The way my party finds out which sword is better... legal?

[MerakSpielman]

My only issue is that this has become standard procedure - they don't even bother to get weapons and armor identified any more - at all. I suppose it's partly myself (and the other rotating DMs) fault, but we pretty much never give out items with special enchantments. They're all just regular +1 to +5.

At this point I wouldn't even want to put in a special enchantment item because I don't want to end up being the only person who knows that the person who thinks they have a +3 sword actually has a +1 flaming burst sword. I'm lousy at such specific record keeping.

 

[Nifft]

A cursed item could glow quite brightly, if the curse is a good strong one.

-- N, always ready to help redden a smart-ass

 

[XCorvis]

A cursed item could glow quite brightly, if the curse is a good strong one.

-- N, always ready to help redden a smart-ass

Ooh, that's a good one. I was just thinking of using Undetectable Aura and then later telling them the awesome item they tossed in the trash.

 

[Arravis]

Deleted cause I misread

 

[Kae'Yoss]

A cursed item could glow quite brightly, if the curse is a good strong one.

-- N, always ready to help redden a smart-ass

Yea, I'd do the same. If they're careless with their stuff, give them some annoying cursed items.


And if ever give out +1x Items, it's probably not theirs. But even then they can't pinpoint the exact bonus, as several plusses share the same aura strengths

 

[Zad]

The party rogue puts on an unknown magic ring. The DM says "You feel... protected."

The paladin says "I take off my ring and give it to her and tell her to put it on. Does she feel *more* protected* or *less* protected?"

The DM smiled and said "About the same" not so much because he felt this is a valid way to ID items, but becuase it was clever and he had opened the door. (And it's not that big a deal in our campaign.) I would stick to the rule-stated levels of magical auras and go with it. Heck just casting identify takes 8 hours which is simply ridiculous, so I see no harm in letting them learn something on the fly.

 

[Mercule]

My only issue is that this has become standard procedure - they don't even bother to get weapons and armor identified any more - at all. I suppose it's partly myself (and the other rotating DMs) fault, but we pretty much never give out items with special enchantments. They're all just regular +1 to +5.

Well, that's the problem. Give 'em a +1 sword with Flaming Burst and Icy Burst. Then put them up against a guy with a +2 sword and a predillection for using his Improved Sunder.

After the uber-potent sword is shattered, they'll probably nearly wet themselves over their opponents weapon (because only a weapon with a higher plus can damage a magic sword). Eventually, they'll cast a Detect on the new sword and see that it's only Moderate instead of Strong.

They can learn two valuable lesson for the cost of one. First, that there are different types of power. Second, that they might want a better idea of what they're holding.

Of course, the PCs may be willing to play with that sort of vagueness. If so, that's their perrogative. I wouldn't get too frustrated with it, but I'd certainly throw them a curve every now and again.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

The party rogue puts on an unknown magic ring. The DM says "You feel... protected."

The paladin says "I take off my ring and give it to her and tell her to put it on. Does she feel *more* protected* or *less* protected?"

To which my reply would be: "It doesn't go off.."

And IMC, a ring of protection won't make you feel protected, not to speak about a ring +2 making you feel more protected than a ring +1.

I have a funny story about the trial-and-error approach.

The party found the ring and one of the characters put it on (as the DM misread the description of Identify and thought you would need an Ioun Stone as perishable component - this was in part the fault of the bad German translation of D&D - and made Identify extremely expensive. So the usually didn't have the money to identify stuff).

Later, he was in a well, and wanted to climb down. He figured it must be a ring of feather fall, and said he used it, and just jumped. Well, it wasn't a ring of feather fall, but a ring of jumping. He jumped against the other side of the well with force, knocking himself out. He then fell into the water at the bottom of the lake and drowned.

 

[dcollins]

Quite right - I misremembered the wording for armor and weapons.
I strongly agree with your interpretation

In that case, I agree with you, too.

 

[KarinsDad]

I like the Sunder method.

You keep trying to alternately sunder the two magic weapons and the first one that breaks was either weaker, or the same strength. Problem solved.