The Economics of Identify

[Jürgen Hubert]

Sometimes people need reliable ways to identify the powers of a magic item who aren't the owners of said items. This includes the following groups:

- Potential buyers of the item.
- Government officials wanting to tax the item.

There are several things they can do:

- Cast identify as an arcane spell on the item. This has the problem that the mere act of identification costs 100 gp. In the case of the potential buyer, this money will turn out to be wasted if the item does not turn out to be something he might be interested in, and even if it does it represents a significant expense. In the case of the government official, this might very well turn out to be a greater expense than any tax income from the item!

- Get a cleric with the Magic domain to cast it on the item. This is preferable, since clerics don't need to expend any money for the spell, but how many such priests are around to fulfill such functions? Also note that it is a second-level spell for them - reducing the number of times they can cast it each day.

- Gauge the relative power level of the item with Detect Magic. This might be acceptable for government officials if the tax is based on aura strength, but usually unsatisfying to potential buyers - unless they can buy it for much cheaper than items of such power are usually worth.


How do you deal with these issues in your campaign?

 

[Yair]

- Gauge the relative power level of the item with Detect Magic. This might be acceptable for government officials if the tax is based on aura strength, but usually unsatisfying to potential buyers - unless they can buy it for much cheaper than items of such power are usually worth.

Have the tax collectors base their tax on aura strength, buyers of expensive gear can afford the extra 100 gp to Identify and buyers of less expensive gear base their purchase on the reputation of the merchant.

Note to merchants: Selling mis-labeled, cursed, orotherwise not-as-advertised magic items to adventurers can be hazardous to your health.

How do you deal with these issues in your campaign?

I don't. Never came up.

 

[Jdvn1]

- Get a cleric with the Magic domain to cast it on the item. This is preferable, since clerics don't need to expend any money for the spell, but how many such priests are around to fulfill such functions? Also note that it is a second-level spell for them - reducing the number of times they can cast it each day.

Indeed, a Church of Boccob might even have a vested interest in cataloging the medium and major magic items of a city. Buying and selling one might require a title, as in buying a car for us.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

In general, I deal with this by using the sell for half formula.

However, I wrote a now retired Living Greyhawk mod that dealt with selling the party's loot from the adventure they just finished (in the introduction . In that one, I broke it down as follows:

A character getting an item identified will generally go to a wizard who is a member of the arcanist's guild (the adventure was set in the Theocracy of the Pale so they don't have a guild because there are a lot of mages; they have a guild so that the church can keep a close eye on them). The wizard will cast identify on the item and, for a small fee, the guild will provide a notarized certificate of identification that specifies the item's powers. Said wizard will also mark both the item and the certificate with an arcane mark so that you can match item to certificate.

For relatively simple purchases, this might be sufficient identification. The buyer would bring a priest to observe the transaction and verify the kind of magical auras with a detect magic. The priest for such transactions would also be good at recognizing the seals of the notaries and arcanists and would make sure the paperwork is authentic and would then collect the tax on the transaction. You could put more security into the process, of course, but if you're a relatively low level character buying an item of 1000gp or less, that's probably sufficient security. The seller of the item doesn't want the cost of two identify spells coming out of his end of the deal and the buyer doesn't want to pay extra either.

Now, for more expensive items, there would be more security. One you get to 2000+gp items, the buyer will usually pay for an identify spell to be cast on the spot as well and may insist upon isolating the item for a day or so in a secure vault to ensure that any misleading spells short of days per level are gone. The seller might also insist that this be done with the coin and pay for a detect magic to be cast on the coins too in order to make sure they aren't illusory or the results of a creation spell.

For still more expensive items (up to 8000gp or so) buyer and seller will always isolate the payment and item and will pay for a dispel magic to be cast upon both just in case.

For anything more expensive than 8000gp, the buyer will usually insist upon a casting of analyze dweomer by a reputable mage in their presence after a casting of greater dispel magic. Seller will, likewise want the items of payment dispelled and detected--maybe even handled with the analyze dweomer just in case.

Title is a possibility but since a lot of magic items change hands by means of violence, it would quickly become quite convoluted and might be easy to evade. (Does the rogue in Greyhawk care if a North Kingdom merchant has title to the cloak of resistance he is buying? Will Greyhawk enforce the title? Can anyone even locate the cloak? If Hextorite soldiers despoiled an Almorian villa and ransacked a cloak of charisma +2 and were then slain by a Heironean paladin, would he claim the spoils of war or run a title search on the cloak? Ugh.)

 

[Li Shenron]

If they ever find a Cleric with Knowledge domain and Craft Wand, they should beg him to make them wands of Identify. Cheap because the cleric doesn't use material components, and handy because more character can used it compared to a scroll.

How do you deal with these issues in your campaign?

Characters don't have much of a chance at all to Identify items on sale, because I'm playing 3.0 where Identify has a very long casting time.

When buying a magic item, they can only trust the seller. It's a bit like going to the jewelry store, you don't carry an expert goldsmith to check the rings for you. But if you later found out that the store sells you a fake ring, you sue them. In D&D terms, if a merchant sells you a fake magic item, you hunt down and kill him

It's never actually happened in my games (merchants know that adventurers are going to kill them if you catch them cheating), but if it ever happens, it will be a chance for a new adventure itself.

The tax topic is never part of our game ever, we just don't bother. However in such a game magic items might just as well be tax-exempt. They are something worthless and unusable (or otherwise dangerous) for commoners, and commoners are those that will be taxed, not rich adventurers that can defend themselves from the taxmen or could one day retaliate and destroy the whole kingdom

 

[Rystil Arden]

If they ever find a Cleric with Knowledge domain and Craft Wand, they should beg him to make them wands of Identify. Cheap because the cleric doesn't use material components, and handy because more character can used it compared to a scroll.

It isn't really that much of a savings over just using a Wizard, 1*1*750 + 5000 = 5750, whereas 2*3*750 = 4500 (assuming the Cleric sells it for only twice the crafting price, rather than marking it up to the market price of the item as if the Wizard crafted it).

 

[blargney the second]

Two additional pieces of info about identifying items:

1) There's a feat in Complete Adventurer called Appraise magic Value. Only costs 25gp to ID, takes 8 hours, min level 2 or 3 I think.
2) There's a trick in Complete Scoundrel that lets you ID one item per day. Costs 0gp, takes 1 minute, min level 9.

 

[Sound of Azure]

You could always get a Cloistered cleric with Craft Wand. They can produce a wand that sells at 750 gp (identify being a 1st-level spell for them). Quite a bit of savings there at 15gp a pop.

 

[cwhs01]

Would it disrupt anything if the cost for identifying was removed? IMX it is just an anoyance, and waste of time tracking down someone selling 100 gp pearls.

 

[Thanee]

How do you deal with these issues in your campaign?

With blissful ignorance.

Bye
Thanee