Disable Traps For Non-Rogues - Manual And Game Contradict Each Other?

ElvenKing · Post by **ElvenKing** » Sun Aug 04, 2002 8:34 am

Hey to all. I found a discrepancy between the manual and the game that applies to the skill Disable Traps. The manual states that only Rogues may disarm a trap with a DC of 25 or greater, whereas in the character creation screen it states that for both Disable Traps and Search (Find Traps) only a Rogue can succeed for those with a DC of 35 or greater.
My question is which do I believe? I would like my Ranger to have a bit of ability in disabling traps, but need to know beforehand how many skill points I can sink into it before it becomes a waste.
Any thoughts or advice?

Thanks,
ElvenKing

Datt · Post by **Datt** » Sun Aug 04, 2002 8:52 am

Well according to the official rules it would be of DC 25 or higher. But if the character screen says 35 or higher I would go with that. Bioware is known to say one thing in the manual and do another in the game.

Yshania · Post by **Yshania** » Sun Aug 04, 2002 2:13 pm

I understood that only true rogues can disarm a trap of DC35 or higher. My druid with a level one thief has successfully found traps of DC35 but been unable to disarm...

ElvenKing · Post by **ElvenKing** » Sun Aug 04, 2002 10:55 pm

Yshania - Very true, that I do not dispute! However, the difference between being able to disable DC<25 as opposed to DC<35 seems rather significant. From what I understand, many of the traps in the single player campaign range in the high-20's to mid-30's in terms of their DC check. If that is the case, I would rather have my Ranger do the majority of the disabling instead of having to haul Tomi along for the majority of the dungeon crawls. If a non-Rogue can indeed disarm up to DC 34, then it is worth putting points into (in my opinion). If it is only up to DC 24, then it seems rather pointless.
How many points in disable traps does your Druid/Rogue have? And what sort of stat modifier (if any) is being applied? I'd like to get to the bottom of this...

Thanks to both of you for responding,
ElvenKing

limorkil · Post by **limorkil** » Mon Aug 05, 2002 10:47 am

I believe the 35 is correct for non-rogues.

Most floor traps are easy to spot and disarm. Chest traps tend you have a higher DC - usually 28-34.

As a non-rogue you will have a rather mediocre disable traps ability. Your disable traps skill can only be (level+3)/2. So, assuming 14 intelligence, by level 10 you will be able to disable traps with a DC of 28 and by level 20 DC 33.

Generally, your skill will be too low to handle chest traps, but you should be able to disable floor traps. Unfortunately, you can just walk round most floor traps so I'm not sure how useful that is.

My advice would be to not bother wasting skill points on disable traps. If you really want to be able to disable traps then multiclass to take 2-4 rogue levels, spending all your skill points on disable traps and, if you want, open locks.

I play a ranger/rogue. I have 1 rogue level (my very first level) and 4 ranger levels. I am about to take my next rogue level and I will probably end up with 3 or 5 rogue levels by the end of the game. I can disable any trap I find, pick almost any lock (I think I've found a couple I can't open without bashing) and I can also use magical items that a pure ranger cannot use, notably monk boots (add to AC), wands and spell scrolls. Not only is this the most fun character I've played (I was a monk/rogue before), it's also a real challenge.