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Go Lawful Evil...Best way to play an evil player in a good party. I played an LE as a warlock and would often try to convince the party to not kill bad guys like a necromancer. The argument was that we are not the law here and need to bring them to the local constable. Being a warlock of the Old Ones I used telepathy to advise him to surrender so I could get them out of jail latter. And that person would owe me a favor. The party killed him anyway and I spent the rest of the campaign making them feel guilty calling them murderers since he surrendered. Muhahahahaha
@@doctorgami4541 In the wat i see Evil in DnD is not about torturing someone but instead about do what can give you the most chance to achieve your goals, by paying the fine of the necromancer he nows have a debt to the player and thus can be coerced to do what he wants
playing evil rules 1) dont mess with the party 2) find a party member you are attached to 3) be realistic, doesn't matter what level you are, the town guard will out number you and will win
Yeah I'm pretty sure the townguard can't do shit against a 20th level wizard,druid,paladin or cleric for example. Since two of those could destroy entire armies.
The two rules of CE: 1) Win 2) Do what you want This means you don't do retarded things like try to fight the city guard. Suicide isn't winning. Alienating the party also falls under this. Besides it feels good to be liked. Almost as good as stabbing someone to death, but not quite as good as smothering innocents.
Personally I like messing with the party when I play Evil, but it should be in good fun. It should be a narrative conflict that shouldn't result in PvP (unless absolutely necessary) or just general funsies. Lawful and Neutral Evil can criticize morals or lord over the players in a way that makes their differences clear without making it disruptive. Chaotic Evil makes a good trickster role who's an enigma, look to sources like Hisoka, the Joker, or Loki. Characters who can work with good guys but are hard to read, are like devils, and progress their plans on a very thinking level. Also Evil can be an anti-hero rather than an outright villain. And Evil can always convert if it occurs as a natural transition. Villain PCs have a place but most parties don't want them. I find most parties will work with a well played anti-hero though.
Ehhh. A group of 5 level 6 adventurers could easily level a small village or town. City, no. But a group of 5 level 15+ with secret allies and nearly unlimited resources? One thing I like to roleplay is the concept that power corrupts. It's easy spouting morality when your choices don't REALLY matter in the grand scheme. But power is hard to attain in real life. It hardens a person's heart. And it's much much easier to get MORE power if you compromise those morals when you already have some power. AND once you get power, the only thing that protects you is more power...
In my experience, the most important thing is that your evil character prioritizes the interests of the party. His relationship should be beneficial and well meaning for the party but toxic because of how far he'll go for them. For example, if you're playing an assassin, they could be willing to cross lines other players won't, like torturing reluctant informants to the brink of death or secretly getting revenge on anyone who slights the party. Above all, an evil character should cooperate with the party not sabotage it, even if his help isn't something the party would approve of or want.
This, a thousand times over. An evil party member is STILL a party member. These other people matter to him/her for whatever reason. Maybe they are family, or friends. Maybe he joined them for the adventure and the chance to engage in the less savoury sides of life. Yes, you're evil. Which means you are selfish and self centered. Your actions are mostly about you, though your allies are close to you for a reason. You don't want to betray them, though you might if given sufficient benefit for doing so. After all, you ARE in it for yourself. If the benefit you get is more than your alliance is likely to give you, you might just turn on them. But that should be a pretty rare thing. Now, will the rest agree with your actions? Probably not. So the question should be how to get away with stuff behind your groups back, not "lets fuck with everyone cuz I'm a crazy face!"
Someone played a paladin but was secretly getting corrupted over time ( It was lord of the rings themed) Basically I despise PVP in Dnd in all fashions, it kills the fun of the game if it's not planned or we know. The DM forbidded PVP but low and behold the Paladin got the ring of power and attacked us, then someone else turned against the party and then they were leading orcs against me and 2 others.... I was pissed and in addition the DM gave the paladin a bunch of crazy items and skills ( Like causing a volanic eruption with his hammer, it counting armor as sunderable and being able to return to him like thor) His shield tanked a 2,500 mile per hour bolder hitting it, in addition to over 150 meteor swarms, in addition it also was stated to be unbreakable as long as the wielder lives. while I get a.... +1 Halberd with reach.... woo. I gave up when they went PVP and the paladin got blackguard lvls to replace his paladin lvls and got to keep all the paladin features and went to evil, everyone was pissed at me because " Your character should fight to the end." Meanwhile I said fine, and cause he has the 1 fucking ring and all these other BS items and buffs and I'm a 5th lvl fighter with a +1 halberd, the Dm said I suck at fighter for losing!
Ahh that delicious slide into evil, one justification at a time. An unabashedly evil member in the party offers a whole slew of options they couldn't morally justify before now available to them as long as they don't ask and **never** open the door while you're working. And once they **need** you, they need evil. They'll keep justifying for you or pretending nothing is wrong as their moral boundaries steadily corrode and their alignment slips.
@@saradanhoff6539 Hey, someone's gotta take off the ears fingers n toes. Arson, lynching, robbing n sodomizing a local pimp or that fatass corrupt burgomeister, poison, crucifying them annoying goblins... it's all negotiable, or even a mere weekend.
Favorite character I've ever played was CN boarding on CE. Brushfire druid. Don't get me wrong, this man was evil, he burnt forests...for the natural order, if he didn't kill that overgrowth now it'd kill the whole section of forest. He started full-on plagues!...but not for fun, he just hated how cities shunted the natural order, allowing all to survive and thrive with little to no struggle for thier life. The man even dug up a corpse to turn into a stew and trick good people into eating while drunkenly chanting ORCUS, ORCUS not knowing what it meant...to get Orcus to sell out his own cult a bit, it was worth it to see those people's faces. You see the point there? he didn't go around doing bunch of crazy stuff for no reason. He just had no boundries on what he'd do to get his job done. He didn't really care about good, He was selfish and self-serving and if you crossed him he'd fucking EAT you and mix the scraps into sausage...but he cared about a few people, and he cared about the natural order, and he'd die in a heartbeat over it. he'd send the monk into a rage because he resorted to torture for the info the party needed, because dammit he CARED about Wilmont and didn't want his honor tarnished from a failed mission. play a character, with reasoning and feelings and bonds, and it won't matter the alignment. it'll jsut be fun, and that's what we want in the end.
There's an important tip I can give where you can still be a 'good' person. But fall under the Evil alignment. Meaning you GENUINELY believe you are doing good. But its a twisted take. A classic example of this would be Strong rule the weak. Or Lawful Evil. Wherein they believe they are keeping order or whatever, but its a twisted take.
I have a Chaotic Evil character that's a kindly old man. It isn't just a pretense, either- he cares for people. However, his goal is to completely dismantle all afterlives, including the good ones (also including the gods), because he doesn't like how mortal souls are handled and judged, or how good and evil are determined by that system- and he's very willing to kill if it helps him achieve these goals. He *does* care for those around him, he has empathy, but his ultimate goal takes priority.
He's basically a knockoff cleric in Pathfinder, and he fulfills the role of one- smiting demons, healing his party- but he will not hunt undead, even if they show "evil" behaviours, unless they go against him. He views them similarly to himself- comrades in a rebellion against the gods' order of the universe. Certainly Chaotic Evil, one with goals that would have terrible consequences if achieved, and willing to kill to achieve them- but at the same time, he is still a kindly old man that will make someone a bowl of warm chicken soup if they're under the weather.
Best way I found playing an Evil Character is to have some redeeming qualities. Be charismatic, funny, make the party laugh, do some charity, be nice and polite to people. The most successful villians in history were the ones who always put up a good face. Have your ulterior motives, but keep them hidden.
+Luke Carrol *She* already has. The party hit third level after Trostenwald. But it was a great set up for the archetype, with Nott dropping comments about Caleb teaching her stuff into conversation.
One of my favorite characters I ever played was Lawful Evil. He was a warlock of the Old Ones and he became that way via PTSD in war. He would make the party question their morals when he used telepathy to convince a necromancer to surrender, claiming he would get him out of prison so he would owe him. The party was hurt bad by this necro but we were sent to bring him to justice. So I told them if they kill him they will be murderers since he surrendered. We debated for 20 minute until the druid just said I can't allow him to live he is an abomination. So I told the law in town when we returned that they killed him after he surrendered. The DM didn't punish them but my character would remind them at every opportunity they committed an evil act.
I’ve wanted to do an evil character based on that one episode of Firefly where everyone thinks Jayne is a hero. I was thinking a Drow Wizard where the official story was that he came to the surface with a raiding party but when he saw the villagers he realized everything he had been told about the surface world was a lie and he heroically sided with the villagers against his fellow Drow. The unofficial story is that his fellow Drow double crossed him an thought the surface raid would be a perfect opportunity to get rid of a troublesome Wizard and he only sided with the villagers to save his skin. He’s an evil character who has to pretend to be a good guy.
Gregory Floriolli moral conflict is a awesome RP thing if check out the Drow society stuff will give your Drow Wizard more in-depth inner conflict cause in Drow society is all about taking what you want IF you can and all other races are either fools, Slaves or sacrifices to Lolth🕷🕸🕸🕷
Rick Sanchez is my favorite example of chaotic evil. He doesn’t care about making an entire pocket universe of slaves serve him to power his spaceship. He has no regrets about killing thousands, perhaps millions, of people across the multiverse. He has a few people he cares about but it’s a very toxic relationship and he tears his family apart.
I played a sorcerer a couple months ago, I didn't think he was a sociopath, good friends with the party joked around... but the npcs... early in the game my dm thought it would be funny to make a potion in a shop that attracted beholders. Later on in the campaign there was a beholder lair that we didn't NEED to get into, there was a shopkeep that I was blackmailing anyway so in the middle of the night I broke into his house told him that if he didn't leave town in the next hour I'd let his secret out. As he rode off I made him drink my potion. The next morning I told my party that we should go to the beholder lair, are you crazy?? They said I told them just trust me. Basically I was evil in the sense that I had no moral conscience as long as I was helping the group.
One of my characters became evil because he died like 56 times and every time was revived in a matter on minutes and later became obsessed with not dying and eventually became a lich after the gm took control of him
Playing as an NE wizard, i have found that the best way to make it more acceptable as an evil player to help your party, is to remember that you are weak on your own. You are helping them in order to help yourself. No other reason than that. If the party goes down you can be considered weak. Now if you for instance see a trap. You may warn the party because YOU do not want it damaging you if its aoe. Other than that, if they do die, loot them. Or raise their body as the undead etc.
You can successfully play a chaotic evil character in a group and be a benefit to the plot and the party. There are hundreds of ways to connect even the most gleefully monstrous of characters to a party. They can view the party as pets (they get so adorably grumpy when you call them pets), tools, be the morbidly funny party cook (I still can't believe nobody ever asked how I always had fresh meat on hand all through an adventure), or even be lovers (no gift is more romantic than a leather dress made from the tanned skins of all who have ever wronged you). You don't have to be the hooded rogue working their whetstone and muttering about when you'll betray them. My favorite character currently is hard CE (I play CE a lot. Dnd is great catharsis.), for whom visceral evil acts feel really really good, and tends to lose herself in a manic psychotic fit. However she's self aware she's a fucking psycho, and actually adventures with the party as a strange sort of karmic repayal... Except her depraved nature comes out constantly, doing good acts in such vile and damnable ways that it completely negates even the most morally justifiable of killings. And she's been slowly dragging the party alignment down the longer they can still morally justify staying with essentially a straight from the abyss demon who essentially negates or worse every good thing they've done, because we're extremely successful together and have a lot of fun as we go. It's slowly gotten far enough that when they caught me having a little after battle snack, they simply pretended not to notice. And because I'm such a nice little psycho, I even paid for the Paladin's atonement. CE characters can actually be fun for the party and good for the plot of you try to make them real.
I think the easiest way to play evil is to play regular, old-fashioned D&D: be greedy for stealing treasure, killing enemies, etc. So many so-called good parties end up being a gang of murder hobos anyway. They get away with it by being "heroes."
Spot on! I currently play a lawful evil goliath paladin of conquest. He is a noble knight who's traveled to a foreign land, seeking to capitalize on the lack of infrastructure and rich local resources, while earning the favor of the people. The party thinks im the standard LG paladin. Aligned goals are super important. Communication with the dm is super important. Being sneaky about being evil is super important.
If you want to read an awesome book series that highlights a good and evil character not only adventuring together well, but becoming friends, check out The Coldfire Trilogy by C.S. Friedman. Not only are the characters amazing, but I would burn a halfling orphanage to run a game in this world.
Check out MArk Lawrences 'Prince of Thorns' and it's sequels, as well, he writes brilliant characters who are interestingly evil as sin, but happen to be saving the world.
All that's really important is remembering that they're still a rational, reasonable person with their own motivations, goals, and emotions. They can love, they can hate, they can do everything in between. The difference is simply, selfishness vs. selflessness. If they could choose to save an entire city of people or just their loved ones, it would be a non-choice for them, they would save the people they care about. However, they can still act in any way they see fit to pursue those goals, protect those bonds. Treating evil characters as people, not cartoon villains, is all you need.
