Staff Rulling: Can Dragons Detect Other Dragons?

[*Vault 101]

It seems like Blindsense would be a lot closer to it, and we have that feat in the toolset. It is broken or something?

[*Whitefly]

Scent doesn't matter anyway, because you could just transmute your body odour along with the rest of your physical appearance.

Dragons are basically casting a version of this:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/alterSelf.htm

And it specifically states that, "You can freely designate the new formÂ’s minor physical qualities (such as hair color, hair texture, and skin color) within the normal ranges for a creature of that kind. The new formÂ’s significant physical qualities (such as height, weight, and gender) are also under your control, but they must fall within the norms for the new formÂ’s kind. You are effectively disguised as an average member of the new formÂ’s race."

Your body odour should fairly obviously fall in line with what is normal for the race whose form you are assuming. Perhaps if it's a troglodyte you could say the strench isn't as bad as normal, because you wouldn't get their stench special ability through such a spell, but you'd be hard pressed to say this extends to normal bodily smells.

[*Neethanial]

We dont have blindsense ingame so scent was the closest feat to it.

I believe Erinyes currently gets the feat. Not sure how it functions in game, but either the base race or the prc actually lists it.

Edit: my bad. The base baatezu race gets blindsight, not blindsense. Mechanically I don't think they're different here, but in pnp there's a huge difference.

[*pure_sin]

My personal feeling on it, with dragons having exceptional sense of smell , is they they should be able to detect the scent of another dragon, much the same way animal in real life can identify each other. It might not detect specifics, like" oh your a huge red dragon" , of such and such an age , but it should hint to the species of dragon and another dragon might be able to detect with RP consent of course, their previous location if the location has a lingering odor such as a swamp or volcano. I do think it should be an active think they have to concentrate on the scent, not just having another dragon enter the area. if a dragon is in their altered form, their would no reason to go sniffing them unless hints have been dropped.

[*b00seven]

My personal feeling on it, with dragons having exceptional sense of smell , is they they should be able to detect the scent of another dragon, much the same way animal in real life can identify each other. It might not detect specifics, like" oh your a huge red dragon" , of such and such an age , but it should hint to the species of dragon and another dragon might be able to detect with RP consent of course, their previous location if the location has a lingering odor such as a swamp or volcano. I do think it should be an active think they have to concentrate on the scent, not just having another dragon enter the area. if a dragon is in their altered form, their would no reason to go sniffing them unless hints have been dropped.

This has largely become the informal etiquette from my experience in the server. But it doesn't appear to be the 'rule.'

[*pure_sin]

i agree, it should be like anything else if you want to try to detect another dragon via smell ask for consent.

[*Love_on_a_Wire]

Scent doesn't matter anyway, because you could just transmute your body odour along with the rest of your physical appearance.

Dragons are basically casting a version of this:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/alterSelf.htm

And it specifically states that, "You can freely designate the new formÂ’s minor physical qualities (such as hair color, hair texture, and skin color) within the normal ranges for a creature of that kind. The new formÂ’s significant physical qualities (such as height, weight, and gender) are also under your control, but they must fall within the norms for the new formÂ’s kind. You are effectively disguised as an average member of the new formÂ’s race."

Your body odour should fairly obviously fall in line with what is normal for the race whose form you are assuming. Perhaps if it's a troglodyte you could say the strench isn't as bad as normal, because you wouldn't get their stench special ability through such a spell, but you'd be hard pressed to say this extends to normal bodily smells.

See above.

Consent is fine though. But trying to push the matter on people uninterested seems a lot less fine.

[*Er_Nano_Infame]

TRUE SEEING: You confer on the subject the ability to see all things as they actually are. The subject sees through normal and magical darkness, notices secret doors hidden by magic, sees the exact locations of creatures or objects under blur or displacement effects, sees invisible creatures or objects normally, sees through illusions, and sees the true form of polymorphed, changed, or transmuted things. Further, the subject can focus its vision to see into the Ethereal Plane (but not into extradimensional spaces). The range of true seeing conferred is 120 feet.

True seeing, however, does not penetrate solid objects. It in no way confers X-ray vision or its equivalent. It does not negate concealment, including that caused by fog and the like. True seeing does not help the viewer see through mundane disguises, spot creatures who are simply hiding, or notice secret doors hidden by mundane means. In addition, the spell effects cannot be further enhanced with known magic, so one cannot use true seeing through a crystal ball or in conjunction with clairaudience/clairvoyance.

interpretate at will! tbh i'm unsure as to the meaning and extension of some of those things listed

[*edmaster44]

True seeing can see through magical disguise and polymorphic in a nutshell.. >_>, If one would to cast That spell around Hekate they would see a Super Impose Image of a Lilitu with tattered Wings and 6 tails and goat legs, aka "DAM YOU SCARY!" But yeah can't walk around doing that else people will just get angry and say you ruined their RP while others will roll with it!

[*Love_on_a_Wire]

Bumping this because I just saw a short OOC dispute between two dragons in the Bazaar over the topic of scent, one that led to a lovely, mature accusation of "QQing". : P

I think the ruling bares repeating just in case it was missed by anyone, especially considering the current dragon population on Sigil. So. Here you are.

No, Nor does true seeing reveal without player consent.

"Abilities, spells or other things that aren't in game engine requires consent of the DM (in events, or situations they are present in) or all players it affects to. If no consent is given, then the said abilities just can't be used."

So it is up to a DM or EM (or players, if there is no DM/EM nearby).

This is right on the money.