How would you go about infiltrating a hardcore good or evil religious organization

[Zomburs]

I'm working on an adventure module for some friends, and I really want to involve corruption in the church at a high level. So with out going into alignment debates, how would someone as a cleric or a paladin of an opposing god/or with ill intentions for the organization go about gaining a seat of power.

Think of like Jimmy Baker, or any other corrupt high ranking person of a presumable goodly aligned organization. Or perhaps a thief wanting to rob the coffers?

Same would go for a good guy trying to go undercover with an evil religious organization. What ways would you go about altering your alignment to not stick out as a sore thumb.

[Umbral Reaver]

Play in a game that doesn't use alignment rules.

Or, all members of the party have to be high level master spies.

[Grey Paladin]

"Ask not the name of the Enemy. Ask not his Will, nor his Method. Ask not to think his Thoughts and ask not to speak his Words. Ask only for the strength to kill him."
EXTERMINATUS

Do not infiltrate, merely destroy.

[KaeYoss]

Just use the undetectable alignment spell.

[EWHM]

What you're talking about is more normally the province of high level rogues (i.e., spies). Use magical device (specifically, trick alignment) is the biggie here. Also note that nobody has a clergy that doesn't include neutrals. So there's margin here to play with in the mechanics.

[Umbral Reaver]

KaeYoss wrote:

Just use the undetectable alignment spell.

The fact that your alignment is undetectable can be detected. :(

[Spes Magna Mark]

Subvert people already on the inside and use them for information gathering, et cetera.

[KaeYoss]

Umbral Reaver wrote:

KaeYoss wrote:

Just use the undetectable alignment spell.

The fact that your alignment is undetectable can be detected. :(

Use nondetection, then.

I hope nobody thought it was easy to infiltrate a powerful organisation with direct divine backing.

You surely won't have a hard time infiltrating a village chapel, but if you're up against those with not only the inclination, but also the means to do high-end security screenings for everyone, you better bring your A game.

Getting rid of alignment won't really help, either: You're still out to infiltrate the organisation, swindle your way into a position from where you can do harm. Even without alignment mechanics, you'll have to withstand scrutiny - both mundane and magical: You're basically lying, pretending things that aren't real, and even if you do away with all divination magic, people can train to look through these lies, and the more powerful and paranoid the organisation you want to infiltrate is, the more competent will those who will interview you be. Not to mention those performing the background checks.