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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Sigil" data-source="post: 209605" data-attributes="member: 2013">My solution...My standard Modus Operandi is indeed to require the Pearls... in some cases finding a pearl just to CAST the identify spell can be somewhat of an adventure...But I note that my party was quite clever at figuring out their weapons' base enchantment bonus... I never told them a creature's AC, I just told them to roll and I would tell them "hit" or "miss."  I mentally added the +1 or +2 from the weapon to the roll.  After a few rounds of combat, the players can reverse-engineer the enhancement bonus... "well, I hit on a 27 and Bob missed on a 28 and we know he isn't using magic - so the opponent's AC must be at least 29, so my weapon must be more than +1 (because that only raises me to 28)... but I missed on a 25 so it can't be as high as +4 (or I would have rolled a 29)... so my weapon is either +2 or +3 and I'll be able to figure out which next combat."  Qualities such as flaming or shocking burst are fairly apparent also. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />So identifying weapons wasn't too bad a problem once the party was willing to use them a few times.  The alchemy skill to ID potions was used frequently as well.  Usually, a party sees a wand/staff being used against them, so they have some idea what is in the thing (especially wands), so that's not a problem.  If you saw the sorcerer waving a wand and launching fireballs from it, you can pretty much conclude it's a wand of fireballs.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> Obviously, scrolls just need a Read Magic spell.That leaves armor, wondrous items, rods and rings as the types of items the party needs an Identify spell for... in all of these cases, the identify spell is not too bad as a percentage of total cost... and remember that armor can be reverse-engineered in the same was as weapons, though that also requires them to reverse-engineer a creature's Attack Bonus first - trickier but possible.  Admittedly, the above assumes that the party is willing to try to use magic items in order to figure out what they are.  Worked pretty well for me, but of course YMMV.For sake of simplicity, once the characters (a) cast identify or (b) could tell me what an item was based on using it (or seeing it used), I confirmed at the end of the session and let them write it down... though I let them write down incorrect guesses, especially as it related to extra abilities (see below).  I didn't track all their items, only the ones they had not yet figured out.  However, the +1 undead bane sword remained a "+1 sword" on their character sheets for about three sessions - until they noticed that it hit better against undead than it "should have" based on a +1 bonus.  With a little bit of "experimentation" they figured out that it was undead bane as well<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=":)" />--The Sigil</blockquote>

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