Goodman Games

OK, so the PCs have found some permanent magic items. They have Detected Magic on them, so they know that they are magical. But how can they determine the nature of the items? There is a powerful wizard in the town, so they are going to see him, but how does he do it? (in game terms) Any ideas for an "Identify" spell?

Identify
Power Source: any
School; any
Effect: Perceive
Range: Object
This spell allows the caster to learn the nature of a permanently enchanted item. The spell roll must exceed the challenge rank of the enchanted item.

Thoughts?

The first thing I'd consider is - are your players interested in using this item as soon as possible (so identifying it is only a bother) or are they interested in story/setting details about identifying?

And next thing, is it a special magic item or some regular "feather fall pendant"? Does it deserve special treatment with rules, failure chance, possibly spell components?

If the former is true in either question - I'd make it simple. Characters pay the price (something like chemical analysis real-world analogue), they see fluff, they get the result.

(Also, when searching for "Analyze Dweomer" d20 3.0 spell, I stumbled upon this article. Maybe it will give you some ideas.)

EvilCat wrote:The first thing I'd consider is - are your players interested in using this item as soon as possible (so identifying it is only a bother) or are they interested in story/setting details about identifying?

And next thing, is it a special magic item or some regular "feather fall pendant"? Does it deserve special treatment with rules, failure chance, possibly spell components?

If the former is true in either question - I'd make it simple. Characters pay the price (something like chemical analysis real-world analogue), they see fluff, they get the result.

(Also, when searching for "Analyze Dweomer" d20 3.0 spell, I stumbled upon this article. Maybe it will give you some ideas.)

Thanks for the link. I think my spell suggestion above is pretty similar to the "Spellcraft" option (except that it costs spell points to use). The above option is in between the "Identify/Analyze Dweomer" route (costs lots of gp and a spell slot) and the "Spellcraft" option (no gp, but spell points).

For this option, a "regular" magic item would have a lower challenge rank than a unique item, which would be less than an artifact.

dunbruha wrote:OK, so the PCs have found some permanent magic items. They have Detected Magic on them, so they know that they are magical. But how can they determine the nature of the items? There is a powerful wizard in the town, so they are going to see him, but how does he do it? (in game terms) Any ideas for an "Identify" spell?

Identify
Power Source: any
School; any
Effect: Perceive
Range: Object
This spell allows the caster to learn the nature of a permanently enchanted item. The spell roll must exceed the challenge rank of the enchanted item.

Thoughts?

I have let my PCs roll the arcanum tree as a spell to identify magic(This spell is known by all people that have arcanum in my game). The better they roll the more they know (above the base arcanum of the creator)unless the creator of the item tried to conceal its powers. In that case the detecting character must beat the creators roll when the item was made.

EX: NPC---Bob the Builder Arcanum d6>Mystic d6>Enchantment d6 creates a bracer of strength. He rolls 6,4,1 on the creation roll. The bracer will have 18 charges and will give a +11 on any feat of strength related roll. The PC (Arcanum d8> Mystic d6)finds this on Bob's long dead body. He casts detect magic and finds that it is a magical item and that it is a mystic source item. He then cast Identify with an 8 + 2 =10. 10-6 =4. The 4 is minimal knowledge so he finds out that the item has something to do w/augmenting strength and maybe that it is a permanent object. If the long dead caster had tried to conceal the object's power, then the PC would need to beat his original roll of 11 to get any information.