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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 1532480" data-attributes="member: 3146">I find Detect Evil to still be useful even though it's ambiguous. In some cases, it can help to single out people for suspicionDetect Good is another story. There are certainly ambiguities there. And there are interesting situations like the low-epic level good guy who radiates the same moderate good as a third level cleric of a good god. Interestingly, even neutral clerics of good gods radiate good at that kind of strength.You might well find someone who looks like a bum or a rogue but is really good. (Using Detect Good in the Prancing Pony would have surprised Butterbur). You might find an Inquisitor who radiated good. (Probably the kind of Inquisitor who takes great care only to convict the guilty and to take all possible opportunities to show mercy to the accused). You might well find people who are quite respectable who don't radiate good.On the other hand, the use of Detect Good is rather different from Detect Evil. Detect Evil pinpoints people to investigate further, people of whom you should be suspicious, etc. Detect Good might be used to verify someone's claim to be a good priest. However, it might not make a good proxy for Detect Trustworthiness. Good people sometimes do bad things. Also, IME, a lot of people with good hearts are not very dependable--they mean well but they forget about obligations, aren't necessarily good at planning or thinking things through, and can be easily distracted. I imagine most people have the same experience. So unlike Detect Evil which is sometimes useful as an initial filter, Detect Good would be more useful (IMO) as a final filter. Mr. X appears devout and pious etc, he's reliable and has a reputation for generousity. Let's try the Detect Good. Oh that's interesting. He doesn't radiate good. Well, maybe there's something about him that our previous screening missed because he seemed good based on his reputation. I'll check him out a bit more before hiring him as our Castellan.</blockquote>

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