a few days ago I was a dm for the first time, and one of my players used to detect good and evil. in my limited understanding of the spell, I stated that they could detect a faint fiendish aura from the chief since she is a warlock with a fiendish pact. but after some research into the spell I haven't been able to work out whether the spell could detect the warlocks patron or not through their connection to them. would anyone happen to know this as it would be helpful to know for the future
If the spell doesn't say it can do it, it can't do it. As a DM you're well within your rights to give an answer like you did, but it's not required, unless the patron is somehow physically present within the range of the spell.
When you cast Detect Evil and Good, you know if there is an aberration, celestial, elemental, fey, fiend, or undead within 30 feet of you. If the Warlock patron was a fiend that was nearby it would detect it, but the warlock itself would not reveal anything since it's not a creature of that type.
a few days ago I was a dm for the first time, and one of my players used to detect good and evil. in my limited understanding of the spell, I stated that they could detect a faint fiendish aura from the chief since she is a warlock with a fiendish pact. but after some research into the spell I haven't been able to work out whether the spell could detect the warlocks patron or not through their connection to them. would anyone happen to know this as it would be helpful to know for the future
If the spell doesn't say it can do it, it can't do it. As a DM you're well within your rights to give an answer like you did, but it's not required, unless the patron is somehow physically present within the range of the spell.
Birgit | Shifter | Sorcerer | Dragonlords
Shayone | Hobgoblin | Sorcerer | Netherdeep
It would also depend on the race/species of the patron, since detect good and evil actually detects certain races, not alignments.
Detect good and evil only detects certain creature types, not races (or species, for that matter).
That's true - I forgot it was creature type, but definitely not alignment (unlike the previous editions of D&D)
When you cast Detect Evil and Good, you know if there is an aberration, celestial, elemental, fey, fiend, or undead within 30 feet of you. If the Warlock patron was a fiend that was nearby it would detect it, but the warlock itself would not reveal anything since it's not a creature of that type.
thank you for the clarification