I still remember the first time a grimoire stopped being a prop in my imagination and became a decision. In the pre-launch chatter around Avowed, I kept hearing the same promise: this is a classless RPG, a game where the character sheet is less a cage and more a workbench. Now, in 2026, with Avowed long past its original Fall 2024 window and fully settled into the Living Lands, that promise still feels like the heart of the experience. I load a save, look at my off hand, and ask a very Avowed question: do I want the clean crackle of a wand, the blunt certainty of a sword, or the heavy possibility of a grimoire? 🧙‍♂️

The classless system is less a set of train tracks and more a jazz trio that lets you call a new tune mid-solo. That is the feeling I keep returning to when I experiment with Avowed builds. The game does not demand that I declare myself a Wizard at the door and then live with the paperwork. It lets me invest in the Wizard tree if I want deeper spellcasting, but it also lets me treat magic as a seasoning rather than the whole meal. I can put points into the skills that make my character feel like mine, then let a grimoire fill in the gaps. For someone who grew up hoarding spellbooks in RPGs, that is a small but delicious kind of freedom.

Grimoires work in a way that any Pillars of Eternity veteran will recognize, at least in spirit. They are not just decorative books. They grant access to magic I could not otherwise use, and in Avowed there are plenty of powerful spells waiting inside those pages. The key difference is that Pillars of Eternity locked grimoires to Wizards, while Avowed's classless design opens them up to anyone willing to carry one. That single change turns the grimoire from a class badge into a tool of self-expression. It is not a locked door with a Wizard-only sign; it is a skeleton key for a wing of the mansion I did not know I owned.

Carrie Patel and Matt Hansen have spoken about this in ways that make the design click for me. The Wizard skill tree does include some spells, so a dedicated caster can absolutely build around that tree. But many spells exist only in grimoires, which means the book itself becomes a second engine for a character. I can invest in the Wizard tree and still find reasons to carry a grimoire for extra options. Or I can ignore the deep Wizard path and use the grimoire as my shortcut to a few loud, useful tricks. That is where the Battlemage fantasy starts to breathe. I hold a sword in one hand and a grimoire in the other, and the two do not fight for the same spotlight. They trade places. A blade for the close conversation, a spell for the room that needs redecorating.

That interchangeability is the part I love most. Avowed has shown players dual-wielding wands, pairing a gun with a wand, and generally treating combat like a sandbox with sharp edges. The grimoire fits right into that logic. It is not the opposite of a weapon; it is another kind of weapon, one that happens to speak in fire and force. I have tried a sword-and-grimoire setup and felt like a Battlemage who refuses to choose between scholarship and violence. I have also tried a wand-and-grimoire rhythm, where the wand feels like a metronome and the book supplies the crescendo. And yes, I have absolutely pointed a gun in one hand and a wand in the other just to see what kind of chaos would answer. 🔫✨

Here is a small table of the builds I keep circling back to:

Build idea	Pairing	Why it appeals
Battlemage	Sword + grimoire	Steel for pressure, spells for punctuation ⚔️📖
Spell duelist	Wand + grimoire	Fast casting with a deeper spell menu
Powder mage	Gun + wand	A loud opener and a magical follow-up 🔫✨
Pure experiment	Wand + wand	Double the arcane rhythm, double the trouble

Fan of Flames is the spell that keeps coming up in these conversations, and for good reason. In Pillars of Eternity it was a powerful area-of-effect spell with a real cost: it could be tricky to place without cooking the wrong targets. I do not need Avowed to copy that spell frame for frame, but I do want that same tension. A spell like Fan of Flames is a fireworks display trapped in a teacup: beautiful, brief, and very easy to spill in the wrong direction. When a grimoire gives me access to that kind of power, the book stops feeling like homework and starts feeling like a dare.

What I appreciate most in 2026 is how clearly Avowed still communicates its central idea: players should be able to express themselves however they wish. If grimoires are not my speed, guns might be. If guns are too loud, a classic sword-and-shield character is waiting. The classless leveling system does not flatten those choices into a single correct build; it lets me make a strange little character who fights the way I imagine. That is why the old pen-is-mightier-than-the-sword mantra feels less like a joke here and more like a design philosophy. The pen, in this case, is a grimoire. And sometimes it is also a sword. Or a gun. Or a wand in each hand.

I do not need every build to be optimal. I need every build to feel like a story I chose. Avowed gives me that when I open a grimoire, flip past the spells I do not need yet, and find the one that makes my current character click. That is the kind of discovery that keeps me playing long after the credits, and it is why the grimoire remains one of the most interesting toys in the Living Lands. 📖✨