Introduction
Compare Martial Talents with the Tales of the Valiant Talent Guides hub before choosing one. Your background, class, or subclass must grant access, and every prerequisite still applies.
Martial Talents are the engine of ToV's melee and ranged combat optimization. Where magic talents build on spellcasting infrastructure, martial talents offer more attacks, better criticals, tougher bodies, and sharper positioning. A weapon user should know the list, but can choose from it only when a Background, class, subclass, or other rule says so.
Access is rule-specific. A Background grants one option from its own listed Talent choices, while an Improvement uses only the Talent list named by the relevant class or subclass feature. Human Ambitious is a separate exception that can choose a Talent from any list, subject to prerequisites. The martial pool is large, which means more build-defining picks and more options that only pay off in the right campaign or weapon plan.
The best picks here are strong. Weapon Discipline and Combat Conditioning are permanent compounding benefits. Critical Training and Heavy Weapon Mastery define how your crit economy works. Vanguard and Opportunist multiply your attack count beyond what your action budget should allow. The weaker picks tend to solve problems you don't have: Return Fire solves a problem that Arrow-Catching Ring exists to solve; Artillerist solves a problem that most campaigns never create.
The Old Margreve adds one Martial Talent to this guide: Stunning Sniper (The Old Margreve). The nearby Old Margreve talents are mostly magic or technical talents, so they belong in their own guides. Stunning Sniper matters here because it gives ranged builds a crit-based control option rather than just another damage rider.
Book of Blades adds six Martial Talents: Battle Tactician (Book of Blades), Poisoner (Book of Blades), Tactical Planning (Book of Blades), Unarmed Maneuvers (Book of Blades), War Dancer (Book of Blades), and Weapon Option Specialist (Book of Blades). They are more subsystem-heavy than the core talents, so the right pick depends on whether your table uses battle tactics, poison, unarmed control, weapon options, or planned set-piece fights.
Labyrinth Worldbook adds three Martial Talents: Lacerating Slash (Labyrinth Worldbook), Rallying Call (Labyrinth Worldbook), and Void Strike (Labyrinth Worldbook). These lean into lingering wounds, party-wide morale, and void-flavored necrotic damage rather than the weapon mastery chassis of the core list.
Player's Guide 2 adds thirteen Martial Talents. These are more style-specific than the core list: Cleaver (Player's Guide 2) wants heavy melee weapons, Hurler (Player's Guide 2) finally gives thrown-weapon builds a real scaling hook, Polearm Mastery (Player's Guide 2) creates a reach-weapon control stance, and Tactical Teamwork (Player's Guide 2) turns a reaction into party accuracy. Most are not universal picks, but several are excellent when they match your weapon plan.
Talent Ratings
Rating Key
- ● Avoid unless a very specific campaign need changes the calculation.
- ● Useful only for the stated build or campaign condition.
- ● A reliable choice for the stated role.
- ● An unusually strong choice for the stated role.
Options from The Old Margreve are marked with (The Old Margreve). Options from Book of Blades are marked with (Book of Blades). Options from Labyrinth Worldbook are marked with (Labyrinth Worldbook). Options from Player's Guide 2 are marked with (Player's Guide 2).
Athletic ●
What it does: Double PB on Athletics checks; carry/push/drag capacity upgraded (STR×18 and STR×35 respectively); stand from prone for 5 feet; running long jump +10 feet, high jump +3 feet.
Who benefits most: STR-primary characters who grapple, manage heavy loads, or play in environments where jump distance or prone recovery matters. Barbarians and Fighters specifically.
Prerequisites: None.
Athletic's floor is the prone-recovery rule: standing from prone for 5 feet instead of half movement means a melee Fighter who gets knocked down in the middle of a cluster of enemies doesn't waste a turn. That alone is worth attention. The jump improvements are excellent for open-world exploration and certain dungeon environments. The carry capacity upgrades matter only in campaigns where encumbrance is tracked. Double PB on Athletics is your grappling backbone if you're building that direction.
Armor Expert ●
What it does: While in medium or heavy armor you're proficient with: +1 AC; advantage on saves to avoid being pulled, shoved, or knocked prone.
Who benefits most: Heavy armor Fighters, Paladins, Clerics. Any character whose whole strategy revolves around staying upright and in place.
Prerequisites: STR 13 or higher.
The AC bonus is simple and permanent: a +1 to AC across your entire adventuring career is more valuable than it appears when you calculate how many attacks narrowly hit versus narrowly miss. The save advantage against repositioning effects (pulled, shoved, prone) is the real power for tank builds: it counters the primary counter to tanking. Most battlefield control that targets a frontliner tries to move them away from where they're needed. Armor Expert largely neutralizes that strategy.
Armor Training ●
What it does: Gain next tier of armor proficiency; remove disadvantage on DEX(Stealth) in disadvantage-imposing armor; add up to +3 DEX to AC in medium armor instead of +2.
Who benefits most: DEX Fighters and Rangers who want medium armor without the movement penalty; any martial character upgrading from light to medium or medium to heavy; stealthy plate-wearers.
Prerequisites: Proficiency with light or medium armor.
The +3 DEX cap in medium armor is the standout benefit for DEX-primary martials. Breastplate normally caps your DEX bonus at +2, giving AC 14+2=16. With Armor Training, a DEX 18 character gets 14+3=17 AC in breastplate, comparable to heavy armor without the STR requirement, stealth disadvantage, or movement penalty. For Rangers and DEX Fighters who want armor and stealth, this is the enabling talent.
Battle Tactician (Book of Blades) ●
What it does: Learn three battle tactics and gain 4 tactical points, refreshed on a short or long rest. Tactics affect allies or enemies who can see or hear you, and save DCs use 8 + PB + CHA modifier. Repeatable for three more tactics, one swap, and +1 tactical point.
