Carnage-DVS said:
Ok, so this is bugging me.
Say a Paladin has detect evil. He detects one of his party members is evil. Let's say he tries to redeem him but fails to convince him? Would he let him go on his way or try to kil/stop him?
If he simply detects the guy as evil, but the guy has done nothing to warrant retribution from the Paladin, then I think the Paladin would simply part ways with the evil person in question, unless there are story/plot reasons that prevent that.
I'll assume here that the evil dude and the Paladin and both PCs, and the DM wants them to be in the same party. If that is the case, then its up to the DM to make it work, since by the Paladin's very nature, he simply won't get along with the guy. Hell, the Paladin could lose his status if he let the guy get away with something evil.
However, that is not to say that the Paladin would kill him/try to stop him right off the bat. If that were the case, everytime a Paladin walks past a jail, he'll have to pop in, cast a few detect evil spells, and then proceeds to massacre everyone there. That is obviously not the case.
As long as:
1. The evil guy doesn't do anything to warrant a response from the paladin in front of him.
and...
2. There is a good plot/story reason why they should be in party together.
... then there are no problems, for the short run anyway. In the long run, the Paladin will want to be rid of the guy's company as soon as possible (i.e. finish the quest) and will watch him like a hawk in the meantime to make sure that the he doesn't do anything evil while being a member of his party.
Funny you should ask this as I'm currently playing in a group where I'm the only evil character, the rest are all neutral or good. I've had to go to great lengths to hide my true alignment from them and appear to be a nice guy (for my own agenda) When I eventually get discovered and confronted, which I expect to be soon, I'll tell them to judge me by my actions and not by what some spell tells them about me.
If in your case, the evil dude says that, and the Paladin has seen nothing bad from him, the Paladin will have to give him the benefit of the doubt as a point of honor.