Before I begin, I'll note here for anyone interested that I made a quick edit to the post on cure light wounds. I decided to keep its ability to cure paralysis, as I had a look at remove paralysis and saw that it affects multiple targets. The cure wounds spells being able to un-paralyse one person is a reasonable application that doesn't make remove paralysis worthless.
Anyway, on to detect evil. I think it's safe to say that this has always been a problem spell for D&D. I feel like its original intent was to detect supernatural evil, like evil spells and people who are possessed, that sort of thing. Somewhere along the way it became an all-purpose bad person detector, and a crutch for low-level parties to solve mysteries. (To be honest, the paladin ability is more problematic than the spell, being at-will, but the principle is the same.) I could be wrong about the above, but part of the purpose of this series is for me to fully explore the origins and development of each spell. It's good to go to the source, and explode any misconceptions I might have.
Alright, let's start with detect evil.
ORIGINAL D&D (1974)
Detect Evil: A spell to detect evil thought or intent in any creature or evilly enchanted object. Note that poison, for example, is neither good nor evil.Duration: 2 turns. Range: 6".
This spell already starts off ambiguous, with its detection of "evil thought or intent". I wonder if this ambiguity was a result of there being no specifically evil alignment in OD&D? Anyway, to me it seems like the intention is that the spell will tell you if somebody or something means you harm. The above spell is the magic-user version, and a 2nd level spell; the cleric version is 1st level, and has a duration of 6 turns and a range of 12". It's also reversed for Chaotic clerics, with no explanation of what that means.
HOLMES BASIC (1977)
Detect Evil — Level 2; Range: 60 feet; Duration: 2 turnsA spell to detect evil thought or evil intent in any creature or evilly enchanted object. Poison, however, is neither good nor evil.
Holmes Basic doesn't change anything up here, except to convert 6" to 60 feet. The cleric spell has a range of 120 feet and a duration of 6 turns. The reverse of the spell is named as detect good, but that name is all that's given.
B/X (1981)
Detect Evil
Range: 60'
Duration: 2 turns
This spell can be used to detect evil intentions, or evilly enchanted objects within 60' causing the creatures or objects to glow. Actual thoughts are not detected; only the "feeling of evil". The exact definition of "evil" is left to each referee, and players should discuss this point so that all are in agreement; "Chaotic" is not always "evil". Poison and physical traps are neither good nor evil.
Now the ambiguity intensifies, as the definition of evil is being specifically left up to the DM. The advice to discuss it with players is a sound one, but we're already off into the weeds with this spell. The clarification that it doesn't detect actual thoughts is a good one though. The cleric spell has the same increased range and duration, but is no longer reversible for some reason. I suppose when a spell is reversed to detect "good intentions" it's not so useful. The bit about the affected creatures glowing is an odd one as well. Is this a glow that everyone can see, or just the caster?
BECMI (1983)
Detect Evil
Range: 60'
Duration: 2 turns
Effect: Everything within 60'
When this spell is cast, the magic-user will see all evilly enchanted objects within 60' glow. It will also cause creatures that want to harm the magic-user to glow when they are within range. The actual thoughts of the creatures cannot be heard. Remember that "Chaotic" does not automatically mean Evil, although many Chaotic monsters have evil intentions. Traps and poison are neither good nor evil, merely dangerous.
Okay, this is a little better: it specifically detects evilly enchanted objects and creatures that mean the caster harm. Much less ambiguous, and much less likely to cause debates about the nature of evil. It even clarifies the glowing as something only the caster can see. As in previous editions, the cleric spell is better.
RULES CYCLOPEDIA (1991)
Detect Evil
Range: 60'
Duration: 2 turns
Effect: Everything within 60'
When this spell is cast, the spellcaster will see a glow surround all evilly-enchanted objects within 60'. It will also cause creatures that want to harm the spellcaster to glow when they are within range. The spell, however, does not allow the spellcaster to hear the actual thoughts of the creatures. Remember that Chaotic alignment is not automatically the same as evil, although many Chaotic monsters have evil intentions. Traps and poison are neither good nor evil, but merely dangerous.
