Tales of the Valiant Transition Guide

What is Tales of the Valiant?

In response to the attempt by Wizards of the Coast to terminate the Open Gaming License in early 2023, long-time 3rd-party DnD publisher Kobold Press became a prominent voice in the community demanding that DnD remain open for players and creators.

Following the OGL controversy, Kobold Press launched an effort to create a more open version of the popular 5e ruleset. The new game was originally titled “Project Black Flag” until they landed on the official name “Tales of the Valiant.” The popular black flag name lives on in their organized play program: Black Flag Roleplaying.

In purely mechanical terms, Tales of the Valiant is an update to the DnD 5e rules published in 2014 seeking to stay close to those rules and maintain true backwards compatibility while still making quality of life improvements. Because Tales of the Valiant is published under the ORC license, the rules are available for free, creating room for fan-hosted SRD sites similar to Archives of Nethys, a long-time cornerstone of the Pathfinder community.

ToV is based on the 5e System Reference Document, which was contributed to the Creative Commons following the OGL controversy. The SRD contains many of the most iconic bits of DnD, but relatively few character options, magic items, and monsters. Due to this limitation, some of your favorites from the 5e rules may not exist in ToV. But, since ToV promises backwards compatibility, you’ll be able to easily bring your favorite content in your ToV game.

Players following the OneDnD playtest process (or maybe the 2024 books are out and I haven’t updated this paragraph) will notice that some of the rules changes in ToV are similar to those in the 2024 5e rules.

Table of Contents

Why Play Tales of the Valiant?

Tales of the Valiant makes good on the promise to maintain backwards-compatibility with the 2014 version of the 5e ruleset. In many cases you can use existing 5e content as-is alongside ToV content without issue.

You might also prefer the changes which ToV has made to update the 5e ruleset over the changes being made in the 2024 rules. I certainly find some of the 2024 rules changes absolutely baffling, and I’m sure I’m not alone in this one.

Following the OGL controversy and a series of other controversies and missteps, many players want to keep playing 5e, but are less interested in WotC’s official products. ToV promises a continuation of 5e, but without being beholden to WotC.

Balance Changes

Characters in ToV are intended to be slightly more powerful than characters in 2014 5e, especially when comparing the ToV core rules to the 2014 5e core rules. ToV characters begin play with a Talent (a Feat) and get more benefits from their Lineage and Heritage than 5e characters do from their Race. In addition, many classes saw buffs and improvements to their core features.

ToV characters are expected to be roughly as effective as 5e characters using options published in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything and in later supplements plus one of the numerous backgrounds which grant a Feat at level 1. If you were already using those rules, balance changes may feel very minor.

The changes from Ability Score Improvements in 5e to Improvements in ToV allows characters to increase one ability score by +1 even if they choose a Talent, meaning that the opportunity cost to take a feat over an ASI is altered. Characters can also start with 18 in an ability score under ToV’s point buy rules, so the ability score landscape is much different.

Notation/Text Changes

Tales of the Valiant frequently uses the capitalized three-letter abbreviation for each ability score when discussing them in rules text. Ex: “STR” for Strength.

Spell Levels are now Spell Circles.

Rules Changes

I’m notoriously human, so this list may not be absolutely comprehensive, but I’ll do my best to update this when I find changes.

Character Creation

Characters are created in largely the same way as 5e characters, with two exceptions: ability score generation and races.

Ability scores are generated using methods that you’ll find familiar from the 2014 Player’s Handbook, but racial ability score increases are gone. You no longer need to go back and recalculate your ability scores after choosing a race, saving a bit of jumping around during character creation.

Races and Subraces -> Ancestries and Heritages

Race and Subrace have been replaced by Lineage and Heritage. Lineage is your character’s biology, while Heritage is the society to which your character belongs. Ancestries include classic fantasy staples like elves, dwarves, and (of course) kobolds.

Rather than giving a race multiple subraces to represent subgroups of a single Lineage, Heritages can represent a diverse collection of people in a thematically similar society. Some Heritages closely resemble subraces from the 5e rules, but not all of them.

