GM's Glossary Part 5: Everything you can do with your Senses
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Part 5: The Senses ← You are here.
A note before we get into the list proper, I like to treat senses as a spectrum between hypersensitive and numb, with each one coming with it’s own benefits and drawbacks. If an abyss-dwelling creature has vision sensitive enough to see well in extreme darkness it’s going to be blinded by strong light. Likewise the old near-deaf wizard is resistant to banshee wails. While this doesn’t strictly apply in all cases I like using it as a balancing mechanism.
On to the list. There are broadly three things we can do with a character’s senses: enhance them, weaken them and fool them.
Sight
Enhanced:
This usually means Darkvision or Low-Light Vision, but it could also mean being able to see distant or extremely small details.
We could also sharpen visual processing allowing someone to rapidly pick out small details in a complex scene. A sort of super Where’s Wally solving ability.
Weakened:
Blindness or Blurriness, far and away the best sense to shut down in a fight.
Blindness can be used as a defensive measure against monsters that rely on being observed, Medusa being the classic example.
Uses: Acids, bright light, pocket sand.
Fooled:
Hallucination, seeing things that aren't there or being unable to see certain types of things or always seeing one type of thing as another. Discussed in the previous post in this series.
Hearing
Enhanced:
Ability to detect very subtle noises
Or the ability to pick out particular sounds in a noisy environment, like following a single conversation in a large crowd.
Weakened:
Deafness could be used to disrupt commands from elite enemies.
Could theoretically be used against the players to hinder cooperation but I’m not entirely sure how I’d rule this. I feel similarly about Muteness.
Another way hearing can be weakened is by limiting it’s range. Think of the giants in Three Hearts and Three Lions who can’t hear the protagonists talk when they pitch up their voices.
Can be an interesting defense in certain scenarios such as fighting sirens, banshees or other sound-based monsters.
Fooled:
Mimicking the voices of commander’s to give false orders to minions is never not fun.
As is mimicking the sound of a bigger, more deadly monster.
Touch
Enhanced:
Hard to think of a good use case for hypersensitive skin unless you’re being put through some Princess and the Pea style ordeal.
Weakened:
Inducing Numbness could be quite effective if you ruled that the character was stumbling over themselves or slurring their speech.
It could be used beneficially to relieve pain.
Characters might also not notice if they’re injured, making a localized version of this a handy assassination tool.
Uses: Anesthetic, drugs, cold.
Fooled:
Hallucinatory pain is just as good as the real thing.
Itching or crawling sensations are also great tools for messing with people.
Smell
Enhanced:
Enhanced smell is a great tool for tracking something down like a bloodhound or general detective work.
Weakened:
Anosmia is probably not all that important in combat, useless maybe there’s a gas leak.
This is however very useful against creatures that rely heavily on their sense of smell and anyone using said creatures to track you.
It could maybe make dungeon exploration more hazardous, provided the whole party was under it’s effects.
Fooled:
This can also throw off trackers by laying a false trail.
Another use is as a deterrent by creating a nasty smell.
Taste
Yeah I can’t think of a lot of use cases for this either. Included for the sake of completeness.
Enhanced:
The only use case I can think of is detecting poisons although you have to actually know what poison tastes like to do this.
Good if you’re ever in a wine tasting contest I guess.
Weakened:
Ageusia is the term for a loss of taste though if you can figure out a use.
Fooled:
Again we could hide a poison with this I guess.
One could also inflict a nasty flavour on someone. Which might be good if someone just tricked them into eating poison and you need to induce vomiting.
DymeNovelti on discord suggests adding a foul flavour to a person as a defense mechanism to deter bite attacks. I love it! Think like a skunk!
Balance
The lesser known sixth sense. Performed by a little organ in your ears.
Sharpened:
Cat-like balance or a built in spirit level.
Dwarves in older editions of D&D actually had something like this, the power to detect subtle slopes in dungeons.
Weakened:
Vertigo, dizziness, nausea.
This does a lot of the same things numbness does with the addition of possibly inducing vomiting.
I might rule this as inducing random stumbling movement.
Fooled:
Not all too different from the above but you might want someone to be off-balance in a particular direction.
Speech
Target loses the ability to speak. Or possibly the ability to speak coherently.
Not a sense but I feel it belongs here anyway.
Sharpened:
I suppose this would mean amplification although I could certainly see when that might be more of a burden then a benefit.
Something like a gift of the gab-style fast talking might also be appropriate here but that’s more of a mental power.
Weakened:
Muting commanders to shut down lines of communication.
Completely shuts down magic-users if you’re using an incantation-based system.
