identify spell pointless?

I have used ready vs approach AND 5 foot step OFFENSIVELY. I closed into melee, and later used them to acquire FREE hits against the enemy (reach weapons + enlarge + combat reflexes + gloves of dex +6 FTMFW!)

the best thing about 5 foot step is that you can perform a FULL ATTACK action in the same round as taking it. So you can step towards an enemy that is out of range, perform a full attack (multiple attacks) and finish him off.

Heck you can even start a full attack, make 1 attack against an enemy in range killing it. THEN take a 5 foot step, then take your other attacks! (I am pretty sure its illegal by RAW but it is allowed by TOEE... to move between hits you need to have the right feats though, but the 5' step trick can be done without it)

 

Well, could then perhaps the cost to identify in a shop be made HIGHER instead? :doublethuu

Identify may cost 100 gold for the crushed pearl if you cast the spell yourself, but having Identify cast by someone else should be 100 gold for the pearl + 10X spellcaster level, so at least 110 gold.

 

Sounds reasonable.

Perhaps they are giving us a "Frequent Buyer" (or Seller) discount? :yes:

 

I can't believe no one so far has mentioned the following tip.

There is a very simple advantage to knowing the Identify spell: scribe the spell to a scroll and then use the scroll. It costs 67gp and 1xp to scribe the scroll. Casting the spell from a scroll costs 0gp. So overall you save 33% gold, which adds up quite a lot in the early game.

There is also no reason for a PC to learn Identify, since Spugnoir starts out with the spell already in his spellbook. So once you have some stuff you want identified, hire Spugnoir into the party, go kill a a wandering mob so Spugnoir gets a few XP. Go back to Homlett and have Spugnoir scribe as many scrolls as you need and have him use the scrolls on your items, Then kick Spugnoir from the party and he waits back at the Welcome Wench till you need him again.

Of course, I usually have my Wizard eventually scribe a copy of the scroll into their spellbook just to have it, since as someone already mentioned sometimes you don't want to go all the way back to town before using identify. But I do this sometime mid-game when gold is no longer an issue.

Also, if you don't like all the micro involved with scribing scrolls, then have a character craft a Wand of Identify. I remember doing the math once and cost/charges ends up being a bit cheaper then 67gp per cast (it's totally NOT what the description says for Wand crafting costs). So it's both cheaper AND less micro to use a wand.

Before people start crying about this being an exploit (it is), it has already been pointed out that "logically" it should cost more for a storekeeper to cast Identify as a "service charge" than it should for a character to cast it themselves. Well, it does cost more. Identifying in a store costs 100gp, while doing it yourself costs 67gp + 1 xp + some extra micro. Completely balanced game mechanic imo.

 

I just pay the merchants. Money is never an issue in the game. By the time I have been playing for ~15 minutes, I have close to 2k gold pieces. Additionally I get many of my starting weapons free; including a free longbow, crossbow, bastard sword, 2 sets of free leather armor etc... Of course, I play the NG start 90% of the time so that helps.

 

A penny saved is a penny earned :yes:

Once I get my Bard or Thief up to 19 Appraise, then I start cranking out scrolls and selling them for profit. Then money is REALLY no longer an issue. 60k gold to craft a Sword of Kicka$$.... np.

Also someone mentioned previously about a Lore skill, which all Bards have. I'm not sure of how the mechanic works, but high level Bards can sometimes identify for free as well iirc.

Nice tip about the free Divine identify btw.

 

Re: identify spell pointlegsgsdgsdgsddsfsdfdfdfdsfss?

Remember, you don't need to identify most items you will personally use and not be selling like magic weapons, magic armor, Rings of Protection, Cloaks of Protection, Bracers of Armor, stat buffing items, etc. And you can see the adjustment value by just examining the change to your attack bonus or saving throw or strength, or whatever stat is relevant.

Also, passive items like Ring of Freedom of Movement will trigger anyways without knowing what they are.

This will save you 1000's of gold over time.

 

Re: identify spell pointlegsgsdgsdgsddsfsdfdfdfdsfss?

Your opinion makes me think that there are far too few cursed items in the game :flamed:

 

I'm about to start an 8.01 play thru after far too long of playing just 8.0- and unless things have massively changed the only things that really need to be ID'd are potions- and once you craft a Helm of Reading Magic that's no longer an issue (basically because if you've played the game more than a few times you know what everything is by now)- or does the Helm no longer ID potions?

 

The spell Read Magic and The Helm both still identify potions and scrolls.

Most of the time you want to use Identify is to get the real price for a magic item when you sell it to a vendor. Even useless magic items like the Unicorn Ring will fetch close to 10,000 gp once it's identified. If it is not identified, you will only get around 100 gp for it.

 

Yes, the identify spell is almost exclusively used for raising the price of items before you sell them. As a couple people pointed out in this thread, the divine version of identify is supposed to be free (based on RAW D&D). So, if you want free identifies, copy the identify spell (e.g., find the identify.py file in the data\scr folder, copy it and rename it to some unused spell 'X' on your 'data\rules\spell_enum.mes' list, copy the identify.txt spell in your rules\spells folder and rename it to Spell# - X, and in that txt file remove the gold cost). Once you've done that, then you can use the divine spell for free identifies.

Alternatively, you can replace the identify spell in the magic domain with the analyze dweomer spell (and just pretend that you rested as needed for all those free identifies). To do that, remove 'Level: Magic 2' from your identify.txt in your rules\spells folder and add 'Level: Magic 2' to analyze dweomer.txt in your rules\spells folder.

 

What is the "divine version of identify"?

 

From what source is that rule? My 3.5 PHB or the D20 SRD don´t list that use of Spellcraft
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/spellcraft.htm

As I see it that´s the main reason that the Co8 mod allows Read Magic to identify not only scrolls but potions too. As a workaround of the problem that Detect Magic is an area effect that is harder to mod for that purpose than Read Magic that already does something similar for scrolls.

 

It's the 2nd level cleric spell you get if you choose the Magic Domain (Boccob, Vecna, We Jas).

Tbh I haven't tried using it it in-game (I haven't run a cleric PC in ages), but Taltamir claims the divine version identifies for free. If it does, it's a good tip. Most cleric builds I've seen seem to favor taking Pelor for weapon forging.

 

Oh, so because the pearl is an "arcane material component" only arcane casters have to pay the 100 gold? I never noticed that but I never had a cleric with the magic domain either in ToEE.

Then the only disadvantage would be that it´s a 2nd level spell.