Got odor?

[Zappo]

It never came up - shame on me - but if it did, I'd require a Wisdom check. Using a skill sounds quite pointless.

 

[Hypersmurf]

See faint discolouration where a picture used to hang? Spot check.
Smell the faint odour of perfume where a woman was recently standing? Spot check.
Feel the faint breeze against one's cheek indicating an opening somewhere ahead? Spot check.
Taste the faint bitterness indicating a poison in one's wine? Spot check.
Hear the faint scratching of claws on the ceiling above as the monster climbs into ambush position? Listen check.

Remember, Spot is not an exclusively visual skill. Spot is used to detect an invisible opponent:

A creature can generally notice the presence of an active invisible creature within 30 feet with a DC 20 Spot check. The observer gains a hunch that “something’s there” but can’t see it.

You can 'notice its presence' with a Spot check, despite the fact that you can't see it.

The blinded condition notes:
All checks and activities that rely on vision (such as reading and Spot checks) automatically fail.

However, this doesn't necessarily mean that "all Spot checks rely on vision", but rather, perhaps, "Spot checks that rely on vision are an example of a check that automatically fails".

A blinded character could not see the marks of the painting, but could still smell the perfume, feel the breeze, and taste the poison.

-Hyp.

 

[el-remmen]

If I think they'd smell it, they smell it. If not, then not.

If in a form, or using a character with scent - then it is more likely. ..

 

[Ghostwind]

I just wrap it into the Survival skill myself. But then, Survival is a lot more broad in scope in my campaigns that most folks would be comfortable with since it's not strictly RAW.

 

[ZombieButch]

(Still waiting for a "Whoever smelt it dealt it" joke...)

 

[Klaus]

Unless the creature in question has Scent, the ability to sense odors can't really be trained into getting sharper. A simple Wisdom check ought to do it, against a DC of 15 for close/strong odors, 20 for farther away/mild odors and 30 for faint odors. Scent, of course, flattens these to a DC 10 check. Very strong odors, like rotting garbage and any scent powerful enough to have an effect (ghasts, troglodytes, stinking clouds) are immediately noticed as soon as you enter its area of effect.

 

[The Shaman]

(Still waiting for a "Whoever smelt it dealt it" joke...)

Yes, but we're talking about faint odors, not gaseous cloud...

I'm vacilating between a Wisdom check to notice a faint odor and a Knowledge or straight Intelligence check to identify the scent, or applying Hypersmurf's interpretation of Spot.

I'm also consdering mashing Spot and Listen into Observation or the like.

Good, thought-provoking suggestions so far - thank you for your input, everyone.

 

[Emirikol]

Lone Wolf by Mongoose does this as well, but calls it Perception. I plan on using it in every game from now on.

Just another example of things that will be betterin 4th edition. Simplification..just like they did with Saving Throws...

jh

 

[DMH]

Why isn't perception a ability score? The use of sensory organs is just as innate.

 

[Keith Robinson]

Unless the creature in question has Scent, the ability to sense odors can't really be trained into getting sharper.

Slightly off topic alert... but...

... a person's sense of smell is really quite amazing. I watched this program about one of the world's top tea tasters. They questioned him about what it was that he thought made him a good tea taster and, not surprisingly, he put it down to taste.

So they ran all these tests on him and it turned out that, in fact, he was actually worse than your average guy on the street at tasting things (they had some bizarre machine which monitored the activity of taste buds!?) - because taste buds in fact only respond to five distinct tastes. They even stuck a peg on his nose and got him to taste tea and he couldn't taste the difference between a cup of tea and a cup of coffee!

It turns out that the most important aspect to taste (and something that this guy really excelled at - in fact, his tests results were the best they'd ever seen, according to the analysts) was smell, which has millions of variations. So when you're tasting something, it is in fact its scent that gives it its flavor. Taste is simply a way of passing information to the brain to tell it which of the five variants the body is about to consume.

On topic, I'd use a Wis check, like others have already mentioned. I quite like the idea of a Perception skill, though.