Making Potions Easier to Use Throughout Gameplay

Potions are powerful, but most players only use them in very specific situations (Nether travel, ocean monuments, planned fights). Outside of that, they tend to be avoided despite their strength.

Even with stacking, potions still have three practical issues:
• They consume a large amount of inventory space
• They are expensive and time-consuming to sustain for regular use
• They are awkward to use during moment-to-moment gameplay, especially combat

None of these are balance problems, the friction comes from how potions are carried, prepared, and consumed.

Many Minecraft systems have shifted friction away from repeated item consumption and toward preparation or durability (tools, armor, elytra, shields). This allows powerful mechanics to exist without constant inventory overhead.

A similar approach could let players prepare potion effects in advance and select which prepared effect to apply at use time, without changing the effects themselves. This could allow repeated use from a single source without combining effects or relying on stacks of individual bottles.

Exploring this direction could make potions more practical during exploration, building, and combat, while keeping brewing relevant and preserving existing potion behavior.

The goal is not to make potions stronger or mandatory, but to reduce repetitive inventory management and make their use feel like a natural option rather than a niche exception.