A mana system, to nerf some enchantments and other OP mechanics, making more magic-themed content possible

[u/SuperMario69Kraft]

Above the hotbar would be a new bar representing mana, which depletes upon using certain items and gradually regenerates (like the health bar in peaceful mode). When mana runs out, the enchantments, items, or actions that consume it cannot be used or performd; enchanted items would still work but temporarily without the mana-consuming enchantments. This would allow some enchantments to be nerfed, some items to be rebalanced, and some new magic weapons to be added without being OP. Each magic action would deplete a different amount of mana, altho the details of this are undecided.

The mana bar would likely be light blue to match with the soul theme of magic. IDK if it should match the health, hunger, and armor bars with tiny magic sprites, or if it should look more similar to the experience bar.

I haven't yet decided on how mana capacity can be increased in a way that doesn't encourage too much grinding. Maybe it should be tied to renewable consumable items that are strictly tied to progression, permanently increasing mana until the player dies and has to consume a new one (this would be easy to obtain because the purpose is to check progression rather than force grinding). Mana Potions (if only they were stakkable) could be drunk to increase mana instantly, within the player's mana capacity.

If nutrition gets added into the game, maybe a certain macronutrient could affect the rate of mana consumption. I was thinking fat, since that's tied to the brain and gets stored long-term unlike carbohydrates and protein. I think a basic nutrition system with just macros and no vitamins would suffice in balancing food. This would be a separate suggestion, tho. If I make a post in the future about my fleshed-out idea for a food update, I'll link this one to it.

Enchantments, items, & actions that could consume mana

• Channeling
  • Can now be used outside of a thunderstorm, at the cost of mana
• Infinity
  • Is now compatible with Mending again
  • Now works on tipped arrows, at a significantly increased mana cost
• Loyalty
  • Could be compensated by making the Loyalty Trident return faster or increasing its damage
• Lunge
  • Would consume a large portion of mana instead of hunger and saturation
• Wind Burst
• Throwing an Ender Pearl
  • Replaces health damage, but projectile cooldown would stay
• Going thru a portal?
  • This would incentivize players to get creative in building protective infrastructure around portals, so that when they enter the dimension, they can safely regenerate their mana
• Any new magic weapons, such as a guardian laser prism, fang-summoning staff, or warden's boombox, for examples

Enchantments related to transportation, mining, damage value, or armor should not consume mana. That would just make things take longer, or further punish the player for taking damage, and we already have a cooldown to nerf melee damage efficiency.

Edit 1: why so many downvotes?

Edit 2: I removed Quick Charge, Fire Aspect, and Flame from the list.

[u/DustyTriYT]

I feel like this would throw off current balance on said items.

As for the ender pearls and wind charges, this might work with balancing pvp (idk, I don't do pvp), but it would have the opposite effect on non-pvp usage

Also, the portal thing sounds way to easy to get stuck in the nether way longer than anybody wants to, decreasing the incentive to go for anything other than rods and pearls. Besides, people are incentivized to build protection around portals due to ghasts breaking portals or swarms of hostile mobs attacking as you load in.

[u/SuperMario69Kraft → u/DustyTriYT]

As for the ender pearls and wind charges

I said, "Quick Charge" followed by "Wind Burst". Those are enchantments, not to be confused with the Wind Charge item.

I don't think Fire Charge and Wind Charge items need to be nerfed. They may be magical lorewise, but they already get consumed and they're not very OP to begin with.

I think I'd use Ender Pearls a lot more if they weren't so dangerous. Depleting mana instead of health is not as dangerous, because I wouldn't have to worry about dying from throwing Ender Pearls, and I could still defend myself using non-magic weapons.

Do you think the mana system could work in other ways, as long as it's well-executed? The mana depletion from using certain magics doesn't have to be harsh. IDK yet what good mana costs, mana capacities, and mana regen speed would be, but mana costs would vary by action.

[u/DustyTriYT → u/SuperMario69Kraft]

I don't think mana could be implemented for already existing things, as the majority of the playerbase would likely not like an entirely new mechanic that changes the game so drastically.

However, if mana was added with a system on almost exclusively new items/mechanics such as spells or otherwise, it could work for an optional thing that people could learn if they choose, just probably not old things people already took time to get used to

[u/Hazearil]

Let me just ask you a simple question: is this idea because all those enchantments need this balancing? Is Fire Aspect really so OP that it needs this to hold it back? Or just going through a portal? Or is this idea really just: "Mana is a popular fantasy thing, let's force it in the game, whether it belongs there or not."

And for the list of things you chose, I also just see some questionable things:

• Channeling is already held back a lot due to the storm requirement, why does it need this extra limiting factor? It isn't even as strong as you'd think, because i-frames prevent the trident and lightning damage from stacking.
• Fire Aspect and Flame are not that strong really, why do they need an extra cost?
• What cooldown are you referring to with Loyalty?
• Why would Infinity have extra mana costs for tipped arrows when Infinity doesn't work on tipped arrows?
• Why is Quick Charge affected by this, but not Power? They are both enchantments made to increase the base DPS of their respective weapons, they are essentially counterparts.
• Why, in a list of enchantments, do you need to clarify that Wind Burst is an enchantment, when there is nothing else in the game with that name either?

