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I am attempting to build an effective rogue for a new pathfinder campaign; however in looking at the rules this is what I discovered.
Since Burning hands is a CR 2 trap with a perception of 26 and a DD of 26 I am assuming that the highest base dc's for traps starts at 25 for level 1 and gains +1 per level.
Then for a 1st level rogue to be able to find this trap they need to be able to see a target number of 25. With a perception skill level of 1 a +3 bonus from a class skill a +1 bonus from rogue levels and we can assume a relatively high wisdom score of 14 for a total perception of 7. This would mean the rogue has a 10% chance of finding a trap. Even if the rogue takes a feat of skill focus +3 this would still mean they need a 15 or higher for a 25% chance of finding a trap.
When we can understand that some traps sacrifice this high DC for higher damage this would still mean that a trap with a 20 dc has only a 50% chance of being found. There fore in a best case scenario a Rogue is only likely to be effective at best 50% of the time.
So if you use a character slot as a rogue and waste significant resources on that rogue's trap-finding abilities you risk being effective only 25% of the time.
Are there any methods that could increase this change or a relatively effective change of just finding the trap because if you cant find the trap then disarming it is irrelevant.
In my experience most party's use a device called a barbarian to find traps
Is it not the case that a CR2 trap is intended to be a moderate challenge for a rounded party of four 2nd level PCs? I wonder if you're expecting too much of yourself by comparing your party of 1 against a trap.
For example, could another PC Aid your skill check? Any spells, e.g. Guidance that could be cast to shore up your chances? Once you've identified the trap, could a Sorceror (etc.) Counterspell it? RAW refers to an "opponent" so perhaps not...
It doesn't totally solve the problem but there are some avenues to explore.