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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Menexenus" data-source="post: 4030724" data-attributes="member: 8951">The wording in the SRD about the mechanics of Identifying a magic item are sort of vague.  I could use everyone's help with a ruling that my players will not feel is arbitrary.Here's my problem:  the party found a bunch of opaque stoppered bottles that radiated magic (under Detect Magic), so they scooped them all up under the false assumption that the bottles were merely potions.  Later, one of the party's spell casters cast Identify on the bottle.  What I need to know is this:  if he thought it was a potion, would he have had to open the bottle to identify its contents.Here's why it matters.  It turns out that these magical bottles are actually traps containing monsters that will immediately attack the party if opened.  Once the player whose character was identifying the bottles got wise to the fact that something bad was about to happen to him, he argued that someone shouldn't have to open a bottle to identify a potion.  He reasons that the bottle is part of the potion.I was thinking about it a different way.  You couldn't identify a sword without drawing it from its scabbard.  You need to examine the magic item for tell-tale markings (etc.) that would aid one in discerning its function.  Similarly, you would at least need to see the liquid in the bottle in order to observe tell-tale colors, odors, viscosities, etc. that would aid one in identifying the potion's function.We decided to take our disagreement to ENWorld sort of as an appeals process.  You all represent a "higher authority" to our group.   <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 choose wisely:  does the identifier of a potion routinely open the bottle to identify it, or is opening the bottle and observing the liquid inside completely unnecessary when identifying a potion.Thanks in advance!</blockquote>

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