Eberron good but only so far
I had hoped for more from Eberron in terms of clerics having varying alignments, faiths having arguments etc. and the logical application of 3.5 spells etc. not resolving those.
Religious schism etc. is such a potentially lovely roleplaying/campaign driving/historical device etc., but how do you have a schism over doctrine when you can cast Commune "Is the traditional view correct oh Lord?" "Is the view we are inclined to think heresy acceptable to you oh Lord"? and "Are there any corrupt clerics in the District 23 temple ward?"
Per the "sweet spot" thread, to me this connects to any "absolute establisher of fact" spell or power being problematic if you want your game to involve more social/political conflicts outside a "dungeon". In a dungeon, the answer to "Is the Ring of Power on the 5th level" is fine to have. In the social/political confict, "Is the chancellor really corrupt" is not fine to have answered.
Whether you want a less-gamist game, or you want religious heresy, corrupt clerics, murder mysteries and political plots to be approachable "gamistly" such spells are "instant kill" equivalents. Commune resolves heresy, alignment detecting magics weed out too many unless nerfed by something like the Perceived Alignment feat (which makes one wonder why bothering alignment detecting magics etc.) or continual use of counter magics.
In essence, this makes being "evil" something with a disadvantage (the "kill me" brand) that is bought off by spending a feat choice, using up spell slots daily, having fewer other possessions of use. One reason to join a cult or somesuch is likely to get access to such protections.
I've revised Commune to have the same effect as the psionic power Hypercognition in many ways except those that are "remote" (enhancing the caster's own mental acuity and recall to superhuman levels ~ allowing the revelation of information the character might have perceived with the right checks etc., or the player deduced if they had 'put two and two together'). I am generous with what this reveals (treating character as Sherlock Holmes on steroids) but still it won't solve what is to the character a "black box mystery" (what is on the other side of the great ocean no one has ever crossed?). This still makes it incredibly useful in murder mysteries etc. but in "figuring out the mind of a god", much less useful.
Alignment detecting spells are still a problem as well. Dragon magazine and other sources have published thoughts on how to revise these. One is to restrict "alignment radiation" to creatures with the evil subtype not simply creatures aligned evil. This in turn has a problem though worked through to "who gets affected by the Blasphemy spell etc.". I don't know how to fix these issues without major surgery on game system.
It does keep coming back to D&D being a game "best at the gamist dungeon".
