SkillTree

A lightweight RPG-style skill tree for survival servers. Players spend vanilla XP levels (and/or resource items) to permanently unlock and level up passive upgrades. Everything persists per-player across restarts.

Open /skills to browse the tree in a chest-GUI; click an affordable node to unlock or level up that skill.

Skills

Skill	What it does	Default tiers
Swiftness	Permanent movement-speed boost	4 (+5% / +10% / +15% / +20%)
Efficient Mining	Mine blocks faster (ambient hidden Haste)	3 (Haste I / II / III)
Prospector	Fortune-style bonus ore drops without a Fortune pickaxe	3 (Fortune I / II / III)
Cultivator	Extra yield when harvesting mature crops	3 (+1 / +2 / +3 produce)
Iron Stomach	Chance to negate hunger loss	3 (20% / 40% / 60%)
Vitality	More maximum health	5 (+2 HP per tier, up to +10)
Angler's Luck	Chance for an extra fishing catch	3 (15% / 30% / 50%)

All magnitudes, tier counts, and costs are configurable in config.yml.

Commands

Command	Description	Permission
/skills	Open the skill tree GUI	skilltree.use (default: all)
/skills info	List your unlocked skills	skilltree.use
/skills grant <player> <skill> <tier>	Set an online player's tier (0 = remove)	skilltree.admin
/skills reset <player>	Clear all of a player's skills	skilltree.admin
/skills reload	Reload config.yml and re-apply effects	skilltree.admin

Aliases: /skill, /skilltree, /st. All subcommands and arguments tab-complete (skill names, online players, valid tiers).

<skill> accepts the config keys: swiftness, efficient-mining, prospector, cultivator, iron-stomach, vitality, anglers-luck.

Permissions

Permission	Default	Grants
skilltree.use	true (everyone)	Open the GUI, view skill info, buy skills
skilltree.admin	op	grant / reset / reload (implies skilltree.use)

Configuration

config.yml (created on first run). Highlights:

• currency.use-xp-levels (default true) - tiers cost vanilla XP levels.
• currency.use-items (default false) - tiers also require resource items. Set per tier under item-cost as a list of MATERIAL:amount (e.g. DIAMOND:4). If both currency modes are on, the player pays both.
• gui-title - the chest-GUI title (supports & colour codes).
• Per skill: enabled, max-tier, GUI slot, icon, and a tiers: map where each tier sets magnitude, xp-cost, and item-cost.
• prospector.resource-blocks - the ore list eligible for bonus drops (coal/iron/copper/gold/diamond/emerald/lapis/redstone + deepslate variants, nether gold, nether quartz, ancient debris by default).
• cultivator.crops - the crop list (wheat / carrots / potatoes / beetroots / nether wart by default).

Run /skills reload after editing to apply changes without a restart.

Magnitude meanings

• Swiftness: fraction of base speed (0.15 = +15%).
• Efficient Mining: Haste amplifier (0 = Haste I, 1 = Haste II ...).
• Prospector: effective Fortune level for the bonus-drop roll.
• Cultivator: number of extra produce items dropped.
• Iron Stomach / Angler's Luck: chance from 0.0 to 1.0.
• Vitality: bonus max health in half-hearts (2 = one heart).

Persistence

Per-player tiers are saved to plugins/SkillTree/data/players.yml, keyed by UUID. Written on every change and on shutdown; loaded on startup. Survives restarts.

Compatibility

Paper / Spigot / Bukkit / Purpur, Minecraft 1.21.1-1.21.11. One jar, built against the 1.21.1 API (Java 21, class 65), load-tested on Paper 1.21.11; no Paper-only classes, no NMS, no dependencies.

Known gaps / notes

• Not playtested in a live client. Built and verified to compile cleanly with the bundled plugin.yml and Java class version 65; behaviour is from code review, not in-game testing.
• Efficient Mining + beacons. Efficient Mining is implemented as an ambient Haste effect. A nearby beacon providing Haste can overwrite or refresh the effect (vanilla keeps the higher amplifier / refreshes duration). When the player leaves the beacon range the plugin's infinite Haste is restored on the next join/respawn; if a stronger plugin/beacon Haste is active it takes precedence while it lasts. This is an inherent limitation of stacking a single potion-effect type and is documented rather than worked around.
• Prospector bonus is an approximation. It mimics a Fortune distribution by dropping the extra items a Fortune pick of the rolled level would have added; it does not perfectly replicate every per-ore vanilla loot table (e.g. redstone / lapis count ranges), and it does not interact with other plugins that also modify ore drops. Redstone-ore "lit" state is treated the same as unlit.
• Online-only admin targets. /skills grant and /skills reset operate on online players (effects must be applied to a live entity). Offline edits would require editing players.yml directly.
• Attribute names. Compiled against the 1.21.1 attribute constants (GENERIC_MOVEMENT_SPEED, GENERIC_MAX_HEALTH); these resolve to the same registry attributes on 1.21.1-1.21.11.

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Original concept by u/ColdFire0415 on Reddit (r/Minecraft). Built by BeansNToast.