One of my favorite npc's I run is a lawful evil Drow Mistress of the Thieves' Guild in Greyhawk. She protects the city and the helps the party voraciously, because she sees the River Quarter she oversees as her personal spider's web - most often aligning herself with good-aligned PC's and NPC's for mutual benefit... but she also always takes her cut in the process. One of my pc's, a young teifling rogue has been learning at her feet and it is glorious. The sweet part is that they don't need to hide that they are evil - and they don't - because each side proves useful to the other. Good and evil character can have similar goals, though the reasonings may often be very very different. Think of Good and Evil as extremes of Selfless / Selfish.
I know a guy who threw a Molotov cocktail at a family in order to make it easier to escape a town that was being attacked. He's always doing things like that with 0 consequences, and it got to the point where my neutral good dwarf fighter had to threaten to split his head in two with my axe if he didn't cut it out. He's not even evil just uses being "neutral" to do whatever he wants.
roughly description: Good: would maybe sacrifice him/herself to help/save others and generally wants to act against misery. Would never sacrifice others to save themself. Neutral: wouldn't sacrifice him/herself (unless very good reason). Doesn't like to see misery but probably won't do anything against it. Normally wouldn't sacrifice others to save themself unless there is a very good or maybe pragamatic reason to do so. Evil: wouldn't sacrifice him/herself. Doesn't care that much about seeing misery, might even bring misery if it benefits the character. Would sacrifice others to further ones' goal. -> Your guy is described evil and not neutral.
The DM should take his character sheet and change that "Neutral" to "Evil". A Neutral character might very well _abandon_ a family he'she had no connection to in order to save themselves or people they actually cared about. Setting a family on fire as a distraction is an evil act.
franzlimit I did argue that what he did was a pretty evil act but his excuse was that he is a cleric of Poseidon and he flipped a coin before hand, arguing that it was not him but Poseidon that sealed their fate. I think it was a cop out but I just left it alone since this is my first dungeons and dragons game and he's been playing for years and it was actually his brother that invited me into their group, didn't really want to ruffle any feathers.
I’m currently having a blast playing my first evil character. We’re using the Broken Worlds rpg where I play a devil (which by their nature don’t form bonds and are... well, evil) To make this work I toned down her “evilness” to a more devil-on-the-shoulder type where she suggests stealing/killing/abandoning NPCs to save money, time, and effort. She also is an asshole but it’s only though words. She’ll be haughty and arrogant but will provide supplies to the party and her actions show that she has the party’s back. The funniest moment we had was when we were facing the boss villain of the session and he offered us double the pay to switch sides. As everyone gets into their battle stances my character perks up at the mention of money: “Now hold on, did you just say DOUBLE?” “You can loot from him after we kill him!” “... Fine.” And the fight ensues. She is certainly evil, but often finds herself out-voted by the party and follows along with their “arbitrary rules” because she knows that she won’t accomplish nearly enough on her own. She needs them and so she’ll help them as often as she can... doesn’t mean she’ll be nice about it.
I had character a while back that progressed from evil to neautral good. It was a half orc barbarian. Raised by orcs, sent it in the wild to prove himself. Very much the monster at first but eventually did bond with the other characters and began helping people. Eventually we made the change to ng and in the end when took the wild land and made a kindom he was probably closer to lawful good.
I've managed to play a couple actually. My favorite was the ranger who would do anything to kill orcs. A scourge to be wiped out as far as he's concerned, and he has done a lot of dark things to follow through in slaughtering them all. He stalked an entire village in the deep woods for half a year, killing them off and leaving the corpses hanging from trees where he killed them. He poisoned all the nearby water sources, forcing the village to move constantly to find fresh water, and drove all the game away or slaughtered it and spoiled the meats to poison the weak ones ( mostly the children)... He has also let small bands of orc raid and pillage while he was tracking them so he could be sure to find the tribe they came from when they finally returned to it. He also nearly died at one point, swarmed by orc in a trap reversed on him, before calling out and making a deal with some dark force of nature to keep him alive so he could continue killing orc. Came back as a revenant ranger/Warlock whose goal is genocide of the orcish races who serves the Lord of the hunt, a dark godlike fey being.
I actually came up with a slightly different system when it comes to alignments when I used to DM (my current DM doesn't really do alignments. he wants you to just play your character, rather than be forced to stay within a particular cage of an alignment). In my games I describe alignments not as Good or Evil, but as Compassionate and Selfish, with Lawful being "You follow the rules" and Chaotic being "You follow your whims". A Lawful Evil character is a selfish character that plays within the boundaries of the rules of society to get the most for himself, and disregard everyone else. If other people will benefit alongside you, bonus. If people are going to suffer because of your choices, oh well. The Evil or Good is just a descriptor of how much other people and society in general do you care about? If you only care about yourself and those close to you and/or those who can influence your life, you're Evil. If you care about the people you know, but don't really put much thought into people outside your circle, you're neutral. If you care about people in general and are likely to help the random stranger, or do a good deed just because then you are Good. Then the Lawful and Chaotic is just a degree to which you care what the rules/laws/customs/traditions of society say. So a Lawful person who wants to search a persons house will seek to involve the local law enforcement, obtain a warrant if necessary, and then go in to search. A Chaotic person will break in and search the house stealthily, and get the evidence necessary that way. If someone steals from you a Lawful person will seek legal recompense, involving the city guard and the courts, while a Chaotic person would sneak up to the thief and steal your own stuff back... and likely anything else the guy is carrying. That's how I look at it anyway.
Starting an evil character in a group that has never had an evil character before. I've played evil before, but I really want to deliver a memorable character in this campaign, so I've been doing research. Your tips definitely helped guys! Thanks!
Currently playing a Lawful Evil fire Genasi in a military order (Order of the Gauntlet changed). He is a Corporal that came to Chult to find his missing squad. Another player in the game is playing my Sergeant, and I respect them. I play as a protector of the group, their survival means my survival. Overall, another player was a 9 year old who ended up with a triceratops mount, and would be really cocky up there, but on foot was very shy. My character Corporal Redbloom would often get in conflicts with Z'haulto, the 9 year old, but in my eyes, children cannot defend themselves. At every moment, Redbloom would counterspell any spell cast at Z'haulto, would cast Protection from Evil and Good on the kid, and more. Everywhere Z'haulto was, Redbloom was there too. Now Redbloom only respected those that showed their martial prowess. The druid for instance, would not wild shape and get the party in trouble, so he disrespected them. But once someone started troubling the kid Z'haulto, Corporal Redbloom was there, sword drawn.
I once analyzed and broke down the alignment system into its basic six components just to help people understand that it should be used as a role-playing aid, not the hard and fast "instant character" many people seem to take it to be. Alignment "Evil" and the cultural definition of "evil" are two separate concepts where "Evil" can essentially be replaced with "Selfish" whereas "evil" is more along the lines of villain material. To that same extant, alignment "Good" is worrying about others more than yourself and cultural "good" is more heroic material. Playing an Evil hero or meeting a Good villain are very plausible things. Rocket Raccoon, from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, is an Evil hero. Beldinas Pilofiro, the last Kingpriest of Istar in Dragonlance, was very much a Good villain.
In one of my current games I am playing a Paladin of Conquest(Tiamat)/Blade pact Warlock(Fiend), and we discovered a ritual book of Halaster's. Since I can't read it being of average intelligence, I took it to the party wizard who loves reading about the arcane and through roleplaying got him to agree to help me with a ritual to grow dragon wings(and maybe summon demons). This would all be fine if it weren't for the do good sorcerer who keeps trying to stop us, so I have to constantly be thinking about opportunities to study with the wizard in private, such as instead of lay on handsing her after a fight, stabilizing her and using that 8 hours to get some reading in.
I made a LE Fiend Warlock of Levistus. A stealthy type, skills and invocations suited for the spy background. Always honors a contract unless he's offered a better one, does the right thing for all the wrong reasons: saves the girl from the runaway cart to extort the father, performs tasks in exchange for favors, etc. Obeys Levistus without question. He seeks dominion over Stygia. Whether he assists in raising Levistus' station or usurping him ultimately matters not.
I wanna play a character who's secretly a serial killer. I would play it where he's a nice guy, he gets along well with his party and all that. But he occasionally gets gripped my a murderous desire and kills someone, (usually trying to keep this to people he deems bad people) and then he feels really bad about it afterwards.
The most important question to ask is why you became evil to begin with. Maybe you were hurt by others, and are now out for revenge (possibly against the whole world). Maybe you saw that being lenient led to bigger problems, and that talk is cheap. Maybe no one ever helped you when you were down, and you have now internalized that attitude toward everyone else. Evil can also easily be situational, and come out when you are triggered, or when you think you have the opportunity to get away with it.
Right. That's actually the default setting for those who want to play evil characters. But for them, there is this video, which justifiably points out that those types of characters tend to destroy gaming groups and campaigns..
Base it on the novel Villains by Necessity by Eve Foreward, it is a story of neutral and evil characters that have to save the world from its slide into oblivion because good won and knocked the world off balance! The spy for "good" even asks them why they work together even though they should destroy each other, and it was because they wanted to live their lives their way and teaming up was the only way to do that!
I had fun with alignment. Largely because I had "High magic" settings, which necessitated lawful good people to conduct high level purchases and sales, even commissions. Detect magic is a centrip, detect good/law whatever is 1st level and when you are changing over a hundred thousand gold pieces worth of magic items between two parties who hate each other. It only made sense to me...as did Dragon and Djinn banks. It almost never mattered. Until we got to meet an envoy and I'd go over the notes from the last bunch of games, as the envoy (usually a Solar, Lantern Archon or sometimes various devils and Illythid) who could and did read their minds. To see who they are trading these sums with.
I once played an Abyssal among Solars in Exalted. Genuinely evil, his words were powerful enough that those who do not heed them would bleed out and die. But he was the moral voice of the party, preventing others from needlessly killing and desecrating bodies. He drove the players to save a group of people, despite the fact that saving those people is ultimately what got him killed (That and having an airship dropped on him). Every step of the way he relied on them for his safety, because he was physically weak. When playing evil I find being physically weak is important to getting the team to work with you, if they think that at any time they could just snap you in half, they wont feel very threatened despite the fact that the whole game you are slowly draining their souls or turning them into servants. Vampire game I was playing in I was the Prince and I consistently did the worst thing possible. I was Ventrue and my ST let me take Deva powers so my character came into power because people couldn't not look at him and he used that fact a lot. When dealing punishment they were dealt on a Vampire scale (500 lashes, not being able to feed for several days, days of servitude to the court where humiliation was enforced). He was not exactly Vampire evil (Didn't kill, didn't diablerize) but was still twisted, and ignored the Three Laws. I got to watch his full arc play out as my two companion players went from fully supporting me, to doubting me, to spread dissent, to plotting against me, and finally killing me. THAT IS A SUCCESSFUL EVIL CHARACTER.
Mathew Coville talked about the anti-hero or the anti-villain. Be an evil character who was forced by circumstance to be evil... such as having a family member held for ransom. Conversely, be an evil character who’s forced to act good because you’re forced to by some backstory event. It’s a very easy way to play an evil character. It’ll fit into long term campaigns.
Evil characters are great if played well but also the DM has often more work if someone wants to play an evil character. Really easy to play evil characters are those you also mentioned, those who have a bond to the party (or at least one of them): For example the lawfull evil character's life was saved by another party member and his/her honour now demands obedience to this party member until he/she is released from this duty. -> mostly just for lawfull evil Another classic is that you are just the brother/sister/father/mother/cousin/whatever of another character and you mostly do evil because you just do everything for this single person. (heavy emotinal attachments to certain things are generally a great tool to make evil characters realistic and more sympathetic) -> works for all types of evil (even a chaotic evil character might sacrifice him/herself for 1 character in the world while the very same character might torture everyone else just for fun) Another good possibility to play evil characters which is a bit more work for the DM is just a common goal: A big threats might also be threats for the evil characters: They might lose their wealth/kingdom if they don't help the party. The evil character might need the good reputation to be more effective in his/her evil doing. This might even go that far that this character behaves like a perfect good person inside the party without intentions of direct betrayal. You could play your evil deeds off session while talking with the dm or/and maybe trying to convince the party to take morally wrong decissions/decissions which benefit your end goal. -> This is especially fitting for true evil characters but you can also build lawfull evil characters around this. The most important rules for playing evil is: Don't create characters which really intend to betray the party. (it is okay that your character plans to betray the party but you really have to find excuses to not do so, otherwise this character is just annoying for everyone) Don't just burn and kill everyone you can burn and kill. A character who would poison the well of the village for the "lol's" wouldn't even reach adulthood in such a world -> make the killing a bit more reasonable if you are a killer. Evil characters can still have principles or they might kill for money/might but usually not because it was just fun.
My favorite alignment is CN because your character is basically a wild card but you get to do good and evil so as to not necessarily damage the character’s image in the party
i heard somewhere that a lawful evil character is often easier to deal with in a party than a chaotic good. because you generally know would they would do in a situation
Lawful evil in a nutshell: Im kinda in the background not doing too much, then one day a coup is done on the king and now im the new leader, all bow down before my iron rule and awesome power.(BTW I've been setting the coup up for that whole time).
Without more informations this sounds more like neutral-evil since a lawfull character wouldn't just start a rebellion without having a legitimate reason. But of course a character's alignment might change because of circumstances: the neutral-evil character might become lawfull evil after being crowned a king. (The chaotic-good character probably becomes neutral or even lawfull good after defeating the evil tyrant and establishing a good kingdom..)
