Does Detect Evil detect evil?

[shilsen]

Yeah, I hate doing the paladin detect-o-meter as well. It's too bloody useful, though - but to be honest, unless the target is stupidly high level, an evil cleric, or an evil outsider or undead, almost everyone you encounter will register as 'faint evil' at the most. 'Faint evil' isn't something I consider enough evidence to play whack-a-mole, since it could be the residue from bumping into an evil creature.

I mean seriously, think about it: the bartender who steals from his customers radiates the same amount of evil as a CE Ftr 9 who slaughters villages for breakfast. It's not exactly an exact power.

Precisely. Detect Evil as an ability is anything but too useful. Especially when one realizes that just because someone is evil doesn't mean they are either opposed to the party or worthy of being smited. A couple of the players in my Eberron game have said that the main advantage of using Detect Evil for them is so that they know who they can trust (since they can always trust the evil ones, that is).

 

[Dross]

Precisely. Detect Evil as an ability is anything but too useful. Especially when one realizes that just because someone is evil doesn't mean they are either opposed to the party or worthy of being smited. A couple of the players in my Eberron game have said that the main advantage of using Detect Evil for them is so that they know who they can trust (since they can always trust the evil ones, that is).

To hijack the thread somewhat:
If a paly is using their detect evil 24/7 in town etc, then shouldn't they also use it when encountering those races that are generally evil but with possible neutral/goodly alighned people? (i.e. a certain goodly alighned drow ranger comes to mind).

I wonder how many paly's do that?

 

[Jubilee]

We've played detect evil since switching to 3.5 like this:

Detect Evil detects an Evil Aura. These are the things that have Evil Auras:

Creatures with the Evil subtype
Clerics who worship Evil deities
Other spellcasters who are Evil

(replace Evil with good/lawful/chaotic for other detect spells)

This means that fighters, rogues, and barbarians can get away with murder and a Paladin is none the wiser if they don't personally witness it. NPC classes except the Adept, too.

/ali

 

[Musrum]

The complication is that using Detect Evil is itself an evil act.

Any Paladin who uses it will automatically Fall.

 

[hong]

The complication is that using Detect Evil is itself an evil act.

Any Paladin who uses it will automatically Fall.

Ah, but is that merely an evil-aligned act, or an act with the [evil] subtype?

 

[Tonguez]

They are specifically called out because there is a separate category for them under Detect Evil, namely the "cleric of an evil deity" category.

The lawful neutral cleric of a lawful evil diety will detect as having an evil aura even though the cleric has not an evil-alignment = which is kinda cool...

 

[shilsen]

The lawful neutral cleric of a lawful evil diety will detect as having an evil aura even though the cleric has not an evil-alignment = which is kinda cool...

I know. I've always thought that's an excellent element of the spell, along with the way it works off HD. That makes it just imprecise enough to make the "detect + smite" approach completely nonsensical, while still providing some degree of information.

 

[phindar]

For one game I divorced Alignment from morality and intent, and instead applied it to universal forces. Evil was the stand-in for Negative Energy, so Undead, Negative Energy Channelers and so on all detected as Evil. (Basically, Any and Always Aligned creatures and characters detected that way, everybody else didn't.) Good equalled Positive Energy, so Positive Energy channels like "good" clerics and paladins detected as Good. None of this had anything to do with morality or intent, something that threw the players for a loop when they stumbled on some angels going old school (or Old Testament) on a corrupt city-- Lantern Archons canvassed the town Detecting Evil constantly, and when they picked up something, Angels swooped in and Holy Worded it At Will back into the Stone Age. A lot of "non-evil, non-good" people were getting slain in the process, but the angels were making the city pure. It was a lot like The Prophecy in that way.

 

[nute]

As I interpret the rules, and I think correctly:

Joe Human, a fighter with an alignment of Chaotic Evil, will NOT show up on Detect Evil unless he is in the midst of committing an act of evil large enough to make a dent on the landscape (mass sacrifice, etc).

Vlad Dookiespiker, a pit fiend who's seen the error of his ways and now acts in a Lawful Good manner, will ping a Detect Evil because he has the [Evil] subtype, despite his actions.

Alignments describe how you act, subtypes describe what you ARE. Subtle spells such as Know Alignment come in handy for detecting evil people. ("Hey, this used chariot salesman is Lawful Evil! He's going to try and stick me with a horrible interest rate!")

Detect (X) spells, as I understand it, are more used for things that tend to radiate (X).

A priest of an evil god radiates an Evil aura (as per class description) because he's channeling Evil power to do his schtick. A +1 holy longsword radiates good, because of the Holy property.

 

[phindar]

That's how it worked in 2e. In 3e, I'm pretty sure characters of the evil alignment detect as such, and their level determines how strongly they read. A 1st-10th lvl evil commoner will ping as Faintly Evil on the moral sonar, whereas a 2nd lvl evil cleric (or a 11th level evil commoner) will ping as Moderate. On the chart under Detect Evil, "Evil Creature" is synonymous with "Creatures with an Evil Alignment".