Minotaur question [3.5/PF]

[Tanuki Tales]

The question I have is about the Minotaur's Natural Cunning ability (which I'll copy/paste here for reference's sake).

Although minotaurs are not especially intelligent, they possess innate cunning and logical ability. This gives them immunity to maze spells and prevents them from ever becoming lost. Further, they are never caught flat-footed.

Now, how far does this ability actually extend? To what point of reference does the ability follow to prevent a Minotaur getting lost? Does it simply know which direction is north at all times or would a foe fleeing it never lose its pursuer no matter how hard it tried to obscure its tracks?

[odder]

no I do not believe that it grant's the minotaur somekind of über-track when tracking people I just think it means that it can never get lost = it always knows where it is in a maze, shrubbery etc.

[bloodtide]

Well, they can't become lost.

It's a little vague.

But it sure does not give the minotaur super magical abilities.

And tracking a creature has nothing to do with getting 'lost', so it's no aid to tracking.

The very simple way-'A minotaur knows north'

The simple way-The minotaur 'always knows where it is' from any starting point. So if they entered a 'mysterious forest' they could always more north away from the spot they entered the forest.


It can get a bit confusing. Say the minotaur was ship wrecked somewhere, would he be 'lost' or would he somehow know where he is?

And how about teleport?


The best way might to just be to make the lost thing for Mazes only.

[dgnslyr]

Well, I interpret it as Minotaurs have an excellent sense of direction. A Minotaur knows which was is north, about how far it moved, and in what direction, regardless of how repetitive the terrain is.

A ship-wrecked minotaur would still know approximately where he is, because he would have a good idea of what direction he traveled, how fast, and for how long, making it that much easier to reach civilization.

Teleportation makes a lot of things silly though, so it's hard to say. Maybe, based on the difference in time of day, the minotaur knows approximately how far east or west he is from his origin? At that point, though, it gets increasingly silly, though not entirely so for a mythical creature.

[Dark_Nohn]

Personally, I'd think they'd gain a survival bonus for circumstantially not tracking. What I'd rule it as, as a DM, is that intelligence checks for stuff like mapreading, while finding their way through dungeons and mazes (no matter the complexity,) is an automatic success... but to what end, such as puzzles that are maze-like or have maze parts, I wouldn't know what to do.

[Admiral Squish]

I kinda want to play a minotaur explorer that want to map the entire world, now.

[Coidzor]

Minotaurs all have magic schmaps inside their brains.

That is to say, they've got perfect minimaps in their heads.

[Nero24200]

To me, it always surgested that minotaurs may have eidetic memories, meaning that if you locked one in a maze he would be able to map out routes very easily in his head.

[Runestar]

I kinda want to play a minotaur explorer that want to map the entire world, now.

If you are never ever going to get lost, how are you going to discover new places by accident?

[faceroll]

Minotaurs always find their way home. Not knowing where you are is different than being lost, as lost implies that you don't know how to get where you are going.

[Tanuki Tales]

For the people who said it wouldn't affect tracking, generally when a quarry tries to no longer be followed it will try tricks like back tracking or leaving false tracks in several directions to confuse its pursuer.

I'm not postulating that a Minotaur would truly never lose its prey, just that it would require the trail going utterly cold (going through a river, switching to jumping tree to tree, flying away, etc.) because general misdirection of a quarry would require the one following it to fall for the false trails and become lost.

[Elfin]

Of course, I always found this pretty ironic, since the very reason the original minotaur was put in a maze is because it couldn't find the way out.

But I guess minotaurs have learned better since then.

[big teej]

Minotaurs always find their way home. Not knowing where you are is different than being lost, as lost implies that you don't know how to get where you are going.

I think this is what I'm gonna go with if it ever comes up in my world.

[Urpriest]

Minotaurs always find their way home. Not knowing where you are is different than being lost, as lost implies that you don't know how to get where you are going.

I could totally see this as a children's book: The Minotaur Who Couldn't Find His Way Home.

[LibraryOgre]

You can lose a minotaur, but a minotaur never gets lost. You can run away, obscure your trail with pepper, climb a sheer wall of adamantine, teleport away, whatever, and the minotaur can't find you.

However, he'll know where he is. He can get back to where he was. If you teleport him somewhere else, he'll be able to start from the new teleport point and find his way around, and will probably quickly figure out where he is in relation to where he started, if they're on the same planet.