If you want a character who is close to classic fantasy tropes, you can easily find Lineage+Heritage combinations which fit those themes. But you’re also free to combine whichever Lineage and Heritage you like.

Classes

Classes look and function in essentially the same way as they do in 5e, but some of their features have been updated. All core classes have been updated to select their subclass at level 3.

The Tales of the Valiants core rules also introduce the new Mechanist subclass. The Witch, published in Deep Magic 2, is fully ToV-compatible.

Ability Score Improvement -> Improvement

Ability Score Improvements have been reworked. In the 2014 5e rules, you can select +2 in one ability score, +1 in two ability scores, or one feat. Some feats offered a +1 ability score increase.

In ToV you can select +2 in one ability score, +1 in two abilities scores, or +1 in one ability score and one Talent. Talents do not provide ability score increases.

Heroic Boon

Every class gets a new Heroic Boon feature at level 10, allowing you to choose from 2 or more options for your class. It’s possible that we’ll see more of these added in future supplements, and I’m excited to see what Kobold Press comes up with.

Epic Boon

Every class’s 20th-level feature is now called an “Epic Boon”.

Barbarian

  • Unarmored Defense is now 13+CON modifier. Half Plate is no longer necessary for the barbarian to survive, and you might even be stealthy if you don’t dump DEX.
  • Multiattack: Extra Attack has been renamed.
  • Fast Movement: Move half your speed when you roll initiative
  • Brutal Critical: You now crit on a 19 or 20 with melee weapons and unarmed strikes. This dramatically improves the Barbarian’s odds to score a critical hit when combined with Reckless Attack, which dramatically improves the Barbarian’s lackluster damage output at high levels.
  • Heroic Boon: Rage instantly as a free action when you roll initiative or remove most of the requirements to keep rage running for the full duration
  • Indomitable Might -> Unyielding Might: The floor on d20 rolls is reduced from your STR score in 5e to 10 in ToV, so no more rolling a 24 on a d20. You also now add your STR score (not modifier) to damage against objects.

Bard

  • Spellcasting:
    • Bards use the Arcane spell list (yes, the whole spell list), and learn 1 more cantrip than in the 5e rules.
    • 1 of your 4 1st-Circle spells known at 1st level may be from any spell list
    • Bards learn a number of rituals separate from their regular spells (so do other ritual casters)
    • Bards can use an arcane focus (staff, wand, etc.) as a spellcasting focus
  • Expertise: The Bard’s second batch of Expertise is now at level 6 instead of level 10
  • Bardic Performance: New feature. Replaces countercharm. Activating Bardic Performance is an Action, then you maintain it as a Bonus Action, providing an ongoing effect for the duration. The Bonus Action to maintain the performance will prevent using Bardic Inspiration while you perform.
  • Jack of All Trades: Now a College of Lore subclass feature. No longer a core Bard feature.
  • Font of Inspiration: Now also allows you to use a Bardic Inspiration die on an attack/check/save as a Reaction when an ally fails a roll.
  • Magical Secrets: You now get to pick two spells at each of levels 9, 13, and 18 instead of 10 and 18.
  • Heroic Boon: Retain your inspiration die when a roll fails or use an inspiration die to add damage to an attack or reduce damage when hit.
  • Epic Boon: Curtain Call. Recover CHA modifier Bardic Inspiration uses once per day. Replaces Superior Inspiration, which gave you 1 die if you rolled initiative and didn’t have any left.

