Identifying magical items

[Bladeyeoman]

Hey guys, new DM here. I'm running a group through Lost Mines of Phandelver, and from time to time they've found various magical items and potions.

So far I've been going by the DM guide where it says that players can discover the properties of a magical item by examining it over a short rest. This totally works, and is definitely convenient for players. I don't want to make things harder for them, but I was wondering if making the discovery of magical properties more involved would make them feel more special? What do you guys (or your DMs) do? What seems to work well?

Thanks in advance!

[ChildofLuthic]

So I'm sort of just spit balling but some ideas:

1 - describe the item and have them make arcana checks to figure out its properties.
2 - if it's sentient or cursed, use insight checks to see what its energy feels like
3 - if it's got an effect based on a command word, maybe they know the command word but not the effect.
4 - just rp it out, them studying it, everything.

My answer would be better if I wasn't on lunch at work

[JellyPooga]

The Identify spell was required in the past; I don't see why it couldn't serve the same purpose now. Legend Lore for a full run-down of abilities, properties and history.

An Arcana, Religion or History (depending on the origin of the item) check, the DC based on its rarity or number of abilities could work (e.g. Uncommon item with 3 abilities could be a DC:10 to learn it's most basic function and every 2 you beat the DC by reveals another function).

[Asmotherion]

I let them roll Arcana Checks with a high DC if they want. Usually I set the DC as 10 +5 for each step of rarity the item has.

For specific items that have a lore connected to them, such as Artifacts or the Flame Tongue Sword used by a king, I lower the overall DC by 10.

For otherwordly items, such as an artifact from the nine hells or a wand found in the underdark I add 10 to the DC.

Generally, even if they know some lore about the item, or what it can do, they won't know how to activate such properties, except from passive properties. The identify spell is needed to find how to fully use a magic item.

Both me as a DM and my players love this practice, as it works as a Deus Ex Machina to give some fancy lore to even a simple +1 dagger they may find. Players tend to value more an item with lore, than an item with mere properties listed. I've even had instances were players would rather use their +1 weapons rather than a higher quality weapon, because they liked the lore better.

[Bladeyeoman]

I let them roll Arcana Checks with a high DC if they want. Usually I set the DC as 10 +5 for each step of rarity the item has.

For specific items that have a lore connected to them, such as Artifacts or the Flame Tongue Sword used by a king, I lower the overall DC by 10.

For otherwordly items, such as an artifact from the nine hells or a wand found in the underdark I add 10 to the DC.

Generally, even if they know some lore about the item, or what it can do, they won't know how to activate such properties, except from passive properties. The identify spell is needed to find how to fully use a magic item.

Both me as a DM and my players love this practice, as it works as a Deus Ex Machina to give some fancy lore to even a simple +1 dagger they may find. Players tend to value more an item with lore, than an item with mere properties listed. I've even had instances were players would rather use their +1 weapons rather than a higher quality weapon, because they liked the lore better.

This seems along the lines of what I'm interested in. And your players aren't frustrated by gating access to the magical properties behind an identify spell? It seems potentially frustrating because identify is only on the bard and wizard spell lists, so none of the other classes can work out what magical items do.

[Bladeyeoman]

Also, at present all of the magical items they have aside from a couple of wands have only passive properties. If they decide to wield the items without learning the properties, they should just learn them the first time they use them, right?

[Asmotherion]

This seems along the lines of what I'm interested in. And your players aren't frustrated by gating access to the magical properties behind an identify spell? It seems potentially frustrating because identify is only on the bard and wizard spell lists, so none of the other classes can work out what magical items do.

Actually, quite the contrary. If there is a wizard in the party, it makes them feel more usefull, especially at levels 1-4 when they don't shine as much as latter. Also, it ties the part well, giving the wizard the oportunity to be more than "the snob guy who hates manual labor and solves all his problems with spells" as seen very often by non spellcasters. In case there is no Wizard/Bard in the party, it's still a good thing, it both makes the item more special, as they had to earn, not just the item, but the lore itself, and is a good adventure hook. Maybe they have to take a small side-quest to track down a wanted criminal to earn enough money to pay the local wizard for his services? Maybe the Wizard teleported away with the item, and suspecting it's great value, they try to track him down to take it back from him? Perhaps the Wizard gives them their next quest, ralated or not to the item?

My approach to your second post is as follows:

If an Item requires atunement: Wile it "feels" or even "looks" magical (perhaps to the extend of some fancy visual effects), it functions as a mundane item until it is identified, thus the character learning how to atune to it.

If it has only passive properties: They can use them as normal, but they will never know for certain that that's all the properties it has

If it has active and passive properties: Only the passive ones apply

If it has only active properties (for example a wand): Cannot be used untill identified. This can be justified as the need for a comand word, or a mental comand, even picturing the result in the user's mind for it to activate. It wouldn't make sence for example to randomly polymorph something with a wand of polymorph, without knowing what that wand does.