Keen Scent

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  • Range: 60 feet
  • Requires Line of Sight? No
  • Requires Line of Effect? Yes
  • Usable for Combat Targeting? Yes, but target has partial concealment (20% miss chance)
  • Bonus/Penalty vs. Stealth? Survival check at +2. If detected, target has partial concealment (20% miss chance)
  • Ignores Invisibility? Yes


Description: Keen scent allows a creature to detect and identify all creatures within 60 feet of them without the need for a Survival check. Detected creatures need not be within line of sight, but a line of effect must exist, and the path of that effect cannot exceed the 60 foot range. If the target is upwind, the range is 120 feet. If it is downwind, the range is 30 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.

Keen scent does not provide any knowledge of a detected creature other than its location and whether nor not it is familiar. However, it allows the detecting creature to make lore checks against unfamiliar creatures, and recognize individuals it has previously encountered.

Keen scent marks the squares that enemy and allied creatures are in, but all detected creatures retain concealment (20% miss chance) when targeted in combat. If a creature is stealthing, the creature with Keen Scent must roll a Survival check with a +2 bonus, with a DC equal to the stealth check result. Invisibility grants no benefits to a stealthed creature against a Keen Scent Survival check.

A creature with keen scent may also use the Survival skill to follow tracks by smell, making a Survival check to find or follow a track. A creature with the keen scent ability can attempt to follow tracks using Survival untrained. 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 Survival skill in regards to tracking. Creatures tracking by keen scent ignore the effects of surface conditions and poor visibility.

A creature with keen scent that can also breathe underwater can notice other creatures by scent in a 180-foot radius underwater and can detect blood in the water at ranges of up to a mile.