Forums » RP Discussion » Appropriate Use of Detect Evil?

So I've got a question I've been pondering for a while, and quite frankly, I'd like to hear some of your honest opinions. Maybe it'll help me clear up my pondering.

Here's the question: When can the spell Detect Evil (or any spell akin to it) be appropriately used in free-form roleplay? Take careful note there: freeform, not pen-and-paper. My first experience with any sort of D&D paladin was on a MUD that was made more for storytelling than traditional tabletop campaigning.

The reason I've been pondering over this is because I have a paladin who I've been playing for a while now, and like any standard paladin with a spell set, his includes 'Detect Evil'. But I've only used it once, and only with the consent of the target(s) and only to detect evil intentions instead of alignments. I've been too afraid to try again for fear of being labeled as a player who uses their paladin to 'scan' for evil, and this personal fear of mine--unfounded or not--is kind of holding me back some. I keep trying to work it out in my head when it's okay to have him use this spell, and when it's not, and how it could be perceived by other players.

So I'm a little stuck. Are there any opinions out there anyone would like to share, be you a tabletoper familiar with 'radar-scanning paladins' or a freeformer who always strives to strike a good balance for a story?

I have never played a paladin, truthfully, but my yearning for a DnD campaign to somehow fall into my lap is always prodding me to read and read again; those books of greatness. From what I know, all the paladins that I have ever seen and their usage of detect evil (chaos, law, and good) have been limited to alignments only. This creates a sense of wonder, as the character itself is not always the cause of its evil. It may be a cursed item on their person, or a curse placed upon them, or something external.

It is not a high-level spell at all, so I would not believe that it could pick up subtle intentions. And in a free-form environment, I would believe that the spell picks up what is evil. If the person is evil in alignment, but seems to be doing well, for the party members, then perhaps the paladin might want to ponder before she/he does something Lawful Stupid, which, in turn, creates more interesting roleplay, by, perhaps, having the character and the paladin have a quiet conversation someplace else.

The story does not demand that the paladin scan for evil, it is the paladin's scanning for evil that demands the story!

In my experience, a similar spell in a freeform environment tends to be more about reading auras. In Dragonlands, for example, a more evil area might appear darker -- a character with a piece of their soul missing will have a dark hole in their aura. (Furcadian/Dragonlands vampires have one or possibly more pieces of the soul missing.) A character detecting the type of magic another character uses might see corresponding colours -- for instance I play a mage who uses both fire and water, and so his aura contained both red/orange and blue. But detecting only evil, it would be like a greyscale image, where you could only see the relative lightness/darkness.

If you don't like this idea, you could always do like the webcomic Goblins, where the 'detect evil' spell is used. In Goblins, detecting evil gives the paladin casting it an awful feeling about the specific person -- one character describes the 'feeling' of evil as like a bad smell, or like memories of having awful things happen to your closest friends.

I could accept it being used as both an intention-reader (picking up on the narrative 'thinkthought' inserted into a player's posts, or as a background, overall reader of actions (using knowledge gleaned from websites and backgrounds).

Soul-reading can be a bit tricky, since at least in my story and related stories in my hub, missing chunks of soul can be something that happens to the VICTIMS of evil people, too Of course, there's always something to be roleplayed out by paladins getting false positives off these victims. I think letting your character be wrong about something is wonderful development fodder.

All in all, the more vague the better, since some people might be touchy about non-psychic characters using thoughts, with ANYONE using website info, and some people, well, they play evil characters without even noticing that their character does evil!

Fantastic answers, y'all! I think I'm starting to clear up some of the confusion I've been having about this. *chin stroke*

This is kind of how I think I'll handle it. My Paladin on his own is a pretty good judge of character--if something is up with someone, he'll usually just pick up on it like any other person would. Perhaps, however, if he feels he really needs a confirmation on the vibes he's getting, he can use Detect Evil.

As for what Miss says about it picking up evil, be it an item or a curse or actual evil in the person, I am so totally down for that because that always gives away to interesting plot things (and I love interesting plot things). ... now then, is it still a matter that I need to ask consent on? *chin stroke again*

I think that it won't hurt to talk with an RP partner about this before you engage in a roleplay. Just mention "Hey, it's possible ___ happens because that's an ability. I will only have him use it when ___. Is that okay?" and then go from there on.

I know you're a sensible person with this stuff, and others know it too, so it shouldn't be too big of an issue.