Detect evil

[ZubMessiah]

Except if a Paladin lies, it's an evil action and then any smart DM would dock alignment.
Paladins HAVE to detect evil, it's part of being an ever-vigilant protector of the innocent and vanquisher of the dark.
If someone's evil you keep an eye on them, do not assist them in becoming more powerful and you make sure that if they ever end up doing something, they'll pay REALLY fast.
Paladins are probably one of the toughest class to role play properly, along with druids and clerics, someone who uses detect evil as a tool to find prey will be taken care of BY the prey.
An evil character who, as Mac said, wanted to conceal his identity could have companions who knew or were impartial, because they DO live in a world where not everything can be hidden...
Or you could just apply for alignment protection, those spells should exist and if they don't, they should be added, perhaps immunity via rings?
Nevertheless, I STILL don't believe detect evil works well the way it is, right now it gives evil characters with a wish to stay alive and clandestine a good reason to kill the paladin in question for finding out.

Here is some information on how the spell should work, and why attacking a level 8 Maskite rogue based on alignment alone is absurd.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/detectEvil.htm

[Raksha]

I think that detect evil is such an annoying ability, in my opinion the world isn't just black and white like that, you shouldn't be able to just look at somebody and see their motives (or at least a general portrayal of them)

Just a comment with the obligitory 'black-and-white argument':

In any DnD-based campaign setting, good and evil ARE objectively quantifiable measures, and the universe DOES respond differently to good and evil alignments and auras. In this way, it is fundamentally different from our world, but that's a change that people have to be willing to accept.

Now! This does -not- mean that good is always right, nor does it mean that evil is always wrong. But it does mean that someone can be objectively evil, and it can be measured. It is black and white.

[GodBeastX]

Okay. You knew I was going to post on this.

Paladins should be using detect evil alot. There's a reason gods give paladins this ability. It's so they can do their job and be as blameless as their alignment requires. Paladins aren't even supposed to be cool with evil people. The OOC hate of it is people make evil characters and try to hide it. I don't know many evil people who hide it well. And if you hide evil too well, you're not really evil, are you? And detect evil isn't black and white, since there are varying degrees of evil. Which I hope paladins are taking into consideration.

On Sundren, Paladins use it as a spell. For whatever reason, it's noticeable to other people what you're doing. Maybe your eyes glow blue. Maybe smoke comes out your ears. That's my interpretation of D&D. Also, no matter WHAT I do, it'll always show what feat you used, so trying to get us to change it is just going to be you all hitting yourselves against a wall.

Now, I do plan to change the implementation a bit to be closer to P&P, but it's a headache because nothing in NWN2 lets you channel. In P&P you're supposed to get three rounds of it and then the third tells you exactly who is evil. More information each round essentially. To get around this, I'm likely going to make it so if you use it within X time it'll get more and more info.

When we didn't have detect evil, people were screwing with paladins alot on Sundren and it was getting rediculous. I didn't want to take every paladin's levels away because of that crap, so now paladins can't come up with the excuse "I didn't know!"

Blackguards also get detect good on Sundren. Not that they need it, since none of you people are good, HAHAHAH. Just kidding.

[ZubMessiah]

On Sundren, Paladins use it as a spell. For whatever reason, it's noticeable to other people what you're doing. Maybe your eyes glow blue. Maybe smoke comes out your ears. That's my interpretation of D&D.

Okay, so maybe I'll stop hitting my head on THAT wall, but I would still very very much like a way to prevent me from having to spam that spell over and over, all it does is look stupid and pollutes the enviorment with spam. Lots of spam.

[Kangleton]

Shouldn't it be an IC problem for a Paladin to detect evil in a large amount of people? A Paladin is someone who is completely devoid of evil, in their own life, or at least makes an amazing concentrated effort in that regard. To suddenly have their mind exposed to a wave of evil, eminating from numerous figures... that could be potentially scarring. I don't know if that should have any consequence to the Paladin on this server, but it is my opinion on the matter, for what its worth.

Also, detecting evil too much... I don't think your God would actually want that. When Gods grant spells and powers, it drains them of their power. It is a pitifully minimal drain, but when thousands of spells are cast every day in the name of a given deity, it begins to take a toll. A Paladin should only use the ability when it is necissary, at the risk of abusing the deities power.

Don't worry though, because entering a party to go into a dungeon IS a good reason to use detect evil. If you're going to trust your well-being in the hands of a team, you should really know the alignment of the people involved. But other than that, you need a good reason to call on your deities power. If you're just CURIOUS to see who is eating goblin meat at a campfire... well, that might not be a good reason.

[Scourn]

Okay, so maybe I'll stop hitting my head on THAT wall, but I would still very very much like a way to prevent me from having to spam that spell over and over, all it does is look stupid and pollutes the enviorment with spam. Lots of spam.

Dont click on the ablility "detect evil" then, simple. I state for a third time, no paladin should ever be spamming it.

[ZubMessiah]

So if I am suspecting that a tiefling and a drow and a guy traveling with them is evil, I shouldn't use it?
I think you're missing the point of playing a character that is SUPPOSED to be aware of evil things.

[Kangleton]

That would not be spamming it... that would be a reasonable situation to use it. I think you miss the point of what it means to spam it.

[ZubMessiah]

If there is 3 people then that's not spamming? Where does spamming start? 4? 5? 10?
I still think 3 is too much.

[Wyvern76]

Well my chars best IC friend got threatened by the DMs with XP loss for not hitting my char with Detect Evil, even though she had never done anything to hint that she was.

The offical word seems to be to hate anyone with an evil anignment even if they have done nothign but be good friends to you and no one speaks ill of your actions.

All the while I witnessed two LG chars threaten to kill and take in a man for an bounty that had been called off a week ago! These men came seperately and not connected. But that is "GOOD".

In all honestly Detect Evil is simply a play ruiner on a PW. It's fair if your char gets hung for something they did in there actions or plots. But to have a random spell casting ruine an entire character is just B.S.!

[Scavar]

I was present for most of that actually, and it was just, not too cool. Especially if you do have the knowledge of how Detect Evil works, even if you don't know when it's cast or how to, you can still know how it works.

Just because it tells you that someone is evil, means nothing. Not only was a Balor just standing here fondling me, but I killed some bugs earlier. Ooooo look an evil aura around me when you use Detect Evil, I must be EVIL!

Becareful with Detect Evil, and don't be an ass about it, that's what I think.

[R3VOLV360]

All the while I witnessed two LG chars threaten to kill and take in a man for an bounty that had been called off a week ago! These men came seperately and not connected. But that is "GOOD".

Not that I remember the "threatening to kill part" but yes that wasn't very "Good" of them. One was working for the other so i suppose it was somewhat connected. And they were pretty much misinformed but the persistence to which they questioned was annoying seeing as he was cleared of the crime.

Anyways:

Well my chars best IC friend got threatened by the DMs with XP loss for not hitting my char with Detect Evil, even though she had never done anything to hint that she was.

That was indeed a shock. That all of a sudden we stop halfway to wherever we were going for a 30 minute discussion of her character's "evil", which none of us had really ever seen present. I thing that there should be a reason before you start zapping Detect Evil, unless you want to make a worse name for your pally.

[ZubMessiah]

I'm going to ignore you all from now on. I'm not going to stop using detect evil just becuase you've had some bad experience with bad roleplayers.
Requesting thread closed and a final word on the suggestion, this is nothing more than a flame war right now.

[Dune]

Meh, the ability is there, use it.