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Author Topic: Paladin Detect Evil and Detect Diety  (Read 527 times)

davidhoff

Paladin Detect Evil and Detect Diety
« on: October 21, 2011, 04:35:34 am »
Ok, sorry for all my recent posts about evil/good things, but I have been wanting to clear some of these things floating in my head.

I've read several threads about Paladin's and detecting evil.  I realise that a Paladin has the ability to detect evil.  I understand the general idea is that encounters should be properly roleplayed, and through tells, to hash out whether the paladin can detect evil or get a general bad feeling about an evil character.  I still have some questions though I hope can be answered:

1.  Can the Detect Evil feat/skill of a Paladin be used when a GM is not present?  If a GM is not there, can I send a tell to a player and tell them I'm trying to detect if they are evil?  If so, what would be the proper response by the evil character?

2.  Does having "evil" mechanically in your alignment axis always make you evil, or does it have more to do with the evil character's in-game actions as witnessed by my character?  For example, if my Paladin meets a mechanically "evil" character but the evil character does not show any evil intent and acts more in a good way, would my character really know to try to detect evil?  Would it be acceptable for my character to party up and explore with a mechanically "evil" character as long as the evil character is not showing any signs of being evil?  Or, is it my duty, as a paladin, to detect evil on all newly met characters as standard operating procedure for paladins?

3.  This question is more of a diety question.  Are Paladins trained to recognize and identify another character's diety?  Paladins don't have the spell, Divine Relation, like clerics, but are they able to tell another's diety through their divine powers and training?  Or, would I only be able to tell based on the other character's words/actions/clothing, etc.?  If my paladin wouldn't automatically know, then I guess the best way is to send a tell to the other player asking if there is anything about their character's words/actions/clothing, etc that would indicate to my character who their diety is?

Thanks for any feedback
 
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Dezza

Re: Paladin Detect Evil and Detect Diety
« Reply #1 on: October 21, 2011, 05:40:49 am »
I know some gms have different ideas on this very question but personally...and Ed might correct us at some point, I tend to see the Layonara Paladin as being able to discern evil intentions in some manner rather than an actual 'detect evil' skill or ability. A paladin may try to get an indication that someone is harbouring such intents thus an evil pc in a party might get a way with it for a little while if they are very careful but their nature alone will catch them up at some point.

I will also tend to allow Paladins to 'detect evil' in a direct and specifically stated intention to do so. Whereby they use their divine nature to tap into the area and discern particular objects, forces etc emanating evil/negative energy/low frequencies.

Rping the feature in game is very hard with this particular aspect. It wont work particularly well as some will agree and others wont and where do you draw the line of making sense..
 

Alatriel

Re: Paladin Detect Evil and Detect Diety
« Reply #2 on: October 21, 2011, 07:46:44 am »
 

Dorganath

Re: Paladin Detect Evil and Detect Diety
« Reply #3 on: October 21, 2011, 07:18:57 pm »
The comments above and the link are sufficient to answer the Detect Evil question.

For the other part, there is no "Detect Deity" ability.

Anyone who claims to be able to do it is metagaming.  Divine Relation is as close as it gets, and that only detects the relationship between one's deity and the target's deity, if any.  Since most of Layonara's population are not beholden to a single deity, for the most part Divine Relation returns a big fat zero.

About all a Paladin could go by is outward appearance, since (as was acknowledged in the original post) Paladins lack Divine Relation...which shouldn't even really be considered a "spell" but is done as a spell mechanically for convenience.  There's no training that a Paladin has that can let them peek inside the heart and soul of another person and divine (no pun intended) that person's piety.  Even for clerics with Divine Relation, they clerics are asking their gods for an answer and the god responds in a somewhat general way.

I hope that answers the question.
 

davidhoff

Re: Paladin Detect Evil and Detect Deity
« Reply #4 on: October 21, 2011, 09:32:18 pm »
Thanks Dorg for answering my questions on point.

P.s.  woops on my incorrect spelling on deity