In a low-magic campaign, identifying magic items can be difficult and expensive. These alternate rules allow anyone with the proper skills to identify items, given enough time and expertise. The process can be long and difficult, however.
First, you must spend one hour meditating to clear your mind, followed by seven hours examining the item. This time does not need to be continuous, but the hour of meditation must be repeated after any break longer than an hour.
Once the eight hours are complete, a skill check is rolled secretly by the DM. For this purpose, a Bardic Knowledge check can be used in place of any Craft or Knowledge skills, with a -5 penalty. An Appraise check can be used in place of Craft or Knowledge skills with a -10 penalty.
The skill used depends on the item to be identified:
Item | Skill | DC | Basic Modifers |
---|---|---|---|
Scroll | Spellcraft1) | 26+clvl2) | -2 with a magic library -2 with Scribe Scroll |
Potion | Craft (alchemy) | 16+clvl | -2 with alchemical apperatus -2 with Brew Potion |
Armor | Craft (armor) – or – Profession (armorer) | 18+clvl | -2 with a forge -2 with Craft Arms and Armor |
Weapon | Craft (weapons) –or– Profession (weaponsmith) | 18+clvl | -2 with a forge -2 with Craft Arms and Armor |
Wand | Spellcraft | 18+clvl | -2 with a magic library -2 with Craft Wand |
Wondrous Item | Knowledge (arcana) | 20+clvl | -2 with a magic library -2 with Craft Wondrous Item |
Rod | Knowledge (arcana) | 22+clvl | -2 with a magic library -2 with Craft Rod |
Staff | Spellcraft | 26+clvl | -2 with a magic library -2 with Craft Staff |
Ring | Knowledge (arcana) | 26+clvl | -2 with a magic library -2 with Forge Ring |
If the modified roll is at least:
DC+15: The character can guess some of the history of the item, as per Legend Lore, in addition to learning all properties of the item as per Identify Item. Reaching this DC can also determine whether an item is cursed.
DC+7: The character learns all properties of the item, as per Identify.
DC: The character learns one property of the item, or one fact about it. This often won't be overly specific, but it will provide insight into the basic purpose of the item. For example, the character might learn that an item can create Fireballs, without learning how many dice of damage they inflict.
If the check fails by 10 or more, the character learns one piece of misinformation about the item.
This check can be re-tried on the same item, but each attempt requires two more hours of study than the previous attempt.
None of these can reduce the base DC below 15.
If the DM uses this optional rule, Identify will not automatically determine all properties of an item. Instead, it:
If the DM uses this optional rule, Analyze Dwoemer will not automatically determine all properties of items. Instead, it behaves like the modified Identify, above, except that it: