Hide Scent?

[Yair]

You can turn invisible with invisibility or just Hide, you can Move Silently, but how can you defeat Scent and olfactory detection? I'm at a loss. Is there a core-rules method of defeating scent? Is there a WotC method? And if not, what would make for a reasonable houswe rule?

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

I'm not completely sure if its in the Core rules, but I know I'd allow a Survival check to mask a scent.

 

[Yair]

It's not core, but I agree Survival can be used to alter a scent, disguising it behind other scents. But I'm looking for a way to make scent disappear.
My problem is that I'm playing a sneaky ghoul, and smelling like rotten flesh makes sneaking about rather difficult...

 

[Starglim]

Pass without trace causes you to leave no scent, but doesn't disguise your scent if you are actually there. Hmm .. if your scent is an extraordinary special quality, you would lose it when under the effect of alter self.

edit: Have you considered gentle repose? I don't see a game definition of "corpse" in the Glossary, so it's possible that a corporeal undead could qualify as the target of the spell. I don't know if that would work on a ghoul, since it stinks of what it feeds on rather than of its own decay.

 

[Pinotage]

In Tome and Blood and the FR Campaign Setting there's an mundane item called Scentbreaker. It effectively nullifies the use of the scent ability, costing something like 50 gp. Throw it at the wolf, requires a DC 15 or something fort save or lose the ability to smell for 1 minute.

Pinotage

 

[BigAlzBub]

The 0 level spell Prestidigitation, should be able to change the smell of something so that it matches the enviroment or at least not smell like rotting meat, it may only last an hour but it should works a treat.

 

[Starglim]

If it was just for flavour, such as making rotting carrion smell like equally-easily-smelled roses, prestidigitation might be adequate. From the examples that have already been presented, I'm leaning towards about 2nd level for a spell that can actually negate the Scent ability.

 

[TheGogmagog]

In third edition, I explored the possibilities to defeat blindsense and ended up using an alchemitical fire arrow, with the alchemist fire replaced with scentbreaker from the FRCS. We then cast (3rd edition) darkness and silence on the arrow, and then fly on ourselves. We cast light on the bow to suppress the darkness while shooting. Unfortunately, the 3rd edition description had an open ended 'and other means...' statement so the DM declared the dragon could still locate us.

Now in 3.5 edition, the open ended vagueness was removed from blindsense, but the total concealment was removed from darkness.

But to your question, scentbraker is the only item that addresses Scent explicitly. I'd be inclined to consider if pass without trace would. I would also say prestigitation would also suffice. But those would require the DM's decision. Outside those, alter self should work to alter the smell, if not make it disappear. In your case, gentle repose should minimize the stench.

 

[Kerrick]

One of the guys in our group came up with a spell called Remove Scent. As the name says, it renders one creature scentless for something like 1 minute/level or 10 minutes/level or something (I can't recall, and I don't have the spell handy). And it's only 1st level.

I believe CV has something called catstink, which you can use to mask your scent, or mask the scent of your trail; S&S also had something similar. If all else fails, sprinkle some pepper (red or black) on the trail - I guarantee anything trying to get a snootful of your scent won't be too interested for very long.

 

[Scharlata]

[...] Is there a core-rules method of defeating scent? [...]

Hi!

Try the various alchemical substances in 3.0/3.5, like Catstink, at al. Have a look into CV, p. 118, PLH, PHB, CW, CD, CA, LM, BoED, BoVD and AEG.

Kind regards