How to know enemy alignment?

[TripSin]

Is there a way to find this out? Else what is the purpose of protection from alignment spell? You just guess!?!?

[Balzaphon]

in pnp you had things like detect evil etc but I heard the game lacks this and you just have to guess

[Memmo]

Make an educated guess. Chances are you're mostly facing evil or chaotic foes.

[VidyaGamez]

Everyone's evil and combat is your driving force, becuase tabletop can't translate into video games without turning into a variation of Diablo.

[lochinvar1]

"Educated guess" isn't particularly helpful. Are some enemies lawful evil? Or is it like Basic D&D where bad guys are generally chaotic?

[AzureTheGamerKobold]

everyone isn't evil most of the bandits for example aren't evil strangely enough, is one way to know but it requires Celestial bloodline and it only tells you if an enemy is evil or not. Using the celestial bloodline trait you can deal damage only to evil creatures, and heal good ones. So i can scroll over and tell if its evil or not... as if its not evil it won't let me use it.

But it'sa good point i think an easy fix is to add alignment and just have enemies outlined in a color based on alignment

Red=Evil
Blue=Good
Yellow or Green=neutral

Pretty easy fix but i dunno if they'll do it.

Edit: just color code enemiesn alignment basically.

[Gogopher]

well i wish they had included know alignment and detect alignment...but as i have played d&d since it was first introduced i pretty much know the alignment of whatever...or can just whip out a mm and look it up...i guess u could do the same by simply googling the monster in question...

[Whatever100500]

Try to use any alignment dependent ability that would show up in log, like protection from alignment for +2 AC.

[vicheron]

For monsters, you just have to look it up in the monster manual. For characters, you can only guess.

[Timrath]

Originally posted by vicheron:

For monsters, you just have to look it up in the monster manual. For characters, you can only guess.

If by "manual" you mean the bestiary, then no, the bestiary doesn't contain any practical information, other than flavour fluff.

[timechef]

Often, alignment depends on type. And, for the Protection From X spells, you only have to match one axis to your enemies. If the attacker is Chaotic Evil, Protection from Chaos or Protection from Evil will work.

Fey are chaotic.
Goblins, kobolds and trolls are evil (and probably chaotic).
Bandits attacking you on the roadside are evil.
Undead are evil.

[Mobile Doll Cordelia]

The Pathfinder Bestiary lists the alignment on the same line as the monster type.

[Naked Granny]

Originally posted by Timrath:

Originally posted by vicheron:

For monsters, you just have to look it up in the monster manual. For characters, you can only guess.

If by "manual" you mean the bestiary, then no, the bestiary doesn't contain any practical information, other than flavour fluff.

They mean the actual Pathfinder Bestiary.

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary

[Timrath]

Why wouldn't that information be included in the ingame bestiary?

[Bloodrealm]

Originally posted by timechef:

Goblins, kobolds and trolls are evil (and probably chaotic).

Kobolds are usually Lawful.

[nshawmc]

If you fight an enemy (xp against them) then maybe it updates the bestiary ingame because that's what it hinted that it does. I did not test.