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