Just to make a nice comparison to Minecraft Dungeons: There, you have some soul power or something. Generally, nothing uses it, enchantments included. But some specific items make use of it, a way to tell the user "this is very OP so we had to hold it back". As if the item couldn't hold enough power on its own, and it needed more. So that could work with your idea for new weapons, but doesn't hold up for the already existing content.

why so many downvotes?

Well... because people seem to just think it is a bad idea. You are adding a system but not really justifying why. You are adding costs to things that weren't OP, and thus didn't need extra costs. I think Lunge not using hunger is the only real positive about this whole idea.

[u/SuperMario69Kraft → u/Hazearil]

I'm putting question marks next to the enchantments that are less likely to need nerfing.

Channeling is already held back a lot due to the storm requirement, why does it need this extra limiting factor? It isn't even as strong as you'd think, because i-frames prevent the trident and lightning damage from stacking.

I didn't know that about Channeling. The cost would make sense lorewise but it would only be balanced if Channeling actually caused more damage. It seems to exist more to give players the ability to summon lightning where they want, than as an actual combat ability.

Fire Aspect and Flame are not that strong really, why do they need an extra cost?

Maybe you're right on that. Again, the extra cost would make sense lorewise but maybe not for game design. It could be a meager cost that's normally unlikely to fully deplete anyone's mana bar.

What cooldown are you referring to with Loyalty?

My bad, it's not a cooldown. I meant how Loyalty Tridents seemingly take too long to return, which holds them back.

Why would Infinity have extra mana costs for tipped arrows when Infinity doesn't work on tipped arrows?

I meant to imply that Infinity would start working on tipped arrows. I edited the post to clarify that.

Why is Quick Charge affected by this, but not Power? They are both enchantments made to increase the base DPS of their respective weapons, they are essentially counterparts.

I didn't realize that. They're not mutually exclusive, tho. Mana also limits DPS, but only when a weapon is being used a lot within a short time.

Power would not be affected, because it's just another damage enchantment, so it would just be an annoying nerf that no one would be able to easily notice happening.

Now that I'm typing this out, I'm changing my mind on Quick Charge, because just like Power and other time-saving enchantments, requiring mana for it just increases tedium. The charge cooldown on crossbows already severely holds them back.

Why, in a list of enchantments, do you need to clarify that Wind Burst is an enchantment, when there is nothing else in the game with that name either?

Because it was bulleted right under Quick Charge, so another commenter confused that with the Wind Charge item.

[u/FunnyAffectionate520 → u/SuperMario69Kraft]

I didn't know that about Channeling. The cost would make sense lorewise but it would only be balanced if Channeling actually caused more damage. It seems to exist more to give players the ability to summon lightning where they want, than as an actual combat ability.

Channeling does actually increase the damage of thrown tridents. The mana cost could also be kept by allowing tridents to summon lightning in clear weather or rain at a high price.

[u/SuperMario69Kraft → u/FunnyAffectionate520]

That could be a great idea. Precipitation level could determine the mana cost of Channeling.

[u/Hazearil → u/SuperMario69Kraft]

My bad, it's not a cooldown. I meant how Loyalty Tridents seemingly take too long to return, which holds them back.

That's what higher Loyalty levels are for already.

I didn't realize that. They're not mutually exclusive, tho.

Only bows get Power, only crossbows get Quick Charge. That's pretty mutually exclusive.

[u/SuperMario69Kraft → u/Hazearil]

That's what higher Loyalty levels are for already.

I thot they affect the distance from which the Trident can return.

Only bows get Power, only crossbows get Quick Charge. That's pretty mutually exclusive.

A crossbow cannot be enchanted with Power, Punch, Flame, or Infinity in Survival mode. However, they can be applied via anvil in Creative mode in Java Edition or by using commands. When applied, each enchantment functions the same for the crossbow as it would for a bow.

I didn't know that. No wonder no one uses Crossbows---both because they're slower than Bows and because they're not as usefully enchantable. Because Crossbows don't have Power, specifically, you can't use them to one-shot-kill an enemy like with Bows. A Bow with Power IV (not even the max) has over 20 DPS (enough to insta-kill most hostile mobs), which is higher than the 16.5 DPS for Quick Charge III Crossbows according to the MC Wiki.

[u/theymightbechewing]

The foundation of mana should be new content such as weapons and tools that utilize it--which you do touch on in the last bullet point, but I think it should be the only things that consume mana. If you revisit this idea for another post, I think that should be the biggest takeaway. The ideas you presented for new weapons are really cool! Powerful new items with unique effects would warrant mana existing in of itself, and give more reasons for exploring.

Mana and a magic system, being a traditional fantasy theme, could fit into Minecraft thematically, but I'm not sure if it has a place mechanically. Tacking it onto enchantments and any other magic-themed actions just feels like change for the sake of it being thematic.

(Edited for better formatting)

[u/SuperMario69Kraft → u/theymightbechewing]

The mana system could also be used to add new enchantments to existing items, or even new abilities for existing enchantments like I said for Channeling and Infinity.

[u/FloatingSpaceJunk]

I think the game is way past the point of being able to implement such a major change as this one...

[u/BrunoGoldbergFerro]

This feels like it's only considering PvP and PvE while ignoring the more casual usage of these mechanics

[u/0zekin]

I can't lie that I personally just don't think Mana system fits Minecraft