I've been on the fence for a while about how I feel about consumables in games. There's been some debate about potions which I mostly agreed with: Either you have an overpowered effect and the consumables become game breaking, or they fulfil a use which you can otherwise get using abilities of your characters, in which case they get unused.
Consumables tend to be wasted if the intended effect is either useless, underpowered, or not applicable; or if combat is likely to resolve successfully without the use of consumables.
Many consumables will either be too specific in application to be used broadly, or the intended effect is not certain to be worthwhile using a one-off.
So here's an idea (but feel free to post your own):
How about the consumables in this game, rather than having their own effects, boost the effects of specific abilities you have. Soul abilities affected by food or potions for instance, while class tools affect (class)skills.
And I'm not talking about just buffing the effect, but possibly changing it.
For example: say a "Day potion" will have different effect if you consume it for your defensive fighter, who's engagement ability now also deals damage over time to undead, your offensive fighter whose attack target can no longer use stealth, or your rogue whose attack temporarily blinds his target, if his target was in the dark.
A player would be able to tell which abilities could be affected by the consumable using a colour scheme for skills/abilities and potions. For instance a purple coloured potion can affect any ability which has a purple icon.
There'd be broader use for consumables and they'd be tactically interesting because of the different effects on different class builds.
Consumables which boost or alter abilities which you already possess rather than give you something completely new and separate. Something which has nothing to do with your playstyle. (Currently consumables will always have only one type of use)
thoughts?