I have a rogue that I'm playing and I ran across a cursed item that the spellcaster had identified one way, but my use of had indicated differently (to my surprise and ultimate disappointment).
It got me thinking about the wording of the appraise skill...
You can evaluate the monetary value of an object.
Check: A DC 20 Appraise check determines the value
of a common item. If you succeed by 5 or more, you also
determine if the item has magic properties, although
this success does not grant knowledge of the magic
item’s abilities. If your fail the check by less than 5, you
determine the price of that item to within 20% of its
actual value. If you fail this check by 5 or more, the price is
wildly inaccurate, subject to GM discretion. Particularly
rare or exotic items might increase the DC of this check
by 5 or more.
You can also use this check to determine the most
valuable item visible in a treasure hoard. The DC of this
check is generally 20 but can increase to as high as 30 for a
particularly large hoard.
Action: Appraising an item takes 1 standard action.
Determining the most valuable object in a treasure hoard
takes 1 full-round action.
Try Again: Additional attempts to Appraise an item
reveal the same result.
The appraise skill may be used as a poor man's identify magic item (unless you want to argue that magic items are rare or exotic, which I'd disagree with), but if applied to a cursed item... would it reveal it's true value? Namely 0. Since cursed items can't be bought, and getting within 5 of the skill DC would give you a +/- 20% accurate value.
Is this a way to identify potentially cursed items? As a rogue, this seems like the sort of thing I'd have decent experience with. I suspect ultimately it would depend on my GM's interpretation of 'rare or exotic' as to the final DC, but the skill description as listed doesn't mention any additional difficulty in identifying the true value of cursed items.