Fooled:
Garbling or distorting speech for a similar effect to muteness.
It has the additional benefit of making them do a silly voice.
I like any ability that makes characters say things they don’t intend or the opposite of what they intend.
Extra Senses
On to those senses outside the normal human range. I’m not going to list at length every possible magical sense since one, they’re basically infinite (detect demons, detect elementals, detect hobgoblins…), and two, I much prefer working with senses that have a physical component to them. Smelling fear is more fun in game then detecting fear because there’s more to play with. I can cover up my fear with heavy perfume or rub frightened rats on myself to lure my enemy a false sense of security.
There are plenty of actual extra-senses that we could use but aside from hunger none of these look very gameable.
Tremorsense
Ability to sense subtle vibrations in the ground.
Common among burrowing and cave-dwelling beasties.
Foiled by levitation and muddled by unfamiliar mediums like mud or water.
Echolocation
Ability to sense objects via reflected sound
Gameable as hell, we can shut this down with disruptive noise or with the right refractive surface.
Magnetoreception
Ability to sense magnetic fields.
A lot of animals have this ability naturally and use it to sense the earth's magnetic field.
Useful for navigation since it acts like a built in compass.
Could be distorted by the presence of another magnetic field.
Electroreception
Ability to sense electric fields.
Used by sharks and dolphins to detect prey.
As with magnetoreception, this is also useful in a high-tech environment for detecting machinery.
Proximity Sense
Ability to detect when a certain type of thing is within a particular distance from you.
Eg: An amulet that vibrates whenever a monster is within 30 ft of you.
It’s worth noting that objects as well as people can have senses. Think of a sword that glows when danger is near or a device that bleeps when radiation levels spike.
Variations include the ability to detect how close the sensed things are and the ability to detect precisely where it is within your range.
Blindsight
Ability to perceive one’s surroundings without relying on sight.
Not a fan of this one as defined in 5e since it doesn’t usually include a mechanism for how a creature is using this, thus leaving little room to interact with.
Best ruled as a super refined sense of hearing or smell à la Daredevil.
Infrared / Heat Vision
Ability to detect infrared radiation.
In other words, sense how hot something is from a distance.
This is a fun one to play against. Start fires to mask your heat signature or insulate your body heat to avoid detection.
X-ray Vision
Ability to see through some physical objects.
This doesn’t need to involve literal x-rays. It can just be a “make this thing transparent” ability.
Although, if it does involve literal x-rays, lead shielding can protect you from it.
Just don’t stare at anyone for too long, okay?
Radio Wave Detection
Ability to detect radio waves.
Intended for robots to pick up radio transmission but if you can incorporate this into your fantasy setting more power to you.
Magic Detection
Ability to detect supernatural or metaphysical forces
This covers whatever magic equivalent your setting may have.
This could be divided up into any number of forms particular to your system. A Character might be able to detect demons but not ghosts.
I’m lumping in the ability to sense metaphysical things like good and evil here too.
I like to tie this to another sense to make it more fun to play with. Like the ability to detect alignment but only by taste.
As with other senses this could be fooled or suppressed by the right spell.
Clairvoyance
Ability to detect something remotely from beyond your bodily range.
This might take the form of astral projection or scrying.
Or a smelloscope, naturally.
Sense Sharing
Ability to use another character’s senses.
This could be voluntary or involuntary
This could also extend to technology. Think of a hacker who can infiltrate camera feeds and listening devices.
Precognition
Ability to see into the future.
Like mind control this is a power made interesting by it’s limitations.
It could be limited by accuracy, subject or course GM fiat for dramatic effect.
Its reverse is postcognition, the ability to see into the past.
Other people’s past, that is, seeing into your own past is just remembering shit.
Danger Sense
Ability to detect immediate danger.
This one’s hard to pin down but it’s basically spider senses.
This could be similar to precognition or maybe just a heightened situational awareness and fast reaction times.
Telempathy
Ability to detect emotions.
Like with others, this is more gamable when channeled through a physical sense.
Could be implemented as aura-reading or just being hyper-attuned to behavioral clues.
Lie Detection
Ability to detect lies.
It could come from an ability to smell fear, the careful reading of body language or an actual lie detector machine.
Tricky to write around when employed by players, but that’s a whole post of it’s own.
Personally a fan of the more magical “lie detection but only for literal lies” since it can be maneuvered around with careful wording.
Omnilingualism
Ability to speak/understand any language.
Aka tongues.
Sometimes a feature of language-transcending telepathic communication.
Beyond human languages variants of this include the ability to speak to animals, plants, objects or ghosts.
If you sense I’ve missed a sense please drop a comment below.
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