[REVISED] Spellcaster Willow Skill Tree Ideas

[MrMNWorm]

Alrighty… after taking a moment to mentally digest the comments from @Kwaik, Jakepeng99, and @Gashzer, plus the posts from aswolf and Nikki Darks… let me take another swing at Willow’s Skill Tree now that we’ve done some proper brainstorming.

First, let’s buff her abilities like @Nikki Darks mentioned.

BLAZING BUFFS
1. Increase her increased fuel efficiency 15-20%
2. Delay HP loss from Overheating
3. Increase sanity regen from fires 15-20%

Then, to give Willow some farming abilities and Needle Fronds a bigger purpose, Willow gains an ability to plant them in Buckets of Poop. Which I think will double as some fiery base decorations since the BoPs are moveable.

FROND FARMER
1. Ability to plant Needle Fronds in Buckets of Poop
2. Increased yield from planted Needle Fronds from 2 to 3
3. Decreased cost of durability per harvest from 40% to 20%
4. Ability to craft Heating Salves which increase player temperature to 45-50 degrees for 2 days and stops the freezing effect from Ice Hounds, Deerclops, and Crab King.

Next up, let me go over the current fire setup in the game.

Red Flames - which are hot, do damage, cause panic, and quickly spread.

and…

Blue Flames - which are cold, cause freezing, and do not spread.

And if we combined them, we might get something like…

Purple Flames - that do damage, have no temperature effect, and cannot spread… because they’re magical flames.

With this setup, we could take @aswolf's recent suggestion for Willow to be able to use Pyrokinetics Explained to absorb fire... and couple that with @Jakepeng99's suggestion of a Mana Bar… which I will call a "Pyro Power Bar".

Then... what if Willow could gain an ability that allows her to craft Pyrokinetics Explained and it gives her a spell wheel like Maxwell has with the Codex Umbra.

When she gains this ability, the first spell is Arson Absorption and this allows her to absorb/extinguish nearby fires and charge up her Pyro Power Bar a little each time.

When fully charged, the Pyro Power Meter could have 2-3 uses… and those uses cause a Purple Flame 360 knock back blast (with a 2-3 tile diameter) that will set any mobs it touches ablaze with Purple Flames… but the Purple Flames do NOT spread, nor effect temperature, nor cause panic... making it a nice new fighting-with-fire mechanic. It would do an initial hit of say 50-ish damage and then has residual burn damage around 7dps for 3-4 more seconds.

Now what we might see Willow’s doing is carrying around a Fire Staff for when a Hound wave starts, or they want to kill a bunch of Spiders, or when they fight bees or the Bee Queen, and they will quickly whip out their Fire Staff, torch whatever is nearby, absorb the fires, and then use their Purple Flame Blast Attack during battle.

Holy Buckets would that be fun…!! Might be a bit of a programming nightmare… but the end result will be super cool for players.

But I digress, back to business.

So that would be one Skill Tree slot that gives her the ability to craft the book, gain the first spell, and the power bar + the new attack. Then it splits to 3 more options: a blue flame spell, a red flame spell, and a purple flame spell. These will use up the "mana" in the Pyro Power Bar but much less than the big knockback attack does.

Here are some options I came up with (the red one kinda sucks but I just thought this all up at work):

Freeze Flame: Functions kinda like Shadow Sneak. It’s an icy blast trap circle that will engulf mobs in icy fire which will do freezing damage for a couple of seconds before completely freezing said targets.

Red Roar: sets all nearby red fire pits ablaze for 1 day. (I dunno... best I could think of)

Purple Pillars: Functions like the Shadow Prison but with Purple Flame Pillars that do burn damage.

And now the Willow Spell Wheel has 4 spells and her Purple Blaze KnockBack Attack… making her a pretty magical pyromaniac.

But before she gets to the spells, she’s needs some gear.

Pyromancer Whip: Tail o Three Cats + 1 Purple Gem + 3 Gold = a purple flame chain whip with a glowing purple gem on the end that can hit a single target (no AoE) and set them a blaze with purple flame additional damage.

