I found a lifesteal style SMP that is trying really hard to not die in two weeks. It is built around PvP but it is not just farming hearts and stomping new players forever. The owner says they wrote a huge custom plugin from scratch to keep fights interesting and give people more to do.

The combat is way different from normal. It has directional knockback and momentum hits plus air juggles and ground pounds. There are 5 unlockable combat abilities called Berserker Phantom Titan Phoenix and Paladin and they change how you fight.

There are 28 custom enchantments and also 4 hidden combos that are not explained in game so you have to figure them out. The overworld has a Wilds system where it gets more dangerous the farther you go from spawn with 5 threat levels. There are custom mobs with real AI and 8 biome mini bosses plus procedural ruins outposts and strongholds with loot.

There is also a giant Colossus boss you can summon at stronghold altars. It has 8000 HP and 3 phases and it is meant for at least 3 players to get loot. The server runs on Paper 1.21 and it supports Java and Bedrock crossplay.