LostVale guide

Magic

Mana, wands and staves, the seven schools, learning spells on the wheel and from tomes, spell sets and the spell wheel, and what spells do besides harm.

Mana

Spells cost mana. You start with 50, and each level adds 6; the wheel and gear add more (maximum mana). Once you hold off casting for a moment, mana flows back at 2.5 a second plus a little more for each level, faster with mana recovery. Potions restore it at once. A curse stops it coming at all until it lifts.

Foci

You cast with a focus in hand, and the strike casts the spell at hand.

• Wands are quick and frugal: hazel, rowan, holly, blackthorn, bog-oak and finer. Each adds a little spell damage.
• Staves are slower and stronger, and hit harder in the hand: oak, rowan, the Staff of Embers, the Staff of the North Wind, the Staff of Storms and others, adding up to 40% spell damage.
• Grimoires go in the off hand and add spells you can keep at hand (one or two each).

The schools

There are 86 spells in seven schools, each with its own look: particles, trails, impact bursts, rings and lights.

Learning spells

Spells come gradually:

• Fire Bolt, the first spell any hedge-witch learns, is known from the start.
• On the skill wheel: most spells are a step on the Druid’s, Mystic’s or Sorcerer’s arm. Taking the step teaches the spell at once, and each is held to its level. Giving the step back forgets it.
• From tomes: the rest are learned by reading a tome (put it on the belt and strike), found in the deep places or written at a druid’s altar. A spell a tome taught is never forgotten.

The Learned column in the tables below says which.

Spells at hand, sets and the spell wheel

You keep a few spells at hand: two to begin with, more from grimoires and the wheel (spells at hand, up to eight).

• There are four spell sets, each filled for a purpose: a fire set, a frost set, one to hold a crowd. Z turns to the next set. Each set keeps its own chosen spell. The Spells tab can fill a set with your strongest spells matching a filter: a damage type (fire, frost, lightning, poison, curse, fae) or a role (control, area, affliction, support, summon, mobility, single target).
• Tap Q to step through the spells of the set in use.
• Hold Q to open the spell wheel: time slows and you point at the spell to take up. The belt numbers pick at once; the mouse wheel or the pad’s bumpers turn the sets.

What spells do

Besides harm, spells:

• Hold foes back: root, slow, stun, sleep, fear, charm.
• Afflict them: burning, poison, doom, bleeding, laid open (exposed), weakened.
• Linger where they are laid (fields): some bite at whatever stands in them every half second, some drag foes in or throw them out, some move with you.
• Lance through lines of foes (rays) or fan out in volleys of bolts that pierce.
• Call up allies (summons) who fight beside you and earn you their kills’ experience.
• Heal, regenerate and ward you, and blink you from place to place.

The Mystic’s hold and affliction duration, the Druid’s strength of allies and healing power, and each school’s own stat (fire magic, glamours of the Sidhe and so on) shape them.

Magic seen in the streets

People notice magic worked among them. To your own faith it is a wonder of the saints (or a druid’s working); to the other it is witchcraft (or priestcraft). Wonders worked for your own faith raise your sanctity, and with it the title the faithful know you by. See Kingdoms, war and faith.

The tables below list every spell by school, read from the game’s own content.

Written from the game's source and content as of commit 02e81b2 (2026-11-01).