Man in the Funny Hat
Hero
IMG, the Identify spell assists in the full identification of items by enabling it to be done more rapidly. As a baseline, without the spell an item must be experimented with and used for at least 1 day. More valuable items, those with more and greater abilities take longer – 1 day per 1000 g.p. of sale value. ANY character can do such an appraisal if the item being appraised is one which would be usable by them. Mages can identify any item even if they couldn't eventually use it. While an item is being "appraised" in this manner (without the spell) the item will not exhibit any of its magical functions in a reliable or usable manner.
So, a fighter would practice with a sword and could even use it in dedicated combat, but even if it were a +5 sword it would not add to the character’s chance to hit, damage, nor even strike creatures that require magical weapons in order to harm them until the identification process were completed. The reason for this is strictly a meta-game issue - it means that neither I as the DM nor the players need to track what properties of the item they can/can't use. That makes little to no sense in-game but that's the price to be paid for a little more sanity and convenience for players at the game table. Only after an item is fully appraised will a character be able to make use of its magical abilities. However, a sword would still function as a sword, chainmail is still chainmail, and you may not be able to have your magical rope obey commands, but you can still tie knots with it.
There are obvious exceptions to that mostly due to the descriptions for the items themselves which indicate that they will reveal their true nature, if not at least make it clear who the item CANNOT be used by. That aside, if you sit down and start to appraise an item worth 50,000gp then the baseline amount of time it will take before you can actually start to use it is 50 days, but something like a simple +1 sword, at 2000gp would only take 2 days - and that 's WITHOUT the Identify spell. Certain classes or races will be able to identify some items closely associated with their class/race more rapidly. No character can normally appraise more than one magic item at a time, even wizards, though interruption of a very long appraisal to complete another much shorter one should be possible without penalty.
So how do I have the Identify spell make all that faster and easier? Firstly, it allows identifying more items at once. The Identify spell would be cast by a wizard (PC or NPC doesn't much matter) but its effects and benefits may be bestowed upon any character instead of the original caster. Wizards using the spell themselves would be able to appraise any number of items at any given time as long as an Identify spell has been cast to assist with each item, but other classes can still only identify one item at a time.
All characters benefiting from an Identify spell reduce the time needed for appraisal by 5% per level, while wizards reduce appraisal times for themselves by 10% per level. Even with the spell that still leaves a LOT of in-game time that magic will be carried around unused because it's still “unidentified”. Longer time frames for costly and more powerful items can be cut further still with additional expenditures of money and effort through mundane research.
That means PC's visiting libraries, consulting sages, seeking bards for "lore", and of course, seeking anyone who may have once owned or seen the item in use. Players would be seeking command words or shortcuts to familiarization with the magical energies that actually allow the item to be used to its full capability. These efforts can not only reduce "appraisal" time by as much as the DM cares to allow (the DM would retain control over the reductions simply by declaring that the item in question is not unique enough nor legendary enough to have a traceable history), but it can particularly be used by the DM to provide increased flavor and background for his campaign by actually filling in the blanks on the history of items. Players can be told not only who made it but where it was made, when it was made, why it was made, who its former owners actually were, where and how they used it and so forth. Even if that information is just randomly generated from lists it is the sort of thing that players often enjoy having.
Why would that be? Because a player whose PC owns a vanilla +1 sword does NOT care about it beyond the fact that it gives him that +1. It's a bland, meaningless tool, barely a whit better than a NON-magical item – just 5% better to hit and an additional point of damage. On the other hand, if you give that same +1 sword three former owners, a full page of history, and the ability for the player to have his character add to its legend – well, that's the sort of thing I always thought that D&D was supposed to be aiming for.
