Alignment Detection

[BlackStar]

I'm working on my campaign and I've finally gotten back to something I was going to do at first... get rid of detect alignment spells. The game is fairly political, intrigue driven and I think detect alignment spells can throw a great deal of it through the window (there are times when the characters can accept a npc as evil and still deal with him.. but its much better if they don't know)

Anyway... Any comments or suggestions would be very welcome.

Blackstar

 

[Al]

Possibly, but why not simply have major NPCs with Ring of Mind Shielding or spells of Misdirection and/or Undetectable Alignment.
The other problem is that paladins lose a major ability of theirs- you need to replace it with something of equivalent power and utility.

 

[BlackStar]

Well honestly I'd rather not have anyone be able to use it... I just don't think its real workable and kind of anti-dramatic. The problem I see is that it is useful in a dungeon type enviorment where its good to know something wicked this way comes.

As for paladins... well... in my campaign world they're kind of stripped anyway. All the gods have their own paladins or holy knights and so to kind of balance out not having to stick to lawful good I took away the special mounts and detect alignment to balance it. I will probably add something minor to kind of help it though.. I think they need something else.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I thought about it for my own campaign, but eventually, I didn`t try it.

My take was:
Sense Motive should become class skill for Paladins.
A good Sense Motive Check should be able to at least detect some clues about the alignment. (If no one has an ingame knowledge of alignment identification, then why are their alignments?)

The DragonStar proposes an alternative way:
"Judgement on active morality". So, if you never actually did something "evil" (actually: anything that is against the laws of the Empire), than nobody has the right to use your alignment as a reason to attack you. In fact, doing this would get you into serious trouble...

 

[BlackStar]

I agree with you completely on sense motives... I think that as well. I may just do that... Just give the pally's Sense Motive.


I'm so incredibly impressed with what I've seen of Dragonstar everytime I look I just kind of go "damn" and I can't say I've said that about any other independent d20 publisher. But the problem isn't "is the paladin going to attack Mr.Evil" cause he knows his alignment.. but "can they trust Mr. Evil do be telling them the truth about this and that, etc..." There are some nasty fellows in my world and secrecy and subterfuge or central to it... Not everyone can wear a ring but having alignment detection spells just jack everything up.

In the world there is a group called the Sanguine Kris that exerts tremendous political power by having people in all the right places... they are also seen as a terrible threat by almost every government. It wouldn't be hard for people to flush them out because they're all evil as hell. And that becomes an issue as well.

But in any event.. hopefully they wouldn't trust anyone named Mr. Evil

:grins:
Blackstar

 

[hong]

But in any event.. hopefully they wouldn't trust anyone named Mr. Evil

That's Dr Evil, thank you very much. He didn't spend ten years in Evil medical school just to be known as Mr Evil.


Hong "you knew that was coming, didn't you?" Ooi

 

[WSmith]

Yep, the quick and dirty fix is to have the spells grants a bonus to Sense Motive checks.

 

[uv23]

Sounds like our campaigns are similar. I too have modified the paladin so that each god with lawful clerics has their own. I never liked detect alignment spells.

 

[mirzabah]

Yeah. Ditch Detect Alignment. I'd even say put restrictions on Detect Law/Chaos/Good/Evil - it should only detect "supernatural" manifestations of Law/Chaos/Good/Evil (undead, outsiders, high level clerics/paladins, deities and/or avatars, etc.).

 

[BlackStar]

There ya go.. very nice way of explaning it. Strong supernatural emanations will be apparent.. but not Dr. Evil over there.

Blackstar