has anyone come up with an alturnative to the standard Identify spell?

[Sanackranib]

here is a spell with an incredabilly expensive component (at least for low level characters who will be the ones using it most) it never gets better, and was basically gutted from prior editions, so my qusetion is this has anyone come up with a better alturnative for their own game?

 

[Mouseferatu]

I allow my players to gain the basic information provided by identify with prolonged (like several minutes) examination with detect magic and success with Spellcraft and/or Knowledge Arcana checks. If they want more info, they've still got to rely on higher level spells like analyze dweomer, but for the low-level stuff, detect magic seems sufficient.

 

[diaglo]

try posting this over at the Homebrew forum.

 

[maddman75]

Here's how I do it.

Identify costs what it costs in the book. Takes eight hours, and will ID one property per level. You can find out all the properties of standard magic items. Nonstandard items, items with intelligence, or minor artifacts will require legend lore or other divinations and research. Analyze dweomer does not exist.

Here's my reasons for the change

- I don't want to keep track of what that potion the group found five levels ago is.
- I don't think its fun for the charcters to have a bunch of items they don't know how to use.

Some DMs say that keeping the current rules add mystery. There's plenty of mystery in my game without all this extra bookkeeping. And the 'I put the ring on and dance around to see if it does anything' routine got old about a decade ago.

 

[jdavis]

For the most part we use Identify as "you cast the spell and I'll tell you what the item is." No muss no fuss, no worrying about how many different things the item will do or if you found them all. Cursed items are rare unless they are ones that go off just by touch or ones that are real tricky. We do add up how many different things the the item can do and how many items can be checked by identify, so there are times when you run out of ability before you ret everything, but that just means you have to wait till you memorize the spell again. It is fun when somebody has to wing it or figure out what something is by using it, and there are times when the party doesn't have the time to identify, or the wizard doesn't have the spell memorized. But it really sucks to be carrying a lot of crap around you don't know what is.

 

[hammymchamham]

Uses the standard cost of the spell, casting time, and 1 item/level, it identifies all properties (unless its artifact level, then the spell doesn't work). I don't want to sit their rolling 1d6 if its a +1 flamming weapon, and I don't want my players to feel ripped of if its a +1 flamming shock holy bane sword, and sell it as a +1

 

[Surfal]

Try the BoEM

Monte Cook's The Book of Eldritch Might II has a nifty alternative called Object Loresight. 1st level spell, allows the caster to learn all about an item, but it requires multiple castings to be useful. Minimally eight if I recall correctly, which means most spellcasters need to take significant time to identify lots of items.

 

[Olive]

Re: Try the BoEM

Monte Cook's The Book of Eldritch Might II has a nifty alternative called Object Loresight. 1st level spell, allows the caster to learn all about an item, but it requires multiple castings to be useful. Minimally eight if I recall correctly, which means most spellcasters need to take significant time to identify lots of items.

the minimum 8 castings depends on what you already know about the item... but the first 7 casting s mean that a DM has to really flesh out an item, cos the spell gives a whole heap of info about it before it gives the +1 keen bit.

 

[Zappo]

Detect Magic allows the caster to determine the magic schools involved in an item, and how strong the item is. My players don't have troubles using this and a few tries to get an idea of what an item does, or at least whether they should sell it or pay someone to Analyze Dweomer. For example, if a weapon gives off a faint Alteration aura, you know that it's a plain +1. If it's Moderate, it could be a +2 or a +3, but if Identify says only +1, you know that it has something more. Which, if Detect said Evocation, could be something like flaming or flaming burst - test it on a tree and see what happens. If you get a flame (or lightning, or whatever), you've got your item identified, otherwise you know it's something weird and deserving of an Analyze.

The standard spells allow you to know enough about an item to gauge its value and estimate its properties. They also leave enough mystery to keep the whole thing interesting at least until Analyze is cast. IMO, having Identify tell everything makes the whole identification concept a bit like Diablo or Baldur's Gate, where identification is so cheap, easy and readily available that they could just as well remove it and make every item immediately known.

 

[ced1106]

Personally, I'm happy the Identify is no longer the "Pick it up, know everything about it" spell. Diviniation spells pretty much throw out a good number of adventure hooks and surprises by the GM. If the sword has a mysterious history and heritage, it's much more interesting to the players than that it's a +1 sword, +3 vs. lycanthropes.


Nothing to do with the above, but...

GM: "You put the ring on and turn invisible."
Player: "I cast Identify on it."
GM: "The ring enhaces your abilities a thousand-fold but only if you are of a sufficiently high level. Its evil is great and will corrupt you over time. You can only destroy the ring at its source, a mountain many leagues away."
Player: "Cool! I keep it until I'm 20th level."


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^