Cleric

  • Manifestation of Faith: Replaces the 1st-level benefits provided by subclasses so that you don’t need to limp around with 8 Dexterity and bad armor until you get your subclass at level 3. Both options make for a great multiclass dip.
    • Manifestation of Might: Heavy armor, a single martial weapon, and once per turn add +PB damage to your attack.
    • Manifestation of Miracles: One cantrip from any spell list and +PB damage with any divine cantrip.
  • Spellcasting:
    • Clerics learn a number of rituals separate from their regular spells (so do other ritual casters)
  • Channel Divinity: Uses per day now scale up to 4 at 18th level.
    • Turn Undead -> Turn the Profane: Now affects both fiends and undead.
    • Destroy the Profane: Works as Destroy Undead, but now also affects fiends.
  • Divine Intervention: Now level 9 instead of 10. You roll 1d20+PB against DC 19. On a success, you can cast a divine spell without spending a slot or components. You can cast spells of a higher level than your cleric can cast, but doing so requires an ability check.
  • Heroic Boon: Immunity to disease and poison or get really friendly with necrotic or radiant damage.
  • Epic Boon: Divine Herald: Divine Intervention works automatically, and you can use it once per long rest rather than once per week like it is in the 2014 5e rules.

Druid

  • Spellcasting:
    • Druids learn 1 more Cantrip than in the 2014 rules
    • Druids learn a number of rituals separate from their regular spells (so do other ritual casters)
  • Nature’s Gift: New feature that heals one target for PBd4 as a Bonus Action PB times per day, largely removing the need to prepare Healing Word
  • Wild Shape: Now works more like the Cleric’s Channel Divinity. You get 1 use per Short or Long Rest, and the number of uses scales to 4 per rest at level 18. You can use Wild Shape for “Beast Form”, “Draw Power”, or possibly new options granted by your subclass. At this point it’s a generic class resource and we’re just stuck with the name Wild Shape.
    • Beast Form: You’re limited to 2 forms known, and can only change them when you gain a druid level. You gain additional forms at the same rate that your PB increases. CR improvements are 1 level behind the 2014 5e rules, but you also get up to CR 2, while the 2014 rules limited you to CR 1 at most. The restrictions on movement types are gone, so you can adopt forms with burrow, fly, and swim speeds right from level 2.

      Weirdly, the feature doesn’t explain what it actually does beyond “you assume the form of.”
    • Draw Power: A massive boost in the Druid’s daily spellcasting. At high levels you could recover a 6th-level spell slot 4 times each time you rest. This is similar to the Harness Divine Power optional feature introduced for Clerics and Paladins in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, but you get spell slots up to your full PB instead of half your PB, and there’s no additional daily usage cap.
  • Heroic Boon: Get really good at talking to animals or get one additional Wild Shape use per Long Rest.
  • Nature’s Grace: Combines the benefits Timeless Body, no need for food/water, and immunity to ability score and hit point maximum reductions
  • Beast Spells is gone
  • Archdruid: Functionally the same as the 2014 rules. You get to use Wild Shape an unlimited number of times, but only for the Beast Shape option. No infinite spell slots.

Fighter

  • Last Stand: Replaces Second Wind. Allows you to spend Hit Dice as a Reaction to taking damage and immediately heal yourself before you take the incoming damage. You can spend hit dice up your PB, but only add your CON modifier once, so it’s more efficient to use this multiple times with 1 Hit Die or to save them for a Short Rest, but this gives you a great way to stay alive in tough fights.
  • Martial Action: Replaces Fighting Style. All of these are activated using a Bonus Action rather than granting a passive benefit, and most only apply to a single attack, making them fantastic for multiclass dips from classes like Cleric and Rogue, but make them less useful for high-level fighters than comparable Fighting Style options in the 2014 rules.
    • Aim: Double PB on your next ranged weapon attack. Comparable to Archery.
    • Guard: Impose Disadvantage on a creature’s next attack (with some conditions). Comparable to Protection, but doesn’t eat your Reaction.
    • Quick Strike: Make two attacks as a Bonus Action when two-weapon fighting. 
    • Wind Up: First successful melee weapon attack against a chosen target within 10 feet takes +PB damage. Comparable to Dueling and Great Weapon Fighting.
  • Action Surge: Now scales to 3 uses per rest
  • Multiattack: Extra Attack has been renamed. Fighters get their 3rd attack at level 9 instead of 11 and their 4th at level 17 instead of 20.
  • Indomitable: Gone.
  • Heroic Boon: Choose to succeed on a failed save a few times per long rest or end negative status conditions from a list a few times per day.
  • Epic Boon: Once on each of your turns add +STR mod or +DEX mod and ignore resistance/immunity when you hit with a weapon.

