My group has been discussing this for awhile now. The DM has the opinion that you can't really detect good or evil people just creatures that are listed. For example you could detect a ghost's alignment if it is evil or good, but not anything else that is not listed. I don't know what to think but it does make this ability less useful, especially with how many times a paladin can use it. What are peeps thoughts?
Divine SensePHB, pg. 84
As an action, you can detect good and evil. Until the end of your next turn, you can sense anything affected by the hallow spell or know the location of any celestial, fiend, undead within 60 ft. that is not behind total cover. You can use this feature 5 times per long rest.
Here's the exact wording for D&D Beyond: "The presence of strong evil registers on your senses like a noxious odor, and powerful good rings like heavenly music in your ears. As an action, you can open your awareness to detect such forces. Until the end of your next turn, you know the location of any celestial, fiend, or undead within 60 feet of you that is not behind total cover. You know the type (celestial, fiend, or undead) of any being whose presence you sense, but not its identity (the vampire Count Strahd von Zarovich, for instance). Within the same radius, you also detect the presence of any place or object that has been consecrated or desecrated, as with the hallow spell."
Compare this to the exact wording of the Detect Evil and Good spell: "For the duration, you know if there is an aberration, celestial, elemental, fey, fiend, or undead within 30 feet of you, as well as where the creature is located. Similarly, you know if there is a place or object within 30 feet of you that has been magically consecrated or desecrated."
Ironically, RAW, I'd say Divine Sense detects alignment while Detect Evil and Good does not. EDIT: Upon further reflection, I'd add that Divine Sense does detect the presence of Evil and Good but does not pinpoint it's source. So if the paladin uses Divine Sense in a crowded inn, they may sense that an evil presence is 10 feet to their right but not which member of that 5 person group is evil.
I spite of the names, neither the power nor the spell has nothing to do with alignment. It's purely down to creature type. So, while the power tells you if there's an undead, celestial or fiend (and the spell expands the list a bit more) and where it is, it will not tell you the alignment of any of those creatures.
I mean, you can usually make a pretty good guess about the alignment of most of those types of creature, but there's no guarantee it will be correct.
The thing to remember is that powers and abilities only do what they say, not what they imply. I agree the names of these powers might imply finding out the alignment, but it doesn't say it, so it doesn't do it.
The thing to remember is that powers and abilities only do what they say, not what they imply. I agree the names of these powers might imply finding out the alignment, but it doesn't say it, so it doesn't do it.
Divine Sense does say ""The presence of strong evil registers on your senses like a noxious odor, and powerful good rings like heavenly music in your ears."
The thing to remember is that powers and abilities only do what they say, not what they imply. I agree the names of these powers might imply finding out the alignment, but it doesn't say it, so it doesn't do it.
Divine Sense does say "The presence of strong evil registers on your senses like a noxious odor, and powerful good rings like heavenly music in your ears."
What's your point?
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Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny. Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
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The question was whether Divine Sense allowed the user to sense evil. My point by saying "Divine Sense does say 'The presence of strong evil registers on your senses like a noxious odor, and powerful good rings like heavenly music in your ears.'" was to answer the question as yes.
The question was whether Divine Sense allowed the user to sense evil. My point by saying "Divine Sense does say 'The presence of strong evil registers on your senses like a noxious odor, and powerful good rings like heavenly music in your ears.'" was to answer the question as yes.
That's just flavor. The mechanical aspect of the feature points out only Fiends, Undead (strong evil), and Celestials (powerful good).
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Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny. Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
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Would a Paladin’s Divine Sense register a tiefling due to their infernal heritage?
A tiefling is a humanoid, not a fiend, and therefore escapes the notice of Divine Sense. The feature detects creatures that have the celestial, fiend, or undead creature type.
They don't care if the tiefling is evil or not. They only care about its creature type.
The thing to remember is that powers and abilities only do what they say, not what they imply. I agree the names of these powers might imply finding out the alignment, but it doesn't say it, so it doesn't do it.
Divine Sense does say ""The presence of strong evil registers on your senses like a noxious odor, and powerful good rings like heavenly music in your ears."
