Cannot cast - not enough GP

I am trying to cast identify to identify scrolls and potions. I have it memorized 3 times (wizard) and cast twice successfully. The third time I go to cast it and a red phrase pops over my head, "Cannot cast -- not enough GP".

What does this mean? I need gold pieces to cast Identify? WTH?

 

As noted in the manual, Idenitify requires 100gp worth of material components to cast.

If all you're identifying is scrolls (and if you're using the Co8 patch, potions) you should be using Read Magic, as it will identify them for free.

 

Oh my god. In the manual (why isn't it in color as a .pdf file?) it says it costs 100 gp to cast identify. WTF is that?!?!? Dragging your butt to a vendor and paying them to ID stuff isn't asinine enough as it is, I have to spend my own cash when I cast my own Identify?!?!?

Why? Because I'm cheating if I don't? Because I'm getting away with something? I'm sneaky getting out from the game design where a high "recognize items" skill or whaever it's called is the only free way to do this?

What buffoon designed this rule. No, seriously. What buffoon? Thank god I only paid $10 for this POS in the bargain bin. Too bad I can't return it.

No, seriously. What was going through the designer's mind? Having your wizard do the identify was irritating -- having to multiple sleeps, etc. But that was the way to mitigate having to pay the vendor. Why even bother doing this, since game design balance must now make items more valuable so you can pay the cost of identification, be it a vendor or a wizard.

Again, unless some bizarro world game designer wants to hyper-encourage pumping points into "appraise item", although it wouldn't surprise me if you had to pay 100gp for your own guy to appraise his own stuff.

 

Sigh. Any known hacks to get around this idiocy? I would really love to hear the half-baked troll-like thought process that arrived at this design conclusion. No, seriously.

 

That's the way the D&D rules work. Certain spells require costly material components to cast. Identify is one of them. In the actual D&D rules, random shopkeepers can't cast Identify, and those that can would charge you more than 100gp for the favor. So Troika actually made things easier on you by allowing shopkeepers to do it.

If paying 100gp to identify stuff leads you the the conclusion that entire game is crap, by all means stop playing it. No skin off my nose.

 

That is the way the D&D rules work, and the game was designed to be true to the rules.

In the beginning of the game, money can be tight, but by the time you get to Nulb it shouldn't be that bad, and after that you will find that money isn't really a problem anymore.

If it still bugs you, have your wizard take the "Craft Wands" feat and craft a Wand of Identify. It still costs to craft the wand, but it doesn't cost you the 100gp each time you use it. It gives you 20 uses of Identify, and is ultimately much cheaper to use.

You could also use the search function on this forum and look for "Mass Identify". There is a patch that makes the spell identify all unidentified items in the whole parties inventory with just one casting (and only one 100gp charge).

Or you could just console in a Wand of Identify.

 

*** CHEATS *** You can console cash to your character and also can console one or two wands of identify to your character.

 

Casting Identify required a crushed 100 gp pearl be stirred into some wine with an owl's feather; this infusion was consumed by the caster, who was also required to swallow a live miniature carp (a goldfish). Afterwards, the caster's constitiution would drop by 6 points for 24 hours. The components alone cost more than what you're being charged; the shopkeepers ought to charge 500 just for the first one. No one can cast more than 2 or 3 without becoming comatose when their constitution drops below 3; or dying if it hits 0. The rules are being bent here, so relax. And I'd also like to suggest that you rtfm. Could save you some gold.

 

what he said

 

Actually, it was even worse than Lord_Spike stated, the Constitution drop was 8 points (at least in 2nd ed.), and you had to spend 8 hours prior to casting purifying the item to be identified! And you only had a chance of determining some information about the item, and that information was never exact!
I think we all got spoiled by the Infinity Engine Identify, which was instant, free, and accurate. In p'n'p you tended to have to go to the 7th level Legend Lore spell, and even that had some issues (did have other uses as well though).

Again as Lord_Spike says, upping the cost of Merchant's identification services would at least give an incentive to use the spell, (how do Merchant's identify stuff anyway - good Appraise skill?) And, of couse, the cheap way is to have some craft a Wand of Identify.

Off Topic, I remember some disgruntlement caused by the fact that in ToEE (and the 3.5 ruleset it uses) it costs XP to make magic items (and cast certain spells). IIRC, in 2nd edition AD&D a character gained experience from making magic items (although the process was a bit vague), while in 1st edition, a character gained experience from finding a magic item!

Charles

 

Yeah...quite vague actually. Most of my PC's never really created magical items at all, aside from potions and scrolls sometimes. But it seems to me in the earlier editions magical items seemed to hold much more value. They tended to have a history behind them, even if it was a simple dagger +1, and I certainly handed out less of them. When I first read 3.5 rules I thought it really strange how you could simply create magical weapons and armor by following a few simple rules. In the 2nd ed campaign I'm playing now I'm actually trying to enchant a couple of maces I have. It involves a long process of fetching the proper material, gathering a bunch of priests to chant and bless them for a week or so, finding the proper high level wizard to cast the appropriate spells, etc. It's taking me a while and I have to do some actual roleplaying and I really have no idea how powerful these weapons will eventually become. Maybe they'll grow in power through the ages and some hero will find them hundreds of years of laters with spell-like abilities and perhaps even some intelligence.

This is, of course, the reason why identify was so costly, and why you actually gained exp when creating magical items. A wizard had to delve into the past of the magical item and try to understand it (and pray the weapon wasn't evil and corrupted him), plus it wasn't even guaranteed the identify would work. No complains about 3.5 friends, it makes things MUCH clearer and easier. Whether that's good or bad is up to you.

 

We house ruled item creation for first edition. Unless it was quite unique, little more than forking over the gold was required for their creation. Common things took less effort, time & money; but complex & powerful items had entire campaigns woven about them.

 

Here's the ways I handled this:

First of all, some people don't seem to realize (and I nearly missed) that with the Co8 patch installed, Read Magic will identify potions. (It will identify scrolls even without Co8). So there is absolutely no need to use Identify for the purposes the original poster was complaining about, and also absolutely no need to spend the dough to create a wand of it - I, at least, never found enough items that needed it to justify the cost. Though I believe you find such a wand at one point, which is really handy.

To have a few Identify spells handy for a cheaper price, you can use Scribe Scroll (comes free at first level for any Wizard, and IMO most other casters should get this early and use it often anyway - it essentially lets you do an end run around the spell preparation rules for spells you only use occasionally). ToEE (incorrectly according to the book rules, but quite reasonably IMO) applies the 50% price break to the extra 100 gp that Identify costs, so you can create such a scroll for a relatively reasonable 65.5 gp, along with a tiny amount of XP you'll never even notice is gone. Considering you'll never need to use it on a scroll, and only very rarely on a potion (for some extra-special ones you find late in the game IIRC), the economics the original poster was complaining about suddenly become quite reasonable; you'll never need it for anything that costs less than 1000 gp or so, so 65.5 isn't such a ridiculous figure.