Just What Does Detect Enemies Work Against?

[Lordabdul]

Meta-take: instead of trying to figure out whether the animal/creature/NPC has any sentient capabilities for intending harm, or trying to figure out how the spell works, just figure out if you, the GM, intends to attack the PCs with that animal/creature/NPC at some point in the current scene (including having already done that but managed to stay hidden!). If the answer is yes, then that animal/creature/NPC shows up with Detect Enemy 😄

(so in the case of the snake: has the GM given up and the snake is fleeing? Then it doesn't register. Is the GM keeping the snake around for some jump scare later? Then it does register)

Unless your players are rules lawyers who love arguing about that kind of shit, or you're an old-school confrontational GM, there's no point trying to be nitpicky with words and definitions and what not. It's called "Detect Enemies" and everybody knows what it's for. "We'll know it when we see it", and all that. The last thing you want is for a player to have paid good money to learn the spell, only to realize it's not as useful as they thought. Or to bog down the game going into a debate. Or both. When in doubt, lean in the player's favour -- it's just easier and in good spirit.

If you still want to mess with your players (and oh boy do I love to do that), there's still some stuff to do. First, the spell is Ranged, so it doesn't detect anything beyond 50 meters. Have evil entities and assassins stalk them out of range -- which makes sense to me, as many people and creatures would know that most/all Spirit Magic has that range, so it's a good idea to hang back that far. Second, it doesn't work through earth or stone or metal, so put the snake in the deck below behind the engines, burrow in the ground, or that kind of stuff. Last, the spell only gives the "approximate direction and distance from the caster". Remember Aliens? When the marines have these motion detectors that, well, give the approximate direction and distance to any nearby xenomorphs? Yeah. Good times. Do that!

[PhilHibbs]

All of this.