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Message: <blockquote data-quote="green slime" data-source="post: 2975877" data-attributes="member: 1325">Which would you believe? A pillar of the community, a reknown doer of good-deeds and life-long donater to various charities, with a record of previous good alignment detection on him, or some down-on-his-luck, low level adventurer, with a symbol of the god of justice slapped on his shield in a makeshift fashion? Guess who looses this popularity contest? WHY would they have reason to do it? DO they check each and every beggar, townsmith, crier? And of what crime do they then accuse them? He is (moderately) Evil! Well.... with a decent chunk of the population registering as faintly Evil, he has a lot of work to do...There is: It takes three rounds of concentration to get the information you want. IMG, this concentration is obvious, and regarded as impolite action in genteel society. Like, you do not trust anyone. Do it, and people get snotty with you. Try it on a shopkeeper, and they might thow you out for insinuating they are not trustworthy, and you can forget about any bargain discount. Try it on a beggar, and they'll hound you. Try it on a Duke, and you'll get sent to some far off region to count snowflakes. Because this is what people do when you imply that they are not trustworthy.As I point out below, he is only just EVil.... along way from EVIl and definitely not EVIL.That's fine for your campaign. But just because invasion of personal privacy was generally acepted in your campaign, doesn't mean that it has to be in every campaign. Paladins will generally abide by the laws of society that they operate in, if the society is generally just and fair. IF the laws state that only appointed individuals may cast detect magic in a court of law, while under oath, and with another, different appointed individual using detect lie, then, by Tyr, they will abide by that law while operating within the City limits or face severe consequences.No, there is a difference between knowing when you are out of your league (and this can be the case even in a social situation) and regrouping your forces to better combat him on his own terms, or stepping into a complete horn's nest, a situation beyond your understanding, making yourself a mark in the process, and ending up stupidly dead.Interpreting a Paladin's Code of Conduct is something that should be cleared up really early in the game, so the player and DM don't have any misconceptions.Besides, the EVil Aristocrat, has not actually, to the Paladin's knowledge, committed any harm to innocents, nor threatened them. He is moderately EVil, that is the only conclusion the Paladin can draw. Perhaps the aristocrat sits at home and tortures small animals... Or draws horrendous, nightmarish pictures of his fantasies which he sells to depraved individuals on the sly. No it only implies hurting, oppressing, and killing. It isn't limited to that at all. Evil merchants (registering faintly) try to squeeze more profit out of a deal than is fair. This is against fair trade rules, and IMC, is an evil act. However, there will always be people who are willing to pay an unfair price, for various reasons. There is no evidence of crimes, but there is evidence of a willingness to do evil. The person who registers as evil, may never have committed a truly evil act at all, but is willing to evil, wants to do evil (may feel too incompetent, or be unable to, from position or inability, and fears getting caught), and probably dreams of nasty doing nasty evil things. This is why people fail to understand the D&D alignment system. Most people are not good. Many people are not even neutral. A Lawful Good society is something unacheivable on the Material Plane. I'd like to see a list of its laws. It is a Utopia, and deserves to be reserved for the Upper Planes, IMO. AS far as I can see, the best any place can ever hope for is Lawful Neutral, with good tendancies.I can't argue about how you run your campaign, but in speaking in general terms; No compromises. Justice is patient. No, there is no inevitable investigation, and there wouldn't necessarily any investigation, unless the suspecting paladin did it himself. A wealthy aristocrat is not without friends and influence beyond that of the church, unless it is somekind of theocratic church state run by the paladin order themselves.To DO list is good. Announcing yourself publically to your 11th level enemies prior to their knowledge of your very existance, as a feebly, unimportant 1st level paladin might be theatrical, and cool in some games. Or it may be just a shortcut to repeat those character generation steps. Check with the DM.But it requires that the caster of the detection spell is one that is trusted by both parties not to lie. And people, even high level clerics, are subject to bribery, blackmail, and coercion. As these methods are therefore also subject to manipulation, which a high level aristocrat is certainly capable of, and with a high enough Bluff score, said aristocrat can certainly can create a credible excuse for the reason behind the necessity of these "minor" transgressions.No, IMG, they wouldn't be neutral. You just don't casually, "occassionally commit evil". But I guess I have a lot more people in my towns registering as "barely evil", and very few registering as "good" because that is the way I see most humans: Greedy, Vain, and self-serving & Self-interested. You can't run the majority of the merchants out of town. No, it is just the same as a 2nd level Evil Cleric.... And this is the "Evil" the High level paladin is worrying about? A 5th level Cleric of Evil registers as "Strongly Evil", the next level, and an 11th Level Evil Cleric as "Overwhelming".What's more, you deliberately set 11th level Aristocrat, which is precisely the level at which aristocrats tip over from faint (i.e. Barely register). No mention prior was made of 11th level.Suffice to say detect evil functions just as you wish it to in your games, and that is good. But I just see it differently. Typically, "Good" cities accept even Evil citizens, until solid proof of Evil activities are brought forth. The coins of Evil people weigh the same in the merhant's till.</blockquote>

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