In the spirit of Tasha's and Monsters of the Multiverse, we are supposed to be getting away from the whole, "This race is always evil and that race is always good." Yet WotC have not errata'd any of the "Evil and Good spells: Detect, Protection, and Dispel.
Even though the title would indicate that it would affect certain aligned creatures of all variety, the spells only call out, "aberration, celestial, elemental, fey, fiend, or undead."
So how would you recommend rewriting these spells to not perpetuate stigmas?
At their core, Detect Evil and Good would just be a "Know alignment" spell, and Protection and Dispel would protect and remove possession, charms, and fear caused by any type of creature (not a spell, but an innate ability).
I guess it depends what the original intention was behind the spells; my gut feeling is that the "good and evil" in the name is the problem here, rather than how the spells actually function. Fey for example have always had a range of alignments, including neutral, and strictly speaking undead can be neutral as well (a zombie is really only as evil as its current master). There are also celestials and fiends who are more neutral than good/evil.
The difficulty with renaming them though is so many good names are already taken; for example it can't be "Detect Aberration" because that's a creature type in its own right, meanwhile "Detect the Unnatural" seems needlessly insulting towards celestials/fey and also fiends I guess, and I can't think of any good term that include both extraplanar travellers and the undead. Maybe "Detect Anomaly"? Though that sounds a bit scientific, and doesn't seem like it would work for "Protection from Anomalies". Maybe someone else has a better idea?
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
In the spirit of Tasha's and Monsters of the Multiverse, we are supposed to be getting away from the whole, "This race is always evil and that race is always good." Yet WotC have not errata'd any of the "Evil and Good spells: Detect, Protection, and Dispel.
Even though the title would indicate that it would affect certain aligned creatures of all variety, the spells only call out, "aberration, celestial, elemental, fey, fiend, or undead."
So how would you recommend rewriting these spells to not perpetuate stigmas?
At their core, Detect Evil and Good would just be a "Know alignment" spell, and Protection and Dispel would protect and remove possession, charms, and fear caused by any type of creature (not a spell, but an innate ability).
The spell has nothing to do with good or evil, and they already affect creatures that are not good or evil. Example - PEG protects against Slaad and they are Chaotic Neutral, many Fey are neutral as well.
In the spirit of Tasha's and Monsters of the Multiverse, we are supposed to be getting away from the whole, "This race is always evil and that race is always good." Yet WotC have not errata'd any of the "Evil and Good spells: Detect, Protection, and Dispel.
Even though the title would indicate that it would affect certain aligned creatures of all variety, the spells only call out, "aberration, celestial, elemental, fey, fiend, or undead."
So how would you recommend rewriting these spells to not perpetuate stigmas?
At their core, Detect Evil and Good would just be a "Know alignment" spell, and Protection and Dispel would protect and remove possession, charms, and fear caused by any type of creature (not a spell, but an innate ability).
The spell has nothing to do with good or evil, and they already affect creatures that are not good or evil. Example - PEG protects against Slaad and they are Chaotic Neutral, many Fey are neutral as well.
I know that it has nothing to do with good and evil. That is my whole point. The spell is named one thing, but the creatures that it affects has nothing to do with alignment.
Just change "Evil and Good" to "Otherwordly" in the same way Fey, Fiends, Abberations, Undead, and Celestials are all "otherwordly" patrons for warlocks
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In the spirit of Tasha's and Monsters of the Multiverse, we are supposed to be getting away from the whole, "This race is always evil and that race is always good." Yet WotC have not errata'd any of the "Evil and Good spells: Detect, Protection, and Dispel.
Even though the title would indicate that it would affect certain aligned creatures of all variety, the spells only call out, "aberration, celestial, elemental, fey, fiend, or undead."
So how would you recommend rewriting these spells to not perpetuate stigmas?
At their core, Detect Evil and Good would just be a "Know alignment" spell, and Protection and Dispel would protect and remove possession, charms, and fear caused by any type of creature (not a spell, but an innate ability).
I guess it depends what the original intention was behind the spells; my gut feeling is that the "good and evil" in the name is the problem here, rather than how the spells actually function. Fey for example have always had a range of alignments, including neutral, and strictly speaking undead can be neutral as well (a zombie is really only as evil as its current master). There are also celestials and fiends who are more neutral than good/evil.
The difficulty with renaming them though is so many good names are already taken; for example it can't be "Detect Aberration" because that's a creature type in its own right, meanwhile "Detect the Unnatural" seems needlessly insulting towards celestials/fey and also fiends I guess, and I can't think of any good term that include both extraplanar travellers and the undead. Maybe "Detect Anomaly"? Though that sounds a bit scientific, and doesn't seem like it would work for "Protection from Anomalies". Maybe someone else has a better idea?
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
The spell has nothing to do with good or evil, and they already affect creatures that are not good or evil. Example - PEG protects against Slaad and they are Chaotic Neutral, many Fey are neutral as well.
I know that it has nothing to do with good and evil. That is my whole point. The spell is named one thing, but the creatures that it affects has nothing to do with alignment.
Just change "Evil and Good" to "Otherwordly" in the same way Fey, Fiends, Abberations, Undead, and Celestials are all "otherwordly" patrons for warlocks
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!