Detect Evil

[ChukchiDog]

This is a new power for me, and I've only used it a few times, and I want to be fair, so here are my questions:

When you Detect Evil on someone, can they tell you're doing it? Can it be done subtly, or is it going to be noticed? Can the person it is being used on feel it? Does it depend, and if so, on what? In the case of this particular character, I'd certainly say there would be a facial expression of concentration that would show something was going on, but would not necessarily show what, but I'd think others who were more subtle, or wearing a helm, might be able not to show it as much, or at all. When I've seen the power used by others, I've noticed that it is usually accompanied by an emote along the lines of: *stares hard at him for a few moments*.

Is it cheesy to try again immediately or soon after if the person makes their will save? My character has two chances to try this before he's used them up, so my assumption was that it would make sense for him to try again if he could not tell the first time (I am further assuming that if the detect fails the caster does know it failed; that is, they know they can't tell one way or the other), but it does occur to me that if I had ten chances to try this my target might get annoyed if I just kept trying it over and over till it worked. On the other hand, ICly why not use the resources you've got? But on the OTHER other hand...so you see this is why I'm asking!

Further assumptions are that it is perfectly kosher to try again the next day, or several hours later when you meet the person again, and that it is not kosher to detect, rest to get the spell back, and detect again immediately. Let me know if these assumptions are correct, too?

Thanks!

[Akai]

The spell, detect alignment, has verbal and somatic components, so anyone seeing the casting is going to get a little message "Gildan casting unknown spell" (or "Gildan casting Detect Evil" if their Spellcraft skill is good enough). That is, anyone looking or listening can tell he's casting something.

Paladins' detect evil ability doesn't require any verbal or somatic components, so that's where the *stares hard* comes in.

[Verandis]

When someone does something that requires you to make a will save, it means you're actively resisting whatever it is. You won't necessarily know what, just that you had to resist something or other. If you succeed your spellcraft roll and it's a spell, you might know more of what's going on.

In the case of detect evil, if the evil person succeeds their will save, the caster doesn't know if they resisted the spell, or are not evil and didn't need to resist the spell. The caster may know that this spell is subject to failure, and can try it again, but spamming it repeatedly isn't allowed. Similarly, yes, you may use it again the next day or whatever, just use common sense and don't use it every single time the person shows up unless they have an evil twin or something.