Author Topic: Making Sense of Senses an Alternate Rule.  (Read 1358 times)

Offline Lanth Sor

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Making Sense of Senses an Alternate Rule.
« on: August 02, 2019, 12:20:32 AM »
Over the years playing 3.5 and pathfinder something has slowly become a nagging little thumb sticking out. Why are things like darkvision, listed in ranges of feet when they are alternate versions of sight or hearing. Below is my proposed fix to this quam, with a clear guide line to apply. This change can be used to implement alternate perceptions like demon hunter sight in warcraft lore.


Senses
There are many different senses that define how creatures perceive and interact with he world around them. Senses include; Dark Vision, Hearing, Low-light Vision, Sight, Smell, Sonar, Soul Sight, Taste, Touch, Tremor Sense.

Each sense a race has as an innate rating determining how difficult checks are with that sense. For humans and any race that does not specify otherwise the default ratings are as follows; Hearing (Average), Low-light Vision (Bad), Sight (average), Smell (Bad), Taste (Average), Touch (Average). Any rating not listed is humans are blind.


RatingSkill
Modifier
Effect
Blind/Deaf Checks cannot be made
Bad –8 Penalties are multiplied by 4
Poor –4 Penalties are multiplied by 2
Average +0 Use default DC rules
Good +4 Penalties are halved
Extraordinary +8 Penalties are divided by 4
Legendary +12 Penalties are divided by 8
Mythic +16 Penalties are divided by 16
Godly +20 No penalties
Even godly detection methods cannot overcome things that make you blind/deaf, IE. a solid blindfold, broken ear drums, sensory deprivation tank, faraday cage, fog, brick wall, etc.

Translating 3.5 and pathfinder
Less than 30ft is Bad
30ft+ is Poor
60ft+ is Average
90ft+ is Good
120ft+ is Extraordinary
240ft+ is Legendary
480ft+ is Mythic
960ft+ is Godly

Darkvision 60ft is Darkvision (Average)
Darkvision 120ft is Darkvision (Good)
Bat Swarm Blindsense 20t is Blindsense (Bad) or echolocation
Dragon Blindsense 60t is Blindsense (Average) or echolocation
normal Low-light Vision is Low-light Vision (Poor)
Dragon Low-light Vision is Low-light Vision (Average)
Orc Scent is Scent (Poor)
Wolf & Dog Scent is Scent (Average)
See in Darkness is Darkvision matching their normal sight that can also work in magical darkness
« Last Edit: August 02, 2019, 10:11:15 PM by Lanth Sor »

Offline Nanshork

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Re: Making Sense of Senses an Alternate Rule.
« Reply #1 on: August 02, 2019, 08:30:09 PM »
If you mean distance penalties for the effect you should write distance penalties.  There are lots of other penalties you could have to a skill check.

For the "translating" section, it should be a lot more generalized and not focus on specific creatures. Blindsense 20ft is bad but what is a dragon's blindsense of 60ft?