What's the functional (mechanical) difference between Parabolic and Acute Hearing?

[Snargash Moonclaw]

Looking at the Hearing Distance Table on B358, basically a +1 to hearing has the same effect as doubling the range you can hear - adjusting "1 step". If you have PER 12 and Parabolic Hearing 1, your hearing roll for a normal conversation at 2 yards is 12 or less because you double the distance you can hear at no penalty. If instead you have Acute hearing 1, your hearing roll is still 12 or less because you have a +1 negating the -1 for the "step you are more distant." The descriptive text for Parabolic Hearing (B72) talks about "'zooming in' and filtering out" but gives no mechanic to show that this actually does
anything, causing me to wonder why it costs 4 pts/lvl vs Acute Hearing's 2 (and why the separate advantage exists at all).

I started wondering about this after working up a racial template for halflings in my homebrew setting. I'm deliberately giving them amazing hearing as a survival mechanism and was looking at the details to see precisely how well they can hear. With Acute Hearing 5, Discriminatory Hearing (I was looking more at the ability to precisely identify sound than the +4 to hearing rolls. . .) and Parabolic Hearing 2, I came to realize that the cumulative effect seems to be that they can hear a normal conversation at about half a mile (2048 yards) as well as a human can at 1 yd. Hmm - while I expect Eavesdropping to be a literal profession among them this is a little more than I had in mind. . .

Am I missing something hear?

The obsessive/compulsively curious can find the entire template here.

[the_matrix_walker]

i take the "Zoom in and filter out" to mean you can discard any negative penalties to hearing rolls that are incurred for ambient noise between you and what you are trying to listen to.

[Kelly Pedersen]

Originally Posted by the_matrix_walker

i take the "Zoom in and filter out" to mean you can discard any negative penalties to hearing rolls that are incurred for ambient noise between you and what you are trying to listen to.

Exactly.

It's true that if Adam is trying to listen in to a conversation 30 yards away across a quiet field, Parabolic Hearing and Acute Hearing will give him the same bonuses. But put a busy street between Adam and that conversation, one that imposes a -5 penalty, and the situation suddenly becomes much different. If Adam has enough Parabolic Hearing to put his point of hearing across the street, he can ignore the penalty for the background noise entirely, as well as negating the distance penalty, whereas someone with Acute Hearing would still have to cope with it.

[Snargash Moonclaw]

Thanks - the "put his point of hearing" nails what I'm looking for - also speaks to something that I would think inherent in Parabolic hearing - binaural (distance) location. RAW doesn't say any of that (that I can find at any rate) but it makes perfect sense.

My math was screwed - I was thinking in feet rather than yards and halflings are hearing (without intervening ambient noise. . .) a conversation over a mile away! Would work on a quiet night in the wilderness, but in the city, um, not so well. Still, they make excellent eavesdroppers.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by the_matrix_walker

i take the "Zoom in and filter out" to mean you can discard any negative penalties to hearing rolls that are incurred for ambient noise between you and what you are trying to listen to.

I seem to have a negative level of Parabolic Hearing. I think I have a level of Acute Hearing, or PER, or maybe even both, but I'm severely inconvenienced by background noise.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

I seem to have a negative level of Parabolic Hearing. I think I have a level of Acute Hearing, or PER, or maybe even both, but I'm severely inconvenienced by background noise.

Ditto. I wonder if that's not uncommon. I've known a couple of people that have accute hearing but difficulty in differentiating "muddy" sounds.

[Ragitsu]

By the way, where is "Panoptic" located at?

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Ragitsu

By the way, where is "Panoptic" located at?

Not sure... 360 degree vision? Maybe 360 degree vision in Powers?

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Ditto. I wonder if that's not uncommon. I've known a couple of people that have accute hearing but difficulty in differentiating "muddy" sounds.

I'm pretty good at written English, but I literally can't watch a movie or television show where they speak English, without subtitles (English or Danish subs doesn't matter). I can watch narrated documentaries just fine, though. Even some Danish movies are tricky without Danish subtitles.

[WingedKagouti]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

Not sure... 360 degree vision? Maybe 360 degree vision in Powers?

It's indeed an Enhancement to 360 Vision in Powers.