I'd be upset if my asshole (not evil, just an arrogant ahole) character died, not because I can't seperate myself from him but because he didn't get to have the redemption arc I was planning on
Nah for me, my characters death is an opportunity....An opportunity to play one of my other 300 back up characters, let's go! It's like my first ever character was a reckless human fighter and I expected him to die but I though it'd be a good test run....he's still alive some how, has many head injuries from jumping of off stuff and being near death so many times lol
probably one of the major hurdles to get over is, if your character is evil, what it keeping them with the party? what is preventing your character from throwing the party under the bus and making an escape in a dangerous situation?
Some good answers I have heard for this excellent question set generally rely on the evil character having the party as the exception that proves the rule. - The character might have a soft spot/actual friendship with the group (or specific members) and doesn't want to go it alone. - You as a player could come up with reasons that the party is of continual use to the evil character and have them fall into the sunk cost fallacy - the evil character has spent so much effort being with this group that it would be a colossal waste to just cut and run. - The evil character could just consider the party (privately) as possessions or mere tools and is greedy or jealous enough not to let them fall by the wayside by leaving them. - The evil character could use the membership in the party as a front or cover to deflect accusations of evil acts, banking that NPC authorities would hesitate to accuse one of the local heroes of heinous deeds; staying on the good side of the group is necessary to keep ahead of the consequences of their actions even if it is annoying in the short term.
This is a good question. I am planning a lawful evil character who (surprise surprise) has the goal of obtaining power for themselves. They decided an adventuring party would be the best route for this, since it's difficult to become powerful alone. Having a group to guide towards their goal is much easier than risking their own life to accomplish those steps alone. That's his reason for being in a party, and I intend for him to try keeping it together for that reason. It has a feeling of manipulation, but regardless, he still intends to keep the party together and stay in it until further notice
The hardest character I ever played was a vampire vengeance paladin who worked under Kas the Destroyer, and the way I had it so that my character would stay with the party was simple. A common enemy so I made it so that Strahd had slaughtered his armies and forced Kas into another dimension. Forcing my character to be alone for hundreds of years while he got to build his city. (Yes I know that Kas and Strahd never meet this is just fan stuff). So my character joined with a group of good oriented characters to kill Strahd while keeping his vampirism a secret.
I'm playing a LE character, and his whole shtick is basically that of a mortal devil. He might like you, but unless you have signed a contract with him, he would stab you in the back at a moments notice. He Always keeps his word, though, and one of the first things he did was basically agree not to fight the party without 2 weeks notice
Lawful Evil is usually a good way to skirt that. You're not going to derail the story, but you can be a sadist or so "evil" things while still operating within your code. I think the perfect Lawful Evil example is Magneto from Marvel, Magus from Chrono Trigger, and Mike from Breaking Bad/BCS Magneto sees humanity as a threat to Mutantkind and is traumatized because of what he survived as a child. He feels that Peace isn't an Option, appeasement is the first step to imprisonment. Magus from Chrono Trigger (avoiding spoilers) only has one goal in mind and any alliances he makes are one of convenience to get to his goal. He doesn't care who gets hurt and doesn't hide that he enjoys it. But he has a code and it's not to make the world submit to him. And Mike. We see him commit several evil acts. While in BCS we see him slide further into sociopathy, by the time breaking bad comes around, he doesn't flinch if he has to kill someone, he has no qualms running drugs, threatening people, using underhanded tactics to manipulate, but he refused to give up his crew. Think more of "Ends justify the means" or "I'm only following orders"
I'm playing an evil character in a campaign and it's the most fun I've had RPing a character because I've had to look at and solve problems from a different angle. The DM seemed worried about me causing trouble in towns by acting evil but he really started to like my character because my character is agreeable most of the time. When I do act evil, it's calculated, decisive and benefits the party because I do evil to get power and influence. The DM originally planned for us to find a lost bear cub whose mother was being held by Kobolds. He wanted a nice touching mother-cub reunion but I tied the bear cub to a tree outside the kobold base 'to keep it safe', convinced the other PCs to knock out the momma bear cuz we didnt know if a wild animal would recognize us as 'friends'. While everyone was looting the camp I double tapped momma bear and took the cub back to our base and now we have a battle bear. The whole table was shocked but now we're stronger cuz we have the bear. They didn't like my methods, but appreciated the power boost. Everyone at the table is wondering what my next big power play is and it's great.
@@assassin_npcFor evil I would just make it clear That I know if I turn on the party I’m not making it and that It’s only a temporary truce to deal with greater evils.
Does your DM not understand that bears are wild animals that don’t understand the concept of compassion? Unless he basically just told you what to do, you made the right call in killing the bear because it probably would have disemboweled you without a second thought, nothing evil about self-defense. If you wanted to try your hand at rearing a wild bear cub, best of luck.
I am the dm in a campain where the players are a chaotic evil druid and necromanzer, neutral evil rouge, lawfull evil warlock and a chaotic neutral fighter. Help me… xD
In addition to what has been explained in the video … I think most complains towards evil PCs are not because the character is evil, but because said actions come at the expense of the party and their goals (ruin an elaborated plan, kill/anger an important NPC after managing to get into their good graces or de-escalate a situation, steal the hard-earned magic items from the party during a long rest), if said evil actions were to benefit the party without a true repercussion, then they might question the means but couldn’t deny that said actions bring great results (it’s tricky, but can be done). People don’t hate evil PCs, people just hate rude players.
I have an idea on how to play an evil character: They will be using the party to their own ends, but either because they grow to care for the party or because betraying someone who’s proven time and time again to be useful to them is something that they’re smart/honourable enough to avoid doing, they will not betray the party once they have what they want, and will only try to kill the party once they start directly interfering with their plans.
That’s literally exactly what DnD evil means. It’s beyond frustrating dealing with all the tourists, casuals and noobs that don’t understand that the alignment chart is a simple two axis chart that asks two questions: how to feel about rules and how selfish are you? It’s literally just that. Lawful evil is the tyrannical baron that uses rules to personally benefit. Chaotic good is the Robin Hood that doesn’t care about your rules because it’s hurting people and they will risk themselves to help others. Super simple
@@mingthan7028straw man fallacy. He said prioritizing yourself, being selfish. Yes being selfish is evil in dnd. Let me guess, you are an Ayn Rand disciple and vote libertarian? Yea I got news for you…
@@mingthan7028 it's not, until you are willing to sacrifice thousands of people just for golds and power. For example by opening the gates of your city during a siege
another tip is generally having your characters goals allighn with the parties. i played a lawful evil artificer or a oneshot who my gm loved so much he asked if he could bring back my character as a villain. this character although sadistic and cruel had an interesting honor system where if he made a deal he would stick to it. he would have intricate contracts for every single deal he made detailing his and the other parties boundaries. if his partner broke the contract he would outright kill them but if he was the one messed up he might get angry and break an arm but his contracted partner would live. he was sadistic and saw himself as a genius but functioned well as he had no reason to hurt the party and like the party wanted to fulfill the job they were hired for.
