>So assuming I have no trustworthy allies to help me out, and that
>my lore skill is too low to provide any truly useful
>information, what other options are out there?

Scrolls and wands with the Identify spell and, like Cytherea
mentioned, typing score, wearing the item, and typing score
again. Some thieves also have the Appraise command.

But if you're a plain ol' warrior, get cracking on Lore.