Do alignment auras do anything?

[Particle_Man]

I mean there is a chance that someone will be stunned for a round if they are low level compared to you, you aura is overwhelming, and they specifically use magic to detect your alignment.

Does the aura do anything else?

[Eldonauran]

RAW? I think it is a bit unclear but I treat Auras almost like a subtype. For example, if you just happen to be a neutral cleric of an evil deity and radiate a strong Evil aura, Holy Smite is gonna ruin your day. Protection from Evil is going to make your day a little harder.

[Doctor Despair]

They help to make disguises really, really hard. Emulating an alignment of good without pinging on detect magic is very difficult. It basically requires you to have a ring of misdirection, or levels in Spymaster or Zhentarim Spy.

[Particle_Man]

So it is similar to class features like illiteracy or racial features like Orcish blood: a net negative with a few potential niche uses?

[Morty_Jhones]

yea its a feature that genaly floats about in the background doing squat, untill it comes back to bite you in the ass , HARD

the main thing about it is the affect it has on the obvuse like smite and protection/ circle against spells,

The the less obvuse it the affect it has on dissgises and infeltration atempts since you can't turn it off and need ways to disgize it as well.

the main one is the affect it has on HOLY/UNHOLY interactions and situations since as part of that holly aures side affects are what spells and afects you can cast/know which can also cause problems in some situations.

so never send your paladin on an infeltration mishion with that evil cult.... that darn holy shine just sticks out like a sore thumb.

[gijoemike]

I cannot remember the book this was in. It may have been early pathfinder. If anyone knows please reply.

I remember a book that had a table based on how long an aura lingered in an area. Many HD outsiders had an aura that could last hours or a full day. This would affect things around the places they had travelled. A lvl 20 clerics aura would last for about 2 hours, iirc. Once could pick up traces of the aura and possibly track the owner. This was a splat book.

So being a cleric or paladin or outsider of an aligned plane could mean being tracked and identified far easier.

[Gruftzwerg]

I cannot remember the book this was in. It may have been early pathfinder. If anyone knows please reply.

I remember a book that had a table based on how long an aura lingered in an area. Many HD outsiders had an aura that could last hours or a full day. This would affect things around the places they had travelled. A lvl 20 clerics aura would last for about 2 hours, iirc. Once could pick up traces of the aura and possibly track the owner. This was a splat book.

So being a cleric or paladin or outsider of an aligned plane could mean being tracked and identified far easier.

I think you are looking for the simple Detect Evil (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/detectEvil.htm)table from the PHB/SRD. Dunno if we have more detailed ones than that?

[Particle_Man]

It is funny, because I actually think it is thematically cool to have an alignment aura, but it seems to be a mechanical net negative (aside from maybe, sometimes, getting someone to effectively stun themselves for a little while).

[Doctor Despair]

It is funny, because I actually think it is thematically cool to have an alignment aura, but it seems to be a mechanical net negative (aside from maybe, sometimes, getting someone to effectively stun themselves for a little while).

Oh, absolutely not. It's also a good way to identify yourself to others. Detect Good is an invaluable spell when you suspect an imposter has infiltrated your group, or that someone nefarious is trying to sneak into your camp.

[Telonius]

I cannot remember the book this was in. It may have been early pathfinder. If anyone knows please reply.

I remember a book that had a table based on how long an aura lingered in an area. Many HD outsiders had an aura that could last hours or a full day. This would affect things around the places they had travelled. A lvl 20 clerics aura would last for about 2 hours, iirc. Once could pick up traces of the aura and possibly track the owner. This was a splat book.

So being a cleric or paladin or outsider of an aligned plane could mean being tracked and identified far easier.

AFB right now, but I seem to remember that being in either Exalted Deeds, Vile Darkness, or one of the Fiendish Codex books.

[gijoemike]

I think you are looking for the simple Detect Evil (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/detectEvil.htm)table from the PHB/SRD. Dunno if we have more detailed ones than that?

The charts Gruftzwerg linked are pretty much what I remember. A strong aura lasts d6 days. It was just in Detect Evil? Good stuff to know.

[hamishspence]

RAW? I think it is a bit unclear but I treat Auras almost like a subtype. For example, if you just happen to be a neutral cleric of an evil deity and radiate a strong Evil aura, Holy Smite is gonna ruin your day. Protection from Evil is going to make your day a little harder.

That's not actually how the RAW works though. As written, a Neutral cleric of an Evil deity is not going to be treated as an Evil character for the purposes of things that target the Evil specifically. A Holy weapon won't do extra damage to them, for example.

