Identify

This expensive and unreliable spell allows the magic user to discern the magical properties of an item. The magic user must hold or wear the item as intended for use (thereby placing himself at risk of a cursed item). For every segment of the spell’s duration, the magic user has a 15% +5%/ caster level of gaining an insight into the nature of the item’s enchantment. Insights include magical effects (and the corresponding command word) and number of charges (plus or minus 25% of the actual number). The exact bonus (or penalty) of a weapon is not revealed to the player, unless the GM chooses to do so for convenience; the character, of course, would not think of a magic sword as being “+1” or “+3,” just as “enchanted” or “powerfully enchanted,” and the spell reveals information in these terms. The spell must be cast within 1 hour/ caster level of the time a magic item first comes near the caster, or the magic user’s own aura will have blended too much into the item’s aura, contaminating his ability to read it. Upon casting the spell, the magic user temporarily loses 8 points of constitution, and regains them by resting for one hour per recovered point. The material component for the spell is a pearl worth 100 gp.