The Rules Cyclopedia follows BECMI's lead, without making any changes. The Basic line, as usual, has done a pretty good job of taking the OD&D spell and refining it, and in this case ironing out most of the ambiguities along the way.
AD&D 1st EDITION (1978)
Detect Evil (Divination) Reversible
Level: 1
Range: 12“
Duration: 1 turn + ½ turn/level
Area of Effect: 1" path
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 round
Saving Throw: None
Explanation/Description: This is a spell which discovers emanations of evil, or of good in the case of the reverse spell, from any creature or object. For example, evil alignment or an evilly cursed object will radiate evil, but a hidden trap or an unintelligent viper will not. The duration of a detect evil (or detect good) spell is 1 turn + ½ turn (5 rounds, or 5 minutes) per level of the cleric. Thus a cleric of 1st level of experience can cast a spell with a 1½ turn duration, at 2nd level a 2 turn duration, 2½ at 3rd, etc. The spell has a path of detection 1” wide in the direction in which the cleric is facing. It requires the use of the cleric’s holy (or unholy) symbol as its material component, with the cleric holding it before him or her.
That's the cleric spell above; the magic-user spell is 2nd level, has a 6" range, a duration of 5 rounds/level, a casting time of 2, and doesn't require any material components. This is where the spell starts to detect actual alignment, and note that nothing is mentioned here about "evil intent". This is an alignment detector, plain and simple. It also has a much narrower focus, a 1" path rather than the 60' radius of the Basic version.
AD&D 2nd EDITION (1989)
Detect Evil (Divination)
Reversible
Sphere: All
Range: 120 yards
Components: V, S, M
Duration: 1 turn + 5 rounds/level
Casting Time: 1 round
Area of Effect: 10-foot path
Saving Throw: None
This spell discovers emanations of evil, or of good in the case of the reverse spell, from any creature, object, or area. Character alignment, however, is revealed only under unusual circumstances: characters who are strongly aligned, who do not stray from their faith, and who are of at least 9th level might radiate good or evil if intent upon appropriate actions. Powerful monsters, such as rakshasas or ki-rin, send forth emanations of evil or good, even if polymorphed. Aligned undead radiate evil, for it is this power and negative force that enable them to continue existing. An evilly cursed object or unholy water radiates evil, but a hidden trap or an unintelligent viper does not.
The degree of evil (faint, moderate, strong, overwhelming) and possibly its general nature (expectant, malignant, gloating, etc.) can be noted. If the evil is overwhelming, the priest has a 10% chance per level of detecting its general bent (lawful, neutral, chaotic). The duration of a detect evil (or detect good) spell is one turn plus five rounds per level of the priest. Thus a priest of 1st experience level can cast a spell with a 15-round duration, at 2nd level he can cast a 20-round duration spell, etc. The spell has a path of detection 10 feet wide in the direction in which the priest is facing. The priest
must concentrate - stop, have quiet, and intently seek to detect the aura - for at least one round to receive a reading.
The spell requires the use of the priest's holy symbol as its material component, with the priest holding it before him.
The magic-user spell has the same differences as in 1e. 2nd edition walks back the pure alignment detection of 1e, going back to detecting "intent". It even makes the spell completely unusable on characters of less than 9th level; there's definitely no solving low-level mysteries with this version. I like the specification of different types of monsters that register. The introduction of degrees of evil being detected is a little half-baked though, with no indication of how to judge it. As for the difference between expectant and malignant evil, your guess is as good as mine.
Oh, I just noticed that the range is way high here. The Basic line converted OD&D's ranges of 6" and 12" into tens of feet, but 2e has gone with tens of yards. I know that movement rates and missile fire ranges are supposed to be converted into yards in the wilderness in AD&D, but does the same apply to spell ranges? I've always been iffy on that. It does seem like an absurdly long range to me.
AD&D 2nd EDITION REVISED (1995)
There aren't any significant changes here.
D&D 3rd EDITION (2000)
Detect Evil
Divination
Level: Clr 1, Rgr 2
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 ft.
Area: Quarter circle emanating from you to the extreme of the range
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes/level (D)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
You can sense the presence of evil. The amount of information revealed depends on how long you study a particular area or subject:
1st Round: Presence or absence of evil.
