D&D 5E Noticing a magic item

[Rya.Reisender]

Let's say the group finds a corpse and that corpse is wearing a magic item, e.g. his shoes are magical. But nobody in the group mentions they wanna check out the stuff he is wearing. They might just end up giving the corpse a proper burial. Nobody used Detect Magic either. Would you as DM give them hints? Like "Something seems extraordinary about his clothes" or would you just be "Well if they don't want to search a dead body they have to live with not getting the magic item he is wearing"?

 

[Gilladian]

Hmmm, I suppose it depends on a few things. First, how do you perceive magic items? Are they always superior quality items? If so, give them a passive roll to notice the quality, unless, of course, he's wearing all very fine garments. Also, did they follow any traditional burial customs? Do those mandate washing the body? If so, they'd have to remove and replace the clothing. That's another opportunity. IMC bodies are typically burned to prevent animation, and magic items are resistant to being easily destroyed, so they would burn last, if at all.

 

[Shiroiken]

It depends on how you do things. I believe that many feel that magic items are "different" and thus easy to determine, but in my campaign magic items are usually no more distinct than any other items. Thus in my game, the boots would be buried with the body (to be found by a graverobber later).

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

I go with what the DMG says on the matter: "Whatever a magic item's appearance, handling the item is enough to give a character a sense that something is extraordinary about it."

So this scenario of magic boots and do they or don't they notice comes down to a single question: Did anyone handle the boots, such as by carrying the corpse where someone "got the head" and someone else "got his feet"?

If yes, that the boots are something extraordinary is know. If no, the boots go unnoticed, and that is no big deal.

 

[Bigsta]

In my 5e game I still use the 4e system of using Arcana to detect magic (although the PCs can still cast Detect Magic if they don't want to rely on a skill check). For those boots I wouldn't even require a check as the DC would be so low. I'd just tell the PCs, the shoes radiate a faint hint of magic.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I am very, very big on simple Quality Of Life things for players. If the players defeated someone or something, and there's something there they might wish to investigate, I would not ever put them in a situation where they HAVE to intimately seek out every pixel-bitchy detail in order to reap the spoils of their labor. I wouldn't mollycoddle them, it's possible for them to make a mistake and such, but I would *at the very least*:

-- Ask, "Is there anything you would like to do with his/her/its body or items?" This doesn't tell them there's anything fancy--but it does ensure they're aware of the fact that the body has items, even if they're all mundane.

-- Run a passive check for anyone who spent at least a couple rounds near the opponent during the fight. If any passive checks succeed, I'd tell that person (openly, for the whole group) that they sense something there. Not specifically what or where, but enough of a hint to invite additional investigation.

-- Let them know, after/between sessions, that there ARE things to be found, if you go looking. My current 4e DM did this shortly after we started. We had thought that the cargo on a ship we'd boarded was destroyed in the fight (plasma cannon to the deck can do that), so we hadn't bothered to check for loot--our mistake. We've been careful to examine bodies, items, and locations in future efforts, though that too has occasionally bitten us in the butt.

-- If someone in the party has been, in-character, expressing a need or desire for certain things (new spell scrolls, perhaps, or a shiny new weapon, or a shield, or the like), I might give a gentle reminder through descriptive text. Stuff like, "The orc warlord lies dead; any soldiers loyal to him that you haven't captured or killed have fled. It is odd, seeing the cause of such suffering and strive crumpled on the ground, bleeding onto his shield and axe, still and growing cold." Or, "Your fireball, square to the face, burns off the wizard's facial hair. He's thrown back by the force...and doesn't get up again. His wide-brimmed hat slowly falls to the ground, unscathed, and a few things fall out of his burnt robe."

 

[77IM]

"He's got on really nice boots."

That's all I'd say. The players can't see the world the way you can, so I think it's fair to point out things that their characters would take note of. After that, what they do is up to them.

 

[RevelationMD]

"He's got on really nice boots."

That's all I'd say. The players can't see the world the way you can, so I think it's fair to point out things that their characters would take note of. After that, what they do is up to them.

I don't know the new rules at all, I'm an old AD&D2e player coming back after a 2 decade break, so it could be that things have changed. But in old games I played the DM may well say ''he's got on really nice boots'' when he is talking about a perfectly normal, but well made, expensive pair of boots. I seem to recall quite a few magic items specifically looking 'nothing out of the ordinary' and at least one particular item we found looking distinctly shabby.

To my mind - and again the new rules may contradict me - this is how it should be. Otherwise what is the point of detect magic?

 

[CapnZapp]

Would you as DM give them hints? Like "Something seems extraordinary about his clothes" or would you just be "Well if they don't want to search a dead body they have to live with not getting the magic item he is wearing"?

Yes.

The "hint" I would be giving, is "You find that the corpse is wearing magical shoes".

Unless I actively wanted them to miss out on the item. In which case why even plant it there?

What I don't want is to waste time having the characters examine the clothes of each and every dead body.

So I simply assume the characters do that without any prompting from the players. Since the players can trust me that their characters aren't missing something, they don't insist on peeking at and prodding everything in the game. Net result = no time wasted on all the cases where nothing is found.

If there are items that truly are optional, I use passive Perception. Since the party I'm DMing sports one Passive Perception 17 guy and one Passive Perception 18 guy, there really is no difference.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Yes.

The "hint" I would be giving, is "You find that the corpse is wearing magical shoes".

Unless I actively wanted them to miss out on the item. In which case why even plant it there?

What I don't want is to waste time having the characters examine the clothes of each and every dead body.

So I simply assume the characters do that without any prompting from the players. Since the players can trust me that their characters aren't missing something, they don't insist on peeking at and prodding everything in the game. Net result = no time wasted on all the cases where nothing is found.

If there are items that truly are optional, I use passive Perception. Since the party I'm DMing sports one Passive Perception 17 guy and one Passive Perception 18 guy, there really is no difference.

Yeah, there's definitely a "how much enjoyment gained vs. how much time spent" thing that goes into this, and I really don't understand the "entertainment calculus" that goes into a lot of people's thoughts. Particularly when so much is made of reducing the time allegedly "wasted" on combats...so that more of this pix--er, "fine-toothed comb," spend-half-an-hour-meticulously-deconstructing-the-lair stuff can be squeezed in?