary scale for social and tactical influence.
Prismatic Longbow (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● (6th) — Concentration spell attack bow with one-use colored rider arrows. Fun, flexible, and very stylish, but Wizards have stronger 6th-circle ways to win fights than making repeated attack rolls.
True Seeing ● (6th) — Truesight, 1 hour. Concentration. See all invisible, ethereal, illusions, and true forms.
Void Rift (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● (6th) — Long-range Void zone that creates difficult terrain, pulls creatures, deals necrotic damage near the rift, and destroys loose objects. Excellent area denial with a nasty execution clause.
Delay Spell (Player's Guide 2) ● (6th) — Timing control against magic. This is exactly the kind of spell Wizards keep in the book because one day it will turn a disaster into a delayed disaster, and delayed disasters are called plans.
Pluck Soul (Player's Guide 2) ● (6th) — Dark, strong, and table-tone dependent. Excellent for grim campaigns; probably not for the school fundraiser arc.
Water Sentinel (Player's Guide 2) ● (6th) — Strong when water, ships, rivers, or coastal defense matter. Spellbook it for those campaigns; skip as a generic combat prepare.
Arcane Sword ● (7th) — Bonus action force sword, 3d10 per turn. Concentration. Consistent damage generation without action investment once deployed.
Conjure Voidborn (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● (7th) — Summons one CR 6 Aberration or Fiend, but commands cost psychic damage and broken concentration leaves the creature hostile. The ceiling is high, the risk is real.
Delayed Blast Fireball ● (7th) — Fireball with delayed detonation, gaining +1d6 per round held. Maximum-damage AoE burst.
Event Horizon (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● (7th) — Gravity well around a Large or smaller creature that pulls, restrains, creates difficult terrain, and deals bludgeoning damage. This is a true high-circle battlefield-warping control spell.
Finger of Death ● (7th) — 7d8+30 necrotic, no save reduction. Humanoids rise as zombies. Guaranteed reliable damage regardless of save results.
Fire Storm ● (7th) — Ten 10-foot cubes of fire, shaped as desired. Extraordinary area coverage with shape control.
Forcecage ● (7th) — Imprison any creature, 1 hour. No concentration, no saving throw. Remove one threat completely without maintaining concentration. Stack it with your other concentration effects.
Prismatic Spray ● (7th) — Rainbow rays with wildly varied effects. High-variance but extraordinary ceiling (potential instant banishment or petrification). Fun and powerful in the right moment.
Petrifying Chains (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● (7th) — Necrotic damage plus escalating petrification. The repeated CON saves make it slower than Forcecage, but it is a real boss-control finisher when supported by other necrotic pressure.
Teleport ● (7th) — Send the entire party anywhere. No concentration. Campaign-defining mobility. Prepare when travel matters.
War Vessel (Labyrinth Worldbook, Ritual) ● (7th) — Conjures a gargantuan warship with weapons, feast stores, and invisible servants. Spectacular if your campaign uses naval warfare; otherwise a spellbook trophy.
Earth Vortex (Player's Guide 2) ● (7th) — Terrain control with high-circle teeth. Great when the map matters and the enemy cannot just fly away from your bad decisions.
Ghostly Form (Player's Guide 2) ● (7th) — Exploration, infiltration, and survival magic that earns spellbook space even when it is not your combat opener.
Mutual Doom (Player's Guide 2) ● (7th) — Dangerous bargain magic. Powerful when you can engineer the terms, alarming when you cannot. That is Wizardry: math with consequences.
Antimagic Field ● (8th) — No magic works in 10-foot sphere around you. Concentration. Against enemy casters and magic-dependent bosses, this is the supreme counter.
Body of Ruin (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● (8th) — Infuses a Humanoid with Void energy, forcing repeated choices between self-damage and burst damage to nearby creatures. Strong against clustered enemies, especially if the target cannot isolate.
Demiplane ● (8th) — Door to a small personal dimension. Secure rest space, storage, imprisonment. Versatile.
Feeblemind ● (8th) — INT and CHA become 1, no spellcasting possible. INT save. The hard counter to any enemy caster: one successful save removes their magical capability entirely.
Glimpse of the Void (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● (8th) — High-circle terror effect for groups. It is campaign-flavored and strong when fear works, though Mind Blank, Feeblemind, and Maze still define the tier.
Maze ● (8th) — Send a creature to a demiplane maze. Concentration. Low-INT creatures fail the INT check to escape repeatedly — effectively permanent removal for the duration.
Mind Blank ● (8th) — Immunity to psychic damage and all mental effects for 24 hours. No concentration. Pre-boss insurance against mind-affecting threats.
