
goodkinghadrian |
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This bothers me to a degree that is probably irrational, so I'm writing it down here to get it off my chest.
2e has pretty detailed rules for identifying magic (and non-magic) items, spells, and creatures, but not, for some reason, hazards. It's particuarly an issue because hazards often have methods to disable them that aren't just "hit it with sword" or "do thievery things."
Now, simple traps are mostly pretty simple - noticing a spear launcher is probably enough to see how to disable it. But more interesting hazards often have something you would not know from simply encountering the hazard. And those disable checks are often creative and flavorful! So creative and flavorful that most players would not think of them on their own.
How exactly is identifying the skill checks to disable a Ghostly Choir supposed to work? There aren't even skills associated with the Haunt tag. Presumably Religion is the most fitting skill, but what about Occultism? Does a player intuit one, but not all, methods of disabling a hazard if they succeed, with further checks possible at a higher DC? There are answers to all of these questions if we're talking about a creature, but not for hazards. I've even had PFS GMs simply tell the players what the checks are as soon as a complex hazard rolls initiative.
Note: I'm not asking for advice on how to run these - I've cobbled together my own way of handling hazards in the games I run. This is more of a request for errata. Given how often hazards show up in Paizo adventures, it would be nice for the game to tell us how PCs are supposed to know what to do with them.

Deriven Firelion |

I tend to play them like movies a little bit where people with a specific skill have an idea of how to accomplish the task. If a task requires religion, then I would key the religion players that any prayers of exorcism or protection might quiet the ghostly choir. I cue the players to when a skill might work same as I would cue a rogue that thievery and disable device would work.
DMs have to build player expectations that other skills might work against hazards like haunts or survival checks for slimes or fungus or arcane checks for magical traps.
This is often a DM issue as well. We DMs have been playing PF1 for years where rogues were the ones who dealt with disabling hazards and traps that we were used to letting rogues know when they could use it. Now we have to let players with skills like religion or survival know when their skills are also useful in overcoming hazards.

Tender Tendrils |
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The hazard rules do specify that you should use recall knowledge to find out how to disarm magic traps. When a thing doesn't specify a DC for recall knowledge, you are generally supposed to use the DC for their level adjusted by rarity.
Disarming physical traps don't need recall knowledge for the same reason picking a lock doesn't - figuring out how to disarm it is part of what the thievery skill check does. They just don't make you roll twice .
I don't think that the rules are silent on the issue, just kind of subtle.