A tooltip on each item quickly describing what it does, so that if I'm looking at a "Dread Lamp" for example, I know what it does. People on my server will never make one otherwise.

sounds like a reasonable request.

feature implemented in the MC 1.12 version of the mod. I might backport it to earlier versions, will see.
Update will be up on curseforge in a few hours (still alpha, testing a new feature)