Classes : extend MonoBehaviour issues

So i have the class "Item" for all the items in the game that the player will be able to interact with. I then have an array EquipMenu with items the player currently has equipped.

 public class Item
 {
     var Item_ID : int;
     var Name : String;
     var Description : String;
     var icon : Texture2D;
     var Health : float;
     var Energy : float;
     var Damage : float;
     var rarity : Rarity;
     var itemType : ItemType;
 
 }

At the moment when i need to Instantiate an "Item" i get the Item ID as follows:

var item_id : int = EquipMenu[equip_selection].Item_ID;

I then use the Item ID to select the prefab from an array of GameObjects to then instantiate.

I would much rather define the prefab in the class as follows:

 public class Item
 {
     var prefab : GameObject;
 
 }

But this requires the class to extend MonoBehaviour, i believe, in order to hold the prefab.

This then means that i cannot define the items in the Inspector as before, as the drop down disappears.

Do i have to define the Items within the script (thus, not saving me any time at all, i may as well stick with my current method) or is there any way around this??

Many Thanks