D&D 5E What happend to Know Alignment and Detect EVIL OMG !

M

Murkmoldiev

First Post

• Sep 16, 2014

• #1

I must have totally missed this up till now - but Know alignment is GONE and Detect Evil no longer detects evil ? Detect evil will now detect a good Fey but not an evil high priest of IUZ ??

I get why its being designed this way - all to often these spells would ruin the plot or the game.

But there was no warning for me. I just opened up my PHB and there it was !

Has anyone else been shocked by this ?
How will it affect our games ? I can see it being pretty good actually.

Your thoughts ?

 

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Agamon

Adventurer

• Sep 16, 2014

• #2

Yeah, alignment is no longer a crunchy rule. I was pleased as punch when I read that in the playtest.

 

GameDoc

Explorer

• Sep 16, 2014

• #3

It was this way the NEXT playtest version and I think 4e's removal of alignment from any mechanical aspects of the game was predictive of this even before NEXT.

I imagine it's more of a surprise to anyone who wasn't involved in those versions.

I was glad to see it go starting with 4e. As the OP mentioned, it was always a potential plot-killer and I know more than one DM from 2e and 3e that either removed or nerfed the paladin ability for that very reason.

 

the Jester

Legend

• Sep 16, 2014

• #4

Know alignment went away after 2e. To the best of my knowledge there was one monster that could do it; everyone else was limited to detect [alignment component] spells.

Even those vanished in 4e.

I do like what they've done with the alignment based spells in 5e; they're now more "protection from supernatural creatures" than protection from evil per se.

 

Grainger

Explorer

• Sep 16, 2014

• #5

Yeah, alignment never made any sense to me. No-one (well, very, very few) people go around thinking "I am evil". To risk Godwinning the thread, even the Nazis didn't think they were evil. I can't get my head around a world in which a common spell definitely tells the world whether someone is "good" or "evil". It just isn't workable if it's to be at all a believable world.

And where do realpolitik and shades-of-grey storylines fit into this very simplistic framework?

Also, it's all so subjective. If I'm DMing a game, what happens if a player's Paladin does something that the player considers "good" and I consider "evil"? A big argument, probably. In my view, it's best not to go there, and just to accept that morality is all very much in the eye of the beholder.

TL;DR: Alignment is no longer an actual thing in the game world, and that's a good (not neutral or evil) thing.

 

Roger

First Post

• Sep 16, 2014

• #6

Still always a good time to play a paladin who is convinced she can detect evil at will.

 

rjfTrebor

Banned

Banned

• Sep 16, 2014

• #7

did you want them to send you an Email or something prior to finalizing the spell list?

alignment has been removed as a mechanical element for the most part so it makes sense that the spells that used to rely on it would go away too.

 

Henrix

Explorer

• Sep 16, 2014

• #8

Note that it is actually only in 3e that detect evil works on mundane evil creatures.

In AD&D2 it is stated explicitly in the spell description that normal evil beings are not detected.
The same is stated in the 1e DMG.

It did work on a high level evil priest, though.

 

WayneLigon

Adventurer

• Sep 16, 2014

• #9

I am so glad that this world-building PITA has at last been done away with It was easy to house rule and I mostly ignored it, but the feeling it engendered by it's very existence was always there, like a tooth that has recently been pulled.

 

77IM

Explorer!!!

Supporter

• Sep 16, 2014

• #10

I wouldn't mind allowing the paladin's sense power to detect divine casters.