Post/Author/DateTime	Post
cybosage 11-01-04, 10:17 AM	Ive always been curious how other people do this, do you tell the players right away, make them pay to get it identified, have them use it and slowly find out the powers...? What do you do?
jonthegm 11-01-04, 10:28 AM	If they equip it, and it has an enhancement/competence/etc. bonus, I don't tell them until they do whatever it is that the bonus is for... Use Activated/Command Words/Continuous, I have on, but I don't tell them unless it's relevant. You're not going to see a ring of regeneration work until you get cut on, and you're not going to get a wand working without the command word or a UMD check...
BuddyL33 11-01-04, 10:37 AM	I don't tell the players anything more than the description of the item. If they want to know it's powers they are going to have to figure it out on their own. Since I us DM Genie to maticulously track the players equipment I know which items are Identified and which ones are not. If the player has a magical but unidentified weapon, I have him attack as normal, then I will add in the bonuses. Another thing is I don't place a lot of unused magic items in my campaign. So there is a chance the characters will get to see the item in use before it comes into their hands. One fun thing to do is have them see the baddie with a flaming weapon or something like that, and then try and figure out the command word/action to activate it. Nothing more frustrating than having a magic item in your hands, but because you haven't "identified" it, you still may not know everything you need to to use it. The spell Identify is there for a reason, so use it! Be sure and make note of the material component. This will teach your players to prep in advance. It might be rather difficult to find a 100gp pearl out in the middle of the forest or desert. It can be a lot of work to keep track of unidentified items that your PCs have, but in the end, it will make for a far more interesting game IMO.
billseurer 11-01-04, 10:37 AM	You observe the obvious effects, use one of the ID spells (Identify and whatever-the-higher-level-one-is), use SpellCraft to ID things with continuous effects, and clever PCs can also figure out some stuff from Detect Magic, especially on weapons and armor, based on the strength of the detected magic.
MarkB 11-01-04, 10:39 AM	Previously I've tended to be fairly generous with my players in this regard - while it can be interesting to research some strange device, it's also highly frustrating to carry around a potentially powerful magical object for real-time weeks or months without any idea what it does, plus it becomes a book-keeping headache for DM and PCs to track the items. Generally speaking, for a +1-equivalent weapon or minor wondrous item, I'll allow a fairly easy Knowledge or Spellcraft roll in combination with Detect Magic in order to grasp the basics (re-try once per week, or other characters can make the check based on the item's described magical aura), and for anything more powerful, casting Identify will suffice. So far, I haven't run a campaign at high enough level to encounter high-powered items, and I might well require more detailed investigation for such things.
TheRedRobedWizard 11-01-04, 10:45 AM	This is why we thank Siberys for the Paladin with the Mark of Finding. Identify 1/Day. 'nuff said. -TRRW