(Written before watching) I have played a semi-evil character before! He left a lot of broken hearts, murdered hobos, was boisterous and had a pact with an unalligned demon queen (Wasn't D&D, but I guess in D&D he would be a warlock as he had a couple of spells and some supernatural boons like insane dexterity, more than the elves, and could shapechange). At night he just went away to have some fun, and the murders only happened when he was away from the group. One time we had to get informations about a warehouse with suspected cultists, my PC split from the group who watched the house to get first hand informations. My PC went into an alley near-by and asked a hobo, gave him a BUNCH of money for the informations and then just stabbed him in the throat before dumping the body somewhere. No one found out about it but I got the informations in minutes while the others wasted hours and learning nothing. He eventually died in combat, I think... not wearing armor and only having a short sword was not the smartest idea I ever had. (Written after watching) I don't really like the allignments, they are too strict while most people are more complex. For seperating the character from oneself voice acting might help, just a tiny bit to get into the headspace and for detachment. Not some super gruff voice, slight intonation or accent changes might be enough.
I am playing a chaotic evil character in a dnd campaign, and I think this video has hit exactly what a good way to play an evil pc is. Another important thing that needs to be done is creating a good motivation to treat the other party members well. My pc is highly manipulative and is kind and helpful to the party, because they are extremely powerful and further his goals. He convinced the lawful-good paladin in the party to help kill a crime-lord and then proceeded to take control of the syndicate.
Great first video. Love this advice. Simple but really effective because of how we all can really get way too “in character” when trying to make for more “fun” gameplay and then justify bad actions that upset the table by saying well that’s what my character would do.
My evil characters tend to take a more Hanibal Lector kind of approach, coaxing others to do evil (like he did to his therapy patients), killing very minor NPC's that annoy them or that they think the world would be better without like he did with the bad player in the orchestra that he ate. He might also be a bit extra brutal to the party's enemies that they are killing anyway, they ran a few bandits through but he would cast spare the dying to stablize them then bash there skulls in again just for shits and giggles when nobody was looking. Subtle evil characters are my fave as it takes a bit of roleplay to finesse it, like how long will it take for the others to realize that he is evil and when they do what will they do since he has done nothing but help them and has never hurt them in any way.
I actually have a Chaotic Evil Star Wars character that I'm quite proud of, since not only can I sometimes play him in a villain role in some specific scenarios with other villain characters, but I can also play him as an "anti-hero" in half of the other scenarios, since he knows killing everyone and everything isn't beneficial for earning money. That and he has a hobby of collecting pets from across the galaxy of course lol, along with having a sense of loyalty when it comes to those he actually considers friends or comrades.
I really liked this video and that you brought up thinking of yourself as a good aligned player, even if your playing an evil character, was great! One of my DMs is running an evil campaign and I think so far everyones done a good job of being vicious in game, but above table we're all very much chaotic good, even if we didn't think of it in those terms at the time lol. But taking that approach has also lead to really fun ingame things too. Like we're evil/selfish characters, but we gave up looting a goblin tower when one of our party members was in critical condition. Our characters first reasoning was: 'We don't want to try to find someone else to join us when we already trust this guy and he's our tank!!' Which lead to our player characters later realizing: Oh no. I think we all became friends!! Evil friends. But friends!' And above table as players, we were all worried about our friend losing their character they really enjoyed playing, so we were gonna save him!! And we did! : D
In the first campaign i was able to finish. I played as a necromancer, who while helping the party do their quest and defeat the god of death/necromancy. Was using my ability to raise the dead to create lieutenants out of the BBEG's lieutenants so i could dethrone him and take over the world as the new BBEG of the next campaign. The whole time i was sending dms to the DM(we did our campaigns on discord because all of us were in different states and one of us was in England) about what i was doing and he would tell me what i needed to roll/beat for it to work. We got to the end and my plan worked. Everyone was blindsided and i was able to make my character's dream a reality. It was honestly pretty cool. And way easier than people think it is. Also in that second campaign i did not play as the necromancer again. Instead i played as a regular character with no ulterior motive or secret goal.
For me, the best experience playing an evil character was with my first warlock. Our previous characters died during their last bossfight, implying that our next characters would start at lvl 6 (i feel like this was really important because it gave me the room to write a more complex background than just a simple lvl 1 guy). I really wanted to try an evil character without ruining other player’s experience, so i worked with my DM and came to a really nice conclusion of playing this warlock with separated souls. This was a blast for me, because in his backstory he was straight a serial killer who liked to see life being ripped away from his victims, but his patron got enough of it and decided to make him a goofball that kept joking about everything that happened to the party and would feel bad for even trying to defend himself with violence. His evil side sometimes would come off because of lore stuff and was really fun playing an entirely different character when it happened.
One of my favorite "evil character" moments, murdered someone while using disguise self and actor feat to impersonate the BBEG let the family see me before running away, then recruit the family members help to go after the BBEG. the players all knew what happened but my character kept it secret so in game no one knew. prior to that my PC had only done petty thieving or killed during open combat sessions, so showing my high charisma rogue was actually a sociopath took everyone by surprise.
Honestly an easy way to find out if your other players or dm are bad is 1. make a character. 2. Tell everyone your playing a Chaotic Evil character. and last 3. Play the character as good, charitable, kind, giving, and agreeable as possible. If the dm and/or players are looking to be hostile with you regardless you should leave that table. they are looking for any excuse to treat someone poorly and it's not good (at least not for you) to associate with them.
I had an idea for an evil Warlock inspired by a real life personality, but I wasn't sure how, or even if, I should go for it. Now I feel better in doing so. Thank you.
Nice vid. I've been wondering bout this for a while cuz I've had a character concept or 2 that invloved them being evil. Maybe not necessarily pure evil or irredeemable. More like they are evil because that's what they know and understand. Maybe depending on how the story unfolds they grow and change
I and my friends have played evil characters but we had the understanding that we need to work together. We can cheat or mess with the other pc's but we ate working together not against each other. The only time we have had a problem with another PC was when they were chaotic neutral and didn't work with the group. Don't play stupid evil make it work, find common interests that can keep the party together. A strong leader can help to keep the group focused and can deal with some infighting.
One of the most fun long term sessions I've played was with a group of characters that were all evil. We were just a bunch of murder hobos, and it was absolutely a ton of fun.
The trick that helps separate me from the character is whenever I describe something my character do, I refer to them in 3rd person. And whenever my character does something, is always describe details, like a narrator, details like the expression on face, or maybe the tone of the voice
The way I did it is play coniving characters and their evil actions usually help the party. Example. I was playing a dark elf assassin who was riding Drizzt's good name and using his party as a cover so he could steal and kill but have people known for being good back him up on being good. One time we were on a ship fighting a water elemental and I had nothing that could damage it so I went below deck to loot stuff while the party fought. In order to do that I had to clear out where the sailors were hiding so I did a mix of persuading and intimidating to get the sailors in the fight to help the party and to get them out so I could loot the ship. This character would torture, kill, and threaten npcs while the party wasn't looking but generally avoided being caught and a lot of his actions would benefit the party as a by product so the players didn't bother looking into things too hard.
In the current campaign im playing in, im playing a bard who’s secretly a spy for an evil wizard. The wizard is a powerful enchanter who can wipe minds and controls my character through special bracelets that the wizard, at any time can dissipate the magic on, causing my character to lose all of their intelligence and charisma, and plummet back to base (for a kobold) stats. So my character has to do what the wizard says or he will lose his identity!
Look at Bishop, Grimgnaw or Ammon Jerro from the Neverwinter Nights game series. Those characters are masterclasses in how to write and play evil characters. Betrayal, disregarding the means for the ends, lust for power and contempt for weakness are your bread and butter, do not feel afraid to mistreat NPC’s or even your fellow PC’s if you can get away with it. The tension this causes could be the catalyst for a betrayal later down the road, so keep that in mind. A warning, however. Make sure to not needlessly pick fights as that can lead to less enjoyment from the other players and will slow down the game and if your other party members are evil they might just kill your character for being a liability.
