I have a problem. My friend has a huge collection of Dragon magazines. He started collecting it when 3.0 edition came out. So it starts with number 270+something.
I'm pretty sure I seen some Appraise rules where Appraise has categories like Knowledge skill does. (Making this out: arms and weapons, livestock, gems, artwork etc.) Problem is I don't recall in which Dragon magazine i read it and can't found it now. Does someone know what I'm talking about; because I am sure I didn't imagine this.
Now to not make this total waste of your time, and to stay on topic:
I find Pathfinder Appraise DC way to low so I tried this approach
Appraise (Int, trained)
0 gp – 50 gp DC 5
51 gp – 100 gp DC 10
101 gp – 500 gp DC 15
501 gp – 1,000 gp DC 20
1,001 gp – 5,000 gp DC 25
5,001 gp – 10,000 gp DC 30
10,001 gp+ DC 35+
You can appraise common or well-known objects with a DC 5 or 10 Appraise check.
Without actual training, you know only to appraise common and well-known non-magical objects (DC 10 or lower).
Your thoughts?
|
I also found the DCs to be absurdly low. I created a spreadsheet and tried out a variety of different Appraise checks based on ECL until I got a range that I liked. Out of a dozen or so Appraise checks of items that are level-appropriate for the PCs, they will fail on 2 and one of them has a very small chance to be enough of a failure to generate an incorrect reading.
My PFRPG resources (building them slowly) are available at http://www.eeconsulting.net/pfrpg/
They are a mix of Beta and Final and not clearly denoted as to which is which (!) so take whatever you find there with a large grain of salt. :)
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
A quick design note:
We set the appraise DCs low on purpose, so that once the game really gets under way, a character's Appraise check can succeed automatically. This, in theory, makes for a much more smoothly running game in which the GM can simply tell the PCs how much their treasure's worth rather than having to go through each item one at a time and to keep track of actual values versus perceived values. Mystery in appraisal is fine and even fun at low levels when PCs are scrounging for funds, but at high levels it starts to feel like busywork.
At least, that's how it feels to us here at Paizo.
If your gameplay style is different and you prefer an air of mystery and uncertainty to appraisal, you should certainly raise the DCs for appraise checks. Likewise, if the concept of having to appraise treasure at all is annoying to you, feel free to just remove the Appraise skill from the game entirely, or to roll it into something like Craft or even Profession.
|
|
Yep, thanks JJ. I remember reading about that previously.
But yes, I prefer at least a little bit of mystery. Once the PCs are of the level to cast analyze dweomer (is it even in the spell list anymore?) then there's really no reason to have [u]any[/u] mechanic for identifying magic items.
Having the spreadsheet makes it easier to determine what those values should be...
Honestly, putting higher difficulties on higher value item leads to extreme silliness. A peasant child would be able to guess that a pearl necklace is probably worth more than a pearl earring, the same way a mansion is obviously worth more than a hovel.
I generally put a couple secret checks in, one for exceptional craftsmanship value, another for historic value, both of which can greatly multiply the value of an item.
For example, take a sword. It's DC 20 to figure out the fair price for a sword. But what if it's a masterwork sword? It's DC 25 to recognize that, and both the greater valuation and the strong chance that it might be magical (or is at least suitable for enchantment).
But there's another chance of an item being valuable, and that's historic value. I allow a second check on Knowledge History, DC 25, to identify something like a dwarvish hallmark on an otherwise unremarkable non-magical and non-masterwork sword, showing that this was an early piece by a smith who later went on to become a great master.
Obviously not every item is going to be of particularly great craftsmanship or historic value, but you can get more for either or both if its identified. I generally say that craftsmanship is the cost of the masterwork component, and historic value multiplies the value of any given item by 10. Good craftsmanship is worth more to wizards looking for items to enchant, but apart from things like masterwork swords, is a bit more difficult to sell. Historic value needs collectors willing to pay for it. Otherwise, it's just an interesting curiousity--but the right collector would be willing to pay that price.