Symbol Trap rules question

[mehs]

Ok so with a symbol trap that triggers when you look at it, how does a rogue find and disable it? We all passed (literally the entire level 2 party) passed the dc 22 perception check to find it, but gm says that then triggers it? so how are we supposed to do it?

[KillianHawkeye]

You don't. It's already too late, you see it you trigger it. That's the way it's designed to be.

[mehs]

So it is designed to be a trap that the people who are supposed to be able to find and disable it are unable to find and disable it?

[Clementx]

You can be a jerk and say detecting it triggers it, or you can go with the spirit of the rules. A rogue who was searching for traps notices it out of the corner of his eye and is trained to not look at the glyph directly. That is what the trapfinding feature does. Everyone else who goes within line of sight sees a symbol that is in the open. You could be generous and use the passive gaze attack rules to give dumb luck survival.

If you ignore that, you can find a reason for any other trap to trigger before detection, in which case that is never-miss trap with different CR and trigger rules than a symbol spell.