This has probably been talked about before but I can't stop thinking about how cool it would be. With the changes to the food and all that I think it'd fit in really well if balanced right! I imagine it looking something like this ( Yes I know there are mods but they're mostly op & I would love to see the devs spin on it)
•Mana(or whatever) bar added for spells alongside health & Stam. Innately zero
-regen rate would be static and slower than Stam (maybe 1/s?) leaving enough to use a few spells in combat but not dominate it entirely (that's a fine line for mf sure)
•Mana meals can now be made in the cauldron (1 for each biome or so)
-each would have less health and stamina than the avg food of their respective biomes, leaving mana users squishy but not totally vulnerable.
-yellow mushrooms could be an excellent base for mana recipes as they're not in a lot of recipes and could give players incentive to go into dungeons more
ie
Black Forest- Magic Mushroom stew- ylw mushroom, mushroom, thistle, honey 20health20stam20mana 20mins
Swamp – ylw mushroom, ooze, thistle, turnips
25h25s30m 20 mins
Mountain- frost gland, ylw mushroom, thistle
30h30s40m 20 mins
Plains-ylw mushroom, cloudberries,.flour, (??)
35h35s50m 20 mins
This would definitely have to be balanced finely but something like this would be cool. Early on you'd only have access to one recipe but magic enthusiasts might eventually want to use all of their food slots for max mana pool. Giving a passive boost to your mana regen in that case might make up for the squishiness. Most vikings might use one mana food to mix in spells between arrows or axe swings. Important to not give too much health or stamina (or mana tbh) in the recipes or else this could easily outcompete other playstyles.
•Staff (or shaman trinkets or whateva) for each biome
-function like any weapon (normal attack special attack)
-cost Mana (+stam?) Special attacks naturally costing more
-spells should be emulating their biomes spellcaster (to an extent at least), starting out weaker and at max level possibly equivalent or somewhat stronger (mayb)
-spellcasting speed should vary between spells/staffs but generally be slow
-expensive but worthy investments, crafted towards the end of their respective biome
-low durability ?
Forest staff- finewood, greydwarf eyes, ancient seeds(?)
Light – poison mist (shamans poison mist attack) 5 mana
Special- shamans heal 10 Mana
Swamp staff – bones, guck, ooze, chain?
light – ooze poison aoe 10 mana
Special- summon skeleton (? Idk would be SICK they're everywhere already) 20 mana
Mountain staff- crystal, frost gland, silver
light – frost bolt (single drake blast) 15 mana
Special- aoe frost blast (or something) 30 mana
Plains staff- fuling shaman trophy, crystals, tar, fine wood,
light-fire bolt (surtling/ shaman) 30 mana
Special- shaman shield (maybe 1 hit prot max) 60 mana
Future biomes – ? :0
These could all easily be op but would be so fun in combat!! I'd love to be a support shaman for my wolves (or skeletons eh?) or a fire and ice wielding wizard fit for all the dang towers I'm building.
I'm not sure if the devs have said yay or nay definitively to any type of magic system and I can see why they wouldn't want to go through the hassle of implementing & balancing but I would be the happiest viking.
What do you think, too overpowered? What would you change to make it more balanced? Any cool spell ideas for other biomes or anything I'd love to hear! Thank you for coming to my Ted talk (sorry if the formatting is terrible I tried my best)
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/valheim/comments/r6t1tg/spellcasting_magic_ideas/