5E Identifying Magic items

**Klandare** · February 22nd, 2020, 23:31

Is there anyway anyway on a item that you can only id part of it at a time? let's say you have a weapon that gives the player a nice bonus and some ability, but also attached to it is when the ability is used then there is some type of curse effect that can happen. This last part i would want hidden from the PC. I have not found a way to basically have an item that could have different tiering of what shows as it is ID; just the un-ID name and then ID with everything shown.

Another example item state I was thinking of would be an item that grows in power over time (i.e. Matt Mercer's type weapons that go through the Dormant/Awakened/Exalted states). This one I am figuring of just making 3 versions of the weapon (one per state) and switch them out after the next tier is unlocked.

Thanks.

**LordEntrails** · February 22nd, 2020, 23:33

No. Since the rules as written don't accommodate such a partial identification.

What I do is to make several versions of the item, then give the 'first' or least identified version to the character. Then as they learn more give them the other versions of the item, or just add more description (update), as they learn more.

**Klandare** · February 22nd, 2020, 23:50

Originally Posted by LordEntrails

No. Since the rules as written don't accommodate such a partial identification.

What I do is to make several versions of the item, then give the 'first' or least identified version to the character. Then as they learn more give them the other versions of the item, or just add more description (update), as they learn more.

That is what I figured. Was just hoping to avoid having to make multiple versions. I guess it really is not that hard since I can make the fully ID version and then just make a new copy of it and remove each ID level down.

**LordEntrails** · February 23rd, 2020, 02:09

Or the idea idea is to make a story entry that is fully detailed, and then you can just update the item as needed. But yea, it's something I run into from time to time.

**Atua** · February 23rd, 2020, 04:52

Doesn't the advanced effects extension provide a DM only option for visible effects, that might work

**Klandare** · February 23rd, 2020, 05:27

Originally Posted by Atua

Doesn't the advanced effects extension provide a DM only option for visible effects, that might work

i will have to check it out. I have not used that extension yet.

**ColinBuckler** · February 23rd, 2020, 12:34

You could create different versions of the same item. Each item would represent a different power levels.

**Beemanpat** · February 23rd, 2020, 15:26

I generally use the notes section. Copy/move stuff down as things are discovered. One of my players has a book that is encoded as they spend time decoding it I copy a few lines from the note section to the section they can see. It may be wrong but has worked for me so far.

A

**Klandare** · February 23rd, 2020, 20:09

Originally Posted by Atua

Doesn't the advanced effects extension provide a DM only option for visible effects, that might work

Atua,

I thought I had this extension already but I can't seem to find it; do you have a link to this one so I can check it out?

**Zacchaeus** · February 23rd, 2020, 22:00

Originally Posted by Klandare

Atua,

I thought I had this extension already but I can't seem to find it; do you have a link to this one so I can check it out?

Here it is https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...cs-characters)

Note that this can only hide effects from the players - not text.

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