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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ken-ichi" data-source="post: 2985985" data-attributes="member: 20061">This was a pretty interesting read. Some of the versions obviously don't mesh with my play style and a few actually irritated me, notably ones like 1,3,4. Mainly because the DM is basically the eyes and ears of the party and is failing them in that role. I don't think the players should be forced to play 20 questions with the DM to get a visual of a room that they are entering.My version would be something like this:As the Players enter the room the DM mentions the pile of leaves. If other locations have contained similar piles of leaves you can make an off hand remark about the continuing presence of the piles, perhaps a witty comment about needing a new groundskeeper. The Players say they move the leaves or search the room and thus look through the pile. The DM tells them they find a skeleton and describes its rotted gear (including the "apparently worthless" sheild). The DM can both give a slight clue that the shield is special and also hide the clue by describing several pieces of the rotten equipment (the chainmail and sword of the skeleton have mostly crumbled away in rust, the leather of his boots and scabbard are moldy scraps crumbling away to dust at the slightest touch). By describing other equipment it draws the focus away from the shield, but at the same time gives the players info that the shield is special due to it not being destroyed like the rest of the equipment. The Players, suspicious at the specific mention of a shield (and it only being filthy instead of rusted away), investigate it closer. The DM says (again) it appears worthless (I would probably ask for a Craft (metalworking or armory) or Appraise check (DC5) to notice that it is functional and (DC15) even a finely crafted item despite its filthy appearance and needs a little cleanup to be in tip top shape, magic items must be masterwork). The Players, suspicious at the word “appears”, or noticing that it is a masterwork item decide to take the shield. They eventually use detect magic on it, and the DM says it radiates magic (the lingering type because there is no active bonus on it). The PCs use the shield, but do not get the +1 into account for their AC until the item is cleaned (I don't like disregarding text in a module just because the rules don't say things work like that. They are a great way of instilling some bits of mystery and flavor to the game.)  I would assume that a character will clean the shield if they continue to use it after camping for the night, so if the character does not actively clean it when he grabs the shield, upon nightly maintenance he will clean it. I would probably have the shield glimmer a bit when the cleaning is finished and the item regains its bonus. I think this is the most fair way to run it IMO. The players need to be told about the leaves. It is an obvious visible thing that is not hidden from view.The shield must be mentioned if they are searching the leaves. I don't think anyone considers a skeleton to automatically include a shield. When the skeleton's gear is described as rotted away the shield has to be mentioned as not being ruined as it is not, but rather just filthy.Obtaining the shield still requires that the players do several things:1. Actually search the room.2. Think a filthy shield is worth taking a closer look at.3. Make the skill checks to notice that the shield is functional and even of good quality.4. Use the shield for longer than 1 day or actively state they are cleaning it to regain the bonus.Of course a detect magic will basically give them a huge pointer saying take me. I think that if this is a problem, then the problem may lie more with detect magic than with the presented scenario.</blockquote>

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