Potions
Allow players to build towards some non-combat support role (i.e. an assigned "apothecary" type player), separate from the intended combat role dictated by their class, being able to craft specialised potions for specific use cases that they can equip their teammates with (Reciprocity, Specialisation), as well as providing each player with a bare minimum level of self-sustain that they can fall back on to regain HP.
Players with these specialised potions will be better suited to certain situations, giving them a chance to shine and fill a very specific role particularly well. (Purpose)
For example, a player with a poison resistance potion would be better at dealing with enemies that have poisonous effects, so should be the main ones to attract the aggro of those enemies to make most use of their potion's effect, keeping the attention of those enemies away from the player's teammates who don't have poison resistance.
Conversely, if everyone has the same potion type, then collectively they may be vulnerable to other situations where that potion has no effect. (Dependency)
For example, if everyone on the team has a poison resistance potion, then nobody would be particularly effective against enemies that don't have any poisonous effects.
While they would still all be more effective against enemies that have poisonous effects, it is the responsibility of the world generation to provide a varied set of situations in which to use the different potion types, to encourage a team to divide responsibility of dealing with those situations to certain members. (Exploration)
Different potion options should be designed to be like upgrades, not just replacements for the basic healing potion, otherwise nobody will use them, as just a basic healing potion offers so much value and is always useful given that HP is the main stat players will be concerned with at all times and is essential for not dying.
Something like a pure "poison resistance potion" is just too situational to be worthwhile taking instead of a healing potion (since the player can only have one potion of any type equipped at once). Poison resistance may be good in some situations, but basic healing is good almost all of the time.
Specialised potions should be built up using a basic healing potion as a base, and offer specific effects in addition to the basic healing, so a more specialised potion only gets more useful, not less (when compared to a healing potion).
You have probably encountered in many RPGs you have played where it is easy to just end up with a huge stockpile of overly-specific consumables by the end of the game that you never bothered to use, either due to not running into use cases for them often enough, or not remembering to use them in a particular situation, and for your usual response to taking damage to just be to chug a few extra health potions instead to power through it.
If potions didn't also offer some basic healing they could potentially be a noob-trap where a new player who picks up a specialised potion (without really understanding what it is) that requires deeper game knowledge to use effectively, might end up with a potion that is overall much worse for them than if they had just stuck with the basic healing potion. Adding a baseline healing effect to all potions ensures they remain useful for all players, regardless of how experienced they are with the game. (Pick up and play)
The potion slot is an item slot in the GUI that only accepts any potion type item.
Since there is only one potion slot, only one potion type can be equipped and used at once.
The equipped potion in the potion slot can be swapped out for another potion type when out of combat.
This is to encourage players to scout for what situation they may encounter next (Exploration) and prepare appropriately for it by equipping the right potion type before charging in (Tactics over twitch), and so players are further discouraged from pausing mid-combat to go digging into inventory menus to find and equip another potion type, keeping them focused on the combat itself.
Potions are regular usable items just like swords and shields, not true "consumables" in the traditional sense. When a potion is used, it applies its effect and magically refills itself, ready to be used again (though they do have an activation time, like casting a spell).
They don't get destroyed when used, and therefore don't need replacing (unless your character dies).
Allowing a potion to be used again is to encourage players to actually use them for their intended purpose, whenever that purpose presents itself, so players shouldn't feel like they need to hoard as many of them as possible in case they might need them later.
Most potion feats relate to unlocking the respective crafting recipe for each potion type.
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Basic potion
- Applies a weak HP regen effect.
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Poison resistance potion
- Applies a weak HP regen effect.
- Applies a poison resistance effect.
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Fire resistance potion
- Applies a weak HP regen effect.
- Applies a fire resistance effect.
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Frenzy potion
- Applies a weak HP regen effect.
- Applies a primary item activation rate increase effect.
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TODO, etc.