Who benefits most: CHA-capable Fighters, Paladins, Warlord-style characters, commanders, and any martial who wants party-scale action economy instead of only personal damage.
Prerequisites: None.
Battle Tactician is the biggest Book of Blades addition because it unlocks an entire tactical subsystem. The best tactics are not small ribbons: Convergent Onslaught can let multiple allies attack the same target as reactions, Guardian's Glare protects nearby allies, Endure Pain grants damage resistance to an ally at personal cost, and Masterful Rally gives multiple allies another save against ongoing effects. That is real encounter control.
The limitation is complexity and resource pressure. You need tactical points, the right positioning, allies who can spend reactions, and enough CHA to make hostile-save tactics reliable. On a Fighter with CHA 8 who only wants to swing a greatsword, this is too much overhead. On a Paladin or commander Fighter, it is a blue-tier party amplifier.
Artillerist ●
What it does: Ignore Loading on proficient weapons; advantage on attack rolls with siege weapons; when attacking with a ranged weapon at advantage, reroll one d20 once.
Who benefits most: Specifically useful for crossbow builds ignoring Loading, or siege-engine-focused characters. Nearly useless in standard adventuring.
Prerequisites: STR 13 or higher.
The Loading ignore is the only benefit that fires in most games. In ToV, that is a full talent slot for one benefit unless your GM runs siege scenarios. The advantage reroll is nice but requires you to already have advantage, which is a secondary condition. Artillerist is a specialization pick for very specific campaign types. In a standard dungeon-crawling ToV game, this slot has better uses.
Combat Conditioning ●
What it does: HP maximum +2 per character level you have, plus +2 per level gained afterward. When spending hit dice, treat any result below PB as equal to PB.
Who benefits most: Any martial character. Especially powerful for d8-hit-die classes (Ranger, Cleric, Bard) and exponentially valuable when taken at low levels.
Prerequisites: None.
This is the most quietly broken talent on the martial list. At level 4, it adds 8 HP. At level 10, it adds 20 HP. At level 20, it adds 40 HP, and it was adding along the way. A Fighter who takes this at level 4 arrives at level 20 with 34 additional HP (2 per level from 4–20 equals 34). Combined with a d10 hit die and high CON, you're looking at HP totals that approach what Barbarians achieve with Rage and CON bonuses. The hit-dice floor during short rests is a compounding bonus: a d10 hit die that never rolls below your PB means short rests provide more predictable, higher recovery. Take this early.
Critical Training ●
What it does: Score critical hits on rolls of 19 or 20. On a critical hit, add the attack's ability modifier to damage one additional time.
Who benefits most: Two-handed weapon Fighters, any STR-primary build that attacks multiple times per turn. Paladins who convert weapon hits into burst damage.
Prerequisites: None.
Expanding the critical hit range to 19–20 effectively doubles your crit rate (5% to 10%). The additional ability modifier on crits is the quieter power: a Fighter with STR 20 critting with a greatsword adds 5 bonus damage on every crit, on top of the doubled dice. For a Paladin, a crit already triggers smite bonus dice, and the ability modifier addition pushes that damage even higher. At 4th level, this is the best single damage pick for a weapon-focused martial character.
Furious Charge ●
What it does: Moving 20 feet straight toward a creature and hitting with a non-Light melee weapon grants two of: deal PB bonus damage; push up to 10 feet (if one size larger or smaller); STR save or knocked prone (DC 8+PB+STR); or swap places (if Huge or smaller).
Who benefits most: High-STR Barbarians, charge-style Fighters, characters who want battlefield control through knockdown and repositioning.
Prerequisites: None. Requires a melee weapon without the Light property.
Four conditional benefits, choose two per use. The knockdown combo (push + prone check) is the strongest pair: push them 10 feet then force a STR save to avoid prone. A prone enemy adjacent to an ally is giving advantage to every melee attacker on the next turn — this turns Furious Charge from personal damage into party-wide setup. The place-swap is situationally spectacular for repositioning in tactical fights. Best on Barbarians with high movement and large open combat areas.
Hand to Hand ●
What it does: Unarmed strikes deal 1d6 + STR. Improvised weapons deal 1d8+ or 1d10+ (one/two hands). Advantage on grapple attempts; grappled enemy takes STR modifier bludgeoning each round at start of your turn.
Who benefits most: Monks (who already scale unarmed damage but appreciate the grapple advantage), Barbarians going fist-forward, any build that wants to establish and punish grapples.
Prerequisites: None.
For Monk specifically, Hand to Hand is an odd case: the unarmed damage upgrade from 1 to 1d6 may be temporarily relevant at level 1 before Martial Arts scaling overtakes it, but the grapple advantage and passive grapple damage are excellent for any Monk subclass that wants to lock down a target. For Barbarians or Fighters going unarmed, 1d6 at 1st level is a meaningful improvement over nothing, and the improvised weapon upgrades enable the classic "hit them with the table" playstyle with real numbers behind it.
Heavy Weapon Mastery ●
What it does: On a critical hit with a Heavy weapon wielded in two hands, make one additional melee attack as part of that Attack action. As a bonus action each turn, either ignore resistance for the next Heavy-weapon melee attack or take -5 to hit for extra damage equal to half your STR score on a hit.
Who benefits most: Greatsword/Greataxe Fighters and Barbarians who want maximum single-target damage throughput.
Prerequisites: Character 4th level or higher.
The crit-triggered bonus attack is the headline. A 10% crit chance with Critical Training means roughly one in ten weapon attacks can generate an extra attack. Stack this with Critical Training and a Barbarian's rage damage bonus, and critical turns become serious damage spikes. The bonus-action penalty trade is most attractive after your Strength is high enough that half the score is worth the accuracy loss. Best paired with Critical Training after you meet the weapon and level requirements.
