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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5478959" data-attributes="member: 42582">When you told the GM that you were studying the trap to find out what you could learn, what did he tell you? What skill checks did he call for?When I GM, I tend to be fairly liberal in translating actions that the players describe their PCs as taking into skill checks. But still, I wouldn't normally grant an Arcana check unless the player said that his/her PC was trying to sense magic - unless the trap was of a particularly well-known magical variety, in which case I might call for an Arcana check to see whether or not the PC wizard recalls anything about it.If my players said that they were studying a trap, I'd ask them to tell me in a bit more detail how they were going about doing so. At that point, I'd expect those players with decent Arcana skills to say things like &quot;I'm trying to sense if it's magic&quot; or &quot;I've studied a lot about magical traps - does this one resemble anything I've learned about?&quot; On the other hand, if they only said something like &quot;I'm looking hard to see whether there are any hidden tripwires&quot; I'd give a thievery check but not an Arcana check (unless, as per my previous paragraph, there was something obvious about it that any student of the arcane might recognise).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 5478959, member: 42582"] When you told the GM that you were studying the trap to find out what you could learn, what did he tell you? What skill checks did he call for? When I GM, I tend to be fairly liberal in translating actions that the players describe their PCs as taking into skill checks. But still, I wouldn't normally grant an Arcana check unless the player said that his/her PC was trying to sense magic - unless the trap was of a particularly well-known magical variety, in which case I might call for an Arcana check to see whether or not the PC wizard recalls anything about it. If my players said that they were studying a trap, I'd ask them to tell me in a bit more detail how they were going about doing so. At that point, I'd expect those players with decent Arcana skills to say things like "I'm trying to sense if it's magic" or "I've studied a lot about magical traps - does this one resemble anything I've learned about?" On the other hand, if they only said something like "I'm looking hard to see whether there are any hidden tripwires" I'd give a thievery check but not an Arcana check (unless, as per my previous paragraph, there was something obvious about it that any student of the arcane might recognise). [/QUOTE]

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