Attention Paizo Officials: Glyph of Warding, an exception to the rule?


Rules Questions


In 3.5 only rogues could find magical traps by searching for them. That restriction is no longer true in pathfinder, at least as written.

While looking at the glyph of warding spell I noticed the below statement.

Quote:


Note: Magic traps such as glyph of warding are hard to detect and disable. A rogue (only) can use the Perception skill to find the glyph and Disable Device to thwart it. The DC in each case is 25 + spell level, or 28 for glyph of warding.

Is this a mistake or was the trapfinding ability supposed to work like it does in 3.5?

Shadow Lodge

Pretty sure only Rogues can find magical traps.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

We relaxed the restrictions on finding traps. Anyone can disable normal traps, provided they have a good enough bonus and roll the DC. Rogues, though, are the only class that can use Disable Device to disarm a magical trap like a glyph of warding. Although eventually I can see other classes or prestige classes getting that ability as well... If only to reduce the "requirement" that a party have a rogue for certain adventures.


James Jacobs wrote:
We relaxed the restrictions on finding traps. Anyone can disable normal traps, provided they have a good enough bonus and roll the DC. Rogues, though, are the only class that can use Disable Device to disarm a magical trap like a glyph of warding. Although eventually I can see other classes or prestige classes getting that ability as well... If only to reduce the "requirement" that a party have a rogue for certain adventures.

So the glyph of warding section I quoted is a typo about finding the trap?


I also imagine that once found, a magic trap can be dispelled by the party caster then smashed into uselessness by the fighter before dispel wears off. Yay subtlety!

Liberty's Edge

wraithstrike wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
We relaxed the restrictions on finding traps. Anyone can disable normal traps, provided they have a good enough bonus and roll the DC. Rogues, though, are the only class that can use Disable Device to disarm a magical trap like a glyph of warding. Although eventually I can see other classes or prestige classes getting that ability as well... If only to reduce the "requirement" that a party have a rogue for certain adventures.
So the glyph of warding section I quoted is a typo about finding the trap?

Sorry bud. I think James is saying that the Glyph is working as intended.

Rogues can find and remove magicl traps in the rules. I don't see an issue here.


Umbral Reaver wrote:
I also imagine that once found, a magic trap can be dispelled by the party caster then smashed into uselessness by the fighter before dispel wears off. Yay subtlety!

As long as you're ok with betting that the caster level of the trap isn't restrictively high.


James Jacobs wrote:
Rogues, though, are the only class that can use Disable Device to disarm a magical trap like a glyph of warding.

Note that the original poster was asking about Perception, not Disable Device.

The spell Spike Stones is a better example:

"Magic traps such as spike stones are hard to detect. A rogue (only) can use the Perception skill to find spike stones."

So is Spike Stones is a special case, or are all magical traps impossible to find by non-rogues? Non-rogues can't find magical traps, why isn't this mentioned in the description of the Perception skill (like it used to be mentioned in the 3.5 Search skill description, and like it is in the PFRPG Disable Device skill description)?

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