Draft:Scroll of identification
| ? | |
| Type | Scroll |
|---|---|
| Base value (Au) | 20 |
| Item level | 0 |
| Weight | 5 |
| Unidentified appearance | Random inscription |
| Cursed name | Scroll of forgetfulness |
A scroll of identification reveals the identity and properties of possessions. Blessing changes its scope from one selected item to everything carried, making it especially useful after collecting several unknown items.
Generation
It is an item-level-0 scroll, available through ordinary random generation, the changing stock at Knight's Pawn Shop, and acquirement. Its base value is 20 Au; that is not a universal shop quote.
Description
An uncursed scroll identifies one item selected from the accessible inventory. This includes items carried on the belt or shoulders, not just actively worn or wielded equipment. An item in the separate backpack must first be made accessible. A blessed scroll identifies both accessible possessions and backpack contents. Food receives its food-identification state; other items receive full identification, including their individual properties, and their types become recognizable in future.
A cursed scroll instead clears individual identification and type knowledge for every occupied accessible inventory slot. Backpack copies retain their own identification state, although forgetting a type through an accessible copy can still affect recognition of other unknown copies of that type.
The noncursed scroll makes its own type known before the selection or mass identification occurs. Cancelling the initial choice of what to read spends no scroll. Cancelling the subsequent identification target still consumes the scroll, although this particular cancellation sets the flag that skips the normal monster response. Do not treat that as a way to save the scroll.
Strategy
Bless a copy before using it on a substantial haul: a single application of blessing can turn one identification into an inventory-wide result. Check unknown healing, escape and equipment items before depending on them in combat. Identification does not remove a curse or improve the object.
An uncursed copy can still be worth using immediately when one unknown item determines survival. Saving it for an ideal future haul is less useful than establishing that a needed healing potion or teleport scroll is safe now.
The identification spell and identification services provide alternatives when available. Jane's guide teaches a whole random category of types but does not identify every carried copy's blessing or enchantment; it is complementary to full identification. Avoid trying a possibly cursed identification scroll with valuable known possessions in accessible slots.