I've tried running around the meadows with it cast looking for the ring. I've tried casting it before looting. I can't see a benefit to this spell or how it works. Any help?
It works on doors, people and objects, but only if the object is not in an inventory. Thus it will not show you that a chest or corpse contains a magic item. You can usually tell if some thing in an inventory is magical by hovering the mouse over it and looking at the name. How it works is that, when cast, if you are facing a door that is magically held, or a person with spell effects on them, or a magic object lying on the ground, spell effects will indicate that magic is present on that door, person or object. You are right, it's not very useful in the game.
