Shattered Kingdoms

This sounds like a weak argument to me.

I don't see why the heck it matters if we can or cannot identify a steak/skin and find the name of the person it's made of. Now that we can't do it, suddenly everyone's upset because, why? Did you guys plan on uber leet rpz by wearing the skins of your fallen enemies? Umm.. I didn't see anyone doing that before, so I don't understand why anyone would want to do it now.

But in such a case that you do, then fine. You know who you killed. You know whose skin you're wearing. Tell the world but no one cares; all you'll get is a yawn and a "gee, really?"

I am upset because either all of the parts of a corpse should have the name attached to them, or none. It's a matter of consistency. Bodies are NOT magical. They are not going to impart magical knowledge on a caster. They are flesh. So being able to get someone's name off of one piece of flesh but not another, using ONE means and not the other, is stupid.

Aaaaaaaaaaand. It's not really about trophy flesh. Try again.

Maybe you've never fallen in battle against someone and had them pick up your corpse and ID it and then all of a sudden them know who the hell to hunt down/lob spells at/etc. Maybe it never happened to that you would lose your arm and someone would be like, "Oh that's So-and-such's arm." when it was still able to be done with body parts and skins. SOMEONE WHO HAD NEVER MET YOU. HOW ARE THEY GOING TO GET YOUR NAME OFF OF A HUNK OF FLESH????

Either way, that's what it's used for.

The only reason I know of that a limb can have any sort of identity attached to it is so that a spirit doll can be made of it. Skins aren't used for that spell, and neither are steaks.

Unless the Imms see fit to start adding skins to the list of things that can be made into a spirit doll (which I don't believe is a bad idea at all), I still don't see why an identity is absolutely necessary. Not every little detail in the game is consistant, and it's not going to be. Identity attached to a skin is such a trivial "inconsistancy."

And as for steaks? No. Absolutely unnecessary to be identified.

I would like to know how one can tell the difference between a steak of a half-elf and a human. Does the steak of a half-elf have pointy ears? Is it green blooded? How do you look at the steak of a humanoid creature, and know what race it was?

Maybe it is because I come from a cattle ranch. I can tell the difference between Angus, Herferd, etc.

Learn something new every day!

I'm in no way stating that you should be able to see who is who by any part of their body, unless you use identify. I know Dulrik made some changes to how it worked, but I don't think he made it work ideally. I think that kind of change was harder to affect. I'm not sure whether its still being planned or if its as far as Dulrik cares to go. I am certain it would be impossible to recognize someone from a piece of their hacked off flesh. However, the spell identify should at minimum provide a chance to give the victims name. Perhaps it should be based off level or something else, but I don't see the glaring imbalance that it is for identify to reveal the source of the part.

How about . . . . make it so that only priests and shamans can ID corpses. If it's got the mark of the passed spirit on it, that makes sense. If you want to ID it, you have the means, but make it so that it actually IS special.

But every caster being able to see it becase it's "magical"? No. I've proved that ID is too common.

People are unique, so by the same reasoning so is a corpse. Magical looking should tell whom a corpse belonged too. Looking at a piece of body should not tell, but I'm unsure if magic should say as any two or three or four legs in a pile might look alike. So You "Utter the words waqvasdc and this is a leg of a red-haired idiot" would be fine. ID on a corpse should give a name. Id on a skin, which is again a unique thing should work. And I'd go as far as to let the name be on tailored items. I personally enjoy wearing the skins of my foe as backpacks and shoes and pants.

Steaks should be so mangled and tore up that it would be the same as parts, only less, the steak of a humanoid might be best but race might be ok considering it's nothing and I think the current setting. Haven't ID a steak.