Identifying Wands

[catdragon]

Surely someone have discussed this before, but since apparently *I* missed it...

How do you identify wand in your campaign? I once thought that if the wand's spell was in the class list, then any character that had that class would automatically know what spell the wand held.

I've also seen Use Magic Device, Spellcraft, and Knowledge (Arcana) used to identify the wand's function.

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[apesamongus]

You can always have someone use it on you and then roll a spellcraft check.

 

[catdragon]

You can always have someone use it on you and then roll a spellcraft check.

That's probably a bit more drastic than most characters would prefer.

However, how do you determine who can use it?

 

[harmyn]

The Identify Spell? Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft working together might puzzle it out, but it would be a high DC to say the least. Use Magic Device and a fluffy bunny target maybe. Just a random thought.

 

[apesamongus]

That's probably a bit more drastic than most characters would prefer.

A couple of impatient players in my group had their character participate in a little sparring match to test out a couple of magic daggers they found. Currently they don't want to waste the charges on the wands, but who knows what will happen later...

However, how do you determine who can use it?

Who's got the best UMD (warlock hopefully)? But that's assuming you don't have a command word. If you have one, pass it around and let everybody have a try.

 

[Li Shenron]

Surely someone have discussed this before, but since apparently *I* missed it...

How do you identify wand in your campaign? I once thought that if the wand's spell was in the class list, then any character that had that class would automatically know what spell the wand held.

I've also seen Use Magic Device, Spellcraft, and Knowledge (Arcana) used to identify the wand's function.

Anyone have any suggestions?

I prefer to play by the RAW in this case, which AFAIK means that you need an Identify or similar spell.

The only other chance would be "activate blindly" with Use Magic Device, only that the RAW doesn't say very clearly how can you choose the spell's target, area, effects etc before you know which spell it is, hence I'd go with "random target" for good or bad.

The reason why I don't go easy in this case is because IMHO Wands are already too good magic items and too common. Having to spend 100gp to Identify one is in no way a big price to pay.