having a problem with aligment... Can anyone help??

[Zhnov]

If you want to hide the bad guy, make him a lycanthrope by night, Johnny Do-Gooder by day.

Or, do the whole split personality thing. There could be a certain condition that causes the evil Johnny to come out (such as when the Paladin comes around). =)

 

[j_lovescoffee]

I don't like the current mechanics behind alignment how do you think I could change it?

I'm personally just removing "good" and "evil" entirely from all humanoids. That means monsters and outsiders can 'ping' on a Detect Good/Evil, but all humanoids do not. I'm still working out the balance (do I need to give Paladins/Clerics something else? because I'm leaving monsters and outsiders still good/evil, I'm thinking not, but haven't made up my mind). I'm just outright removing some spells from the list (like Blasphemy), but spells like "Holy/Unholy Word" can still be used against non-humanoid baddies.

 

[Philthulhu]

Really? Given the fact that it is a Concentration spell (taking a Standard action each round to maintain) and takes three rounds to identify the source of evil, I have never had a problem…

Exactly. Just flicking it on and off just lets the Paladin know that yes, there might be something evil around here... somewhere...

It works like the spell; 60ft. cone infront of you. 1 Standard action to cast, and Concentration (as Psimancer has said) each round to keep it going.
First round, yup, there's Evil here somewhere. 2nd round, you can actually get specifics on numbers. If the most powerful aura is overwhelming, you get stunned and lose the spell. 3rd round, you can actually point out exact locations and powers of auras. If they aren't in Line of Sight, you can only give a direction (it's, erm, North).
Even then, the Aura might not even be from an actual person anymore. Auras linger, so your Paladin might have just spent three rounds finding a trail from an Evil Outsider (11 HD or more) who happened to walk past this point some three days ago...


And it's still only in that front 90 degree arc. Turn around, and you've suddenly got to start all over again. Move in any direction, and you have to wait those three rounds to cover what you've just been able to reach with the effect.


I've played Paladins before, and sure, Detect evil is handy. But if the DM knows that you need to spend some actual time using the damned power, there are a LOT of ways to trip them up. It's not an automatic Alignment-detecting torch.

 

[Philthulhu]

I've actually written a (slightly over-powered) Cultist class for a campaign world that has Undetectable Alignment as a class ability.
My suggestion would be to allow Undetectable Alignment as an actual feat, or just hand it out as a magic item. It's only a level 1 Bard spell. Level 2 for Clerics.

Or carry a sheet of lead.
http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=202

 

[kirinke]

The games I play in, having a paly with detect evil isn't that much of an issue. If you do allow paladins, take the player who is playing a paladin aside and iron out the rules with him/her. What we use detect evil for mostly is to identify the ones that need watching. If they aren't doing anything wrong, we just monitor them. Only if they are actively doing wrong do we stop it.

Paladins who automatically slay anything that detects as evil won't stay paladins for long.