Lacerating Slash (Labyrinth Worldbook) ●
What it does: When you damage a creature with a melee weapon that deals piercing or slashing damage, you can inflict a bleeding wound. The target takes damage equal to twice your PB at the start of each of its turns until it receives magical healing or a creature uses an action to stop the bleeding. On a critical hit, add the attack ability modifier to the bleeding damage.
Who benefits most: Melee Fighters, Barbarians, Rogues, Rangers, and any build making frequent piercing or slashing melee attacks against durable enemies.
Prerequisites: None.
Lacerating Slash (Labyrinth Worldbook) is excellent because it attacks the enemy's action economy from a damage angle. A no-save bleed that continues until magical healing or an action intervention forces a bad choice: ignore the wound and keep taking scaling damage, or spend an action to stop it. Against low-HP creatures, it may not matter because they die before the bleed ticks. Against brutes, bosses, and elite melee enemies, it adds pressure every round.
The twice-PB scaling keeps it relevant. At early levels, 4 extra damage per enemy turn is meaningful. At high levels, 10-12 recurring damage per turn is enough that enemies cannot ignore it forever. The critical-hit rider is a bonus, not the reason to take it. The reason to take it is that it turns every slashing or piercing melee hit into a lasting wound that asks the enemy to spend resources fixing your attack.
Opportunist ●
What it does: Advantage on opportunity attacks. Creatures standing from prone or taking the Use an Object action provoke opportunity attacks from you.
Who benefits most: Sticky melee Fighters and Paladins who punish retreating enemies. Any build that wants to extend the list of opportunity attack triggers.
Prerequisites: None.
Opportunity attack advantage is a permanent bonus to your most common reactive attack scenario, and unlike some advantages, this one fires on every opportunity attack for the rest of your career. The extended trigger list is where this talent gets creative: standing from prone now provokes an OA from you, which means that enemy who just got knocked down and used Athletic to stand cheaply still eats a melee attack. Standing up is no longer free. Pair with Vanguard for a character who generates OAs from multiple triggers and hits consistently with advantage on all of them.
Physical Fortitude ●
What it does: Once per turn, spend a hit die to reroll a failed STR or CON save. When starting a turn blinded, deafened, restrained, or poisoned, gain 1 Luck. Advantage on saves against knockdown, pulling, and pushing.
Who benefits most: Frontline Fighters and Barbarians who frequently fail STR and CON saves, or characters in campaigns with heavy debuff enemies.
Prerequisites: None.
The reroll on STR/CON saves is the most impactful mechanical piece. Failed STR saves frequently mean grappled, restrained, or launched backward. Failed CON saves frequently mean stunned, paralyzed, or concentration broken (for hybrid builds). Spending a hit die to reroll is a meaningful resource expenditure, but at high levels where you have 10+ hit dice, a reroll is often worth burning one. The Luck generation from debuff conditions is a secondary bonus that helps dig out of the conditions you do land in. Advantage against physical repositioning is excellent, but that's also covered by Armor Expert, so builds taking both have redundant coverage.
Poisoner (Book of Blades) ●
What it does: Gain immunity to poison damage and the poisoned condition. Apply poison to a wielded weapon as a bonus action.
Who benefits most: Poison-using Rogues, Rangers, assassins, Nightblade-style characters, and campaigns where poison is common enough to justify a defensive talent.
Prerequisites: None.
Poisoner is clean but narrow. Poison immunity is excellent when it matters and invisible when it does not. The bonus-action application is the offensive half: it makes weapon poison usable in combat instead of forcing you to pre-apply it before every fight. That matters for characters who actually buy, craft, or harvest poisons.
The reason this stays orange is that it depends on campaign support. If your GM tracks poison access and lets you harvest or buy meaningful doses, Poisoner becomes a strong assassin package, especially with Noxious Apothecary from the technical list. If poison is rare treasure or enemies are often immune, a full martial talent slot is too expensive.
Ranged Weapon Mastery ●
What it does: No disadvantage at long range or when a hostile creature is within 5 feet. Bonus action to either: ignore half and three-quarters cover on your next shot; or take PB penalty to hit and deal double-PB bonus damage on a hit.
Who benefits most: Rangers, ranged Fighters, any character who fires from bad positions or needs to shoot through cover.
Prerequisites: Character 4th level or higher.
The base benefit — no disadvantage at long range or while engaged in melee — is the talent that makes ranged combat viable for builds that can't always maintain ideal positioning. Most dungeon rooms put enemies within 5 feet more often than outdoor encounters, and disadvantage on every attack roll in those rooms is brutal. Ranged Weapon Mastery removes that penalty permanently. The bonus action cover-ignore is underrated in tactical fights where enemies love to duck behind pillars and half-walls. The penalty trade is the sniper option: hang back, take the penalty, deal massive bonus damage when it connects.
Return Fire ●
What it does: React to a ranged attack (hit or miss) against you to make a single ranged weapon attack back at that creature if it's within your weapon's range.
Who benefits most: Rangers and ranged Fighters fighting at long distance against archers or ranged spellcasters.
Prerequisites: None.
This is contextually useful and never build-defining. A reaction attack that fires only when you're targeted by a ranged attack means it's completely passive — in combats where melee enemies charge you, it does nothing. Against enemy archers, it punishes aggressive shooting, which can shape AI behavior in your favor. For dedicated archers who have nothing better to do with their reaction, it's a fine option. For anyone who has Combat Casting, Vanguard, or Spell Duelist already competing for their reaction, it's redundant.