Power Word Stun ● (8th) — Stun a creature at 150 HP or fewer. No roll, no save. Auto-stun with devastating follow-up potential.
Sigil in Yellow (Labyrinth Worldbook, Ritual) ● (8th) — Mesmerizing rune that can alert you, read surface thoughts, or let you control a Humanoid that looks at it. This is dangerous, villainous campaign infrastructure and a great Wizard ritual prize.
Crawling Darkness (Player's Guide 2) ● (8th) — Shadow control for high-level battlefield pressure. Take it when darkness, fear, and hostile terrain fit the campaign.
Incite Strife (Player's Guide 2) ● (8th) — Makes a social structure or enemy formation eat itself. Very Wizard: solve the fight by making the opposition hold a disastrous staff meeting.
Pierce the Veil (Player's Guide 2) ● (8th) — High-circle revelation and perception magic. Good when illusions, hidden worlds, or planar truths are the actual problem.
Power Word Petrify (Player's Guide 2) ● (8th) — Threshold hard control with no traditional opening save. Focus the target down, say the word, then enjoy your new extremely inconvenient statue.
Meteor Swarm ● (9th) — Four meteors, 40d6 bludgeoning + 40d6 fire in 40-foot spheres. The most devastating single-action AoE in the game.
Gate ● (9th) — Interplanar portal, call specific creature. Concentration. Campaign-defining.
Greater Maze (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● (9th) — Nightmare demiplane maze with psychic damage and difficult escape checks. Maze is already excellent; Greater Maze is the Labyrinth Worldbook doubling down on hard removal.
Power Word Kill ● (9th) — Kill any creature at 100 HP or fewer. The word ends it.
Time Stop ● (9th) — Take 1d4+1 turns in a row. Set up every buff, wall, and effect before the enemy can respond. The Wizard's fantasy made mechanical reality.
True Polymorph ● (9th) — Transform a creature or object into a new form, permanently if concentration holds 1 hour. It is combat tool, campaign tool, and "please ask the GM before the economy explodes" tool.
Unfathomable Emptiness (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● (9th) — INT-save control against up to three creatures, with stun on failure and incapacitation even on success. This is one of the best Labyrinth Wizard capstones because it punishes even successful saves.
Wish ● (9th) — The broadest 9th-circle problem-solver. Replicate lower-circle magic, bend reality, and make the whole table read the exact text twice.
Weird ● (9th) — Phantasmal killer in a 30-foot sphere.
Absorb Spell (Player's Guide 2) ● (9th) — The most Wizard sentence possible: "Your spell is mine now." It is high-circle counter-magic with trophy-case energy.
Wraithblade (Player's Guide 2) ● (9th) — Gorgeous Battle Mage fantasy, questionable general Wizard efficiency. If your archmage insists on solving things with a blade, at least this one is dramatic.
Player's Guide 2 Arcane Rituals to Copy
Enhance Familiar (Player's Guide 2) ● — Familiar upgrades are spellbook gold for scouts, delivery tricks, and every Wizard who treats a tiny assistant like a co-worker with hazard pay.
Arcane Trap (Player's Guide 2) ● — Defensive setup magic for lairs, camps, vaults, and "we know they are coming" sessions.
Liquid Memory / Read Object (Player's Guide 2) ● — Investigation rituals that turn objects and memories into evidence. Wizards should copy both if the campaign has mysteries, old crimes, or nobles lying with expensive confidence.
Portal Jaunt (Player's Guide 2) ● — Exploration movement that solves awkward map problems without spending a combat slot.
Reinforcing Ward (Player's Guide 2) ● — Practical protection for places and objects. Not flashy, but the best rituals often look boring until they save the plan.
Arcane Nullification (Player's Guide 2) ● — High-circle anti-magic infrastructure. Copy it if enemy spellcasters, cursed sites, or hostile enchantments matter.
Time Binding (Player's Guide 2) ● — Deep Wizard campaign magic. The sort of ritual that makes the GM pause, reread, and then ask exactly how smug your character looks.
