Scent and Tracking... Wisdom Check?

[The Souljourner]

So I'm about to start a new campaign with a character who has Scent. He also happens to be a ranger, so I wanted to see what the rules were for tracking with Scent. The 3.5 SRD has this to say:

A creature with the Track feat and the scent ability can follow tracks by smell, making a Wisdom check to find or follow a track.

Wait... a wisdom check? Track uses the Survival skill.... later on it says

False, powerful odors can easily mask other scents. The presence of such an odor completely spoils the ability to properly detect or identify creatures, and the base Survival DC to track becomes 20 rather than 10.

This talks about Survival again. Is the line about a wisdom check an error or what? Does anyone have a MM or DMG handy that talks about scent and tracking?

-The Souljourner

 

[Camarath]

This talks about Survival again. Is the line about a wisdom check an error or what? Does anyone have a MM or DMG handy that talks about scent and tracking?

-The Souljourner

Survival is a wisdom skill. I believe that when the rules talk about a wisdom check with regard to scent they are basicly talking about an untrained Survival check.

A creature with the Track feat and the scent ability can follow tracks by smell, making a Wisdom (or Survival) check to find or follow a track.

 

[The Souljourner]

But if they meant an untrained survival check, why wouldn't they just say survival? And is that a modification you made to the SRD, or an actual quote. If the latter, where is it from?

-The Souljourner

 

[Darklone]

I used it like this: Tracking by reading the tracks uses the Survival skill against a DC set by the terrain, tracking by scent only uses a wisdom check against DC10, no matter where you are. That may be easier or harder, depending where you track whom.

This does not fit the second quote... but I didn't find that as we needed it

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

It is a Survival check. From the SRD 3.5 entry for Wolf: "Skills: *Wolves have a +4 racial bonus on Survival checks when tracking by scent."

 

[The Souljourner]

The thing is.... ability checks in D20 are screwy. The dumbest human being in the world is only 40% less likely to make an intelligence check than the smartest human being in the world.

At 2nd level, a ranger is as good at tracking on firm ground as someone tracking using scent (and better if the ground is soft or very soft). At 7th level, he's as good as the scent tracker regardless of terrain, and better if it's firm or softer.

So at 7th level, it doesn't matter if you have scent at all... it provides no help whatsoever. That doesn't seem right to me. Seems like the probable intention was for scent to simply negate the ground modifiers, but still use survival to do it.

I was hoping someone would point out somewhere else where this was clarified.

{Edit}

Good Point, RC. I guess they did intend it to use Survival. Must have just been a mistake to call it a wisdom check.

-The Souljourner

 

[Darklone]

Dumbest human in the world: Int 3 (mod -4).
Most big Int honcho in the world: Int 18 (mod +4).

And only if you forget about ability mods due to leveling or age.

Int check DC 10. Big Int honcho has a 75% (6-20)chance, Dumbest human itw has a 30% (14-20) chance.

There would be still a difference between Scent and Track, with Scent you scarcely never have DCs higher than 10 and don't need the Track feat...
45%

Yeah, wiseass, I know.

 

[Tar-Edhel]

It is a Survival check. From the SRD 3.5 entry for Wolf: "Skills: *Wolves have a +4 racial bonus on Survival checks when tracking by scent."

It's my reading as well: scent menions survival checks because most animals don't have ranks in survival (IIRC, only three of them do: Wolf, dog, riding dog)

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Good Point, RC. I guess they did intend it to use Survival. Must have just been a mistake to call it a wisdom check.

3.0 had similar problems with Diplomacy and Cha for changing the attitude of NPCs. I am sure they make the same error a number of places.

 

[The Souljourner]

Dumbest human in the world: Int 3 (mod -4).
Most big Int honcho in the world: Int 18 (mod +4).

And only if you forget about ability mods due to leveling or age.

Int check DC 10. Big Int honcho has a 75% (6-20)chance, Dumbest human itw has a 30% (14-20) chance.

There would be still a difference between Scent and Track, with Scent you scarcely never have DCs higher than 10 and don't need the Track feat...
45%

Yeah, wiseass, I know.

Wrong wiseass, too

14-20 is 35% chance (14,15,16,17,18,19,20 = 7 numbers).

So there's a 40% difference between the two.

-The Souljourner