Skill Checks
A skill check is made to perform some problematic action that requires skill. There are twenty skills in the game, and each one has a governing statistic. A skill check is a d20 plus the character stat modifier (always), proficiency modifier (if the skill is trained), and miscellaneous bonuses (which can come from various sources). Characters can attempt to use non-intellect-based skills they are not proficient in. They still roll a d20, but only add their governing stat modifier (not their proficiency modifier). Intellect-based skills are different; they cannot be attempted untrained.
Success Levels. When a character attempts a skill check they roll a d20 and add their total modifier, attempting to hit the target difficulty. If they roll a natural 1 the roll is a critical failure and something bad happens. If they succeed by 5 or more the roll is a critical success. If they succeed by 10 or more the roll is an epic success. Whenever a skill check has the potential for some additional benefit beyond simple success or failure, these levels of success can come into play.
Cross Training. Sometimes the same activity can be performed using different skills. There are many examples of this; Acrobat and Athlete can be used to jump, Survival and Nature can both be used to predict weather, Investigation and Diplomacy can both be used to summarize a pub crawl looking for rumors, etc. In situations where two skills could both be used to perform the same task, it is appropriate to assign different difficulty levels for each if one is more applicable than the other. Toolset training may also be used in place of a skill if the task directly relates to the toolset being used.
Support. Sometimes a character making a skill check can benefit from the support of someone else with the same skill. In situations where this applies, the supporting character grants a +2 bonus.
Teamwork. Sometimes everyone in the party needs to attempt the same skill check. In these situations, at least HALF of the characters must succeed for the group to succeed. The pros are assumed to adequately support their less able companions and get them through it. This is particularly true in the case of athletics, deception, and stealth checks. If half of the party can get up the wall, trick the guards, or sneak up on the orcs, everyone can.
Negotiation
When interacting with NPCs, players must often negotiate for what they want. Because roleplaying is a major element of GSS, these negotiations can and should take the form of a conversation. But this has the side effect of rewarding well-spoken players with success, regardless of their character's charisma score and social skills. Characters with good social skills may also say inappropriate things or offer arguments that make no sense, expecting their statistics and die rolls to persevere. This problem plagues all role-playing games, and no simple solution exists.
But here is the method in GSS:
The Storyteller must first establish exactly what the players try to persuade their target(s) to do. No social roll should be required if their argument is sensible and benefits the target without serious risk. If their argument requires risk or sacrifice on the target’s part and is unnecessary, then a roll must be made regardless of how well-spoken the players are. Such a roll also cannot be made unless the Storyteller believes the argument should have a logical chance of success. If the request is ridiculous or the consequences are too severe, do not allow a roll, regardless of how persuasive the characters are.
Also, note that social skill checks may have gradients of success. Even if a social roll was not high enough to justify whatever the players wanted, a respectable roll might result in a lesser form of support or compliance instead.
Combat
There are four basic types of actions; move, standard, bonus, and reaction. Most of these actions are only relevant during combat, however. Movement, standard, and bonus actions can only be taken on ones initiative. Reactions can be taken anytime, as long as their triggering conditions are met. You are not required to take any of these actions on your turn if you do not want to. Sometimes, you may not have any actions of a certain category available.
Initiative
Combat is broken up into rounds. At the onset of battle, every participant (or a handful) makes an initiative roll to determine their place in the countdown. The combatant with the highest initiative score acts first, and all other combatants act in descending order of initiative.
Ambush
To successfully spring an ambush, the attacking party must succeed on a group stealth check against the highest enemy alertness value. Failure means that someone notices and shouts a warning in time. In this situation, roll initiative normally. If surprise is achieved, all combatants still roll initiative normally, but the ambushed party does not act on the first combat round. This is extremely dangerous. Most successful teams have (at least) one member with high alertness to reduce the threat of being surprised.
Attacks & Damage
Melee attacks must be made within a weapon's reach, and an attack roll is successful if it hits or exceeds the target's defense score. The damage dealt depends on the weapon, spell, or ability used. Missile attacks suffer disadvantage if an attacker is threatened in melee or shooting at creatures engaged in melee with its allies.
Combat Chaos. Attack rolls of 1-2 always miss, and attack rolls of 19-20 always hit.
Critical Hits & Misses. A natural 1 on a melee attack always provokes an attack of opportunity from the target (requiring a reaction). A natural 20 on an attack roll is always a critical hit and deals double damage. Damaging spells can only score critical hits if they use spellcraft as an attack bonus. Spells that involve a saving throw can never score critical hits.
