Potions?

[BasiC]

Iv only been playing ToME for a few days but I'm wondering...
Are there potions in the game?
As an RPG player and as someone who played several other roguelikes why are there no potions(assuming there aren't)?
Why was a decision made to introduce the identification orb instead of allowing identifications scrolls?
ATM it seems there is absolutely no reason to have unidentified items in the game...
I mean, does clicking on the orb to identify an item instead of not having unidentified items add anything to the game???
Wouldnt identifying scrolls( that are hard to get) be more interesting to have in the game than an almost(but not completely)automatic (always available)way to identify items?

What is the reason behind giving every character either a health or a mana regeneration rune?
I'm really interested in this because it feels a bit weird to have those.
It kinda makes life regen and mana regen feel too easy and ininvolved..All you do is wait for the cooldown to end and press the rune button.
Potions provide a more complex and involved way or restoring HP and mana(need to have a stockpile of them and they can run out) as a oppose to a constant life and mana regen button that is always there...
Seems like it would have been much more interesting to have higher life/mana natural regen values to allow more combat sustain while also having potions with a cooldown to boost the sustain and than having the rest function to regain HP/mana AFTER battle.

[Dekar]

(Healing-)Potions are hard to balance as they can be stockpiled and were a severe problem in earlier versions of ToME as far as I know.
Potions are replaced by inscriptions and they are capped are 2 per type / 3-5 total and with diminishing returns if you overuse them, through saturation effects. They force you to make a choice instead of having everything for every situation at hand.
Identification is cumbersome and thus was removed except for arts to give you a little break and anticipation of discovering the stats of a new art/randart.
Fun Fact: Diablo 3 will probably let you identify items by clicking them, without any identification item involved.

[Grey]

Potions were bad in ToME, inscriptions are cool as hell. They force tactical timing in battle, instead of relying on a reserve of potions to get you through a tough spot. Potions and other consumables also encourage scumming to get more, forcing players to play the game in a boring way.

[tekrunner]

ToME 4 is very combat-oriented. So in order to let players focus on fights, DarkGod has tried to lower the tedium of everything that does not happen during combat as much as possible. You might think that not having an identification meta-game and not having to manage stashes of potions are downsides, but that's part of the game's philosophy.

If you play enough to get into tough fights, you should realize that resource regeneration is often not that easy. Some classes also have resources with regeneration mechanisms that are much more involved than mana's.

[bricks]

Put another way, ToME is an inventory-light game. Lots of mechanics are based around letting the player haul around a good amount of gear (but not being able to abuse that fact).

[BasiC]

I understand, thanks.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

In fact, earlier versions of the game actually have everything you are asking about. They were removed/changed over time because they didn't work that well, or were tedious, or distracted from the fun parts of the game.