It's not a bug, and 405 never refers to a mage rechargeable capability. It refers to the nerfed merchant recharging capacity that degrades after each recharging.

That is also not the bard loresong for a mage rechargeable item.

Yep, I went back through 7 years of history (always a fun journey), and found indications of the message change to 405 around 10/2016.

And a whole lot of other discussion around 405, even as far back as 6 years earlier.

I appreciate the reminder. Perhaps it is time to revisit some of the previous suggestions, though - like Methais suggests, it shouldn't be a stretch for a wizard (with 517, and with a bajillion ranks of water lore! :P) to be able to discern that a magic item could be rechargeable.

Most of the dialog of 2010 / 2011 centered on the value or bards in the discovery of item lore. I think it was well placed - and I would like to see:

1) Characters with 517 (wizards, SK) and some measure of EL:W (20? 30?) able to detect that an item can be recharged - this ability does not improve whether the character can detect what the spell actually is.

2) Characters with 714 (sorcerers, SK) are able to detect the locked / unlocked state and charge state of a scroll - this ability does not improve the character's chance to imbue a scroll.

3) When cast from a scroll, adds a small (+10?) bonus to character's chance to find forageable consumables that are aligned with elemental uses (sorcerer, wizard alchemy). Note - any character can forage for any item, so this simply slightly improves the chances for those items used in elemental based recipes. (Thinking of you, Daid and Sarah.)

4) Every time it is cast, grant the character Methais an RPA.

5) When cast by an arms profession character (warriors, rogues) - allows determination of type, amount, charges and restrictions for enhancives in the weapons, armor, and combat categories.

6) When cast by a spell profession character (sorcerer, wizard) - allows determination of spell, activator type and charges for arcane, wizard, major elemental, sorcerer and minor elemental spells, and type, amount, charges and restrictions for enhancives in the magic category.

7) When cast by a semi-arms profession character (bard) - provides a basic loresong summary and an indicator if there is something specific, special, unique or challenging to find out about the item. Well experienced bards should be able to sort quickly through how 'special' an item might be.

If you're a spiritual semi-arms or spell profession, or a mental semi-arms profession - seek a bard. And if you want to know everything there is to know about an item, seek a bard. And give the bard back a bit of their time by allowing a faster process when there's nothing abnormal about the item.

Doug