So, the RAW for identifying items has always seemed way to easy to me, just focusing on an item for a short rest and they know what it is and what it does? And the Alternative RAW seemed too hard, requiring a identify spell every time. So i've been kicking around some more nuanced item identification rules for my current campaign. Curious what other think and what you do for your campaigns. My new rules are specific to the rarity level of the item.
Common Items - They just know what they are upon picking them up, if it's a common item, then knowledge about it would be common as well.
Uncommon Items - can be identified by spending a portion of a short or long rest studying the item. Requires a DC 10 arcana check to succeed.
Rare Items - require a long rest studying to identify. Requires arcana check with a DC 15 to be successful.
Very Rare - require a long rest studying to identify. Requires arcana check with a DC 20 to be successful.
Legendary - require an identification spell or specialized knowledge to identify. If using specialized knowledge to try and identify. Requires a DC 25 arcana check.
The variable to all of these is the characters specific backstory and skills. If they have a logical reason to be more familiar with a type of item, the DC check is lowered by 5, the exception being Legendaries, the DC stays the same. For instance if my fighter is trying to identify a very rare long sword, which is a weapon he has proficiency in, the DC would be 15 instead of 20.
I'm also going to let them assist each other in identifying items if it would make logical sense for more than one member to have experience or knowledge that would help on a given item, both would roll and ill use the average as their check.
I have already seeded in a few NPC's and will seed in more as the campaign goes on that they could consult with/hire and have assist them in identifying items so they have other avenues if they are rolling poorly or happened to get a legendary before any of them have identify.
One of the things I try and foster with the party is really think about their backstories and how those would shape the skills and knowledge they would have at their disposal, and I think this will be another good way to foster that, make them think about who would be best positioned to identify a given item, and/or make the case as to why they would get the advantage.
If you let two characters work together, taking the average roll seems kind of harsh. They’ll almost never hit those high DCs. Why not just give advantage on a single roll, basically the help action?
What do you think is too hard about identify? It can be cast as a ritual, so you just hand wave 10 minutes, and there’s no spell slots used, but it still restricts it a bit.
If you let two characters work together, taking the average roll seems kind of harsh. They’ll almost never hit those high DCs. Why not just give advantage on a single roll, basically the help action?
What do you think is too hard about identify? It can be cast as a ritual, so you just hand wave 10 minutes, and there’s no spell slots used, but it still restricts it a bit.
Thats probably a good idea about the averages, advantage would be a much better mechanic of assitance, thanks.
You know, for some reason I had it in my head that identify couldn't be used as a ritual, but that isn't correct, so that does make it less of an onerous requirement, lol
I like the scaling DCs and the caveat for characters who might have in-game knowledge to give them an edge. I agree that averaging the rolls is an odd mechanic to introduce and might suffer from how swingy 5e tends to be. If you don't want to do advantage from the Help action, you might consider Deborah Ann Woll's house rule of allowing the person helping to add their appropriate modifier to the roll rather than grant advantage. So Elric the alchemist can help Harry the wizard identify the mysterious potion by giving Harry another +5 from his arcana bonus.
I like the scaling DCs and the caveat for characters who might have in-game knowledge to give them an edge. I agree that averaging the rolls is an odd mechanic to introduce and might suffer from how swingy 5e tends to be. If you don't want to do advantage from the Help action, you might consider Deborah Ann Woll's house rule of allowing the person helping to add their appropriate modifier to the roll rather than grant advantage. So Elric the alchemist can help Harry the wizard identify the mysterious potion by giving Harry another +5 from his arcana bonus.
I like that idea, it gives the Help action more weight, and I don't mind that it makes it more likely they will succeed than advantage would, because the goal isn't to make it harder or more onerous to identify items, just make it more realistic and involved than just "think hard about the thing"
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So, the RAW for identifying items has always seemed way to easy to me, just focusing on an item for a short rest and they know what it is and what it does? And the Alternative RAW seemed too hard, requiring a identify spell every time. So i've been kicking around some more nuanced item identification rules for my current campaign. Curious what other think and what you do for your campaigns. My new rules are specific to the rarity level of the item.
Common Items - They just know what they are upon picking them up, if it's a common item, then knowledge about it would be common as well.
Uncommon Items - can be identified by spending a portion of a short or long rest studying the item. Requires a DC 10 arcana check to succeed.
Rare Items - require a long rest studying to identify. Requires arcana check with a DC 15 to be successful.
Very Rare - require a long rest studying to identify. Requires arcana check with a DC 20 to be successful.
Legendary - require an identification spell or specialized knowledge to identify. If using specialized knowledge to try and identify. Requires a DC 25 arcana check.
The variable to all of these is the characters specific backstory and skills. If they have a logical reason to be more familiar with a type of item, the DC check is lowered by 5, the exception being Legendaries, the DC stays the same. For instance if my fighter is trying to identify a very rare long sword, which is a weapon he has proficiency in, the DC would be 15 instead of 20.
I'm also going to let them assist each other in identifying items if it would make logical sense for more than one member to have experience or knowledge that would help on a given item, both would roll and ill use the average as their check.
I have already seeded in a few NPC's and will seed in more as the campaign goes on that they could consult with/hire and have assist them in identifying items so they have other avenues if they are rolling poorly or happened to get a legendary before any of them have identify.
One of the things I try and foster with the party is really think about their backstories and how those would shape the skills and knowledge they would have at their disposal, and I think this will be another good way to foster that, make them think about who would be best positioned to identify a given item, and/or make the case as to why they would get the advantage.
If you let two characters work together, taking the average roll seems kind of harsh. They’ll almost never hit those high DCs. Why not just give advantage on a single roll, basically the help action?
What do you think is too hard about identify? It can be cast as a ritual, so you just hand wave 10 minutes, and there’s no spell slots used, but it still restricts it a bit.
Thats probably a good idea about the averages, advantage would be a much better mechanic of assitance, thanks.
You know, for some reason I had it in my head that identify couldn't be used as a ritual, but that isn't correct, so that does make it less of an onerous requirement, lol
I like the scaling DCs and the caveat for characters who might have in-game knowledge to give them an edge. I agree that averaging the rolls is an odd mechanic to introduce and might suffer from how swingy 5e tends to be. If you don't want to do advantage from the Help action, you might consider Deborah Ann Woll's house rule of allowing the person helping to add their appropriate modifier to the roll rather than grant advantage. So Elric the alchemist can help Harry the wizard identify the mysterious potion by giving Harry another +5 from his arcana bonus.
I like that idea, it gives the Help action more weight, and I don't mind that it makes it more likely they will succeed than advantage would, because the goal isn't to make it harder or more onerous to identify items, just make it more realistic and involved than just "think hard about the thing"