Sortilege

First of, Sortilege adds Magic Staves. Because how would a magic mod not add an excuse to go pew pew.

They are available in all 5 Vanilla materials (Wood, Stone, Iron, Gold, Diamond and Netherite), and serve as a middleground between melee (Swords) and ranged combat (Bows). To do so, they shoot a ray of particles that travel instantly, ignore gravity and do damage to anything in their path - stopping when hitting a block or after it cannot pierce anymore. Different tiers affect the range, damage and max amount of targets. Lastly, Staves go under cooldown after you use them: no charging required (unless you set one in the configs), but you cannot spam either - this cooldown is fully configurable.

They also deal Magic damage, giving that almost unused feature some love!

Highly outdated, but you get the idea

Staves also come with their very own set of enchantments, ranging from pure stats boosts...

• Unbreaking, the infamous
• Potency! Increases damage like how Sharpness does on swords. Level 1-5
• Stability! Increases the beam's range. Level 1-5
• Chaining! Increases the beam's pierce. Level 1-3
• Wisdom! Decreases the Staff's XP cost. Level 1-3

... to new effects!

• Push! The beam now pushes foes away. Level 1-2
• Pull! The beam now pushes foes away. Level 1-2
• Blizzard! Light Blue particles, and the beam freezes foes. Level 1-2 | Incompatible with Brazier, Blast and Blitz
• Brazier! Orange particles, and the beam burns foes. Level 1-2 | Incompatible with Blizzard, Blast and Blitz
• Blast! Dark Red particles, and the beam triggers a small explosion where it stops. At max level, it also triggers one on every target hit! Level 1-2 | Incompatible with Blizzard, Brazier and Blitz
• Blitz! Yellow particles, and the ray shocks foes. Level 1-2 | Incompatible with Blizzard, Brazier and Blast

but do not forget... curses...

• Curse of Ignorance... Using the Staff costs experience, or increase the already existing cost if set in configs.

When enchanted, a Staff's particles also sometimes become purple to reflect it: it's only cosmetic, don't worry!

Staffs are extremely configurable, from simply changing a Staff's stats, to adding your own or disabling the default ones!

To change or add a Staff, simply add an entry like this one to the configs, in staffs.entries:

{
  "custom_staff": {
    "tier": "DIAMOND",
    "durability": 512,
    "damage": 5,  // 1 damage = half a heart
    "pierce": 2,
    "range": 12,
    "charge_time": 20,  // in ticks: 20t = 1s
    "cooldown": 15,  // in ticks too
    "xp_cost": 1,
    "fire_res": true,  // for a netherite like behavior against fire
    "dependency": "phantasm"  // if this mod's id isn't loaded, the staff won't appear. Useful in modpacks of for compatibility
    // and more!
  }
}

You already know about Splash and Lingering Potions: We are bringing you a new type, the Antidotes!

Brew Glow Ink into any non instant potion to get the corresponding Antidote (also works works with any modded effect, as long as the corresponding potion exists); then, drink it while you are under the effect to instantly remove it, like a precise Milk Bucket. On top of that, they also stack up to 4 in a single slot, and are much faster to drink than regular potions.

Want your thrusty potion back? No problem! Just brew your spare Antidotes with normal Ink, and the transformation will be reversed

But Sortilege also touches on the Enchanting part of the game! First of all, you can find new enchantments to work with the Staves' damage type, magic damage.

• Arcane! Can be applied to melee weapons like Swords, is exclusive with Fire Aspect and converts your whole damage to Magic. Single level.
• Magic Protection! Just as name implies, protects you from any damage from Magic sources, like mentioned above Arcane enchant, Staves damage themselves but also things like Potions of Harming, etc. Levels I-IV | Incompatible with other Protection enchantments
• Soulbound! Items enchanted with it won't drop on death. If set in configs, will be consumed on successful use. Single level.

On top of that, some forgotten vanilla enchantments have been given extra effects when at max level to encourage using them.

Additionally, to ensure balanced enchanting environment, you can turn on Limiter Module in config that will limit how many enchants can be applied to items, the number itself is also 100% configurable! (Defaults to 3, set it to 0 to disable enchanting, and to -1 to disable the module)

Please note that Curses add an enchantment slot instead of using one. This means that a cursed item can have more enchantments... Will you risk it? (configurable)

From version 1.1 onwards, per item limits can also be set! These limits can be set to be relative to the default limit (so they add up), or absolute. Useful if you don't want to have to change very single line because you moved the default a bit!

From version 1.3 onwards, you can now find Limitite gems in rare structures' chests! These, when combined with an item on a Smithing Table, allow you to raise its enchant limit!

In version 1.6, a new mechanic has been added: Enchanting Catalysts.

Certain items, defined by datapack, can be put on the book that appears in Enchanting Tables. They increase the odds of certain enchantments by a lot, and it appearing in a pool is indicated by an amethyst outline!

Additionally, you can place an Enchanted Book here to increase odds for all of its enchantments. Note that the book won't be consumed, unlike other catalysts!

Lastly, from version 1.3 onwards, Sortilege offers a handful of tweaks to the infamous Experience system.

All of these values can be changed or disabled in the configs, so if you dislike one, no problem!

Let's start simple: The experience needed to get one level is now linear, and the value can be changed in the configs: it means that no matter what is your level, you'll always need the same amount of points to get to the next level. That makes for a much less punishing experience compared to Vanilla, where staying at a high level practically stops you from getting any effective change.

Experience levels now also have a cap: yes, you get levels quicker, but you can't stock up on them infinitely! The experience bar also displays a nice little 'MAX' when that cap is reached, so you know it's time to get to actually use all that excess xp.

On top of that, to ensure you have enough XP to use all these new fun features, you can hunt Witches to get their hat - "Witch Hat" - which increases all your XP gains. Its drop rate can be changed in the configs, up to disabling it.

You probably guessed it: experience is now much more dynamic, and gets earned a bit faster than usual, so you don't need to endlessly grind to be able to use that sweet Enchanting Table.

But there's a catch: you get more xp, but you also need more of it! Enchanting Tables now cost more levels than the ridiculous 1, 2, 3: by default, you'll now need 1 levels for a tier 1 enchantment, 3 for a tier 2, and 7 for a tier 3! Combined with the Enchant Limiter, that makes for a fairer experience environment where no one should have thousands of enchantments more than you. It also makes Staffs a more viable option: instead of stacking xp, you can use it to deal more damage, quicker!

On top of that, to avoid experience waste, Sortilege includes a balanced version of keepInventory that applies only to experience:

The configs offer 3 values. Note that these are not forced to sum to 100%, so it's not a full keep:

• A ratio of the xp you have will be kept on death! Now, when you get killed, you won't start from scratch without anything, you have some savings
• Another part of it will simply drop on the ground: although unlike in Vanilla, it can be much more than the mere 7%. Getting to your death spot can now properly give you your cherished xp back... or give more to your opponent
• The last part goes directly to your assassin, as a reward to encourage pvp! If you die to a monster, it will keep your xp with it as some sort of living piggy bank, and drop it back if you manage to kill it... if you manage to, of course. It will also start glowing from all that experience, so you actually have a way to find your loot! And if you die to the environment, such as fall damage, the xp that would be stolen drops too.

Last, but definitely not least, another feature: Experience Pinatas! When killing any monster, there is now a random chance it will explode with more experience orbs than usual: This means on average, combat is now the main way to gather experience, not stacking tons of random junk!

Oh, and did you know your death position now shows up on your death screen and gets printed in the chat, instead of the old score thingie? More reasons to let F3 out of the way!

From version 1.5 onwards, you can also set the configs to keep your equipped items (hotbar, armor and offhand), as well as potentials items equipped with Soulbound!

Anvils can also be set to never use experience, allowing you to make full use of your Enchanted Books and Staffs.

You can use the config files to lock certain recipes behind experience level or advancement requirements. Enjoy!