TW magic items detection

[darthauthor]

Hey,

So my adventuring party are searching for magic items / TW items.

When not in use and hidden or mixed up in an armor of ordinary SDC weapon or mundane items are they find it?

SENSE MAGIC?

or by the Dog Boys/Psi-Stalkers?

See Aura?

Randomly go around pumping PPE into every weapon?

[Soldier of Od]

Have your group wizard study the items and roll detect magic skill to determine which ones appear to be magic items.
Even the lore: magic skill will allow someone to recognise magic items/artefacts.
Unless the items are currently charged with P.P.E. I don't think they could be sensed.

[ShadowLogan]

Unless a Techno-Wizard item is charged/storing (or using) PPE, then it won't register as a magic item. That is one of the hallmarks of TW since RMB-era days (in the OCC fluff on pg89 RMB, also duplicated in the OCC fluff in RUE on pg126-8) "Whenever the device is not in use, it does not radiate magic, because it is not currently empowered by magic. It probably also apereas to be nothing more than a construct of machine parts, gems, wires and chewing gum."

As to how you would spot a TW item that is not charged, well if you are familiar with the regular model the TW changes should be noticeable. For example a TK Revolver will be modified to sport gems (opal specifically, x6), which should stand out. Factor in other things like wires or mystic symbols and you might have a TW item.

Lore: Magic (Identity Magic Artifact or recognize Magic symbols, runes and circles) is also an option and likely works as stated above.

[darthauthor]

Thanks for the reply.

I should have described the situation/circumstances better.

The adventures are in a hurry. They are sort of tomb raiding. Undead things are swamming on them but they are greedy and want to grab before they go.

They don't have time to study. They have 4 to 12 melee rounds to cast a spell or something to help them find TW items or magic items that are not in plain sight or are mixed in with identical looking regular items. There are too many undead for them to kill before having to get out.

They idea is to create a sense of urgency to make so they have to decide quickly without the time to be certain or take everything.

They want magic items but there is no bad guy using them to fight the heroes. So they are forced to leave without them or come up with a way to quickly locate them and tell them apart from the fakes intended to fool treasure hunters.

[Mack]

I'll echo what the previous posters already said...
-- If the TW item has PPE stored in it, then I'd allow Sense Magic (etc) to detect it.
-- If not, then it's down to how the TW item looks. Odd engraving, extra wiring, doo-dads, etc.

Now, all that is for TW items. If you're including other magic items then you've got more leeway.

[Soldier of Od]

They don't have time to study. They have 4 to 12 melee rounds to cast a spell or something to help them find TW items or magic items that are not in plain sight or are mixed in with identical looking regular items.

I think 1-3 minutes is more than enough time to rifle through a bargain bin of items to see which ones may be magical.
If the other "identical items" are made intentionally to look the same to put off searchers, a forgery skill roll (to recognise counterfeit items) would also be useful. But if no-one in the party has that skill, I would allow recognise magic items to cover this in a pinch (maybe with the same -10% penalty that the forgery skill has to recognise counterfeit items).
Maybe a couple of perception rolls for the unskilled party members to spot the things that are "not in plain sight"?

[Mack]

Another thought... if any of the characters can power a TW item, then briefly holding one should give them the feeling that they could pump ISP/PPE into it. They could quickly rifle through the items by hand. Since they're in a hurry, maybe give them a percentage chance (75% ?) of detecting a TW item that way.

[green.nova343]

Another thought... if any of the characters can power a TW item, then briefly holding one should give them the feeling that they could pump ISP/PPE into it. They could quickly rifle through the items by hand. Since they're in a hurry, maybe give them a percentage chance (75% ?) of detecting a TW item that way.

Or that they should be able to differentiate between "I can't pump any ISP/PPE into this item because it's already charged up" vs. "I can't pump any ISP/PPE into this item because it's not a TW item".

Could even rule that each attempt to charge up an item uses a melee action...

[drewkitty ~..~]

TW Magic Items
The only time TW magic item can be detected by magic or psionics vs detecting magic spells/psi powers is when they are actively producing a magic effect or when they have PPE stored in them.

Psionics....Object read Note all the down side listed in the power's text.
Magic users...ooooh I like the trying to put PPE into every random object....
"I need to go meditate...I'm out of power."

Mechanics...taking them apart just enough to see if there are gems in them, then you will find the TW magic items.
Mechanics....finding the items that will not work mechanically.

Magic Lore: *Nods*
------------
Regular magic items. (ones presented in the PF RPG books and the like)
Detect magic: yep will find them