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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Martian Agitator" data-source="post: 3019558" data-attributes="member: 40417">A little advice on detect evil.It should never, ever be run as a binary thing, Evil/Not Evil, but instead be used as a "sixth sense" that gives non-specific information to the paladin and creates texture in the world, i.e.:UNSUREDan DM (as Frank Farmer): "Howdy!"Peter Paladin-Player:  Detect Evil!Dan DM (grumbling): Yeah, he's a bad guy.SUREPeter Paladin-Player:  Detect Evil!Dan DM (knowing Frank Farmer is the killer):  You feel like cold water is running down your arms and a metallic scent bites the air.ORDan DM (knowing Frank Farmer is about to rip them off):  You feel a tingling, sparking sensation on your palms and fingertips.ORDan DM (knowing that an evil vrock is hiding in the barn to the left of Peter's PC, though Frank Farmer has no idea):  Your temples throb and a hot sensation licks at the left side of your face like a flame.  You begin bleeding from the ears and nose.Remember when Frodo puts on the ring?  That world of rushing shadows and screamy things?  Thats the world that a paladin taps into, only he can't use his eyes to tell what's going on.  Or, he sees things no one else can:  after rescuing the baby, Peter detects-evil the parents.  He sees the skin melt off their faces, their eye sockets empty to black hollows and watches the skeleton-parents rip their own bones apart until they are groaning pile of dust.  Still gonna leave that baby with it's folks, Pete?  What's your code say about abandoning an innocent?  But you can't prove that they're gonna screw with the kid, can you?  Because you don't know for sure if it's the parents that are evil or if something evil is happening to them that's out of their control.   Mwahahaha.Rick Swan's 2E Complete Guide to Paladins introduced this concept for detect evil to me, and that book is definately the greatest resource for Paladins ever.  The ability is even more important in 3E because of the Smite Evil ability; consider the above scene with the vrock in the barn.Say it turns out Frank Farmer is an alter ego for Roger Resistance Fighter.  The PCs are in his house, find large amounts of weapons and armed people, as well as a few hostages.  Now these hostages are sheriffs and guardsmen who have been carrying out the king's evil orders -  but they are not evil themselves.  Roger Resistance Fighter and his Corny Crew attack the PCs thinking that they are sent to rescue the hostages.  Peter Paladin-Paladin, remembering the nose bleed and fiery feeling, thinks "Hey, this guy detected evil, I'll blow a Smite on him, no problem."  Smite fizzles.  Peter Paladin-Player goes, "Whoa!" and tries to calm everyone down and parley to figure out the sitch.  A cool situation only deliverable by a paladin character.With detect evil, smite evil, and a watchful god, the paladin is the moral barometer, which is an interesting role to fill in a world with discrete morality.  Its a cool thing for a paladin to be, and should be treated in the same way 2E swashbucklers came with the "strange luck" clause.  Paladins should always be doing the right thing (or always following the code, should you decide paladins can be other alignments than LG) and part of paladin adventures should be using that moral barometer and having it work perfectly sometimes and having it backfire others.  And because they should always be doing the right thing, it should be hardest for them to do it and they will be plagued with dilemmas and an insurmountable foe or two; so they perhaps deserve a little self-sufficiency on their Quest for Truth.That's the niche of the paladin I like, and why I think detect evil and smite evil are the most intrinsic and paladin-y abilities.  Thus the most important facet of paladins is the "find evil, swat it" hook.  Like rangers are the bloodhounds of the forest, paladins are the supernaturally inspired bloodhounds of good.I am redesigning the paladin with this in mind.Also, I like adding Intimidate to the paladin's skill list:  its an interesting tactic to use against enemies, but if he accidentally uses it against someone far weaker than him or is otherwise belligerent to good people, he would have to atone a little, perhaps doing a service for the wronged.  Cool.</blockquote>

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