Identify: The Lab Results are In

Usable By: Artificer, Bard, Wizard

Spell Level: 1

School: Divination

Casting Time: 1 minute

Range: Touch

Duration: Instantaneous

Components: V, S, M (a pearl worth at least 100 gp and an owl feather)

You choose one object that you must touch throughout the casting of the spell. If it is a magic item or some other magic-imbued object, you learn its properties and how to use them, whether it requires attunement to use, and how many charges it has, if any. You learn whether any spells are affecting the item and what they are. If the item was created by a spell, you learn which spell created it.

If you instead touch a creature throughout the casting, you learn what spells, if any, are currently affecting it.

Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold

I’m not sure exactly how many people play with Identify using just its base text; as written it's a middlingly useful ritual spell with a stark gold cost to obtain that solves a lot of problems involved in uncovering the uses of magic items. In practice, Identify feels like a tool for navigating magical puzzles and traps that extends beyond the scope of item and spell specific identification. It often will be used on magic the DM just came up with without attaching any real spell to it, and forces the DM to come up with some kind of spell or information to give, which can be a lot more engaging and narratively exciting than just “this door has Magic Mouth cast on it.”

If you’re running Identify STRICTLY with rules as written, it is an expensive (gold wise) tool to expedite the attunement system that normally teaches you about items. Personally, I find obtaining new magic items you’re intended to use yet don’t know what they do a remnant of older editions that doesn’t tend to be super exciting or rewarding. A lot of the meta discussions around 5th edition include talking about its robust quantity of items. People tend to know what a +1 weapon is, what a flame tongue is, what a bag of holding is. Identify as a means of figuring that out before long resting; alternatively, you can just take a short rest inspecting it to get the same info. That’s not particularly promising.

The other rules as written effect that identifies specific spells feels like it's for games built around countermagic. A group of wizards packing Knock, See Invisibility, Counterspell, Dispel Magic, and similar effects while navigating a magically trapped environment could repeatedly use this as a way to determine which spell they have to solve which problems. That’s the best case use for it, where more likely, you’ll learn baseline information observation probably could have alerted you to. You have to touch whatever thing you’re casting Identify on, so traps that go off on contact (which is almost all of them) can’t be easily noted prior. You might be able to figure out a person is acting weird under the force of a Suggestion or Mass Suggestion, which can be a fun clue for a broader scope villain’s plan involving mass manipulation, but that’s not going to be all that common.

If you’re DMing for Identify, I’d look to open up its use as a tool to get information you want the players to have easily to them. This is a spell that asks players to observe and inspect your world. If they’re casting it, they want to learn. You have an opportunity to expand out Identify from a “this is a Immovable Rod” or “this creature has Charm Person cast on them” to a unique, relatively cheap means of adding richness to your world in an organic way. If you’re a player, this being a ritual spell makes its only real cost the gold cost, so if you can spare it I’d definitely recommend picking it up. Even in the worst case scenarios it tends to be useful from time to time, and that’s all a ritual spell needs to be to justify its home on your sheets.

5e Spells

Identify: The Lab Results are In