Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 3202526" data-attributes="member: 22424">Not true. Not only is Detect Evil ridiculously easy to fool (Undetectable Alignment on self, certain curses on others, possibly other means), but the reliability can only ever be as good as the person administering the test. Since there is no obvious way to tell apart an LG Cleric of the god of justice and a CN Cleric of the god of trickery pretending to be a cleric of the god of justice, this creates problems.In addition, the interpretation is suspect as well, since certain creature types always radiate greater evil than others, regardless of how evil they are. A LE Cleric who is essentially the "Diet Coke of Evil" will radiate far more strongly than a mass-murdering CE fighter of the same hit dice. Likewise, the Paladin has no way to distinguish between that same mass-murderer and a tax farmer who consistently and cruelly extorts excessive taxes from the people, but never directly inflicts any physical harm to them.What's more, a just society will never give the Paladin license to simply execute Evil beings, simply because they have no way to check the Paladin's credentials. And it is far from unreasonable to expect that a lawful society will have laws in place that make it illegal to make use of any spell or spell-like ability on another without their consent, except in formalised circumstances (essentially, the same circumstances under which we would use a lie detector).And... it is entirely possible that the Paladin may be required by his oaths to not only not smite the evildoer, but he may also be called upon to uphold their place in society. Consider an otherwise Good and fine culture where the only blemish is the practice of tax farming, and where the tax collectors routinely claim more than they should. (This is not so hard to imagine - at some point in the past, an unwise king instituted the policy, and although the current noble monarch would prefer to reform the system, he is constantly at war with the orc on his borders, and desperately needs the funds to feed and pay his troops.) In this case, the tax collectors are Evil, but they also represent 'legitimate authority'. Therefore, not only can the Paladin not smite them, but he must also not permit others to prevent them in the course of their task. (What he must do is make sure that the tax collectors only ever take the appropriate sums where he can assure that, and should work to correct any breaches as best he can. Further, he needs to work to have the system reformed, and quickly. However, he cannot instigate violence against the tax farmers, and neither can he turn a blind eye to those who would do so.)The net result is that while Detect Evil is a very useful tool, and one that the Paladin should be using judiciously, it is neither foolproof, nor is it a license to smite.</blockquote>

Verification