I’m getting ready to GM a super module, and am running into an issue. I know the general way to identify a magic item is to cast Detect Magic or Identify and do a Spellcraft check, the DC is 15+ the caster level of the item.
A typical treasure for an encounter in this module would be: +1 mithral shirt, +1 light steel shield, belt of Dexterity +2, headband of Wisdom +2, ring of protection +1.
Is there a quick or easy way to figure out DCs for the Spellcraft check other than painstakingly looking up every item?
J
DC20, and move on. Focus your time on other things. The identification of items is not really designed to be a hurdle unless you are hiding cursed items on a regular basis.
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I google every item and add the identification DC into my notes before the session. It does add a couple of minutes of prep, but speeds up gameplay considerably. After a while, you start to learn the DCs of common items like cloaks of resistances, rings of protection, ioun stones, etc.
Here's what I decided. I did find the rule in the CRB, that you take a weapon or armor's magic bonus and multiply by 3, plus the DC of 15. So a +1 sword/armor is DC 18 to identify. Easy. With stuff that has an extra ability, like bane, or frost, just go with the caster level of that ability if it's higher. It's easy to look them up in Ultimate Equipment or d20pfsrd or Archives of Nethys. I think Bane requires a caster level of 8, so the DC would be 23.
I also lucked onto finding the rule in the CRB that unless you beat the DC by 10 on a cursed item, they identify it but don't know it's cursed. Easy.
I appreciate your responses because it's a check to me on how to do things. The two GM's I've had recently just tell us what things are, we don't have to identify magic items, scrolls, wands, potions. Not anything. None of us have used Spellcraft in the past three years, so when I GM I am telling my players this is how it works if you want to identify a magic item: you cast Detect Magic or Identify, do a Spellcraft check, I tell you what you learn. If you take it to a sage, this is what it costs. I'd also let them use an item in combat to learn something, like a weapon or armor.
Beat the DC by 10 to identify cursed items, neat.
That is something I know now, and knowing is half the battle... violence is the other half.
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Take 10 should work fine, as noted above. However, you should not be able to Take 20 on a Spellcraft to identify a magic item, because it assumes you fail multiple times in a row before succeeding. Failing to identify a magic item means you can't try again until the next day.
Good point on take 10, and I agree with alientude on the take 20, I just looked it up.
Take 10 should work fine, as noted above. However, you should not be able to Take 20 on a Spellcraft to identify a magic item, because it assumes you fail multiple times in a row before succeeding. Failing to identify a magic item means you can't try again until the next day.
Take 20 works fine, but it takes 20 days.
/cevah
I've never understood the need to hide what magic items do, barring curses. I tell them what it does or, better yet, point them to the entry.
Now, I can understand that research and discovery have the potential to be fun, engaging elements in a story. But too much of what D&D and Pathfinder and all of the games like it had become is just so much tedium and book work. Travel to the adventure site, search for traps, defeat the monsters, identify magic items, move on to the next area.
I want to break that process down At all costs. I want things to feel a little more organic and a lot more significant than that.
so if I run a game where the identification of a certain magic item could prove to be a meaningful part of the story, but of course I'll do that. But if not, I'll just tell them it's a +2 shield and move on.