Maneuvers
There are also several maneuvers a creature can perform in battle.
Attack. You attack one target. If you have the extra attack ability you attack twice. If you are a warrior of 15th level or higher you attack three times. You can divide your attacks between multiple targets, or move up to your speed between attacks. This is an action.
Brace. You set a polearm to impale a charging foe with lesser reach from a single direction. If you are charged while bracing, you can attack your assailant once as a reaction before it attacks you. If it succeeds, this attack is always considered a critical hit. Bracing is a bonus action.
Charge. You move up to double your speed in a straight line. If you move 20+ feet before attacking you deal +2 damage with your first attack. If you are wielding a polearm this damage bonus becomes +4. This maneuver uses both a move and an action.
Constrict. You deal your unarmed damage die plus twice your MIGHT modifier in crushing damage to an opponent you have successfully grappled. This is an action or a bonus action, but it can only be done once per round.
Dash. You move up to your regular foot speed. This is a move.
Defend. You actively guard yourself or an ally within melee reach. Melee and missile attacks against you or that ally (not both) suffer disadvantage for the round. This is an action.
Disarm. You attempt to disarm your target with an opposed melee attack roll made at disadvantage. It provokes an attack of opportunity (reaction) from your target. This is an action.
Grapple. You try to wrestle your target down and immobilize them. This is an opposed athletics roll, and if your target is armed you make the roll with disadvantage and provoke an attack of opportunity from your target. This is an action.
Hold. You delay your initiative until later in the round. If you act on the exact initiative count as other combatants, you take your turn after theirs. This becomes your new initiative in subsequent rounds. This does not take an action.
Kipup. You perform an acrobatics roll with a difficulty of 10 while prone. If successful you instantly regain your feet without provoking an attack of opportunity. This is a reaction or a bonus action.
Push. You attempt to shove your target up to 10’. This is an opposed athletics roll, and if your target is armed you make the roll at disadvantage. It does not provoke an attack of opportunity. This is an action.
Support. You set up your ally for advantageous strikes. Your ally gains advantage on attacks against a specific target they are currently threatening in melee for the rest of the round. This is an action.
Trip. You try to knock your target prone. This is either an opposed athletics or acrobatics test (either may be used) or a melee attack roll, made with disadvantage. It provokes a melee attack of opportunity (reaction) from your target. This is an action.
Resistances
Health
Health is not simply a measure of how much damage a creature can sustain before dying. It is an abstract concept representing how hard a creature is to kill. As a creature loses health it begins to sustain cuts, bruises, burns, combat fatigue, and so forth until its luck finally runs out. A creature reduced to 50% or less of its health is considered bloodied, meaning it is noticeably wounded. Upon reaching zero health a creature collapses from some mortal injury and begins to die. Characters stop gaining class-dependent health boosts at 10th level but continue adding their endurance modifier to their max health pool at every level up to 20th.
Defense
Defense measures how hard your character is to hit with physical attacks. It is an abstract concept that includes the benefits of parrying, dodging, wearing armor, etc. All warrior classes can choose to add their proficiency modifier to their defense instead of their armor bonus if they wish. This represents their skill at arms. Barbarians get a bonus to defense to allow for characters thematically similar to “Conan” or “Red Sonja''. It is important to note that any attack roll of 1-2 is always a miss, any attack roll of 19-20 is always a hit, a natural 1 provokes an attack of opportunity from the target of a melee attack, and a natural 20 on any attack roll is always a critical hit.
Soak
Soak is a measure of how well-armored a character is. A character's soak value is deducted from physical and elemental damage they sustain, but not radiant, psychic, necrotic, poison, or force damage. Most soak values are small, but the savings a character enjoys over multiple hits is substantial. It is important to note that no matter how good a creature's soak is, it cannot reduce the damage it receives below 1. In practice, this means well-armored characters can withstand many weak attacks, but powerful attacks are deadly.
Alertness
Alertness measures how hard a creature is to sneak up on. It is the target # a creature must roll on a stealth check to ambush a given creature or to evade its notice. In most situations, a single stealth check is sufficient to hide from a creature for several minutes. It only needs to be repeated if the hiding creature does something significantly risky to necessitate another roll. If a creature is on high alert, meaning it has substantial cause to suspect an enemy is nearby, its alertness score goes up by 6. It is not possible to be perpetually on high alert, as it is very stressful and mentally taxing. The Storyteller has the final say on whether a creature, or character, is justified in being on high alert.
Saving Throws
A saving throw (or “save” for short) is a roll made to resist a harmful effect. There are three kinds; fortitude, reflex, and will.
Fortitude saves deal with effects one can resist through toughness or physical stamina, such as poison. They are influenced by the ENDURANCE statistic.
Reflex saves deal with area effects one can resist by leaping out of the way, such as explosions. They are influenced by the AGILITY statistic.
Will saves deal with mental effects one can resist with willpower. They are influenced by the SPIRIT statistic.
Every class is proficient in one (or sometimes two) saves. Proficiency in a save means that, in addition to adding your governing statistic modifier to the roll, you also add your total proficiency bonus. Nonproficient saves add your governing statistic modifier plus half of your proficiency bonus, rounded down.
Ailments & Recovery
Rest
There are two kinds of rest breaks; interludes and full rest. An interlude is a one-hour pitstop where characters rest, talk, tend gear, treat injuries, and eat. Sleeping is just that; a 6-8 hour window of unconsciousness. A full rest is particularly important to spellcasters, because magic is intrinsically tied to the part of the mind that dreams. When spellcasters sleep their minds brush the astral plane to replenish, so it is impossible to recover spell energy without sleep.
Healing. Characters engaged in adventuring recover their level plus their endurance modifier in lost health every full rest. Total bed rest or very light activity (carriage ride, rest at an inn, etc) for a full day restores twice as much health. In addition, a character with the medicine skill can treat a # of patients equal to their proficiency modifier each day with no roll required. Medical treatment restores extra health per day equal to your medicine skill modifier.
In GSS health is limited, but healing magic is potent. Characters are easy to break and easy to fix, which makes monsters more scary and validates the importance of characters with healing powers. It also reduces the speed of power creep and forces players to think tactically. Damage mitigation abilities are important for this reason, and players should become familiar with them.
Recharge. Certain class abilities are a limited resource, meaning they can only be used a set # of times before they must recharge. This is accomplished by taking a full rest.
Not all harm that characters experience can be expressed in health points. Danger may also take the form of environmental hazards such as weather, starvation, disease, etc. These threats are serious because they are ongoing and cannot be resolved through simple combat. To avoid unnecessary redundancy and paranoia, it is fine for players to address these concerns when establishing protocols. If the Storyteller wishes to ignore these “mundane” environmental dangers in favor of a more action-intensive game, that is their prerogative.
Blindness & Deafness. Creatures that rely on sight to function are hampered by its loss. A blinded creature fails any ability check involving sight. Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the creature’s attack rolls have disadvantage. Creatures that rely on hearing to function are hampered by its loss. A deafened creature automatically fails any ability check relying on hearing.
Charmed. This is a general term used to describe several different types of mental compulsion. Unless otherwise noted in the description of the effects, a charmed creature regards its charmer as an ally. It will not willingly harm or endanger its charmer, and all social skill checks made by the charmer to influence the target have advantage. This effect ENDS IMMEDIATELY if the charmed creature is attacked by the charmer or her allies. Just because a target is charmed does not necessarily mean it views its former allies as enemies. While most evil creatures will not hesitate to attack their former allies, neutral or good-aligned creatures will likely defend their charmer or flee in confusion to avoid being forced to choose who to support.
Disease. There are two basic ways to contract a disease; exposure to a source of illness (such as a crowd of sick people or a pile of rotten filth) or a random encounter. Because adventurers travel and come into contact with various people and places, adding incidental sickness to encounter tables is reasonable. Not all diseases allow for a fortitude save. If players take risky actions that expose them to a high viral load, it is reasonable to state that they simply get sick.
There are many types of disease, and some manifest very differently. Unless the Storyteller wishes to include this level of detail, the following rules can be used. After every long rest, the victim must make a fortitude save with variable difficulty. Every time a save is failed, the victim develops one level of exhaustion that cannot be removed with rest. If the victim succeeds on a fortitude save, one level of exhaustion is removed. They recover from the disease if they make two successful fortitude saves. If a character reaches six levels of exhaustion, they die. Getting complete bed rest offers advantage on the save. Medicine can offer hefty bonuses as well.
Characters who have already experienced a given disease may develop immunity. If the disease is particularly virulent and there is a risk of catching it again, assume the survivor gains advantage on any ensuing fortitude saves to resist. If an epidemic is underway, it is sensible for players to voluntarily catch a disease and weather it under ideal conditions (medicine, rest, magic, etc.) to reduce their chances of catching it later when these things may not be available.
