If players can just spend a short rest studying an object to find out what it is, then it kinda renders Identify irrelevant. Letting Identify detect curses restores relevance, rewards players who choose it, and makes it easy for me to just say "Add insert proper item name to your character sheet on dndbeyond".
Late to the reply here, but thought I would add how I've run these things for decades.
By and large, I follow the DMG advice that identify doesn't reveal the Curse (I'd say 2/3 of the cursed items I give out follow this), but it may.
At my table, an item can become cursed 3 ways:
A) intentional at time of creation - This is always revealed in identify as it was a desired magical property of the item, and identify identifies these B) accidental at time of creation - Something went wrong at creation. Identify rarely identifies these, but it could in some cases. C) after the fact - The item was normal but became cursed through ritual, subsequent enchantment, etc. Identify never identifies these.
So, when creating an item (or using a stock one), I decide based on its write-up and the lore of the item whether A, B or C applies. That then tells me whether identify will get it.
This means that when arcanists attempt to create a cursed item, they have two paths: A or C. C is far more difficult, and their chances of success are lower as modifying an existing permanent item in a permanent way is much harder than when originally crafting it. Unfortunately, the DMG (and Xanathar's) has nothing on this, but with a bit of work a balanced system can easily be designed.
On a related note, as suggested above, to "hide" cursed items in D&D Beyond, just don't use the stock items for EITHER item. Create two items, both inherited from the stock, and give them different names. Have the Cursed one Removed from your Collection. It can't then be seen. Later if/when the curse is learned, swap them. Or, you could just edit the item, but I prefer the swap method.
An Eample: A "Sword of Vengeance" becomes say "Browin's Magic Longsword" (with Cursed property removed) if an NPC named Browin dropped it. Simple. At that time, I can also create "Browin's Cursed Longsword" which has the Cursed property still in it. This version is Removed from Collection. Players in the Campaign can't see it.
As a bonus, MANY magic items don't have art (such as in this case). This gives you a way to give unique art to your Homebrew piece. For added falir, the "cursed" version of the item could have a different background. In my game, I use red background watercolors for cursed items so they stand out.
So, you NEVER end up with "Sword of Vengeance" on your player's sheets. Ever. They will have either "Browin's Magic Longsword" or "Browin's Cursed Longsword". And, it will have art. This greatly reduces the chances that they just com across it. You tell them to type "browin", and they find the sword, and they add it. Simple.
As a neat little nod to the campaign and player ownership, if the player finds a way to permanently remove the curse, I rename "Browin's Magic Longword" to "<their name>'s Longsword". Or, whatever name they give it, if they give it one.
The point is, don't use "Vengeance" or as they type "veng..." in, both will show, and they could look at the other sword quite easily.
It sucks that we can' hide stock items (Basic and DMG) like we can the optional sourcebooks, but, using the process outlined above you can pretty much mitigate it. Just avoid any commonality of the names (easily done by tieing it to the source of the item), give it some unique art, and the problem pretty much goes away.
Experienced players may still figure it out, but experienced players who metagame aren't welcome at my table, so that works itself out. :-P
If players can just spend a short rest studying an object to find out what it is, then it kinda renders Identify irrelevant. Letting Identify detect curses restores relevance, rewards players who choose it, and makes it easy for me to just say "Add insert proper item name to your character sheet on dndbeyond".
Late to the reply here, but thought I would add how I've run these things for decades.
By and large, I follow the DMG advice that identify doesn't reveal the Curse (I'd say 2/3 of the cursed items I give out follow this), but it may.
At my table, an item can become cursed 3 ways:
A) intentional at time of creation - This is always revealed in identify as it was a desired magical property of the item, and identify identifies these
B) accidental at time of creation - Something went wrong at creation. Identify rarely identifies these, but it could in some cases.
C) after the fact - The item was normal but became cursed through ritual, subsequent enchantment, etc. Identify never identifies these.
So, when creating an item (or using a stock one), I decide based on its write-up and the lore of the item whether A, B or C applies. That then tells me whether identify will get it.
This means that when arcanists attempt to create a cursed item, they have two paths: A or C. C is far more difficult, and their chances of success are lower as modifying an existing permanent item in a permanent way is much harder than when originally crafting it. Unfortunately, the DMG (and Xanathar's) has nothing on this, but with a bit of work a balanced system can easily be designed.
On a related note, as suggested above, to "hide" cursed items in D&D Beyond, just don't use the stock items for EITHER item. Create two items, both inherited from the stock, and give them different names. Have the Cursed one Removed from your Collection. It can't then be seen. Later if/when the curse is learned, swap them. Or, you could just edit the item, but I prefer the swap method.
An Eample: A "Sword of Vengeance" becomes say "Browin's Magic Longsword" (with Cursed property removed) if an NPC named Browin dropped it. Simple. At that time, I can also create "Browin's Cursed Longsword" which has the Cursed property still in it. This version is Removed from Collection. Players in the Campaign can't see it.
As a bonus, MANY magic items don't have art (such as in this case). This gives you a way to give unique art to your Homebrew piece. For added falir, the "cursed" version of the item could have a different background. In my game, I use red background watercolors for cursed items so they stand out.
So, you NEVER end up with "Sword of Vengeance" on your player's sheets. Ever. They will have either "Browin's Magic Longsword" or "Browin's Cursed Longsword". And, it will have art. This greatly reduces the chances that they just com across it. You tell them to type "browin", and they find the sword, and they add it. Simple.
As a neat little nod to the campaign and player ownership, if the player finds a way to permanently remove the curse, I rename "Browin's Magic Longword" to "<their name>'s Longsword". Or, whatever name they give it, if they give it one.
The point is, don't use "Vengeance" or as they type "veng..." in, both will show, and they could look at the other sword quite easily.
It sucks that we can' hide stock items (Basic and DMG) like we can the optional sourcebooks, but, using the process outlined above you can pretty much mitigate it. Just avoid any commonality of the names (easily done by tieing it to the source of the item), give it some unique art, and the problem pretty much goes away.
Experienced players may still figure it out, but experienced players who metagame aren't welcome at my table, so that works itself out. :-P