Two short questions around analyzing magic

[Lactantius]

1.) What are appropriate and safe methods to identify / analyze an artifact?
The spells identify and even analyze dweomer specifically say that they cannot reveal items of artifact quality.
Furthermore, if you consult artifacts in printed adventures, most of the time they include a knowledge, a bardic knowledge or another form of lore check.
So, do those checks help to learn more about artifacts? Maybe in conjunction with analyze dweomer or spells like legend lore?

2.) After reading analyze dweomer, it seems like you can use this divination magic even in combat situations to read the spells placed onto other targets.
In this case, analyze dweomer would be better in every discipline than its counterpart for this job, greater arcane sight.
Thus, analyze dweomer can do mass identifying in downtime situations (utility) AND be useful for combat to detect the enemies buff (and thus, follow up with the dispelling cascade)? Plus, you would save one spell level (6th vs. 7th).
Did I oversee something or is my observation right?

[Emperor Tippy]

1.) What are appropriate and safe methods to identify / analyze an artifact?
The spells identify and even analyze dweomer specifically say that they cannot reveal items of artifact quality.
Furthermore, if you consult artifacts in printed adventures, most of the time they include a knowledge, a bardic knowledge or another form of lore check.
So, do those checks help to learn more about artifacts? Maybe in conjunction with analyze dweomer or spells like legend lore?
Making Knowledge and Spellcraft checks (and the like) tends to be the safest method. You can use a number of more obscure divination's to pick up some information (the power Object Reading, for example) but the skill checks tend to work most consistently.


2.) After reading analyze dweomer, it seems like you can use this divination magic even in combat situations to read the spells placed onto other targets.
In this case, analyze dweomer would be better in every discipline than its counterpart for this job, greater arcane sight.
Thus, analyze dweomer can do mass identifying in downtime situations (utility) AND be useful for combat to detect the enemies buff (and thus, follow up with the dispelling cascade)? Plus, you would save one spell level (6th vs. 7th).
Did I oversee something or is my observation right?

No, you are correct. It's one of my favorite spells. Especially Persisted and combined with permanent arcane sight (so you can instantly detect magic auras and known to use Analyze Dwemoer on them).

[Chronos]

In general, nothing relating to artifacts is guaranteed to be safe. Artifacts can have any powers the DM can think of, and are usually associated with their own agendas, which don't usually agree with the PCs'. A DM could, for instance, make an artifact with the property that any attempt to use a divination spell concerning it causes 1d6 points of Int, Wis, and Cha drain to the spellcaster, and that'd be perfectly legal. Or maybe it only does that to spellcasters of a certain alignment, or race, or it's dangerous to arcane spellcasters but not to divine ones, or vice-versa.