Detect Evil on party members

[Keeper of Secrets]

Alignment is such a fickle and weird thing which I feel is much more complex than simply being able to use 'Detect Evil' on someone. For instance, as a GM I have a pretty liberal interpretation of Evil and am willing to assume lots and lots of people are evil in the sense that 'evil' is anyone who is more self-centered than they are altruistic. 'Evil' in my campaign does not really mean 'constantly out to scheme the downfall of everyone else' but it can. Of course, at the same time this also means that 'evil' does not have much of a strict meaning in my campaign as it may in others' campaigns.

 

[Voadam]

Another player once used a Detect Evil on my dwarven wizard. He was a paladin and my wizard had an undead fox as familiar.

BTW: someone once said to me Detect Evil only works on cleric and paladins, because they have an 'alignment aura' and other classes don't...this isn't true, is it? At least, the spell description doesn't mention the spell not working on a ranger, for example.

Its a house rule, clerics and paladins have an aura that makes them seem more powerfully aligned under the core rules, just like outsiders and undead detect as more powerful evil than orcs of equivalent HD.

So my 15th level good wizard detects as a lesser level of good compared to his 15th level paladin buddy. But still more powerfully good than a 1st level paladin.