Monk

  • The word “Ki” has been removed from the Monk, moving them away from long-standing cultural issues with how the Monk has been depicted in DnD.
  • The “Ki” feature has been renamed to “Techniques”. Ki Points have been renamed to Technique Points.
  • The Monk’s point progression has been altered to front-load Technique Points, giving low-level monks more resources to use their iconic class features. The point progression matches 5e’s starting at level 9; after that, it’s 1 point per Monk level.
  • Martial Arts: Now includes Deflect Arrows.
  • Techniques:
    • “Ki Points” are now “Technique Points”
    • Flurry of Blows: You can now make two unarmed strikes as before, or you can attack once with a monk weapon.
  • Slow Fall: Rolled into Perfect Motion at level 9
  • Multiattack: Extra Attack has been renamed.
  • Empowered Strikes: Renamed from “Ki-Empowered Strikes”
  • Evasion: Moved from level 7 to level 6
  • Stillness of Mind: Rolled into one of the Heroic Boon options.
  • Perfect Motion: Combines Slow Fall and the 9th-level improvement to Unarmored Movement which allows you to run along vertical surfaces and across liquids.
  • Heroic Boon: Choose between the 2014 Purity of Body plus the ability to not be dropped to 0 hp once per day or Advantage on Wisdom saves plus the benefits of 2014 Stillness of Mind
  • Astral Teachings: Replaces Tongue of Sun and Moon with the ability to gain proficiency in a language, skill, or tool for 2 Technique Points. This is a massive improvement.
  • Timeless Self: Replaces Timeless Body at level 17 instead of level 15. In addition, you no longer need food/water and your ability scores and hp maximum can’t be reduced.
  • Boundless Technique: Replaces Perfect Self. Recover up to 4 points when you roll initiative, then regain 2 at the beginning of every turn in combat if you have none. Empty Body on turn 1, then Flurry of Blows and Stunning Strike every turn forever.

Paladin

  • Lay on Hands: Use it on yourself as a Bonus Action. This is a massive buff.
  • Divine Smite: Now limited to once per turn.
  • Martial Action: The same as for the Fighter. Paladin gets Guard or Wind Up.
  • Spellcasting: Paladins now know their spells permanently rather than preparing them each day from their full spell list like a Cleric.
  • Channel Divinity: Scales from 1 use per rest (the max in the 2014 rules) to 3 per rest.
  • Multiattack: Extra Attack has been renamed.
  • Aura of Protection: Now specifies that multiple auras of protection don’t stack.
  • Aura of Courage: Moved from level 10 to level 9
  • Heroic Boon: Give targets of lay on hands (apparently including yourself) the ability to spend a hit die when you heal them or add +1d8 damage on all of your attacks (+2d8 against fiends and undead)
  • Improved Divine Smite: Rolled into one of the Heroic Boon options.
  • Epic Boon: Create an aura for an hour that heals allies, grants resistance to non-magical damage, and allows allies to automatically succeed on death saves.

Ranger

  • Favored Enemy: Gone.
  • Explorer: Replaces Natural Explorer. Grants a climb or swim speed, advantage on checks to track a creature, and you can ignore difficult terrain.
  • Mystic Mark: Works very similar to the Favored Foe optional feature introduced in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, but doesn’t require Concentration and scales to max of 1d10 damage. PB uses/long rest.
  • Martial Action: Same as for the Fighter, but the Ranger is limited to Aim and Quick Strike.
  • Spellcasting: Primordial Spellcasting. Share the Druid’s full spell list.
  • Multiattack: Extra Attack has been renamed.
  • Empowered Mark: New. Lets you respond better to hidden/invisible enemies once you’ve marked them with Mystic Mark.
  • Land’s Stride: Gone.
  • Stalker’s Step: New. Replaces Hide in Plain Sight. Become Invisible for one round as a Bonus Action similar to the Nature’s Veil optional feature introduced in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.
  • Heroic Boon: Apply Mystic Mark without hitting and move the mark to new targets or learn 2 Cantrips and 2 Rituals.
  • Vanish: Gone.
  • Keensense: New. 10 ft. of keensense (blindsense in the 2014 rules)
  • Strider: No Opportunity Attacks and Advantage on saves and checks against effects which would prevent you from moving.
  • Epic: Replaces Foe Slayer. +WIS mod to attack or damage on every attack against a marked creature. Foe Slayer was once per turn and only against your Favored Enemy, so this is a massive upgrade.