Evil people seek to be perceived as good. This either involves doing good while others are watching and doing evil while no one is looking or "reputation laundering" by associating themselves with others who do good to get reputation by way of proximity to genuine altruists. I often play a low level evil person who does very little outward evil while acquiring resources and reputation. If the character survives to mid level, I retire him or her, having essentially "seeded" a future villain. The same way that a criminal would case a bank, ideally as a full on employee of said bank, my evil characters only have subtle signs that they are not altruistically motivated. It is more akin to seeding the grounds of a long con. Depending on the GM or players, I will either retire the character prior to their face-heel turn or, with GM permission, expose my villainy and become a villain for the campaign briefly. In either case, I transition to an actual heroic character at that point. IRL, I am the nicest person imaginable so it is very obvious that my villain characters are not self-inserts. Alternatively, my nice guy persona may be a ruse. Beware.
I will definitely use this. Currently, the way I'm playing my evil character is to start off with a slight distrust towards other PC's until that very first fight, then I throw in a sense of "we need each other". This way I keep a sort of "tribe mind" where I am nice to the other PC's simply because we're "going through it together". I try not to physically attack everything for no reason and am especially careful with key characters (not to kill, upset, steal from) since they might tie into other players story in a more significant way than it would for my character. Aside from that, I bully away and act selfish all in the name of a personal agenda.
I have been playing a lawful evil merchant dwarf in our campaign, and they have not yet figured it out one of the biggest moves that I did was I tried to make good with the priests and the paladin because I know that they can't detect evil. More so than that my character knows that they can do that so he has taken great strides to stay under the radar with them. The swashbuckler and the other rogue in the party however have absolutely seen his darker side and he has even blackmailed the swashbuckler so that she doesn't speak about what she knows. Evil characters can build friendships often though some of them are false they still help you maneuver around in the world and that means you have to be a friend you have to help them out you have to give them things however there's usually three or four turns to a motive about why you're doing the things you're doing and it's never out of the kindness of your own heart
I like the lawful evil alignment, as long as the goody two shoes doesnt betray them first they would never betray thier friends and allies, or do anything to get the party in unnecessary legal troubles.
To me its kinda easy to rolplay a evil character, just make the character someone who priorize itself and its important people over the others and dont have that much problems ignoring the "moral" action with a more..."the most important thing are the final result", "morality and honor dont bring food on the table or pay the taxes" (thats evil in DnD, to me its be a realistic person). After that you just choose if it follow rules (moral/social/or its own rules), ussualy follow them except if it will gain something or have a mentality of "no rules". In a sense isnt that hard, the standar mercenary/adventurer for money in theory its an evil character, im here to do the mission and gain the money, not to save every damm person in problems
I was trying to play a Chaotic Neutral character for our run but.... nah he was evil. Sacrificed and tortured people to his patron (they where assassins hired to kill our party but still). Let a burning ship smash headlong into a busy harbor. And the most evil act that happened mainly due to how much the music hyped me up. "Mercy" killing a helpless mother stuck/crushed under a fallen building with her child in hand. We returned the child to its father but the mother, we told him, did not survive the "accident". It actually was a rather well done shocking moment and that was mostly due to how well the music fit and how the dramatic parts hit the same time the music did. It is remembered fondly, if not a dark turn in our first campaign.
"How upset would you be, if your character died the next session?" Well, I'm upset my character didn't die last session. I was clearly sacrificing myself and openly said I will make another character, but the DM decided we all are now some spirits in Shadowfell
I RP as a Lawful evil Black Half Dragon Half Elf Necromancer. The other player in our group is a Silver Dragonborn Lawful Good Paladin. This has caused some interesting dynamics where I had to say out of session I need to fix my character's personality (I'm big on lore) since Silver and Black Dragons are mortal enemies and we were literally on the opposite ends of the spectrum. What I had to do was find a party member who was more neutral to allow me to do certain things as my character and when my character was being a dick to the paladin, I just apologized and said I wasn't expecting xyz. Later it was easier as he would go complain at a fireplace or go smoke a pipe when his idea that got turned down for being too evil was the more correct choice. In the mean time during combat he would always try to keep the paladin alive as a way to show he respected the Paladin despite their differences like a rival who understands despites does not like the paladin. He would even say the paladin is correct on some things and kept his code as be a team player triumphs over his end justifies the means. For me its a strong constant mental exercise but is more rewarding and we get some laughs. Especially when Speak with the dead is applied and the Paladin walks right in.
I want to play a paladin some day that legit thinks he's LG, but is objectively and unambiguously LE. Also, have him act all high and mighty (the old "lawful stupid" trope) while he's at it. I imagine it's gonna be tough to get a group to consent to this, though 😂
I hate to tell you but “the greater good” isn’t evil in dnd. Gygax was crystal clear that’s it’s 100% in line with being lawful good to do inflict harm on “bad guys” and “potential bad guys”. Lawful good doesn’t mean lawful nice.
When I play a chaotic evil psychopat the answer to the question is: "I'm counting on it". But they are more subtle then a raging madman so it takes the party some time to realise and kill them off.
Hi there.^^ I know I am a little bit late, but here is my experience by playing an evil Character: Your alignment should never be „chaotic evil“, because Characters of this Alignment do evil deeds just because they think they can and they’ll do it as often as they can. This however is nothing you should do in a heroic Campaign, nor in an evil one, as it is only working for NPC‘s and the Big Bads. Instead you should pick „lawful evil“ if you are into manipulating People (Player Characters and Non-Player Characters alike) or „neutral evil“ where your only Goal is to get the most benefit of all the Opportunities laying down before you. Don‘t show your „ugly“ Side too often and do your best to hide your true intentions until the Campaign is coming to it’s end. Even evil Characters can be Heroes (although they don’t strive for it) and will join Forces with anyone against their common Foe for the greater Good if it benefits them or if they can avoid a gruesome Fate. Evil Characters can also have true Friends and be true Friends, which will make them appear really creepy if someone they like and trust gets harmed and they unleash their „inner Beast“ towards the one responsible for doing it. They are also capable of Love and can give genuine affection towards another Person. Last but not least: Alignments can change. An evil Character who slowly changes throughout the Journey and redeemed himself is very appealing and can lead to very fun dynamics between the Players and the Game World as a whole. Just remember to not ruin other people’s fun and don’t mess with their Characters (or better, not too much…😈). Value the working your Dungeon Master and think of ways to use the Elements presented by him to make the most of the experience without disrupting or even destroying it. If everyone is having a good time, you have a good time.^^ Thanks for everyone reading this and may your Games be epic, funny and heartwarming.
Im playing an evil character for the first time prior to our upcoming session i made it very clear to the group i will be doing questionable things but i also made it clear if i do something that there character disagrees with for them not to feel bad for attacking me as i do not care if my character dies sooner than i expected, i also ensured my actions will not get in the way of the main goal but i will but it will be quite evident that i am evil aligned
My PC is not me, yet I do still feel a bit sad at the idea of them dying. Not because I think they're me, but because maybe I worked hard on them and it's like watching something you created thrown away without actually reaching it's potential.
I'm currently playing an over-the-top Tyrant of the world domination Cleric of Bane Daemos Black Hand in the Mad mage campaing, despite he's doing the over-the-top villain talk like Lord Bison from the SF series, my take on he's seeing players as his minions in his conquest of world domination thus he's not playing nor betraying the party. He's actually helping them to get back to work by healing them painfully. (Who said that healing wasn't painless?) (My party thinks he's crazy but plays along with his crazy megalomaniac delusions.)
