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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 5629079" data-attributes="member: 4937">I would also argue that magical interrogation would be an unusual recourse even in a society that didn't find torture to be objectionable as a means of obtaining a confession.The legal problem with magical interrogation is that ultimately it falls back to one person's testimony against anothers.  In this case it is the testimony of the person versus the testimony of the wizard who is responcible for casting the spell.  Magical interrogation is only as reliable as the interrogator.  If the person is compelled to tell the truth, couldn't they also be compelled to lie?  How trusting will the courts specifically and the society as a whole be that the spellcaster has played fairly and that the spell operates as described.  If the spellcaster says, "I've detected evil in this man.", why should the spellcaster be trusted?  If the spellcaster says, "When I cast this spell, the guilty party will glow purple?", how do you know he's not a charlatan casting an simple illusion spell?   Was it the zone of truth that caused the particular answers in question, or was it a dominate person spell?   And if we are going to give total trust to these spells, what about magic that thwarts the magic?I think it unlikely that ordinary folk would hold much stock in things that they can't understand or control.  Trial by ordeal or torture would probably seem inherently more fair than some witch or warlock messing with your brain.Only societies with absolute trust in some organization are going to allow that organization to arbitrate what is truth.  That might happen in some theocracies, or in some cultures where there exists a body of spellcasters whose impartiality and independence is backed by up huge visible sacrifices and ritual that sets them well apart from ordinary affairs and above the influence of any one, but such situations are probably rare in most campaign settings.</blockquote>

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