Hi all,
In my game i have removed the majority of the divination spells; this means of course no "detect alignment" spells.
One of my players have made a Paladin and i need to decide what to give him in place of detect evil. My first thought was a bonus to Sense Motive, maybe free Skill Focus feat, or a flat bonus...
I'd appreciate any recommendations.
Cheers,
-arnon
I was going to say Detect Undead, but I suppose removing divination takes that off the table too.
I'd say give him the option of either receiving his CHA modifer as an untyped bonus to Sense Motive (on top of the normal WIS modifier) or give him some kind of set bonus to Sense Motive.
Since I note you did say you removed "the majority" of divination spells, if you want to give him a little something divination-y but without the full-blown perpetual (while concentrating) cone effect, let him keep Detect Evil (or change it to Detect Chaos or Detect Undead) but make it have a range of Touch, affect one creature, and allow for a Will save, oh and do 1d4 untyped damage per paladin level to the paladin when someone registers. (Successful Will save means the creature just doesn't register as evil/chaotic/undead and no damage hit the pally.) The paladin can use it at-will but anyone that makes their save against it can't be detected by it until the paladin's next daily prayer (when he refreshes spells).
But if you really want to remove the effect entirely, I say give CHA mod as an additional bonus to Sense Motive. This is a Supernatural effect (Su) that doesn't function in an antimagic field or similar effect that suppresses magic.
IMHO, without a way to detect alignments espicaly evil, the paly is nerfed beyond playing. I would make it a SA not a spell.
tho in my houserules we dont play with alignments... so long story short we dont play paladins.
I disagree that a paladin without Detect Evil is unplayable. I played on a NWN roleplay server for years that didn't support paladins detecting evil (it was DM discretion, but paladins generally couldn't detect on other player characters at the minimum). Paladins still had to uphold the Paladin Code and couldn't willingly travel with someone they knew to be evil, but they actually had to determine who was evil by investigating and observing them, not just pressing the Easy Button. Not being able to detect evil meant the paladins could travel with evil characters more frequently because they had no idea if someone was evil until they got to know them a bit, and traveling with them unknowingly wasn't considered breaking the code. (Some players of paladins played it the other way though, and wouldn't travel with someone until they were fairly certain they weren't evil--which of course made it harder for them to determine who was and wasn't evil since they only interacted with them in town.)
One of my characters was a NG shadowdancer who dressed in black leather and always kept his face covered, and tried to keep his motivations ambiguous in public. It was hard for him to make paladin friends because they couldn't just detect him as non-evil.
tho in my houserules we dont play with alignments... so long story short we dont play paladins.
I left alignments as an unknown to the players, meaning that players do not know their own alignment and i keep (sort of) track of that. This lets players act as they see fit, and we don't need to get rid of all those alignment spells, etc., and they can still affect the players (and their enemies of course).
But if you really want to remove the effect entirely, I say give CHA mod as an additional bonus to Sense Motive. This is a Supernatural effect (Su) that doesn't function in an antimagic field or similar effect that suppresses magic.
I like this :)
Cheers,
-arnon
I actually removed Detect Evil/Alignment spells in my game too. I gave any class that gets it like that a bonus feat instead and altered Smite Evil to function only against specific creature types (undead, evil outsiders, etc) and foes that channel negative energy (evil clerics, antipaladins, necromancers, etc).
Though I do like the sense motive idea as well. Might switch that.
I like the idea of having Smite Evil be changed to Smite Infidel with the paladin getting a new creature type or organization* (a la ranger favored enemy) every so many levels, and the Smite only succeeding if the paladin is aware of the creature's type or organization*. (There's no room for uncertainty when a paladin lays down the law.)
*The reference to "type or organization" comes from Forgotten Realms 3e, where a ranger could select organizations such as "the Black Network" or "the Harpers" to oppose instead of a creature type.