Is there any piece of equipment or spell that can hide a creatures type from the scan of the biohacker's microlab. It looks like it will blow through disguise self.
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It's the kind of thing that needs a good GM to adjudicate it.
As written, yeah it kinda blows right through it.
However, a GM should probably say something like 'your microlab detects that the humanoid in front of you has a breath weapon and is resistant to magic, possibly from augmentations' instead of 'your mircolab tells you the person in front of you is a dragon.'
Just to give you the benefit of your class ability without also negating disguises.
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The Biohacker microlab doesn't have any ability to blow through disguises that the identify creature option of knowledge skills doesn't. If the biohacker can blow through the disgiuse of a rare grey alien, then anyone off the street can look and go "hey that's not an elf it's a human with pointy rubber ears." with a DC 10 life science check even if the other individual scored a 40 on their disguise check.
That... doesn't seem right. Which makes me think knowledge skills, and thus the microlab, aren't supposed to work that way.
You can use Disguise to change your appearance with 1d3 × 10 minutes of work with a disguise kit, by casting a spell such as disguise self, or by using a technological device such as a holoskin. The GM rolls the Disguise check in secret, so you’re not sure how good your disguise is. This check is opposed by the Perception check (see Perception) of anyone who might realize that you are not who you appear to be
Disguised as a different race of the same creature type +2 to +8
Disguised as a different creature type +10
Disguised as a different size category +10
RAW disguising yourself as a different race gives a +2 to +8 bonus to the perception check to spot you. Nothing else. Definitely not you can be auto spotted with a life science DC to identify your race. The RAW makes mechanical and in game sense here. If you know DNA scanners are a thing your disguise kid and illusion spells fool them somehow. And a hyper rare shade of blue refracted into a prism isn't harder to identify as "not an elf" than a human because they're a dc 45 to identify rather than a DC 10...
This is a good queston. It brings up the idea of just using the Identify action, rather then perception to see through a disguise.
Personally since you are identifying something at range without stuff like DNA I would say they Identify the Disguise. Your target is a human, he has successfully used disguise to hide as a Vesk (Not an easy task, but for this example he has). If you use the identify action I would give you intel on a Vesk, not the human.
The way I look at it is a minor side ability shouldn't completely negate the abilities of higher level stuff.
Mechanically, you could allow the attempt to Identify to allow a reroll on the Perception to see through the disguise as the user is actively doing something to study them.
In my games I run it just as written.
As long as you have your custom microlab, as a move action you can target a creature within your line of sight and within the microlab’s range (60 feet at 1st level) and attempt a special skill check to identify it. If the creature is living, this is a Life Science check. If it is unliving, it’s a Physical Science check. The DC of this check is determined by the creature’s rarity, as presented on the Creature Rarity table on page 133 of the Core Rulebook. You can attempt this check untrained regardless of the DC, and you always treat your die roll result as a 20.
It says nothing about the creature being disguised or not. So to me the creature being disguised or not is irrelevant.
You are not using perception to see through a disguise.
You are using science to ID a creature.
Two completely different processes.
I agree with Garretmander 100% on how to reveal information on a disguised creature and adjudicate it that way.
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It says nothing about the creature being disguised or not.
Is that really a viable expectation? It's a very brief description of how the item works. Can you reasonably expect it to go into such a corner case as a disguised individual? It doesn't say anything about a polymorphed individual either. Is this supposed to spot shapeshifters as well?
Rules in this game are nested. The biolab refers you to the creature ID rules, and tells you to use those as if you had rolled a 20 to ID the creature.
You can't just make an argument in one direction from one piece of data.
You are using science to ID a creature.
Two completely different processes.
But ANYONE can use biological knowledge to identify a creature. The only difference is they need to roll as opposed to just plopping the die down with the 20 up. By your argument a human can't disguise themselves as anything else, no matter how high their score or what equipment they use (including physically changing their shape), because half of john Q public can get a 10 on a life science check without any training at all.
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Is that really a viable expectation? It's a very brief description of how the item works. Can you reasonably expect it to go into such a corner case as a disguised individual? It doesn't say anything about a polymorphed individual either. Is this supposed to spot shapeshifters as well?
At my table yes it is. Because of the brief description on how it works it leaves me the GM to fill in the details on how I believe it works in my table.
It clearly states it is a special skill check. Not a normal one. So I treat it as special.
For polymorphed creatures I have ruled at my table that you take on the scientific characteristics of the form that they have been changed into.
So human polymorphed into a horse while show up on the microlab as a horse.
As a rule of thumb at my table shapeshifters (depending on the description of how they shape change) would ID as the form they are currently in with every 5 exceeding reveal something odd or off about the creature.
Rules in this game are nested. The biolab refers you to the creature ID rules, and tells you to use those as if you had rolled a 20 to ID the creature.
Yes rules are nested and interact with each other. I am well aware.
You can't just make an argument in one direction from one piece of data.
I actually was not making an argument. I was stating how I rule at at my table. I am not telling anyone that does it differently than I do the are wrong nor am I stating that my way is the only way it should be done.
Just stating how I rule it. No more no less.
But ANYONE can use biological knowledge to identify a creature. The only difference is they need to roll as opposed to just plopping the die down with the 20 up. By your argument a human can't disguise themselves as anything else, no matter how high their score or what equipment they use (including physically changing their shape), because half of john Q public can get a 10 on a life science check without any training at all.
Yes anyone can, but only the biohacker with a microlab can ID disguised creatures.
Everyone else has to get through the disguise first and then can attempt to ID a creature.
That's how I run it at my table.
I understand that you don't like it and disagree.
I am not trying to change your mind and you are not going to change mine.