I get what you’re saying. But as others have pointed out, it’s flavor text. I really wish they made a more clear line between flavor and rules, but they didn’t. Rules-wise, it defines creature types and a range, and that’s all. In past editions, there had been spells that let you tell specifically. Know Alignment being the big one. But they’ve moved away from alignment being an integral mechanic. However, they still have some things with alignment based names, which is pretty frustrating and a bit confusing.
I get what you’re saying. But as others have pointed out, it’s flavor text. I really wish they made a more clear line between flavor and rules,but they didn’t. Rules-wise, it defines creature types and a range, and that’s all.
I'd almost say that this should be the top priority for the next edition of the rules tbh. Soo many of the uncertainties and arguments about the rules comes from having names or fluff descriptions that doesn't match with the rules mechanics of a feature/ability/whatever.
My group has been discussing this for awhile now. The DM has the opinion that you can't really detect good or evil people just creatures that are listed. For example you could detect a ghost's alignment if it is evil or good, but not anything else that is not listed. I don't know what to think but it does make this ability less useful, especially with how many times a paladin can use it. What are peeps thoughts?
The feature Divine Sense only detect strongly good and evil alignment, it let you otherwise know the location of any celestial, fiend, or undead within 60 feet of you, as well as things consecrated or desecrated.
If a ghost is in the area, you'd know than an undead is in the area and detect it's location but would only perceive a noxious odor, or an heavenly music if it was strongly good or evil,, I otherwise just describe a faint distinct odor or sound.
I have a question in regards to Divine Sense and Hollow Ones. I have a campaign that's sort of a 'Suicide Squad' situation where my entire party were raised by a necromancer but, to avoid having them ALL be reborn, I gave them the Supernatural Gift of Hollow One instead. The gift says:
You retain your creature type, yet you register as undead to spells and other effects that detect the presence of the undead creature type.
So, in this case, would Divine Sense recognise the other members of the party as undead or would it only register enemies with that creature type? I'm trying to figure out if the ability is broken for the party's Paladin.
It would recognize other members of the party, since Divine Sense is an effect that detects the presence of the undead creature type.
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Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny. Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
I have a question in regards to Divine Sense and Hollow Ones. I have a campaign that's sort of a 'Suicide Squad' situation where my entire party were raised by a necromancer but, to avoid having them ALL be reborn, I gave them the Supernatural Gift of Hollow One instead. The gift says:
You retain your creature type, yet you register as undead to spells and other effects that detect the presence of the undead creature type.
So, in this case, would Divine Sense recognise the other members of the party as undead or would it only register enemies with that creature type? I'm trying to figure out if the ability is broken for the party's Paladin.
"Divine Sense
The presence of strong evil registers on your senses like a noxious odor, and powerful good rings like heavenly music in your ears. As an action, you can open your awareness to detect such forces. Until the end of your next turn, you know the location of any celestial, fiend, or undead within 60 feet of you that is not behind total cover. You know the type (celestial, fiend, or undead) of any being whose presence you sense, but not its identity (the vampire Count Strahd von Zarovich, for instance). Within the same radius, you also detect the presence of any place or object that has been consecrated or desecrated, as with the hallow spell."
Divine sense lets the paladin know the location of any celestial, fiend or undead within 60 feet that is not behind total cover. If party members are undead then the paladin will know that. He would also recognize that he is also an undead.
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My group has been discussing this for awhile now. The DM has the opinion that you can't really detect good or evil people just creatures that are listed. For example you could detect a ghost's alignment if it is evil or good, but not anything else that is not listed. I don't know what to think but it does make this ability less useful, especially with how many times a paladin can use it. What are peeps thoughts?
Divine SensePHB, pg. 84
As an action, you can detect good and evil. Until the end of your next turn, you can sense anything affected by the hallow spell or know the location of any celestial, fiend, undead within 60 ft. that is not behind total cover. You can use this feature 5 times per long rest.
Here's the exact wording for D&D Beyond: "The presence of strong evil registers on your senses like a noxious odor, and powerful good rings like heavenly music in your ears. As an action, you can open your awareness to detect such forces. Until the end of your next turn, you know the location of any celestial, fiend, or undead within 60 feet of you that is not behind total cover. You know the type (celestial, fiend, or undead) of any being whose presence you sense, but not its identity (the vampire Count Strahd von Zarovich, for instance). Within the same radius, you also detect the presence of any place or object that has been consecrated or desecrated, as with the hallow spell."