Poison. Poison has two effects. First, it deals a certain amount of damage to the victim. Second, if the victim fails a fortitude save, they will suffer extra damage and some debilitating effect. Unless otherwise noted in the poison's description, the victim suffers disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks until the poison is treated or overcome. Other forms of poison can induce paralysis, sleep, etc. While most poison damage occurs immediately, the poison's disabling effects normally occur after a variable number of rounds or minutes.
Starvation. If a character goes without food for 2 days, they suffer one level of exhaustion. A character who goes without food loses 1d6 points of endurance a week. Eating normally removes this level of exhaustion after one day, and characters with regular food regain 1 lost point of endurance each day. Dehydration is far more dangerous. If a character goes without water for 1 day, they suffer two levels of exhaustion. Every day a character goes without water, they lose 1d4 points of endurance. Drinking normally removes these levels of exhaustion after one day, and characters with regular access to potable water regain 2 lost points of endurance each day.
Heatstroke. Prolonged exposure to high heat is dangerous to unprotected characters. Depending on the environment and level of exertion, a character in this situation will need to roll a fortitude save after a variable period. Failure causes 1 level of exhaustion. Successive failed checks result in additional levels of exhaustion. If removed from the heat, characters can use an interlude to remove one level of heat exhaustion.
Hypothermia. Prolonged exposure to extreme cold is dangerous to unprotected characters. Depending on the environment, a character in this situation must roll a fortitude save after a variable period. Failure causes 1 level of exhaustion. Successive failed checks result in the loss of 1d4 points of endurance. If taken out of the cold and given a source of heat, a character can attempt one new fortitude save every hour to regain 2 points of endurance. Being immersed in freezing water is extremely dangerous; it forces an immediate fortitude save, with an additional save required for every minute of exposure. Even after removal from the water, fortitude saves must continue every minute, and no attempt at recovery can be made while the character wears wet clothing.
Fatigue
In GSS the most common malady a character can suffer, apart from health loss due to wounds, is fatigue. Fatigue is broken into eight levels, and the effects are cumulative. After intense physical activity, a character may need to roll a fortitude save at the Storyteller's discretion to avoid developing one or more fatigue levels. Going without sleep for a full day also imposes 1d3 levels of exhaustion depending on physical activity. An interlude spent resting lowers fatigue by 2 levels. A full rest removes all levels of fatigue.
A -2 penalty to attacks, saves, and skill checks.
A -3 penalty to attacks, saves, and skill checks.
Speed halved.
Disadvantage to skill checks.
Disadvantage to attacks and saves.
Health point maximum halved.
Speed reduced to 0.
Death.
Madness
Some experiences have the potential to damage the psyche. When a character encounters this sort of thing the Storyteller may call for a sanity test; a will save made to avoid loss of sanity. Every character has a pool of sanity points equal to their spirit statistic or character level (whichever is higher). If their sanity points drop below 50% they suffer a temporary derangement. At 25% sanity, they suffer a second derangement, and at 0% they develop a permanent mental disability that can only be treated by magic or the services of an alienist. While there are many different forms of madness, the table below reflects the six most common derangements experienced by adventurers in response to trauma.
Delusions. The characters come to believe something untrue, and their decisions and actions reflect this belief. If directly challenged on their delusion, they may panic, become hostile, or turn inward and refuse to speak.
Hallucinations. The character occasionally experiences visions of a disturbing nature, typically related to the source of their trauma. These visions are often confusing or jarring, resulting in outbursts or tense silence.
Mania. The character becomes edgy, energetic, and prone to taking risks. They may chuckle randomly, talk to themselves, voice thoughts out loud, or embrace everything they see with suicidal enthusiasm.
Obsession. The character becomes obsessed with something to the point of distraction: an object, a person, an objective, or an activity. They may become frustrated if prevented from indulging in this obsession.
Paranoia. The character fears everything, constantly jumping at shadows and imagining worst-case scenarios. This eventually leads to being suspicious of nearly everyone.
Schizophrenia. The character hears voices, often indistinct and threatening, which cause anxiety. The character may talk to the voices, become agitated, or act like an imaginary friend (or enemy) is speaking to them.