Others have mentioned this, I think the best "evil" for a party is Lawful Evil. I've played Evil characters before - because of their background they felt like they could trust very few people, so finding someone whose word could be trusted was very valuable - and they stuck with the party because they found a couple of those people. Buuuut... felt no compunction about just taking things, or killing or torturing enemies, or twisting rules and laws to their own benefit. And they were a tiefling, so they also felt like and eventually would revel to some degree in the reputation of a tiefling. All that can work within the party.
Played a few notable "Evil" characters in the past, one thief, one cleric. It's never how evil you are (within reason) it's how you go about your evil and what it brings to the group. Evil isn't difficult if you're an okay table top role player. As you guys state have connections, have attachments, that's something an evil person would have. Without reason evil isn't really evil its just abstract violence with no intent, chaos.
Thinking of playing a neutral/evil character who is a shadarkai swashbuckler who takes the soldier background. His backstory is that he was a soldier of the Shadowfell or a necromancer or something and has regrets, but is so desensitized to killing and crime that he doesnt care that much. Could definitely be redeemed. Etc.
I played a cleric assassin of Anubis. He was the only cleric in the party. He never assassinated anyone when the party could know about it or see it. His killing was dedicated to his god. and was ritualistic. He did accidently get the party leader wanted for one of his killings, but he did not plan that. He was lawful evil, and did help the party.
This one's proving pretty useful. Currently playing an evil wizard who's trying to conceal her powers and intentions. She's part of a witch coven that wants to take over the world to usher in what they think would be a golden age, and is personally sworn to a lich. But to reduce any suspicion she's taken up the role as midwife and camp follower. She's not going to openly show off her magic. The only spell the npc's and the other player's characters think she may have is heal, because as a midwife she has that (dm's insistence) and the fact that she healed an NPC right in front of them. And she's already began brainwashing an NPC. While she was healing the NPC she casted an enchantment spell to make him addicted to her. All the while the party thinks she's a demure camp follower
Goblin, orc, some other off brand humanoid chef. Host dinner parties, that you actually use to secretly test new dishes composed of mysterious meats. Such as children... it's all to further your cooking skills!
I've gamed under DMs that used to flat-out say 'no evil characters' and I changed their mind by playing a GOOD character that just happened to be evil. It's a matter of a good PLAYER versus a good or evil CHARACTER.
My favorite evil I played a CE Magus in Pathfinder. He was Chaotic because he valued freedom over laws and order. Random choice over expectation. Evil because he had ZERO empathy, everyone was a tool to be of use then discarded when no longer of value. Best part was that the Paladin suspected nothing.
I played a lawful evil character in a party of mainly neutral and good characters. They butted heads a lot over HOW to do things, but they agreed on WHAT they wanted to happen, so while there were a lot of scuffles initially, they wouldn't purposefully hinder one another. They'd work to get the job done. A dysfunctional family almost. That was until the party's behaviour towards them took a bit of a downward spiral (partly the character's fault too, they had an abrasive personality) and when the BBEG rocked up offering the lawful evil character something more 'secure', my LE character naturally went for it. But we saw the 'twist' coming from a long way off and my character's nature and possible conflict with the other party members was something was regularly discussed.
It is a bit late, but I am watching this video because I am building my first evil character who will be actually played. This story will be set on Forgotten Realms, probably around Phlan. My character belongs to an ancient noble family whose titles and lands were lost after his father started a conflict against some ruler of the region (and lost), being executed on the process (the DM is working on this part of the story). My character and his bastard, older sister (also a member of the party and played by another person on the group) would be executed too, but for some reason, the Church of Bane intervened and "claimed" both youths into the faith's service (we don't know why). This way, my character became a Cleric of Bane, his sister a Paladin in the service of the temple. My character was young when entered in the faith, so he was well indoctrinated, becoming Lawful Evil. His sister, already a bit older and more sure of herself, was grateful for what the church had done, but stayed more open and flexible (True Neutral). We don't know how the other players in the group will play, but we two are planning some things to make feasible for us to stay in the party. Here are some of our ideas so far: - We care deeply for each other, and for family. When the other party members gain our trust (if they can do it), we will treat them as family; - If the rest o the group is generally "good", we will try to show them their ways are pretty, but ineffective in the long run - we will try to "corrupt" them by subtly lecturing them about it "just like a parent would do with a child"; - We will keep our word to the very bitter end, even if we discover we were played or betrayed. After fulfilling our end on what was agreed, we will seek retribution if it is the case, but we won't break our word; - We do not terror innocent civilians and do not use violence against them unless it is extremely necessary. However, we will make gruesome displays of power, like burning criminals alive; - One of our objectives is to exact revenge upon the one who had killed our father and "stole" our titles; - However, we are loyal to the Church of Bane because of what it had done to us, and would follow its lead. Since the Church is trying to bring law and order to the region, it will probably be against our war move; - Our second great objective, if this campaign goes on, would be to gather magical power and follow the steps of Lord Bane and ascend to godhood. - Possible reasons to work with good characters will be opportunity, necessity, or common goal. Maybe, if the other characters "become family", because of duty to family. For now, the DM is enjoying the idea, and we are trying make characters which would be "honorable, but evil". I don't know if this will play out good, but we will try... hehehehe Thanks for the video, by the way! It confirmed a lot of thoughts I had about building this character. -
I think this is the piece I've need missing for my chaotic evil cleric of hastur. I didnt flesh our his goal finely enough. His goal was to establish a new carcosa, but that's pretty long term. But if I make his goal to gather funds and popularity to establish a temple to his God, then that might give him a good enough reason to hide his sinister qualities.
I ran a campaign where everyone played evil. It was fun mostly they worked together, but a few used the others to get what they want. It was a fun campaign but it was great cause the group I played with never took things "out of game". to me, an evil campaign needs to be well thought out. just doing random evil things would end up quickly getting hunted down by good people.
Evil does not mean stupid, In fact it often means a certian level of cunning and an ability to see from all sides, An evil character often has a drive that goes above and beyond that of everyone around them they're the kind to fight tooth and nail to bring about the world they see, Setbacks and changes of plan are not reason to kill everything but rather ways to add more power to yourself.
EXACTLY! You get it, for evil characters it's about the ends, the drive... less attention to the means. I have a Chaotic Evil character that's a kindly old man. It isn't just a pretense, either- he cares for people. However, his goal is to completely dismantle all afterlives, including the good ones (also including the gods), because he doesn't like how mortal souls are handled and judged, or how good and evil are determined by that system- and he's very willing to kill if it helps him achieve these goals. He *does* care for those around him, he has empathy, but his ultimate goal takes priority. He's basically a knockoff cleric in Pathfinder, and he fulfills the role of one- smiting demons, healing his party- but he will not hunt undead, even if they show "evil" behaviours, unless they go against him. He views them similarly to himself- comrades in a rebellion against the gods' order of the universe. Certainly Chaotic Evil, one with goals that would have terrible consequences if achieved, and willing to kill to achieve them- but at the same time, he is still a kindly old man that will make someone a bowl of warm chicken soup if they're under the weather.
The majority of my characters are "evil". Very rarely does anyone know. Within the first couple sessions I set a long turn goal. I then VERY slowly work my way in the direction of that goal. Honestly, I have never had a character meet this goal. They almost always die in the pursuit. Great fun.
Playing the evil alignments in a good or neutral party is simple as long as the player does it smart. First they have to fully go along with the ground rule that you don't screw the rest of the party for no reason other than "I'm just playing my alignment." You don't act out in demonstrably evil ways against the party at the drop of a hat because you know you can only pull that trigger once, but you can easily get in some evil on pointless npc's behind the other PC's backs. With that in mind you have to pick a type of evil you're going for that stems from an alignment or archetype. Being evil means you're always looking out for your own interests first. You're not working with the party "out of the goodness of your own heart." You're getting something from them. If you're LE then you see the party as your minions. They are there for your glory and to serve your needs. The fact that they don't know you're evil just makes your mastery over them all the sweeter. Any "Scheming Vizier" character from any story is a good example. You're Jafar from Aladdin before he turned on the Sultan. You've assembled a team of imbeciles who guard you as they would a brother in arms and use them to work your will on the world. NE is a bit more nebulous as to why you hold back from betraying your party. As a NE character with no strong principles to hold to and no innate desire for mayhem, you're just out for yourself. That being said, your selfish goals and the good goals of the party might easily fall in line. You want to take out a rival thieves guild leader? get yourself a Paladin rube and his local militia buddies to help "bring justice to the downtrodden!" Or whatever the motivation was behind Morrigan from the Dragon Age games. She was definitely NE, and yet she traveled extensively with non evil characters. Chaotic Evil is easy if most of the players and the DM aren't idiots who subscribe to the idea that CN and CE can only be "Whatevar! I do what I want!" CE means you are only motivated by what benefits you or gets you off and you have no qualms about how you get what you want. The Joker isn't CE because he believes in maiming and murdering the people of Gotham. He's CE because death and destruction are what gets his dick hard and he has no moral guidelines that keep him from doing whatever he wants to get off. Yet in all that chaos the Joker will never outright kill Batman, because then he wouldn't have anyone to play with. Even the most insane CE character still refrains from breaking his own toys. And that's is what the other PC's are to your CE psychopath. His favorite toys. If you want to play a character that maims and kills everyone in sight for no reason other than it gets his dick hard then play a LG Paladin that believes beyond any doubt that certain races are inherently evil and need to be "cleansed" from the world. Then set the campaign in the underdark. If you want to play the Joker's flavor of CE that probably won't work in a good/neutral party. Your best bet is to model your CE character after either Deadpool or Rick Sanchez from Rick and Morty. Two selfish, destructive, and morally devoid characters that don't kill every single npc in sight. They have no real use for most people in their worlds and have no issues with killing large numbers of people at the drop of a hat, but they don't just go on killing sprees every day because they know there's no point in that.
Nerdarchy please help me. Me and my friend recently went to an adventurers league event at my local gaming store and we got stuck with "that group" where the dm was running out of the abyss and it really wasn't a good experience while all the other groups (running tomb of annihilation) looked like they were having a lot of fun. I feel they put us with that group because of either me and my friends age because we're younger or because they have established groups and don't want to add more people. Or maybe both. What should I do? Should I keep going and maybe eventually get put in a better group or decide adventurers league isn't for me? (This is the second store in the past year where this has happened)
Why did you have a bad time? You are allready 2 people, maybe you can find 1-2 more friends and start playing your own game? If one of you takes the role of dm you can change things which you didn't like. Just don't be afraid trying it; there isn't much to lose but a lot of fun and even self-esteem to gain while dm-ing.
Imagine Electra from Jean Giraudoux's "Electra". The epitome of "Justice will be done though the heavens fall". She's right in seeking retribution but she cares not if the city gets destroyed following the guilty answering for their crimes in a fashion she personally sees fit. No need to be cartoonily evil or validate the "evil" part by "kicking the dog". It is enough play a character so zealous about a certain goals everything else goes under the bus.
I play Lawful Evil, Divine Soul Asimaar. Sweetest person around if you did not attack her or her friends she would be kind and open to talking. Defended a Cultist who surrendered but the moment he tried to stab my party member I cast a fireball in Melee and proceeded to mutilate the corpse putting his head on a spike. Ended when the party was disterbed when I used animate object on a metal net with daggers wrapping my characters Nemesis in a net of chainmail and had the daggers wrap and sink into his body then used heat metal on the chainmail. I had popped Aasimar wings and did this in the middle of a populated city. He had killed my characters mother and I fully embraced my Evil side. Loved the reaction of the party when I turned myself in and pleaded guilty. He killed my mother and so I killed him. I had 22 Charisma (DM gave us a book of Leadership) So I know I could of talked or casted my way out. Since my character was a noble I had diplomatic Immunity ontop of saving the Princess of this nation but party talked with me IC and out, feeling that It was time for my PC to head back home. Since I had just killed a Major player in the nation and so if I stuck around they would likely not help in the Assualt to take down the mad Wizard. I should note this was near the end of the Campaign so they were going in to fight the BBEGB with their support blaster leaving. I dual cast Life Ward on myself and Cleric and usually cast Greater Invis on myself and act like a Rouge caster. Picking people up with healing word or a Nuke heal on the Barb and Paladin. Felt bad not compleating the campaign with them but I got to be there to help them through their Character archs. Also got to come in as Her nations soldiers to help with the Assualt 25 knights and 5 Sorcerers coming out of no where to help take on the Adult black dragon and lock down the wizards escape. Got to have my character mounted on a far off hill watching the party. Their next campaing I hear is actually going to be taking on my characters nation so DM has asked that I come back for sessions with my PC. Her end goal complete and now the princess of her nation. So plenty of Evil to be had from a living Angel.
If I do get into the game, I'd like to play a "blood line" character who was infused with essence from a Shadow (Shadow Ranger) and is on a path of redemption from chaotic evil (in his blood) to neutral; however, he must fight against his bloodline.
In my current campaign, that I am a player in, my character is falling prey to the darkness of Barovia, and is seeing taking the throne as the only real way to find safety for him and his group. He views it as a window to create a peaceful setting, through total control. He began as a kind cleric, but as the campaign goes I'm chilling him and closing his views and cares to only his immediate group. He plans on eradicating his view of evil, through very extreme and absolute methods. Do you believe that is a fair approach to the development into the evil character?
