Know/Detect Alignment?

[SpicyBoi_Nezu]

In my campaign, my DM has 3 main "Villains" and by villains, I mean highly dangerous NPCs that can and will kill us is we cross paths. But one of them is a bit odd compared to the other two. Our DM said that he has his own agenda, and is a bit different than the other two, who are the silent killer, and the crazy hunter types.

He hinted that the first step to unraveling the mystery of the third one would be to determine his alignment. But that's where I encountered my issue. I can only find Detect Evil/Good/Law/Chaos. I was wondering what the best method would be to determine this guy's alignment. There's no "Know Alignment" spell that I can find.

[Kelb_Panthera]

That's a weird, meta-game angled clue.

For the vast majority of a game world, alignment is an abstraction, at best, or a complete non-entity to the way people think. It's only really tangible to spellcasters and a few other supernatural sorts.

That out of the way, you can use detect alignment through the scrying sensor of certain spells and items. About the only other thing you can really look to is divinations where you ask an extraplanar entity about a certain thing. In ALL cases, there's a margin of error to boot, since most of those divinations have a chance of failure baked in and/or the target can employ any of a number of defenses.

If it's available, I'd start with trying to detect his alignment while targetting him with scrying. It's not great odds but it's better than nothing and the GM -might- pull a little handwavium if he wants you to have the information. Greater Scrying will let the detect alignment spells work through its sensor with the only concern for failure being the target's defenses against such things.

The final option is simply to learn as much as you can about the man and his past and simply line-up the behavior with its appropriate alignment for a simple logical deduction of his alignment. It's the easiest option to fool but it doesn't cost or require anything but the investment of your time.

[Evoker]

Off the top of my head, the fifth level cleric spell commune would seem to be the easiest way to achieve that. It allows you to ask 1 yes/no question per caster level, minimum 9. With some well-phrased questions, determining someone's alignment as regards to law/chaos and good/evil requires 4 questions maximum: two to establish good/evil/neutral, and two to establish law/chaos/neutral. So assuming whoever casts the spell's deity knows the alignment, Commune works as a kind of kit-bashed "know alignment". Plus, you have at least 5 yes or no questions left on the spell after the ones to establish alignment, so that could be a significant added bonus. Based on the rules for spell-casting services, so long as you're not worried about routing your questions through a mid-level cleric, a minimum caster level casting (providing 9 questions) would cost less than a thousand GP. Assuming you have a divine caster, either they could cast it (if they're high enough level) or you could use a scroll of commune (if they aren't), clocking in at just under 2000 GP.

EDIT: Minor grammar fix and clarification.