Compare this to the exact wording of the Detect Evil and Good spell: "For the duration, you know if there is an aberration, celestial, elemental, fey, fiend, or undead within 30 feet of you, as well as where the creature is located. Similarly, you know if there is a place or object within 30 feet of you that has been magically consecrated or desecrated."
Ironically, RAW, I'd say Divine Sense detects alignment while Detect Evil and Good does not.
EDIT: Upon further reflection, I'd add that Divine Sense does detect the presence of Evil and Good but does not pinpoint it's source. So if the paladin uses Divine Sense in a crowded inn, they may sense that an evil presence is 10 feet to their right but not which member of that 5 person group is evil.
I spite of the names, neither the power nor the spell has nothing to do with alignment. It's purely down to creature type. So, while the power tells you if there's an undead, celestial or fiend (and the spell expands the list a bit more) and where it is, it will not tell you the alignment of any of those creatures.
I mean, you can usually make a pretty good guess about the alignment of most of those types of creature, but there's no guarantee it will be correct.
The thing to remember is that powers and abilities only do what they say, not what they imply. I agree the names of these powers might imply finding out the alignment, but it doesn't say it, so it doesn't do it.
Divine Sense does say ""The presence of strong evil registers on your senses like a noxious odor, and powerful good rings like heavenly music in your ears."
What's your point?
Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny.
Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
The question was whether Divine Sense allowed the user to sense evil. My point by saying "Divine Sense does say 'The presence of strong evil registers on your senses like a noxious odor, and powerful good rings like heavenly music in your ears.'" was to answer the question as yes.
That's just flavor. The mechanical aspect of the feature points out only Fiends, Undead (strong evil), and Celestials (powerful good).
Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny.
Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
From Sage Advice:
They don't care if the tiefling is evil or not. They only care about its creature type.
Birgit | Shifter | Sorcerer | Dragonlords
Shayone | Hobgoblin | Sorcerer | Netherdeep
I get what you’re saying. But as others have pointed out, it’s flavor text. I really wish they made a more clear line between flavor and rules, but they didn’t. Rules-wise, it defines creature types and a range, and that’s all.
In past editions, there had been spells that let you tell specifically. Know Alignment being the big one. But they’ve moved away from alignment being an integral mechanic. However, they still have some things with alignment based names, which is pretty frustrating and a bit confusing.
I'd almost say that this should be the top priority for the next edition of the rules tbh. Soo many of the uncertainties and arguments about the rules comes from having names or fluff descriptions that doesn't match with the rules mechanics of a feature/ability/whatever.
The feature Divine Sense only detect strongly good and evil alignment, it let you otherwise know the location of any celestial, fiend, or undead within 60 feet of you, as well as things consecrated or desecrated.
If a ghost is in the area, you'd know than an undead is in the area and detect it's location but would only perceive a noxious odor, or an heavenly music if it was strongly good or evil,, I otherwise just describe a faint distinct odor or sound.
I have a question in regards to Divine Sense and Hollow Ones. I have a campaign that's sort of a 'Suicide Squad' situation where my entire party were raised by a necromancer but, to avoid having them ALL be reborn, I gave them the Supernatural Gift of Hollow One instead. The gift says:
So, in this case, would Divine Sense recognise the other members of the party as undead or would it only register enemies with that creature type? I'm trying to figure out if the ability is broken for the party's Paladin.
It would recognize other members of the party, since Divine Sense is an effect that detects the presence of the undead creature type.
Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny.
Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
"Divine Sense
The presence of strong evil registers on your senses like a noxious odor, and powerful good rings like heavenly music in your ears. As an action, you can open your awareness to detect such forces. Until the end of your next turn, you know the location of any celestial, fiend, or undead within 60 feet of you that is not behind total cover. You know the type (celestial, fiend, or undead) of any being whose presence you sense, but not its identity (the vampire Count Strahd von Zarovich, for instance). Within the same radius, you also detect the presence of any place or object that has been consecrated or desecrated, as with the hallow spell."
Divine sense lets the paladin know the location of any celestial, fiend or undead within 60 feet that is not behind total cover. If party members are undead then the paladin will know that. He would also recognize that he is also an undead.