Senses

Precise senses allow a creature to perceive the world in nuanced detail. For many creatures, the only precise sense they have is vision. Most other precise senses are collectively referred to as “blindsight,” indicating that they are precise like vision but creatures can use them without needing to see.

Imprecise senses allow a creature to perceive certain details and clues about the world, which vary depending on the sense, but these are not sufficient for the creature to make out nuanced detail the way a human’s sight does. For many creatures, their nonvisual senses are imprecise. Some creatures have extremely keen imprecise senses that, while still insufficient to provide details like a precise sense would, can greatly help the creatures detect stimuli in the absence of their precise senses; such senses are collectively referred to as “blindsense.”

Creatures with blindsense or blindsight typically perceive using a specific sense mechanism, indicated in parentheses after blindsense or blindsight in the creature’s statistics. If this sense somehow becomes unusable, the creature loses access entirely to its blindsense or blindsight. The typical senses through which creatures can perceive are emotion, life, scent, sound, thought, and vibration.

Specific entries for blindsense, blindsight, and other senses can be found in Special Abilities beginning on page 262.

In gameplay, there are four different states of awareness that you can have with regard to another creature, which determine, for example, whether you surprise it when you engage it in combat or whether you can target a creature with an attack. These states of awareness are described below.

If you are unaware of a creature, aware of a creature’s presence, or aware of a creature’s location, that creature is considered to be “unseen” for you. A stationary unseen creature has a +40 bonus to Stealth checks, but this bonus is reduced to +20 if the unseen creature moves (and these bonuses are negated for potential observers with blindsense). An unseen creature benefits from total concealment (50% miss chance) against attacks. In addition, you are considered flat-footed against an unseen creature’s attacks.

If you are unaware of a creature or aware only of its presence, you cannot directly attack it. You must first succeed at a Perception check to search for the creature’s location, which then allows you to become aware of the creature’s location (if using an imprecise sense) or to observe the creature (if using a precise sense). If an unseen creature makes a melee attack against you from a space adjacent to you, you automatically determine its location, though this doesn’t stop it from moving after the attack.

Because the majority of creatures in the Starfinder RPG use vision as their only precise sense, it’s important to determine the limitations of vision.