Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="WonkaMania" data-source="post: 1313529" data-attributes="member: 11035">Hey there all, I'm a relatively new DM, and there arose a situation the last time we played. Well, the first thing was that I was just telling players what the schools of magic where when they cast Detect Magic, I was oblivious to the fact that they needed to roll a spellcraft check. (I haven't played magic users much) So the party finds some magical gear. There's magical armor, a magic pearl, a magical bag, and a magical stick (wand). They figure out the Heward's Handy Haversack (I break off a tree-limb that's obviously bigger then the bag and try to put it in it. Cool it works.) The magical armor is of the Abjuration school (armor and protection items come up as abjuration). The Pearl doesn't come up as anything (it's a Pearl of Power, there's nothing in the 3.0 dmg that says which school it is or have a spell attached to it to look at). Now the Wand. The wand was used by an npc spellcaster. Here's the kicker, the npc was an Adept, so he was casting both cure spells and sleep and burning hands, and, he was wearing armor. (I gave him the appropriate armor feats, as adepts cast divine spells so there is no arcane spell failure from casting in armor.) It's great because the pc's have no clue as to what he was. They think he was some sorceror/cleric multi-class. The wand is a Protection from Good wand. Detect Magic shows this as Abjuration (the spell is of the abjuration school). They really have *no* idea as to what it is. Now, one of my pc's, the sorceror says "Ok, well I attempt to use the wand, and if I can't use it that means it's probably a divine wand and the cleric will attempt to use it." That's where the problem is. Uhm.. so you find a magic stick and you "attempt to use it"...???? Sorry bud, that's what the Use Magic Device skill is for, and it'd be "activating blindly". Needless to say, he nor the cleric have the skill. He's arguing that since he's an arcane spell caster he should know if he can or can't use it. (in all reality, the wand is a divine wand because it was made by another adept, and since adepts cast divine spells, it's divine.) I'M saying how in the HELL is he going to "use" the wand or "know" weather he can use it or not without casting an identify spell? Detect Magic only gives you the school, IF you make your spellcraft check.  So, am I correct in saying that the party really will have no way in determining what the wand is? (if it's divine or arcane?) I should also note, they didn't really see what happened when the npc used the wand. He pulled it out and used it to touch another npc (he used the wand to cast Prot. from Good on his ally). Also to note, their is only one Rogue in the party, and she does *not* have the Use Magic Device skill. Ok, as an aside, please let me know if I have the following ways to identify things correct:scrolls - read magic tells you exactly what the scroll is, but otherwise you DON'T know. (even if the scroll is written in a language you understand?)Potions- identify is the only way. The DM may allow you to "sample" it and see if it tastes like other potions you've had before and go from there, but as I understand that, that is only an optional rule..? As for magic weapons and armor, I've just told them "you eventually figure out it's a +1 sword/armor/shield" because I don't want to keep track of the book keeping about it. Various protection items such as rings of protection, bracers of armor, amulets of natural protection- I've just ended up telling the party "you eventually figure out it grants you a +1 bonus to your AC, although without casting Identify, you don't know what KIND of bonus it is" (and by that I mean natural ac, deflection, armor, etc.. although, I'm sure they'll figure it out) Other items, unless it's obvious, I won't tell them. Such as the Pearl of Power. I had read somewhere that a Pearl of Power will "tingle" as a spell that can be recalled from it is cast, but other then that there is no way of knowing. Here's another question, if they "figure out" it is a Pearl of Power, can they still use it without casting an Identify to figure out the command word or whatever? Ok, alot of questions, but the main one I'm really concerned about finding out about is the wand one. Please help if you can! (also, if what you do is a "house rule" and not an official one, please SAY so. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  ) ~Wonka</blockquote>

Verification