I'm DMing a game, and my players came across a mask. The paladin used his Divine Sense to see if the mask was evil. The party's guide is a yuan-ti spy with the alignment NE. Both the paladin and the ranger say that they know the location of any evil or good creature, simply because the flavor says "you detect evil and good" but I say it only shows the location of celestial, fiends, and undead within 60 feet (of which a yuan-ti pureblood is none). They also argue that they case Detect Evil and Good (the spell) simply because of the aforementioned flavor. I don't think this is the case, because it would say "you cast the spell 'detect evil and good' at first level, which ends at the beginning of your next turn, instead of in 10 minutes", right?
Detect Evil and Good gives the caster impressions that there are Aberrations, Celestials, Elementals, Fey, Fiends, Undead, and a few others nearby. Divine Sense gives the paladin the location (but not the identity) of any Celestials, Fiends, and Undead within 60 feet.
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.
The spell can penetrate most barriers, but it is blocked by 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt.
Mechanically it only makes you aware of creature types - not alignment.
The first sentence of Divine Sense that says you detect the presence of strong Evil or Good is just flavour text. What follows after that is the mechanical information which again only mentions creature type.
So those abilities can't be used to tell whether any party members have an Evil alignment.
For direct alignment determination, there is, as far as I know, only one convoluted way:
3rd level warlock follows pact of the chain, picking a sprite as their familiar. Then the sprite uses their Heart Sight ability (must touch target), the target must fail a DC 10 CHA saving throw, and then the sprite (and subsequently the warlock) gets to know it's alignment. :/
5th edition RAW has very much deprecated alignments, in general; especially as a definable static trait (for good or ill).
Insight, with some good ol' sly questioning (with or without alcoholic beverages) is usually the best way to go about determining probable alignment. Though any charm-like spell would be a close second (though probably result in a confrontation after it wears off).
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I'm DMing a game, and my players came across a mask. The paladin used his Divine Sense to see if the mask was evil. The party's guide is a yuan-ti spy with the alignment NE. Both the paladin and the ranger say that they know the location of any evil or good creature, simply because the flavor says "you detect evil and good" but I say it only shows the location of celestial, fiends, and undead within 60 feet (of which a yuan-ti pureblood is none). They also argue that they case Detect Evil and Good (the spell) simply because of the aforementioned flavor. I don't think this is the case, because it would say "you cast the spell 'detect evil and good' at first level, which ends at the beginning of your next turn, instead of in 10 minutes", right?
Detect Evil and Good gives the caster impressions that there are Aberrations, Celestials, Elementals, Fey, Fiends, Undead, and a few others nearby. Divine Sense gives the paladin the location (but not the identity) of any Celestials, Fiends, and Undead within 60 feet.
Keep having fun!
The spell Detect Evil and Good says:
Mechanically it only makes you aware of creature types - not alignment.
The first sentence of Divine Sense that says you detect the presence of strong Evil or Good is just flavour text. What follows after that is the mechanical information which again only mentions creature type.
So those abilities can't be used to tell whether any party members have an Evil alignment.
Mega Yahtzee Thread:
Highest 41: brocker2001 (#11,285).
Yahtzee of 2's: Emmber (#36,161).
Lowest 9: JoeltheWalrus (#312), Emmber (#12,505) and Dertinus (#20,953).
For direct alignment determination, there is, as far as I know, only one convoluted way:
3rd level warlock follows pact of the chain, picking a sprite as their familiar. Then the sprite uses their Heart Sight ability (must touch target), the target must fail a DC 10 CHA saving throw, and then the sprite (and subsequently the warlock) gets to know it's alignment. :/
5th edition RAW has very much deprecated alignments, in general; especially as a definable static trait (for good or ill).
Insight, with some good ol' sly questioning (with or without alcoholic beverages) is usually the best way to go about determining probable alignment. Though any charm-like spell would be a close second (though probably result in a confrontation after it wears off).