Smell Resistance

[Wizzardman]

Okay, here's a question that's been bugging me for a while:

How do you rule 'smell checks'?

I mean, you have a listen check, and you have a spot check, but how do you determine whether a person can sense a faint smell in the air or not? Is it just a wisdom check with a bonus for having Scent, or what?

[Jasdoif]

I'd say just let them smell it, if there's no real benefit to detecting the scent.

If there is a benefit to it, they should have the Scent ability to try at all. Scent uses Wisdom checks, when checks are needed.

[nerulean]

This one comes up surprisingly often in our campaigns. Sometimes the check is to notice a faint smell, and sometimes it's to identify a strong one, and the check is different depending on which it is. To notice a smell I give the check as Wis mod+d20, but one of our other DMs lets you average your spot and listen ranks and use smell as if it was a skill with that many ranks. Either works, provided you fiddle the DC accordingly. It's usually an Int or Knowledge check to identify a smell that you can definitely smell.

[Yeril]

Wis+D20 for me, thats what I used when my PC's were in a sewers, to see if they could pick out the direction of the stench leading to the Ougute... Otuqgue... the thingy its orange and has 3 legs and tentacles and a big mouth...

[Kaelaroth]

We did it by Survival... or Profession (cookery).

[Matthew]

I would go with a Wisdom Check.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Totally Wis check.

Wisdom == Perception (And about a hundred other things, but that's for another thread.)

[Arbitrarity]

A previous DM of a friend of mine added "smell" as a skill, interestingly.

[DaMullet]

Otyugh, Yeril?

[Orzel]

Wis check for normies, Survival check for those with Scent.

[ndragonsbane]

I use this constantly for some reason. I have a smell skill (which is not a class skill for any class) based on wisdom. Granted no-one takes the skill and I always set the DC's between 5-15 (usually with an intelligence check to remember if they'd smelled it before).

[Clove]

I think i remember reading somewhere that gnomes get a +2 bonus for identifying chemicals or potions or something because of their sense of smell... I might be wrong.

[UserClone]

It's a +2 to Craft (alchemy) checks, due to gnomes' keen sense of smell.

Also, I would say if it were important to know if they smell something, make a DC 5-10 WIS check. Those who pass it make an INT check to recognize it. Those with scent can TRACK by scent with survival, if they notice it in the first place (though they would prolly get a heavy circumstance bonus to the initial WIS check, and to the INT check to recognize).
But that's just me.

[bugsysservant]

I seem to recall a study where humans were blindfolded and made to crawl through a field, following a dragged chocolate bar by scent alone. As I recall, they pretty much all suceeded phenomenally, so really, all humans should have the scent ability when prone and moving at about five feet/round.