Does my 9th level Orc Barbarian have Precise Scent, Acute Scent, or Imprecise Scent while raging??


Advice


I'm building a 9th level Orc Barbarian for an upcoming campaign and I took the Feral Child Background which grants Imprecise Scent 30ft... I also took the following Barbarian Class Feats:

- ACUTE SCENT: No Prerequisites: When your anger is heightened, your sense of smell improves. While you’re raging, you gain imprecise scent with a range of
30 feet.

- SUPERNATURAL SENSES: Prerequisites Acute Scent or scent:
Your scent is preternaturally sharp, and you can always rely
on your sense of smell to help guide you when your vision
is compromised. When you target a concealed or hidden
opponent while you are raging, you reduce the DC of the flat
check to 3 for a concealed target or to 9 for a hidden one.

- NOCTURNAL SENSES: Prerequisites low-light vision or scent
Your senses gain even greater clarity. While raging, if you have
low-light vision you gain darkvision, and if you have scent the
range of your imprecise scent increases to 60 feet.

- INSTINCTIVE STRIKE: Prerequisites Acute Scent or scent
You trust your instincts and your sense of smell, using all your
senses to pinpoint your opponent’s location. When you make
a melee Strike against an opponent you’re detecting using
scent, ignore any flat check required due to the target being
concealed or hidden.

My question here is Am I even qualified for these feats (beyond the first) which require Acute Scent or Scent when I only have Imprecise Scent?

Dark Archive

All but Nocturnal Senses reference the Acute Scent ability by name, and for that one i guess it is an error and should also be "Acute Scent" instead of only Scent.
You should qualify for all of them.


The word "Acute" isn't a keyword category. Senses are either vague, precise, or imprecise. None of these feats upgrade scent above imprecise, which means you've largely sunk a bunch of feats into redundant things covered by your background. Generally you can assume nothing stacks unless the effect specifically says so. Your low-light being upgraded to dark vision specifically says so, and scent does not. So open and shut case.

Instinctive Strike works fine-- letting you ignore flat checks to target hidden or concealed for strikes. Supernatural Senses does so little once you have Instinctive Strike I'm surprised one isn't a prerequisite for the other. It just lets you lower the flat checks when you target enemies for anything other than strikes. Athletics action like grapple being the easiest example. You could also argue only the flavor text mentions smelling the enemy so it applies even if you can't RAW, but that feels like a stretch by RAI.

Nocturnal Senses gives you a longer range on your scent, which is pretty niche since it only applies while raging. (Ie it won't warn you if someone is sneaking up outside of combat.) The Acute Sense feat does nothing for you.

I would ditch every class feat but instinctive strike if I were you. One of the cool things about scent is some GMs will let you sniff enemies within 15 feet of a door. They might even let you try and identify the creature with a Recall Knowledge check with a hard or very hard adjustment. Sadly you don't get that with the raging sense feats only applying in combat. It is much better to get scent which is always on through a background, or better yet a heritage or ancestry feat. Feral Child costing you an ability boost is expensive. Some build concepts might not be able to spare stuff from the ancestry side but there are very few ancestry abilities worth giving up multiple class feats for.


Dr. Frank Funkelstein wrote:

All but Nocturnal Senses reference the Acute Scent ability by name, and for that one i guess it is an error and should also be "Acute Scent" instead of only Scent.

You should qualify for all of them.

Thanks, thats what I suspected but wanted other's opinions before I commit to anything.


Captain Morgan wrote:

The word "Acute" isn't a keyword category. Senses are either vague, precise, or imprecise. None of these feats upgrade scent above imprecise, which means you've largely sunk a bunch of feats into redundant things covered by your background. Generally you can assume nothing stacks unless the effect specifically says so. Your low-light being upgraded to dark vision specifically says so, and scent does not. So open and shut case.

Instinctive Strike works fine-- letting you ignore flat checks to target hidden or concealed for strikes. Supernatural Senses does so little once you have Instinctive Strike I'm surprised one isn't a prerequisite for the other. It just lets you lower the flat checks when you target enemies for anything other than strikes. Athletics action like grapple being the easiest example. You could also argue only the flavor text mentions smelling the enemy so it applies even if you can't RAW, but that feels like a stretch by RAI.

Nocturnal Senses gives you a longer range on your scent, which is pretty niche since it only applies while raging. (Ie it won't warn you if someone is sneaking up outside of combat.) The Acute Sense feat does nothing for you.

I would ditch every class feat but instinctive strike if I were you. One of the cool things about scent is some GMs will let you sniff enemies within 15 feet of a door. They might even let you try and identify the creature with a Recall Knowledge check with a hard or very hard adjustment. Sadly you don't get that with the raging sense feats only applying in combat. It is much better to get scent which is always on through a background, or better yet a heritage or ancestry feat. Feral Child costing you an ability boost is expensive. Some build concepts might not be able to spare stuff from the ancestry side but there are very few ancestry abilities worth giving up multiple class feats for.

Thanks for your advice. I see what you mean about redundancy... It seems I would save a bunch of feats by sticking with Instinctive Strike and the imprecise scent I get from the Feral Child background. Thanks again for analyzing my situation.

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