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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spatzimaus" data-source="post: 2975690" data-attributes="member: 3051">You don't think a person in a city can avoid being within 60' of any Paladin OR Cleric at some point in his life?  Clerics get it as a level 1 spell, Paladins do this at will.  I can GUARANTEE that any important person in my games has been within 60' of a Paladin or Cleric within each month, if only because they effectively run the local government.  But even in a more general setting I'd say it's effectively impossible to avoid this sort of contact, especially if you're trying to maintain some sort of public persona.  The only way to avoid this is to be a total recluse.Because it's "at will".  There's no gameplay reason not to use it regularly, especially since you can maintain concentration while walking, talking, etc., so within a city it's a pretty fair assumption that the Paladins would have it up BEFORE the conversation started.Most middle-ages societies didn't have anything like the 5th Amendment.  If you didn't have anything to hide, why would you object to being detected by a duly-appointed representative of the Law?  I'm not saying that every Paladin had carte blanche to interrogate every random person they met, but if one Paladin went out of his way to scan the guy, which do you think his order would be more upset with: him, for offending the rich guy, or the aristocrat, for being EVIL?Now, as I noted before, this Aristocrat had all kinds of anti-divination stuff, because he was publicly paranoid about his mind being read, but he had at previous times successfully been detected as good.  (Due to some well-placed bribes and some high-level magic, but it was enough that most people wouldn't question it.)  He'd have never been able to get away with this otherwise; Paladins are dedicated to fighting evil, they'd have never tolerated someone resisting their magic simply because it was a bit impolite.Any Paladin who knows of evil and helps cover it up has just given clear help to those who will use that help for evil ends (or at the very least has failed to "punish those who harm or threaten innocents"), has just violated his code of conduct in a couple different ways, and is now a featless Fighter.  Congrats, you're hosed.There's a difference between cooperating with an evil being to accomplish some greater good, and backing down from an evil being because you're afraid of offending him.Err, yes it does.  He has an evil alignment, this pretty much DOES reveal his motives and/or methods.  And I quote:""Evil" implies hurting, oppressing, and killing others."It doesn't give specifics about what exact methods he uses, but simply proving the merchant is evil in a good-aligned town would be enough to get him run out on a rail, at the very least.  A neutral town might not care as much, but even they'd be a bit iffy.  The reason isn't that you've discovered some clear evidence of a crime; you've just proven that he's committed many crimes in the past, and a little digging and/or divinations should reveal them.  If he hadn't committed crimes, he wouldn't have an Evil alignment in the first place.  (Just one of many problems with the D&D alignment system.)As I said before, any paladin who compromises on this simply because of those sorts of worldly consequences has just violated his code of conduct.  Second, it's an enemy who's entire basis for power has just disappeared, assuming he even survives the inevitable investigation into his earlier activities.Third, even the non-Paladins in my groups wouldn't back down out of fear of making another enemy; they'd go after him anyway, and just add another bad guy to the "To Do" list.Does the spell, as listed, have an inherent chance of failure?  Nope.  Sure, the target can argue that some other enchantment changed the result, but the burden of proof is now effectively on him; people will be suspicious of him, and would ask for confirmation from someone with access to higher magics.For misdirection or undetectable alignment, one good dispelling (and a detect magic to confirm no enchantments are on the target) would ensure the detection spells report correctly.  So, it wouldn't take very long to confirm or disprove the original reading.Would you go into business with a man you know to be evil, even assuming the town would tolerate his presence at all?  There's a difference between someone who does the occasional evil act (meaning they're probably a Neutral alignment) and someone who actually has an Evil alignment.Evil Creature is HD-based.  If non-Cleric class levels count as "HD" for these purposes (which I'd say they should), then a high-level (11+) Aristocrat would have a Moderate aura.  That's well above "barely register"ing; it's the same as what an 8th-level Evil Cleric would register as.</blockquote>

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