Identifying magic items
Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 12:33 pm
Hi all, I just started playing on this server (North) and am having a great time. I do, however, have one suggestion that might make new players initial experiences (and impressions) a little better.
At very low levels, like when first starting, you can acquire large numbers of magic items in the course of normal adventuring without assistance or farming. In NWN, unlike PnP D&D, you cannot equip unidentified magic items and NPC merchants pay essentially nothing for them until they are identified.
My issue is that the new player NPC merchant (in Neversummer) charges 200gp for identifying items but the items you find at those levels are rarely worth that much so you end up losing money at the time you can least afford it. After level 5 (?), she no longer offers this service so you have to go to another merchant who charges 1000gp! Perhaps there are cheaper NPC's around but I have yet to find them and, regardless, these are the starting NPC's so they are where new players will go to first.
I accidently created my first character on MW (before I knew it was a PvP server) and had acquired about 25 (!) magic items that I was just hauling around until I could afford to have them identified so I could sell or use them. I was encumbered and seriously considering just dropping some of the heaviest ones like armor which was I was very reluctant to do because I needed to upgrade my armor but could not equip it until it was identified!
Lucky for me, there was one other character on the server at the time -- a level 40 BARD! 
-- who helped me out by identifying my treasure hoard.
My suggestion is to either: 1) pre-identify very low level magic items, or 2) reduce what the starting NPC merchant charges to identify, or 3) create a new NPC that identifies very low level items only but at a reduced rate (like a wizard's apprentice that needs practice or something) or 4) have the starting NPC merchant sell cheap Lore potions so we can attempt to identify items ourselves.
Thanks for reading this, now I gotta get back to the game!
At very low levels, like when first starting, you can acquire large numbers of magic items in the course of normal adventuring without assistance or farming. In NWN, unlike PnP D&D, you cannot equip unidentified magic items and NPC merchants pay essentially nothing for them until they are identified.
My issue is that the new player NPC merchant (in Neversummer) charges 200gp for identifying items but the items you find at those levels are rarely worth that much so you end up losing money at the time you can least afford it. After level 5 (?), she no longer offers this service so you have to go to another merchant who charges 1000gp! Perhaps there are cheaper NPC's around but I have yet to find them and, regardless, these are the starting NPC's so they are where new players will go to first.
I accidently created my first character on MW (before I knew it was a PvP server) and had acquired about 25 (!) magic items that I was just hauling around until I could afford to have them identified so I could sell or use them. I was encumbered and seriously considering just dropping some of the heaviest ones like armor which was I was very reluctant to do because I needed to upgrade my armor but could not equip it until it was identified!
Lucky for me, there was one other character on the server at the time -- a level 40 BARD! -- who helped me out by identifying my treasure hoard. My suggestion is to either: 1) pre-identify very low level magic items, or 2) reduce what the starting NPC merchant charges to identify, or 3) create a new NPC that identifies very low level items only but at a reduced rate (like a wizard's apprentice that needs practice or something) or 4) have the starting NPC merchant sell cheap Lore potions so we can attempt to identify items ourselves.
Thanks for reading this, now I gotta get back to the game!
