Detect Evil proposition for DM ruling to handle it reasonably

[Louvaine]

If Detect Evil does exist, maybe it's worth creating stuff like Detect Evil in the same vein as Wish was created. Either way, I know DMs likely handle stuff like that case by case and have utter faith in their rulings.

Edit: I think I misunderstood Deathgrowl, who explained what is and what should be. Please disregard the above and have a good night!

[Afendaria]

Essentially, it is detecting evil auras, and it's based on the hd of the character or caster level of the item (or class level in the case of divine characters like clerics). This means it isn't necessarily telling the caster whether a character is evil or not, but that they may be carrying an evil item, or is affected by an evil aura of some other kind (a spell, perhaps).

Thanks for clearing that up. That's how I read it as well, but was still confused. Since it is aura focused and not the misconception I was confused with, and its not detecting the characters actual character alignment on their sheet, then I don't think it would be so bad. Blackguards have an evil aura. Clerics serving evil gods have evil auras. Items with evil enchantments do, etc. An evil fighter or evil rogue does not have an aura on their own, so the spell wouldn't work on them, less they have something causing that aura to be detected on them.

It's also very strange a divine figure of a god would do infiltration successfully. I think I recall spells also manifest in a way that is unique to their god. We cannot represent in the mod, but.. A Banite casting a "Bless" spell as a "Paladin of Tyr in disguise" would be so blatantly unlike how a cleric of Tyr would appear casting the same spell...

[Deathgrowl]

An evil fighter or evil rogue does not have an aura on their own, so the spell wouldn't work on them, less they have something causing that aura to be detected on them.

Well, they'd still fall under the "evil creature" part of the table, which means the aligned aura would be far weaker than an equivalent level divine character.

[Goat]

First off - there 'was' an issue with detect evil in the past, and people abusing it. It 'was' removed for that reason. So I wasn't crazy there.

There was also an issue where people were literally using smite evil to determine if they were evil, which went largely unchecked. It is a big reason why some pvp rulings were in effect today.

Not having detect alignment leads to stupid situations like where the Radiant Heart was once lead by a favoured soul of Bane

Sounds to me more like a DM issue rather then a player issue. If an evil player becomes a leader of the Radiant Heart - who is literally surrounded by paladins NPCs etc - that sounds to me like it should of been handled very early on in the DM team. Detect Evil does exist, which I will restate that here, and lore and logic would dictate that this would never happen, because it's absurd and stupid.

As I've said before, Detect Evil does exist. But the spell must be used with a DM present and for events or plot relevant items/npcs/etc - not player characters. And DMs are the ones who should be able to handle certain situations (Again, like the dreadlord/RH issue.) as I would assume they'd know it.

I get the logic of it 'detecting items' and other things. But I think you're thinking players won't generally abuse it, and once something is out - it spreads like wildfire and becomes truth so I'd rather control something that can potentially destroy a players character in six seconds.

Also the logic of needing non-detection potions constantly will be questioned, because that's how people work here. They'll question you using it - And to obtain them always will be impossible. A good player having evils items would be questioned, heavily. I know many people who would make them remove the items, and then cast it again to make sure, because that's how people act, and if you refuse you'll be considered evil. People who do everything right for a year (where I will add, it's not stupid, like that whole dreadlord in a paladin base thing) shouldn't have their cover blown by a 6 second spell. It defeats the purpose of story telling and in our world it will be used more mechanically then for RP.

I don't think this works in a PW at all where storytelling should be the main focus. I'd rather let RP and actions of players handle it over this, and have DMs control this spell when it's needed - specially when things like this or similar have been abused in the past. So it won't change. Specially when it's been more than once that some form of it has been abused. The spell still exists - just requires a DM.

[Steve]

I want to just make a small note here: The player Xanfryst heavily invested with good and fair intent in their RP to be both, simultaneously the Lord of Darkhold and the Leader of the BG Radiant Heart.

As I experienced it, both as a Player and as DM/Head DM in and around Darkhold-Zhentarim / Radiant Heart role-play at the time, many “went along” with it because of the effort, and the effort was valid. And all players got a chance to resolve it with real IG RP that I oversaw, and it was fair (some even considers it Epic!).

Anyway. RIP Xanfryst.

[Aspect of Sorrow]

RIP Xanfryst, but he also retconned a lot of his more obvious mistakes into a pattern. This was also done again when another ORH infiltrator got caught legitimately, and then kept having to retcon as well.

[Steve]

RIP Xanfryst, but he also retconned a lot of his more obvious mistakes into a pattern. This was also done again when another ORH infiltrator got caught legitimately, and then kept having to retcon as well.

Fair enough. If we were perfect, we wouldn’t be playing this game!