Easiest why to play a evil character in a party of goodie two shoes is to be lawful evil and have something that makes them want to work with them. Though nothing stops you from planning how to deal with them after the threat is dealt with.
I made an evil PC, and I partly tried to plan with another player and the dm to have there be a climatic final battle with HER as the BBEG, with her losing. her motives were simple desire to survive, since she was already a 30y/o goblin she already reached the halfway point of her life and was desperately seeking to extend her life and protect her life at expense of any other. the campaign ended ubruptly with a "and you all end up in a tavern and go seperate ways" cause it was the last time we would all be able to play dnd together. so it was agreed that she just won and became capable of endless life and thats it gg.
Selfish doesn't mean loveless and your character can grow to like the party and seek do to hide their lack of morality. They might even risk their life because they don't want to lose anything. Althought to them, a freind dieing or going off to live happlily ever after, but never seeing them again are just as bad. If dark elf, then they could be old and bored, wanting to experance somthing new. They might pretend to be good, but kill anyone who threatens their new fun.
I agree with a lot of what you said but you have missed out one key thing about playing as a evil character and that is you need to be able to work with your players if you don't do this you could end up getting kicked from the table even evil characters have friends and love ones the only difference is a evil character views on them is not going to be the same as a good character view on friends and love ones I am playing as a lawful evil Hobgoblin Bladesinger who was a mercenary veteran so her mentality is if you hurt someone in her band you are hurting her she kinda has the mob mindset
I made a character minmaxed for lethality. I wondered what the motivation for the character training so hard to be and, maybe it's mine? It just wants to kill. That's pure chaotic evil. but I don't want to ruin anything the others are doing, so "She is wise enough to know that all she has to do is hang around dangerous people for long enough, and her chance will come soon enough, again and again, to kill."
At its core evil is defined by selfishness. Compassion is a big part of it as well, but all of the alignment systems in DND are separated by selfishness. This is why truly neutral characters is difficult, because they're neither particularly compassionate, nor selfish.
My favorite Evil Character for D&D is a Chaos Warrior from Warhammer Fantasy. Chaos Warriors are plundering, pillaging and rapping (the second g is silent) Vikings in full plate armor which worship Demon gods. But they can absolutely work in a D&D adventure setting, because what matters most to an individual Chaos Warrior, is honoring their gods. They do that by defeating strong foes in 1on1 Challenges and offer up their triumph is victory. So why would a Chaos Warrior help a merry band of heroes to defeat the Dragon King? Because he wants that things head on spike to carry home. No coin, no altruism, just pure glory seeking ego.
The way I play my Evil master assassin in campaigns is that he is completely selfish but sometimes this aligns with the party, layer the actions and reasoning, I saved a party member from an arrow to the back, a good alignment thing to do, because my character had affection for them however won't openly say it, its a weakness in the assassins world but also because they are needed for the party and their own plans. The idea is who is true evil the one that kills for fun or the one that would erase your identity so you know your friends and family but they have no clue who you are, so your name will fade into obscurity? Evil like good has its layers, which is why I only use the alignment system as a loose guide. Because we have seen how differently aligned characters can coexist one such game is starcraft 2 Alarak with the rest. Also Tying some actions into your characters religious and cultural beliefs and practices, something seen as barbaric and evil to one is lawful to another
@@assassin_npc Yep! 'Because the line of Neutrality often bleeds outward when the lens is not in focus. And always surprise those around you. Every betrayal does not make you untrustworthy, you could actually be someone that a part member can depend on because they can trust that you will do something selfish at some point over someone's motives that are still hidden completely. And a good DM will always have alternate routes, say, one member gets caught off guard and is hanging onto a ledge, your evil character made it apparent they will not help but there are too many enemies for even them, So the evil character jumps off the side of the ledge and takes them down with them, scene end and picks up later that something broke their fall or you can play that sequence out, regardless you saved both of you but intended to use them as a means of cushioning your fall haha! But not every perceived death action need be instant death.
Keep in mind; humanity as a whole survives by cooperation. There's a reason people need socialization but not a need to be isolated. This applies to good and evil in humanity's terms both in real life and in TTRPGs.
Currently attempting a difficult evil char idea with high level PCs and incredible magic items. Everything is hinging on this group of individuals to sace the world from several different threats. One of which is a cursed personality sickness known as "The wack". A disease that travels to highest authority of civilization and eliminates thousands of lives in the process. Also known by me to being the god of insanity. My wizard contracted the wack while he touched a cursed book splitting his mind and fracturing it leaving him with a personality mesh. He has home brew rules for swapping personalities. I made backstory for each one and names so my players can identify who is out based on how i act. The wack and my wizard have constant battles in hisnhead for control. And though my char is really strong the party didnt exactly help much in his fight against this wack. So at rhis point the wacl is winning
Anyway my wizard had this plan to use magic jar to escape his body. The wack is saposed to be insanity incarnate but I need to ensure I'm not just insane. So in a way I act sane, but do so in an insane way.
You basically say at the end that while the character is evil and seeks his own benefit at the expense of others... the player should be kind, concerned about others and helpful. That's like saying "learn to be a cunning and devious two-face guy, or like a spy or double agent" XD
Or you could simply ensure that your character's evil actions aren't at the expense of other player characters except when planned with the table ahead of time. The motivation for an evil character to stay on the party's "good" side? Self preservation, deception, apathy, manipulation, etc.
A great way to play an evil character is to play an asshole with friends. Remember that no one is evil 100% of the time and even bad people often have people they care about. That should be the party for your character.
I... play almost exclusively evil characters. My main is a devout Lolth-sworn drow. If evil is defined by a character who prioritizes their own needs over others, how does that make the characters expecting their own needs to always be prioritized not evil? Also, if you as the player need to break character "every few minutes" to remind the table you're not evil in real life... are the other players all 8 years old? I would highly recommend finding a table of adults who understand the difference between pretend and reality. The key to playing an "evil" character harmoniously is to understand what motives them and how their goals align and differ from the rest of the party's. I'm playing a drow in party with a cleric of Lathander. Both are motivated by their faith. They find common ground on that. There's no need to break character. The other players understand what my character's motives are and he has a vested interest in their continued support, so he prioritizes cooperation. It's that simple.
I actually play D&D in a club at my school and I always play a fighter and my current D&D character would be having an entire sub story with the villains right now if I wasn't told by the people who run it that I would be a dick and my character would instantly be sent to the 9th circle of hell if I betrayed my party despite that being completely in character. My current one f****** evil and he knows it. I also have a backup character who is basically the good the their evil and is probably the only one of all are characters who can go toe to toe with my current character.
I'd love to play an evil or morally very questionable character (a charcter who doesn't care about hurting others to achieve their goals)! I guess you have to establish rules like: make them want to stay in the party due to common goals, and to not harm party members or ruin quests, because it's more convenient to my character if they journey together with the player group. However, non-essential npcs could be treated very cruelly if it fit the moment. I guess the key is to talk it out with the DM, make sure players are ok with it, and not ruin the fun of other players. Still, I'm here to learn about anything to avoid
I have a player who became lawful evil through a pact through and evil god, she didn’t make this deal out of selfishness but in order to make sure nothing else bad happened to the party she cares for, so how would that exactly be played?
