Detect Evil in Hell?

[FreeTheSlaves]

You blow up and those that knew you are burnt and their families are stunned.

 

[Celtavian]

re

Do you really need to detect evil in Hell? C'mon now. Better let your clerics detect good rather than go about detecting evil. Detecting evil in hell is like using a metal detector in a scrap yard.

 

[Azlan]

Even Baator, the Abyss and They Grey Waists are only mildly aligned as evil.

"Mildly" evil or not, I'd still go in there swinging first and asking questions later, if I were a paladin.

(My epic-level paladin, brandishing his super holy avenger: "I will brook NO eee-villl! Back, spawns of Hell -- back to Hell with you! Oh, wait... you're already there.... ")

Stupid question but...what's a paladin doing in hell anyway?

Why, to kick lots of devil butt, that's what! Haven't you seen the "Paladin in Hell" illustration from the original D&D Player's Handbook... ?



Seriously, though, I don't see much of a need for detecting evil in any of the planes of Hell (or in the layers of the Abyss, for that matter). And if if such a need did arise, it would be like trying to use an infrared imager/detector while exploring the planet Mercury.

 

[Kesh]

I'd go by the Ravenloft 3e rules: the plane is so infused with overwhelming evil, that detecting good/evil alignments is impossible. The same could potentially apply to planes which have strong alignments to the law/chaos alignments.

Of course, in a high fantasy campaign, you could probably make a helm that performs the same duty as a modern "flare compensator" for low-light scopes.

 

[Destil]

the 'mildly evil' thing isn't something to get too upset about. What it means is that those planes aren't as evil as the purely evil planes like Hades. As in they're partly chotic, partly evil, or partly lawful.

Read the rules, its just rules terminology. No ones saying that the Abyss is a nice place for a paladin to spend his holidays.

Not the case: the abyss is mildly evil and midly chaotic. Rather, this means that non-good/non-evil creatures don't suffer penelties, while strongly alinged planes affect anyone not of the same alingment. The default cosmoligy simply dosn't have any areas that are strongly alinged, which is odd but not too far of a streach. If anything some deeper layers should perhaps have stronger alingment properties. Also, it's relitive, while it's labled as 'weak' in the absolute system in the MotP, within the great wheel it's as strong as it gets, so you could call it "overwhelmingly evily alinged" within the game word.

 

[Quasqueton]

As for the comments on why a paladin would use detect evil in Hell: he could be gated/shunted/ported there without his knowledge of exactly where he is. Detecting for evil is often a wise first move when displaced/disoriented. It is the quickest way to tell "are we in immediate danger?"

Quasqueton

 

[dcollins]

The default cosmoligy simply dosn't have any areas that are strongly alinged, which is odd but not too far of a streach.

The current Manual of the Planes I have shows each of the single-alignment planes (Limbo, Hades, Nirvana, Elysium) as being strongly-aligned.