Yes, so very true. A pearl that might otherwise be worth 100 gp but is needed for Identify...well, how would the value of it be set? The even worse example in the game are the diamonds required for a Raise Dead spell. Again, a gp value in line with other gem prices, despite their rather obviously having become the most valuable thing in the world... On the other aspect, a spell caster should charge a fee in additon to the MC for any spell cast, as the various healers do, but that isn't in the game for Identify. I wish there was a way to hire casters in the game, actually, for a number of reasons. But Identify and some healing are it, as far as I know.
Well, one of the lowliest, actually: Read Magic. If you make a group with no caster (which is fun), all of a sudden you have a pile of scrolls and potions with no way to determine what they are, other than paying for Identify, which is too costly. I guess buff spells really no longer last long enough to buy them and then get anywhere, so on refelction I mean mostly RM, it turns out. Maybe Stoneskin if the source was close enough to a dangerous area. You know, sort of a buff spell lemonade stand right outside the Moathouse or Temple would be great. Just grab a refreshing Stoneskin or Barkskin on your way in...
Yeah that'll happen You can buy a helm of Read Magic, surely? Not sure where though, maybe in Nulb... :scratchhe Otherwise 'renting' RM sounds like a perfectly reasonable idea.
The Helm is a neat idea, but the problem is that it is really early in the game where it would be most useful. What I did was recruit Roland, take him to the Inn and have him rest and crank off Read Magics until l was done identifing items, and then sent him back home. Unharmed, at least, but he did not earn much XP in his short and undistinguished career as a member of the group.
Use Ronald as a cantrip-monkey? Thats funny :clap: Ok, if we did this, what would the by-the-book charge for performing a Read Magic be? I'd look it up but I dare say there is someone here who can go right there and find out, whereas I would have to hunt around... :gotmyatte
Read Magic is 5 gp times the caster's level (DMG pg 107). To hark back to Identify, it should carry a fee of 10 gp times the caster's level.
10gp + the cost of the pearl 5gp: hmmm... so whats Burne's caster level, 5 or so? x5gp? Sounds a bit steep, probably have to get Brother Smythe to do it at 10gp a pop. You know there's like 250 scrolls in the game and another 40 or so potions, thats one mo-fo of a script that has to be written to check for them... :nervous:
Are you saying read magic can identify potions? Wow... I will be pretty upset if thats true. I basically throw potions away because I never wanted to pay the 100 gold to identify them.
Yup. It was a compromise, since Bardic Knowledge or whatever else you might use to identify a potion didn't work.
As Ted stated, yes. And don't feel bad, I was a late learner of this too!! :thumbsup: Now stop littering Hommlett with your discarded potions, pick 'em up, and get 'em identified! We here at Co8 like to keep Hommlett tidy. You can litter all you want in Nulb, though.
Yes, that ia a very nice compromise; the game itself should have inlcuded something similar. The tasting method is quite silly. Of course, all the healing potions are notable for their blue color (well, not Heal), so anyone just carrying a bunch of those knows what they have.
That's still a bit of a problem. All healing potions are blue, but you can't tell if their minor, light, moderate. etc unless you ID them or blindly drink them down and in the middle ogf battle, low on HP, you DON'T want to drink a potion of minor or light healing!
You know, all scrolls have the same internal number (4002) for some reason: I do believe this could actually be done very simply
I'm not sure if it would work quite like that. Why would same spell, with absolutely identical function in every way, cost more to buy from a higher level character than it would from a lower level character? It doesn't make any sense like that, does it? As far as I understand, the caster level here is referring mainly to the level of the spell in question compared to the class who is casting it. Same spell can be of different level for various spellcasting classes. Also, in general, a caster can always cast the spell as a less powerful version of it (lower caster level), but it would be nevertheless always at least as high (or low) as the minimum level where the particular spellcasting class in question could still be able to cast the spell (eg. lvl 3 for Sor/Wiz if we would be talking from fireball). For example: The Read Magic is 0-level spell for Brd/Clr/Drd/Sor/wiz and 1-level spell for Pal/Rgr (PG, p269). So it would be more expensive to buy the Read Magic from a paladin than, lets say, a cleric. When we put it in this way the rule makes clearly more sense now. Also in cases like this, isn't it "the default" for NPC spellcasters to cast always at lowest CL possible (magic items etc.)? The caster level of the character casting the spell wouldn't even have any effect in the end here. There isn't more or less powerful versions of Read Magic (afaik), which could thus be dependant from the caster level of the caster in question. Quote: "Caster Level: A spell's power often depends on caster level, which is defined as the caster's class level for the purpose of casting a particular spell. A creature with no classes has a caster level equal to its Hit Dice unless otherwise specified. The word 'level' in the spell lists that follow always refers to caster level" Thus, if a wizard is hired to cast the Read Magic, the caster level of it would always be 0. So the cost of this particular spell bought from Burne would be 5 gp. On the other hand, Read Magic has a focus other than a divine focus. According to SRD we should add 1/10 from the price of the focus to the overall price. A clear crystal or mineral prism, whatever is the 1/10 from its price heh.
