The town guard spots your Paladin...

And then you get arrested and thrown in jail for starting fights. Maybe hanged for murder.

Say bye to your alignment based abilities.

I reply that I'll cooperate with he law to the fullest extent of ny abilities, but maintain the right to act as GOD demands necessary. Furthermore I find your towns hostility towards an agent of GOD suspicious and will now be closely guarded and observing you. Deus vult, good day

Only an Evil town would jail a righteous servant of Good for carrying out their holy duty.

Clearly, that user didn't go far enough. They should've burned the place to the ground immediately.

Seriously, though, the paladin is dressed like a noble going to a ball, the barbarian is a tax inspector, the ranger is a robot with a giant key in her back to wind herself up with, and the elf is an elf.

No-one should be able to identify them as "Miss Paladin" or "Mr Barbarian" unless THEY THEMSELVES ARE USING DETECT SPELLS! THE TOWN GUARD IS ASSAULTING US! GET HIM!

Because it's a magical emanation
>Range 60 ft.
>Area cone-shaped emanation
>Duration concentration, up to 10 min./ level (D)
>Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no.

In other words, you're radiating magical energy of detection, and when it touches an evil creature, the energy is reflected back to you, meaning you get a 'ping'. Detect magic will see the area of the spell's effect.

>using detect magic on the party
>detect magic
>detect
GET HIM HE'S ASSAULTING US

If detect spells are seen as an act of hostility, then anyone who detects me using Detect Evil is an aggressor themselves, and I am well within my rights to smite them.

A NEVERENDING CIRCLE OF UNJUSTIFIED AGGRESSION AND PREJUDICED SMITING

TODAY IS A GOOD DAY

You know, lads.

In 2nd Edition AD&D, it explicitly said that people considered their alignment to be private, and that trying to find it out was considered the height of rudeness or outright aggressive.

What
So in AD&D fluff people were aware of having a strictly codified 'alignment'?
Like, "I bet that bitch is CE?"

I think it's more like "Please don't try to read my fucking magical aura/mind/palm lines without my permission."

Well yeah, unless you were in a backwater place devoid of even inklings of magic you knew about alignment.

Who told you my name!?

I dont know how it was in the old days, but Detect evil/good/law/chaos, only works on people who have an Aura class/race ability with that discriptor, or are 5th level and up.

Or performing a deed that is strongly associated with that alignment. Such like, a chaotic good person murdering the fuck out of someone will ping as evil during and shortly after the act.

Similarly an asshole evil merchant ripping people off with his slightly used magic items will ping as good when he's motivated by gathering money for medicine for his sick daughter.

Detect alignment should be vague and might have false positives. like a cheap pregnancy test. Meaning further investigation should be warranted but it's generally not enough to go on.

Yes. They even had specific languages for each alignment - in other words, they literally spoke their version of an alignment language the same way Latin is used by the Catholic Church, or Chinese is used for Japanese Buddhist ceremonies. The were essentially 'prayer' languages and 'holy/unholy tongues'. Demons and Angels didn't speak celestial and infernal and abyssal, they spoke Lawful Good, Lawful Evil, and Chaotic Evil as languages. (That's what the language bar for the AD&D mosnter meant when it said "alignment tongue').

That this information has been lost to history is painful.

>Apparently everyone in town has spell-craft
>Apparently it's okay for evil clerics, antipaladins, or other evil creatures with enough HD to detect as evil to roam about without question
>Paladins are Knights

I'd 360 right out of that campaign

"That's quite alright, friend. My ability to discern malice is changed of late, and I fear my uses of such an expediency are limited to discerning unusual monsters a sum certain occasions each day."

There were two versions.
First the arcane version.

Detect Evil
(Divination)
Reversible
Range: 0
Components: V, S
Duration: 5 rds./level
Casting Time: 2
Area of Effect: 10 x 180 ft.
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 is not revealed under most circumstances: Characters who are strongly aligned, do not stray from their faith, and who are at least 9th level might radiate good or evil if they are intent upon appropriate actions. Powerful monsters, such as 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 enables 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) can be noted. Note that priests have a more powerful version of this spell.
The spell has a path of detection 10 feet wide and 60 yards long in the direction in which the wizard is facing. The wizard must concentrate--stop, have quiet, and intently seek to detect the aura--for at least one round to receive a reading.

tl;dr: You have to not only be almost pure good or pure evil, but you have to be 9th level or higher, and at the moment of detection considering doing something evil. Otherwise it only detects monsters.

>In other words, you're radiating magical energy of detection.

Right.

>and when it touches an evil creature, the energy is reflected back to you, meaning you get a 'ping'.

Wrong.

You concentrate on that area for the presence or absence of evil. If you determine the presence that is the 1st round.

In the 2nd you detect the number of evil auras in the area and the most powerful aura present.
If the evil creature has an overwhelming aura and twice your HD and you're good aligned you get stunned.

In the 3rd round you start to detect the power and location of every aura in the 60 ft cone. If an aura is outside your line of sight you only get a sense for it's direction.

And now the "more powerful" version priests use.

Detect Evil
(Divination)
Reversible
Sphere: All
Range: 0
Components: V, S, M
Duration: 1 turn + 5 rds./level
Casting Time: 1 rd.
Area of Effect: 10 ft. x 120 yds.
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 (dim, faint, moderate, strong, or 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, or chaotic). The duration of a detect evil (or detect good) spell is one turn plus five rounds per level of the priest. Thus, a 1st-level priest can cast a spell with a 15-round duration, a 2nd-level priest can cast a spell with a 20-round duration, etc. The spell has a path of detection 10 feet wide in the direction 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.

tl;dr: Priests could detect slightly weaker monsters, and when detecting strong monsters got more information.

>I was only detecting in self-defense!