Universal Totem

Universal Totem is a Fabric mod for Minecraft 1.21.1 that makes any item held in the player's main hand behave like a Totem of Undying when the player would otherwise die.

What it does

When a player takes fatal damage:

• Vanilla Totem of Undying still has priority if one is present in either hand.
• If no real totem activates, the mod checks the player's main hand.
• If the main-hand stack is not empty, the player is saved.
• Exactly one item is consumed from the held stack.
• The vanilla-style death protection effects are applied:
  • Health set to 1 HP
  • Regeneration II
  • Absorption
  • Fire Resistance
  • Burning is cleared
• Vanilla totem particles and sound are triggered.
• The floating activation animation shows the actual consumed item, not a totem.

Ignored cases

The custom mechanic does not activate for:

• Empty main hand
• Creative mode players
• Spectator mode players
• Damage sources that also bypass vanilla Totem of Undying protection

Project layout

• src/main/java/com/slimeeystudios/universaltotem/UniversalTotemMod.java – common mod initializer
• src/main/java/com/slimeeystudios/universaltotem/UniversalTotemClient.java – client packet registration
• src/main/java/com/slimeeystudios/universaltotem/mixin/LivingEntityMixin.java – death protection logic
• src/main/java/com/slimeeystudios/universaltotem/network/ – custom animation payload handling
• src/main/resources/fabric.mod.json – Fabric metadata
• src/main/resources/universaltotem.mixins.json – mixin config

Build

Use a Java 21+ Gradle environment.

gradle build

Run a development client

gradle runClient

Notes

The mod is implemented with a mixin into vanilla death-protector logic so that a real Totem of Undying always activates first. A small custom S2C packet then replaces the floating totem item with the exact consumed stack on the saved player's client.