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The weapon does not have to know anything. If the creature is evil, it suffers the extra damage. If it is not, it does not.
Think of it as a flaming weapon. If the creature is immune to fire, the flame does not harm the creature. No intelligence is required.
With that said: we can look at Undetectable Alignment to see if it provides immunity to alignment based attacks. Nope, it doesnt.
There IS a peice of equipment (Angelskin) in Ultimate Equipment which can block some alignment based powers and spells 20% of the time. But even that does not block the Holy Property or other Permanent Magic Items with alignment based properties.
- Gauss
Which makes holy [axiomatic,...] weapons the perfect alignment detectors. Wack them midly (nonlethal), see if it triggers.
But
"The weapon does not have to know anything. If the creature is evil, it suffers the extra damage. If it is not, it does not. "
The first part is not entirely correct. The weapons does have to "know" the alignment in order to trigger the to hit bonus.
Assuming that a holy weapon always radiates holy damage power, much like a flaming weapon always radiates fire. When you hit someone, and they are susceptible to the damage, they are affected. The flammable burn, the evil get holied.
So far, no issue.
But holy, much like bane, does not simply work this way. It is not merely and always active damage field that goes brzzt when brought into contact with brzztables. It also give a to-hit bonus and the to-hit bonus, per definition, must be assigned before a hit. The holy weapon, much like a bane weapon, must decide whether or not to give you the to-hit bonus before ever being in contact with the target. To do this, the information whether or not the target is evil [chaotic, a shapeshifter,...] must be available to the weapon. Hence, all these weapons must contain a divination aspect that cannot be fooled.
On a related note. Does a ranger get favored enemy bonuses against favored enemies disguised as non-favored enemies (or even non-enemies)? Questions, questions, many we ask...
KutuluKultist:
Holy has no attack bonus (to hit bonus). It's only numeric bonus is 2d6damage.
Holy: A holy weapon is imbued with holy power. This power makes the weapon good-aligned and thus bypasses the corresponding damage reduction. It deals an extra 2d6 points of damage against all creatures of evil alignment. It bestows one permanent negative level on any evil creature attempting to wield it. The negative level remains as long as the weapon is in hand and disappears when the weapon is no longer wielded. This negative level cannot be overcome in any way including by restoration spells) while the weapon is wielded.
Nothing about a bonus to attack (to hit).
Thus, yes it just goes 'brzzt' (to use your description) if the creature is evil. What is more, the GM does not have to tell the player it went 'brzzt'. I typically ask 'what section of that is energy, holy, etc. damage' when a player tells me the damage they rolled. They do not automatically know what damage effects worked.
- Gauss
Unless the weapon in question is intelligent the whole idea of it detecting is moot. A weapon functions at it full bonus regardless any deception on the part of its target since it can't sense it. Even an intelligent weapon will still get its full bonus. Besides the spell only conceals the alignment from divination not damage. An evil outsider under undetectable alignment is still subject to a holy word, or protection from evil since they are not divinations spells.
Adoke:
Rolling the player's damage for them isnt necessary. Like I said in my earlier post, just have the players separate out the normal from the energy/holy/whatever damage when they tell you what they roll. Then record the damage in secret.
The same is true of attack bonuses. I know when my players are using an alignment related attack bonus such as a Bane weapon. They do not always know if the creature is an Evil Outsider or not.
Example (Player has a weapon with Evil Outsider Bane):
Player: I hit an AC of 24, 26 if Evil Outsider.
GM: (checks: not an Evil outsider, AC 25) You miss.
Player: I make my second attack. I hit an AC of 27, 29 if Evil Outsider.
GM: (checks: not an Evil outsider, AC25 still) You hit.
Player: (rolls damage): 15points damage and 5points if Evil Outsider.
GM: Ok, you give him a serious gash (secretly notes down 15points damage).
The Player does not have to know the creature is not an Evil Outsider. GM does not have to reveal it. Now, there are many ways to subtly clue the player in. That is up to the GM. There are also many ways to not so subtly tell the player. It is assumed the player failed his knowledge check otherwise he would know this is an Evil Outsider.
- Gauss
I always imagine weapons like that attempt to apply their bonus damage all the time.
You hit an Archon with a holy weapon, it still unloads it's holy damage (doing 'brzzt' to stay with the description), just the Archon is completely uneffected by it.
The wielder has no clue if his holy damage just worked or not.
It's hard to come up with a real world example, but thats hard since there's nothing like holy energy really. The closest I got is this:
Imagine a nightstick married with a taser. You hit people with it, and at the same time they get an electric shock. Now someone could wear insulated clothing and shrug of the electric part, but you as wielder wouldn't know about that.
Sure you could guess from his reaction to the hit of course. But did he just scream because of the electricity/holy damage or because the actual hit really hurt? It's probably easier to see with electricity (as they start spasming and all that) as with holy damage, but I really can't think of a better example right now.
Adoke: Fair enough. I do similarly with ACs etc.
- Gauss
But holy, much like bane, does not simply work this way. It is not merely and always active damage field that goes brzzt when brought into contact with brzztables. It also give a to-hit bonus and the to-hit bonus, per definition, must be assigned before a hit. The holy weapon, much like a bane weapon, must decide whether or not to give you the to-hit bonus before ever being in contact with the target. To do this, the information whether or not the target is evil [chaotic, a shapeshifter,...] must be available to the weapon. Hence, all these weapons must contain a divination aspect that cannot be fooled.
Simply not true. For holy, as already stated, it's at least because there is no attack bonus. But to have to assume that a bane weapon knows something about the target is almost nonsensical. Now, the description of bane is rather limited, only covering the mechanical aspects of what it does, but since the mechanics of the game are merely a representation of the game-world "reality", it falls to the GM to actually explain how they work, if he wants to. (Not to mention that, mechanically, the player doesn't need to know which of his bonuses to attack work and which ones don't - as long as the GM knows, in the same way that it doesn't matter how many bonuses to stealth the player comes up with - the enemy has Tremorsense.)
So, here's my take: Energy weapons are simple - they have the energy type on them when commanded, and lose it when told not to.
Alignment weapons focus raw "holy/unholy/axiomatic/anarchic" energy at all times. This energy only has an effect against targets of the "right" (wrong?) alignment.
Bane weapons are imbued with a disruptive thaumic energy such that if the target happens to be of the appropriate type, the weapon a) pierces protection more easily (+2 to hit), b) adds to the raw damage of the weapon (target gets cut deeper, bludgeoned harder) (+2 damage) and c) suffers from a physically traumatic energy in their body which does still more damage (2d6 damage). None of these require the weapon to "know" anything about the target. They are effects that happen because the bane property and the target just don't mix.