Detect Evil question

[Black Raven]

First of all, I hope this is the right place for this. If not, then feel free to move it where ever it should be.

I tried to search both lore and forums and the best I could find were discussions about the spell to detect evil/good/chaos/lawful soI thought I ask here.

So I was curious about the paladin's detect evil ability - is it possible to roleplay it if the other party allows you to, or should a paladin realize who's evil or "less good than most"? which I know might be impossible to know without knowing oocly who made an evil character or not.

And one last thing, how is detect evil work? I read some where around here  it works as an action, while I was sure its a passive ability and can detect evil harm the paladin if he's still a novice or weak while near a more powerful evil? like a level 3 paladin standing near a demon prince long enough to sense his evilness which would make his head explode before the demon even get the chance.

[Skywatcher]

As far as I know the detect evil ability of Paladins is not implemented in NWN or Layo but as I have played my Paladin there have been situations in quests when I have tried to sense the motive or basic good or evil of a person and the GMs have responded as if I had that ability.  Sometimes using a Wisdom roll or something to throw in a random factor.   Clerics have a cantrip called divine relation that will inform them of how their deity feels about a person but this more deity to deity rather than alignment based and Paladins don't have cantrips so its not available to a paladin.  Not sure about damaging.  I have never heard of a detect spell damaging the caster so I would assume that there would be no ill effect even if the target was very evil.  That's about all I have to say about that.  

[LynnJuniper]

Detect evil/intention is not a spell that will not currently be used in Layonara.

The spell that allows arcanists to understand languages is another of these such spells.

[Witch Hunter]

Eh its an ability rather... its a spell for clerics.
 Regardless, I believe a paladin can "sense" right or wrong about a person.
 
 Answering your question about the actual spell.. If you keep up detecting an area for 2 rounds+ and an overwhemling evil being enters then you get stunned for 1 round :p

[Dorganath]

It's not really implemented, and as things go in an RP sense, paladins should not be using this against PCs really in general (i.e. metagaming from the Server Status page, characters sumbissions, etc).  

If a GM is present, and only in that case, one might ask to use this ability, but the results and the extent to which one is allowed to focus said ability, are up to the GM's sole discretion.

I hope that clears things up.

[Black Raven]

So if the two players talk before about and agree on being able to sense the other one, thats not allowed?

If both sides agree and might just add a bit of spice then whats wrong? hope I Dont sound rude.

[Weeblie]

I believe that question falls into the category of questions that are difficult to answer, as the chance someone will try to "push the lines a little" if a "Yes" is answered is rather big. Which means that a "No" will most probably be used as an answer instead.

Before the PvP widget, PvP was not allowed between players without a DM/WL present, even if both players agreed on PvP (this excluded the Arena, of course). That was a quite strange rule, wasn't it? If both agrees, so why not?

It was a necessary rule, though, to draw a clear line so nothing like "But, he said...", "No, I did not..." and so on will appear afterwards.

So... I would think that the answer to this particular question is that you should try to avoid that ability outside DM watching. Actually, after thinking twice, don't even expect that you can use it with a DM present, at least not with the precision as one can expect. My answer to you (on a successful roll) would most probably be along the line: "You sense evil present in the room."

Besides, in 99% of the cases, you don't really have to have any such ability to detect who's evil or not. It's... quite obvious if your character has a intelligence score at at least 10.

[Black Raven]

Hmm, I think I understand now

Thanks for all your answers guys, I appreciate it.

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

Hey, hey, Pyyran's Good, and in his disguises he looks like one evil mother.

On-topic... I really think that Weebs and Dorgy answered it perfectly. I don't think anyone will yell at you if you've RPed the ability with consenting players before (quite the opposite, as it shows some ingenuity in your RP!), but this really is one of those things that could be SO open to abuse if certain people were to get their hands on it outside of a DM quest.

*Smiles* That said, if you're in a room full of people, all of whom look normal except for that black-armored fellow on whose spikes are impaled bits of rotting flesh, whose shield is painted with decidedly evil symbols, IN BLOOD... I think it'd be obvious. However, that said, he might be Neutral, and the smiling, friendly face next to him might be far from it.

My advice is to stick with your character's brain, and only try the ability on quests, after asking the DM.

[EdTheKet]

So if the two players talk before about and agree on being able to sense the other one, thats not allowed?

If both sides agree and might just add a bit of spice then whats wrong? hope I Dont sound rude.

Because then you get "I sensed evil before on somebody else and he was okay with it, so why can't I use it on your quest?"
Adding to that, you're giving your character a power they may only use during GM events (and not always then), so consistency wise it would also not make sense that on Monday you could detect evil with this other player who is okay with it, and on a Tuesday on a quest you are not allowed to do it.

So... I'd say on GM events and then only if the GM allows it

[Weeblie]

Paladin: *The paladin closes his eyes to probe the alignment of the person in front of him.*
Toran: *Groans.* Not again! Can't you do something by yourself for once?? Go and figured that out some other way!
Paladin: ...

[lonnarin]

Then there's always the rabid fundamentalist who simply sees evil EVERYWHERE.  The media, the military, the gubment, the church, the streets, the sky, the cat... etc.  My cousins couldn't watch the Snorks because they were too similar to the Smurfs and Gargamel's cat was named after a demon... not sure if that would be 2nd or 3rd hand satanism, twice removed.

That would be a fun plotline for Corathite too btw... curse the paladins to see EVERYTHING as evil and watch them go berserk.