This spell functions like symbol of death, except that each creature within the radius of a symbol of pain instead suffers wracking pains that impose a -4 penalty on attack rolls, skill checks, and ability checks. These effects last for 1 hour after the creature moves farther than 60 feet from the symbol.
Unlike symbol of death, symbol of pain has no hit point limit; once triggered, a symbol of pain simply remains active for 10 minutes per caster level.
Note: Magic traps such as symbol of pain are hard to detect and disable. A rogue (only) can use the Search skill to find a symbol of pain and Disable Device to thwart it. The DC in each case is 25 + spell level, or 30 for symbol of pain.