Identifying Potions and Wands

The cost of a 100 gp pearl makes it impractical in your D&D 3.5e game to use an Identify spell to reveal the properties of most unknown potions and wands. This also limits the ability to use discovered items until after the current adventure, when PCs have the time and resources to cast Identify or hire a spellcaster to do it.

Here's a review of standard means already described in the rules that can be used to Identify potions and wands without an Identify spell, followed by some simple, alternate methods that can be employed (subject to the DM's approval) to identify these items:

Potions:
Standard means:

• Per the Player’s Handbook, players can make a DC25 Spellcraft roll to identify potions. Requires one minute, no penalty for failure, and no retry.
• Per the DMG, players can build a repertoire of potion knowledge by sampling potions they find and noting properties such as taste, smell, color and other characteristics of their physical appearances. This does not mean an odorless, dusky purple liquid that tastes like almonds is always the same potion, but it’s a hint players can use. Alchemists could use magic, dyes and other chemicals to alter the physical appearance, taste and smell of a potion – or poison.

Optional means:
Here are some additional means a DM might allow to help identify potions:

• In many cases, potions simply will be labeled. (How else would you keep track of them all?) This could be a notation written in Common or another language the players might or might not know or some symbol, such as a red cross to identify a Potion of Cure Light Wounds. Of course, the DM has discretion regarding whether to label or even mislabel potions. Maybe the label is on a stopper that got put on the wrong vial.
• DC20 Craft (Alchemy) check. You must have basic artisan’s tools to make the attempt, and each attempt requires 1 minute. (Note that you can use an Alchemist’s Lab to gain a +2 bonus on these checks, but the equipment weighs 40 pounds and contains a lot of glass, so it may not be practical to tote around.) If you fail by more than 5, the potion is destroyed in the attempt. Otherwise, up to two retries (three tries total) are allowed before such attempts would use up too much of the substance to leave a viable potion.
• Casting Detect Magic on a potion to determine its aura grants a +2 bonus on any Spellcraft or Craft (Alchemy) check made to identify it.

Wands:
Fully identifying a wand means discovering four pieces of information: the spell triggered, the caster level, the number of charges remaining and the command word.

Casting an Identify spell is the only method available to figure out exactly how many charges a wand has remaining, but a routine scan of any wands that have been used whenever Detect Magic is cast will tell you if all a wand's charges have been expended, since a wand devoid of any charges is simply a stick.

Standard means:

• Use Magic Device check (DC20) to activate a wand. Note that while you can try again, rolling a natural 1 and failing prohibits you from trying again for 24 hours. Also note that this method doesn’t directly tell you any of the four essential pieces of information. You get a +2 bonus to subsequent checks for a given wand once you have activated that wand successfully.
• A Spellcraft check (DC 20 + spell level) when the wand is successfully activated will tell you the spell triggered by the wand. The observer of the spell effect also might be able to infer caster level. This method does not reveal the command word.

Optional means:

• Many wands probably are labeled with the spell effect, caster level and/or command word. This information might or might not be in a language understood by the players, and of course, the DM has the option to omit some or all of this information or mislabel a wand. Since wands are more powerful items than single-use potions, a Spellcraft check (DC 25 + spell level) or Read Magic spell is needed to reveal the command word of labeled wands but not the spell triggered or caster level. This isn't enough information for PCs to use a wand but allows them to quickly determine whether a wand is worth expending time and resources to identify.
• Casting Detect Magic on a wand to determine its aura grants a +2 bonus on any Spellcraft check made to identify the spell triggered.
• If the wand user activates the wand without Use Magic Device, PCs could overhear the command word. This, combined with a successful Spellcraft check made against the spell triggered when the wand is successfully used, would tell a PC all he or she needs to know to activate the wand, assuming the spell is on the character's spell list. (DMs could require a Listen check to overhear the command word under certain circumstances, but in melee or close range, this probably isn't warranted.)
• DMs optionally can grant a +2 bonus to Use Magic Device checks if the user observed the wand being used. Additionally, the DM could boost this bonus to +4 if the user both overheard the command word and observed the gestures used to activate the wand.

DM Overhead:
Preserving the mystery surrounding unidentified magical items adds another layer of record-keeping for the DM, but it has the benefit of adding some flavor to the process of identifying fairly common magical items, and it can be done with minimal effort.

I've found the easiest way to keep track of magical items is to keep a single-page log listing magical items currently held by the PCs, including whether they've been identified. If nothing else, this is useful for tracking unidentified magical items and is much easier than flipping through your notes. (You should be doing this anyway to keep track of how much magic the party has and to ensure magical loot is distributed on a relatively even basis.) You can even go so far as to give each magical item an ID number and requiring PCs to write it down on their character sheets and tell you the number whenever they use an item.

For potions, scrolls, wands (when charges are known by the PCs) and similar items, you don't need to record this number yourself or even track these items at all. What's important is the PCs don't know what you're tracking and what you're not.

A DM might also decide the hassle of tracking charges isn't worth the effort and can just give this information to PCs for any wand that has been identified.