Detect Evil

[lovethesuit]

Some would say a vital change is needed. Myself, I've never encountered a problem with Detect Evil that ended a character or made things any more troublesome than a fun challenge. But in the interests of making EfU:M a little more new-player friendly, perhaps it would be a help to introduce some changes to Detect Evil, to make it a little more in line with the PnP rendition.

As it stands, I believe an argument could be made that if a paladin is in an area, an evil character has no choice but to stay away, lest they get tagged by DE. The alternative, using one of several methods to resist DE, may not work if you're not aware a character is a Paladin. It can seem pretty unfair to be blind-sided by that class ability.

So with that in mind, I offer two possible changes:

A - Detect Evil will only affect PCs higher than level 5. This has precedence in PnP, where an evil aura only appears on higher level creatures, since with weaker creatures the aura (or accumulated evil acts) simply aren't strong enough to trigger the divination. Of course, a character who reaches level 6 and then gets lower would still be triggered by Detect Evil, but this simply allows lower-level Evil characters a chance to establish themselves and build of a resource of anti-DE measures before having to battle it out socially.

B - Detect Evil will require concentration, which has a visible outward sign, such as an emote over the Paladin's head, or VFX. It also goes through the same three phases as PnP: first, it detects the presence of evil; second, it displays the number of evil auras; third, it reveals the source of those auras, if still nearby. This will give evil characters a chance to move away which, while still suspicious, is still a bit more fair to otherwise well-concealed characters who accidentally transition into DE spam and get caught.

I don't think these suggestions are fool proof or even necessary, but I'd like to see how the rest of you feel about DE and whether these changes would help or not. And yes, this was triggered by a discussion in #efu, but let's not bring that here.

[9lives]

There's a ubiquitous counter to DE that everyone knows.

[TurboTax]

a lvl 5 orcussan preist wouldnt be less evil because hes level 5.

[Mist Rider]

Gotta agree with TurboTax.  At lvl 5 a necromancer cleric can animate dead.  I would say that's evil enough for a paladin to detect.

[Knight Of Pentacles]

Give it a cool down of like five minutes and make it noticeable when a paladin attempts to do so. I think their eyes are supposed to glow green or something. >_> I find it lame when a paladin just walks around spamming it.

[9lives]

It's not lame.

[Knight Of Pentacles]

It's not lame.

Spamming evil radar as you stroll about is pretty lame.  You should have a legitimate reason to use it.

[Divine Intervention]

Evil has many advantages anyway and I have never seen a pc totally ruined by DE.

[9lives]

Being a Paladin is a legitimate reason.

[Wild Card]

Honestly I wouldn't mind a concentration check of some sort and have a resting period in between so a Paladin can't spam it.

[Caddies]

Spamming evil radar as you stroll about is pretty lame.  You should have a legitimate reason to use it.

You clearly do not understand what being a paladin is all about.

It is a REQUIREMENT that you spam DE, it isn't lame. If you aren't spamming DE (its supposed to be an -aura- ICly, wherein you detect the presence of evil within a certain range) then you open yourself up to potentially assisting someone who is, in fact, evil, which goes against the entire premise of playing a paladin.

In short, it isn't lame, its encouraged. How lame it is or isn't is a product of the resultant RP once the evil person is detected, not a derivative of spamming the ability.

[The Old Hack]

I agree with Caddies. The RP is the critical part. Paladins need not invariably go 'ZOMG THOU ART EVIL' as a standardised reaction. They might quietly make note of it and warn others later. Or they might tell the detectee that he/she is on a self-destructive path and should consider change it. They might recoil in horror or go cold and standoffish. (I remember one paladin I rather liked who was shy and young reacting with fear and worry for the person detected evil on.)

If there is anything that worries me about Detect Evil it is that it is sort of too... binary. You are either evil or not. It doesn't matter if you are an Orcusian with an Evil rating of rock bottom or if you are someone who has been struggling and has an evil rating only just a smidgen away from Neutral, in either case you are still Evil. Not sure if anything can be done about this, though, or even if it is worth worrying about, it might just be me nitpicking again.

[Winston Martin]

If your alignment is Evil and no one knows you are evil IC, perhaps that alignment is not for you.

[9lives]

The joys of moral absolutism.

[xXCrystal_Rose]

Remember this is efu. Our detect evil and our paladins here are different from pnp. This is just how it works in this setting and the playstyle of them needs to be adjusted to match.