Quote Originally Posted by Mark Hall View Post
As a note, early adventures were chock full of magic items... B2 has something like 70 magic items in the hands of bad guys or as findable treasure, with only 15 of those being single-use consumables (potions, scrolls with only 1 spell). And this doesn't include stuff just dripping from people in the keep itself, including low-level guards.
This and then some.
A lot of old-timers (of which I am one) have conveniently subjective memories when it comes to the raw amount of magic items that were present in the early adventures, and not merely the ones converted from tournament rounds, that they try to use as a club against later iterations. Despite the "guidelines" in the DMG1E, adventures routinely featured enough magic treasure to outfit a party of 8 with 3 henchmen and 2 hirelings each, which was good because that many people would be needed to haul away the mundane loot.


As for the original question, for me it comes down to what you want the players exploring, not to mention what the players want to explore, with the system requirements modifying it.
Clearly making identification easier takes away that element of challenge, but is it an element that you want or need, and can the system support it?

As above, with magical gear hardwired into character power by level, requiring identification actively works against the rules system itself, and quickly becomes an excuse to hamper players. This is going to be made worse based on the length of the adventuring "day". Basic D20 with 4 and done it is not that much of an issue. Modified D20 reverting to enough encounters to level and maybe more before resting, which is quite common in PF1, is quite a bit different.

On an individual campaign basis, are the magic items and their backstories that relevant that players should be required to go through another step to employ them? Are they that powerful to justify it?
Weapons of Legacy required significant effort above and beyond a mere identify spell to use such an item. Would every player enjoy that for a simple sword that does not scale, never mind a potion that is used and gone?

Between the two, the raw resource requirement should also be considered. How many 100 gp pearls for identify are readily available? How much of the wealth gained per level is required to identify everything? Does an artificer's monocle (which converts a detect magic into an identify) become a default wealth tax?

Perhaps that suggests a variable system, with common items being identifiable with a mere skill check or detect magic, more specialized items requiring several or more difficult skill checks and something not-quite-as-expensive as an identify, and really unique, campaign items requiring mini-games to unlock, all with a focus on what game the DM wants to run and the players want to play and how friendly the core rules are to such a plan.