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

[Lillika]

Also gathering up all the villagers to do detect evil is not an easy feat, even in the starting town there are powerful NPC's and even non powerful ones are not going to want to be told what to do by an adventure who is likely to be Strahd's next playtoy. The townspeople fear Strahd way more they would the newest in a long line of would be heroes.

 

[Satyrn]

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?

If I'm the paladin in that situation, and I think it's not going to be a fun thing to round up the villagers this way, then I wouldn't suggest it. If the idea all pops up some how, then I'd say my paladin feels it highly improper ( for some reason) to do so and suggest something else, like a sort of door to door search, or something fun.

Or just leave it up to the DM to adjudicate it all in some fun way.

 

[5Shilling]

There are opportunities to do this in CoS - say during some kind of festival... You could even manage it surreptitiously. I would consider that smart play; you are using Divine Sense for exactly the reason it was made. This adds to the adventure rather than detract from or disrupt it.

 

[Fanaelialae]

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?

As GX.Sigma pointed out, the spell Nystul's Magic Aura will hide a vampire from Divine Sense. There might be other spells or magic items which can do so as well.

However, particularly in a paranoia inducing setting like Ravenloft, I wouldn't have the villagers follow the PC's directives unless the PCs had proven themselves deserving of trust beyond a shadow of a doubt. For all the villages know, the PCs could be the very vampires who have been killing townsfolk!

 

[Guest 6801328]

However, particularly in a paranoia inducing setting like Ravenloft, I wouldn't have the villagers follow the PC's directives unless the PCs had proven themselves deserving of trust beyond a shadow of a doubt. For all the villages know, the PCs could be the very vampires who have been killing townsfolk!

I love this. The players start trying to "round up" the villagers, and a rumor spreads that it's for some evil reason. Instead of a docile crowd they face a lynch mob.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

Nystul's Magic Aura can mask this as well, and is permanent if cast every day for a month.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Nystul's Magic Aura can mask this as well, and is permanent if cast every day for a month.

Thanks for pointing out something I hadn't noticed about that spell.

 

[Hussar]

Nystul's Magic Aura can mask this as well, and is permanent if cast every day for a month.

That's cool. Never noticed that one. Considering Strahd's age, I'd say that's a pretty easy solution.

 

[Saeviomagy]

The paladin detect evil is
1) effectively a spell: in previous editions casting it required you to engage in a very obvious ritual. At the very least, I would consider it to be a noticeable thing that the paladin is doing.

2) A limited number of times per day: if a paladin is throwing it out every time a group of people are gathered, he'll run out quick

3) Not infallible: as others have pointed out a bunch of spells will block it or give false results. For fun have strahd cast nystul's on other people to make them show up as undead.

4) Irrelevant: it's rare that people won't work out or already know that Strahd is a vampire.


For the "I gather everyone in the town square and detect evil" plan
1) How often does absolutely everyone show up to a meeting, even an important one? So you've got the culprit (maybe, see above) and some others who don't show.
2) This is a useful shortcut to rule out everyone who you would probably never investigate anyway. Lets face it: a game where you have to actually investigate 100 villagers would get tedious quickly.
3) a paladin rolls into town and asks that the entire town attends a meeting? Every slightly shady or guilty person in town doesn't show up because they don't want to be subjected to the inquisition.
4) The culprit stages a diversion or frames someone because it's pretty obvious what's happening when a paladin rolls into town and asks for a town meeting. If a vampire removes his finger and puts it in someone's coin purse, will it still ping as undead? Probably.

 

[Mercule]

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.

IIRC, this was the solution in the original I6. I no longer have a physical copy, but I believe that's what the amulet pictured is supposed to be.