In Drakara, the basic functions of magic items are generally determined through use of the Identify spell - however, I have revised that spell to make it able to be used in encounters, or in between encounters, more flexibly - but only checking on one item per casting. The caster risks becoming magically fatigued, but unlike regular fatigue, this wears off in minutes rather than hours. Also, the material component is now a focus rather than a consumable.
Also note that the NPC Adept class, which as noted before definitely exists in Drakara (in fact low level adepts are more common, so to speak, than any other type of spellcaster), in Drakara is given access to a single shaman Domain at 1st level - and most adepts select the Divination Domain, which is why, per page 31 of O.A., most adepts are referred to as diviners. Thus, magic items are fairly easy to get identified, and in Marike, the Lord clearly has at least one diviner in his retinue, and hence has been able to get most items checked out for you as needed, without any associated costs or obligations. In regular Drakaran villages of decent size you could probably ask the local Jito to get an item identified, and in turn he would command the local diviner to check it for you... (However, it seems that now the Imperial Sorcerer Miya Hatori has some capabilities in this matter, so adepts may be moot when he is available.)
Now, as for items with multiple properties, the next useful spell is 6th level - which means that additional properties need to be determined in other ways. The GM will 'wing it' more or less, some items will have obvious clues while others do not - but essentially the important factor will be Knowledge (Arcana) skill, and the appropriate item creation feat will provide a bonus to the chance of determining an item's other abilities - a higher bonus if the character with the feat also has sufficient caster levels etc. to create the item being investigated. And experimentation may work, too...
The revised spell Identify is as follows:
Identify
The spell determines the single most basic function of a magic item, including how to activate that function (if appropriate), and how many charges are left (if any) or similar information such as number of uses per day. For a weapon, this will be the "plus" to attack and damage. If a magic item has multiple different functions that are equally basic, identify determines the lowest-level function. If these functions are also of equal level, the DM decides randomly which is identified. The character must make a Fortitude save (DC 16) when the spell ends or be fatigued, becoming unable to run or charge and suffering an effective penalty of -2 to STR and DEX. A fatigued character becomes exhausted by doing something else that would normally cause fatigue, but if the character does not become exhausted during the duration of this magical fatigue, which lasts for 1d8 minutes, it wears off and the character may act normally.
Divine Focus: The focus must be a polished crystal worth at least 100 gp.