Corruption
Sometimes adventurers encounter situations where they risk corruption by spiritual or psychic force. Corruption is measured on a scale of 1 to 10. As a character's corruption level increases they manifest symptoms. Barring special circumstances, these symptoms progress along the list below and are cumulative:
Minor edginess and unease.
Major edginess, unease, and rare hallucinations.
Physical illness and 1 level of exhaustion.
Minor derangement.
Minor mutations.
Minor alignment shift.
Major derangement and frequent hallucinations.
Major mutations.
Major alignment shift.
Altered identity.
At level 10 a character becomes an NPC under the Storyteller’s control. The effects of corruption only subside when a character's corruption level is reduced by supernatural means. Beyond this, ritual treatment by a zealot character and/or taking sanctuary on sacred ground or drinking sacred water will usually reduce corruption by 1 point per day.
Perception
Illumination. There are four levels of lighting: darkness, dim, bright, and blinding. Creatures with special visual abilities, such as dark sight or infravision, treat darkness and dim lighting as “bright” to a specific range.
Darkness. Stealth advantage. Possible blindness.
Dim. Perception disadvantage. Missile attack disadvantage.
Bright. No bonuses or penalties.
Blinding. Stealth disadvantage. Perception advantage. Missile attack disadvantage.
Darksight. Creatures with dark sight can see a certain distance (usually 60’) in environments without light. Darksight has no color; everything perceived is in black and white. Details are otherwise normal.
Infravision. Creatures with infravision see the world in heat gradients to a specific range (usually 60’). Infravision reveals creatures and objects as general shapes ranging in color from blue and black (cold) to red and orange (hot). Details are minimal. The main advantage of Infravision is its ability to spot warm-blooded creatures in dark environments easily. The residual heat left by warm-blooded creatures moving across cold surfaces can also be noticed within a few rounds of passing.
Ultravision. Creatures with ultravision can project a strange sort of illumination from their eyes, well beyond the visible range of most humanoids. While ultravision can reveal certain types of organisms, it is not ordinarily helpful in navigating the dark. Instead, it exposes traces of fluids that fluoresce, such as blood, even once they are no longer perceptible to normal vision. Creatures with the power to see in the ultraviolet spectrum are rare.
Scent. Creatures with this powerful ability have olfactory acuity on par with a wolf. This provides them access to a great deal of additional information; they can authenticate a being's identity by scent, track others with great efficiency, detect smoke or toxic gas before anyone else, sense changes in a creature's body chemistry (such as sickness or pregnancy), know if a person whose scent they are familiar with was recently in an area, and so forth. Virtually all creatures with a highly developed sense of smell are susceptible to blood, and they can detect spilled blood nearby with no rolls required. All living things also leave a cloud of scent particles in their wake, which linger for a variable time.
Travel
Travel Speed. First, the Storyteller must establish how many miles the party can travel daily. Physically fit characters traveling on foot in a group will move 20-30 miles daily, depending on the terrain. This is not meaningfully affected by individual party members’ foot speed because the vagaries of overland group travel even out over a day. Characters on horseback move at double this speed, averaging 40-60 miles daily. Truly exceptional horses can achieve speeds of up to 100 miles a day, but such animals are rare.
Encounter Checks. Rolling two encounter checks a day is proper if players travel through dangerous or poorly patrolled areas. The odds of an encounter will depend on the table used. Highly hazardous areas may require 3-5 encounter checks a day. An encounter table uses percentile die. Lower sections of the percentile range will indicate “no encounter”, while higher percentiles will indicate an encounter. Rarer encounters have fewer percentile points assigned to them.
Rations. A traveling party consumes 1 point of rations per person per day of travel. A single point of rations has a load value of 1. When calculating the supplies a party can carry, add up the total load capacity of all party members (add up their MIGHT scores) and establish a pool from which the party draws when traveling. Remember that a mount can carry substantially more load than a character. This is why most adventurers traveling long distances keep pack animals.
Safe Transport. Specific methods of travel are supposed to be safe and reliable. These include well-patrolled roads, armored stagecoaches, merchant caravans with plentiful mercenary guards, armed ships traveling well-established routes, etc. Characters using these methods of travel must often pay for the privilege, but bypass the need for encounter checks and food is typically provided. While high-level adventurers often develop extraordinary methods of travel, these services are still necessary.