It's rare that I find a DM who will let me play chaotic evil in a good/neutral game, but when I am able, I play the character kind of like Jayne Cobb. I'm interested in acquiring gold and power for myself and not much else, but at the same time, I realize that working with the party will make my goals easier, and screwing them over is generally a stupid thing to do. Sure, there are plenty of opportunities to screw them over, but usually the money isn't good enough. Although, eventually it will be, and that will be an interesting day.
My advice to playing an evil character in a good aligned party, play your character in a way that provides your companions an apparent avenue to redeem them. Doesn't have to be a real avenue, but Good characters love nothing more then a pet redemption project.
The thing is an evil character who has no surviving family and is utterly nihilistic actually has some great plot hooks right there. How did they lose their family? Is that what lead them to feel that morality and ethics are just fancy words and that power and strength are all that matters? The urchin background is ideal for a character who became rootless and alone. They're on the streets from an early age, they get victimised and used by everyone more powerful than them, they have to cross some serious moral boundaries to survive ... No one _starts off_ as a sociopath. As far as your character arc goes, either you're aiming for some kind of redemption for the character or you're aiming for a grand betrayal of the other PCs at some pivotal moment (after which, of course, your PC becomes an NPC). Dave's point towards the end is also something I agree with wholeheartedly. It is the _player's_ responsibility to create a PC who wants to adventure with the party and whom the other PC want to adventure with. You need to come up with a reason your PC is hanging out with the other PCs. Maybe it's purely utilitarian selfishness (good for setting up that sudden but inevitable betrayal when the chips are down). Maybe one of the other party members is the first person your PC has ever met who's not a complete bastard and they're just genuinely interested in finding out what _that's_ all about (good for setting up a redemption arc). You need to play your character in such a way that they are a net asset to the party (a point that holds true regardless of your alignment). Maybe your PC "goes too far sometimes" or is "a bit intense every now and then", but their skillset provides such an obvious advantage to the party that it allows the other PCs to plausibly tolerate them.
I like to make characters that challenge the norms of heroes, and evil characters are a wonderful example. I like to take characters with good qualities and give them hateful or taboo motivations, or sinister, game changing flaws that begin to play with that balance.
In the current campaign I'm playing in, I'm playing a cleric of Tiamat, set a couple of decades after the Rise of Tiamat campaign, who is, of course, evil. And the party and the villagers all know this from the get go, so she doesn't hide the fact that she's a follower of Tiamat. Yet, she's not going about town blackmailing or threatening people, but rather to their surprise, helping them, being nice and offering them help in exchange for simple 'favors' later on. What makes her evil, is that she's acting all good and nice, and acting like the clergy is regretful for what happened a few decades past and she is trying to prove that they would like to make amends. In reality, she's trying to win the common people over that she's a great person and that maybe Tiamat is worth following for such strength and success, in a bid to slowly recreate the cult of the dragon from the ground up. Rather than outright going into towns and declaring war, she's planting seeds of doubt to let them slowly bloom and fester to corrupt from within, for long term gain, over a short term victory.
oh i just made a lawful evil oathbreaker paladin (dm suggested oathbreaker instead of vengeance). so that's gonna be interesting. gonna play it more like a darth vader type, but with more evil shit like making a civilk war, then perhaps placing someone who works for me in the seat of power just to gain influence.
We once had a game where started on an island with no recolection how we got there, only character that had kind on an evil background was my bounty hunter/ hired assasssin, the rest were seemingly neutral, but over the course each of us had moments that slowly showed a darker side , like one of us while away from the party had killed a village, but not because he was evil but becouse he was under a curse that made him loose his mind at certain periods he didn't feel remorse for it at all, another was a warforged who lacked the concept of good and evil in the first place and another was a survivor of a terrible plague who was jaded but kind of good natured at heart, long story short first village we went to treated us like shit, with my character forming a grudge against one of them, we decided to do a quest for them to maybe improve our relationship, which turned out poorly in the end getting us imprisoned and the townsfolk thinking of us as traitors, later we stumbled upon a resistance that seemingly oposed the people of the island like the town that hated us only for us to be betrayed by them, when we went out to do a quest for them, to rescue a drow who explained later that they were not what they seem, fast forward later we are back at the town that treated us poorly and its being raided and slaughtered and we pretty much had the chance to join the raiders or be heroic and save the town.... that treated us like garbage so to no ones surprise we choose to join the raiders and burn the village down, oh the island also had another PC called CHAD THUNDERCOCK a roaming paladin that ended upon island after a wizard thrust him through a portal for having betrayed him. He randomly would join quests when there werent enough players for the main story , as a flashback or sidequest character that joined during times a pc had been away
Overtly chaotic evil characters can (rarely) be done well also. See Bishop from Neverwinter Nights 2, and Revy from the anime/manga Black Lagoon. Both of them are very obviously evil, but they're also capable of working with a group. Bishop is a self-centered, screw-the-world loner, but he believes in paying debts, and one such debt is used to strongarm him into joining the party. Revy is a nihilistic, gleeful mass-murderer, but she's loyal to her team for both practical and sentimental reasons, and is fully capable of restricting her murder to the group's enemies. Both are excellent examples of how even a chaotic evil character can fit into a group, provided the player actually gives them a reason.
This was very useful, thank you. I'm going to be playing a secretly evil aligned character in a team that are either chaotic good or chaotic neutral. Think I'm going to use their chaotic natures to my advantage Edit: oh yeah, the character is also going to be a child... I got the idea from the vampire girl in the dark brotherhood in skyrim
See this is funny, I play a chaotic evil character but it lead up to him being that way. But I multiclass from a barbarian to barbarian and warlock. But this were events that took place. As an evil, I'm not truly wise. The moments behind the scenes were with my Patron, the kraken. He stays on the down low for the most part but has anger issues and is an acoholic which I believe an addiction fits that character perfectly. An addiction, I realize, adds a slight distraction to the party and while doing evil behind closed doors and the alcohol is a cover up. He was troubled and what happened throighoit campaigns I have played, he was once a true neutral, to lawful evil, neutral evil, and now he is a chaotic evil. His hardships have lead him to be what he is now. Some suspect he is evil, but aren't sure.
I have had *many* evil characters/NPCs...some of which nobody ever knew were, or redeemed themselves, or were the *real* hero of the setting (though nobody knew it); saving the world no matter the cost and even with the world hating them for their actions.
In a a supers capmaign i was playing in my character started going darker letting the power go to his head. i was stealing the enemies items and feeling out my teamates. one of them figured out i was acting weird around session 6 and investigated me secretly for 4 more sessions until she had proof. i entered my secret lair and had to fight my team. it was epic i almost won and then got put into a coma. im DMing now and the previous DM is now a new character in my spot on the team.
Best evil character to play must have extremely high charisma such that his/her antics may not necessarily be perceived as purely evil since the population tends to give high charisma individuals more benefit of the doubt. Villain with great PR!
So, as we have probably all seen with things like the "Evil Overlord list", evil is often confused with stupid. So in my opinion, evil and good is determined partly by what a character wants but also how he is going to get it. Is a character willing to kill, steal and lie to get what he wants? If yes, one step closer to evil. Also, what DOES he want? I probably never spent enough time to consider "what does this (player-)character want in life?" A piece of land to settle down on with a family? All the gold and treasure he can get his hands on? A position of political power and influence to reshape the kingdom or even the world (by any means necessary)? Does the character love to be an adventurer or is it just a means to an end? Since others mention books and movies, my favorite villain up to this day has to be Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Oh god. I'm trying to play a LE Rogue and honestly I feel like I am playing wrong I'm Naturally somewhat nice but I wanted to try Evil. I Feel like he has ended up Neutral more than anything like a CN If it isn't already obvious I am Shit and still very new to the game. I didn't exactly play a cliche evil it was meant to be a more of a character that has lost his nobility in terms of status and wealth and is now going though the campaign to get back there via any means
I have an idea for playing a Lawful Evil run away princess. Greedy father wanted to marry her off for wealth, so he arranges a marriage. The guy is abusive towards her, but her father turns a blind eye. She escapes with the help of her brothers with the intention to return one day to ruin everything her father ever held dear. While that would make for a decent neutral character, what would put it over the edge is that her father wanted to prime her by having her learn to sing. Her revenge fantasy is that her song would bring down the barriers to the city, and be the final thing her father hears before his death.
I think evil can be all kinds of things. At its heart it's lack of apathy for others rather simply. You can go about that in so many ways but I think the main thing is that you're not just a ridiculous lunatic. Have a reason and method can help.
One way of making your evil character work with the party is to make them a little genre-savvy. Plays & theater productions from troupes are usually popular in D&D settings & your character has probably, if not seen a play, at least heard the synopsis of a few or read a fictional book. Power hungry evil? Famous adventuring parties often become highly tied into international politics and global game changers. Even a chaotic evil murder hobo can have enough intelligence to realise that being an international hero comes with some BIG legal lee-way in most D&D style settings. An evil character who wants to gather power to become a ruler or supreme ruler or whatever has a much better chance of meeting the kinds of beings who can give them that power if they travel with an adventuring party. Bob Smith the local cackling nutter doesn't usually go to the Abyssal Plains to chit chat with Asmodeus but Bobus Smithus, member of Brave Adventure Group #3672 is probably going to trip over half a dozen evil gods on their way to breakfast by level 17.
for me Evil has many degrees: From the Crazy maniacal killer to the serial killer to the Kick the Dog BULLY! Evil to me, playing and evil character, s/he is someone that Thinks of only himself. Friends are to pass the time in an otherwise dull day, people to bolster his weak ppoints and to help them out it is a pragmatic approach. (They will help me 10 times more than me so this is a good investment) Helping people out is for Gain and/or future obligations
you could be a Chaotic Evil character and save the world just like if you were a Paladin... You don't care about Good and Law... but following it is most of the time simpler and doesn't get you into trouble (you still hate law that aim at controling you... but follow them because you don't have reasons not to... yet). You can help save the good guys, protect peeps or whatever BUT not because you think it's right... but because you like the rewards that it brings, be it fame, glory, gold, power or anything else (even fun)... it brings you like people cheering at you when you pas because you! Alway and EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU! Your alignment NEVER dictates how you ACT... it dictates how you THINK. BIG DIFFERENCE.
My Evil PCs are just as murderhoboy as your standard “good” dnd PCs it’s just that they are honest about how much they enjoy taking lives for gold. Many good PCs will kill bandits (blood money) or genocide an entire clan of goblins without much issue, again my PC is just honest with themselves about what they are doing. Also my Dragonborn live Cleric really loves the elderly and children and will absolutely torture-murder people he find who harm them, I think a big part about evil is intent and personal reflection as much as the actions your PCs take.
You make a good point that, given the standard MO of the average party is "kill things and take their shit", an evil character can go undetected for a long time.
I heard a story of a guy playing chaotic evil who would pretend to be good or neutral and would lead his other players to do bad things or would do horrible things when the other Players weren't around
I've always stuck by the rule of when you play evil you only do it to NPC's. One of the hundreds of characters that a DM is controlling is not going to have an impact as, and I've seen this first hand, the rogue who gets bored and decides to pickpocket another party member. Another thing about having an evil party member, for those not playing the evil guy, is don't just kill them the moment you stumble across their diary detailing how they want ultimate power. Work with that player, they made an evil character, and as long as they haven't been doing anything to screw you up directly then killing them is just going to sour them and ruin the game.
Rule #1: Don't Split the Party. Even if that is by social means. Seriously though, treating alignment as how you interact with characters outside of the party goes a LONG way. If you absolutely must go with "so generically evil that I hate everything", treating the party as useful pieces to be fit into your plan (or short-term goals for the more Chaotic bent) can lead to some amazing sessions.
I’ve played evil characters and in fully evil parties. My evil parties were a million times tighter and more loyal to each other than our good parties.
My current evil party will end up running a large portion of the northern sword coast. Evil isn’t less heroic. Their heroism is just directed in different ways with different motivations
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Go Lawful Evil...Best way to play an evil player in a good party. I played an LE as a warlock and would often try to convince the party to not kill bad guys like a necromancer. The argument was that we are not the law here and need to bring them to the local constable. Being a warlock of the Old Ones I used telepathy to advise him to surrender so I could get them out of jail latter. And that person would owe me a favor. The party killed him anyway and I spent the rest of the campaign making them feel guilty calling them murderers since he surrendered.
Muhahahahaha
joesgotmore. Thats amazing
Pcs feeling guilty hahaha 😉
Euh i don t know why that is evil????
@@doctorgami4541 In the wat i see Evil in DnD is not about torturing someone but instead about do what can give you the most chance to achieve your goals, by paying the fine of the necromancer he nows have a debt to the player and thus can be coerced to do what he wants
playing evil rules
1) dont mess with the party
2) find a party member you are attached to
3) be realistic, doesn't matter what level you are, the town guard will out number you and will win
Lmao a level 20 could annihilate any number of guards as long as they're not a weak class
Yeah I'm pretty sure the townguard can't do shit against a 20th level wizard,druid,paladin or cleric for example. Since two of those could destroy entire armies.
The two rules of CE:
1) Win
2) Do what you want
This means you don't do retarded things like try to fight the city guard. Suicide isn't winning. Alienating the party also falls under this. Besides it feels good to be liked. Almost as good as stabbing someone to death, but not quite as good as smothering innocents.