Here is how I usually play evil. Even the most psychopathic monster in cinema has something they love. They need to protect that thing no matter what. They would do anything, to anyone, at any moment to protect that thing. It could be their reputation, or a family member, or a pet, but it is something. For my evil character, that is one or all of the other players. That prevents them from back stabbing the other players for the simple fact that they would absolutely lose that person they are tied to. However, there is nothing stopping the evil character from using methods that would make even the most resolute paladin vomit at the thought of it to keep their friend/s alive. The question you ask at every moment is "what can I do to improve the survival rate and comfort of the people I need in my life" and then ignore the more difficult solutions in favor of the simple, even if it is morally bankrupt thing to do.
Here's a character that's technically a "Lawful good" Paladin but a certain character doesn't feel that way... Artorius Collbrande, the "villain" of Tales of Berseria. And Velvet Crowe, who is "evil".
Imo A good example for a dnd character who is evil Kagain from Baldur's Gate. Greedy and selfish, but not going out of the way to be horrifyingly evil and murder hoboish. While apathetic most of the times it's also shown that he does genuinely have standards and their are even acts that he wouldn't do (which could be used to justify an evil character sticking around with a group if they aren't doing it out of friendship).
"But you wanted to play an evil character without being judged by your friends" Most DMs ban evil characters. So it doesn't matter if you're good at it or not.
Huh i would be very very upset if my characters died next session, but honestly im at a point in game where i would be very very upset if other players characters died too
Another thing: Don't be evil every single session, a evil character can go along with the group and seem normal, what you want to do is be selfish in those crucial moments. If you wake up first after every long rest and pour fireants in the other players boots because you are "Evil" then you are just annoying. You are evil when after hundreds of sessions in the critical moment where someone is about to reach their goal you ruin it for them for your own benefit. Your acts of evil against your party should be calculated and done only when necessary or goal defining. While you can be evil to others, don't be evil to those that the party cares about. Don't torture the old lady that let you stay in her hut for the night, instead brutally torture the slavers that "deserve it"
Ivr actuslly never been able to play good characters and its always a blast when i play at tables in 1 shots I usually end up desecrating graves/urns of ashes when i can or just letting my fellow players go willingfully into traps or just being the slap stick humor of the table I also end up either killing myself at the end of the 1 shots either by doing something completely stupid like once as a cleric, i got into a grave and fireballed the coffin i was in... Or once as a pirate barbarian i tried intimidating everyone in the party to do what i wanted but ended up failing every roll and ended up loosing my role on the ship as captain, that was fucking awesome. Or this other time where i have a selfish monk character who would show off by doing backflips and shit to get over puzzles or just normal gates only for other people to do the same thing and fail miserably and me just talk about how they have to do better next time😂 Its all just for fun and i usually end up being for the party but i also dont save the party aswell, im only in it for the gold of course. Im going to try and make a good paladin tonight who is good and try to be good because rn my intrusive thoughts win every god damn time.
I would be upset if my character dies because I want to keep playing that character. I signed up for a campaign in which I am that character, not a backup character that gets rotated in if I die. If there's resurrection options available or if I do something incredibly stupid and totally deserve the character death, then that changes things. Can't blame the DM for my stupidity. But if I lose a character and it's not my fault, I'm out. That table is dead to me. Also, I have absolutely no interest in playing a character that is evil by the definition that was given near the start of the video, or anything close to that. That sounds incredibly unfun to me.
Getting someone kicked from the university D&D club because they complained that your running 'joke' about being a child killer and a cannibal was making them uncomfortable would be pretty much the exact opposite of this. Getting the quiet guy who barely spoke kicked was not difficult for them since they were a little older than the rest of the club and they made people uncomfortable because they didn't make eye contact because of their social anxiety and poor social skills. Yes this happened and the player sold their D&D books to a second hand book store a week after this and never played again and was quite upset about D&D after that, this person had poor social skills and social anxiety before this and this made those problems worse... I know you are just going to brush this off as a "yeah , that happened ... I believe you honest..." story but I need to say it to help lift the weight of this from my mind.
If you want to play an evil character just don't be hostile towards your companions they are helping you fight why would you want to be antagonizing them. And be mindful of what boundaries you shouldn't cross in the story you are trying to make it will most definitively make people uncomfortable at the table and get you kicked out if you cross them.
i keep seeing videos like this where they act as if evil character are the problem but in my experience its almost always a cleric or paladin that decided they want to make it a problem and try to find any reason to pick a fight at every chance
@@colorpg152 and most go for the stereotype I'm evil on paper so I'm justified to play as a toxic snarky edge lord I kid you not, that kind of player is what prevents me from playing online.
What? Who do you play with? Do people really have personal issues disconnecting themselves or others from the characters? I find it very striking to even think about but I guess I must consider everyone's life choices lead them to be exposed to different people.
![SAFEPLANET - ดาวเคราะห์ [ THE PLANET ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/4X1XL3I_k3c/mqdefault.jpg)
“How upset would I be if my character died next session” is absolutely the spookiest thing I think most players could be asked
Not at all, if it's narratively satisfying.
I'd be upset if my asshole (not evil, just an arrogant ahole) character died, not because I can't seperate myself from him but because he didn't get to have the redemption arc I was planning on
Nah for me, my characters death is an opportunity....An opportunity to play one of my other 300 back up characters, let's go!
It's like my first ever character was a reckless human fighter and I expected him to die but I though it'd be a good test run....he's still alive some how, has many head injuries from jumping of off stuff and being near death so many times lol
"Like, permadead? I would leave the campaign, leave the server, and block you. Forever. We already talked about this in session zero."
probably one of the major hurdles to get over is, if your character is evil, what it keeping them with the party? what is preventing your character from throwing the party under the bus and making an escape in a dangerous situation?
Some good answers I have heard for this excellent question set generally rely on the evil character having the party as the exception that proves the rule.
- The character might have a soft spot/actual friendship with the group (or specific members) and doesn't want to go it alone.
- You as a player could come up with reasons that the party is of continual use to the evil character and have them fall into the sunk cost fallacy - the evil character has spent so much effort being with this group that it would be a colossal waste to just cut and run.
- The evil character could just consider the party (privately) as possessions or mere tools and is greedy or jealous enough not to let them fall by the wayside by leaving them.
- The evil character could use the membership in the party as a front or cover to deflect accusations of evil acts, banking that NPC authorities would hesitate to accuse one of the local heroes of heinous deeds; staying on the good side of the group is necessary to keep ahead of the consequences of their actions even if it is annoying in the short term.
This is a good question. I am planning a lawful evil character who (surprise surprise) has the goal of obtaining power for themselves. They decided an adventuring party would be the best route for this, since it's difficult to become powerful alone. Having a group to guide towards their goal is much easier than risking their own life to accomplish those steps alone. That's his reason for being in a party, and I intend for him to try keeping it together for that reason. It has a feeling of manipulation, but regardless, he still intends to keep the party together and stay in it until further notice
The hardest character I ever played was a vampire vengeance paladin who worked under Kas the Destroyer, and the way I had it so that my character would stay with the party was simple. A common enemy so I made it so that Strahd had slaughtered his armies and forced Kas into another dimension. Forcing my character to be alone for hundreds of years while he got to build his city. (Yes I know that Kas and Strahd never meet this is just fan stuff). So my character joined with a group of good oriented characters to kill Strahd while keeping his vampirism a secret.
I'm playing a LE character, and his whole shtick is basically that of a mortal devil. He might like you, but unless you have signed a contract with him, he would stab you in the back at a moments notice.
