Sensing the presence of magic - isn't the mechanic backward?

[Mort]

The arcana skill allows you to sense the presence of magic.

The DC to sense magic is 20 + 1/2 the level of the magical effect. This makes me scratch my head because it means the stronger the effect the less chance the wizard has of detecting it. If you're going to distinguish between power level of effects shouldn't it be the other way around?

I'm not talking about identifying the effect - I have no problem with higher/level rarer effects being harder to identify. But shouldn't stronger magic be easier to detect?

 

[Mort_Q]

Given that it lets you find magic items that are hidden, or buried, or behind locked doors... I'll forgive the illogic.

Sure not all items are the one ring, that will hide from you or call out to you, but being able to find or track NPCs or treasure more easily as they get more powerful is also silly.

 

[Mort]

Given that it lets you find magic items that are hidden, or buried, or behind locked doors... I'll forgive the illogic.

Oh I agree it's a powerful ability, I still think it's backward though.

Sure not all items are the one ring, that will hide from you or call out to you, but being able to find or track NPCs or treasure more easily as they get more powerful is also silly.

Why is that silly? If something practically explodes with magical energy shouldn't it be easier to find? I'm not talking control, identify or use, just find.

I have a tool that detects radiation. Behind 1 door is half a pound of radioactive material. behind the second door is 3 tons of radioactive material.

Isn't it kind of silly that the tool would more likely detect door #1?

 

[Ragnar69]

Think of it this way: the less powerful magic just grabs some magical energy and distorts the natural magical flow and is thus easy to detect. The more powerful effects use the magical flow to it's full effect, riding on it like a surfer on a wave. So they are more subtle and thus harder to detect.


Edit: I am using a model where magic permates everything and spell casting is just using that energy and sculpting it to oyur wishes.

 

[Slaved]

Lower level Magical Effects are less Refined and so have a Greater Residual Leakage perhaps?

If the Designers had made the Game Effects more like how they work in the Wheel of Time d20 Setting they would have had a lot more Flexibility!

 

[Mort]

Think of it this way: the less powerful magic just grabs some magical energy and distorts the natural magical flow and is thus easy to detect. The more powerful effects use the magical flow to it's full effect, riding on it like a surfer on a wave. So they are more subtle and thus harder to detect.

Hmm... well the problem is thinking of it this way - I still think I'd be able to see a shark in the water quite a bit easier than a minnow.

I can justify it and I think I see the reason the designers did it (keeping magic detection essentially even at all levels - I do think the check is a bit to hard though, but that's another issue).

Doesn't mean I think it was a good design decision though - it's still counterintuitive (at least to me).

 

[Arbitrary]

Does it take a roll to notice that an item is magical if it is unhidden and in plain sight?

 

[Warbringer]

as others have said, low level magic items leak

 

[ryryguy]

Since the character using the Arcana skill also gets +1/2 per level to use the skill, what this does is keep the chance to detect an item of your level around the same as your level goes up. I suspect that's the main design intention here.

 

[Solodan]

Good point about being consistent with level.

More often than not, the answer lin 4E lies in the mechanices of smooth gameplay than any logical/explainable answer.