Personally I like messing with the party when I play Evil, but it should be in good fun. It should be a narrative conflict that shouldn't result in PvP (unless absolutely necessary) or just general funsies. Lawful and Neutral Evil can criticize morals or lord over the players in a way that makes their differences clear without making it disruptive. Chaotic Evil makes a good trickster role who's an enigma, look to sources like Hisoka, the Joker, or Loki. Characters who can work with good guys but are hard to read, are like devils, and progress their plans on a very thinking level.
Also Evil can be an anti-hero rather than an outright villain. And Evil can always convert if it occurs as a natural transition. Villain PCs have a place but most parties don't want them. I find most parties will work with a well played anti-hero though.
Ehhh. A group of 5 level 6 adventurers could easily level a small village or town. City, no. But a group of 5 level 15+ with secret allies and nearly unlimited resources?
One thing I like to roleplay is the concept that power corrupts. It's easy spouting morality when your choices don't REALLY matter in the grand scheme. But power is hard to attain in real life. It hardens a person's heart. And it's much much easier to get MORE power if you compromise those morals when you already have some power. AND once you get power, the only thing that protects you is more power...
In my experience, the most important thing is that your evil character prioritizes the interests of the party. His relationship should be beneficial and well meaning for the party but toxic because of how far he'll go for them. For example, if you're playing an assassin, they could be willing to cross lines other players won't, like torturing reluctant informants to the brink of death or secretly getting revenge on anyone who slights the party. Above all, an evil character should cooperate with the party not sabotage it, even if his help isn't something the party would approve of or want.
This, a thousand times over. An evil party member is STILL a party member. These other people matter to him/her for whatever reason. Maybe they are family, or friends. Maybe he joined them for the adventure and the chance to engage in the less savoury sides of life.
Yes, you're evil. Which means you are selfish and self centered. Your actions are mostly about you, though your allies are close to you for a reason. You don't want to betray them, though you might if given sufficient benefit for doing so. After all, you ARE in it for yourself. If the benefit you get is more than your alliance is likely to give you, you might just turn on them. But that should be a pretty rare thing. Now, will the rest agree with your actions? Probably not. So the question should be how to get away with stuff behind your groups back, not "lets fuck with everyone cuz I'm a crazy face!"
Someone played a paladin but was secretly getting corrupted over time ( It was lord of the rings themed) Basically I despise PVP in Dnd in all fashions, it kills the fun of the game if it's not planned or we know. The DM forbidded PVP but low and behold the Paladin got the ring of power and attacked us, then someone else turned against the party and then they were leading orcs against me and 2 others.... I was pissed and in addition the DM gave the paladin a bunch of crazy items and skills ( Like causing a volanic eruption with his hammer, it counting armor as sunderable and being able to return to him like thor) His shield tanked a 2,500 mile per hour bolder hitting it, in addition to over 150 meteor swarms, in addition it also was stated to be unbreakable as long as the wielder lives. while I get a.... +1 Halberd with reach.... woo.
I gave up when they went PVP and the paladin got blackguard lvls to replace his paladin lvls and got to keep all the paladin features and went to evil, everyone was pissed at me because " Your character should fight to the end." Meanwhile I said fine, and cause he has the 1 fucking ring and all these other BS items and buffs and I'm a 5th lvl fighter with a +1 halberd, the Dm said I suck at fighter for losing!
Ahh that delicious slide into evil, one justification at a time. An unabashedly evil member in the party offers a whole slew of options they couldn't morally justify before now available to them as long as they don't ask and **never** open the door while you're working. And once they **need** you, they need evil. They'll keep justifying for you or pretending nothing is wrong as their moral boundaries steadily corrode and their alignment slips.
@@saradanhoff6539 Hey, someone's gotta take off the ears fingers n toes. Arson, lynching, robbing n sodomizing a local pimp or that fatass corrupt burgomeister, poison, crucifying them annoying goblins... it's all negotiable, or even a mere weekend.
Then you are not playing an evil character.
Favorite character I've ever played was CN boarding on CE. Brushfire druid. Don't get me wrong, this man was evil, he burnt forests...for the natural order, if he didn't kill that overgrowth now it'd kill the whole section of forest. He started full-on plagues!...but not for fun, he just hated how cities shunted the natural order, allowing all to survive and thrive with little to no struggle for thier life. The man even dug up a corpse to turn into a stew and trick good people into eating while drunkenly chanting ORCUS, ORCUS not knowing what it meant...to get Orcus to sell out his own cult a bit, it was worth it to see those people's faces.
You see the point there? he didn't go around doing bunch of crazy stuff for no reason. He just had no boundries on what he'd do to get his job done. He didn't really care about good, He was selfish and self-serving and if you crossed him he'd fucking EAT you and mix the scraps into sausage...but he cared about a few people, and he cared about the natural order, and he'd die in a heartbeat over it. he'd send the monk into a rage because he resorted to torture for the info the party needed, because dammit he CARED about Wilmont and didn't want his honor tarnished from a failed mission. play a character, with reasoning and feelings and bonds, and it won't matter the alignment. it'll jsut be fun, and that's what we want in the end.
There's an important tip I can give where you can still be a 'good' person. But fall under the Evil alignment. Meaning you GENUINELY believe you are doing good. But its a twisted take. A classic example of this would be Strong rule the weak. Or Lawful Evil. Wherein they believe they are keeping order or whatever, but its a twisted take.
Magneto!
Nerdarchist Dave
I have a Chaotic Evil character that's a kindly old man.
It isn't just a pretense, either- he cares for people.
However, his goal is to completely dismantle all afterlives, including the good ones (also including the gods), because he doesn't like how mortal souls are handled and judged, or how good and evil are determined by that system- and he's very willing to kill if it helps him achieve these goals. He *does* care for those around him, he has empathy, but his ultimate goal takes priority.
He's basically a knockoff cleric in Pathfinder, and he fulfills the role of one- smiting demons, healing his party- but he will not hunt undead, even if they show "evil" behaviours, unless they go against him.
He views them similarly to himself- comrades in a rebellion against the gods' order of the universe.
Certainly Chaotic Evil, one with goals that would have terrible consequences if achieved, and willing to kill to achieve them- but at the same time, he is still a kindly old man that will make someone a bowl of warm chicken soup if they're under the weather.
Some evil character who have fit in with good people (carefully) in various media: Dorian Gray, Dexter, Mr Hyde, Captain Barbosa.
Bad evil is when you play Grand Theft D&D
That's what I call it
Murder hobos...
Best way I found playing an Evil Character is to have some redeeming qualities. Be charismatic, funny, make the party laugh, do some charity, be nice and polite to people.
The most successful villians in history were the ones who always put up a good face. Have your ulterior motives, but keep them hidden.
Nott the Brave is a girl... a little goblin girl. ☺
Also, she's actually quite smart (INT 16).
Nick Williams i think he plans on going arcane trickster so needs the int
+Luke Carrol
*She* already has. The party hit third level after Trostenwald.
But it was a great set up for the archetype, with Nott dropping comments about Caleb teaching her stuff into conversation.
Nick Williams he* as in Sam roegal she mce he is the one planning it and seed to have seeded it.into his characters relationship with caleb
Lololol
One of my favorite characters I ever played was Lawful Evil. He was a warlock of the Old Ones and he became that way via PTSD in war. He would make the party question their morals when he used telepathy to convince a necromancer to surrender, claiming he would get him out of prison so he would owe him. The party was hurt bad by this necro but we were sent to bring him to justice. So I told them if they kill him they will be murderers since he surrendered. We debated for 20 minute until the druid just said I can't allow him to live he is an abomination. So I told the law in town when we returned that they killed him after he surrendered. The DM didn't punish them but my character would remind them at every opportunity they committed an evil act.
I’ve wanted to do an evil character based on that one episode of Firefly where everyone thinks Jayne is a hero. I was thinking a Drow Wizard where the official story was that he came to the surface with a raiding party but when he saw the villagers he realized everything he had been told about the surface world was a lie and he heroically sided with the villagers against his fellow Drow. The unofficial story is that his fellow Drow double crossed him an thought the surface raid would be a perfect opportunity to get rid of a troublesome Wizard and he only sided with the villagers to save his skin. He’s an evil character who has to pretend to be a good guy.
Gregory Floriolli
Jayne is at most Chaotic Neutral.
Gregory Floriolli moral conflict is a awesome RP thing if check out the Drow society stuff will give your Drow Wizard more in-depth inner conflict cause in Drow society is all about taking what you want IF you can and all other races are either fools, Slaves or sacrifices to Lolth🕷🕸🕸🕷
Rick Sanchez is my favorite example of chaotic evil. He doesn’t care about making an entire pocket universe of slaves serve him to power his spaceship. He has no regrets about killing thousands, perhaps millions, of people across the multiverse. He has a few people he cares about but it’s a very toxic relationship and he tears his family apart.
I played a sorcerer a couple months ago, I didn't think he was a sociopath, good friends with the party joked around... but the npcs... early in the game my dm thought it would be funny to make a potion in a shop that attracted beholders. Later on in the campaign there was a beholder lair that we didn't NEED to get into, there was a shopkeep that I was blackmailing anyway so in the middle of the night I broke into his house told him that if he didn't leave town in the next hour I'd let his secret out. As he rode off I made him drink my potion. The next morning I told my party that we should go to the beholder lair, are you crazy?? They said I told them just trust me. Basically I was evil in the sense that I had no moral conscience as long as I was helping the group.
Side note: message can really fuck with people if they don't know it's you lol
One of my characters became evil because he died like 56 times and every time was revived in a matter on minutes and later became obsessed with not dying and eventually became a lich after the gm took control of him
Playing as an NE wizard, i have found that the best way to make it more acceptable as an evil player to help your party, is to remember that you are weak on your own. You are helping them in order to help yourself. No other reason than that. If the party goes down you can be considered weak. Now if you for instance see a trap. You may warn the party because YOU do not want it damaging you if its aoe. Other than that, if they do die, loot them. Or raise their body as the undead etc.
Love the magic the gathering art for the thumbnail
You can successfully play a chaotic evil character in a group and be a benefit to the plot and the party. There are hundreds of ways to connect even the most gleefully monstrous of characters to a party. They can view the party as pets (they get so adorably grumpy when you call them pets), tools, be the morbidly funny party cook (I still can't believe nobody ever asked how I always had fresh meat on hand all through an adventure), or even be lovers (no gift is more romantic than a leather dress made from the tanned skins of all who have ever wronged you). You don't have to be the hooded rogue working their whetstone and muttering about when you'll betray them.
My favorite character currently is hard CE (I play CE a lot. Dnd is great catharsis.), for whom visceral evil acts feel really really good, and tends to lose herself in a manic psychotic fit. However she's self aware she's a fucking psycho, and actually adventures with the party as a strange sort of karmic repayal... Except her depraved nature comes out constantly, doing good acts in such vile and damnable ways that it completely negates even the most morally justifiable of killings.
And she's been slowly dragging the party alignment down the longer they can still morally justify staying with essentially a straight from the abyss demon who essentially negates or worse every good thing they've done, because we're extremely successful together and have a lot of fun as we go. It's slowly gotten far enough that when they caught me having a little after battle snack, they simply pretended not to notice. And because I'm such a nice little psycho, I even paid for the Paladin's atonement.
CE characters can actually be fun for the party and good for the plot of you try to make them real.
I think the easiest way to play evil is to play regular, old-fashioned D&D: be greedy for stealing treasure, killing enemies, etc.
So many so-called good parties end up being a gang of murder hobos anyway. They get away with it by being "heroes."
Spot on!
I currently play a lawful evil goliath paladin of conquest. He is a noble knight who's traveled to a foreign land, seeking to capitalize on the lack of infrastructure and rich local resources, while earning the favor of the people. The party thinks im the standard LG paladin. Aligned goals are super important. Communication with the dm is super important. Being sneaky about being evil is super important.
If you want to read an awesome book series that highlights a good and evil character not only adventuring together well, but becoming friends, check out The Coldfire Trilogy by C.S. Friedman. Not only are the characters amazing, but I would burn a halfling orphanage to run a game in this world.
It also showed a cool way to use Life magic to destroy something and how to heal with Death magic
Check out MArk Lawrences 'Prince of Thorns' and it's sequels, as well, he writes brilliant characters who are interestingly evil as sin, but happen to be saving the world.
All that's really important is remembering that they're still a rational, reasonable person with their own motivations, goals, and emotions. They can love, they can hate, they can do everything in between.
The difference is simply, selfishness vs. selflessness. If they could choose to save an entire city of people or just their loved ones, it would be a non-choice for them, they would save the people they care about.
However, they can still act in any way they see fit to pursue those goals, protect those bonds.
Treating evil characters as people, not cartoon villains, is all you need.
Watch the Nerdarchy video first and then afterwards if you want another video on this subject jump over to
ruclips.net/video/e-0hgP1tNH8/видео.html
One of my favorite npc's I run is a lawful evil Drow Mistress of the Thieves' Guild in Greyhawk. She protects the city and the helps the party voraciously, because she sees the River Quarter she oversees as her personal spider's web - most often aligning herself with good-aligned PC's and NPC's for mutual benefit... but she also always takes her cut in the process. One of my pc's, a young teifling rogue has been learning at her feet and it is glorious. The sweet part is that they don't need to hide that they are evil - and they don't - because each side proves useful to the other. Good and evil character can have similar goals, though the reasonings may often be very very different. Think of Good and Evil as extremes of Selfless / Selfish.
I know a guy who threw a Molotov cocktail at a family in order to make it easier to escape a town that was being attacked. He's always doing things like that with 0 consequences, and it got to the point where my neutral good dwarf fighter had to threaten to split his head in two with my axe if he didn't cut it out. He's not even evil just uses being "neutral" to do whatever he wants.
roughly description:
Good: would maybe sacrifice him/herself to help/save others and generally wants to act against misery. Would never sacrifice others to save themself.
Neutral: wouldn't sacrifice him/herself (unless very good reason). Doesn't like to see misery but probably won't do anything against it. Normally wouldn't sacrifice others to save themself unless there is a very good or maybe pragamatic reason to do so.
Evil: wouldn't sacrifice him/herself. Doesn't care that much about seeing misery, might even bring misery if it benefits the character. Would sacrifice others to further ones' goal.
-> Your guy is described evil and not neutral.
The DM should take his character sheet and change that "Neutral" to "Evil".
A Neutral character might very well _abandon_ a family he'she had no connection to in order to save themselves or people they actually cared about. Setting a family on fire as a distraction is an evil act.
franzlimit I did argue that what he did was a pretty evil act but his excuse was that he is a cleric of Poseidon and he flipped a coin before hand, arguing that it was not him but Poseidon that sealed their fate. I think it was a cop out but I just left it alone since this is my first dungeons and dragons game and he's been playing for years and it was actually his brother that invited me into their group, didn't really want to ruffle any feathers.
Deciding what to do based on coin flip is pretty much chaotic evil thing to do.
I’m currently having a blast playing my first evil character.
We’re using the Broken Worlds rpg where I play a devil (which by their nature don’t form bonds and are... well, evil)
To make this work I toned down her “evilness” to a more devil-on-the-shoulder type where she suggests stealing/killing/abandoning NPCs to save money, time, and effort.
She also is an asshole but it’s only though words. She’ll be haughty and arrogant but will provide supplies to the party and her actions show that she has the party’s back.
The funniest moment we had was when we were facing the boss villain of the session and he offered us double the pay to switch sides.
As everyone gets into their battle stances my character perks up at the mention of money: “Now hold on, did you just say DOUBLE?” “You can loot from him after we kill him!” “... Fine.” And the fight ensues.
She is certainly evil, but often finds herself out-voted by the party and follows along with their “arbitrary rules” because she knows that she won’t accomplish nearly enough on her own. She needs them and so she’ll help them as often as she can... doesn’t mean she’ll be nice about it.
I had character a while back that progressed from evil to neautral good. It was a half orc barbarian. Raised by orcs, sent it in the wild to prove himself. Very much the monster at first but eventually did bond with the other characters and began helping people. Eventually we made the change to ng and in the end when took the wild land and made a kindom he was probably closer to lawful good.
I appreciate that Liliana Vess is used as the thumbnail image.
I've managed to play a couple actually. My favorite was the ranger who would do anything to kill orcs. A scourge to be wiped out as far as he's concerned, and he has done a lot of dark things to follow through in slaughtering them all. He stalked an entire village in the deep woods for half a year, killing them off and leaving the corpses hanging from trees where he killed them. He poisoned all the nearby water sources, forcing the village to move constantly to find fresh water, and drove all the game away or slaughtered it and spoiled the meats to poison the weak ones ( mostly the children)... He has also let small bands of orc raid and pillage while he was tracking them so he could be sure to find the tribe they came from when they finally returned to it. He also nearly died at one point, swarmed by orc in a trap reversed on him, before calling out and making a deal with some dark force of nature to keep him alive so he could continue killing orc. Came back as a revenant ranger/Warlock whose goal is genocide of the orcish races who serves the Lord of the hunt, a dark godlike fey being.
I actually came up with a slightly different system when it comes to alignments when I used to DM (my current DM doesn't really do alignments. he wants you to just play your character, rather than be forced to stay within a particular cage of an alignment).
In my games I describe alignments not as Good or Evil, but as Compassionate and Selfish, with Lawful being "You follow the rules" and Chaotic being "You follow your whims".
A Lawful Evil character is a selfish character that plays within the boundaries of the rules of society to get the most for himself, and disregard everyone else. If other people will benefit alongside you, bonus. If people are going to suffer because of your choices, oh well. The Evil or Good is just a descriptor of how much other people and society in general do you care about? If you only care about yourself and those close to you and/or those who can influence your life, you're Evil. If you care about the people you know, but don't really put much thought into people outside your circle, you're neutral. If you care about people in general and are likely to help the random stranger, or do a good deed just because then you are Good.
Then the Lawful and Chaotic is just a degree to which you care what the rules/laws/customs/traditions of society say. So a Lawful person who wants to search a persons house will seek to involve the local law enforcement, obtain a warrant if necessary, and then go in to search. A Chaotic person will break in and search the house stealthily, and get the evidence necessary that way. If someone steals from you a Lawful person will seek legal recompense, involving the city guard and the courts, while a Chaotic person would sneak up to the thief and steal your own stuff back... and likely anything else the guy is carrying.
That's how I look at it anyway.
Nott from Critical Role is a female Goblin, not a male :)
Starting an evil character in a group that has never had an evil character before. I've played evil before, but I really want to deliver a memorable character in this campaign, so I've been doing research. Your tips definitely helped guys! Thanks!
Currently playing a Lawful Evil fire Genasi in a military order (Order of the Gauntlet changed). He is a Corporal that came to Chult to find his missing squad. Another player in the game is playing my Sergeant, and I respect them. I play as a protector of the group, their survival means my survival. Overall, another player was a 9 year old who ended up with a triceratops mount, and would be really cocky up there, but on foot was very shy. My character Corporal Redbloom would often get in conflicts with Z'haulto, the 9 year old, but in my eyes, children cannot defend themselves. At every moment, Redbloom would counterspell any spell cast at Z'haulto, would cast Protection from Evil and Good on the kid, and more. Everywhere Z'haulto was, Redbloom was there too.
Now Redbloom only respected those that showed their martial prowess. The druid for instance, would not wild shape and get the party in trouble, so he disrespected them. But once someone started troubling the kid Z'haulto, Corporal Redbloom was there, sword drawn.
I once analyzed and broke down the alignment system into its basic six components just to help people understand that it should be used as a role-playing aid, not the hard and fast "instant character" many people seem to take it to be. Alignment "Evil" and the cultural definition of "evil" are two separate concepts where "Evil" can essentially be replaced with "Selfish" whereas "evil" is more along the lines of villain material. To that same extant, alignment "Good" is worrying about others more than yourself and cultural "good" is more heroic material. Playing an Evil hero or meeting a Good villain are very plausible things. Rocket Raccoon, from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, is an Evil hero. Beldinas Pilofiro, the last Kingpriest of Istar in Dragonlance, was very much a Good villain.
In one of my current games I am playing a Paladin of Conquest(Tiamat)/Blade pact Warlock(Fiend), and we discovered a ritual book of Halaster's. Since I can't read it being of average intelligence, I took it to the party wizard who loves reading about the arcane and through roleplaying got him to agree to help me with a ritual to grow dragon wings(and maybe summon demons). This would all be fine if it weren't for the do good sorcerer who keeps trying to stop us, so I have to constantly be thinking about opportunities to study with the wizard in private, such as instead of lay on handsing her after a fight, stabilizing her and using that 8 hours to get some reading in.
I made a LE Fiend Warlock of Levistus. A stealthy type, skills and invocations suited for the spy background. Always honors a contract unless he's offered a better one, does the right thing for all the wrong reasons: saves the girl from the runaway cart to extort the father, performs tasks in exchange for favors, etc. Obeys Levistus without question. He seeks dominion over Stygia. Whether he assists in raising Levistus' station or usurping him ultimately matters not.
I wanna play a character who's secretly a serial killer.
I would play it where he's a nice guy, he gets along well with his party and all that. But he occasionally gets gripped my a murderous desire and kills someone, (usually trying to keep this to people he deems bad people) and then he feels really bad about it afterwards.
The most important question to ask is why you became evil to begin with. Maybe you were hurt by others, and are now out for revenge (possibly against the whole world). Maybe you saw that being lenient led to bigger problems, and that talk is cheap. Maybe no one ever helped you when you were down, and you have now internalized that attitude toward everyone else. Evil can also easily be situational, and come out when you are triggered, or when you think you have the opportunity to get away with it.
Boris Stremlin
Or you might just love being bad.
Right. That's actually the default setting for those who want to play evil characters. But for them, there is this video, which justifiably points out that those types of characters tend to destroy gaming groups and campaigns..
Have you thought about making a video on how to have an evil party/campaign that doesn't just self-destruct?
Base it on the novel Villains by Necessity by Eve Foreward, it is a story of neutral and evil characters that have to save the world from its slide into oblivion because good won and knocked the world off balance! The spy for "good" even asks them why they work together even though they should destroy each other, and it was because they wanted to live their lives their way and teaming up was the only way to do that!
I had fun with alignment. Largely because I had "High magic" settings, which necessitated lawful good people to conduct high level purchases and sales, even commissions. Detect magic is a centrip, detect good/law whatever is 1st level and when you are changing over a hundred thousand gold pieces worth of magic items between two parties who hate each other. It only made sense to me...as did Dragon and Djinn banks.
It almost never mattered. Until we got to meet an envoy and I'd go over the notes from the last bunch of games, as the envoy (usually a Solar, Lantern Archon or sometimes various devils and Illythid) who could and did read their minds. To see who they are trading these sums with.
I once played an Abyssal among Solars in Exalted. Genuinely evil, his words were powerful enough that those who do not heed them would bleed out and die. But he was the moral voice of the party, preventing others from needlessly killing and desecrating bodies. He drove the players to save a group of people, despite the fact that saving those people is ultimately what got him killed (That and having an airship dropped on him). Every step of the way he relied on them for his safety, because he was physically weak. When playing evil I find being physically weak is important to getting the team to work with you, if they think that at any time they could just snap you in half, they wont feel very threatened despite the fact that the whole game you are slowly draining their souls or turning them into servants.
Vampire game I was playing in I was the Prince and I consistently did the worst thing possible. I was Ventrue and my ST let me take Deva powers so my character came into power because people couldn't not look at him and he used that fact a lot. When dealing punishment they were dealt on a Vampire scale (500 lashes, not being able to feed for several days, days of servitude to the court where humiliation was enforced). He was not exactly Vampire evil (Didn't kill, didn't diablerize) but was still twisted, and ignored the Three Laws. I got to watch his full arc play out as my two companion players went from fully supporting me, to doubting me, to spread dissent, to plotting against me, and finally killing me. THAT IS A SUCCESSFUL EVIL CHARACTER.
Mathew Coville talked about the anti-hero or the anti-villain. Be an evil character who was forced by circumstance to be evil... such as having a family member held for ransom. Conversely, be an evil character who’s forced to act good because you’re forced to by some backstory event. It’s a very easy way to play an evil character. It’ll fit into long term campaigns.
Evil characters are great if played well but also the DM has often more work if someone wants to play an evil character.
Really easy to play evil characters are those you also mentioned, those who have a bond to the party (or at least one of them): For example the lawfull evil character's life was saved by another party member and his/her honour now demands obedience to this party member until he/she is released from this duty. -> mostly just for lawfull evil
Another classic is that you are just the brother/sister/father/mother/cousin/whatever of another character and you mostly do evil because you just do everything for this single person. (heavy emotinal attachments to certain things are generally a great tool to make evil characters realistic and more sympathetic) -> works for all types of evil (even a chaotic evil character might sacrifice him/herself for 1 character in the world while the very same character might torture everyone else just for fun)
Another good possibility to play evil characters which is a bit more work for the DM is just a common goal: A big threats might also be threats for the evil characters: They might lose their wealth/kingdom if they don't help the party. The evil character might need the good reputation to be more effective in his/her evil doing. This might even go that far that this character behaves like a perfect good person inside the party without intentions of direct betrayal. You could play your evil deeds off session while talking with the dm or/and maybe trying to convince the party to take morally wrong decissions/decissions which benefit your end goal. -> This is especially fitting for true evil characters but you can also build lawfull evil characters around this.
The most important rules for playing evil is:
Don't create characters which really intend to betray the party. (it is okay that your character plans to betray the party but you really have to find excuses to not do so, otherwise this character is just annoying for everyone)
Don't just burn and kill everyone you can burn and kill. A character who would poison the well of the village for the "lol's" wouldn't even reach adulthood in such a world -> make the killing a bit more reasonable if you are a killer. Evil characters can still have principles or they might kill for money/might but usually not because it was just fun.
My favorite alignment is CN because your character is basically a wild card but you get to do good and evil so as to not necessarily damage the character’s image in the party
i heard somewhere that a lawful evil character is often easier to deal with in a party than a chaotic good. because you generally know would they would do in a situation
Lawful evil in a nutshell: Im kinda in the background not doing too much, then one day a coup is done on the king and now im the new leader, all bow down before my iron rule and awesome power.(BTW I've been setting the coup up for that whole time).