Rogue

  • Weapon proficiencies updated to include simple weapons and all martial weapons with the Finesse property rather than a handful of specific martial weapons. This removes longswords and hand crossbows, but adds scimitars and whips.
  • Evasion: Moved from level 7 to level 6
  • Reliable Talent: Moved from level 11 to level 9
  • The Rogue’s 10th-level ASI has been replaced by Heroic Boon. You can choose Jack of All Trades to get an additional Talent, but you won’t be able to improve your ability scores.
  • Heroic Boon: Choose from Evasion but for all saves or the ability to choose Talents from any list plus an additional Talent.
  • Precise Critical: New. You score criticals hits on a 19 or 20 with the same weapons which can deal Sneak Attack, plus you add an additional weapon damage die on crit. At level 17 you add another extra weapon damage die on crit.
  • Keensense. Replaces Blindsense, but it’s only because ToV renames Blindsense to Keensense.
  • Slippery Mind: Gone.
  • Epic Boon: Stroke of Luck. Identical to the 2014 Stroke of Luck feature.

Sorcerer

  • Font of Magic: Moved to level 1 from level 2.
  • Metamagic: You now learn 2 at level 2 instead of level 3, then another at levels 6, 13, and 18 for a total of 5 compared to 4 in the 2014 rules
    • Enlarged Spell: New. 
    • Hunting Spell: New.
    • Lucky Spell: new.
    • Retain Spell: New.
    • Shielding Spell: New.
    • Twinned Spell: Cost for non-cantrip spells increased by 1 Sorcery Point.
  • Sorcerous Renewal: New. Regain a few Sorcery Points every time that you take a Short Rest.
  • Heroic Boon: Spend a Sorcery Point to add +CHA mod to failed ability checks or pick a 1st Circle or 2nd Circle spell from the Arcane, Primordial, or Wyrd spell list and gain the ability to cast it using Sorcery Points.
  • Devour Spell: New. Once per long rest, attempt to eat an incoming spell or an ongoing spell to get Sorcery Points. Recharge for 4 Sorcery Points.
  • Epic Boon: When you’re targeted by a spell, make another creature also a target. Great for sharing buffs or for hitting enemies with their own spells.

Warlock

  • Hex does not exist in ToV. This isn’t a change to the class itself, but it certainly impacts how the class is played.
  • Eldritch Blast: Now a class feature instead of a spell. 4th ray at level 14 instead of level 17.
  • Pact Boon: Moved from level 3 to level 1.
    • Pact of the Blade: Use CHA mod for attack/damage with your pact weapon.
    • Pact of the Chain: Add Blink Dog as a possible familiar, and your familiar takes its turn immediately after yours instead of rolling its own initiative
  • Eldritch Invocations: Now learn up to 10 instead of 8
  • Spellcasting: Warlocks are now half casters. No more 2014 Pact Magic (though their new Pact Magic feature is pretty great). Warlocks cast spells from the Wyrd spell list, and are the only core class to do so. They also don’t get spellcasting until level 2 like the Paladin and the Ranger.
  • Pact Magic: Cast any of your subclass spells at your highest warlock spell circle without spending a spell slot 2 times per short rest, scaling up to 4 per short rest at level 17.
  • Enhanced Boon: No more invocation tax to upgrade your pact boon!
    • Blade: Multiattack.
    • Chain: Your familiar gets temporary hp when you rest and can grant you Advantage on attacks as a Reaction, though the timing of your familiar’s turn will make this difficult to use safely.
    • Tome: Gain the ability to cast rituals and add rituals that you find to your tome.
  • Heroic Boon: Choose a 1st-Circle or 2nd-Circle spell from any spell and gain the ability to cast them either with spell slots or with Pact Magic or add exploding dice to your Eldritch Blast.
  • Mystic Arcanum: Gone.
  • Patron’s Favor: New. Use Pact Magic to cast any spell you know of 5th-circle or lower. It specifies that it can be from any use, which has weird implications for multiclassing or if you can learn spells from other sources like Talents.
  • Epic Boon: Once per long rest, recharge all of your Pact Magic uses if you start a turn without any. This means a total of 16 total uses in a day with two short rests, and every one of those is a 5th-Circle Spell.

