Detect evil, up to 60 ft. away. The rules expressly tell that this is something that's done when the player so desires for the character, and only if the paladin is concentrating on determinine if evil is present. It's also strongly implied that the paladin must do so in the right direction in order to detect the evil sought after. "Evil" here can best be interpreted in three ways: first, in the form of some entity conspiring to perform or commit a selfish, abusive act of some kind, strongly enough that it can be detected (evil by intent); second, that the entity itself is so filled with spite and darkness that it is, itself, evil (evil by nature); and thirdly, that so many acts of evil have been committed in a given space, or that it has somehow been transformed through a ritual, that the atmosphere or the room itself is a thing of evil (evil by taint).
The rule intends to constrain the paladin, insisting that the player remember this is an ability as a form of game play; unfortunately, because it must be declared to be useful, and because it might be useful at any time, it creates a pattern where the player states the intent every time a door is opened and every time the characters have moved a distance of more than sixty feet. This becomes numbingly annoying for the remainder of the party — and creates a game moment when, invariably, the one time the player does not mention the ability, that's when evil is present. Thus, instead of creating a buffer to expertise, it creates a refrain and then ill feelings when the refrain is forgotten. The rule creates a "gotcha," and gotchas are social poison. The rule actually works quite well if the responsibility is shifted to the DM; if the paladin's detect evil is managed in the same way as one might detect a change in temperature, the refrain falls away, the gotcha falls away, and the ability proves not to be so powerful that it actually needs a constraint. But this addendum is not canon in AD&D.
Not going to talk about the paladin or AD&D, but I am going to talk about rules and specifically the point above about the "refrain" that arises when a player has to verbally make checks as a part of gameplay. I feel this ought to be unnecessary.
I was about to make a comment in my patreon chat that in actual play, my game is "rules light"... which of course it isn't, as my wiki attests. Yet it plays rules light, I believe, because as much as I can, I try to make the rules as nearly invisible as possible.
Let's say, for example, that your elf enters a room, and let's say there's a secret door there. In a typical game of almost any make, my role would be to wait to see if you check for secret doors and then, once you say you do, I have you roll a d6 and see if you find it. That is not how I run, however. Like the reference above that treats the detection of evil like room temperature, I simply assume that as an elf, you have a sharp eye and that there's always a chance that you'll find that secret door, regardless of whether or not you say so. I might, therefore, as the party enters the room, say to you, "roll a d6." I don't tell you what it's for, and it might realistically be any of a hundred things... so naturally, you're curious: "What am I rolling for?" If you get a four, I just don't tell you. You failed to find the secret door, that's settled. The rule was there, but it takes five seconds for the die roll, so the rule is essentially invisible. You rolled for some reason, you don't know why, and that builds tension. But when nothing happens, you forget the tension too. And you don't feel like you're breaking the verisimitude of the game with meta call-outs.
If you say, "Can I check for secret doors" at some point, or just say you are, then I tell don't tell you, "roll a die," I tell you, "you don't find any secret doors." I tell you this because you didn't. You had your roll, you blew it, you don't know you blew it, so you have no idea if there's a secret door here... but you feel, since I didn't ask you to roll when you called for it, that there ARE no secret doors here. Which is exactly what your character should be thinking, if you knew you were looking and didn't find any.
'Course, this puts the onus on me to remember you're able to search for secret doors. But I'm attuned to this sort of thing. I create a room with one, and as I create the room, I automatically say to myself, when the elves and half-elves get here, I have to make them roll. Then when we do get to the room, I instantly tip to the need for a roll when I'm reminded there's a secret door here in my notes. It's like a light switch. So I have you roll, the sequence is mostly invisible, game feels rules light.
Then, if you do find the secret door, I say, "And Bernard the elf finds a secret door in the corner." For reasons I don't understand, DMs think this is something players have to earn... that the player HAS to remember they can find secret doors, or else they're not "playing the game." This is silly, and it's not the game I'm playing. "Whether the player behind Bernard remembers to search for secret doors" is a really, really, really boring game. The secret door is incidental. D&D is about entering the secret door and finding what's there, NOT "overcoming the door rule." That's just so stupid. Yet it's so constant and everywhere, I have to think everyone else besides me just doesn't get it.
As I see it, the elf has the right to roll. It's the bargain they made with me when they decided to be an elf. They chose that "affordance," the word I've been using on the wiki... and that affordance ENTITLES that elf to things that as a DM I do not have the right to deny. It's a rule, as I see it, that I have to obey. You're a paladin, you detect evil? Then you detect it, the same way that someone with eyes sees the trees and someone with tastebuds can enjoy the good ale. I am not permitted, in my eyes, to deny you a special ability your character has just because you've forgotten to act on it.
I know nobody in this game thinks this way. And I think that's because this idea has been unfortunately bred into the DM's consciousness, in a way that poisons everything. Why not just let the players find the secret door? How do we benefit through refusing them the chance to check, just because they forget they can? What in hell are we trying to prove by this attitude? That we can be insipidly petty? Is that is a virtue?
I lose nothing if the paladin detects evil without saying so. Nothing. Game goes on, no zero-sum applies, threat isn't lessened, treasure and experience are still earned... I want the paladin to detect the evil because I want the players to get excited that there's evil here that the paladin just detected. That's a plus! I don't want to drag out the alternative, sitting in my chair thinking, "Just check for evil already..."
Make all the player checks happen automatically and see how much better your game's pace gets. Watch how it improves immersion. And trust, as the players come to believe there won't be a gotcha because they didn't say the right words. And how much less time is spent repeating the same sentences over and over. DM, don't gatekeep.
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