Detect Evil

[arkol]

This is for pathfinder but I guess 3.5 was the same.

So a low-level Paladin is trying to detect evil on the evil-bandits-that-ambush-helpless-people-by-the-road-till-they-do-it-to-a-pc-and-their-career-is-over

The bandits are obviously so low level (less than 5HD), that they don't have an aura of evil, but they ARE evil. Do they register or not? If they do, what's the difference between having an evil aura or not?

[Apophis]

The Detect Evil spell states that it detects the presence or absence of evil, so you could tell if there was evil or not in the cone of the spell, but you couldn't tell how many there were.

[Callista]

Oh, interesting; guess they changed that for Pathfinder...

Detect Evil, Pathfinder version (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/d/detect-evil)

I think you would just stop at the "presence or absence of evil" at that point; without an aura to detect, you couldn't pinpoint them. But it's not at all clear from the spell description, so really, I'd suggest jotting down your ruling somewhere to keep it consistent for next time someone asks.

[Apophis]

Oh, interesting; guess they changed that for Pathfinder...

Yeah, that confused me for a minute. :smallsmile: