Abilities For The Zebra Species

[EternaDash]

Zebra Is Already Suggested, I Get That. What I'm Here To Do Is Give An Idea On What Abilities They Have Because I REALLY Don't Want Them To Be Relegated To "Basically A Reskinned Earth Pony" Status.

Abilities

1. Preform Ritual: This Is A Complicated One, So I Will Need To Explain Later In This Issue.

2. Cure Effects: On Command, A Zebra Can Clear Themselves Of All Status Effects With A Two Minute Cooldown. This Acts Like Milk, So Positive Effects Are Also Cleared. If Crouching, This Will Clear Nearby Entities Of Their Effects And Lingering Potion Puddles Instead, Meaning You Can't Cure Yourself And Others At Once.

3. Apply Effect: Holding A Potion Ingredient Will Trigger The Potion Effect It Creates When Brewed At Level I For 20 Seconds, On A Cooldown Of Ten Seconds. This Cannot Be Used For Instant Health, Instant Damage, Or Any Potion That Needs A Fermented Spider Eye. If Crouching, A Potion-Coloured Projectile With Gravity Is Tossed, And Applies The Effect To Any Target Directly Hit, With No Splash Effect Upon Hitting A Block.

Rituals

This Is Gonna Single-Hoofedly Make This Issue Comically Large.

First, We Need The Altar Itself. You Can Forgo The Spellbook.

Rain Ritual (good): Place A Cauldron On Top Of Each Obsidian Pillar, And Fill Them With Water. Go Into The Centre And Use The Ritual Ability While Holding A Heart Of The Sea.

The Following Rain Will Last 30 Entire Minutes, And Consume The Water And Heart Of The Sea. If Preformed In The Nether Or End For Whatever Reason, You Will Simply Explode, Dying Of (Intentional Game Design).

Drought Ritual (good): Place Dry Sponges On Top Of Each Obsidian Pillar, And Then Sand On Top Of That. Go Into The Centre And Use The Ritual Ability.

The Rain Will Go Away, And The Following Drought Will Have No Rain For The Next 30 Minutes. The Sponges Will Become Wet Sponges And The Sand Will Be Consumed. If Preformed In The Nether Or End For Whatever Reason, You Will Simply Explode, Dying Of (Intentional Game Design).

Energy Ritual (good): Place Hay Bales On Top Of Each Obsidian Pillar. Go Into The Centre And Use The Ritual Ability While Holding A Diamond Or Netherite Hoe.

Everypony Within The Radius Of A Max Beacon Will Have Infinite Saturation For The Next 30 Minutes. Leaving The Radius Will Remove The Saturation, But Entering The Radius After The Ritual Will Still Reapply It. If Done With A Netherite Hoe, The Effect Will Last An Hour. If The Diamond Hoe Was Used, It Will Be Consumed. If The Netherite Hoe Was Used, It Will Be Left With 10 Durability. The Hay Bales Will Be Consumed.

Time Ritual (good): Place End Stone On Top Of Each Obsidian Pillar. Go Into The Centre And Use The Ritual Ability While Holding A Bottle Of Dragon's Breath.

The Time Will Be Inverted, So Day Becomes Night And Night Becomes Day. The End Stone Will Be Consumed. If Preformed In The Nether Or End For Whatever Reason, You Will Simply Explode, Dying Of (Intentional Game Design).

Low Gravity Ritual (good): Place Slime Blocks On Top Of Each Obsidian Pillar. Go Into The Centre And Use The Ritual Ability.

The Gravity Of Anypony Within The Radius Of A Max Beacon Will Be Given A Low Gravity Effect For 30 Minutes. This Will Also Consume The Slime Blocks.

Magic Revival Ritual (good): Place Amethyst Blocks On Top Of Each Obsidian Pillar. Go Into The Centre And Use The Ritual Ability While Holding A Nether Star.

The Entire Dimension's Magic Shall Return If The Ritual Magic Deadzone Was Preformed. This Will Consume The Amethyst Blocks, The Nether Star, And Apply Blindness, Weakness, Slowness, And Mining Fatigue To The Preformer Of The Ritual As They Will Have Absorbed All The Evil Energy That Created The Deadzone. These Effects Last 10 Minutes, But Can Be Cured With A Bucket Of Milk. If Preforemd When There Was No Magic Deadzone To Begin With, You Will Simply Explode, Dying Of (Intentional Game Design).

Magic Deadzone Ritual (evil): Place Ancient Debris On Top Of Each Obsidian Pillar. Go Into The Centre With A Cow On A Lead And Use The Ritual Ability While Holding A Nether Star.

The Entire Dimension Will Suddenly Become A Magic Deadzone Indefinitely Until The Counter Magic Revival Ritual Is Preformed. The Ritual Consumes The Ancient Debris, The Nether Star, And Sacrifices The Cow. If Preformed When There Was Already A Magic Deadzone, You Will Simply Explode, Dying Of (Intentional Game Design).

Lifesteal Ritual (evil): Place Soul Sand On Top Of Each Obsidian Pillar, And Light It On Fire. Then, Place A Fellow Pony Inside Of A Cage On The Centre Of The Altar (roof is optional). Stand On The Lodestone, And Cast The Ritual Ability While Holding A Nether Star.

The Pony Within The Cage Will Permanently Lose 10 Max HP (5 hearts) And The Caster Will Permanently Gain That Max HP. This Transends Death. If A Pony Who Has 5 Or Less Hearts Preforms This Ritual On A Pony With 15 Or More Hearts, This Is Considered A Good Ritual. Attempting To Preform This On A Pony With 5 Or Less Hearts Will Simply Kill Them, Transferring No More Hearts. As A Failsafe, If The Caster Of The Ritual Is Ever Banned From The Server, The Hearts Are Automatically Returned To The Victim. If The Caster Is Also Offline From The Server For A Month (configurable in server config), The Hearts Are Also Automatically Returned To The Victim. If Preformed With The Caster Already Having 15 Or More Hearts, Assuming The Victim Has Enough Hearts, They Will Stack.

Ritual Of Divinity (evil): The Hardest Of All To Preform. First, You Must Have 100 XP Levels. Secondly, You Must Have 20 Or More Hearts. Thirdly, It Must Be Night And A Full Moon. With All These Conditions, Place A Netherite Block On Top Of Each Obsidian Pillar, And A Beacon On Top Of Those. Then, Place A Pony With Over 5 Hearts Inside Of A Cage (roof is optional) In The Centre. Stand On The Lodestone, Hold The Dragon Egg, Wear Full Netherite Armour, And Cast The Ritual Spell.

If You Somehow Manage To Pull All This Off, The Victim Will Be Killed Instantly And Forced Into Spectator, And You Will Become Immortal, Unable To Take Any Kind Of Damage (except /kill). It Should Go Without Saying That The Netherite Blocks, Beacons, And Dragon Egg, Are All Consumed. Be Wary, However, As This Does Not Grant Creative Mode Or OP, So Some May Attempt To Lure You Into A Trap To Drop You Into The Void, Banishing You Forever Into A Fitting Eternal Punishment For Seeking Immortality...
Also If You're Already Immortal And Cast This Somehow With A Duped Dragon Egg, You Get Creative Mode Because At The Point Where You Have Multiple Dragon Eggs, 16 Netherite Blocks, 16 Beacons, And 2 Ponies Willing To Be Shoved Into Spectator Forever, You Basically Win Minecraft. Congrats.

Oh Right They Have A Passive Effect Too

Any Brewing Stands Within A Radius Of 10 Blocks Will Brew Twice As Fast And Potions Will Last Twice As Long.

End

Fun Fact: I Am Inside My Own Walls. it's been three days, somepony toss me some food, rainbow's abandoned me and i can't get out.

[Evo-lution]

Rituals can be an interesting mechanic, but the theming and the balancing of what they can do should be changed. As far as I remember, Zecora doesn't do any rituals in the show, and considering her real world inspiration culturally, it feels odd to add them here. And they're a bit overpowered in some cases. Still not a fan of a magic deadzone. However, in the books we do have a zebra that canonically uses magic by utilizing magical items to create magical effects with! So I could see staffs becoming a more zebra focused mechanic along the lines of that.

Additionally, we do see Zecora using herbs and meditating in the show, especially when helping Twilight defeat Trixie while possessed by the alicorn amulet. Keeping on this note, it'd be interesting to have zebra abilities be based more around these factors, perhaps a combination of gathering ingredients and then entering a "meditative state" to unlock new epiphanies of sorts. Things that can be crafted to garner certain effects, unlocking new ways to use magical items, etc. Gathering phoenix feathers and unlocking a craftable recipe for something that resurrects pets, encountering poison joke and learning new cures to create from it, that kind of thing. You could meditate with the spellbook, putting these items in to gain these recipes/ability to craft these items through the epiphanies, and then utilize it to your and other players' benefits.

I also feel that it'd be interesting if this system didn't cause corruption. This is a reference to the cultural inspiration Zecora was designed in mind of, and as a result I feel that rather than having evil or good items/magical brews/whatnot, there are simply tools, and what you do with them is the focus rather than the magic itself. Eliminating passive mobs is discouraged, but defending yourself against the aggressive, that's fine. That kind of thing.

I'd also like to pitch increased run speed for zebras based on IRL biology, as well as an "invisibility to changelings/bugs" camouflage ability to reference the fact that zebras evolved stripes to avoid being bitten by bugs. It also works as a reference to the fact that in the Chrysalis apocalypse timeline in the show, Zecora was the leader of the survivors fighting back against the changelings.

[Evo-lution]

OOOOOO Maybe you can raise your chances of successfully gaining an epiphany by decorating the room around you? Utilizing the masks and whatnot we see in Zecora's home, and other decorative items. Perhaps what items you decorate with can influence the kind of epiphanies you come up with, things like certain block types and colors. For example, surrounding yourself with wool isn't exactly going to help you think of how to defeat a creeper, but it'll sure help you think of warm happier things like healing and animals. And vice versa, if you fill your room with, say, soul sand or something, haha.

[Evo-lution]

I would like to say that epiphany recipes are crafted with the cauldron specifically to tie in that last factor with Zecora