is there any reasonable counter to the magical symbol traps?
it seems to be that generally speaking any time you notice the symbol you immediately trigger it... so you cant really perceive and disable it without triggering it.
once triggered can it be disabled and if so do its effects continue after the disabling? for example... if there is a symbol of pain on the floor of a room.
any way to perceive and disable the trap before triggering it?
once triggered you fight though the pain to disable it... does the pain continue?
A successful Perception check (DC 25 + spell level) detects a magic trap before it goes off.
(Elsewhere we have...) Magic traps such as symbol of pain are hard to detect and disable. A character with the trapfinding class feature (only) can use the Perception skill to find a symbol of pain and Disable Device to thwart it. The DC in each case is 25 + spell level, or 30 for symbol of pain.
A symbol set to trigger if you look at it doesn't go off if looked at by a very perceptive rogue. They know what they are doing; they were trained for this.
Once a symbol is triggered, it simply becomes a "spell effect" and the rogue can't make the owie go away. The rogue can, however, look over the symbol to see if this was a one-shot dealie or it it is going to reset. He can disable it to mitigate future owies, but the current spell effect keeps rolling until it wears itself out or gets dispelled.