Arcane Ward 1.2.3 Experimental

1.2.3 playtest fixes

This build is a focused correction pass from live testing. Each wand now owns its spell school: Fire uses the vanilla Staff of Embers projectile/animation, Frost uses the vanilla Staff of Frost rapid-fire projectile/animation, Lightning uses the Dundr-style blast, and Blood uses the Staff of Frost channel animation with Blood damage/lifesteal VFX. Wands are LMB-only and do not require a Focus to determine their spell.

Wand visuals again use only the intended half-size StaffShield model; the inherited full-size model/light is hidden so the glow follows the orb correctly. Fire remains orange and Blood remains the default red. Fire/Frost/Lightning damage scales from a deliberately modest Elemental Magic baseline toward the existing endgame ceiling.

The Arcane Nord Shield is now 25% smaller, the Greatshield is 20% larger than its previous experimental size, and their material/texture sets are swapped while retaining their respective shield meshes.

Groundbreaker now supplies pickaxe damage/tool tier/skill during the Sledge MMB terrain strike. Returning Hammer/Spear throws reserve their carried weight while airborne and retry re-equipping after return so temporary inventory removal should no longer create pickup/overweight surprises or leave the weapon unequipped. The Hammer flight visual also receives an additional configurable 90-degree roll.

The ZNet diagnostic log from the prior test showed orphaned vfx_BloodHit views and old Frost-chill cosmetic views. 1.2.3 no longer clones either networked VFX root for local cosmetics; it creates network-free local particle systems instead. The same release also tightens the remaining local projectile/lightning cosmetic paths so they are sanitized before activation rather than allowing a cosmetic clone to retain network/gameplay components.

Use a separate Thunderstore/r2modman profile. Do not enable stable Arcane Ward and Arcane Ward Experimental at the same time. The two packages intentionally share many in-game prefab IDs for character/world continuity, and co-loading them can cause duplicate registrations.

This experimental branch exists for playtesting new features, mechanics, balance changes, and redesigns while Arcane Ward is actively developed and matured. Features may change substantially before reaching stable. Back up important worlds/characters and report anything broken, exploitable, unclear, or unfun.

Focus redesign

Arcane weapons get their magical identity from the equipped Focus.

• Fire Focus — Fire empowerment and Fire parry effects; trains Elemental Magic. Fire bubble/VFX identity is orange.
• Frost Focus — Frost empowerment/control and Frost parry effects; trains Elemental Magic.
• Lightning Focus — Lightning empowerment/control. Funded hits add small knockback, parries produce a stronger outward discharge, and hits against already-staggered enemies re-stagger them with the full Himminafl lightning-strike VFX. Trains Elemental Magic.
• Blood Focus — funded hits add Blood/Spirit damage and lifesteal; parries restore more health. Blood uses the original red visual identity.

All four Focuses use the Wishbone physical model/utility slot, but the vanilla Wishbone treasure/silver detection effect is explicitly removed. The four user-supplied Focus icons are embedded directly into the mod.

Focus weapon effects are funded per enemy hit. Physical damage always lands regardless of Eitr. Each enemy that receives Fire/Frost/Lightning/Blood empowerment costs Eitr independently; if Eitr runs out during a cleave, remaining enemies receive physical damage only and no Focus VFX/effect.

Blood defaults to +2 Spirit damage and +1 HP per funded enemy hit, doubled to +4 damage / +2 HP for two-handed melee. Blood parries restore 5 HP, or 10 HP with a two-handed melee weapon. Blood uses a guaranteed-local blood particle burst that borrows the vanilla vfx_BloodHit material without cloning its networked root.

Blood Magic progression

Blood Magic gains a tiny amount of skill-use from HP actually restored, not merely from a heal being requested. The default is 0.01 skill-use per HP actually gained. Healing clipped by maximum health only counts the HP that was genuinely restored. Blood Wand damaging ticks also grant a very small additional use amount so the spell can still train while the player is at full health.

Wand casting

The former Ward/Staff-of-Protection visual items are repurposed as main-hand Arcane Wands. Direct spells use primary attack (LMB). Arcane Wands intentionally have no MMB/secondary attack.

Each Wand has a fixed spell school; the equipped Focus does not change a Wand's spell:

• Arcane Fire Wand: LMB fires the vanilla Staff of Embers projectile/VFX with the vanilla staff attack animation.
• Arcane Frost Wand: hold LMB for the vanilla Staff of Frost rapid shard channel. Frost damage retains Valheim's normal frost slowing behavior.
• Arcane Lightning Wand: LMB fires the Dundr-style close-range lightning blast.
• Arcane Blood Wand: hold LMB for the high-Eitr Blood Magic lifesteal channel. Releasing LMB ends it immediately, and it also stops when the next Eitr tick cannot be funded.