Rallying Call (Labyrinth Worldbook) ●
What it does: Once per short or long rest, use a bonus action to give yourself and friendly creatures within 30 feet who can hear you advantage on their next ranged or melee weapon attack, plus advantage on saves against being frightened for 1 minute.
Who benefits most: Fighters, Paladins, commander builds, martial-heavy parties, and frontliners who can start a fight with several weapon users nearby.
Prerequisites: None.
Rallying Call (Labyrinth Worldbook) is a clean party amplifier. The best use is early in a fight, before the party's weapon attackers have spent their opening attacks. Advantage on one attack is not flashy for one character, but advantage spread across three or four allies can swing a first round hard, especially when Rogues, Paladins, or heavy-weapon Fighters are part of the group.
The frightened-save advantage is campaign-dependent but valuable when it matters. Dragons, undead, fiends, and fear-heavy bosses can shut down a martial line by breaking positioning. Rallying Call gives the party a short defensive window while also improving the next wave of weapon attacks. It stays green because it is once per rest and party-composition dependent. In a martial-heavy group, it can play like a blue pick.
Stunning Sniper (The Old Margreve) ●
What it does: Choose one simple or martial ranged weapon you are proficient with. While wielding it, you score critical hits on 19-20, you can forgo critical-hit damage to stun the target until the end of its next turn, and when you hit a stunned creature with the chosen weapon, you roll one additional weapon damage die. Repeatable for different weapons.
Who benefits most: Rangers, ranged Fighters, Rogues with a dedicated ranged weapon, and any archer build that can generate advantage or multiple attacks.
Prerequisites: Proficiency with at least one ranged weapon.
This is the Old Margreve archer talent, and it is much better than it first looks. The 19-20 crit range is already premium on a ranged build, but the control rider is the real reason to take it: a no-save stun on a critical hit can erase a boss's next turn if the timing lines up. The damage trade is real, but stun is stronger than damage when your party can exploit it. The extra weapon die against stunned targets also means your follow-up shots, and your party's setup, can convert the control turn into damage.
Stunning Sniper competes directly with Ranged Weapon Mastery and Weapon Discipline. Take Ranged Weapon Mastery first if your problem is positioning, cover, or melee pressure. Take Weapon Discipline first if you need raw accuracy. Take Stunning Sniper when your build already attacks often, attacks with advantage, or wants to be the ranged character who can occasionally turn a crit into a full-party opening.
Tactical Planning (Book of Blades) ●
What it does: After a short or long rest spent planning a known battle, grant yourself and up to ten allies one battle plan for that fight: Ambush, Defensive Action, or Rush the Line.
Who benefits most: History-proficient commanders, tactical Fighters, Paladins leading parties, and campaigns with visible upcoming fights rather than constant surprise encounters.
Prerequisites: Proficiency in History, character level 4 or higher.
Tactical Planning is strong when the campaign gives you time to prepare. Ambush grants advantage on Stealth and initiative, gives Luck if foes are surprised, and adds PB damage against surprised foes or those who have not acted yet. Defensive Action adds +1 AC, temp HP in formation or cover, and better saves against forced movement and prone. Rush the Line lets allies use reactions to move toward visible enemies and set up advantage on the next attack if they end adjacent.
This is not an always-on talent like Weapon Discipline. It requires foreknowledge, rest time, and a fight important enough to justify planning around. In military, heist, monster-hunting, and siege campaigns, that condition comes up often. In chaotic dungeon crawls where every room is unknown, it is much less reliable.
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Start BuildingShield Mastery ●
What it does: Bonus action shield shove (advantage if you moved 10 feet first); Dodge action increases AC by shield's armor bonus; react to a successful DEX save to halve damage taken.
Who benefits most: Sword-and-board Fighters, Paladins, any character who runs a shield and wants to maximize its utility beyond AC.
Prerequisites: Character 4th level or higher.
Three separate shield upgrades, all meaningful. The bonus action shove is low-cost repositioning and control. The Dodge AC increase turns a defensive action into a reaction defense during rounds where you don't need to attack. The DEX save halving is the standout — it's a reaction that fires on any DEX save success, which covers fireball, lightning bolt, breath weapons, and most AoE damage. For a Paladin who already has Aura of Protection applying to saves, this reaction becomes extremely reliable.
Spell Hunter ●
What it does: React when a creature you can see within reach casts a spell: make a melee attack that deals extra damage equal to the spell's circle on a hit; a critical hit interrupts the spell without expending its slot. Within 5 feet of a creature, you have advantage on saves against its spells and it has disadvantage on concentration saves. A creature you are grappling cannot cast spells with somatic components.
Who benefits most: Fighters and Paladins who want to counter enemy spellcasters. Grappler builds that want to completely lock down enemy mages.
Prerequisites: None.
The critical-hit spell interruption is one of the most powerful effects in the talent pool: disrupting a high-circle spell without expending the enemy's slot can change a fight. The problem is that it requires a critical hit. The reactive attack is still useful without one, and the adjacent save and concentration pressure rewards staying in a caster's space. For a grappler build, getting adjacent and grappling the mage blocks its somatic-component spells, but do not assume that removes every spell it can cast.
Two Weapon Mastery ●
What it does: TWF doesn't require Light weapons; bonus TWF attack deals additional PB damage; draw/stow two weapons as one; on critical hit or kill with TWF bonus attack, move half speed without OAs and make another attack.
Who benefits most: Dual-wielding Fighters, Rangers, and Rogues who want to build seriously into TWF rather than treating it as a side option.
Prerequisites: Character 4th level or higher.
This talent finally makes Two Weapon Fighting a real choice instead of a newbie trap. The PB bonus damage on the off-hand attack removes the "no ability modifier on TWF" sting at higher levels. The kill-or-crit trigger that generates movement plus a free attack is the reward for committing to the playstyle — when it fires, you can execute one target and immediately swing on the next. For Rogues in particular, the off-hand attack is another Sneak Attack delivery mechanism, and the mobility option is outstanding.