Charred Cuirass: 1 Scalemail + 1 Purple Gem + 3 NMF = a chest armor like Bramble Husk armor that blasts out AoE purple flame damage when hit (no knock back)

And then the skill branch would look something like…

SEARING SPELL CASTER
1. Ability to craft Pyromancer Whip
2. Ability to craft Charred Cuirass
3. Ability to craft Pyrokinetics Explained, use of the Arson Absorption Spell, and her Pyro Power Bar + Purple Blaze KnockBack Attack.

Then in whatever order the player chooses :

4. Red Roar Spell
5. Freeze Fire Spell
6. Purple Pillars Spell

So that’s a whole butt ton of work for the Devs to consider… but I’d sure love it if they did... because this will really make Willow a fun character to play.

Thank you for your time and consideration, and have a wonderful day!

 

[Kwaik]

While willow certainly will have some kind of new craftable items.

 

Thjs list seems to include craftable items almost exclusively. 

 

The impression I got from these boards, is the player base does not generally want skilltree changes that completely offset a characters weakness. And it seems like many of yours not only offset them, but probably make her quite powerful in the cold. 

 

The weapon/armor suggestions have potential, but you also have to consider that including the scalemail makes a somewhat rare expensive armor basically renewable with a deconstruction staff. Plus I REALLY do not like the idea of this being just a straight up reskin of wormwoods armor with fire resistance. 

 

And there's not a ton of aoe weapons, so it seems like an odd rabbit hole for them to go down. 

Thematically I think something using ash or coal makes sense for her. But I really don't know if anything with fire is viable. It's too RNG and chaotic. Potentially some kind of explosive makes a lot of sense to me and seems like the most viable avenue for her. I have no idea how you differentiate it from the current ones.

Potentially a point you brought up would be a way to make her fire manageable. Being the master of fire is one thing, so it makes sense for her to be able to put one out without an entire base getting engulfed in flames 

[Jakepeng99]

I think Willow should be able to absorb various fires as Mana for magic fire spells, featuring normal fire, endothermic fire and shadow fire from night light.

[Gashzer]

Willow being able to craft different fire bombs that she can throw with the blast radius of brightshade bombs would be cool. Normal fire bombs does 50 AoE fire damage and sets ground fires. Endothermic fire bomb does no damage but freezes mobs for 3 ice staff worth of freeze and also creates a endo blue ground fire that freezes mobs over time like klaus' ice spell. Shadow fire bomb that does 100 damage and creates shadow fire that panics mobs but doesnt burn loot or burn down stuff.

We see Willow explode in fire while in the closet during her short (she could of crafted a fire bomb since we didnt see what happened exactly) So fire bombs would kinda make sense from a lore point of view too.

[MrMNWorm]

Thanks for all your feedback everyone... made some revisions... hope you like them.

[Jakepeng99]

On 9/1/2023 at 11:16 AM, MrMNWorm said:

Then... what if Willow could gain an ability that allows her to craft Pyrokinetics Explained and it gives her a spell wheel like Maxwell has with the Codex Umbra.

Just let her right click a fire to absorb it since it would be too similar to Maxwell. I might try my own version of the mana bar, though i like how you can combine blue and red fire to make purple. I like the concepts here. In terms of casting spells without a book, that is the hard part. She could maybe equip spells. I will explain it better later.

[Nikki Darks]

I am not a fan of Willow getting any "witchy" perks or like, turning her into a pyromancer, at all. So that's a no from me on all of those.

But most importantly, where's the infinite lighter??? And why should she be able to read Wickerbottom's book....? 

Not a fan, personally.

Also no Bernie skills... And the fuel efficiency is still too low I'd say. 

But hey, at least you didn't suggest that the Firestarter should get perks that make her better at putting out the fires.

Man, can we just keep Willow simple... She doesn't have to be anything over the top... Just let her be a fire immune pyromaniac with a teddy bear, she doesn't need more...

