D&D 5E Curse of Strahd and Paladin's Divine Sense

[Oofta]

The power states: "you know the location of any celestial, fiend or undead within 60 feet of you that is not behind total cover"

RAW I understand that the DM can never EVER put in front of you a disguised fiend or undead, which could be fine in Forgotten Realms but weird in Ravenloft, IMHO.

A simple Amulet of Proof Against Detection and Location (you are hidden from divination magic and scrying) would stop the detection in my world. Some people may argue that a paladin's divine sense is not technically labeled divination magic, so it's just my ruling.

 

[5Shilling]

In previous versions Strahd managed to keep his vampirism fairly secret (somehow!) In Curse of Strahd most Barovians know that he is a vampire, he is just too powerful for them to do anything about it. So Divine Sense won't tell the Paladin anything about Strahd that everyone doesn't already know.

 

[Fanaelialae]

The power states: "you know the location of any celestial, fiend or undead within 60 feet of you that is not behind total cover"

RAW I understand that the DM can never EVER put in front of you a disguised fiend or undead, which could be fine in Forgotten Realms but weird in Ravenloft, IMHO.

Given that even with a 20 Charisma a paladin only has 6 uses a day, it seems unlikely that the PCs are using it on every NPC they meet. If they are, sprinkle in a few extra red herring NPCs.

The way I would handle a paladin detecting Strahd is to have the evil nearly overwhelm his senses, as if a dark and malevolent god was manifest before him. Strahd is a domain lord after all, so I wouldn't have him detect merely as a "common" undead.

 

[GX.Sigma]

In previous versions Strahd managed to keep his vampirism fairly secret (somehow!)

Do you mean "in one previous version?" In the original, everyone knows he is a vampire.

 

[BloodAsp]

To clarify, I am the paladin in question and I'd like to add a consideration: if your master is, say, running an adventure where a vampire is hiding in a village and killing townspeople, what stops the paladin from just gathering the villagers and using detect evil? It would make sense on Faerun, but on Ravenloft it's a bit meh.
To elaborate, since there are as of now no rules about it, how would you handle it?

 

[Warmaster Horus]

Yes, for a round your character might be able to detect death before it claims them.

 

[GX.Sigma]

To clarify, I am the paladin in question and I'd like to add a consideration: if your master is, say, running an adventure where a vampire is hiding in a village and killing townspeople, what stops the paladin from just gathering the villagers and using detect evil? It would make sense on Faerun, but on Ravenloft it's a bit meh.
To elaborate, since there are as of now no rules about it, how would you handle it?

I'd allow it, seeing as how that's the whole point of that ability. A vampire is easily detectable by other means (sunlight hypersensitivity, skin color, fangs, lack of normal biofunctions, no alibi for the night of the murder, keeps a coffin in his house, etc.), so I don't think it would really break the game.

 

[BloodAsp]

Yes, for a round your character might be able to detect death before it claims them.

Well, nicely put, yet doesn't help playing Dnd much really

 

[Lillika]

5e doesn't have as many rules for every situation as other edition may have had. It is a much more DM's opinion on this. So first off, I think they left Curse of Strahd to be in the hands of the GM for how to handle specific situations.
Second, having pretty read it. It is very clear to the adventures that Strahd is a vampire, if that is the question, they can pretty much get this from the opening event in the town. As for paladins being able to tell who is a vampire with their ability, as the module goes, I don't see this changing anything. But, due to the very flexible nature of DnD and 5e for that matter, whatever the DM and hopefully the players feel the most comfortable with go with it.

 

[BloodAsp]

5e doesn't have as many rules for every situation as other edition may have had. It is a much more DM's opinion on this. So first off, I think they left Curse of Strahd to be in the hands of the GM for how to handle specific situations.
Second, having pretty read it. It is very clear to the adventures that Strahd is a vampire, if that is the question, they can pretty much get this from the opening event in the town. As for paladins being able to tell who is a vampire with their ability, as the module goes, I don't see this changing anything. But, due to the very flexible nature of DnD and 5e for that matter, whatever the DM and hopefully the players feel the most comfortable with go with it.

Yeah I just don't want to be disruptive, that's all.