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<blockquote data-quote="Aristeas" data-source="post: 3259178" data-attributes="member: 41008"><p>Even if you don't let th paladin get away with smiting anyone who looks evil, it still provides an annoyingly easy way to tag all the villains. Say the king has two advisors, one of whom is secretly in league with demons to overthrow him. If Detect (Alignment) didn't exist, this would be an interesting problem- you'd have to try to find evidence of the treachery somehow, and magic would be only limited help, since spells like Discern Lie allow a saving throw and are thus unreliable. But as is, it takes a first level spell with no save to pick out the evil one, which means that not only will the party be in doubt for a maximum of twelve seconds, but they can easily prove it to the king by having, say, every cleric at the local temple swear that Minister B is evil. There are ways to get around this (make both ministers lawful neutral, have someone cast Misdirection and Magic Aura on Minister B several times a day), but they all seem a little awkward to me. In my campaigns, Detect (Alignment) works only on undead, outsiders, and creatures with the Aura of (Alignment) class feature. It's much less problematic then.</p></blockquote><p></p>

[QUOTE="Aristeas, post: 3259178, member: 41008"] Even if you don't let th paladin get away with smiting anyone who looks evil, it still provides an annoyingly easy way to tag all the villains. Say the king has two advisors, one of whom is secretly in league with demons to overthrow him. If Detect (Alignment) didn't exist, this would be an interesting problem- you'd have to try to find evidence of the treachery somehow, and magic would be only limited help, since spells like Discern Lie allow a saving throw and are thus unreliable. But as is, it takes a first level spell with no save to pick out the evil one, which means that not only will the party be in doubt for a maximum of twelve seconds, but they can easily prove it to the king by having, say, every cleric at the local temple swear that Minister B is evil. There are ways to get around this (make both ministers lawful neutral, have someone cast Misdirection and Magic Aura on Minister B several times a day), but they all seem a little awkward to me. In my campaigns, Detect (Alignment) works only on undead, outsiders, and creatures with the Aura of (Alignment) class feature. It's much less problematic then. [/QUOTE]

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