Detect Alignment vs grammar (hope it was in the errata)

[Ediwir]

The spell (page 214) reads, at the bottom, "Only divine spellcasters, undead, and beings from the Outer Sphere have an alignment aura if they are 6th level or higher."
A handy table on the other side tells us which strength level the aura of creatures is.

Playing it as is, and giving a few examples, we'd have:

Grima Wormtongue, the evil member of the council, lv4: he has no evil aura, because he is in the bracket lv0-5 "none".
Marya Zaleska, the young vampire, lv7: she has a Moderate evil aura, because as an undead she counts as 5 lvs higher, fitting the 11-15 lv bracket.
Jafar, the evil sorcerer, lv12: he has no evil aura, because he is lv6th or higher and not a divine spell caster, undead, or outsider.

...I feel like something is amiss and you guys meant to move that "only" around and say "Divine spellcasters, undead, and beings from the Outer Sphere have an alignment aura only if they are 6th level or higher." That is, unless you meant that "Divine spellcasters, undead, and beings from the Outer Sphere have an alignment aura only if their effective level is 6th or higher" in reference to the table where they count as 5 levels higher.

Basically?
Jafar is clearly evil. This spell needs fixing.

[furrysteve]

Ya this has been confusing me and my table as well an explanation would be nice

[Almarane]

Nope, not an error. It was already the case in PF1 : only clerics, paladins, undeads, outsiders and creatures with aligned subtypes had an Aura, because alignement Auras was only a Divine thing : check the Aura Power table here.

You could explain that as clerics and outsiders pouring their god's/plane's energy, and undead pouring Evil energy. The Aura you see is not their aura : it's their powers' aura which is strong enough to be visible.

Grima's powers would not be strong enough to be actually visible, the same way you don't immediatly spot someone's perfume if they don't put too much on them.

Marya's powers, on the contrary, are strong enough to be visible. She just put too much perfume (and it's a very strong smelling perfume too, since she's a vampire. Let's say pomegranate fragrance) and now the whole room stinks of pomegranate.

Jafar, the evil sorcerer, does not take its powers from a god, an aligned plane, or Evil energy. No perfume. So no aura. He is still evil, sure. But his powers come from arcane magic coursing through his blood, and arcane magic is not aligned.

Detect alignment is not a lie detector. It's a tool for clerics and paladins to be sure they are fighting the servants of an ennemy god.

Edit : Note to keep in mind : a Neutral Cleric of Lamashtu, in PF1, would have a Chaotic Evil Aura, since the Cleric's Aura is the one of their god.

[RazarTuk]

Almarane wrote:

Nope, not an error. It was already the case in PF1 : only clerics, paladins, undeads, outsiders and creatures with aligned subtypes had an Aura, because alignement Auras was only a Divine thing : check the Aura Power table here.

You could explain that as clerics and outsiders pouring their god's/plane's energy, and undead pouring Evil energy. The Aura you see is not their aura : it's their powers' aura which is strong enough to be visible.

Jafar, the evil sorcerer, does not take its powers from a god, an aligned plane, or Evil energy. No perfume. So no aura. He is still evil, sure. But his powers come from arcane magic coursing through his blood, and arcane magic is not aligned.

This contradicts other rules text (in 1e). For example, the Fed-Up Citizen trait from Hell's Rebels reads:

Player's Guide wrote:

You’re good at hiding your true colors and faith to avoid attracting the wrong kind of attention. You gain a +1 bonus on Disguise checks, and Disguise is always a class skill for you. In addition, when someone uses detect good or detect law on you, your effective Hit Dice are 4 lower than their actual total when someone discerns the strength of your aura. If you are a cleric, paladin, or similar divine spellcaster, you treat yourself as if you were a standard-aligned creature rather than a divine spellcaster for these purposes. This means that until you become 9th level, you won’t radiate an aura of good or law at all when someone casts one of these detection spells. Finally, your internal convictions that you’re on the actual right of law help bolster your mindset, and you gain a +1 trait bonus on all saving throws against mind-affecting effects.

The fact that you eventually get an aura, despite not being a divine spellcaster, means those characters would normally get an aura. And the level 9 number matches up with the table, which says an Aligned Creature gains a faint aura at level 5 (or level 9 with the trait).

Jafar would have a moderate aura, because anything with an Evil alignment and 11-25 HD has one, as long as it's neither undead (strong-overwhelming for the same range), an aligned outsider (overwhelming), or a cleric or paladin of an aligned deity (overwhelming).