Rule Clarifications and House Rules: Part II

Identifying Magical Items

Simply handling a normal magic item is enough to determine that it is imbued with mystical power. Detect magic is still useful to pinpoint magic items from a distance, or to detect auras from items that do not innately hint at their magical nature. You can spend a short rest studying a magic item to learn its abilities, during which time it's assumed that you experiment with the item and try to activate its magic. A character can inspect one item per short rest. (Potions are an exception to this rule. Simply sipping a potion reveals its properties.)

If an item requires attunement, you do not learn the risks and benefits of attuning after a short rest. You learn that you can attune to the item, but not what happens when you do so. Attuning to an item reveals its abilities. However, some of the benefits and drawbacks presented by an item might take time to reveal themselves.

If you are wary of attuning to an item, the identify spell reveals all of an item's properties and drawbacks. Though this spell is no longer necessary to learn an item's secrets, it does save you the risk of first attuning to an item and then learning what it does.