2nd Round: Number of evil auras (creatures, objects, or spells) in the area and the strength of the strongest evil aura present. If you are of good alignment, the strongest evil aura’s strength is "overwhelming" (see below), and the strength is at least twice your character level, you are stunned for 1 round and the spell ends. While you are stunned, you can’t act, you lose any Dexterity bonus to AC, and attackers gain +2 bonuses to attack you.
3rd Round: The strength and location of each aura. If an aura is outside your line of sight, then you discern its direction but not its exact location.
Aura Strength: An aura’s evil power and strength depend on the type of evil creature or object that you’re detecting and its HD, caster level, or (in the case of a cleric) class level.
Creature/Object Evil Power Evil creature HD / 5 Undead creature HD / 2 Evil elemental HD / 2 Evil magic item or spell Caster level / 2 Evil outsider HD Cleric of an evil deity Level
Evil Power Aura Strength Lingering Dim 1 or less Faint 2–4 Moderate 5–10 Strong 11+ Overwhelming
If an aura falls into more than one strength category, the spell indicates the stronger of the two.
Length Aura Lingers: How long the aura lingers depends on its original strength:
Original Strength Duration Faint 1d6 minutes Moderate 1d6 x 10 minutes Strong 1d6 hours Overwhelming 1d6 days
Remember that animals, traps, poisons, and other potential perils are not evil; this
spell does not detect them.
Note: Each round, you can turn to detect things in a new area. The spell can penetrate barriers, but 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt blocks it.
Well, 3rd edition certainly took the "degrees of evil" bit from 2e and ran with it. And we're back to the spell being an alignment detector, with no hint of "evil intent" being a factor. In a big departure, the spell can't even be cast by wizards anymore, and the area has widened from a 10' line to a quarter circle. The range is back to feet, not yards.
D&D 3.5th EDITION (2003)
Only two rules changes are made in 3.5 that I can see: the spell is no longer available to rangers, and the numbers have been tweaked for how long evil auras linger. The tables for determining aura strength have been combined and greatly simplified in presentation, though. I can't be bothered doing the formatting right now, so I'll just link to the d20 SRD if you want to check it out.
D&D 4th EDITION (2008)
I'm not entirely sure about this, but it looks to me as though this ability doesn't exist in any form in 4e. I can't say I blame them for getting rid of it.
D&D 5th EDITION (2014)
DETECT EVIL AND GOOD
1st-level divination
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
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 fool of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or'3 feet of wood or dirt.
The more I look at 5th edition spells, the more impressed I am by how much they cut away the bullshit. This spell isn't really detect evil though, at least not in any form it's had previously. It's not an alignment detector, and it's not an "evil intent" detector, but rather a spell to detect undead and extraplanar creatures. 4e ditched the original, and 5e brought it back in name only.
Nth EDITION
Okay, so the first question I need to answer is this: what does this spell actually do? I'm going to start with the 3e version as a base, which means it detects evil as an alignment, but I don't want it to detect just regular folks. For the most part, it's going to work on outsiders, undead, and high-level clerics. For regular people, humanoids, etc, it will only register faint evil for those who specifically want to harm the caster. I feel like that covers pretty much all the uses of the spell outlined above.
As in earlier editions, this will be a 1st level spell for clerics, and a 2nd level spell for magic-users. I'm only developing the game elements from OD&D at the moment, so I don't need to do anything for other classes yet. I won't bother with the better range and duration for clerics: I figure that getting it as a 1st-level spell is bonus enough.
For the area of effect, I'm going with the 10 foot line rather than the cone, or the radius effect. I prefer this spell to be as tightly focused as possible.
I thought about ditching the lingering aura stuff, but I kind of like it as a possible tracking method. It's an extra complication, but it's the sort of thing that's not going to come up very often.
I've also simplified the whole bit about good clerics being stunned by overwhelming auras. 3e uses a formula to figure it out, but I've just boiled it down to a saving throw. Seems easier that way.