He Always keeps his word, though, and one of the first things he did was basically agree not to fight the party without 2 weeks notice
Lawful Evil is usually a good way to skirt that.
You're not going to derail the story, but you can be a sadist or so "evil" things while still operating within your code.
I think the perfect Lawful Evil example is Magneto from Marvel, Magus from Chrono Trigger, and Mike from Breaking Bad/BCS
Magneto sees humanity as a threat to Mutantkind and is traumatized because of what he survived as a child. He feels that Peace isn't an Option, appeasement is the first step to imprisonment.
Magus from Chrono Trigger (avoiding spoilers) only has one goal in mind and any alliances he makes are one of convenience to get to his goal. He doesn't care who gets hurt and doesn't hide that he enjoys it. But he has a code and it's not to make the world submit to him.
And Mike. We see him commit several evil acts. While in BCS we see him slide further into sociopathy, by the time breaking bad comes around, he doesn't flinch if he has to kill someone, he has no qualms running drugs, threatening people, using underhanded tactics to manipulate, but he refused to give up his crew.
Think more of "Ends justify the means" or "I'm only following orders"
I'm playing an evil character in a campaign and it's the most fun I've had RPing a character because I've had to look at and solve problems from a different angle. The DM seemed worried about me causing trouble in towns by acting evil but he really started to like my character because my character is agreeable most of the time. When I do act evil, it's calculated, decisive and benefits the party because I do evil to get power and influence. The DM originally planned for us to find a lost bear cub whose mother was being held by Kobolds. He wanted a nice touching mother-cub reunion but I tied the bear cub to a tree outside the kobold base 'to keep it safe', convinced the other PCs to knock out the momma bear cuz we didnt know if a wild animal would recognize us as 'friends'. While everyone was looting the camp I double tapped momma bear and took the cub back to our base and now we have a battle bear. The whole table was shocked but now we're stronger cuz we have the bear. They didn't like my methods, but appreciated the power boost. Everyone at the table is wondering what my next big power play is and it's great.
Sounds like an evil character well done! :)
@@assassin_npcFor evil I would just make it clear That I know if I turn on the party I’m not making it and that It’s only a temporary truce to deal with greater evils.
Does your DM not understand that bears are wild animals that don’t understand the concept of compassion? Unless he basically just told you what to do, you made the right call in killing the bear because it probably would have disemboweled you without a second thought, nothing evil about self-defense. If you wanted to try your hand at rearing a wild bear cub, best of luck.
I am the dm in a campain where the players are a chaotic evil druid and necromanzer, neutral evil rouge, lawfull evil warlock and a chaotic neutral fighter.
Help me… xD
make them villains and have them fight the whole world as an evil organization
Where there’s a whip, there’s a way.
In addition to what has been explained in the video …
I think most complains towards evil PCs are not because the character is evil, but because said actions come at the expense of the party and their goals (ruin an elaborated plan, kill/anger an important NPC after managing to get into their good graces or de-escalate a situation, steal the hard-earned magic items from the party during a long rest), if said evil actions were to benefit the party without a true repercussion, then they might question the means but couldn’t deny that said actions bring great results (it’s tricky, but can be done).
People don’t hate evil PCs, people just hate rude players.
Agreed. I play a cannibal and doesn’t stop him from serving as the tank in the group.
I have an idea on how to play an evil character: They will be using the party to their own ends, but either because they grow to care for the party or because betraying someone who’s proven time and time again to be useful to them is something that they’re smart/honourable enough to avoid doing, they will not betray the party once they have what they want, and will only try to kill the party once they start directly interfering with their plans.
Ooooh, this sounds like some spicy character development :)
I like to think of “good” as more willing to help others, and “evil” as prioritizing yourself.
Individualism is not evil
That’s literally exactly what DnD evil means. It’s beyond frustrating dealing with all the tourists, casuals and noobs that don’t understand that the alignment chart is a simple two axis chart that asks two questions: how to feel about rules and how selfish are you?
It’s literally just that. Lawful evil is the tyrannical baron that uses rules to personally benefit. Chaotic good is the Robin Hood that doesn’t care about your rules because it’s hurting people and they will risk themselves to help others. Super simple
@@mingthan7028straw man fallacy. He said prioritizing yourself, being selfish. Yes being selfish is evil in dnd.
Let me guess, you are an Ayn Rand disciple and vote libertarian? Yea I got news for you…
@@mingthan7028 it's not, until you are willing to sacrifice thousands of people just for golds and power. For example by opening the gates of your city during a siege
@@LB-yg2br
You are right. I.... I was left
another tip is generally having your characters goals allighn with the parties. i played a lawful evil artificer or a oneshot who my gm loved so much he asked if he could bring back my character as a villain. this character although sadistic and cruel had an interesting honor system where if he made a deal he would stick to it. he would have intricate contracts for every single deal he made detailing his and the other parties boundaries. if his partner broke the contract he would outright kill them but if he was the one messed up he might get angry and break an arm but his contracted partner would live. he was sadistic and saw himself as a genius but functioned well as he had no reason to hurt the party and like the party wanted to fulfill the job they were hired for.
(Written before watching) I have played a semi-evil character before! He left a lot of broken hearts, murdered hobos, was boisterous and had a pact with an unalligned demon queen (Wasn't D&D, but I guess in D&D he would be a warlock as he had a couple of spells and some supernatural boons like insane dexterity, more than the elves, and could shapechange). At night he just went away to have some fun, and the murders only happened when he was away from the group. One time we had to get informations about a warehouse with suspected cultists, my PC split from the group who watched the house to get first hand informations. My PC went into an alley near-by and asked a hobo, gave him a BUNCH of money for the informations and then just stabbed him in the throat before dumping the body somewhere. No one found out about it but I got the informations in minutes while the others wasted hours and learning nothing. He eventually died in combat, I think... not wearing armor and only having a short sword was not the smartest idea I ever had.
(Written after watching) I don't really like the allignments, they are too strict while most people are more complex. For seperating the character from oneself voice acting might help, just a tiny bit to get into the headspace and for detachment. Not some super gruff voice, slight intonation or accent changes might be enough.
I am playing a chaotic evil character in a dnd campaign, and I think this video has hit exactly what a good way to play an evil pc is. Another important thing that needs to be done is creating a good motivation to treat the other party members well.
My pc is highly manipulative and is kind and helpful to the party, because they are extremely powerful and further his goals. He convinced the lawful-good paladin in the party to help kill a crime-lord and then proceeded to take control of the syndicate.
Great first video. Love this advice. Simple but really effective because of how we all can really get way too “in character” when trying to make for more “fun” gameplay and then justify bad actions that upset the table by saying well that’s what my character would do.
My evil characters tend to take a more Hanibal Lector kind of approach, coaxing others to do evil (like he did to his therapy patients), killing very minor NPC's that annoy them or that they think the world would be better without like he did with the bad player in the orchestra that he ate. He might also be a bit extra brutal to the party's enemies that they are killing anyway, they ran a few bandits through but he would cast spare the dying to stablize them then bash there skulls in again just for shits and giggles when nobody was looking. Subtle evil characters are my fave as it takes a bit of roleplay to finesse it, like how long will it take for the others to realize that he is evil and when they do what will they do since he has done nothing but help them and has never hurt them in any way.
I interpret good vs evil as serving the needs of others or serving the self. The self can be anything. For my character, it's my crew.
