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<blockquote data-quote="Li Shenron" data-source="post: 5830546" data-attributes="member: 1465">I think this is one of the easiest possible issues to house rule, because whatever your group's choice is, it hardly makes any difference in relation to published material.Let's say that the PHB has a 1st level wizard spell which identifies magic items automatically. The 3.0 version takes 8 hours to cast, meaning that a not so forgiving DM will require the party to take a day off. The 3.5 version takes 1 hour to cast, which means &quot;not in the dungeon&quot; but otherwise you almost always just don't count the time.Whatever the PHB standard, the DMG can have a small (half a page or less) chapter dedicated to the issue, suggesting that the DM can change the casting time of the spell:- want the spell to be &quot;off adventuring&quot;? -&gt; 8 hours- want the spell to be &quot;not in the dungeon&quot;? -&gt; 1 hour- want the spell to be &quot;not in combat&quot;? -&gt; 10 min- want the spell to be &quot;anytime&quot;? -&gt; 1 actionThe DMG can also just tell a DM to ditch the spell completely if the group wants automatic identification OR on the other end of the spectrum if they want the &quot;hard way&quot; of experimenting.Just as with the timing, the DM can make up whatever variant on how many properties are revealed, how many items can be checked with one casting, if curses are revealed etc...What changes really? In terms of gaming experience, it changes a lot! But whatever version your group chooses to use, the worst that can happen with relation to published material is that perhaps one NPC in a while will have this one spell while your DM has house ruled it out of the game.So IMO the game needs one version as a reference starting point: let designers make it whatever they want and don't revised it later, it would be useless (and it would imply that they do think everyone should handle this issue in the &quot;right&quot; way)! Then let a good half-page discussion in the DMG highlight how changing this for your own gaming group will change the gameplay experience.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Li Shenron, post: 5830546, member: 1465"] I think this is one of the easiest possible issues to house rule, because whatever your group's choice is, it hardly makes any difference in relation to published material. Let's say that the PHB has a 1st level wizard spell which identifies magic items automatically. The 3.0 version takes 8 hours to cast, meaning that a not so forgiving DM will require the party to take a day off. The 3.5 version takes 1 hour to cast, which means "not in the dungeon" but otherwise you almost always just don't count the time. Whatever the PHB standard, the DMG can have a small (half a page or less) chapter dedicated to the issue, suggesting that the DM can change the casting time of the spell: - want the spell to be "off adventuring"? -> 8 hours - want the spell to be "not in the dungeon"? -> 1 hour - want the spell to be "not in combat"? -> 10 min - want the spell to be "anytime"? -> 1 action The DMG can also just tell a DM to ditch the spell completely if the group wants automatic identification OR on the other end of the spectrum if they want the "hard way" of experimenting. Just as with the timing, the DM can make up whatever variant on how many properties are revealed, how many items can be checked with one casting, if curses are revealed etc... What changes really? In terms of gaming experience, it changes a lot! But whatever version your group chooses to use, the worst that can happen with relation to published material is that perhaps one NPC in a while will have this one spell while your DM has house ruled it out of the game. So IMO the game needs one version as a reference starting point: let designers make it whatever they want and don't revised it later, it would be useless (and it would imply that they do think everyone should handle this issue in the "right" way)! Then let a good half-page discussion in the DMG highlight how changing this for your own gaming group will change the gameplay experience. [/QUOTE]

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