Identifying items....

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I'm playing Baldurs Gate/Tales of the Swordcoast for the first time, and i gotta say it's a little different than SoA. For starters... how can i identify items ?

I have 1 scroll of identification, but noone in my party seems to be able to work with such a scroll. Why is that ? And since i have quite a few unidentified items atm, is there somewhere i can go to who can identify them for me ?

 

Sure. Ther are plenty of places: The temple at the freindly arm inn, The temple outside Beregost, and the vast majority of shops in the game will allow you to identify. (for a small price). Characters you can get: Garrick is good as he is a bard and has good lore (he's in Beregost), a mage (Xzar if evil, and Dynahair if good). You have plenty of options.

 

Only mages can use Identify scrolls. Just like in BG2. Your options are exactly the same as in BG2. Except you aint got no glasses of identify, lol.

 

Well, if i recall correctly, Imoen could identify items in SoA. I think she could indentify one item every 24 hours, and of course she could use the scrolls, but in BG1 she can't do that. Noone in my party can.

But at least now i know how to do it. Thanks.

 

Ah, you see in SOA she is a dual class mage/theif with the mage aspect being what she is continuing. As such she can cast spells et. (obviously). However in BG1 she is a pure class thief so she cannot cast spells of any kind. You'll have to find another mage to add to your party, i'm afraid.

 

If you at the beginning of the game, a quick fix solution for a mage is either Garrick (Beregost) or Edwin (Nashkel). If you have Minsc in your party however, you should be on your way to the Gnolls place to get Dynahier. Because... well.. if you don't, he leaves.

 

Though Garrick is a bard, not a mage. He can cast some spells, but not if he's wearing any armour. His lore will be good enough you wont need identify anyway.

 

Alright, here's all the NPC's that can join you who'll identify stuff, with scrolls/spells/lore:

-Xzar, you can find him at the very beginning of Chapter 1, on the first map, just follow the road to the east
-Garrick, he's in Beregost
-Edwin, get him in Nashkell, just be careful if you have, or are planning to get, Minsc and/or Dynaheir
-Dynaheir, she's being held captive at the gnoll stronghold, both Minsc and Edwin want you to find her (for very different reasons though)
-Xan, get him on the bottom level of the Nashkell mines
-Eldoth, he's in the third Cloakwood area; another bard with high lore, so if you get him (like Garrick) you probably won't need to go through as many identify scrolls
-Quayle, he's at the Baldur's Gate bridge, at the north end before the city gates
And of course, you could always dual-class some human NPC's into spell-casting classes (Imoen for example, wouldn't make a half-bad mage...)

You can find out more about these, and all of the other joinable NPC's in the game,
here.

 

The only sure-fire way to identify an item (without paying around 100 gp, which is pretty steep early in the game) is to cast identify on the item. Both bards and mages (except conjurers)can memorize identify or cast it from a scroll. The spell never fails regardless of the item you are attempting to identify.

The other way to identify an item is with a character with a good lore score. Every character has a lore score, and every unidentified item has a lore value, which is a number between 1 and 100. If a character's lore score exceeds the item's lore value, when you right click on the item it is automatically identified. Generally speaking, the higher the enchantment on an item, the higher it's lore value. Example: +1 sling stones have a lore value around 10, whereas fire arrows have a lore value of around 30. This doesn't always hold true though, as cursed items generally have lore values close to 100.

Your initial lore score is based on your intelligence and wisdom, and increases as you advance in levels. Charaters with high intelligence and wisdom receive bonuses to their starting lore scores, and low intelligence and wisdom penalizes your starting lore score. IIRC, wisdom has a larger impact on your lore than does intelligence. Bards gain +10 to lore with every level - which is why having them saves you from memorizing a lot of identify spells, as they can identify the vast majority of stuff you find after just a few levels. Mages and thieves gain +3 to lore with every level, and all other classes receive +1 to lore.