Unarmed Maneuvers (Book of Blades) ●
What it does: Gain unarmed control maneuvers that replace damage with effects: block speech/verbal components, deafen, blind, knock prone, or push 10 feet. Only one maneuver per turn.
Who benefits most: Monks, Hand to Hand builds, grapplers, and anti-caster unarmed characters.
Prerequisites: Martial Arts class ability or Hand to Hand talent.
Unarmed Maneuvers gives fistfighters something more interesting than raw damage. Chin Strike is the anti-mage option, cutting off speech and verbal components on a failed CON save. Eye Rake can blind, Leg Sweep can knock prone, Deafening Strike shuts off hearing, and Stumbling Strike is a stronger shove that pushes 10 feet on a contested Athletics check.
The cost is that a successful maneuver does no damage. That makes this best for characters who care about control more than DPR, or who have allies ready to exploit the condition. A Monk trading one hit to blind or prone a priority target is often making the party stronger. A Barbarian who just wants damage probably prefers Wrestling Mastery or Hand to Hand first.
Vanguard ●
What it does: React when a creature in reach attacks any target other than you: make a melee weapon attack against the attacking creature. Opportunity attack triggers even if creature's movement doesn't provoke OAs. Ready action melee attack: gain PB bonus to attack and damage, and on hit reduce target's speed to 0 until end of their next turn.
Who benefits most: Fighters, Paladins, any frontline character who serves as a zone controller and wants to generate off-turn attacks.
Prerequisites: None.
This is a top-tier talent for a different reason than most — it fires off-turn, effectively giving you an extra attack action per round that isn't tied to your action economy. When enemies focus your Sorcerer instead of you, you attack them. The opportunity attack extension on non-provoking movement is subtle but huge: enemies with the Disengage action, Swashbuckler-style features, or fly speeds that normally let them leave without consequence now eat an OA from you. The Ready action bonus is a situational cherry on top. Any melee character who is supposed to protect their backline should have this.
Void Strike (Labyrinth Worldbook) ●
What it does: When you hit with a weapon attack, you can change the weapon's damage to necrotic until the start of your next turn. When you hit with a weapon attack, you can roll one hit die and add it as extra necrotic damage.
Who benefits most: Void-themed martials, Rangers, Fighters, Paladins, and weapon users who want a damage-type conversion tool plus occasional burst damage.
Prerequisites: Character 4th level or higher.
Void Strike (Labyrinth Worldbook) is the martial sibling of Voracious Arcana: damage now, recovery cost later. The necrotic conversion is useful against enemies that resist normal weapon damage, though necrotic is not universally safe. The hit-die damage rider is the stronger piece because it lets you turn a confirmed hit into extra damage without gambling on another attack roll.
The limiter is hit-die pressure. Martial characters need hit dice for short-rest healing more than backline casters do, so every burst die you spend is a recovery die you do not have later. That makes Void Strike strongest when you are ending an encounter, pushing through a dangerous enemy's last HP, or playing in a party with reliable magical healing. It is a good damage talent, but it asks you to manage attrition honestly.
War Dancer (Book of Blades) ●
What it does: DEX 13+ mobile defense package: +1 AC until your next turn after moving more than 10 feet, no opportunity attacks from creatures you hit in melee for the rest of the turn, and reaction +2 AC against one visible melee attack that would hit.
Who benefits most: DEX melee Fighters, Rogues, Monks, Rangers, and lightly-armored skirmishers who move every turn.
Prerequisites: DEX 13 or higher.
War Dancer rewards the thing skirmishers already want to do: move, hit, and leave. The +1 AC is easy to trigger on most turns, and the hit-based opportunity attack protection lets you attack a dangerous creature and reposition without spending Disengage. The reaction +2 AC is basically a small parry that can turn a narrow hit into a miss.
It is green rather than blue because it is defensive and movement-dependent. If your build stands still in heavy armor, ignore it. If you are a light-armor melee character who lives on positioning, it is one of the cleanest Book of Blades picks.
Weapon Discipline ●
What it does: Choose a weapon: +1 to attack and damage rolls. Critical hits roll one additional weapon damage die. On kill with chosen weapon, gain temp HP equal to PB. Repeatable for different weapons.
Who benefits most: Any weapon-focused martial character. Essentially every Fighter, Barbarian, and Ranger should look at this.
Prerequisites: Proficiency with at least one martial weapon.
The +1 to attack and damage is deceptively strong. At high levels, a +1 to attack is roughly a 5% damage increase per attack. On a Fighter with multiple attacks from class features, this compounds rapidly. The bonus crit damage die means every crit deals one more die — on a greatsword, that's 4d6 on a crit instead of 3d6. The temp HP on kill is active every time you finish an enemy, which in combat means you're regularly generating a small HP buffer. Repeatable for multiple weapons if you're a versatile fighter type.
Weapon Option Specialist (Book of Blades) ●
What it does: Choose one weapon option. Increase its save DC by 1, or gain +1 to the weapon attack when performing it if the option has no save or ability check. When you hit while using the specialized option, you can deal PB damage of the weapon's normal type.
Who benefits most: Characters whose table uses weapon options heavily, duelists built around disarm/trip-style actions, and martial characters with a favorite weapon option they use every fight.
Prerequisites: None.
Weapon Option Specialist is only as good as your table's weapon-option usage. If weapon options are a regular part of combat, this is a solid accuracy/DC and damage bump on a tactical move you already wanted. If your group rarely uses weapon options, the talent has no reason to exist.
