Find/Remove Traps and Magical Traps

[Barrel Rider]

So thieves can Find and Remove Traps and that's all well and good, but what about traps that are magical in nature or have some aspect of enchantment that makes them work. Do you allow theives in your game to use Find Traps to discover such things? If so do you give them the standard percentage roll or do you apply a penalty? Also, do you allow theives the chance to disarm magical traps?

Personally, I think allowing them to find magical traps at -25% or half their normal level seems accurate, while given that they are not magic-users or elves they would have no ability to disarm them. But, eventually gain the ability to read languages and magical languages? Once they reach this level, would you remove the penalty to find magical traps or even allow them to disarm them?

Thoughts?

[petespahn]

If it's a trap, I allow them to detect and disarm. I feel like this ability is part deductive reasoning and part sixth sense, so it doesn't matter to me if it's magical or not.

[Barrel Rider]

I was thinking that it's really unfair for high level thieves to be so hamstrung when it comes to traps because so many high level traps are magical in nature.

[aspiringlich]

It hasn't come up yet because all my games have been low-level so far. But a magical trap is still a trap, and therefore falls under the purview of "find traps." The "remove" part is more iffy, depending on the nature of the magic. The magic-user who cooked it up could have made it so that only a Dispel Magic spell could disable it, but anything less than that I would still give the thief a chance, even if at a significant penalty to his roll.