The Economics of Identify

[Thanee]

If they ever find a Cleric with Knowledge domain and Craft Wand, they should beg him to make them wands of Identify.

Actually, the wand costs exactly the same. It doesn't matter, whether the creator needs material components to cast the spell or not.

Bye
Thanee

 

[FireLance]

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.

The high cost of identify makes sense in games where the DM wants to keep magic items mysterious and wants the PCs to pay a price for knowledge and certainty.

In games where the DM does not see the need to make magic items mysterious, or even prefers that the PCs know all the properties of their magic items to facilitate book-keeping, the cost can be reduced or eliminated.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

The high cost of identify makes sense in games where the DM wants to keep magic items mysterious and wants the PCs to pay a price for knowledge and certainty.

But even then, it's only an issue at the beginning of the career of the PCs when they are relatively poor. Once they are richer, they will routinely cast identify out of their pocket change.

Unless the mage rebels against the sour taste of dissolved peals, of course.

 

[Kestrel]

I allow for a modified version of Identify, takes 8 hours and costs nothing.

 

[RangerWickett]

A 6th level loremaster can identify at will, if I recall correctly.

 

[Nifft]

A 6th level loremaster can identify at will, if I recall correctly.

... and can do so in an anti-magic field -- it's an (Ex) ability. The Loremaster IMC made a chunk o' change from some other wizards when he was on a demiplane where Divination magic didn't work.

Anyway. I really like the idea of taxing based on aura strength, and perhaps even on aura school. So Conjuration (healing) may be taxed less than Enchantment, Evocation or Necromancy.

-- N

 

[Presto2112]

The high cost of identify makes sense in games where the DM wants to keep magic items mysterious and wants the PCs to pay a price for knowledge and certainty.

In games where the DM does not see the need to make magic items mysterious, or even prefers that the PCs know all the properties of their magic items to facilitate book-keeping, the cost can be reduced or eliminated.

Something I'm going to strive to do in my games will be to occasionally replace the need for an identify spells with a simple knowledge (History, Arcana, Religion, or Local) check. This stems from the desire from myself not to have sacks of +1 swords and +1 breastplates and +1 rings of protection. What I want to do is give unique desciptions to as many magic items as possible, and make the treasure more memorable to the players.

Instead of saying "and there's a +1 longsword", I'll give something like:

"sitting atop the pile of treasure in the chest is a beautiful single edged layered blue steel blade, with an intricately carved basket hilt, ivory handle wrapped in leather cord, and a jade pommel carved to resemble a shark's tailfin. 'If I'm not mistaken,' said the bard, 'we're looking upon the infamous Cutlass of Rutan!'"

 

[Qualidar]

"sitting atop the pile of treasure in the chest is a beautiful single edged layered blue steel blade, with an intricately carved basket hilt, ivory handle wrapped in leather cord, and a jade pommel carved to resemble a shark's tailfin. 'If I'm not mistaken,' said the bard, 'we're looking upon the infamous Cutlass of Rutan!'"

If you gave me that description and I found out it was just a +1 longsword, I'd be pissed.

~Qualidar~

 

[Kestrel]

Something I'm going to strive to do in my games will be to occasionally replace the need for an identify spells with a simple knowledge (History, Arcana, Religion, or Local) check. This stems from the desire from myself not to have sacks of +1 swords and +1 breastplates and +1 rings of protection. What I want to do is give unique desciptions to as many magic items as possible, and make the treasure more memorable to the players.

Instead of saying "and there's a +1 longsword", I'll give something like:

"sitting atop the pile of treasure in the chest is a beautiful single edged layered blue steel blade, with an intricately carved basket hilt, ivory handle wrapped in leather cord, and a jade pommel carved to resemble a shark's tailfin. 'If I'm not mistaken,' said the bard, 'we're looking upon the infamous Cutlass of Rutan!'"

While this is a beautiful description, I wonder if you play a standard 3.5 game. In a standard game, by 5th level, most npcs are going to be carrying a magic weapon, armor, or other items. Do you go into this kind of description for every single item? I just don't have that kind of creativity..or sadly, time.

As the poster above stated, I usually save this for the items that matter, just not a +1 sword.

 

[mmadsen]

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.

This isn't too different from modern markets in antiques, art, or even used cars. There's a huge information asymmetry between the owner, who knows what he's got, and the buyer (or a third party), which can lead to a market for lemons.