Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 9524402" data-attributes="member: 6877472">It doesn't help that not everyone can cast identify either.&nbsp; If you make players cast the spell (or my personal favorite alternative, augury), every time they think about attuning to or using a magic item, I foresee a lot of &quot;unknown items&quot; lurking in backpacks and not being used until the party gets downtime in a large town somewhere.Then again, remove curse exists, which makes the process even sillier.&nbsp; &quot;Cast a spell to know the thing is safe to use, or cast a spell to undo the effects of the curse&quot; becomes trivial after awhile.*Sure, you could make a magic item that can't have it's curse removed, but given that there are no viable alternatives, not to mention it's literally what the spell is for, it's just going to annoy the players even more, unless the juice is worth the squeeze, like an item that becomes more powerful once it's curse is overcome.Of course, in my case, I seed magic items that I intend the party to use in rougher encounters, and it'd be pretty ridiculous to have a ring of acid resistance that nobody dares use until long after they fight the black dragon it was intended for.Further, back in my AD&amp;D days, any time someone found a magic item with unknown properties, there was always an annoying couple of encounters where you'd have the player saying &quot;I hit AC 4 and deal 7 damage...plus or minus whatever properties this sword might have&quot;.I've ruled that most magic items in my campaigns will identify themselves (with some noted exceptions), largely to do away with ad hoc systems like rolling Arcana checks and swinging items about while saying whatever nonsense the players think might be command words (think the scene in Spider Man &quot;Up up and away web!&quot;).&nbsp; The players have one that does require research as a downtime activity, but given that they don't know if it's worth it, as opposed to all the other things they could do, up to and including crafting their own items, it's been collecting dust for months of real world time now.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="James Gasik, post: 9524402, member: 6877472"] It doesn't help that not everyone can cast [I]identify[/I] either. If you make players cast the spell (or my personal favorite alternative, [I]augury[/I]), every time they think about attuning to or using a magic item, I foresee a lot of "unknown items" lurking in backpacks and not being used until the party gets downtime in a large town somewhere. Then again, [I]remove curse[/I] exists, which makes the process even sillier. "Cast a spell to know the thing is safe to use, or cast a spell to undo the effects of the curse" becomes trivial after awhile. *Sure, you could make a magic item that can't have it's curse removed, but given that there are no viable alternatives, not to mention it's literally what the spell is for, it's just going to annoy the players even more, unless the juice is worth the squeeze, like an item that becomes more powerful once it's curse is overcome. Of course, in my case, I seed magic items that I intend the party to use in rougher encounters, and it'd be pretty ridiculous to have a ring of acid resistance that nobody dares use until long after they fight the black dragon it was intended for. Further, back in my AD&D days, any time someone found a magic item with unknown properties, there was always an annoying couple of encounters where you'd have the player saying "I hit AC 4 and deal 7 damage...plus or minus whatever properties this sword might have". I've ruled that most magic items in my campaigns will identify themselves (with some noted exceptions), largely to do away with ad hoc systems like rolling Arcana checks and swinging items about while saying whatever nonsense the players think might be command words (think the scene in Spider Man "Up up and away web!"). The players have one that does require research as a downtime activity, but given that they don't know if it's worth it, as opposed to all the other things they could do, up to and including crafting their own items, it's been collecting dust for months of real world time now. [/QUOTE]

Verification