Do inactive "Symbol of..." spells show up when viewed with Detect Magic?

[dethkruzer]

So yeah, pretty much question in the title. Do Symbol spells, say for my current situation a Symbol of Death, when not activated, give off a magical aura that is visible when viewed with Detect Magic, arcane sight, or similar effects?

[BowStreetRunner]

There is nothing stated in any of the Symbol spells of which I am aware that would render them undetectable by Detect Magic. Note that until the 3rd round of studying the area the caster won't know the actual location of the aura. Furthermore, if they actually look at the symbol and are within 60 ft, they may trigger it (depending on the trigger settings when the symbol was cast).

[Kayblis]

BowStreetRunner got it right. Unless there's some special text stating "this spell can't be detected by X, Y or Z", the spell can be detected. A clever planner might take some precautions though, disguising the spell's aura or getting it suppressed with the Magic Aura spell. That's not a permanent solution and must be recasted every few days, so it's best used on a place that has at least one spellcaster residing(it's a level 1 spell, so any minion will do).

As stated, some Symbol of X spells activate once sighted, so it's not really useful to detect it unless you're outside its effective range. Most indoor spaces don't have a 60ft-long corridor or open space leading to every door or passage.

[Nifft]

Yep, concur with the two above.

A symbol spell is a spell, and by default it's going to be just as detectable as any other spell.

There are ways to inhibit premature detection, of course -- the easiest might be to simply put the symbol in a location where you can't see it until you're already in its triggering range.

[BowStreetRunner]

Detect Magic is a coned shape emanation that requires concentration to maintain. The first round, it's only going to ping whether or not there are magical auras present. For most PC parties this first round of concentration is therefore useless, because the party always has magical items on them. The second round is more useful as the caster should know how many auras the party usually has, and should be able to recognize if there are suddenly additional auras present.

The third round is the critical one for dealing with Symbol spells. It is here that the caster gets the location. While they can make a spellcraft check to determine the school of magic, this requires line of sight to work (although it doesn't specifically state they need to actually see the source of the magic - it just needs to be in line of sight). If the Symbol is set to go off when someone looks at it, this is where the caster needs to be careful not to look. (Don't look directly at a Symbol. Get a pair of those neat sunglasses people wear for eclipses!)

Arcane Sight on the other hand does specifically state that the caster "sees" the magical auras. The key here is that it has a 120 ft range so can be used outside the range of most Symbols. It doesn't trip for auras that aren't in the caster's sight, so it can be problematic using this in a dungeon that has short corridors, small rooms, lots of turns, etc.

So even with Detect Magic/Arcane Sight in play, Symbols can still be pretty hazardous if placed properly.

[Avigor]

Don't forget the trivia that while the aura will fade after the symbol is triggered, that process is not instantaneous, so if they have a means of identifying a specific spellcaster by some intrinsic property of his spells (anyone know of anything that can do this? I wanna say there was some obscure means for this to be possible but I'm not sure) even hiding the symbol in an alcove might not prevent them from realizing who is responsible for their zapping.