[Captain_Rage]

27 minutes ago, Nikki Darks said:

Man, can we just keep Willow simple... She doesn't have to be anything over the top...

[Dr.Webber]

Cool 

What about alignments

[MrMNWorm]

@Dr.Webber I did forget to mention a few things... thought I would leave a little room for the Devs' imagination… but if I were to toss out some alignment ideas…

Shadow Alignment: Terrifying Teddy Transformation - Bernie basically becomes a mini-Bearger. If it’s possible to reskin Bearnie over the Bearger so he can get a little stronger, faster, and have the Bearger sound effects… that would be pretty sweet. I would love to see Bernie growl, travel, swipe, and ground pound like the Bearger… minus the destruction of course.

And if Willow players want to keep Bernie as-is, they could choose...

Lunar Alignment: Lady of Light - makes her Dwarf Stars and Polar Lights last 5 days, costs half the sanity per use, and doubles Willow's the sanity regen from them.

Then for her Lighter, what I personally would like to see is:

- Increase light radius a little
- Increase light radius more
- Increase light radius a lot
- Lighter becomes refuelable with NMF and PH.

So that adds Lighter upgrades and something to beef up Bernie… and if we were to stretch out some of the other ideas to give the players more customization to suit their play-style preference, a full 25-slot Willow Skill Tree might look something like this.

BLAZING BUFFS

- Increase fire fuel efficiency a little
- Increase fire fuel efficiency more
- Increase fire fuel efficiency a lot

- Increase sanity regen from fires a little
- Increase sanity regen from fires more
- Increase sanity regen from fires a lot

- Increase overheating insulation a little
- Increase overheating insulation more
- Increase overheating insulation a lot

- Increase Lighter light radius a little
- Increase Lighter light radius more
- Increase Lighter light radius a lot
- Ability to refuel the Lighter with NMF and PH

FROND FARMER

- Ability to plant Needle Fronds in Buckets o Poop
- Increased yield of harvest from 2 to 3
- Decrease durability cost on BoP from 40% per harvest to 20%
- Ability to Craft Heating Salves.

PYROMANCER SPELLCASTER/FIRE MAGE

- Ability to craft purple flame whip
- Ability to craft purple flame armor
- Ability to craft Pyrokinetics Explained, gain Mana Bar, Arson Absorption spell, and Knockback Purple Flame Burst Attack.

- Red Fire Spell
- Blue Fire Spell
- Purple Fire Spell

ALIGNMENTS

- Terrifying Teddy Transformation for Shadow Alignment
- Lady of Light for Lunar Alignment

And there we have a 25-slot Skill Tree… which I think will give Willow mains some fun customization, useful new craftables, a new farming skill and decorations, and a really interesting way to upgrade combat with the ideas Jakepeng and I are tossing out for the Fire Mage/Pyromancer ability.

Thank you all for your time, consideration, and feedback, it was greatly appreciated... and hopefully the Devs get a little inspired when it comes time for Willow's Skill Tree!

[Dr.Webber]

10 hours ago, MrMNWorm said:

@Dr.Webber I did forget to mention a few things... thought I would leave a little room for the Devs' imagination… but if I were to toss out some alignment ideas…

Shadow Alignment: Terrifying Teddy Transformation - Bernie basically becomes a mini-Bearger. If it’s possible to reskin Bearnie over the Bearger so he can get a little stronger, faster, and have the Bearger sound effects… that would be pretty sweet. I would love to see Bernie growl, travel, swipe, and ground pound like the Bearger… minus the destruction of course.

And if Willow players want to keep Bernie as-is, they could choose...

Lunar Alignment: Lady of Light - makes her Dwarf Stars and Polar Lights last 5 days, costs half the sanity per use, and doubles Willow's the sanity regen from them.

Then for her Lighter, what I personally would like to see is:

- Increase light radius a little
- Increase light radius more
- Increase light radius a lot
- Lighter becomes refuelable with NMF and PH.

