Special Senses

While a human might have a difficult time making creatures out in dim light, an elf can see those creatures just fine. Similarly, although elves have no problem seeing on a moonlit night, their vision cannot penetrate complete darkness, whereas a dragon’s can.

Special senses grant greater awareness that allows a creature with these senses to either ignore or reduce the effects of the undetected, hidden, or concealed conditions (described in Detecting Creatures) when it comes to situations that foil average vision. The following are a few examples of common special senses.

Darkvision

A creature with darkvision or greater darkvision can see perfectly well in areas of darkness. However, darkvision cannot discern colour in darkness, only shades of grey.

Some forms of magical darkness, such as a 4th-level darkness spell, block normal darkvision. However, a creature with greater darkvision can see through even these forms of magical darkness.

Infravision

A creature with infravision can see the infrared radiation produced by flames, warm-blooded creatures and other sources of heat. Warm-blooded creatures visible with infravision are not hidden by darkness alone or concealed in dim light.

A creature with greater infravision can even see the residual heat left by a warm-blooded creature, such as their footprints.

Low-Light Vision

A creature with low-light vision can see in dim light as though it were bright light and thus ignores the concealed condition due to dim light.

Scent

Scent involves sensing creatures or objects by smell, and is usually a vague sense. The range is listed in the ability and it functions only if the creature or object being detected emits an aroma (for instance, incorporeal creatures usually do not exude an aroma).

If a creature emits a heavy aroma or is upwind, the GM can double or even triple the range of scent abilities used to detect that creature, and the GM can reduce the range if a creature is downwind.

Tremorsense

Tremorsense allows a creature to feel the vibrations through a solid surface caused by movement. It is usually an imprecise sense with a limited range (listed in the ability). Tremorsense functions only if the detecting creature is on the same surface as the subject, and only if the subject is moving along (or burrowing through) the surface.