As it stands, potion effects cannot be added to items (other than actual potions) in survival mode. Such an item that could add potion effects could be quite an admirable addition, as it would add a new depth to some forms of gameplay, such as combat. Such a function could also serve as an alternative (of sorts) to enchantments. As such, I present: Runes.
**Overview**
Runes would be items that spawn rarely in certain dungeons that could apply different potion effects to armor and weapons. They would act as an enchantment alternative, to the point where one may have to choose which one to use based upon the benefits given by each. Such a choice could also allow for more diversification of playstyles, which could also potentially be good.
To apply one, simply place the rune and whatever tool it is being applied to in an anvil. Of course, the tool/armor cannot have enchantments, as combined runes and enchants could be a bit overpowered.
In essence, the idea is that Runes are essentially buffs/debuffs to the *player,* not preexisting statistics on the armor/tools.
**Appearance**
[Some concept pictures I made.](https://imgur.com/a/rwjsApi) While I haven’t attached any particular designs to specific effects, as one might guess the color would correspond to the effect given.
**Examples**
* Health boost. Basically, it gives the player more health when worn/used.
* Speed boost.
* Saturation.
* Jump boost.
* Blindness, maybe? Perhaps as something that can be applied to a sword and give its effect to an enemy via attacking, rather than an armor effect used to actively harm its wearer.
* Probably *not* strength, or any other effect that has a corresponding enchantment (such as water breathing or fire protection). If this were an option, there would be almost no incentive to use enchantments, which should still be relevant in some capacity.
**Potential weaknesses**
In order to balance such an implementation, it needs some form of drawback or shortcoming so that it isn’t universally superior to every alternative. The following three weakness are potential options for such a shortcoming—they are three *separate* methods to potential balance this feature, they don’t stack on top of each other.
* Option one: The potion effects are reduced from their potion form. As such, the speed boost you may gain from a particular rune may not make you especially fast, but it would make you faster than any competition.
* Option two: Alternatively, Runes could be constantly taking a sort of “tax” from the player’s food/experience bar. As such, the Runes’ effects would be more desirable than those that enchantments offer, but they have a higher cost over time than enchantments, which only require one payment of an amount of EXP as they are applied.
* Option three: The last option is that they have a much higher cost than enchantments. This means they are essentially only available to presumably more advanced/higher-level players.
Of these, I think option one is the best. Or perhaps the “drawbacks” would only need to be applied for specific effects—some potions may already be ‘balanced’ when compared to enchantments.
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