The best version is a character with a repeatable, tactically relevant option: disarming an elite duelist, tripping a dangerous melee enemy, or using a control option that sets up allies. The PB damage rider keeps the action from feeling like you gave up all damage for utility. It is not as generally powerful as Weapon Discipline, but it is the better pick when your build is specifically about weapon options.
Wrestling Mastery ●
What it does: Advantage on grapple initiation and escape checks; advantage on attack rolls against creatures you're grappling. Grappled/grappling creature takes STR modifier bludgeoning at start of each of their turns. Action to restrain a grappled target (STR contested check).
Who benefits most: Dedicated grappler Fighters or Barbarians, builds that want to lock down single high-value targets.
Prerequisites: STR 15 or higher, character level 4 or higher.
Wrestling Mastery is the completion of the grappler build. Advantage on grapple checks means you rarely fail to grab; advantage on attacks against the grabbed creature means every follow-up swing is accurate; the passive bludgeoning damage means every round the grapple holds is free chip damage; and the restrain option turns your grapple into a full hold that gives everyone else advantage on attacks against the target. Against spellcasters (combined with Spell Hunter), this is a total action-economy lockdown.
Player's Guide 2 Martial Talents
Player's Guide 2 is the best martial expansion for weapon-style identity. It does not replace core staples like Combat Conditioning, Weapon Discipline, Critical Training, or Vanguard, but it gives under-supported builds real knobs: thrown weapons, polearms, whips, heavy-cleave combat, defensive reactions, and party follow-up attacks.
Use these alongside the class guides for Fighter, Barbarian, Ranger, Paladin, and Monk.
| Talent | Best For | Take |
|---|---|---|
| Polearm Mastery (Player's Guide 2) ● | Reach-weapon controllers | A warding stance that can punish multiple creatures entering reach. |
| Hurler (Player's Guide 2) ● | Thrown-weapon builds | Scaling thrown damage, prone crits, free draws, and Rage support. |
| Cleaver (Player's Guide 2) ● | Heavy melee multi-target builds | Extra adjacent-target attacks and overkill spill damage are excellent. |
| Self Defense (Player's Guide 2) ● | DEX martials and lightly armored builds | Reaction AC equal to PB is a strong panic button. |
| Tactical Teamwork (Player's Guide 2) ● | Party-focused frontliners | Reaction PB to an ally's missed weapon attack can turn misses into hits. |
| Staggering Strikes (Player's Guide 2) ● | STR melee lockdown builds | No-reaction hits are simple and brutal against mobile enemies. |
| Juggernaut (Player's Guide 2) ● | Shove and forced-movement builds | Better shoves, bonus-action shoves, and forced-movement resistance. |
| Hard to Kill (Player's Guide 2) ● | Frontliners who expect to hit 0 HP | Staying conscious at 0 HP is dramatic, but still dangerous. |
| Situational Awareness (Player's Guide 2) ● | Skirmishers and anti-ambush builds | Surprise protection plus a reaction reposition after melee damage. |
| Brave (Player's Guide 2) ● | Anti-fear frontliners | Strong when fear and frightened effects show up often. |
| Two Weapon Defense (Player's Guide 2) ● | Dual-wield builds | Bonus-action +2 AC gives dual wielders a defensive stance. |
| Whip Expert (Player's Guide 2) ● | Whip specialists | Great if you are actually committed to whips; irrelevant otherwise. |
| Tag Team (Player's Guide 2) ● | Coordinated melee parties | The payoff is nice, but one use per rest is too narrow. |
Polearm Mastery (Player's Guide 2) is the standout. A Reach and Two-Handed weapon already gives you excellent control geometry; the warding stance turns that reach into repeated entry and exit punishment without spending your reaction on each target. Expect table scrutiny here, because this can dominate enemy movement when paired with narrow maps.
Hurler (Player's Guide 2) finally makes thrown weapons feel like a primary combat plan. Scaling once-per-turn extra damage keeps the style relevant, prone crits add control, free draws solve the object-interaction tax, and the explicit Rage interaction makes thrown Barbarians viable instead of awkward.
Cleaver (Player's Guide 2) is the best PG2 damage talent for heavy melee characters fighting groups. Extra adjacent-target attacks and spillover damage both reward overkill in crowded fights. It is weaker in single-boss encounters, but Fighters and Barbarians see enough multi-enemy fights for this to matter.
Self Defense (Player's Guide 2) and Two Weapon Defense (Player's Guide 2) patch durability for builds that cannot or will not wear the biggest armor. Self Defense is the cleaner general pick because it uses a reaction and scales with PB. Two Weapon Defense is narrower but gives dual wielders a reason to spend their bonus action defensively.
