Dungeon Master: Discovering Magic Item Properties

Finding magic items and discovering what they do is part of their fun. However, finding the use of an item is easy with the use of the identify spell in D&D (in 5^th edition, it's a ritual too). My players in particular like playing around with an item to find what it can do. For this reason, I'll go over some of the things I've done and seen Dungeon Masters do in order to keep that part of the game.

Complex Items

If you skim through the SRD for Dungeons & Dragons 5^th edition (if you want to play for free, that's the PDF to see) some items provide a single bonus or ability. Other more complex items, however, allow multiple different effects to be used from the same item as well as possible providing a bonus. In these cases, the identify spell can be used to tell that the item is magical in nature, not cursed, its bonus as well as possible one effect (if it has both a bonus and effect, you could decide to only reveal the bonus). The rest needs to be found through experimentation.

The down side is that some items allow multiple spells to be cast. Finding a reasonable way for a player to realize that a different effect is possible is a bit tricky unless it's a sentient item and offers a suggestion. If a different effect is possible, you as the Dungeon Master can also have a more beneficial effect than is currently unknown be used to help the party (since the description in the SRD and Dungeon Master's Guide always had those effects, it's not the same as doing something just to save the party). For example, if a staff can cast both burning hands and fireball, but the wizard only knows of the burning hands property, the staff will cast a fireball (this can be at a time that's needed or randomly determined by a dice roll). I tend to be wary of this approach, but it is an option.

Some items may have a secret property that is only known when used together with another item as well. This makes for a perfect candidate for a property that is not instantly known by an identify spell (though you could decide to make it known if the wizard is wearing, carrying, or is attuned to the other item(s) needed).

Adding Bonus Effects

The other thing that can be done is to keep all of the items in the Dungeon Master's Guide as they are but in some cases add your own properties. These properties won't be found out with an identify spell and instead need experimentation to discover. I tend to prefer properties that can reasonably discovered through experimentation to avoid the difficulty I briefly touched on in the “Complex Items” section.

You can also add properties that are story related. A sword that is good against undead is pretty standard. However, the sword that is given to the party may have been created to destroy a particular named undead. The bonus is only present when fighting that particular enemy. It doesn't have to be combat related either. The item could help guide the party around a particular location, teleport the party at a particular time, or something completely different. The property should be specific. I'd also be a bit wary of making it necessary to complete the campaign though I do have good memories of campaigns that used this approach (any Hobbit fans would also recognize this type of item).