Demystifying unusual loot guide
From time to time, an adventurer may find an unusual item such as a weapon, armor, clothing, or jewelry 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.
Jewelry, 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 than gems, has the potential to be imbeddable, contain a spell, and/or be an enhancive item. Unfortunately, there is currently no better option than 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: possibly able to 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 certainly 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.
Verbs
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.
Similarly, MANA and HEALTH can be used to determine if an enhancive is boosting your maximum mana, HP, Spirit, or Stamina as well as if the mana gained per pulse is increased.
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.
Per GM Wyrom, 405 can also detect "x times/day" items (items that can cast spells a fixed number of times a day and self-charge), although the messaging one receives is unknown at this time.
It has also been said that 405 yields special messaging for other kinds of magical items in loot that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Loresinging
Once you've determined your jewelry is more than just decorative, you can have a bard loresing to it to determine its exact properties. Loresinging can reveal the exact nature of all enhancive effects an item contains, how long it will retain its 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 (hereafter 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's 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 than 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 footwear or gloves are UCS compatible.
ANALYZE
The ANALYZE verb can be used while holding the item in your right hand to determine if there are unique properties to clothing other than being lighter than normal, such as scripts or ambient messaging.
Stormfront
If you use the StormFront FE, you can click on the clothing. If the name of the clothing appears in the pop-up with a menu of verbs or there are options that don't normally appear, those are special scripts. Simply click on them to see what they do.
Weapons and Armor
Weapons and armor can be among the most frustrating to determine the properties of without access to a bard. It can be fairly easy to determine if they can be safely sold at the pawnshop or if a bard should be sought for further investigation, however.
APPRAISE
Appraising weapons and armor at the pawnshop isn't as straight forward as appraising jewelry at the gem shop, but it can be useful. Due to the varying values of weapon bases, armor ASGs and materials, not all rare or unusual weapons and armor will appraise at the pawnshop limit of 35,000 silver. However, they will appraise higher than weapons or armor that only have the properties of their materials. For example, a vultite dagger that appraises at 10,000 silver is worth getting checked out by a bard where a vultite falchion that appraised at the same value is most likely just a standard 4x falchion.
Verbs
As with jewelry, typing INFO, SKILL, MANA, and HEALTH while holding a weapon or shield in the appropriate hands or wearing armor can tell you if it enhances any stats or skills and by how much. Other enhancive effects (such as increasing HP regeneration) will require a bard to loresing to it.
ANALYZE
As with clothing, typing ANALYZE while holding a weapon or armor will often tell you if it has special scripts and sometimes even if it has been weighted/padded, has flares, or has some other less common property. It can also tell you whether or not it can be further lightened. If it cannot be, it's most likely lighter than normal.
The AI Crystal
If you're in or near the Landing, visiting the crystal at the Abandoned Inn can tell you if your weapon or armor is weighted/padded, flares, or is blessed/sanctified. It can also tell you the enchantment of the weapon or armor.
Assess
Warriors can ASSESS weapons and armor to determine if they have weighting or padding if they have enough training in Armor Use or the appropriate weapon type. Unless a warrior with the appropriate skills is immediately at hand (or you are one), you'll have an easier time finding a bard to loresing to it, however.
Loresinging
Once you've determined you have a special weapon or piece of armor and you intend on keeping it or trying to sell it to another character, it's a good idea to find a bard to loresing to it so you can know its exact properties. A bard's loresong can determine just about every aspect of a weapon or armor other than any scripts that it might have. This includes whether or not it's sanctified, flaring, weighted/padded and by how much, the exact enchant, all enhancive effects and how long they'll last, any x per day effects it might have, and its exact weight, among other less common attributes.
Other Items
Any other item you might (very rarely) find in a box or on a critter that doesn't fit into the categories here and isn't standard magic items found as loot, a gem, an alchemy component, or normal junk items (doorknobs, table legs, etc), is almost definitely rare or unique. Using the methods above should also help determine any properties that item has.