The Arcane Fire Wand is recolored orange. The Arcane Blood Wand keeps the original StaffShield red color. The Blood Wand spawn ID is ArcaneBloodWand. It also uses a dedicated custom Blood Wand inventory/crafting icon.

Blood Wand defaults

The Blood channel is deliberately Eitr-hungry: 5 Eitr every 0.20 seconds (25 Eitr/sec) by default, with an 18 m range. Each successful hostile-target tick deals 6 + 0.06 per Blood Magic level Spirit damage and requests 1 + 0.02 per Blood Magic level HP back, capped by actual damage dealt and missing health. At Blood Magic 100 this is 12 damage and up to 3 HP returned per successful tick. Damage, lifesteal, range, interval, Eitr cost, and XP rates are configurable.

Successful Blood Wand hits use a visible blood/bleeding particle burst. It borrows only the vanilla vfx_BloodHit particle material; the networked vanilla root is never instantiated, so this local effect cannot register a ZDO.

Magical returning throws

Arcane Spear and Arcane Hammer MMB require the configurable up-front Arcane Throw launch cost (5 Eitr default). If the launch cost cannot be paid, the weapon does not leave the hand. Launch/return magic and the Focus effect on impact are separate costs.

• Arcane Spear: empowered returning throw with 1.15× Nord-spear launch speed and 0.45× gravity by default. It damages and passes through unique hostile enemies, spending 2 Eitr per enemy pierced to keep flying. Terrain, structures, water, friendlies/non-enemies, or insufficient penetration Eitr stop the flight and trigger return.
• Arcane Hammer: returning short-range MMB throw with heavier gravity than the spear.

Physical projectile damage still lands when the per-target Focus effect cannot be funded.

Durability and Eitr repair

Arcane weapons retain normal Valheim durability wear. While a supported Arcane weapon or Arcane Wand is equipped and damaged, it slowly repairs itself using Eitr; a Focus does not need to be equipped. Default passive repair is 1 durability for 1 Eitr every 2 seconds.

Parry protection

Successful Arcane parries trigger the equipped Focus's full parry effect. Most Arcane weapons also gain a 3-second 360-degree Focus-colored protection bubble after a successful parry. The bubble consumes Eitr while protecting and is a short parry reward rather than permanent protection.

Arcane blocking uses normal stamina plus Eitr by default. The old Eitr-replaces-stamina behavior remains available as a compatibility config toggle.

Arcane Nord shields

• Arcane Nord Buckler (ArcaneNordBuckler) — successful parry gives +20% movement speed for 3 seconds instead of a bubble.
• Arcane Nord Shield (ArcaneNordShield) — balanced; visual reduced to 75% of its previous size; parry gives the standard 3-second 360° bubble.
• Arcane Nord Greatshield (ArcaneNordGreatshield) — 180° frontal block arc; parry gives a 6-second 360° bubble. Its visual is 0.60× the stock tower-shield size (20% larger than the previous 0.50× experimental scale). The regular and Greatshield material sets are intentionally swapped while their meshes stay distinct.

Shield blocks continue to train Blocking. Elemental Focus parry effects train Elemental Magic; Blood progression is tied to actual health restored.

Other weapon changes

• Arcane Blade / sword: native sword MMB lunge restored.
• Arcane Knife: true knife again: Knives-scaled physical damage, native combo, and native MMB leap. It no longer acts as a wand.
• Arcane Sledge: MMB Groundbreaker uses pickaxe-style terrain damage beneath the impact while the normal sledge attack remains the combat AoE.
• Other supported Arcane weapons inherit Fire/Frost/Lightning/Blood behavior from the equipped Focus.

Testing priorities

Please especially test: custom Focus icons; no Wishbone pings while a Focus is equipped; LMB-only wand input; Fire Wand orange visuals; Blood Wand red visuals/channel stop-on-release/stop-on-empty-Eitr; Blood damage, lifesteal and Blood Magic scaling; actual-healing XP at full vs injured health; bleeding VFX; multiplayer/ZNet behavior; per-target Focus funding; physical-only hits at low Eitr; passive repair; parry detection/bubbles; shield scale/material swap; Groundbreaker terrain/mining; Lightning stagger-punish behavior; and returning spear/hammer behavior.