[DF] Why isn't Detects as Evil more of a disadvantage?

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

DF sure as heck does.

Does it? It has Holy and Unholy Powers built as Pacts, I don't think that's at all the same thing. For one thing it only applies to the those characters that have those powers rather than something all characters have.

[Stone Dog]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

DF sure as heck does.

Good-Evil and Bunnies-Squid are more allegiances than they are alignments. You can develop a "moral charge" from them, but that is more a supernatural taint than it is some sort of cosmic sorting hat.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Stone Dog

Good-Evil and Bunnies-Squid are more allegiances than they are alignments.

A distinction I totally fail to comprehend.

[Stone Dog]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

A distinction I totally fail to comprehend.

In D&D being a soldier of Heaven means that you are more than likely a pretty decent guy because you are Something Good. Even if you are kind of a jerk, you basically are a jerk with a heart of gold.

In GURPS DF being a soldier of Heaven has no such promise. A Holy Warrior is on the side of the angels, but can easily be (even with templates) under no obligation to be any better than a puppy kicking mercenary who scares children.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Stone Dog

In GURPS DF being a soldier of Heaven has no such promise. A Holy Warrior is on the side of the angels, but can easily be (even with templates) under no obligation to be any better than a puppy kicking mercenary who scares children.

Conversely, it's not clear, at least not to me, that DF Detect Evil will trigger if you are the sort of puppy kicking mercenary who dismembers children and feeds them to the puppies, as long as you haven't actually acquired a power from an evil source.

[Edges]

Originally Posted by b-dog

...AD&D terms where almost all of the major monsters, especially magical ones, have the Know Alignment power...

I don't remember it that way. It may have been a little more common than in the default GURPS DF but that's about it. 'Just sayin'.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

A distinction I totally fail to comprehend.

In D&D (up until 4th edition anyway) everybody has an alignment, in GURPS only people with certain Holy or Unholy Powers or rare creatures with an appropriate feature detect as good or evil.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

In D&D (up until 4th edition anyway) everybody has an alignment, in GURPS only people with certain Holy or Unholy Powers or rare creatures with an appropriate feature detect as good or evil.

True. But I think this is actually an argument in favor of it costing something. Certain supernatural effects work differently on you than the do on normal people is certainly the kind of thing that should cost points. This might more or less cancel out - you can be detected or warded against, but on the other hand sometimes being detectable is a benefit, and there are likely to be useful magical gizmos that only work for suitably good or evil characters - but if for some reason it doesn't in your particular setting - say every town faithful to the Good God is warded by an impenetrable barrier against evil - you'll need to adjust it.

In most settings, I think most of these are probably a Perk. And by no means limited to Good and Evil. There's no particular reason a shaman couldn't magically Aligned as their totem Animal (Animal Control effects works on you, spells designed for humans don't), or necromancers be treated as undead (things with orders to kill all mortals will ignore you, but watch out for Slay Undead effects). As long as the benefits and drawbacks are close to balanced.

[Kromm]

In actual play, the effects are very much +N for "treated nicely by things of my moral leaning," "can wield nifty items and powers limited to people of my moral leaning," and, "not fried by curses and traps that trigger on moral leanings other than my own," but -N for "treated like dirt by things of the opposite moral leaning," "can't wield nifty items and powers biased against my moral leaning," and, "fried by curses and traps that trigger on my moral leaning." That sums to 0 points. However, I often treat zeroes as ones and call such things perks, because by being careful and playing your cards right, you can somewhat avoid the downsides and somewhat increase the odds of seeing the upsides.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by b-dog

I am wondering why the feature Detects as Evil isn't a 10 point disadvantage. It seems to me that if a PC detects as evil then the people in the town will know that the PC is either an evil cleric, unholy warrior or a half-infernal. All of the other classes and races do not detect as anything out of the ordinary. A PC who detects as evil can not disguise himself to a cleric or wizard with the spell. I used to play D&D and having a PC with an evil alignment has a lot of problems because many towns people will be suspicious and will often have ways to detect evil. Ravenloft would never work if the monsters didn't have a way to obscure their alignment either because detecting evil was one of the first things to be done when trying to find out who the bad guy is. The vast majority of people are neutral or unaligned morally so a person who detects as evil is able to be singled out.

The same is true of a person who detects as good. That PC will have a hard time infiltrating a temple dedicated to a demon lord or other areas of evil. Evil monsters can sniff out guy who radiate good pretty easily.

That might be better called,"Detects as demonic." That quality is generally given to ringwraiths, vampires, etc. An evil person isn't generally given these unless his evil includes consorting with said creatures.

Which makes for an interesting idea. What if someone's loved one has been kidnapped by a Creature of the Night, and he had to go and negotiate for the release. On the way back the Creature's aura would rub off on him for a time, and other people would be afraid of him.