Originally posted by Rhapsody:

You need to draw eitr into your body, and the only way of doing that which we know of is to ingest edible items that have grown in the mist permeating from remains of jotun. It wouldn't make any sense to have magic fueled by that available earlier in the game.

Ymir's flesh could perhaps be used to similar extent, just as it is used to craft magical weapons like Frostner, but it would lie outside of the eitr system and thus not function as true magic as it is available in the game.

Furthermore, it's important for all players to learn the basics of battling in melee as well as when to rely on ranged attacks. Progression to magic instead of starting out with it is just fine.

Hmm well reasoned.

Its true that Hand to hand skills have to be learned both in game levels and by the player themselves.

Thanks to Jonnins detailed reply above I think that confirms what I thought the Magic items as we have them at Mistland levels will (oh what a surprise! - as Vanflyhightanzek observed) Roll over everything before them if we have an unlimited supply of them.

I think I will have a play about with a new toon that gets one such staff and maybe a couple of stacks of low food - but no more. That would give us a "Big Gun" we could pull out for the Boss fights maybe but not use to steamroller the basic stuff.

This sort of "teaser" item logic could be extended to other items, to show what awaits you when you progress but without the craft skills to repair it should ensure - if the drops of these paragon items from later on were low enough; that players get a feel of what can come next and invest early in learning the attendant skills so they don't HAVE to resort to cheesy Grinding to catch up when they finally get said items. ?