Top Picks Summary
| Talent | Best For |
|---|---|
| Battle Tactician (Book of Blades) ● | Martial commanders |
| Cleaver (Player's Guide 2) ● | Heavy melee multi-target builds |
| Combat Conditioning ● | Every martial character |
| Critical Training ● | Crit-fishing weapon builds |
| Heavy Weapon Mastery ● | Greatsword/greataxe builds |
| Hurler (Player's Guide 2) ● | Thrown-weapon builds |
| Lacerating Slash (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● | Bleed-focused melee builds |
| Polearm Mastery (Player's Guide 2) ● | Reach-weapon controllers |
| Ranged Weapon Mastery ● | Rangers, archer Fighters |
| Stunning Sniper (The Old Margreve) ● | Advantage-based archers |
| Vanguard ● | Zone-control frontliners |
| Weapon Discipline ● | Any weapon-focused martial |
| Athletic ● | Grapplers, STR builds |
| Armor Expert ● | Heavy armor tanks |
| Armor Training ● | DEX Fighters, stealthy martials |
| Furious Charge ● | Charge/knockdown Barbarians |
| Opportunist ● | Sticky melee controllers |
| Rallying Call (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● | Martial-heavy parties |
| Self Defense (Player's Guide 2) ● | Lightly armored martials |
| Staggering Strikes (Player's Guide 2) ● | STR melee lockdown builds |
| Tactical Teamwork (Player's Guide 2) ● | Party-focused frontliners |
| Tactical Planning (Book of Blades) ● | Prepared set-piece fights |
| Two Weapon Defense (Player's Guide 2) ● | Dual-wield builds |
| Two Weapon Mastery ● | Dual-wield builds |
| Unarmed Maneuvers (Book of Blades) ● | Monks and unarmed controllers |
| Void Strike (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● | Void-themed burst martials |
| War Dancer (Book of Blades) ● | DEX melee skirmishers |
| Weapon Option Specialist (Book of Blades) ● | Weapon-option specialists |
| Shield Mastery ● | Sword-and-board builds |
| Spell Hunter ● | Anti-mage melee builds |
| Artillerist ● | Crossbow / siege builds only |
| Poisoner (Book of Blades) ● | Poison-focused campaigns |
| Return Fire ● | Archers vs. archers |
Build Synergies
Critical Training + Heavy Weapon Mastery The cornerstone two-talent greatsword build. Critical Training raises crit range to 19–20 (10% crit rate) and adds STR modifier to crit damage. Heavy Weapon Mastery fires a bonus attack on every crit. At 10% crit rate with 3 attacks per round (5th-level Fighter), you're critting roughly once per two rounds on average, and each crit generates a fourth attack with a massive damage boost. This is the best sustained damage combination on the martial list.
Vanguard + Opportunist These two talents turn you into the most punishing zone controller in the game. Vanguard generates an off-turn attack when enemies attack your allies. Opportunist grants advantage on all opportunity attacks and expands the trigger list (standing from prone, using objects). Together, nearly every enemy action in your vicinity potentially generates a free attack from you, and those attacks all hit at advantage. A Fighter running both effectively has near-unlimited extra attacks distributed across every turn in the encounter.
Wrestling Mastery + Spell Hunter The complete anti-mage build. Grapple the caster (advantage on the check), which prevents somatic spells entirely. Restrain them as a bonus action (advantage for all allies). React to any remaining verbal-only spell with a melee attack that deals spell-circle bonus damage and potentially crits to interrupt the cast. A grappled, restrained mage who can't cast somatic spells and eats a counter-attack on verbal-only attempts is essentially non-functional as a threat. This is one of the most decisive single-target shutdown combinations in the game.
Ranged Weapon Mastery + Weapon Discipline The baseline package for a dedicated archer. Ranged Weapon Mastery removes long-range and melee-range disadvantage; Weapon Discipline adds +1 to all attack and damage rolls with your chosen bow, plus a bonus crit die and temp HP on kill. Combined, your ranged attacks fire at no-penalty from any position, with a permanent +1 accuracy bonus, enhanced crits, and survivability through the kill-based temp HP. This is the minimum talent investment for any character whose primary combat mode is the longbow or hand crossbow.
Stunning Sniper (The Old Margreve) + Ranged Weapon Mastery + Weapon Discipline This is the complete Old Margreve archer package. Weapon Discipline improves accuracy and crit damage. Ranged Weapon Mastery removes the positioning penalties that ruin archers in cramped maps. Stunning Sniper turns your expanded crit range into a control trigger: when the big target gets stunned, the whole party gets a turn to punish it.
Battle Tactician (Book of Blades) + Vanguard This is the Book of Blades commander package. Battle Tactician gives you party-scale tactical buttons like Guardian's Glare, Convergent Onslaught, Endure Pain, and Masterful Rally. Vanguard keeps punishing enemies who attack anyone other than you. Together, you become a frontliner who controls both enemy decisions and ally opportunities.
Unarmed Maneuvers (Book of Blades) + Wrestling Mastery The unarmed control package. Wrestling Mastery gives advantage against grappled targets and a restrain option. Unarmed Maneuvers adds condition and positioning tools: blind, prone, verbal shutdown, deafened, or pushed. A grappler with both is not just holding one enemy in place; they are deciding what that enemy is allowed to do.
Poisoner (Book of Blades) + Noxious Apothecary Poisoner makes poison usable in combat by applying it as a bonus action and protecting you from poison damage and the poisoned condition. Noxious Apothecary makes the poison itself better. This is campaign-dependent, but in a table with real poison crafting, it turns poison from a consumable gimmick into a build identity.
Lacerating Slash (Labyrinth Worldbook) + Critical Training Lacerating Slash already punishes enemies for staying in the fight. Critical Training doubles your crit range and makes the bleed rider better when you land a critical hit. On a multiattack Fighter or reckless Barbarian, the combo turns normal hits into ongoing pressure and critical hits into wounds that enemies have to answer.
Rallying Call (Labyrinth Worldbook) + Martial Party Openers Rallying Call is strongest when the party has several weapon attackers ready to capitalize in the same round. Use it before the Rogue, Paladin, Ranger, and heavy-weapon Fighter make their first attacks, and the bonus action becomes a party-wide accuracy spike. The fear protection is the backup value against dragons, undead, and terror-heavy bosses.
Void Strike (Labyrinth Worldbook) + Weapon Discipline Weapon Discipline makes your chosen weapon more accurate and harder-hitting on every swing. Void Strike lets you cash in on confirmed hits by adding hit-die necrotic damage and changing the damage type when needed. This is a good package for a martial character who wants reliable baseline damage with an emergency burst button.
Polearm Mastery (Player's Guide 2) + Vanguard Polearm Mastery controls movement into and out of your reach, while Vanguard punishes enemies who attack anyone other than you once they are there. Together, they create the classic reach-controller package for Fighters and Paladins: enemies pay to approach, pay to leave, and pay to ignore you.