Without more informations this sounds more like neutral-evil since a lawfull character wouldn't just start a rebellion without having a legitimate reason. But of course a character's alignment might change because of circumstances: the neutral-evil character might become lawfull evil after being crowned a king.
(The chaotic-good character probably becomes neutral or even lawfull good after defeating the evil tyrant and establishing a good kingdom..)
Others have mentioned this, I think the best "evil" for a party is Lawful Evil. I've played Evil characters before - because of their background they felt like they could trust very few people, so finding someone whose word could be trusted was very valuable - and they stuck with the party because they found a couple of those people. Buuuut... felt no compunction about just taking things, or killing or torturing enemies, or twisting rules and laws to their own benefit. And they were a tiefling, so they also felt like and eventually would revel to some degree in the reputation of a tiefling. All that can work within the party.
Played a few notable "Evil" characters in the past, one thief, one cleric. It's never how evil you are (within reason) it's how you go about your evil and what it brings to the group. Evil isn't difficult if you're an okay table top role player. As you guys state have connections, have attachments, that's something an evil person would have. Without reason evil isn't really evil its just abstract violence with no intent, chaos.
Thinking of playing a neutral/evil character who is a shadarkai swashbuckler who takes the soldier background. His backstory is that he was a soldier of the Shadowfell or a necromancer or something and has regrets, but is so desensitized to killing and crime that he doesnt care that much. Could definitely be redeemed. Etc.
Talking dragonlance is soothing music to my ears.
I played a cleric assassin of Anubis. He was the only cleric in the party. He never assassinated anyone when the party could know about it or see it. His killing was dedicated to his god. and was ritualistic. He did accidently get the party leader wanted for one of his killings, but he did not plan that. He was lawful evil, and did help the party.
This one's proving pretty useful.
Currently playing an evil wizard who's trying to conceal her powers and intentions. She's part of a witch coven that wants to take over the world to usher in what they think would be a golden age, and is personally sworn to a lich. But to reduce any suspicion she's taken up the role as midwife and camp follower. She's not going to openly show off her magic. The only spell the npc's and the other player's characters think she may have is heal, because as a midwife she has that (dm's insistence) and the fact that she healed an NPC right in front of them.
And she's already began brainwashing an NPC. While she was healing the NPC she casted an enchantment spell to make him addicted to her. All the while the party thinks she's a demure camp follower
Goblin, orc, some other off brand humanoid chef. Host dinner parties, that you actually use to secretly test new dishes composed of mysterious meats. Such as children... it's all to further your cooking skills!
I've gamed under DMs that used to flat-out say 'no evil characters' and I changed their mind by playing a GOOD character that just happened to be evil.
It's a matter of a good PLAYER versus a good or evil CHARACTER.
My favorite evil I played a CE Magus in Pathfinder. He was Chaotic because he valued freedom over laws and order. Random choice over expectation. Evil because he had ZERO empathy, everyone was a tool to be of use then discarded when no longer of value.
Best part was that the Paladin suspected nothing.
I played a lawful evil character in a party of mainly neutral and good characters. They butted heads a lot over HOW to do things, but they agreed on WHAT they wanted to happen, so while there were a lot of scuffles initially, they wouldn't purposefully hinder one another. They'd work to get the job done. A dysfunctional family almost.
That was until the party's behaviour towards them took a bit of a downward spiral (partly the character's fault too, they had an abrasive personality) and when the BBEG rocked up offering the lawful evil character something more 'secure', my LE character naturally went for it. But we saw the 'twist' coming from a long way off and my character's nature and possible conflict with the other party members was something was regularly discussed.
It is a bit late, but I am watching this video because I am building my first evil character who will be actually played. This story will be set on Forgotten Realms, probably around Phlan. My character belongs to an ancient noble family whose titles and lands were lost after his father started a conflict against some ruler of the region (and lost), being executed on the process (the DM is working on this part of the story).
My character and his bastard, older sister (also a member of the party and played by another person on the group) would be executed too, but for some reason, the Church of Bane intervened and "claimed" both youths into the faith's service (we don't know why). This way, my character became a Cleric of Bane, his sister a Paladin in the service of the temple.
My character was young when entered in the faith, so he was well indoctrinated, becoming Lawful Evil. His sister, already a bit older and more sure of herself, was grateful for what the church had done, but stayed more open and flexible (True Neutral). We don't know how the other players in the group will play, but we two are planning some things to make feasible for us to stay in the party. Here are some of our ideas so far:
- We care deeply for each other, and for family. When the other party members gain our trust (if they can do it), we will treat them as family;
- If the rest o the group is generally "good", we will try to show them their ways are pretty, but ineffective in the long run - we will try to "corrupt" them by subtly lecturing them about it "just like a parent would do with a child";
- We will keep our word to the very bitter end, even if we discover we were played or betrayed. After fulfilling our end on what was agreed, we will seek retribution if it is the case, but we won't break our word;
- We do not terror innocent civilians and do not use violence against them unless it is extremely necessary. However, we will make gruesome displays of power, like burning criminals alive;
- One of our objectives is to exact revenge upon the one who had killed our father and "stole" our titles;
- However, we are loyal to the Church of Bane because of what it had done to us, and would follow its lead. Since the Church is trying to bring law and order to the region, it will probably be against our war move;
- Our second great objective, if this campaign goes on, would be to gather magical power and follow the steps of Lord Bane and ascend to godhood.
- Possible reasons to work with good characters will be opportunity, necessity, or common goal. Maybe, if the other characters "become family", because of duty to family.
For now, the DM is enjoying the idea, and we are trying make characters which would be "honorable, but evil". I don't know if this will play out good, but we will try... hehehehe
Thanks for the video, by the way! It confirmed a lot of thoughts I had about building this character.
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My character drawn the balance card from the Deck of Many things so this helps role play LE
I think this is the piece I've need missing for my chaotic evil cleric of hastur. I didnt flesh our his goal finely enough. His goal was to establish a new carcosa, but that's pretty long term. But if I make his goal to gather funds and popularity to establish a temple to his God, then that might give him a good enough reason to hide his sinister qualities.
I ran a campaign where everyone played evil. It was fun mostly they worked together, but a few used the others to get what they want. It was a fun campaign but it was great cause the group I played with never took things "out of game". to me, an evil campaign needs to be well thought out. just doing random evil things would end up quickly getting hunted down by good people.
Evil does not mean stupid, In fact it often means a certian level of cunning and an ability to see from all sides, An evil character often has a drive that goes above and beyond that of everyone around them they're the kind to fight tooth and nail to bring about the world they see, Setbacks and changes of plan are not reason to kill everything but rather ways to add more power to yourself.
EXACTLY! You get it, for evil characters it's about the ends, the drive... less attention to the means.
I have a Chaotic Evil character that's a kindly old man.
It isn't just a pretense, either- he cares for people.
However, his goal is to completely dismantle all afterlives, including the good ones (also including the gods), because he doesn't like how mortal souls are handled and judged, or how good and evil are determined by that system- and he's very willing to kill if it helps him achieve these goals. He *does* care for those around him, he has empathy, but his ultimate goal takes priority.
He's basically a knockoff cleric in Pathfinder, and he fulfills the role of one- smiting demons, healing his party- but he will not hunt undead, even if they show "evil" behaviours, unless they go against him.
He views them similarly to himself- comrades in a rebellion against the gods' order of the universe.
Certainly Chaotic Evil, one with goals that would have terrible consequences if achieved, and willing to kill to achieve them- but at the same time, he is still a kindly old man that will make someone a bowl of warm chicken soup if they're under the weather.
The majority of my characters are "evil". Very rarely does anyone know. Within the first couple sessions I set a long turn goal. I then VERY slowly work my way in the direction of that goal. Honestly, I have never had a character meet this goal. They almost always die in the pursuit. Great fun.
Playing the evil alignments in a good or neutral party is simple as long as the player does it smart.
First they have to fully go along with the ground rule that you don't screw the rest of the party for no reason other than "I'm just playing my alignment." You don't act out in demonstrably evil ways against the party at the drop of a hat because you know you can only pull that trigger once, but you can easily get in some evil on pointless npc's behind the other PC's backs.
With that in mind you have to pick a type of evil you're going for that stems from an alignment or archetype. Being evil means you're always looking out for your own interests first. You're not working with the party "out of the goodness of your own heart." You're getting something from them.
If you're LE then you see the party as your minions. They are there for your glory and to serve your needs. The fact that they don't know you're evil just makes your mastery over them all the sweeter. Any "Scheming Vizier" character from any story is a good example. You're Jafar from Aladdin before he turned on the Sultan. You've assembled a team of imbeciles who guard you as they would a brother in arms and use them to work your will on the world.
NE is a bit more nebulous as to why you hold back from betraying your party. As a NE character with no strong principles to hold to and no innate desire for mayhem, you're just out for yourself. That being said, your selfish goals and the good goals of the party might easily fall in line. You want to take out a rival thieves guild leader? get yourself a Paladin rube and his local militia buddies to help "bring justice to the downtrodden!" Or whatever the motivation was behind Morrigan from the Dragon Age games. She was definitely NE, and yet she traveled extensively with non evil characters.
Chaotic Evil is easy if most of the players and the DM aren't idiots who subscribe to the idea that CN and CE can only be "Whatevar! I do what I want!" CE means you are only motivated by what benefits you or gets you off and you have no qualms about how you get what you want. The Joker isn't CE because he believes in maiming and murdering the people of Gotham. He's CE because death and destruction are what gets his dick hard and he has no moral guidelines that keep him from doing whatever he wants to get off. Yet in all that chaos the Joker will never outright kill Batman, because then he wouldn't have anyone to play with.
Even the most insane CE character still refrains from breaking his own toys. And that's is what the other PC's are to your CE psychopath. His favorite toys.
If you want to play a character that maims and kills everyone in sight for no reason other than it gets his dick hard then play a LG Paladin that believes beyond any doubt that certain races are inherently evil and need to be "cleansed" from the world. Then set the campaign in the underdark.
If you want to play the Joker's flavor of CE that probably won't work in a good/neutral party. Your best bet is to model your CE character after either Deadpool or Rick Sanchez from Rick and Morty. Two selfish, destructive, and morally devoid characters that don't kill every single npc in sight. They have no real use for most people in their worlds and have no issues with killing large numbers of people at the drop of a hat, but they don't just go on killing sprees every day because they know there's no point in that.
I think the key to playing an evil character is communication outside the game with other players and the DM
Nerdarchy please help me. Me and my friend recently went to an adventurers league event at my local gaming store and we got stuck with "that group" where the dm was running out of the abyss and it really wasn't a good experience while all the other groups (running tomb of annihilation) looked like they were having a lot of fun. I feel they put us with that group because of either me and my friends age because we're younger or because they have established groups and don't want to add more people. Or maybe both. What should I do? Should I keep going and maybe eventually get put in a better group or decide adventurers league isn't for me? (This is the second store in the past year where this has happened)
Why did you have a bad time? You are allready 2 people, maybe you can find 1-2 more friends and start playing your own game? If one of you takes the role of dm you can change things which you didn't like. Just don't be afraid trying it; there isn't much to lose but a lot of fun and even self-esteem to gain while dm-ing.
franzlimit Thanks. Yeah the dm wasn't very good. I'll consider your suggestion
Imagine Electra from Jean Giraudoux's "Electra". The epitome of "Justice will be done though the heavens fall". She's right in seeking retribution but she cares not if the city gets destroyed following the guilty answering for their crimes in a fashion she personally sees fit. No need to be cartoonily evil or validate the "evil" part by "kicking the dog". It is enough play a character so zealous about a certain goals everything else goes under the bus.
I play Lawful Evil, Divine Soul Asimaar. Sweetest person around if you did not attack her or her friends she would be kind and open to talking. Defended a Cultist who surrendered but the moment he tried to stab my party member I cast a fireball in Melee and proceeded to mutilate the corpse putting his head on a spike.
Ended when the party was disterbed when I used animate object on a metal net with daggers wrapping my characters Nemesis in a net of chainmail and had the daggers wrap and sink into his body then used heat metal on the chainmail. I had popped Aasimar wings and did this in the middle of a populated city.
He had killed my characters mother and I fully embraced my Evil side. Loved the reaction of the party when I turned myself in and pleaded guilty. He killed my mother and so I killed him. I had 22 Charisma (DM gave us a book of Leadership) So I know I could of talked or casted my way out. Since my character was a noble I had diplomatic Immunity ontop of saving the Princess of this nation but party talked with me IC and out, feeling that It was time for my PC to head back home. Since I had just killed a Major player in the nation and so if I stuck around they would likely not help in the Assualt to take down the mad Wizard.
I should note this was near the end of the Campaign so they were going in to fight the BBEGB with their support blaster leaving. I dual cast Life Ward on myself and Cleric and usually cast Greater Invis on myself and act like a Rouge caster. Picking people up with healing word or a Nuke heal on the Barb and Paladin.
Felt bad not compleating the campaign with them but I got to be there to help them through their Character archs. Also got to come in as Her nations soldiers to help with the Assualt 25 knights and 5 Sorcerers coming out of no where to help take on the Adult black dragon and lock down the wizards escape. Got to have my character mounted on a far off hill watching the party.
Their next campaing I hear is actually going to be taking on my characters nation so DM has asked that I come back for sessions with my PC. Her end goal complete and now the princess of her nation. So plenty of Evil to be had from a living Angel.
