I have some questions as to exactly how Scent works. I know there have been threads on this before, but none of them seemed to give an definitive, official answer and considering I need this for Pathfinder Society play I need to use the official ruling.
In our Pathfinder Society game we have a player who is a Level 1 Druid and took the snake animal companion. This snake has the scent special quality (as per the Druid section in chapter 3 of the Core Rulebook). The player argues that the ability is automatic, and anything within 30 feet his snake can smell without a check. Quite frankly this seems obscene and after reading the rules on it in the Bestiary I'm still not sure if he's correct or not.
The interpretations I've seen on the forums with my searching are ether automatic or something along the lines of 'it still requires a check, but it is able to preceve things that have a scent where it normally wouldn't, for example in total darkness'.
If I could I'd opt for the latter choice, but as a Pathfinder Society event am I even allowed to do that? What is the official ruling?
This should do ya.
I have some questions as to exactly how Scent works. I know there have been threads on this before, but none of them seemed to give an definitive, official answer and considering I need this for Pathfinder Society play I need to use the official ruling.
In our Pathfinder Society game we have a player who is a Level 1 Druid and took the snake animal companion. This snake has the scent special quality (as per the Druid section in chapter 3 of the Core Rulebook). The player argues that the ability is automatic, and anything within 30 feet his snake can smell without a check. Quite frankly this seems obscene and after reading the rules on it in the Bestiary I'm still not sure if he's correct or not.
The interpretations I've seen on the forums with my searching are ether automatic or something along the lines of 'it still requires a check, but it is able to preceve things that have a scent where it normally wouldn't, for example in total darkness'.
If I could I'd opt for the latter choice, but as a Pathfinder Society event am I even allowed to do that? What is the official ruling?
It automatically knows something is there if it is within 30' (60' if it is downwind from the source of the smell, 15' if it is upwind). It does not know WHERE the source of the smell is, just that there is a creature within 30' of it. The snake can then spend a move action to make a perception check to pinpoint the creature.
There are ways around this, as well, such as the spell Negate Aroma
I have some questions as to exactly how Scent works. I know there have been threads on this before, but none of them seemed to give an definitive, official answer and considering I need this for Pathfinder Society play I need to use the official ruling.
The player is correct. The snake knows that SOMETHING is somewhere. It can probably tell what it is if it has a scent. How much it relays to the druid is up to you, but it probably should rattle a warning or hiss to the druid.
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Stephen Radney-MacFarland (Designer), Sep 20, 2011, 02:21 PM
If it is within range, it is automatic. Stealth doesn't help you when going up against a creature that has scent. That's the long and short of it.