Skills/Disable Device

You are skilled at disarming traps and opening locks. In addition, this skill lets you sabotage simple mechanical devices, such as catapults, wagon wheels, and doors.

Disarm Trap or Device
When disarming a trap or other device, the Disable Device check is made secretly by the GM, so that you don’t necessarily know whether you’ve succeeded.

The DC depends on how tricky the device is. Disabling (or rigging or jamming) a fairly simple device has a DC of 10; more intricate and complex devices have higher DCs. If you are attempting to leave behind no trace of tampering as part of a disable device check the DC increases by 5. Traps don’t have a set DC and are determined by the trap itself. You may also attempt to reset a trap, if the trap can be reset it is the same DC as it was to disable the trap.

If the check succeeds, you disable the device. If it fails by 4 or less, you have failed but can try again. If you fail by 5 or more, something goes wrong. If the device is a trap, you spring it. If you’re attempting some sort of sabotage, you think the device is disabled, but it still works normally.

Special: A character who beats a trap’s DC by 10 or more can study the trap, figure out how it works, and bypass it (along with their companions) without disarming it.

Retry? You can retry checks made to disable traps if you miss the check by 4 or less, though you must be aware that you fail in order to try again.

Sabotage Mechanical Item
You also can rig simple or tricky devices such as saddles or wagon wheels to work normally for a while and then fail or fall off some time later (usually after 1d4 rounds or minutes of use). The DC may increase by 5 or more (Determined by the GM) the more complex the failure of the object is.

Open a Lock
The DC to open a lock depends on the lock’s quality: Modifiers: If you do not have a set of thieves’ tools, these DCs increase by 10.

Retry? Yes. You can retry checks made to open locks.

The following table details the various actions one can take with disable device:

Action
The amount of time needed to make a Disable Device check depends on the task:


 * Simple Device: Disabling a simple device takes 1 round and is a full-round action.
 * Complex/Intricate Device: An intricate or complex device requires 1d4 or 2d4 rounds. Attempting to open a lock is a full-round action.

Magic Traps
Characters by default cannot disarm magic traps, but some feats or class features may enable them to do so. A magic trap generally has a DC of 25 + the spell level of the magic used to create it, though some magic traps may define their own DC. Some magic traps may also be unable to be disabled even if you have the ability to disable magic traps, this is defined by the individual spell or trap. As magic traps are spells, a caster may instead dispel the trap once its been located if a group lacks the ability to disable magic trap using disable device.