Nothing like a good magical curse or disease!
Give the leaving character a disease that can't be solved by magic alone. The party can go on a side quest to find a cure for magical leaping crotch pheasants or the party moves on.
You can also have the player make a bunch of rolls and record...
Identify
Has anyone used the Appraise Magic Value Feat from the Comp Adventurer. It allows the player to use the Appraise skill to identify magical items. The pre reqs are pretty standard and the cost is 25 gp in materials (a lot better than that 100 gp pearl). It still requires 8 hours...
Rules or No Rules
I understand where you're coming from. I dicided to take some time off, before finding a new group. When I begain my time off second edition was still out. I just got back into the game about 18 months ago. It took along time because of the dificulty of finding a good...
Read or not to Read
I used to try and read the books before the newest one hit the street, but after book 6 or seven I just didn't have the time. So I got the audio disks. A little expensive but worth it. This allows you to skip through the boring stuff.
Book 11 was the best book in about...