Effects with this trait attempt to determine the presence or location of a person, object, or aura.

The Detection trait marks effects that attempt to determine the presence or location of a creature, object, or aura. Detection effects typically use your senses and Perception, sometimes augmented by magic or tech, to answer “is something here?” or “where exactly is it?”, and many upgrade a target from unnoticed/undetected to hidden or observed in the Detecting Creatures rules.

These effects often take the form of emanations (like common “detect X” spells), single-target scans, or special actions keyed to precise senses. Examples include detect magic, detect poison, detect scrying, analyze target, locate, mind reading, pinpoint, read aura, and monitoring bond, all of which use the Detection trait to flag that their primary purpose is learning where or whether something is present rather than harming or altering it.

Mechanically, detection interacts heavily with the four detection states—observed, hidden, undetected, and unnoticed—and with the distinction between precise, imprecise, and vague senses. Many detection effects let you Seek automatically within an area for a specific type of target or aura, sometimes opposed by countermeasures like nondetection or environmental factors that block senses.