Wizard

  • Proficiencies: Simple weapons instead of the wizard’s historically tiny list.
  • Arcane Recovery: Now level 1 and the amount rounds up
  • Spellcasting:
    • Wizard learn a number of rituals separate from their regular spells (so do other ritual casters)
    • Unlike other ritual caster, wizards can add additional rituals to their spellbook.
  • Magic Sense: New. Similar to detect magic, but it can also detect creatures with spellcasting ability.
  • Rote Spell: New. Prepare a few extra low-Circle spells per day so that you have more spell options available than other spellcasters. 
  • Superior Recovery: New. Change a few prepared spells when you use Arcane Recovery.
  • Heroic Boon: Choose between the ability to learn rituals from any source list or to learn regular spells from your choice of the Divine, Primordial, or Wyrd spell list.
  • Spellguard: New. Advantage on saves against spells and resistance to damage from spells and spell attacks (not all of which come from spells. Looking at you, Eldritch Blast.)
  • Spell Mastery: Cast your Rote spells at their lowest Circle once per day. Your rote spells now include 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Circle, so you get to cast 4 spells per day without spending a slot. It’s not as good as the 2014 version of Spell Mastery, but the 2014 version was insane.
  • Epic Boon: Adds a chance to recover an expended spell slot once per short rest when you cast an Arcane spell. It’s unpredictable, but recovering a 9th-level spell slot is going to feel awesome if you’re lucky enough for it to happen.

Multiclassing

Functionally identical to the 5e rules, but with the removal of the 2014 Pact Magic rules they’ve also removed the section on how Pact Magic works while multiclassing.

Backgrounds

Backgrounds in ToV are an important balance point. In the 2014 5e rules, you got two skills and two languages/tools, but, since all options were considered equally impactful, the rules explicitly allowed you to change the proficiencies.

Backgrounds in ToV grant two skill proficiencies, one to three proficiencies in languages, tools, and/or vehicles, and your choice of one talent from a list of 3 options. This choice ignores the Magical/Martial/Technical Talent list restrictions, making it a powerful and exciting decision point when building your character.

Feats -> Talents

Feats have been renamed to “Talents”, which is a better word for the same concept. Talents are separated into three categories: Martial, Magical, and Technical. Different classes get access to different Talent categories.

Your choice of Background grants you one Talent from a list of options. This choice disregards the Talent category restrictions, making it a powerful choice when building your character.

The only DnD 5e feat included in the SRD is Grappler, so Tales of the Valiants had to start fresh. There are feats that will feel conceptually very similar to those in the 5e rules, but there are no transplants.

Equipment

Tales of the Valiant introduces a new “Weapon Options” mechanic. Most weapons have a specified Weapon Option which allows the wielder to take a special action in place of attacking with that weapon when the wielder takes the Attack action. These options allow martial characters to trade damage for crowd control options which can frequently have a bigger impact on an encounter than a single attack’s damage.

Spells and Spellcasting

The term “Spell Level” has been replaced with “Spell Circle”. 1st-Circle Spells, 2nd-Circle Spells, etc. Overloading the word “level” has been a point of confusion for at least as long as I have been playing TTRPGs.

Rather than class-specific spell lists, ToV has four spell lists: Arcane, Divine, Primal, and Wyrd. If you’re coming from Pathfinder 2e, Wyrd is similar to Occult. This change means that classes like the Bard and the Sorcerer have more options and that class-exclusive spells aren’t a thing.

