(small) essentials rules change

[Lordhawkins9]

I never understood having to make a roll to detect whether an item is magical.

According to the rules, if the party misses and item, you're supposed to give that treasure to them later on anyway right? So what's the point, the party is going to have to get the item one way or the other or the "math" of the system will break.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Good change!

Actually, they should get rid of all fixed DCs in favour of easy/moderate/hard.

I suspect this is exactly what they are doing. All of those fixed DC skill uses in the PHB always felt like throwbacks to me. However, I do find it odd that the PC never gets any better at detecting magic. In fact they actually get slightly WORSE at it as they level up IIRC. Even more odd since the hard DCs assume you are throwing extra resources into your skill you actually have to go out of your way to not get worse at it as you level up.

"Gosh, my level 1 apprentice is better at detecting magic than I am" said Toadstool the Great (level 30 wizard).

So, THIS could be one of the few instances where a non-level-scaling DC for a skill makes sense. There could be a few others. Notice that the issue here is that the check scales by the level of the PC. Before it scaled by the level of the items, which at least made SOME sense. The new way makes really none at all. It would actually be better if it was just an unadorned die roll on a chart or something.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Well keep in mind that by the time you're 30th level, the only items you even need to roll to detect are 26th level or higher. In other words, truly Epic items.

 

[Ryujin]

My current DM has always hated the Detect Magic rules largely because he doesn't want to have everything in a given range be detected, and I guess that he got tired of me asking what items below level 32 were within range. He didn't really get that it takes a minute to perform the check, not a few seconds. Hopefully he'll stop nerfing my abilities with this ruleset.

 

[keterys]

According to the rules, if the party misses and item, you're supposed to give that treasure to them later on anyway right?

No such rule, actually. You're supposed to avoid making it really difficult to find treasure and hiding too often, but hidden treasure can be missed and never gotten.

On a plus side, within a few levels it doesn't make a real difference.

 

[Neonchameleon]

And this is what house rules are for. You don't like the change, don't use it.

There are a ton of little changes I that I have been stumbling across in RC, like Monster Knowledge checks are now either Medium DC (Name, Type, Inclination, and Keywords) or Hard DC (Vulnerabilities, Resistances, and what power do) based upon the level of the creature.

Lore checks seem to be the same.

In all I like this change as it makes the checks scale with level.

My two coppers,

Oh joy. Murphy's rules.

"What's that?"

"A red dragon wyrmling, Jak. Breathes fire, fire resistance 5, vulnerable to cold, produces dragon fear."

"And what's that over there? Heading this way!"

"Dunno. But I think it's this little guy's mother! It's also been sighted tearing up the kingdom for the past three years."

"But what can you tell me about it?"

"Big, red creature. Flappy wings. It might be a dragon? Or a balrog? It's opening it's mouth! Why's it doing that? Aaaaaggggh! I didn't know it could breathe fire!"
​

 

[Insight]

I can envision splitting the "Detect Magic" effect into the actual finding (detection) and identification. It should be easy to detect a powerful item, but hard to identify. In this concept, a magic item has some sort of aura or glow and this becomes more intense the more powerful an item is. Such an aura would only be seen by someone trained in Arcana. Identification would scale as other skill DCs do, but detection should scale inversely with the item's power level.

 

[darkwing]

Sometimes room descriptions and searching manually can be fun. It depends on how well the DM describes the room and little things like voice inflection to give hints on what should be looked at. With a less skilled DM it can quickly devolve into either searching everything in every room and slowing the game down or getting fed up with that and not searching anything unless told specifically by the DM "You might want to search here."

 

[P1NBACK]

How about instead of describing magic items "detection" as a glowing object or whatever (unless it specifically has a property that makes it glow), the Wizard can actually feel the presence of magic. Maybe it's this pulsing in their veins or throbbing in their mind. It's connected to something, ley lines maybe, and as they get closer to the magical effect, the pulsing becomes more intense, but it's never pin-pointed with a glowing or sparkling "right here!"

Example:

There's a powerful magic ring in the pillow.

Wizard: Do I sense any magic in this room?
DM: I don't know. Give me a detect magic check.
Wizard: (player rolls and gets a high score)
DM: Absolutely. When you focus your mind, you feel this tingling in your fingertips. It starts pulsing up your arms and toward your head. You know the sensation, you can feel your magical items giving it off. But, there's another pulse not around you and your companions. It's coming from near the large canopy bed in the room.
Wizard: I move closer.
Rogue: Hold on a sec! Could it be trapped?
Wizard: Could what be trapped?
Rogue: The bed?
Wizard: I don't know. I'm just moving closer to see if the sensation grows.
DM: When you move closer to the bed, it certainly does. Now the pulse is coming in waves, like a beacon. You know it's gotta be somewhere around here.
Wizard: Hmmm. Rogue, something is here. Search this bed.
Rogue: I move up and start looking around, flipping the mattress, rooting through the bed.
DM: Sure, give me a Perception check.
Rogue: (rolls dice and scores high)
DM: Good stuff. There's nothing when you flip the mattress, just an old photograph tucked beneath it. But, when you flip the mattress, the pillow hits the ground and you hear a slight metallic sound when it makes contact with the stone floor.
Rogue: I pick up the pillow. Look inside.
DM: There's a ring in there.
Wizard: What do you see Rogue?
Rogue: I try to pocket it without the Wizard knowing. I kind of tilt the pillow so the ring gently falls into my hand. Then, I want to open up the pillow to show the wizard.
DM: Sure, give me a Thievery check. Wizard, give me a Perception check.
Rogue: (player rolls dice and scores high)
Wizard: (player rolls and scores low)
DM: Oh yeah. You got it. The ring falls in your hand. You tuck it into your belt pouch easily without the Wizard noticing.
Rogue: Ah, nothing over here. Must be hidden better than we thought or your senses are off.
DM: You guys continue off into the corridor and strangely, Wizard, you sense the Rogue pulsing slightly stronger than he usually does.

The end.

 

[Ryujin]

In my group that wouldn't be over until the Wizard was searching the charred remains of the Rogue, in the hallway