They'll ping on Detect Evil, but they won't "count as evil" for any other purposes.

[Segev]

If you're looking for ideas to make them do something, then I suggest that alignment auras subtly enhance aligned actions. Not enforce, and not inhibit opposed actions, but make it easier to achieve goals when using methods aligned with the aura, make efforts that fit the aura's alignment have greater success, that sort of thing.

It should be subtle, maybe even mostly just narrative contrivance given in-setting justification. Sort of setting the genre of narrative around the region or person or thing with the aura.

This can have little effect, or could manifest in the DM determining that something alignment appropriate works out with no unintended consequences those pursuing said alignment appropriate activity would deem negative.

[Eldonauran]

That's not actually how the RAW works though. As written, a Neutral cleric of an Evil deity is not going to be treated as an Evil character for the purposes of things that target the Evil specifically. A Holy weapon won't do extra damage to them, for example.

They'll ping on Detect Evil, but they won't "count as evil" for any other purposes.
I am aware of that. I merely posted how I treat them. If that wasn't clear in my post, I made no claim it was RAW. I have my reasons for treating auras like that, as it helps support the consistent way that alignment and aligned forces operate within my own cosmology. At the very basic level, if you pick a side, the universe recognizes that and treats you accordingly.

[St Fan]

They help to make disguises really, really hard. Emulating an alignment of good without pinging on detect magic is very difficult. It basically requires you to have a ring of misdirection, or levels in Spymaster or Zhentarim Spy.

There're also the Mind Shielding ability of a 8th-level character with a Vow of Poverty (which isn't even magical), and one of the tattoos of a Tattooed Monk has a similar effect (plus a big bonus to bluff).

[Doctor Despair]

There're also the Mind Shielding ability of a 8th-level character with a Vow of Poverty (which isn't even magical), and one of the tattoos of a Tattooed Monk has a similar effect (plus a big bonus to bluff).

Pinging as nothing reflects neutral and can spoil your disguise. Pinging as good or evil is crucial.

[hamishspence]

Planar Motes from Complete Scoundrel will not just generate the aura, but hide your own aura, if it is equal or weaker. And do not radiate magic to detect magic spells.

Since the aura is Moderate, a regular character with 25 HD or less can use an Elysium mote to detect as Good, and not detect as Evil.
A cleric of an Evil god, however, would need to be 4th level or less to hide their aura.

[Doctor Despair]

Planar Motes from Complete Scoundrel will not just generate the aura, but hide your own aura, if it is equal or weaker. And do not radiate magic to detect magic spells.

Since the aura is Moderate, a regular character with 25 HD or less can use an Elysium mote to detect as Good, and not detect as Evil.
A cleric of an Evil god, however, would need to be 4th level or less to hide their aura.

How have I never seen these before? This blows a lot of my work wide open.

I suppose an important follow-up question is: is there a way to make them survive indefinitely? A regular mote only lasts 8-13 days, so at 300gp a pop, they are a little pricy. I suppose you could invest in a greater mote (double the price, 4x the duration), but that's a little problematic, as most creatures you're going to be disguised as would not have a moderate aura, not a strong aura. I don't think they could carry an acorn of far travel given their size.

A Chaos Flask (Planar Handbook, 75) might be helpful for a purely chaotic mote from Limbo, so if your good/neutral/evil axis is correct, that would be fine. Someone in a thread mentioned Antitrait Grease (Planar Handbook, 75), but I'm not sure that would keep a mote alive. Any thoughts?

Edit: Maybe immersing it in quintessence would do it? It would protect the mote from the effects of time, so its duration wouldn't expire. That's 280gp for a 1-inch-diameter dollop of it. A coin weighs about a third of an ounce, and there's 0.7lbs (11.2 ounces) to a cubic inch. That means 0.01875lbs/0.7lbs = X/1, so a gold coin would be about ~0.27 cubic inches in size. Obviously a coin is meant to be flat, but that does go to show that a 1-inch diameter dollop (presumably a sphere) is probably enough to immerse a single gold coin. In fact, a dollop could probably do two of them, but let's not be too greedy here; maybe one dollop is the minimum size it can be used with effectively.

So there's 9 alignment types, and two grades of strength, so we'd want to spend 2700 on minor motes, 5400 on greater motes, and 5040 on quintessence. Then it'd just be a matter of storing the coin-sized friends in a small container and slotting them into various innocuous items of apparel as needed.