Best Old Margreve Wizard Picks
| Spell | Circle | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Hobble (The Old Margreve) ● | Cantrip | Bonus-action speed control gives Wizards more low-cost turn shaping |
| Hamstring (The Old Margreve) ● | Cantrip | Force damage plus reaction denial helps allies move safely |
| Nip at the Heels (The Old Margreve) ● | 2nd | No-concentration attack disadvantage is easy to layer with better concentration spells |
| Spy My Shadow (The Old Margreve) ● | 2nd | Short-duration scouting through cracks, doors, shutters, and darkness |
| Going in Circles (The Old Margreve) ● | 3rd | Ritual wilderness route control with large-scale campaign utility |
| Looping Trail (The Old Margreve) ● | 4th | Ritual trail manipulation for delays, ambushes, and escape plans |
Best Labyrinth Worldbook Wizard Picks
| Spell | Circle | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Word of Misfortune (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● | Cantrip | Sets up failed saves with a cantrip |
| Eclipse Sight (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● | 1st | Reaction blind against a creature that damages you |
| Glitter Dust (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● | 2nd | Anti-invisibility plus blind pressure |
| Magnetize (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● | 2nd | Turns metal objects, weapons, armor, and dungeon hardware into tactics |
| Minor Maze (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● | 3rd | Early single-target demiplane removal against low-INT enemies |
| Pocket Portal (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● | 3rd | Tactical repositioning through line-of-sight portals |
| Create Construct (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● | 5th | Safer long-duration summon-style pressure than the voidborn conjurations |
| Empty Rain (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● | 5th | Damages and suppresses spellcasting in the zone |
| Flash Freeze (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● | 5th | Damage plus ice lockdown when wall of force is too clean or too expensive |
| Life Drain (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● | 6th | Rare Wizard area damage that can also restore allies |
| Void Rift (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● | 6th | Area denial, forced movement pressure, object destruction, and Void flavor |
| Event Horizon (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● | 7th | Gravity well control that restrains, pulls, damages, and reshapes positioning |
| Greater Maze (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● | 9th | Upgraded maze removal with nightmare punishment |
| Unfathomable Emptiness (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● | 9th | Stuns failed targets and still incapacitates successful saves |
| Hidden Path (Labyrinth Worldbook, Ritual) ● | 5th | Long-range safe travel infrastructure through an extradimensional route |
| Sigil in Yellow (Labyrinth Worldbook, Ritual) ● | 8th | Mesmerizing trap-rune for surveillance, thought reading, or control |
Best Player's Guide 2 Wizard Picks
| Spell | Circle | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Luck Bait (Player's Guide 2) ● | Cantrip | Low-cost roll manipulation that helps your big saves land |
| Stumble (Player's Guide 2) ● | 1st | Cheap movement disruption before higher-circle control comes online |
| Redirect Missile (Player's Guide 2) ● | 2nd | Turns ranged pressure into a defensive and offensive reaction |
| Orbital Spheres (Player's Guide 2) ● | 2nd | Persistent magical board presence around the Wizard |
| Electrify Metal (Player's Guide 2) ● | 3rd | Punishes armor, weapons, gates, chains, and metal-heavy encounters |
| Psychic Barrage (Player's Guide 2) ● | 5th | Serious non-fire mental pressure at a crowded but important circle |
| Delay Spell (Player's Guide 2) ● | 6th | High-value answer to dangerous enemy magic timing |
| Earth Vortex (Player's Guide 2) ● | 7th | Terrain control for fights where map shape matters |
| Power Word Petrify (Player's Guide 2) ● | 8th | Threshold hard control that rewards focus fire |
| Absorb Spell (Player's Guide 2) ● | 9th | Capstone counter-magic and spell theft for archmage nonsense |
Top 10 Wizard Spells
| Spell | Circle | Why It's Essential |
|---|---|---|
| Shield | 1st | Reaction-based survival against any burst damage round |
| Mage Armor | 1st | Your only AC — prepare every single day |
| Fireball | 3rd | The benchmark AoE, prepare daily for combat |
| Hypnotic Pattern | 3rd | Wins encounters by incapacitating multiple targets at once |
| Haste | 3rd | Best party buff in the game — doubles ally damage output |
| Counterspell | 3rd | Shuts down enemy spellcasters, mandatory against magic |
| Wall of Force | 5th | Impenetrable battlefield division that can't be dispelled at low circles |
| Greater Invisibility | 4th | Advantage on attacks, disadvantage against you — simultaneously |
| Polymorph | 4th | Transform any creature — offensive, defensive, and utility |
| Time Stop | 9th | Take multiple turns in a row — the Wizard's ultimate expression |
Spell Synergies
Arcane Eye + Fireball Send the arcane eye through a dungeon to precisely locate enemy clusters, identify positions, count targets. Then cast fireball from exactly the right position to maximize the 20-foot radius. The eye gives you perfect intelligence before you commit a spell slot.
Hypnotic Pattern + Slow Drop hypnotic pattern on the highest-WIS cluster, then slow the group that resisted. Charmed targets are incapacitated; slowed targets can barely act. Two concentration spells cannot run simultaneously, but the sequence (slow first, then swap to hypnotic pattern on subsequent turns) creates layered debuffs.
Haste + Greater Invisibility (two allies) Haste your Fighter when an extra action is the party's best multiplier; choose Greater Invisibility for the Rogue when safe precision damage matters more. Both require concentration, so one Wizard cannot maintain both at once.
Wall of Force or Conjure Elemental Both spells require concentration, so choose the one that solves the encounter. Wall of Force divides a dangerous fight; Conjure Elemental adds a durable ally when the party needs another body. Do not plan to maintain both at once.
Tiny Hut + Arcane Eye (ritual setup) If you have learned Tiny Hut, use it as the party's secure ritual shelter. Prepare Arcane Eye for the next exploration period when its scouting information is worth a spell slot; do not treat either spell as automatically available merely because it is on the Arcane list.
Spy My Shadow (The Old Margreve) + Arcane Eye Use Spy My Shadow when you only need one minute of immediate line-of-crack reconnaissance. Save Arcane Eye for longer mapping, patrol timing, and dungeon scouting. Together they give you a cheap first look and a premium full sweep.
Going in Circles (The Old Margreve) + Looping Trail (The Old Margreve) Going in Circles confuses travel through a large natural area; Looping Trail weaponizes a specific road or path. Together, they turn wilderness terrain into a defensive asset before a chase, siege, ambush, or retreat.
Word of Misfortune (Labyrinth Worldbook) + Hold Use Word of Misfortune to tag disadvantage onto the target's next save, then follow with Hold when the party needs a melee crit window. The timing is tight, but the payoff is enormous.
Glitter Dust (Labyrinth Worldbook) + Fireball Glitter Dust reveals invisible creatures and can blind a cluster; Fireball punishes the same cluster once hidden targets are actually targetable and visible to the party.
Misdirect (Labyrinth Worldbook) + Web Web punishes bad positioning; Misdirect forces bad positioning. Prone, speed 0, random movement, and reaction movement all become nastier when a restraint zone is already waiting.
Pocket Portal (Labyrinth Worldbook) + Wall of Force Use Wall of Force to divide the battlefield, then Pocket Portal to move allies around the parts of the fight you still control. It is concentration-intensive across two casts, so treat it as an encounter plan, not routine sequencing.
Empty Rain (Labyrinth Worldbook) + Counterspell Empty Rain pressures enemy casters to leave the zone before they can cast. Counterspell catches the ones who still try to answer you. Together they make enemy magic feel cramped and expensive.
Event Horizon (Labyrinth Worldbook) + Wall Effects Event Horizon pulls and restrains creatures around a gravity well. Any existing wall, hazard, or terrain punishment becomes more reliable when enemies cannot choose clean movement.
Luck Bait (Player's Guide 2) + Hold Use Luck Bait to support the setup roll that matters, then cast Hold when the target needs to become a group project. It is the Arcane version of giving probability a small shove down the stairs.
Redirect Missile (Player's Guide 2) + Mirror Image Mirror Image makes enemy attacks awkward; Redirect Missile makes ranged attacks regret becoming involved. Together they let the Wizard survive attention without spending every turn running away.
Delay Spell (Player's Guide 2) + Counterspell Counterspell stops the spell now; Delay Spell can make the enemy's timing collapse even when "now" is not the right answer. Wizards win caster duels by controlling not just what happens, but when it happens.
Power Word Petrify (Player's Guide 2) + Focus Fire Once the party has dragged a dangerous target under the threshold, Power Word Petrify turns the damage race into a sculpture problem. Extremely tasteful. Terrible for the target.
Hot Takes
Hot Take: The Wizard's ritual list deserves as much planning as the prepared list. Once you have learned a ritual and recorded it in the spellbook, it needs neither preparation nor a spell slot. That makes the ritual choices in the progression table and eligible ritual-scroll finds lasting utility decisions rather than spare combat options.
Hot Take: Haste is better than fireball in most campaigns, and the meta has this backwards. Fireball deals 28 average damage to a cluster of enemies. Haste on your Fighter gives them an extra attack. That's potentially 20+ damage per turn for the next 10 turns, 200 damage total over a fight, with zero additional slots. The damage potential of haste compounding across a combat exceeds fireball in every encounter that lasts more than 4 rounds. Prepare both; but if you must choose one preparation slot at 3rd circle, haste is the answer more often than players admit.
Hot Take: Wizards should be more aggressive about transcribing spells from enemy spellbooks, and GMs should be rewarding this more. The rules explicitly allow it. A defeated mage's spellbook is worth as much as or more than any other treasure they carry. A 5th-circle spell costs 250 gp and 10 hours to transcribe. That is a bargain for a permanent spell addition. The Wizard who aggressively pursues enemy spellbooks and spell scrolls has a meaningfully different and more powerful character by 10th level than the one who relies only on level-up picks. The spellbook is the defining feature of the class; treasure that expands it is the class's version of a magic weapon upgrade.
