Protection from Evil question

[captainstan]

So the issue that arose from the last session I had with the players (a fighter) was that one of them went through some actions that turned his character towards an evil alignment. This wasn't done by a spell or possession or anything, basically the very simple premise is that the dream plane is just as real as the material plane, however, the dream plane is currently manipulated by a powerful creature. While one of the characters was asleep he went to the dream plane and ended up killing his father in that plane and choosing to worship one of the lords of hell.

The part that stumped me was that during a part of roleplaying, the cleric in the group, decided to cast protection from evil because the fighter was being drawn to a statue. If the character is already evil by his own choice, or just evil in general, how would protection from evil work? I would assume it just doesn't work or the character has to make a will save to have what would normally be increase bonuses would actually decrease them instead. I didn't seen anything in the PH and so I just went with he noticed that something went wrong with the spell.

[HolyDraconus]

So the issue that arose from the last session I had with the players (a fighter) was that one of them went through some actions that turned his character towards an evil alignment. This wasn't done by a spell or possession or anything, basically the very simple premise is that the dream plane is just as real as the material plane, however, the dream plane is currently manipulated by a powerful creature. While one of the characters was asleep he went to the dream plane and ended up killing his father in that plane and choosing to worship one of the lords of hell.

The part that stumped me was that during a part of roleplaying, the cleric in the group, decided to cast protection from evil because the fighter was being drawn to a statue. If the character is already evil by his own choice, or just evil in general, how would protection from evil work? I would assume it just doesn't work or the character has to make a will save to have what would normally be increase bonuses would actually decrease them instead. I didn't seen anything in the PH and so I just went with he noticed that something went wrong with the spell. Nothing in the spell description says that you can't be evil and gain protection from it. It's not against yourself, but against outside sources. In this case, if the fighter was drawn due to a compulsion, the spell would suppress it. If the fighter fights evil, it would boulster him. If the fighter was dominated or such other MIND affecting abilities, they are suppressed for the duration... but if the fighter was possessed... he's still screwed.

[eggynack]

Don't see any reason it wouldn't work. It's not like protection from evil generally has crazy damaging effects. If this guy tries to hit himself, then I guess he'll have a +2 to AC for that interaction, and if he's for some reason a summoned creature, then things might get wonky, but other than that it seems fine. At some point, you just have to accept that magic is magic, and that mechanics are what they are, and that things do what they say they do and don't do what they don't say they do. If the designers had wanted this thing you're saying, the spell would have had a targeting restriction, or something in the text. This isn't something wrong with the spell. It's just what the spell does.

[AslanCross]

I'm pretty sure even an evil lich would cast protection from evil on himself before summoning demons. I'd say it works as written.

[captainstan]

Nothing in the spell description says that you can't be evil and gain protection from it. It's not against yourself, but against outside sources. In this case, if the fighter was drawn due to a compulsion, the spell would suppress it. If the fighter fights evil, it would boulster him. If the fighter was dominated or such other MIND affecting abilities, they are suppressed for the duration... but if the fighter was possessed... he's still screwed.

Do you mean that the spell would suppress the compulsion of whatever it was or the evil alignment for the short time? The fighter is fighting evil, but is unaware of what forces are with who.

[eggynack]

Do you mean that the spell would suppress the compulsion of whatever it was or the evil alignment for the short time? The fighter is fighting evil, but is unaware of what forces are with who.
Unless the alignment has a compulsion as a source, the spell doesn't interact with it. And it doesn't seem to have that source.

[Necroticplague]

Your alignment is irrelevant to Protection from Evil's functioning. Protection from Evil works identically for Good, Evil and Neutral people.

[captainstan]

Appreciate the help everyone!

[Inevitability]

I'm pretty sure even an evil lich would cast protection from evil on himself before summoning demons. I'd say it works as written.

The problem with that is that Protection from Evil is a [Good] spell, so the lich either wouldn't be able to cast it at all (if a cleric) or would probably dislike doing so. Protection from Chaos works just as well against demons, so he'd probably cast that instead (assuming he isn't LE, in which case summoning demons will be against his alignment anyway).