Make a smell check!

[Volug]

Yes, this is about smell checks. Mostly a question however.

I usually treated most as automatic and didn't really give this kind a thing a dice roll. Though, in a recent campaign I was doing the other day it was possible to actually make one.

There were a group of assasins (were-creatures, mostly wolfs), and of course trying to assasinate our group. Being lycanthropes that prefered animal forms to their human ones, they were smell-able a mile away if you were in a town. This did take place in a town, but they covered themselves in something that covered most of their smell to avoid detection. They worked under cover of night (and full moon) and avoided complete detection from spot and listen checks. The result ended with my Battle Sorcerer being infected with Lycanthropy, and a close death to our bard.

I started talking with everyone once this happened, and said that if there was some kind of smell check, all this could have been avoided. It wouldn't have been automatic, since they covered their scents. Though, it would have still been possible.

So on with the question, say there was a "Smell check". Would it use wisdom? I thought possibly something else, though wisdom seems to be the one.

Other opinions about the "smell check"?

[Fax Celestis]

Just do a Wisdom check, with a healthy circumstance bonus for the Scent ability.

[Leadfeathermcc]

When they are moving around town, perhaps you could make a Scent Motive check. . .

[Corlis]

Just do a Wisdom check, with a healthy circumstance bonus for the Scent ability.

And maybe let them use the +2 bonus from Alertness too.

[Volug]

Just do a Wisdom check, with a healthy circumstance bonus for the Scent ability.

((Alright, I told my DM that scent uses Charisma! Looks like I'm right ... Again ))

Thats the impression I got, though my DM likes proof. And alot of opinions from others.

He also doesn't like the fact my wisdom is now 17 and charisma 18. He said that it was supposed to be CON for the smell check. Since I think he didn't like me getting such good stats in the right places

*Adds check mark to list*
20 for me, -5 for the DM (Yes, he has -5)

[Fax Celestis]

Why Con? Con isn't perceptive. Con is stamina, physical toughness, &c. Wis is perception and insight.

[Volug]

Why Con? Con isn't perceptive. Con is stamina, physical toughness, &c. Wis is perception and insight.

Thats what I told him. Though for some reason he REALLY wants to prove me wrong one of these days.

His point for using CON?

Because I said so!

I'm going to like my smell check

[Drider]

Why Con? Con isn't perceptive. Con is stamina, physical toughness, &c. Wis is perception and insight.

I was in a joke campaign that switched stats around(bards used str to cast,clerics use con to cast, wizards use cha) that this might've made sense in

[Fax Celestis]

Dwarf Fighter: "I'm so tough I can pick out the scent of the vanilla you cooked with yesterday."

[Tokiko Mima]

For really, really strong and very foul odors, using Constitution makes sense. Though I would think it would be better to substitute a Fort save versus passing out in that case.

[Volug]

For really, really strong and very foul odors, using Constitution makes sense. Though I would think it would be better to substitute a Fort save versus passing out in that case.

Yep. The idea behind it is, if you get a natural twenty (or just a normal roll in some cases) and if the smell is bad... you may need to do a fort save or become sickened. Possibly passing out if it is REALLY bad.

Something along those lines.

[Rockphed]

I would suggest a survival check to identify a smell as being related to something. Or a craft(alchemy) check for an alchemical substance. A straight wisdom check will normally work, though it doesn't allow for much in the way of improvement, and whoever heard of the priest being the best at smelling the villian?

[horseboy]

I'd really think that a "search" roll, only with some interesting modifiers.

[Tallis]

I seem to remember the scent ability using a spot check. That doesn't make much sense to me, but a wisdom check would work.

[Aquaseafoam]

If d20srd was working for me right now, I could point exactly to where it says Scent uses wisdom. I also seem to remember it working off of the survival skill, at least for tracking purposes.

[horseboy]

If d20srd was working for me right now, I could point exactly to where it says Scent uses wisdom. I also seem to remember it working off of the survival skill, at least for tracking purposes.

Survival is for tracking, so that's constant. Though I really don't think I use wilderness skills when I'm finding my girlfriend by her perfume. Ah, good enough for government work.

[Aquaseafoam]

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#scent

It seems I was wrong, there is no check. Automatic success within a certain distance.

[Volug]

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#scent

It seems I was wrong, there is no check. Automatic success within a certain distance.

Yeah, though I was talking about "Special situations".

Where you might, or might not smell it. I already knew it was Automatic.

[DeathQuaker]

Making sure I get this right... you're talking about PCs being able to smell something unusual?

Since it involves being aware of something unusual, I'd have them roll "Spot," maybe with a -2 (or 4) penalty since they're using their olfactory senses rather than their eyes (but someone who's trained to be alert, i.e. has ranks in Spot, should still have a better chance to notice than someone who doesn't have said ranks).

However, if you don't like using spot, I'd, as others suggest, resort to a Wisdom check, since it involves awareness of surroundings.

If this is about the lycanthropes scenting the PCs, if they have the "Scent" trait, they can use Spot, Search, or Survival to notice, find, or track the PCs, no penalties.

[Reinboom]

Wisdom would be your perceptive ability, and you can even make a case for the fact that many creatures with scent and track use survival for it - which is wisdom based.
So, I agree with nearly everyone else.

[Craig1f]

We had a campaign in which a long-time player played a feral elf frenzied berserker. I know, no one should be allowed to play berserker, ever, but he did a good job of it.

Anyway, we RP'd that he had a good sense of smell. But he didn't actually have the scent ability. He had tracking, and a high survival skill though, so when he tracked someone, it was RP'd that he did it by scent, not by actually looking at tracks.

[Telonius]

Not too many rules on this. From the SRD, the only thing I could find was the Scent ability.

Spoiler

Show

This extraordinary ability lets a creature detect approaching enemies, sniff out hidden foes, and track by sense of smell.

A creature with the scent ability can detect opponents by sense of smell, generally within 30 feet. If the opponent is upwind, the range is 60 feet. If it is downwind, the range is 15 feet. Strong scents, such as smoke or rotting garbage, can be detected at twice the ranges noted above. Overpowering scents, such as skunk musk or troglodyte stench, can be detected at three times these ranges.

The creature detects another creature’s presence but not its specific location. Noting the direction of the scent is a move action. If it moves within 5 feet of the scent’s source, the creature can pinpoint that source.

A creature with the Track feat and the scent ability can follow tracks by smell, making a Wisdom check to find or follow a track. The typical DC for a fresh trail is 10. The DC increases or decreases depending on how strong the quarry’s odor is, the number of creatures, and the age of the trail. For each hour that the trail is cold, the DC increases by 2. The ability otherwise follows the rules for the Track feat. Creatures tracking by scent ignore the effects of surface conditions and poor visibility.

Creatures with the scent ability can identify familiar odors just as humans do familiar sights.

Water, particularly running water, ruins a trail for air-breathing creatures. Water-breathing creatures that have the scent ability, however, can use it in the water easily.

False, powerful odors can easily mask other scents. The presence of such an odor completely spoils the ability to properly detect or identify creatures, and the base Survival DC to track becomes 20 rather than 10.

I believe the Gnome racial +2 to Alchemy was justified by them having a strong sense of smell; but this is fluff and not present in the SRD. Check out your PHB for it, they may have changed this since 3.0.

So, the Scent extraordinary ability lets you smell things automatically. You can track by smell if you have the both the Scent ability and the Track feat by making a Wisdom check. If you don't have both the scent ability and the Track feat, you can't track by smell.

[Riffington]

It should clearly be a Survival check as stated before.
Of course, all survival skills are somewhat useful in a city - never know when you might want to make a pillow fort - but in general hunters and trackers use their senses of smell much more than citydwellers.
Feral races, animals, and anything with scent should have a large bonus to the roll, since the human sense of smell has atrophied so much.

[shaggz076]

I think things are getting into the realm of confusion here. I hear some people mention a Survival check and others search and spot and even other straight Wisdom rolls.

To clear up the first issue. Survival is coming up due to "Track by Scent" which is granted to creatures with the scent ability. other than that Spot is used since Spot used to notice something amiss except for sounds (Which is a listen check of course). The DM in the end is able to assign whatever he wants to a "smell" check but common sense would dictate at the very least a Wisdom check if not a modified spot check. Don't forget though if one of your players is a Druid and has the wildshape ability that was used during the story, he should have automatically detected it if the creature he became had the scent ability. There would be other clues too though. The animals in the town would be acting really funny if there were unnatural creatures like lycanthropes in the town. Dogs would be growling, cats hissing and horses would be skittish. Hints like this should have been dropped as well since they would have been very subtle hints that something was amiss.

[Lolzords]

I'd say a wisdom check with a bonus for being a gnome (sensitive nose, mentions in the PHB) and a bonus for having scent, as was said.

[Istari]

I think making smell its own skill might just be easier. It most likely would be based off of wisdom.