Hot Take: Hobble (The Old Margreve) is the sneaky winner of the Old Margreve Wizard list. It is not flashy, it does not deal damage, and it will never replace fire bolt as the default cantrip. But a bonus-action cantrip that halves speed gives Wizards something productive to do in turns where their action, concentration, and reaction are already spoken for. That kind of action economy filler is rarer than another damage spell.
Hot Take: Most Old Margreve Wizard spells are spellbook spells, not prepared spells, and that is a compliment. Going in Circles, Looping Trail, Step Like Me, Feed the Forest, and Tracer are bad if you prepare them blindly every morning. They are great when you know the next session is about pursuit, hostile woods, fake tracks, or controlling a travel route. Wizards are built to exploit that distinction.
Hot Take: Word of Misfortune (Labyrinth Worldbook) is the best Labyrinth Wizard cantrip because disadvantage on the next save is more valuable than another damage die. Wizards win by making enemies fail important saves; this cantrip understands the assignment.
Hot Take: Minor Maze (Labyrinth Worldbook) is not worse because Maze exists. It is better because it arrives five spell circles earlier. A 3rd-circle pocket removal spell changes mid-level boss and brute encounters before 8th-circle magic is even on the table.
Hot Take: Empty Rain (Labyrinth Worldbook) is a caster-hunter spell disguised as weather. The damage is fine, but the real text is "leave this area or stop casting." Wizards should love any spell that makes enemy casters spend turns moving instead of answering.
Hot Take: Create Construct (Labyrinth Worldbook) is the Wizard's responsible alternative to voidborn summoning. It still asks for concentration and materials, but it gives you a controllable Construct instead of a bound horror that can become tomorrow's problem when concentration breaks.
Hot Take: Event Horizon (Labyrinth Worldbook) is the kind of 7th-circle spell Wizards should prepare more often than another damage button. Pulling, restraining, difficult terrain, and repeat damage all in one gravity well is how high-level Wizards make the map obey them.
Hot Take: Labyrinth Worldbook rituals are the Wizard tax refund. Dreamspan, Dreamward, Hidden Path, War Vessel, and Sigil in Yellow are not daily combat picks; they are permanent campaign leverage once copied into the spellbook.
Hot Take: Player's Guide 2 is strongest for Wizards when it gives answers, not more damage. Luck Bait, Redirect Missile, Delay Spell, Power Word Petrify, Absorb Spell, Arcane Nullification, and Time Binding all say the same thing in different accents: "No, the scene works on my schedule."
Related Guides
- Tales of the Valiant Wizard Guide
- Tales of the Valiant Spell Guides
- Best Cantrips in Tales of the Valiant
- Best 3rd-Circle Spells in Tales of the Valiant
- Best 6th- to 9th-Circle Spells in Tales of the Valiant
- Best Sorcerer Spells in Tales of the Valiant
- Best Theurge Spells in Tales of the Valiant
Final Notes
The Wizard is a class of preparation and intelligence. You win by knowing what you will face and having the right spell prepared for it. The flexibility of daily preparation means you can pivot completely between sessions. Heavy combat day incoming: prepare fireball, haste, hypnotic pattern, counterspell. Investigation and social session tomorrow, prepare detect thoughts, suggestion, modify memory, comprehend languages.
The Old Margreve additions reinforce that identity. They are not a new damage engine for Wizards; they are a new set of wilderness, pursuit, and scouting answers. Add them to the spellbook when the campaign visits the Margreve, when the party hunts intelligent prey, or when travel routes matter as much as encounter rooms. The Labyrinth Worldbook additions do the same for planar travel, Void threats, dream magic, portals, constructs, metal-heavy battlefields, and high-circle control. Player's Guide 2 adds the practical counter-tech: luck manipulation, missile redirection, metal punishment, psychic pressure, delayed magic, petrification, spell absorption, and rituals worth copying the moment ink is available.
Your learned rituals can free preparation slots for the day, but they are not automatic access to every ritual in the Arcane list. Choose rituals deliberately as your progression allows, copy eligible ritual-scroll finds, and record them in the spellbook. Then reserve prepared spells for the problems that need to be solved now.
The Wizard is the most flexible Arcane class in Tales of the Valiant not because any individual spell is broken (every Arcane caster can cast the same spells) but because the Wizard can access all of them with less permanent commitment, backed by zero-cost ritual utility. Play to that strength. Prepare with intention. Fill the spellbook with everything.
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