So that adds Lighter upgrades and something to beef up Bernie… and if we were to stretch out some of the other ideas to give the players more customization to suit their play-style preference, a full 25-slot Willow Skill Tree might look something like this.

BLAZING BUFFS

- Increase fire fuel efficiency a little
- Increase fire fuel efficiency more
- Increase fire fuel efficiency a lot

- Increase sanity regen from fires a little
- Increase sanity regen from fires more
- Increase sanity regen from fires a lot

- Increase overheating insulation a little
- Increase overheating insulation more
- Increase overheating insulation a lot

- Increase Lighter light radius a little
- Increase Lighter light radius more
- Increase Lighter light radius a lot
- Ability to refuel the Lighter with NMF and PH

FROND FARMER

- Ability to plant Needle Fronds in Buckets o Poop
- Increased yield of harvest from 2 to 3
- Decrease durability cost on BoP from 40% per harvest to 20%
- Ability to Craft Heating Salves.

PYROMANCER SPELLCASTER/FIRE MAGE

- Ability to craft purple flame whip
- Ability to craft purple flame armor
- Ability to craft Pyrokinetics Explained, gain Mana Bar, Arson Absorption spell, and Knockback Purple Flame Burst Attack.

- Red Fire Spell
- Blue Fire Spell
- Purple Fire Spell

ALIGNMENTS

- Terrifying Teddy Transformation for Shadow Alignment
- Lady of Light for Lunar Alignment

And there we have a 25-slot Skill Tree… which I think will give Willow mains some fun customization, useful new craftables, a new farming skill and decorations, and a really interesting way to upgrade combat with the ideas Jakepeng and I are tossing out for the Fire Mage/Pyromancer ability.

Thank you all for your time, consideration, and feedback, it was greatly appreciated... and hopefully the Devs get a little inspired when it comes time for Willow's Skill Tree!

What about that plus shadow and lunar flames or at less fire skins + Burnie and willow’s lighter skins 

[Dr.Webber]

what if the way she uses the different flame types is every once in a while each fire types representative colors gem has a chance of functioning like a fire staff but produces the different fire types instead of normal flames 

[MrMNWorm]

@Dr.Webber there might be a better option for her Alignment if we consider using Shadow Flames (like what the Night Lights have) and Lunar Flames (like what the Grazers and Gestalts are made from) that allows Willow to craft two new staves.

Willow Alignment Option #2: Shadow Fire Staff vs Lunar Fire Staff

Shadow Fire Staff: 1 Fire Staff + 1 Dreadstone + 3 Pure Horror = a staff that can do burn damage (fire does not spread) for 3-4 seconds at 7dps, and then gives the target a 20-30 second window where they will take additional damage from attacks (like what Jakepeng suggested). Shadow Fire only targets one enemy, Staff can be repaired with Void Repair Kit. This would be the Shadow Alignment option.

Lunar Fire Staff: 1 Fire Staff + 1 Pure Brilliance + 3 Moon Glass = a staff that can do reduced burn damage at 3.5dps for 3-4 seconds, Lunar Fire Balls bounce to extra targets, and once the burn is over they fall asleep. So this one will hit multiple targets like the Brightshade Staff does and put them all to sleep after a little damage is inflicted, can also be repaired by Brightshade Repair Kits. This would be her Lunar Alignment option.

Now both of these could be new craftables... or... maybe she could gain the ability to make them at the Moon Stone. If Willow places a Fire Staff in the Moon Stone on a Full Moon she makes the Lunar Fire Staff. If she places a Fire Staff in the Moon Stone during a New Moon she makes the Shadow Fire Staff.

I do like Bernie getting a buff of some kind but these staves are definitely better suited for her Alignment Options.

 

I literally hit send as your new reply popped up... we must be psychically connected...

[Dr.Webber]

I was thinking something more like this for lunar fire and pure brilliance is the lunar equivalent of pure horror and unless they add something along the lines of infused  moon rock you know like what infused moons shards are to moon shards ,enlightened shards or moon rock is the lunar equivalent of dread stone so I think that’s what would be used in the lunar craft