The advanced version of the spell will look like this:
Detect Evil / Detect Good
Divination
Level: Cleric 1, Magic-User 2
Components: V, S, (Cleric M)
Casting Time: 1 round
Range: 60 ft.
Area: 10 ft. wide, 60 ft. long
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes (D)
Saving Throw: None
Magic Resistance: No
You can sense the presence of supernatural evil, and evil creatures that wish you harm. The amount of information revealed depends on how long you study a particular area or subject:
1st Round: Presence or absence of evil. The following are detected: evil creatures that wish you harm; evil undead; evil extraplanar creatures; evil magic items or spells; high-level evil clerics (see below).
2nd Round: Number of evil auras (creatures, objects, or spells) in the area and the power of the most potent evil aura present. If you are of good alignment, and the strongest evil aura’s power is overwhelming (see below), you must make a Wisdom saving throw (DC equal to the HD or caster level) or be stunned for 1 round. This ends the detect evil spell.
3rd Round: The power and location of each aura.
Aura Power: An aura’s power depends on the type of evil creature or object that you’re detecting and its HD, caster level, or (in the case of a cleric) class level; see the accompanying table.
If an aura falls into more than one strength category, the spell indicates the stronger of the two.
Creature/Object Faint Moderate Strong Overwhelming Evil creatures that wish the caster harm All - - - Undead and extraplanar (HD) 1-2 3-6 7-12 13 or higher Cleric of an evil deity* (class levels) - 7-8 9-12 13 or higher Evil magic item or spell (caster level) 1-2 3-8 9-12 13 or higher
* Note that clerics of evil deities don't radiate an evil alignment until they gain the ability to cast 4th level spells (usually when they are 7th level)
Lingering Aura: An evil aura lingers after its original source dissipates (in the case of a spell) or is destroyed (on the case of a creature or magic item). If detect evil is cast and directed at such a location, the spell indicates an aura strength of dim (even weaker than a faint aura). How long the aura lingers at this dim level depends on its original power. Note that creatures who only register because they wish the caster harm leave no lingering aura.
Original Power Duration of Lingering Aura Faint 1d6 rounds Moderate 1d6 minutes Strong 1d6 hours Overwhelming 1d6 days
Animals, traps, poisons, and other potential perils are not evil, and as such this spell does not detect them.
Each round, you can turn to detect evil in a new area. The spell can penetrate barriers, but 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt blocks it.
This spell is reversed as detect good. It works exactly as detect evil, but detects creatures and magic of good alignment.
Components: A cleric requires their holy symbol to cast this spell.
For the simpler version of the spell for OD&D and Basic, I've stripped out the lingering auras and the stuff about aura power, as shown below. I also switch the alignment detection from evil to chaotic, as the Basic line has no evil alignment. In those games, chaotic pretty much equates to evil so it should work.
Detect Evil
Divination
Level: Cleric 1, Magic-User 2
Components: V, S, (Cleric M)
Casting Time: 1 round
Range: 60 ft.
Area: 10 ft. wide, 60 ft. long
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes (D)
Saving Throw: None
Magic Resistance: No
You can sense the presence of supernatural evil, and evil creatures that wish you harm. The amount of information revealed depends on how long you study a particular area or subject:
1st Round: Presence or absence of evil. The following are detected: chaotic creatures that wish you harm; chaotic undead; chaotic extraplanar creatures; chaotic magic items or spells; high-level chaotic clerics (those capable of casting 4th-level spells).
2nd Round: Number of evil auras (creatures, objects, or spells) in the area. If you are of lawful alignment, and the Hit Dice or caster level of the strongest aura is 13 or more, you must make a Wisdom saving throw (DC equal to the HD or caster level) or be stunned for 1 round. This ends the detect evil spell.
3rd Round: The location of each aura.
Animals, traps, poisons, and other potential perils are not evil, and as such this spell does not detect them.
Each round, you can turn to detect evil in a new area. The spell can penetrate barriers, but 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt blocks it.
This spell is reversed as detect good. It works exactly as detect evil, but detects creatures and magic of lawful alignment.
Components: A cleric requires their holy symbol to cast this spell.
NEXT: Next time (probably Monday) I'll be looking at detect magic.
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