I have mixed feelings about the spell list change, but, in a game where they plan to publish additional classes beyond the core rules, it’s arguably necessary. I remember 3rd edition and PF1 publishing new classes and then immediately leaving them to gather dust as future supplements ignored them when introducing new spells to avoid requiring a mountain of source books to play anything outside of the core rules.

Monsters

Monsters and NPCs no longer have skill proficiencies. Few monsters had skill proficiencies anyway, and when they did, they rarely saw use. Instead, capabilities with skills are reflected by creatures’ ability scores.

Personally I miss the ability to have NPCs and monsters be proficient in skills, but I don’t think it will have a significant impact on the game.

Monsters and NPCs have static values for Perception and for Stealth. Instead of rolling checks, they use these values. Players use a monster’s Perception value like a DC when using Dexterity (Stealth) and use a monster’s Stealth value as a DC when attempting to detect that creature with Wisdom (Perception).

Inspiration -> Luck

Inspiration, 5e’s metacurrency, has long been a point of frustration. You can only have one, which both encourages and punishes hoarding. You need to use it before the roll because it grants Advantage, and then you can still fail. All of this feels bad, so many groups either house rule it or don’t use it at all.

ToV replaces Inspiration with a new Luck mechanic. Players get a pool of Luck Points which they can spend to increase a roll by 1 per point, or spend 3 points to reroll. It’s insurance against bad rolls in a way that people really want Inspiration to be.

Luck is also very easy to generate: you get Luck points by failing rolls. Are you notoriously bad at rolling? Congratulations, you now have Luck on your side. Do you always roll well? Tell me your secrets. Please.

Luck also cleverly discourages hoarding. If you exceed the cap on Luck points, you lose all but 1d4 of them. It’s not quite as bad as dropping to 0, but it does create an incentive to actively use your Luck instead of saving it for when you really need it like potions in a CRPG that you hoard until the end-game credits.

Magic Item Prices

Magic items in Tales of the Valiant have listed gold prices. Items within the same rarity can vary wildly in price, and some high-rarity items can be considerably less expensive than lower-rarity items.

Converting DnD 5e Characters to Tales of the Valiant

Converting characters between the 2014 5e rules and ToV is usually simple, but the differences in options may require a few extra steps.

  1. Level: Even if your character is above level 1, start from level 1 and advance your character to the appropriate level. This will help ensure that you don’t miss anything while converting.
  2. Ability Scores: Instead of trying to retain your ability scores, I recommend starting fresh and rebuilding your starting ability scores to resemble what you had in the 5e rules. The rules for starting ability scores and for Improvements (formerly Ability Score Improvements) are slightly different from the 5e rules.
  3. Race to Lineage/Heritage: Look for an Lineage and Heritage combination that matches your 5e caracter’s race and subrace traits. If no such option exists (there are a lot of non-core 5e races), try to find options which are at least similar. You might also continue to use your 5e race as-is, ignoring the ToV Lineage/Heritage mechanics.
  4. Class: ToV includes all of the same core classes as 5e, and the Mechanist works for the 5e Artificer. You may need to change selections within the class like Eldritch Invocations and spells, but otherwise the updated classes will work fine.
  5. Subclass: With the exception of the handful of subclasses in the 5e SRD, existing 5e subclasses can’t be published for ToV without getting into legal trouble. Regardless, you can probably use your subclass as-is with the ToV version of your class. The levels at which you gain subclass features have likely changed, so work with your GM to adjust the levels at which you gain subclass features. Usually you can just move the feature to the nearest level at which you gain subclass features.
  6. Feats to Talents: Many Feats from the Player’s Handbook will have a functionally equivalent Talent. If you have Feats which aren’t represented in the ToV rules, you may be able to use them as written in the 5e rules. Discuss it with your GM.
  7. Spells: Spells in the 5e SRD are likely included in ToV, often without modification. Other spells can’t be published for ToV without legal trouble. If your character uses spells from outside of the SRD, you may be able to use them as written in the 5e rules. Discuss it with your GM.