I'd also rather make the item stat requirement soft, where the item is simply less effective without sufficient stats, maybe falling off exponentially if you have way too little of a stat.
I was thinking of Fallout 1/2, but Noita might be a better example of the perks I'm interested in. Weird/gamechanging stuff like:
- You cannot cast spells but melee does double damage
- You can fly for free but there is no gravity
- Eating a monster allows you to take its form temporarily
- Fire damage is converted to cold damage
- Spells cost Juice instead of Willpower (or energy currrently)
and whatever weird stuff I/others think of.