Encumbrance
Encumbrance is calculated in terms of load. Every point of load represents approximately 5 lbs, but because encumbrance is partly based on how weight is distributed over the body this is not a rigid unit of measurement. Weapons, armor, and significant items all have a load score. Items without a load score are too lightweight or unobtrusive to impact mobility. A character's maximum load is equal to their might score. A large humanoid's maximum load equals 2x their might score. Larger creatures can haul exponentially more weight depending on their size, physiology, number of legs, etc. The narrator determines the exact encumbrance threshold of such creatures.
Carrying load beyond a character’s might cause encumbrance, cutting foot speed in half and imposing disadvantage on might and agility-based checks (including initiative, attack rolls, and reflex saves). This is very bad.
Mounts & Vehicles
It can be challenging for characters to carry cargo or treasure long distances, especially when they are laden with weapons, armor, rations, and tools. This is what vehicles and pack animals are for.
A typical mule or draft horse can comfortably haul 70 points of load. Mules are even-tempered and surefooted beasts with good stamina. They have a reputation for stubbornness because they have common sense, but most adventurers can easily manage a mule without special skills.
A two-wheeled cart drawn by a strong horse can carry 450 points of load. Carts are fast, highly maneuverable, fit into small spaces, and can safely haul two or three sleeping or injured adventurers if necessary. They are also pullable by a single mount, such as the one summoned by the steed spell. This makes them popular with adventurers.
A four-wheeled wagon pulled by two strong horses can haul close to 1200 points of load. Wagons are slow and cumbersome, so merchants and teamsters typically use them to haul goods long distances along roads and well-worn routes.
Trap Rules
Traps (Mundane). The fantasy genre is filled with elaborate traps requiring precision clockwork and colossal feats of engineering to create. In certain situations, these may be appropriate, but most traps created by humanoids can be made with a hatchet, a shovel, a knife, wood, stone, rope, and time. The following traps should be made available to all humanoids (including characters) with trapmaking tool proficiency or survival skill;
Alarm. The trap makes noise when triggered, alerting nearby creatures.
Deadfall. The trap drops a heavy load onto a given spot, such as a tree, a basket of rocks, a boulder, etc.
Foothold. The trap snares a target’s foot and restricts their movement, holding and possibly harming them.
Incendiary. The trap bursts a container of flammable liquid on the target while igniting it.
Pitfall. The trap is a covered pit, potentially with spikes or other hazards on the bottom.
Spikes. The trap is one or more concealed spikes, possibly in a slight depression in the ground.
Springbolt. The trap is a crossbow rigged up to fire at a given spot when a trigger is activated.
Tripwire. The trap is a thin wire at the foot or throat level to provoke an uncontrolled fall.
Other traps may be included in this list at the Storyteller's discretion. Spotting a trap is a secret perception check rolled by the storyteller against the trap’s stealth score. A trap's stealth score is 10 + the creator's proficiency modifier + the creator's intellect modifier. If a trap is particularly ingenious or the surroundings make it particularly hard to spot, the difficulty may be more severe at the Storyteller’s discretion. A trap's damage is largely circumstantial; dropping a basket of rocks onto an orc is far less lethal than dropping an oak tree onto one. Thus, a trap's damage is always subject to the Storyteller's approval.
Traps (Magical). Magical traps are different from mundane traps. They require an arcana roll to disarm and can be detected with a successful perception check or using spells like aura sight, truesight, or similar. Disarming a magical ward requires a basic understanding of how they work; wards create an intangible field centered on an anchoring glyph. This field is similar to a magnetic aura or a soap bubble. If an intruder gets too close the ward brushes their aura and attraction occurs or the bubble pops, triggering the effect. There are various arcane methods of tricking, misdirecting, or countering this hanging influence to “confuse” the programming of the glyph, causing it to short out without discharging.
The exact flavor text of this process should be worked out between the Storyteller and the players ahead of time. Perhaps the character positions multiple creatures with differing auras at the very edges of the ward in various spots, causing the power to bleed off without actually triggering. Perhaps they have stones or figurines in their toolkit with simple petty enchantments that create arcane resonance or confuse the ward into registering a computer-like error and shutting down. Whatever the rationale, this process is always an arcana check because it relies on knowledge of the mechanics of magical theory. For this reason, rogues who specialize in traps are encouraged to take the arcana skill. Remember that the arcana skill does not impart spellcasting ability; it is simply knowledge of spells and how magic works. Actual spellcasting is a special process accessible only to those rare individuals who are born with magical souls, receive divine or mystic investiture from outer planar entities, or endure the long and slow process of attenuating to cosmic energies that shape reality (enduring arcane rigor in the process).