The Appraise skill - Do you use it?

[MerricB]

If there's one skill in 3.5E (and 3E) that I find the most problematic, the Appraise skill is it.

Do you need it to identify that a weapon is Masterwork?

Should I add to my book-keeping greatly and keep track of every gem's value for when the PCs eventually get back to town?

If the PCs value a gem (or art object) wrongly, what happens when they get back to civilisation and go to sell it?

Does the jeweller also have to appraise the gem, and can he get it wrong? What happens then?

How do you deal with the Appraise skill?

Cheers!

 

[Olive]

Well, given how easy it is for a character to correctly value something, no, no I don't bother.

 

[Psionicist]

In the right campaign the skill can be ( *rolls appraise check* ) invaluable. Every dungeon crawl has a character with an unhealthy interest in loot.

 

[Dark Jezter]

If you want to make your players appreciate the appraise skill, throw in an NPC merchant every now and then who will try to buy items from the PCs for much less than they are worth.

 

[Herpes Cineplex]

We try to make it useful and to use it.

But most of the time we give up on it, saying things like "oh, just make one Appraise check for all of this stuff" and then just giving the correct price for everything right off the bat if the final check result sounds reasonable enough. And I can't think of a single time that any NPC has ever been called upon to make an Appraise check when buying something from us, so I guess it's fair.

Really, I figure we just don't care enough about the verisimilitude of appraising every gem and piece of art we acquire to spend the time it takes to handle each piece with an individual roll and careful bookkeeping from both the players and the GM to keep track of both what an object is worth and what a PC thinks it might be worth. It slows everything down, makes the players who aren't part of the Appraising process lose interest in the game, and doesn't add enough fun to be something that any of us feel strongly enough about to actually take the time to do.

Generally, asking for an Appraise check is done for more or less the same reasons that we'd ask for an obscure Knowledge check...it's a way of making someone who's spent points improving a seldom-used or barely-useful skill feel like the investment might not have been entirely wasted.

--
in other words, we use it for passing out clues, not for pricing loot
ryan

 

[dvvega]

Appraise is worth its weight in gold in my campaign.

Actually any skill that is deemed useless by the players.

Why? Because the one player that may take ranks in the skill will have an opportunity to shine. During my campaign play I "spotlight" certain players and their characters every now and again so that they have an attachment to the campaign and the world around them.

Appraise is one such skill. I have a standardised taxation system in place in my world. Essentially the size of the population centre dictates the standard mark up for purchases. For example: a metropolis has 0% markup since it is the largest community and thus would have more chances for competitive pricing (essentially you can buy stuff in the PHB at cost). In a smaller community the tax goes from 5% upwards.

Now the minute you start charging extra for anything, players are going to of course want to haggle the price down. We roleplay it out and I give bonuses to their Appraise skill check which allows lowering of the tax rate. A 15 moves the tax bracket to the next highest population, then each 5 beyond that adds to the deduction.

Additionally selling gems and loot. The PHB indicates selling any equipment is 50% of the PHB price. I of course have the taxation system which refuses to pay 50% depending on the size of the community. A metropolis where items are common is going to pay much less than a small village who may need some extra suits of leather or what have you. Appriase comes in handy here as well.

Gems are always taxed at a base 5% for exchange into coin of the realm (whichever country they're in). And of course the gem merchant wants to turn a profit, and so will try to soak up this 5% in under valuing. No character can argue with a gem merchant unless they actually have an idea of the value. Certainly you can haggle without Appriase but it's much more difficult.

In general Appraise in my campaign allows you to value an item, haggle over an item since it allows you to "notice" those nicks and scratches on the blade of the sword you're about to purchase, or the extreme quality of the workmanship in the filigree of the rapier you're selling and pointing it out just at the right moment.

Just realised I've waffled on so I'll sign off here.

 

[Bendris Noulg]

Do you need it to identify that a weapon is Masterwork?

Versus looking pretty. Yes.

Should I add to my book-keeping greatly and keep track of every gem's value for when the PCs eventually get back to town?

No. I usually reserve that for if the players ask; at the same time, my standard is that no gem is worth over 50 gold until they check.

If the PCs value a gem (or art object) wrongly, what happens when they get back to civilisation and go to sell it?

Folks buying anything are going to almost always bid low just to try to get a good price. If the PC appraised it low, he gets swindled; if the PC appraised it high, the jeweler thinks he's crazy.

All this, of course, is subjective to the purchaser's own Appraise check.

Does the jeweller also have to appraise the gem, and can he get it wrong? What happens then?

Yes. However, I would have a "jeweler" (aka, Expert) with Craft: Gemcutting and Profession: Jeweler granting synergy (which I scale at 1:3 instead of 5+ =2), so a good jeweler isn't likely to screw it up.

How do you deal with the Appraise skill?

Subskilled; Jewels & Jewelry, Contracts, Spices, Animals (Living), Animals (Furs & Ivory), etc.

 

[Quicken]

In my group it's used quite a lot. I think our DM likes all merchants to be lawful-evil

 

[SteelDraco]

I use it, along with Diplomacy, for haggling and stuff, though that's seldom an issue, unless the PCs are trying to do something unusual.

Most often, it's used to determine the most valuable thing to grab in a given room before the PCs leave, or for the party thief to pick his targets.

 

[Zappo]

Well, I don't think you need Appraise to find out that a weapon is masterwork (though it could be used to this end). I think that any character with good fighting experience should be able to figure out that a sword is exceptionally sharp and well-balanced after swinging it a bit. But this doesn't mean that Appraise is useless; gems, jewels, art objects and rare goods all require an Appraise check if you want to sell them for their rightful price. Most merchants IMC have enough Appraise to figure out the price of most goods including relatively rare ones by taking 10; PCs don't like to waste as many skill ranks, so they tend to have to roll. It doesn't come into play very often, but when it does it's handy. Other characters decide not to bother with it, and use Sense Motive on the merchant instead; that's hardly accurate though (and most merchants have at least a bit of Bluff too).