Post/Author/DateTime	Post
lamrar 02-05-08, 11:14 AM	Me and my DM is wondering what kind of aura a neutral aligned undead with 11 HD has. I say a strong aura (because he's undead), and my DM says none, because his alignement is neutral. Who is right? And don't worry, I know that whatever the DM says goes :P
Tedronai 02-05-08, 11:36 AM	Generally speaking, unless specified otherwise (such as by the DM or in a monster's description), ANY undead detects as evil, even if they're actually good (in which case they'd detect as that, too). Considering that undead are specifically listed under the things that are detected by the spell, I would suggest that ANY undead should have some sort of aura when viewed with this spell, even if the aura strength is the same as that left behind by the passage of evil through an area (Faint, I believe the term is). That would seem sufficiently flavourful to me. A creature perpetually tainted by the presence of evil successfully resisting the influence on it's actions, yet being marked by it nevertheless. It would also give a subtle clue as to the nature of this creature as different from other individuals of it's kind, as well as mark it out as suspicious, without completely revealing it's nature, if it is disguised as living.
wrecan 02-05-08, 12:02 PM	You are right under the rules. He is wrong. All undead radiate an aura of evil based on their HD. But it is a common house rule that non-evil undead don't radiate evil.
lamrar 02-05-08, 12:26 PM	Thanks for your responses! I would suggest that ANY undead should have some sort of aura when viewed with this spell, even if the aura strength is the same as that left behind by the passage of evil through an area (Faint, I believe the term is). I'm going to suggest this as a house rule :)
lamrar 02-05-08, 03:51 PM	THis brings up a new question however. Will Undetectable Alignement or a ring of mind shielding stop him from turning up on detect evil?
Jagyr Ebonwood 02-05-08, 03:55 PM	THis brings up a new question however. Will Undetectable Alignement or a ring of mind shielding stop him from turning up on detect evil? I'd say so. I think the reason they ping on DE is because their alignment is "always Neutral Evil." So, an alignment-hiding item would cloak them from DE. However, they'd still ping on Detect Undead unless they polymorphed.
Sildatorak 02-05-08, 05:20 PM	My PHB specifically lists evil undead in the detect evil table.
wrecan 02-05-08, 05:38 PM	You likely have an early printing. Here's the version from the SRD (http://www.wizards.com/d20/files/v35/SpellsD-E.rtf) (minor formatting changes): ———————— Aura Power ———————— Creature/Object Faint Moderate Strong Overwhelming Evil creature1 (HD) 10 or lower 11–25 26–50 51 or higher Undead (HD) 2 or lower 3–8 9–20 21 or higher Evil outsider (HD) 1 or lower 2–4 5–10 11 or higher Cleric of evil deity2 1 2–4 5–10 11 or higher (class levels) Evil magic item/spell 2nd or lower 3rd–8th 9–20th 21st or higher (caster level) 1 Except for undead and outsiders, which have their own entries on the table. 2 Some characters who are not clerics may radiate an aura of equivalent power. The class description will indicate whether this applies. It may be the DM in question has an early edition of the book.
aotrscommander 02-05-08, 06:22 PM	You likely have an early printing. Here's the version from the SRD (http://www.wizards.com/d20/files/v35/SpellsD-E.rtf) (minor formatting changes): ———————— Aura Power ———————— Creature/Object Faint Moderate Strong Overwhelming Evil creature1 (HD) 10 or lower 11–25 26–50 51 or higher Undead (HD) 2 or lower 3–8 9–20 21 or higher Evil outsider (HD) 1 or lower 2–4 5–10 11 or higher Cleric of evil deity2 1 2–4 5–10 11 or higher (class levels) Evil magic item/spell 2nd or lower 3rd–8th 9–20th 21st or higher (caster level) 1 Except for undead and outsiders, which have their own entries on the table. 2 Some characters who are not clerics may radiate an aura of equivalent power. The class description will indicate whether this applies. It may be the DM in question has an early edition of the book. Having just checked mine and my sister's PHB (first-release and later release), I can confirm that 'Evil' was added to the Undead line in the later printing and was abscent in the earlier one (as in the SRD). So, for once the SRD had not been corrected and is as such is slightly inaccurate (I'm working on the fairly logical assumption that the PHB trumps the SRD, naturally!) Does make more sense that way, since the moment you cast Detect Chaos/Good/Law and by the same critieon, they'd ping up too...Adding an 'Evil' qualifier to the table prevents a lot of arguements over RAW and RAI and interpretation.
wrecan 02-06-08, 10:04 AM	Well what do you know! I guess I was wrong.
1 ton ghost 02-09-08, 03:31 PM	seems a liittle unfair. i mean, being tethered to the NegEnergy plain doesn't make you evil per se, it's how you employ it's entropic nature and so forth. that being said, being undead shouldn't brand one as evil, though some are unavoidably evil, vampires and the like. plus, why the Hell did they invent Detect Undead then? if all undead scan evil, then no one would prep this spell prefering the blanket divination of of scanning evil rather than narrowing your search to 1 specific.