Alternative to Serialized Polymorphism and slicing? (need advice)

Unity Engine
1

so lets say we have some inheritance going on…think item hierarchy

class parent {
     int a;
}

class child extends parent {
     int b;
}

We make a List and start placing type child in the List. int b is sliced and you cannot access List*.b unless you first assign it to a new var of type child.*
This has caused a huge problem for me. I designed an entire inventory system through loop holes around this slicing problem, and I have hit a brick wall where the loop holes are becoming such a hassle that I might as well ditch polymorphism entirely and just make every item essentially the same.
I might potentially have 200+ spawnable lootable items in the game I am working on, and coding 200 cases for every potential item use is insanely inefficient and cumbersome for both coding and future content addition.
So what are my options guys?

2

  1. Switch to a single uberclass that can represent any item in the game.

  2. Make your item class derive from either ScriptableObject or MonoBehaviour, the subclasses of which do get polymorphic serialisation

  3. Stop using Unity’s serializer and switch to storing your object information in XML/JSON instead