I've had a few questions on magical traps accumulating over the past few months, so I figured I'd toss them out for people to voice their opinions.
1) Regarding glyphs of warding: per the spell description, these are "one-shot" traps. There are situations in which one would want to make a glyph be "always on." How would one accomplish this? Via the permanency spell? Or treat it as a magical trap (thus costing 500 gp and 20 XP per caster level)?
2) Another glyph question: the spell description says that the traceries/runes you draw when casting the spell become nearly invisible. I suppose the "nearly" part is what allows rogues to detect them and spellcasters to use read magic on them. How does a spellcaster find a glyph to read it in the first place? Do glyphs have an aura visible under detect magic? (My inclination is yes.)
3a) Related to the last question: Do magical traps show up under detect magic? My inclination is yes, unless the creator of the trap took special measures to suppress the trap's magical aura (such as a permanent Nystul's undetectable aura). The problem with this is that it seems to go against the spirit of the rule that only rogues have a chance of finding magical traps using the Search skill. Of course, just detecting the aura wouldn't reveal that it's a trap, nor would it reveal any useful info about the trap, so perhaps this isn't a problem.
3b) Suppose a rogue searching for traps knows from detect magic (cast by either himself or a friend) that there is some magical effect functioning in a location. Should he get a bonus to his Search check to find the trap? My inclination is that this warrants a +2 circumstance bonus to the check. (You might think he could get a bigger bonus by searching with detect magic active, but he can't do this: detect magic has duration Concentration, and skill checks are standard actions, so when he starts the search, the spell ends. At least, this is how I understand the rules -- feel free to correct me.)
3c) What's a reasonable XP cost for a permanent Nystul's undetectable aura? I would say 500XP, and minimum caster level 9, by analogy with the costs of other first level spells like alarm. On the other hand, undetectable aura already has a long duration (1 day/level), so maybe it would cost less to make it permanent.
Thanks in advance for the feedback!
1) Regarding glyphs of warding: per the spell description, these are "one-shot" traps. There are situations in which one would want to make a glyph be "always on." How would one accomplish this? Via the permanency spell? Or treat it as a magical trap (thus costing 500 gp and 20 XP per caster level)?
2) Another glyph question: the spell description says that the traceries/runes you draw when casting the spell become nearly invisible. I suppose the "nearly" part is what allows rogues to detect them and spellcasters to use read magic on them. How does a spellcaster find a glyph to read it in the first place? Do glyphs have an aura visible under detect magic? (My inclination is yes.)
3a) Related to the last question: Do magical traps show up under detect magic? My inclination is yes, unless the creator of the trap took special measures to suppress the trap's magical aura (such as a permanent Nystul's undetectable aura). The problem with this is that it seems to go against the spirit of the rule that only rogues have a chance of finding magical traps using the Search skill. Of course, just detecting the aura wouldn't reveal that it's a trap, nor would it reveal any useful info about the trap, so perhaps this isn't a problem.
3b) Suppose a rogue searching for traps knows from detect magic (cast by either himself or a friend) that there is some magical effect functioning in a location. Should he get a bonus to his Search check to find the trap? My inclination is that this warrants a +2 circumstance bonus to the check. (You might think he could get a bigger bonus by searching with detect magic active, but he can't do this: detect magic has duration Concentration, and skill checks are standard actions, so when he starts the search, the spell ends. At least, this is how I understand the rules -- feel free to correct me.)
3c) What's a reasonable XP cost for a permanent Nystul's undetectable aura? I would say 500XP, and minimum caster level 9, by analogy with the costs of other first level spells like alarm. On the other hand, undetectable aura already has a long duration (1 day/level), so maybe it would cost less to make it permanent.
Thanks in advance for the feedback!