If you would sacrifice yourself to save your crew…you aren’t evil…
I actually have a Chaotic Evil Star Wars character that I'm quite proud of, since not only can I sometimes play him in a villain role in some specific scenarios with other villain characters, but I can also play him as an "anti-hero" in half of the other scenarios, since he knows killing everyone and everything isn't beneficial for earning money. That and he has a hobby of collecting pets from across the galaxy of course lol, along with having a sense of loyalty when it comes to those he actually considers friends or comrades.
sounds like the Star Wars villain Disney plus needs right now
@@assassin_npc If only, right?
I really liked this video and that you brought up thinking of yourself as a good aligned player, even if your playing an evil character, was great! One of my DMs is running an evil campaign and I think so far everyones done a good job of being vicious in game, but above table we're all very much chaotic good, even if we didn't think of it in those terms at the time lol. But taking that approach has also lead to really fun ingame things too. Like we're evil/selfish characters, but we gave up looting a goblin tower when one of our party members was in critical condition. Our characters first reasoning was: 'We don't want to try to find someone else to join us when we already trust this guy and he's our tank!!' Which lead to our player characters later realizing: Oh no. I think we all became friends!! Evil friends. But friends!' And above table as players, we were all worried about our friend losing their character they really enjoyed playing, so we were gonna save him!! And we did! : D
I love this XD Incredible character development!!!!!
In the first campaign i was able to finish. I played as a necromancer, who while helping the party do their quest and defeat the god of death/necromancy. Was using my ability to raise the dead to create lieutenants out of the BBEG's lieutenants so i could dethrone him and take over the world as the new BBEG of the next campaign. The whole time i was sending dms to the DM(we did our campaigns on discord because all of us were in different states and one of us was in England) about what i was doing and he would tell me what i needed to roll/beat for it to work. We got to the end and my plan worked. Everyone was blindsided and i was able to make my character's dream a reality. It was honestly pretty cool. And way easier than people think it is.
Also in that second campaign i did not play as the necromancer again. Instead i played as a regular character with no ulterior motive or secret goal.
As someone about to roll into a game with an evil character this is an EXCELLENT resource to find the day before. Thank you!
My pleasure, mate! ☺
For me, the best experience playing an evil character was with my first warlock.
Our previous characters died during their last bossfight, implying that our next characters would start at lvl 6 (i feel like this was really important because it gave me the room to write a more complex background than just a simple lvl 1 guy).
I really wanted to try an evil character without ruining other player’s experience, so i worked with my DM and came to a really nice conclusion of playing this warlock with separated souls.
This was a blast for me, because in his backstory he was straight a serial killer who liked to see life being ripped away from his victims, but his patron got enough of it and decided to make him a goofball that kept joking about everything that happened to the party and would feel bad for even trying to defend himself with violence.
His evil side sometimes would come off because of lore stuff and was really fun playing an entirely different character when it happened.
One of my favorite "evil character" moments, murdered someone while using disguise self and actor feat to impersonate the BBEG let the family see me before running away, then recruit the family members help to go after the BBEG. the players all knew what happened but my character kept it secret so in game no one knew. prior to that my PC had only done petty thieving or killed during open combat sessions, so showing my high charisma rogue was actually a sociopath took everyone by surprise.
Oh my god, I love this video. The music choice, the pace of telling, the actual advice, the pictures row. This is perfect
to answer your question, last time someone did something good for me, my immediate reaction was 'Alright thanks, but what's the catch?"
2:39 stop that suprised me way too much. Im smiling now and blushing jesus.
"how upset would i be .... oh no any way NEXT!" grabs stack of 30 PC that i have made and looking at some of them like I don't even know wo you are.
Honestly an easy way to find out if your other players or dm are bad is 1. make a character. 2. Tell everyone your playing a Chaotic Evil character. and last 3. Play the character as good, charitable, kind, giving, and agreeable as possible. If the dm and/or players are looking to be hostile with you regardless you should leave that table. they are looking for any excuse to treat someone poorly and it's not good (at least not for you) to associate with them.
I had an idea for an evil Warlock inspired by a real life personality, but I wasn't sure how, or even if, I should go for it.
Now I feel better in doing so. Thank you.
Nice vid. I've been wondering bout this for a while cuz I've had a character concept or 2 that invloved them being evil. Maybe not necessarily pure evil or irredeemable. More like they are evil because that's what they know and understand. Maybe depending on how the story unfolds they grow and change
I and my friends have played evil characters but we had the understanding that we need to work together. We can cheat or mess with the other pc's but we ate working together not against each other. The only time we have had a problem with another PC was when they were chaotic neutral and didn't work with the group. Don't play stupid evil make it work, find common interests that can keep the party together. A strong leader can help to keep the group focused and can deal with some infighting.
One of the most fun long term sessions I've played was with a group of characters that were all evil. We were just a bunch of murder hobos, and it was absolutely a ton of fun.
The trick that helps separate me from the character is whenever I describe something my character do, I refer to them in 3rd person. And whenever my character does something, is always describe details, like a narrator, details like the expression on face, or maybe the tone of the voice
The way I did it is play coniving characters and their evil actions usually help the party.
Example. I was playing a dark elf assassin who was riding Drizzt's good name and using his party as a cover so he could steal and kill but have people known for being good back him up on being good.
One time we were on a ship fighting a water elemental and I had nothing that could damage it so I went below deck to loot stuff while the party fought. In order to do that I had to clear out where the sailors were hiding so I did a mix of persuading and intimidating to get the sailors in the fight to help the party and to get them out so I could loot the ship.
This character would torture, kill, and threaten npcs while the party wasn't looking but generally avoided being caught and a lot of his actions would benefit the party as a by product so the players didn't bother looking into things too hard.
In the current campaign im playing in, im playing a bard who’s secretly a spy for an evil wizard. The wizard is a powerful enchanter who can wipe minds and controls my character through special bracelets that the wizard, at any time can dissipate the magic on, causing my character to lose all of their intelligence and charisma, and plummet back to base (for a kobold) stats. So my character has to do what the wizard says or he will lose his identity!
Very unique concept! :o
I thought about it this way:
Give your evil character a reason to exist, a reason to be this way, and a goal they want to achieve
Look at Bishop, Grimgnaw or Ammon Jerro from the Neverwinter Nights game series. Those characters are masterclasses in how to write and play evil characters. Betrayal, disregarding the means for the ends, lust for power and contempt for weakness are your bread and butter, do not feel afraid to mistreat NPC’s or even your fellow PC’s if you can get away with it. The tension this causes could be the catalyst for a betrayal later down the road, so keep that in mind.
A warning, however. Make sure to not needlessly pick fights as that can lead to less enjoyment from the other players and will slow down the game and if your other party members are evil they might just kill your character for being a liability.
Evil people seek to be perceived as good. This either involves doing good while others are watching and doing evil while no one is looking or "reputation laundering" by associating themselves with others who do good to get reputation by way of proximity to genuine altruists. I often play a low level evil person who does very little outward evil while acquiring resources and reputation. If the character survives to mid level, I retire him or her, having essentially "seeded" a future villain. The same way that a criminal would case a bank, ideally as a full on employee of said bank, my evil characters only have subtle signs that they are not altruistically motivated. It is more akin to seeding the grounds of a long con. Depending on the GM or players, I will either retire the character prior to their face-heel turn or, with GM permission, expose my villainy and become a villain for the campaign briefly. In either case, I transition to an actual heroic character at that point. IRL, I am the nicest person imaginable so it is very obvious that my villain characters are not self-inserts. Alternatively, my nice guy persona may be a ruse. Beware.
