Costing Helm of Hide Alignment.

[Kobold Stew]

Undetectable alignment is one thing. It will make the individual appear as true neutral if all alignment components are checked for (not lawful, not chaotic, not good, not evil). If you want him to actually detect as lawful and/or good, you need a misdirection based item.

This is the interesting thing for me. What does one get when you attempt to detect alignment on someone with Undetectable Alignment cast? The wise Elder Basilisk says true Neutral, but what if a 'true neutral' alignment is what the person is trying to hide? It is obviously suspicious if a detect alignment attempt comes back 'blank' (insert link to Order of the Stick here), but I'd like a clarification of what a hidden alignment reads as.

My house rule would be that a hidden alignment would appear as the caster's alignment, but of course that's not RAW.

It's also worth observing that hiding your alignment is not contrary to the Paladin code of conduct, however understood; it is not inherently evil or deceptive.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

It comes back as true neutral because there is no detect alignment spell in 3.x. There are only detect good, detect evil, detect chaos, and detect law. If you have undetectable alignment up, you don't radiate any of the above which means that you radiate exactly the same alignment auras as a true neutral character. Of course, most people just check for a few auras, so all they will get is "not evil," "not chaotic", etc. That could be neutral or good and it could be neutral or lawful respectively.

Hiding a true neutral alignment is different because it's not so much hiding what you are as pretending to be something else. Someone interested in hiding a true neutral alignment has to find a way to detect as lawful/chaotic/etc. In game, AFAIK, there is only misdirection that will do that (though an aligned item might do so as well).

This is the interesting thing for me. What does one get when you attempt to detect alignment on someone with Undetectable Alignment cast? The wise Elder Basilisk says true Neutral, but what if a 'true neutral' alignment is what the person is trying to hide? It is obviously suspicious if a detect alignment attempt comes back 'blank' (insert link to Order of the Stick here), but I'd like a clarification of what a hidden alignment reads as.

My house rule would be that a hidden alignment would appear as the caster's alignment, but of course that's not RAW.

It's also worth observing that hiding your alignment is not contrary to the Paladin code of conduct, however understood; it is not inherently evil or deceptive.

 

[darious777]

Logically, alignment is all in the mind, and the mind is in the brain, and the brain is in the head. Get a lead-lined helmet!

Or a lead sheet and really good reflexes

http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=208

 

[Jack Simth]

It's a free action (normally) to remove a spell component from a spell component pouch; Mage's Private Sanctum has a lead sheet as an inexpensive material component; ergo, it's a free action to draw a lead sheet from a spell component pouch. Have a good initiative roll, and you can usually get it up in time.

 

[Cabral]

It's a free action (normally) to remove a spell component from a spell component pouch; Mage's Private Sanctum has a lead sheet as an inexpensive material component; ergo, it's a free action to draw a lead sheet from a spell component pouch. Have a good initiative roll, and you can usually get it up in time.

Is it a free action or just part of the casting action?

That said, contextually, I think Belkar had readied an action