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Identify Auras with Detect Magic DC 15 + SL
Identify Spell effect in place DC 20 + SL
Round 3 Detect Magic allows you to make a Knowledge check to Identify the school of magic for each aura, Can you also make a Arcana check to get the exact spell? If not what circumstance would you use the check to get the exact spell?
This came up the other day when we encountered a Symbol of sleep trap, we weren't sure which symbol it was or if it was a glyph trap and we used some complicated maneuvers to get around it after a failed dispel.
Detect Magic cannot identify a spell in its totality; it can only give you a general idea what sort of effect you might be looking at, based on school and level. Low level Abjurations, for example, are frequently Arcane Lock or Alarm spells. Evocations are often going to be damage-dealing spells with Reflex saves, Transmutations may change your form or somesuch, and so on. Obviously when you start seeing Strong auras you want to tread very carefully.
The most foolproof way to identify what spell is in place would be with Greater Arcane Sight, a 7th level Wizard spell. It tells you the school and strength of every effect within 120 feet of your vision, and you can determine the actual spells with a Standard action. A very useful spell to have already up going into combat, and spending a first round determining what an opponent has brought to bear; Energy Immunity [Fire]? Some sort of Contingent Breath of Life? Freedom of Movement?
Another tactic is to set it off remotely. You can use animal companions (a horrible idea, but usable for Evil to Evillish-Neutral characters), or better yet summoned creatures, to set off traps you have located. There are concerns about this tactic, however; certain traps may require specific triggering conditions that another creature may not be able to fulfill. These include triggering conditions such as -- standing on a pressure place with 400lbs of weight; snapping a string set at forehead-height; walking across a doorway with a magical effect in place; or reading an inscription. Creatures that are too light, too short, nonmagical or non-sentient obviously wouldn't trigger the traps.
Further, nonhumans may not even be viable targets for a spell. If you have a summoned rat walk into a trap, and the trap affects humanoid creatures, then the trap could set off and fail to affect it without any indication what it does. This is one of the major failings of having a proxy.
On the other hand, the easiest way to determine a spell's type is to see it being cast; you can identify a spell being cast with Spellcraft. Symbols are a special spell that can be found as if it were a trap, even if it isn't created as one. This means that while the Symbol may have been placed as a trap that self-resets every time it goes off, there's also the possibility that it is simply replaced by a resident of the dungeon/structure every time it is set off. In that case, you could find a way to set it off remotely,
Of course, a lot of the time that you see a trap set off it should give you some kind of indication what it does. A Symbol of Death will kill most creatures, a Symbol of Insanity will make them insane, etc.
Heck, looking through a wizard's spellbook might tell you what traps he has in his home. The major failings behind this are that a wizard's spellbook is probably behind a majority of his magical wards, and that if you find his spellbook outside his home, it's probably a traveling spellbook that doesn't have all his spells in it.