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

[Sunseeker]

What it really comes down to is your conception of Barovia. Are vampires and other undead roaming the town like some kind of Victorian Vampire the Masquerade? In such a case, using Divine Sense won't help you much, as at any given time, a half dozen or more creatures could pop up on your divine radar, and you have no idea who's who. In such a setting, would the vampires even conceal themselves? Would walking into any wealthy area of town basically put you under the assumption that vampires outnumber the living?

Divine Sense is great if you're looking for the odd man out, who is running and hiding from you. It's less useful when they're not hiding and there's more than one.

 

[Jester David]

Considering he's called "the devil Strahd" and identified as a "vampyre" in the opening handout I don't think this will be an issue.

 

[Jediking]

I no longer have a physical copy, but I believe that's what the amulet pictured is supposed to be.

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"Helga, look at that guy over there. Does he look suspicious to you? Kinda creepy?"
"No Sir Oatheart, stop thinking everyone has evil in them around here. It isn't polite."
"Seriously? I'm going to use Divine Sense. That guy is clearly up to something."
"Dude! That's profiling, you're a Paladin of Good Faith! Isn't that crossing some line in your oath?"
"Ugh. Fine. I'm sure that pasty-skinned, pointy-eared, pointy-TOOTHED, caped Count is perfectly innocent."
"Glad we agree. Now come on, he invited us over for dinner. And he was hitting on me earlier too, said I looked delicious. The charming ol' guy."

 

[Savage Wombat]

My party used detect evil on the first stranger they met on the road. (Mind you, he looked kind of creepy.) This resulted in the rogue attacking him from behind while the rest of the group was talking to him.

Not that it worked. My hand to god, I rolled the highest possible option on the wandering monster table for the very first check...

 

[Retsamikol]

I always understood that paladins were anathema in ravenloft as the lord of the domain ALWAYS knows their exact location due to their aura, and would actively hunt them down as soon as they set foot in their realm! Hence I never aloud paladins in ravenloft as it was an instant tpk

 

[monsmord]

Necro'ing a Ravenloft thread seems apt.

 

[Alby87]

Though Strahd is a strong enough wizard to cast Nystul's magic aura if that's important to you.

This one. I used Strahd as NPC helper in the party and this one helped to make the paladine suspects go away.

It was funny to have THE man inside sabotaging the party (it was a nice gimmick for two sessions, then after a bad wound he "suffered", he had to stay down for a day of rest at the bluewater inn. And Ireena attening him while the party had a hint to go to the revenant's mansion. The sheer face of terror when Horngaard told them that Strahd once used that same tactics years ago was pure gold, and so was the race to Vallaki)