Detect evil/good

[Scourn]

Sorry if this was asked before, but it comming up today, was wondering how it works here, as ive seen it work diffrently for every place.

Can PC paladins use detect evil, as in asking a person in a tell if they are or?

I saw a NPC pally use it. When they use it, what exacally do they get from detecting a evil person? Just a odd feeling about them, or do they know 100% they are evil?

Are there any spells in game that would block someone from seeing if your are or arnt evil/good?

[Ouroboros]

Hmm.. In the older games like Baldurs Gate series, yeah, you could detect evil and so gourth. It never relly had any purpose unless you were RP'ing, but i think you could use it to detect an Evil assasin sneaking up on you. There was alos an equivalent protection spell, i think it was "Protect from Detection" or something. It stopped spells like "See Invisibility" or even "True Seeing" from dispelling your invisibility spells, pretty handy really. I don't think that one was in BG2 but was in BG1 (don't hold me to it).

I thought that Pallys would be able to see another's Aura thus clearly being able to define their alignment (i guess they would see a big red glow with the Neon Words "BAD GUY HERE!"... or the equivalent). Never really played a pally so haven't been able to get into them. Too Goody-goody two hoes for me. I like a bit of Chaos.

[undeadsteak]

I know theres a hak pak that gives you that spell... Oh gods, i ythink it'd ruin the game. DETECT EVIL GASP YOUR EVIL I HAVE A REASON TO KILL YOU *Smash smash.*

[SilentShadow]

well in my opinion i do believe if they used detect evil they should be left with an impression that something is direly wrong with that person, and he'd be suspicious about that character, would probably follow him closely to see if his suspicious were correct or would keep him at bay from him or his friends.

Altho from previous past experiences if they were to be sure 100% that the other person is evil good, it would be chaotic in my opinion, for example:

Paladin walks up to a robed man he knows nothing about, he uses his detect evil, and the black robed man is a necromancer for example, so he detects evil in him (he's Neutral evil) beeing a paladin (lawfullgood) he'd be a zealot so what woudl happen? A dead necromancer in a blink of an eye (depending on lvls ofc) and the necro woudl be like: "What the hell? what have i done? i wasn't doing anything wrong nor did he knew of what i did... just because i've got a tendecy to do evil stuff doesn't mean i'm a kill on "feeling" sight."

Point is, if they were 100% sure we'd have pala's killing right and left cause they felt that it was a bad person .

Besides it's lot more fun to spy him and catch him red-handed in teh act. or simply be aware of him and keep him at bay or under a watchfull eye.

[Ouroboros]

Detect evil is a confirmation of Morality, not guilt. An Evil person can think evil things, but not have actually commited a crime. There appears to be courts in the game, so i think a proper course of action would be for the Pally to follow the person to see what they are doing, or try to find some proof of the persons guilt. Can't just kill people cause a Pally had a "Bad Vibe" about a person.

No, the Pally would be able to know that the person was Selfish, carless / Evila nd would as you said, keep them away from themselves, friends or family or even tryo to prove the person is a criminal.

[undeadsteak]

Meh, some paladins would. a dm controlled pally just chopped up somone for talking shit about being an assassin. Paladins are zealots.

[The Fantasian]

Let's look at the definition of Good; the respect for life and dignity or sentient beings. The definition of Law; honour and reliability. Lawful Good? Compassion and honour....have yet to see anything honourable or good about killing someone for not giving his name, whether he was evil or not.

[undeadsteak]

You did not witness everything. Yelling out im an assassin then unwilling to cooperate with a paladin? >_>

[The Fantasian]

You are correct I did not witness him saying he was an assassin, but unless something like that is proven it's just words. I could say I was an assassin, does that mean he kills me? I guess my idea of Lawful and Good is different than others. Hurting and killing are evil acts especially to an unarmed person in my mind? Is there a subduing in this game? Just wondering. Either way because someone came up to him and he wouldn't cooperate then a paladin can arbitrarily kill people? Seems sort of chaotic to me

[GodBeastX]

I know theres a hak pak that gives you that spell... Oh gods, i ythink it'd ruin the game. DETECT EVIL GASP YOUR EVIL I HAVE A REASON TO KILL YOU *Smash smash.*

Undeadsteak pretty much has the reason down why we don't just allow players to use it nilly willy.

The reason why alot of these classes have detection is protection. For example, paladins aren't able to commit evil or they lose their power. Let's say you think some guy is guilty of something, but you're morally unsure if you should take them out, would it be evil? Well, detect evil and you know you're in the right with your actions. Then you have the whole ability to track evils like outsiders and crap who leave imprints on an area.

Players, however, despite how much they wish to RP, see things as too black and white. WAY too black and white. To the point I see evil and good tossed around all the time. In truth, I havn't heard many people call somebody "Evil" in real life, they call them assholes, jerks, sort of crazy, depending on how the evil is acted upon, but not just Evil. I think knowing people's alignments would just have crazies running around jumping to snap conclusions about players.

If we were to implement something like this, I garauntee it's use would have to be heavily moderated to the point, you'd basically be exchanging it's use for play time. IE "1000 xp to detect evil on a PC (Free on NPC) not bad".

[Satoshi]

I surely wish subual was in the game. That way, we could merely use force to detain people, and then take them to the temples. *Nods.*

[Raksha]

I do feel it's a little cheap to have PC or NPC paladins with Detect Evil without having counterpart things, namely the Undetectable Alignment spell or items with the same effect. After all, those who are evil in intent but work with society and rules, and often associate with paladins, would want a little protection against the paladin's scrutiny.

[Satoshi]

I agree with Raksha, as that has always been the way things are balanced. PnP method, at least. In the endeavor to become more... I'd like to say true to the roots, I hope the higher staff decides to include both methods, unless the MotB adds them in... which I doubt.

[Scourn]

After seeing what some other players and staff said, here just my own thoughts on it and things noticed. I think its cool for a npc pally to use it, but two key things should be taken into consideration. Someway for casters to hide it, and pally should only be useing it if they have reason to. Not viewing this as playing a evil PC, saying they need protection. Certain evil beings can detect good, so good guys might want to hide their alingment to.

I understand pallys are holy warriors of good gods, that are in the world to bring justice and goodness to the people and smite the bad guys, but they need a reason to detect, it isnt a constant effect. Each detect takes 6 seconds, and then they have to spent more rounds after that focuseing on the certain object. Its not a poof your evil or good. and unless your some avatar of a evil god, undead, devil ect, them useing it on a common adventuer would at the very most get a "unsettling feeling" like something isnt right. Also detecting certain creatures if evil enough can stun the paladin and break the focus. Playing that exacally by the book isnt practicle, but it should be rped as close as it can be in my opnion.

Seen it happen twice to were two diffrent npc pallys walked up or walked by and looked basically going "your evil". Seems a little bit far fetched a pallys going to use detect evil on a bunch of people sitting around a campifire minding their own buisness. Now if they were all in black plate and armed... Just my thoughts after observeing it.

[ThePaganKing]

I would think that the detect would be something that is constantly on, such as the search (listen/spot) function for elves. But, they wouldn't necessarily know that the person is completely evil, they would just get a feeling or an itch. Remember in the single player when the tiefling rogue feels "itchy" around the paladin in the game....it is a feeling of something not right.

At least that is how I would see it used. However, paladins do always have an aura around them, so normal "evil" people necessarily would not have an aura that could be easily detected.

I do agree that some people would abuse the hell out of that power and just start killing those they deemed evil, which, is not what a true Paladin would do.