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<blockquote data-quote="DMScott" data-source="post: 1106322" data-attributes="member: 11734">What I do is establish that there are people who are normal, functioning members of society who also happen to be evil. There are completely legal pursuits in which someone unencumbered with moral qualms can do quite well for themselves.So if the PCs are looking for the polymorphed assassin who's here to kill the Queen, and they Detect Evil during the grand ball, they come up with a few &quot;false positives&quot;. Do they really want to kill Duke Dastardly, who's just come back from ruthlessly suppressing that peasant revolt in West Nowhere, in front of his cousin the queen on suspicion that an evil assassin is impersonating the normally evil man? They can certainly justify killing him on an alignment basis, but the social repercussions are another matter, and if he's not the assassin the ensuing chaos may allow the assassin to strike.Simililarly, there are also Neutral and Good members of society who do things that may make them &quot;bad guys&quot;. That Neutral Good spy from Greater Nowhere who's plotting to liberate West Nowhere from the tyrannical Duke Dastardly may well be an enemy of the realm the PCs are asked to deal with. Detect Evil certainly won't help you find the spy.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="DMScott, post: 1106322, member: 11734"] What I do is establish that there are people who are normal, functioning members of society who also happen to be evil. There are completely legal pursuits in which someone unencumbered with moral qualms can do quite well for themselves. So if the PCs are looking for the polymorphed assassin who's here to kill the Queen, and they Detect Evil during the grand ball, they come up with a few "false positives". Do they [I]really[/I] want to kill Duke Dastardly, who's just come back from ruthlessly suppressing that peasant revolt in West Nowhere, in front of his cousin the queen on suspicion that an evil assassin is impersonating the normally evil man? They can certainly justify killing him on an alignment basis, but the social repercussions are another matter, and if he's not the assassin the ensuing chaos may allow the assassin to strike. Simililarly, there are also Neutral and Good members of society who do things that may make them "bad guys". That Neutral Good spy from Greater Nowhere who's plotting to liberate West Nowhere from the tyrannical Duke Dastardly may well be an enemy of the realm the PCs are asked to deal with. Detect Evil certainly won't help you find the spy. [/QUOTE]

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