Is there anyway we can let us know OOCly whether an item is 'plot' in terms of whether it can be dyed or not?
Dye is not cheap and it's a bummer when you spend 100 gold on dye only to find it won't work because the item you wanted to dye is considered 'plot'.
My opinion is that unless the item is one of a kind, something truly plot, the colors should not be fixed, for what its worth.
Idk if it'll work, but if you go to a merchant to sell it, it'll either say plot or stolen.
I usually get the 3gp dye and test the item.
@Relinquish, in many cases, you can't sell to merchants because items are marked 'stolen' not 'plot'.
@Fortuna, could be a cheaper way to test it, but could come with some of its own problems. Also, if the armor is all metal, are there any 3gp metal dyes?
So far as the dyes go, it doesn't matter. If it's plot, no dye works. If it is dyable, every item will accept cloth or leather dye, even if it has no parts to show it. If you put your mouse over the item in a store it will say clearly onthe store interface "This Merchant will not buy Stolen Goods" or "You Cannot Sell Plot Items" if either applies.
As a further tip, I export my PCs and load them in another module to play with dyes until I find a colour scheme I like, as some dyes look wierd on certain armors.
For my Son of Sabuth, I got a suit of armor that was plot.. I went and got some dyes for it, and it turned out it was plot. I just asked a DM for some help and they turned off the plot property on it, so I could dye it. Problem solved.
I wouldn't bother them with it though unless there's some specific reason you need it dyed, like for faction gear.