If I do get into the game, I'd like to play a "blood line" character who was infused with essence from a Shadow (Shadow Ranger) and is on a path of redemption from chaotic evil (in his blood) to neutral; however, he must fight against his bloodline.
In my current campaign, that I am a player in, my character is falling prey to the darkness of Barovia, and is seeing taking the throne as the only real way to find safety for him and his group. He views it as a window to create a peaceful setting, through total control. He began as a kind cleric, but as the campaign goes I'm chilling him and closing his views and cares to only his immediate group. He plans on eradicating his view of evil, through very extreme and absolute methods. Do you believe that is a fair approach to the development into the evil character?
It's rare that I find a DM who will let me play chaotic evil in a good/neutral game, but when I am able, I play the character kind of like Jayne Cobb. I'm interested in acquiring gold and power for myself and not much else, but at the same time, I realize that working with the party will make my goals easier, and screwing them over is generally a stupid thing to do. Sure, there are plenty of opportunities to screw them over, but usually the money isn't good enough. Although, eventually it will be, and that will be an interesting day.
My advice to playing an evil character in a good aligned party, play your character in a way that provides your companions an apparent avenue to redeem them.
Doesn't have to be a real avenue, but Good characters love nothing more then a pet redemption project.
Oooh, I like that. I'll keep that in mind for my guy if I ever get a good chance to use him.
The thing is an evil character who has no surviving family and is utterly nihilistic actually has some great plot hooks right there. How did they lose their family? Is that what lead them to feel that morality and ethics are just fancy words and that power and strength are all that matters?
The urchin background is ideal for a character who became rootless and alone. They're on the streets from an early age, they get victimised and used by everyone more powerful than them, they have to cross some serious moral boundaries to survive ...
No one _starts off_ as a sociopath.
As far as your character arc goes, either you're aiming for some kind of redemption for the character or you're aiming for a grand betrayal of the other PCs at some pivotal moment (after which, of course, your PC becomes an NPC).
Dave's point towards the end is also something I agree with wholeheartedly. It is the _player's_ responsibility to create a PC who wants to adventure with the party and whom the other PC want to adventure with.
You need to come up with a reason your PC is hanging out with the other PCs. Maybe it's purely utilitarian selfishness (good for setting up that sudden but inevitable betrayal when the chips are down). Maybe one of the other party members is the first person your PC has ever met who's not a complete bastard and they're just genuinely interested in finding out what _that's_ all about (good for setting up a redemption arc).
You need to play your character in such a way that they are a net asset to the party (a point that holds true regardless of your alignment). Maybe your PC "goes too far sometimes" or is "a bit intense every now and then", but their skillset provides such an obvious advantage to the party that it allows the other PCs to plausibly tolerate them.
I like to make characters that challenge the norms of heroes, and evil characters are a wonderful example. I like to take characters with good qualities and give them hateful or taboo motivations, or sinister, game changing flaws that begin to play with that balance.
redeemed villans is always a cool thing.
The biggest difference between a hero and a villain is one bad day.
In the current campaign I'm playing in, I'm playing a cleric of Tiamat, set a couple of decades after the Rise of Tiamat campaign, who is, of course, evil. And the party and the villagers all know this from the get go, so she doesn't hide the fact that she's a follower of Tiamat. Yet, she's not going about town blackmailing or threatening people, but rather to their surprise, helping them, being nice and offering them help in exchange for simple 'favors' later on.
What makes her evil, is that she's acting all good and nice, and acting like the clergy is regretful for what happened a few decades past and she is trying to prove that they would like to make amends. In reality, she's trying to win the common people over that she's a great person and that maybe Tiamat is worth following for such strength and success, in a bid to slowly recreate the cult of the dragon from the ground up. Rather than outright going into towns and declaring war, she's planting seeds of doubt to let them slowly bloom and fester to corrupt from within, for long term gain, over a short term victory.
oh i just made a lawful evil oathbreaker paladin (dm suggested oathbreaker instead of vengeance). so that's gonna be interesting. gonna play it more like a darth vader type, but with more evil shit like making a civilk war, then perhaps placing someone who works for me in the seat of power just to gain influence.
Very good advice. Got any on a party filled with evil characters?
Not yet.
Nerdarchist Dave
Thanks for the light speed response!
We once had a game where started on an island with no recolection how we got there, only character that had kind on an evil background was my bounty hunter/ hired assasssin, the rest were seemingly neutral, but over the course each of us had moments that slowly showed a darker side , like one of us while away from the party had killed a village, but not because he was evil but becouse he was under a curse that made him loose his mind at certain periods he didn't feel remorse for it at all, another was a warforged who lacked the concept of good and evil in the first place and another was a survivor of a terrible plague who was jaded but kind of good natured at heart, long story short first village we went to treated us like shit, with my character forming a grudge against one of them, we decided to do a quest for them to maybe improve our relationship, which turned out poorly in the end getting us imprisoned and the townsfolk thinking of us as traitors, later we stumbled upon a resistance that seemingly oposed the people of the island like the town that hated us only for us to be betrayed by them, when we went out to do a quest for them, to rescue a drow who explained later that they were not what they seem, fast forward later we are back at the town that treated us poorly and its being raided and slaughtered and we pretty much had the chance to join the raiders or be heroic and save the town.... that treated us like garbage so to no ones surprise we choose to join the raiders and burn the village down, oh the island also had another PC called CHAD THUNDERCOCK a roaming paladin that ended upon island after a wizard thrust him through a portal for having betrayed him. He randomly would join quests when there werent enough players for the main story , as a flashback or sidequest character that joined during times a pc had been away
I’m usually that when I play my Drow...which is fun RP😈💯👍🏼
Overtly chaotic evil characters can (rarely) be done well also. See Bishop from Neverwinter Nights 2, and Revy from the anime/manga Black Lagoon. Both of them are very obviously evil, but they're also capable of working with a group. Bishop is a self-centered, screw-the-world loner, but he believes in paying debts, and one such debt is used to strongarm him into joining the party. Revy is a nihilistic, gleeful mass-murderer, but she's loyal to her team for both practical and sentimental reasons, and is fully capable of restricting her murder to the group's enemies. Both are excellent examples of how even a chaotic evil character can fit into a group, provided the player actually gives them a reason.
I have not played Neverwinter Nights 2, but since it is a videogame, I assume you as the player control him?
Kind of? You control Bishop in combat, but he's an NPC, so in dialog and some other non-combat sections he tends to do his own thing.
This was very useful, thank you. I'm going to be playing a secretly evil aligned character in a team that are either chaotic good or chaotic neutral. Think I'm going to use their chaotic natures to my advantage
Edit: oh yeah, the character is also going to be a child... I got the idea from the vampire girl in the dark brotherhood in skyrim
lawful evil traning from new jersey great vid dudes
See this is funny, I play a chaotic evil character but it lead up to him being that way. But I multiclass from a barbarian to barbarian and warlock. But this were events that took place. As an evil, I'm not truly wise. The moments behind the scenes were with my Patron, the kraken. He stays on the down low for the most part but has anger issues and is an acoholic which I believe an addiction fits that character perfectly. An addiction, I realize, adds a slight distraction to the party and while doing evil behind closed doors and the alcohol is a cover up. He was troubled and what happened throighoit campaigns I have played, he was once a true neutral, to lawful evil, neutral evil, and now he is a chaotic evil. His hardships have lead him to be what he is now. Some suspect he is evil, but aren't sure.
I have had *many* evil characters/NPCs...some of which nobody ever knew were, or redeemed themselves, or were the *real* hero of the setting (though nobody knew it); saving the world no matter the cost and even with the world hating them for their actions.
the deck of many things brought me here. i died soon after.
In a a supers capmaign i was playing in my character started going darker letting the power go to his head. i was stealing the enemies items and feeling out my teamates. one of them figured out i was acting weird around session 6 and investigated me secretly for 4 more sessions until she had proof. i entered my secret lair and had to fight my team. it was epic i almost won and then got put into a coma. im DMing now and the previous DM is now a new character in my spot on the team.
Best evil character to play must have extremely high charisma such that his/her antics may not necessarily be perceived as purely evil since the population tends to give high charisma individuals more benefit of the doubt.
Villain with great PR!
So, as we have probably all seen with things like the "Evil Overlord list", evil is often confused with stupid.
So in my opinion, evil and good is determined partly by what a character wants but also how he is going to get it. Is a character willing to kill, steal and lie to get what he wants? If yes, one step closer to evil. Also, what DOES he want? I probably never spent enough time to consider "what does this (player-)character want in life?" A piece of land to settle down on with a family? All the gold and treasure he can get his hands on? A position of political power and influence to reshape the kingdom or even the world (by any means necessary)? Does the character love to be an adventurer or is it just a means to an end?
Since others mention books and movies, my favorite villain up to this day has to be Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Oh god. I'm trying to play a LE Rogue and honestly I feel like I am playing wrong I'm Naturally somewhat nice but I wanted to try Evil. I Feel like he has ended up Neutral more than anything like a CN If it isn't already obvious I am Shit and still very new to the game. I didn't exactly play a cliche evil it was meant to be a more of a character that has lost his nobility in terms of status and wealth and is now going though the campaign to get back there via any means
I have an idea for playing a Lawful Evil run away princess. Greedy father wanted to marry her off for wealth, so he arranges a marriage. The guy is abusive towards her, but her father turns a blind eye. She escapes with the help of her brothers with the intention to return one day to ruin everything her father ever held dear. While that would make for a decent neutral character, what would put it over the edge is that her father wanted to prime her by having her learn to sing. Her revenge fantasy is that her song would bring down the barriers to the city, and be the final thing her father hears before his death.
I think evil can be all kinds of things. At its heart it's lack of apathy for others rather simply. You can go about that in so many ways but I think the main thing is that you're not just a ridiculous lunatic. Have a reason and method can help.
One way of making your evil character work with the party is to make them a little genre-savvy. Plays & theater productions from troupes are usually popular in D&D settings & your character has probably, if not seen a play, at least heard the synopsis of a few or read a fictional book.
Power hungry evil? Famous adventuring parties often become highly tied into international politics and global game changers. Even a chaotic evil murder hobo can have enough intelligence to realise that being an international hero comes with some BIG legal lee-way in most D&D style settings.
An evil character who wants to gather power to become a ruler or supreme ruler or whatever has a much better chance of meeting the kinds of beings who can give them that power if they travel with an adventuring party. Bob Smith the local cackling nutter doesn't usually go to the Abyssal Plains to chit chat with Asmodeus but Bobus Smithus, member of Brave Adventure Group #3672 is probably going to trip over half a dozen evil gods on their way to breakfast by level 17.
for me Evil has many degrees: From the Crazy maniacal killer to the serial killer to the Kick the Dog BULLY! Evil to me, playing and evil character, s/he is someone that Thinks of only himself. Friends are to pass the time in an otherwise dull day, people to bolster his weak ppoints and to help them out it is a pragmatic approach. (They will help me 10 times more than me so this is a good investment) Helping people out is for Gain and/or future obligations
you could be a Chaotic Evil character and save the world just like if you were a Paladin... You don't care about Good and Law... but following it is most of the time simpler and doesn't get you into trouble (you still hate law that aim at controling you... but follow them because you don't have reasons not to... yet). You can help save the good guys, protect peeps or whatever BUT not because you think it's right... but because you like the rewards that it brings, be it fame, glory, gold, power or anything else (even fun)... it brings you like people cheering at you when you pas because you! Alway and EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU! Your alignment NEVER dictates how you ACT... it dictates how you THINK. BIG DIFFERENCE.
My Evil PCs are just as murderhoboy as your standard “good” dnd PCs it’s just that they are honest about how much they enjoy taking lives for gold.
Many good PCs will kill bandits (blood money) or genocide an entire clan of goblins without much issue, again my PC is just honest with themselves about what they are doing.
Also my Dragonborn live Cleric really loves the elderly and children and will absolutely torture-murder people he find who harm them,
I think a big part about evil is intent and personal reflection as much as the actions your PCs take.
Light cleric
You make a good point that, given the standard MO of the average party is "kill things and take their shit", an evil character can go undetected for a long time.
Goblins aren't people though.
I heard a story of a guy playing chaotic evil who would pretend to be good or neutral and would lead his other players to do bad things or would do horrible things when the other Players weren't around
I've always stuck by the rule of when you play evil you only do it to NPC's. One of the hundreds of characters that a DM is controlling is not going to have an impact as, and I've seen this first hand, the rogue who gets bored and decides to pickpocket another party member. Another thing about having an evil party member, for those not playing the evil guy, is don't just kill them the moment you stumble across their diary detailing how they want ultimate power. Work with that player, they made an evil character, and as long as they haven't been doing anything to screw you up directly then killing them is just going to sour them and ruin the game.
Rule #1: Don't Split the Party. Even if that is by social means.
Seriously though, treating alignment as how you interact with characters outside of the party goes a LONG way. If you absolutely must go with "so generically evil that I hate everything", treating the party as useful pieces to be fit into your plan (or short-term goals for the more Chaotic bent) can lead to some amazing sessions.
I’ve played evil characters and in fully evil parties. My evil parties were a million times tighter and more loyal to each other than our good parties.
My current evil party will end up running a large portion of the northern sword coast.
Evil isn’t less heroic. Their heroism is just directed in different ways with different motivations