Hurler (Player's Guide 2) + Barbarian Rage Hurler explicitly lets Rage damage apply to thrown weapon attacks, which is the line thrown Barbarians needed. Add the scaling once-per-turn damage die and prone-on-crit rider, and a Barbarian can fight at range without feeling like they stepped out of their class engine.
Cleaver (Player's Guide 2) + Heavy Weapon Mastery Both talents reward committing to heavy melee weapons and big damage rolls. Cleaver gives you adjacent-target pressure and overkill spillover; Heavy Weapon Mastery gives massive damage on the main target and bonus attacks on crits. This is brutal in crowded fights, especially on a Fighter making several attacks per round.
Two Weapon Defense (Player's Guide 2) + Two Weapon Mastery Two Weapon Mastery solves the offense side of dual wielding. Two Weapon Defense gives the same build a defensive bonus-action mode when the fight turns against you. The tradeoff is real: your bonus action cannot be both more offense and +2 AC in the same turn, so this is best for players who like stance-like decisions.
Furious Charge + Athletic (Prone Focus) Charge 20 feet and choose the push + knockdown benefit (push 10 feet + STR save or prone). When the enemy fails the save and goes prone, Athletic lets you stand from prone yourself in 5 feet if you ever go down. The prone enemy now grants advantage to every melee attacker in the party for the next round. Your Barbarian's Rage makes the Furious Charge STR save DC punishing (8+PB+high STR modifier), and the consistent knockdown setup makes your whole party's action economy more efficient.
Hot Takes
Hot Take: Combat Conditioning is the best talent in the game for non-Barbarian martials, and almost nobody talks about it. The optimization community focuses on damage — crits, attacks, damage dice. But the most common way martial characters lose fights in ToV isn't dealing too little damage; it's dying. A level-10 Fighter with Combat Conditioning has 20 extra HP. That's two to three hits from most tier-2 enemies. Every single adventuring day, those hit points are load-bearing. If one campaign session involves a boss fight where you survive at 8 HP instead of dying at −12, Combat Conditioning literally saved the character. Take it early. The compounding is the point.
Hot Take: Artillerist is unplayable in standard campaigns and the community is too polite about it. Three of its benefits require siege weapons or a Loading weapon — and most campaigns don't feature siege weapons at all. The only consistently usable benefit is ignoring the Loading property, which matters for heavy crossbows. But taking a full Improvement slot to use a heavy crossbow slightly better (you could already fire it once per action without the talent) is an awful trade when Combat Conditioning, Weapon Discipline, and Critical Training all exist at the same level. Unless your GM has explicitly confirmed siege combat will be a major campaign feature, this talent slot should never be touched.
Hot Take: Vanguard is a better attack-count boost than many build dips. The Vanguard reaction attack fires on another creature's turn, not yours. When enemies in your reach keep targeting your Wizard, you keep punishing those choices off-turn, without spending your action. A Fighter with Multiattack plus a Vanguard reaction is often functioning a full attack ahead of schedule in real encounters. The reaction is capped by your reaction economy, but it is still one of the cleanest "attack more" talents in the game.
Hot Take: Stunning Sniper (The Old Margreve) is better control than damage, and that is why it is good. Most archer optimization chases bigger numbers. Stunning Sniper says the crit can become a no-save stun instead, and a stunned boss losing its next turn is worth more than a few doubled weapon dice. If your table underrates conditions, this talent will look merely cute. It is not.
Hot Take: Battle Tactician (Book of Blades) is the closest thing this talent list has to a Warlord button, and that makes it better than another selfish damage bump on the right character. Convergent Onslaught, Endure Pain, Masterful Rally, and Guardian's Glare all change what the party can do, not just what you can do. The catch is that the table has to enjoy the extra tactical layer. If they do, this is a blue pick.
Hot Take: Polearm Mastery (Player's Guide 2) is the PG2 martial talent most likely to get table scrutiny. It can generate multiple opportunity attacks in a round without spending your reaction on each one, which is exactly the kind of movement control that changes monster behavior. That does not make it broken by default, but it does mean the GM needs to understand what a reach-controller can do before approving it.
Hot Take: Hurler (Player's Guide 2) is not a cute thrown-weapon patch; it is the first thrown-weapon talent that reads like a real build plan. Scaling damage, free draws, prone crits, and Rage compatibility are the checklist. If your Fighter or Barbarian wanted to throw axes, javelins, or hammers before PG2, this is the talent that makes the table take it seriously.
Hot Take: Hard to Kill (Player's Guide 2) is cinematic, not a healing plan. Staying conscious at 0 HP can win a boss fight when one more action matters, but damage still burns down the remaining rounds and you still collapse afterward. Take it on characters who thrive on clutch turns, not characters who need a replacement for actual healing.
Final Notes
Martial Talents reward build commitment. The worst picks on this list aren't bad designs — they're picks that optimize for scenarios that rarely occur. The best picks are ones where every session of play activates their benefit: Combat Conditioning adds HP to every single long rest; Weapon Discipline fires on every attack roll; Vanguard turns every enemy turn in your vicinity into a potential free attack. Player's Guide 2 adds more build-specific hooks, especially for thrown weapons, polearms, heavy cleave builds, and defensive dual wielders.
The structural choice at every Improvement is whether to raise ability scores or spend a talent slot. For martial characters, ability score maxing (getting STR or DEX to 20) is a prerequisite for most talent scaling. Don't take Heavy Weapon Mastery with STR 14 — the damage bonus is too small and the hit penalty is too punishing. Get your primary ability to 18–20 first, then build into the talent layer on top. The exception is Combat Conditioning, which doesn't scale with ability scores and is worth taking whenever you have the slot.
