Detect Magic is Dead

[Vanuslux]

Magic item identification definitely needed rethinking, but anyone being able to fondle the thing for five minutes and know what it is and how it works is kind of a ham-fisted overhaul I think. Of course, maybe the actual rule won't be as simple as that, but it wouldn't surprise me if it is. It wouldn't break my heart if it is, either, since that's something that's easy enough to houserule.

 

[FireLance]

Cross-posted from the Magic Items thread:

I think there's a very simple reason why the default standard is easy identification of magic items and easy buying and selling of magic items: the new edition is designed to appeal more to casual players, and to casual DMs.

Sure, hardcore D&D hobbyists (like most of us who read and post in this forum) will be willing to put up with a few inconveniences in gameplay for the sake of our favourite pasttime (or we may even enjoy what most casual gamers would consider inconveniences), but if the core system suggested that most people play the way we play, we wouldn't get as many players.

And, judging from the tone of several posters in these thread, quite a few of us don't even like the way we play, and agree that WotC's default is a good one.

 

[hong]

I'm a hardcore casual!

 

[FireLance]

I'm a hardcore casual!

I just want to Take It Easy...

Well, I'm running Fortress-Fane of the Demon-Toad
Trying to lighten my DM load
I've got seven unidentified magic items on my mind.
Four that I more or less remember,
Two that I need to check up,
One that I forgot to bring the sourcebook for so I'll have to make something up on the fly.
Take it easy, take it easy,
Don't let the weight of your own self-imposed DM workload
Drive you crazy.​

 

[AllisterH]

It should be noted that by the latter books, Conan himself can not only read and understand magical runes but he can actually cast rudimentary runic magic. The selfsame question came up in the book as to how Conan knew this and he pointed out quite rightly, he had been doing it for all of his adult life...

By plain Osmosis, I'd expect a fighter to gain some rudimentary understanding of magic. I mean, pre -4E, even a wizard gained some fighting skill so why couldn't the fighter gain the inverse?

 

[JVisgaitis]

But what more do you need to know about D&D-Orcs (who are far far different from Warhammer Orcs, differ once more from The Dark Eye-Orcs, Lord of the Rings-Orcs, Warhammer-Orcs, WarCraft-Orcs, and all those other orcs)?
It's not the purpose of the Monster Manual to include campaign-consistent background lore. That's what campaign books are for. Eberron-Orcs differ background-lore-wise from plain Forgotten Realms-Orcs, for example.

To use them in an encounter? Nothing. To craft a good story around them or understand where they live, what they look like, or know what they do you need more. Granted some of that stuff can and should be reserved for a Campaign Book, but I feel like there should be MORE. Again, for people that have been playing the game for years, that's not going to matter. I would think that a lot of the people that play D&D, buy the Core Rulebooks and that's it. This is one of the reasons why I hate that there is no implied setting. You lose a lot of that flavor.

 

[JVisgaitis]

It should be noted that by the latter books, Conan himself can not only read and understand magical runes but he can actually cast rudimentary runic magic.

What book was that? And are we talking Robert E Howard as the author or someone else?

 

[Will]

And, judging from the tone of several posters in these thread, quite a few of us don't even like the way we play, and agree that WotC's default is a good one.

Yep, that's me.

I have no problem with complexity when I think it makes for an interesting game.

But Identify taking 8 hours and 100 gp PER item? That just sounds like a random HA HA screw you rule.

Thing is, as a DM? It's EXCITING if players grab a magic sword off an orc and then go running screaming at an enemy. But in 3.5e, that sword could be worse than the one you had... it probably was, in fact. Or even cursed. And if it's a wand or something? You can't just wave it and see what happens.

Eh. No fun.

 

[Henry]

To use them in an encounter? Nothing. To craft a good story around them or understand where they live, what they look like, or know what they do you need more.

Yes, but given that picture of them that's going to be in the Monster Manual (the one we got the preview of), all that is pretty well grasped, isn't it? (One picture being worth at least a couple hundred words, after all?) The number of players who are going to buy only the first three books (remember their new definition of "core", now)are pretty small compared to the ones who are going to buy a few more books (for settings and the like.) As a matter of fact, the idea of there only being three or so setting books for any given setting will probably encrouage MORE people to get into a specific setting, not less, since it will be easier to keep up on the settings, instead of feeling like you have to buy into a setting with a dozen books or more for it.

 

[AllisterH]

What book was that? And are we talking Robert E Howard as the author or someone else?

In Beyond the Black River, Conan actually draws an arcane rune and uses magic while it may technically count as well in "The Tower of the Elephant" when he uses the Heart of Yag-Koska to kill Yara.

Conan by the end still doesn't trust magic but he does understand the basic principles.