How to thwart the Druid's AC wolf's scent?

[Fiery Diamond]

Yeah. So I'm trying to think of ways of preventing the players from easily pinpointing where invisible characters are. I'm not terribly worried about Purge Invisibility or See Invisibility: the party consists of a druid//ranger, a sorcerer//rogue and an NPC-tagalong cleric//barbarian (basically a healbot/tank gish). I don't know if the sorcerer//rogue will take see invisibility or not, but I'll deal with that when I come to it. The real problem is that the druid//ranger has a wolf animal companion, and they've already once used it to pinpoint and chase an invisible character. I want to come up with ways to foil that.

First: Even if RAW would say that the wolf needs to take time sniffing the air or something instead of finding the invisible person automatically, I've already common-sense ruled that the wolf can pinpoint the square of the person so long as the person is within a double-move away.

Second: I'd like RAW techniques I could use, but I'd also like creative solutions that may or may not be supported by the rules.

Currently, I have only thought of one solution: use noxious/disabling scents in the vicinity to confuse the wolf's nose. I'd like some more options, though.

[Glimbur]

If the invisible character can fly or brachiate or has a burrow speed or (situationally) a swim speed or can teleport then the wolf is less useful.

A run action gets the invisible character more than a double move away from the wolf.

Alchemical solutions also exist, whether homebrewed or official (probably Races of the Wild or Arms and Equipment Guide).

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

There's a feat called Darkstalker in Lords of Madness, it has no prerequisites so it can be taken at 1st level.

[Dusk Eclipse]

One le el of warlock gives acces to tus entropic warding invocation which negates scent by RAW.

[The Dark Fiddler]

The SRD entry on scent. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#scent)

First of all, scent only function within 30 feet (or 15 or 60, depending on the wind direction). Second, it only determines the direction of the source (and if you ask me, that house-rule is not common sense at all, and actually seems a bit silly to me personally). Running water ruins a scent path, if the wolf is following one, and a powerful odor prevents the wolf from pinpointing any other scents.

[Fiery Diamond]

The SRD entry on scent. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#scent)

First of all, scent only function within 30 feet (or 15 or 60, depending on the wind direction). Second, it only determines the direction of the source (and if you ask me, that house-rule is not common sense at all, and actually seems a bit silly to me personally). Running water ruins a scent path, if the wolf is following one, and a powerful odor prevents the wolf from pinpointing any other scents.

Hm.... so limiting it to 30/15/60 feet would be in my best interest. To be honest, though, assuming a creature is detectable at all, I'd expect the creature to be able to be pinpointed (the square that the creature is in, at any rate)... not necessarily before moving, but since your perception of direction would continue to be updated during the middle of your move action, if the target was within your move range and within the scent range you should be able to place yourself adjacent to the target.

[NecroRick]

Running water ruins a scent path

Something worth noting if you are going for a more realistic set of rules than RAW:

The mythbusters guys disproved this. Going through running water actually made it _easier_ for the dogs to track them, not harder.

Additionally, when they came to the water where the target had gone in (doing that wade upstream trick) they had zero difficulty continuing to track them.

- presumably the running water didn't somehow magnetically suck all the scent molecules floating in the air into the water and carry them away.

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For nerfing Druids, my favourite is to restrict them to animal forms for their shapechanging. And then let them cast natural spell all they want. "Oh no! A bear is casting spells! My campaign is ruined!" is not something you'll hear me say.

As for the invisibility trick, it sounds like you want to have re-occuring villains who sweep in, molest the party, and then make their getaway. Alternately, that you've crossed a line somewhere and these NPCs are actually more DM-PCs.

Invisibility as a 'solution' is only going to work for so long, it isn't the same as invulnerability. If you use it to torture the players too long they will adapt their tactics.

[Salanmander]

Hm.... so limiting it to 30/15/60 feet would be in my best interest. To be honest, though, assuming a creature is detectable at all, I'd expect the creature to be able to be pinpointed (the square that the creature is in, at any rate)... not necessarily before moving, but since your perception of direction would continue to be updated during the middle of your move action, if the target was within your move range and within the scent range you should be able to place yourself adjacent to the target.

Ah, there's the difference. Yes, you can pinpoint it /if you get within 5 feet of it/. However, the move action to detect direction is taken in place, so you need to be moving slowly (one move action per round). Think of a wolf taking some time to sniff around for what it's interested in.

[Flame of Anor]

Remove Scent (Spell Compendium, page 173)
Brd 1, Rgr 1, Drd 1, Sor/Wiz 1

[Flickerdart]

Strong scents ruin Scent, so pack some vials of sulfur and chuck 'em around before engaging.

[Toliudar]

If your invisible opponent is an arcanist, you could give them an Imp familiar. If the PC's are coming to expect invisible-bad guy tactics, they might follow an invisible imp, thinking he's the BBEG, and then get surprised when they get ambushed from another direction.

[ericgrau]

Potion of Hide From Animals (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/hideFromAnimals.htm) for only 50 gp, 10 minutes
Major Image (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/majorImage.htm)
Veil (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/majorImage.htm)

Though ya your house-ruled over-boosted scent is an issue. I dunno what your common sense is but I'm pretty sure my dog can't smell that well. Knowing a scent is in a general direction then pinpointing it after you get closer (but without negating the 50% concealment) seems reasonable. There are also survival rules for tracking via scent for ranges greater than the RAW scent range.

[ImperatorK]

There's a feat called Darkstalker in Lords of Madness, it has no prerequisites so it can be taken at 1st level.
I second this. It's the best bet.

[Leon]

A Oil of Scallatine scent bomb

[Kittenwolf]

Hm.... so limiting it to 30/15/60 feet would be in my best interest. To be honest, though, assuming a creature is detectable at all, I'd expect the creature to be able to be pinpointed (the square that the creature is in, at any rate)... not necessarily before moving, but since your perception of direction would continue to be updated during the middle of your move action, if the target was within your move range and within the scent range you should be able to place yourself adjacent to the target.

Remember though, Scent isn't like sight, something's scent lingers. If someone is moving there is no way that a creature with scent is going to be able to pinpoint your square unless they're right next to you. :)

Also, as people have said, just use a vial/bomb of another strong scent. Peppermint is an excellent candidate.

[Coidzor]

When in doubt, hit up your Pratchett, his novels focused on the Watch have dealt with this sort of thing on a number of occasions. Peppermint bombs or other sources of very, very powerful scents/odors to overpower the ability of the animal to track the smell or pinpoint its source, at least within the area of effect of the scent/bomb, is definitely one way to wrangle that.