Demystifying unusual loot guide

From time to time, an adventurer may find an unusual item such as a weapon, armor, clothing, or jewlery on a creature or in a box that is not standard loot. The purpose of this article is to explain methods which can be used to determine if such items have special properties which may not be immediately apparent or if they can be safely discarded or sold.

Jewlery, Statues, Etc.

Any piece of jewelry, statue, rod, or other item that can be sold in the local gem shop (referred to simply as jewelry for the remainder of this article), other then gems, has the potential to be imbeddable, contain a spell, and/or be an enhancive item. Unfortunately, there is currently no better option then finding a bard to loresing to the item find the exact properties of these items, however there are methods that can be used to determine some of their properties and whether they're worth finding a bard to sing to them.

Gem Shop

The simplest, if least accurate, method of determining if jewelry has hidden properties is to go to the local gem shop and APPRAISE the item while holding it. This method is far from exact, but it is a good way to determine if it's worth taking the time to investigate your jewelry further. The values below may be slightly higher or lower, depending on your race, stats, trading skill, and citizenship:

• Below 10,000 silver: may be imbedded (usually crumbly) or contain a few charges of a low level spell, but more often purely decorative
• 10,000-20,000 silvers: possibly able to be imbedded without crumbling when charges run out or contain charges of a higher level spell, occasionally purely decorative
• 20,000-34,999 silvers: possibly imbeddable or contain a spell, small chance it contains a single enhancive effect, rarely purely decorative
• 35,000 silvers or no offer due to high value: This is almost certianly an enhancive item, possibly with several enhancive effects and may contain a spell or be imbeddable as well. Having this item loresung to is advised.

INFO and SKILLS

Wearing a piece of jewelry and using the INFO and SKILLS verbs can is a good way of determining if it enhances your stats or skills and by how much. With the StormFront front end, any skills or stats that are being enhanced will be bolded in yellow, with other browsers, you'll have to compare them to the values given when the jewelry is not being worn.

Elemental Detection

If you have access to the spell Elemental Detection (405), casting it on your jewelry can tell you if it can be imbedded, if it already contains a spell, what spell is in the item (assuming it's one you can learn), and how many charges the item can hold.

Loresinging

Once you've determined your jewelry is more then just decorative, you can have a bard loresing to it to determine it's exact properties. Loresinging can reveal the exact nature of all enhancive effects an item contains, how long it will retain it's enhancive effects, what spell is imbedded in it (in addition to how many charges), and the base value of the item.

Clothing and Containers

Most clothing and containers (here after simply referred to as clothing) found on critters or in boxes is pure fluff, but there is the occasional rare gem to be found. Fortunately, these items are usually the easiest to tell if they're unusual and rarely require a bard. Unfortunately, pawnshop prices rarely reflect the unique nature of special clothing, but that'ss really a minor inconvenience.

LOOK and GLANCE

Perhaps the most over-looked methods of catching unique clothing is simply to LOOK at it. Most rare or unique clothing will have a show description, the few that don't will usually have a long description which can be seen when it's picked up or by using GLANCE while holding it.

WEIGHT and INSPECT

WEIGHT can be used while holding clothing to determine if it's lighter then usual. INSPECT can be used to determine whether clothing is pocketed and how much it can hold. INSPECT can also tell you if a piece of clothing is ASG0 armor or if boots and gloves are UCS compatible.