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Alignment detection etc.

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Mon, 2005-06-27 16:00
#1
Anarch
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Alignment detection etc.

[Believe it or not, this wasn't occasioned by Bane's False Alignment spell; I'd been planning to post this last night but forgot.]

It strikes me that most of the detect X spells (X = law, chaos &c) are inappropriate for a Planescape campaign, at least as written: without some kind of save, that polymorphed glabrezu doesn't have a chance in hell of convincing anyone of anything (at least not without some kind of magical gew-gaw which seems... inelegant). I'd like to see this changed somewhat, and I came up with a few options:

  1. Any creature that is aware of a detect alignment attempt against them can make an opposed check to mask their aura. This check is creature CR + Chr modifier v. caster level + relevant ability modifier.
  2. Same as above, but instead of a flat success v. failure have gradations: for every 10 points over the opposed check, the hiding creature may lower its detection category (as per the tables in the PH) by one rank. This means that more powerful creatures (e.g. balor, solars) will be able to mask some of their aura, but some more will leak through.
  3. Possibly require a feat to enable this; can also make it a class feature of certain classes and/or clerical domains.
  4. Disable detect alignment spells against non-exemplar races, or even non-paramortal races.
  5. Remove the bloody things entirely as being too essentialist for PS. Or at least make them higher level.

Any other thoughts? For that matter, do people simply not mind the detect alignment spells?

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Mon, 2005-06-27 16:55
#2
Clueless
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Alignment detection etc.

I don't mind them as much - in no small part because of the emphasis of Planescape on belief and goal orriented actions - even knowing a person's alignment you can't easily judge what they will Do with it in relation to their beliefs/goals. So yeah, I may be evil - but if I'm a evil Indep I may go about trying to free slaves *anyway* to allow people to follow their own paths and beliefs - and to get the chance to torture some slavers. Slowly.

In addition, Planescape is honestly one of the only campaign settings where I can actually see a legitimate in character reason to have the concept of alignment. Most settings I don't see as much of a legit reason to have it. But with the affects of the Outer planes on characters and the concept of an afterlife sort of slapping you in the face - you'd *know* what planes you are more comfortable in, and therefore what your alignment is.

Mon, 2005-06-27 19:14
(Reply to #2) #3
Rhys
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Alignment detection etc.

It seems odd that the planes are as obvious about such a metagame concept as alignment. And the inner planes are so tied to energy types. I think it's a lot easier to swallow if you make yourself think of it as the game simulating the multiverse, not (the way it probably did come about) the multiverse imitating the game.

Mon, 2005-06-27 19:17
(Reply to #3) #4
Clueless
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Alignment detection etc.

Probably someone looking at the alignement system and one some deep subconscious level thinking 'good god - how do I make this make Sense?!'

Mon, 2005-07-04 15:46
(Reply to #4) #5
Almighty Watashi
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Alignment detection etc.

There are already made spells to disguise aligment. Also, lots of outsiders aren't true to their nature, yet they still beep on detection spells. In other words, if a glabrezu becomes lawful good, he can be detected as lawful (aligment), good (aligment), chaotic (racial trait) or evil (racial trait)

A strange rule, but i like it :twisted:

Fri, 2005-07-08 15:46
(Reply to #5) #6
Surreal Personae
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Alignment detection etc.

Remember the social ramifications of casting magic spells willy-nilly at any creature that one comes into contact with. It might show a lack of trust or respect. Another way of designing how society works in a multi-alignment atmosphere would be Dragonstar's principle of active morality- that is a person can be any alignment as detected by the spell but not pay for it unless they actively did something to disrupt society in general.

There's also a few things a DM can do to throw off alignment detecters. Throwing in a few evil character red herrings that have little to do with the main plot. The evil red herrings aren't the ones committing the main evil acts, but based on the spell the PCs might conclude that. Also using (possibly misguided) good or neutral villains and adversaries can also work. Maybe have the real bad guy manipulating good or neutral characters from behind the scenes. Fiends or other outsiders of unusual alignments still detect as their normal alignment because they retain their subtypes.

A mechanical solution to alignment might be to allow a feat that foils normal alignment detection methods. Rokugan had a feat that allowed a character to detect as a different alignment within one step of his/her actual alignment. Of course, if the DM doesn't draw attention to the NPC in question (by limiting description, etc.), the PCs might not think to use the spell on them anyway.

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