I will definitely use this. Currently, the way I'm playing my evil character is to start off with a slight distrust towards other PC's until that very first fight, then I throw in a sense of "we need each other". This way I keep a sort of "tribe mind" where I am nice to the other PC's simply because we're "going through it together". I try not to physically attack everything for no reason and am especially careful with key characters (not to kill, upset, steal from) since they might tie into other players story in a more significant way than it would for my character. Aside from that, I bully away and act selfish all in the name of a personal agenda.
Researching this before I go off to play my amoral oath of conquest paladin, Tock.
Creepy warforged mofo with a comedy mask.
I have been playing a lawful evil merchant dwarf in our campaign, and they have not yet figured it out one of the biggest moves that I did was I tried to make good with the priests and the paladin because I know that they can't detect evil. More so than that my character knows that they can do that so he has taken great strides to stay under the radar with them. The swashbuckler and the other rogue in the party however have absolutely seen his darker side and he has even blackmailed the swashbuckler so that she doesn't speak about what she knows. Evil characters can build friendships often though some of them are false they still help you maneuver around in the world and that means you have to be a friend you have to help them out you have to give them things however there's usually three or four turns to a motive about why you're doing the things you're doing and it's never out of the kindness of your own heart
I like the lawful evil alignment, as long as the goody two shoes doesnt betray them first they would never betray thier friends and allies, or do anything to get the party in unnecessary legal troubles.
This is so elegant and simple. Incredible video.
It also helps to play the kind of evil character who appreciates the value of subtly and tact.
To me its kinda easy to rolplay a evil character, just make the character someone who priorize itself and its important people over the others and dont have that much problems ignoring the "moral" action with a more..."the most important thing are the final result", "morality and honor dont bring food on the table or pay the taxes" (thats evil in DnD, to me its be a realistic person). After that you just choose if it follow rules (moral/social/or its own rules), ussualy follow them except if it will gain something or have a mentality of "no rules".
In a sense isnt that hard, the standar mercenary/adventurer for money in theory its an evil character, im here to do the mission and gain the money, not to save every damm person in problems
I was trying to play a Chaotic Neutral character for our run but.... nah he was evil.
Sacrificed and tortured people to his patron (they where assassins hired to kill our party but still).
Let a burning ship smash headlong into a busy harbor.
And the most evil act that happened mainly due to how much the music hyped me up. "Mercy" killing a helpless mother stuck/crushed under a fallen building with her child in hand. We returned the child to its father but the mother, we told him, did not survive the "accident". It actually was a rather well done shocking moment and that was mostly due to how well the music fit and how the dramatic parts hit the same time the music did. It is remembered fondly, if not a dark turn in our first campaign.
"How upset would you be, if your character died the next session?"
Well, I'm upset my character didn't die last session. I was clearly sacrificing myself and openly said I will make another character, but the DM decided we all are now some spirits in Shadowfell
I RP as a Lawful evil Black Half Dragon Half Elf Necromancer. The other player in our group is a Silver Dragonborn Lawful Good Paladin. This has caused some interesting dynamics where I had to say out of session I need to fix my character's personality (I'm big on lore) since Silver and Black Dragons are mortal enemies and we were literally on the opposite ends of the spectrum. What I had to do was find a party member who was more neutral to allow me to do certain things as my character and when my character was being a dick to the paladin, I just apologized and said I wasn't expecting xyz. Later it was easier as he would go complain at a fireplace or go smoke a pipe when his idea that got turned down for being too evil was the more correct choice. In the mean time during combat he would always try to keep the paladin alive as a way to show he respected the Paladin despite their differences like a rival who understands despites does not like the paladin. He would even say the paladin is correct on some things and kept his code as be a team player triumphs over his end justifies the means. For me its a strong constant mental exercise but is more rewarding and we get some laughs. Especially when Speak with the dead is applied and the Paladin walks right in.
My next lawful evil character is gonna be based on the saying "for the greater good"
I want to play a paladin some day that legit thinks he's LG, but is objectively and unambiguously LE. Also, have him act all high and mighty (the old "lawful stupid" trope) while he's at it. I imagine it's gonna be tough to get a group to consent to this, though 😂
I hate to tell you but “the greater good” isn’t evil in dnd. Gygax was crystal clear that’s it’s 100% in line with being lawful good to do inflict harm on “bad guys” and “potential bad guys”. Lawful good doesn’t mean lawful nice.
@@johntheherbalistg8756he is only LE if he is using the rules to personally benefit. LE is the alignment of devils.
When I play a chaotic evil psychopat the answer to the question is: "I'm counting on it". But they are more subtle then a raging madman so it takes the party some time to realise and kill them off.
Hi there.^^
I know I am a little bit late, but here is my experience by playing an evil Character:
Your alignment should never be „chaotic evil“, because Characters of this Alignment do evil deeds just because they think they can and they’ll do it as often as they can.
This however is nothing you should do in a heroic Campaign, nor in an evil one, as it is only working for NPC‘s and the Big Bads.
Instead you should pick „lawful evil“ if you are into manipulating People (Player Characters and Non-Player Characters alike) or „neutral evil“ where your only Goal is to get the most benefit of all the Opportunities laying down before you.
Don‘t show your „ugly“ Side too often and do your best to hide your true intentions until the Campaign is coming to it’s end.
Even evil Characters can be Heroes (although they don’t strive for it) and will join Forces with anyone against their common Foe for the greater Good if it benefits them or if they can avoid a gruesome Fate.
Evil Characters can also have true Friends and be true Friends, which will make them appear really creepy if someone they like and trust gets harmed and they unleash their „inner Beast“ towards the one responsible for doing it.
They are also capable of Love and can give genuine affection towards another Person.
Last but not least:
Alignments can change.
An evil Character who slowly changes throughout the Journey and redeemed himself is very appealing and can lead to very fun dynamics between the Players and the Game World as a whole.
Just remember to not ruin other people’s fun and don’t mess with their Characters (or better, not too much…😈). Value the working your Dungeon Master and think of ways to use the Elements presented by him to make the most of the experience without disrupting or even destroying it.
If everyone is having a good time, you have a good time.^^
Thanks for everyone reading this and may your Games be epic, funny and heartwarming.
Im playing an evil character for the first time prior to our upcoming session i made it very clear to the group i will be doing questionable things but i also made it clear if i do something that there character disagrees with for them not to feel bad for attacking me as i do not care if my character dies sooner than i expected, i also ensured my actions will not get in the way of the main goal but i will but it will be quite evident that i am evil aligned
My PC is not me, yet I do still feel a bit sad at the idea of them dying. Not because I think they're me, but because maybe I worked hard on them and it's like watching something you created thrown away without actually reaching it's potential.
I'm currently playing an over-the-top Tyrant of the world domination Cleric of Bane Daemos Black Hand in the Mad mage campaing, despite he's doing the over-the-top villain talk like Lord Bison from the SF series, my take on he's seeing players as his minions in his conquest of world domination thus he's not playing nor betraying the party. He's actually helping them to get back to work by healing them painfully. (Who said that healing wasn't painless?) (My party thinks he's crazy but plays along with his crazy megalomaniac delusions.)
Interesting 🤔 i wonder where this will go
Easiest why to play a evil character in a party of goodie two shoes is to be lawful evil and have something that makes them want to work with them. Though nothing stops you from planning how to deal with them after the threat is dealt with.
There'll be time enough for counting when the dealing's done.
"How did it make you feel when someone did something for you for nothing?"
That's very suspicious behavior ....
I made an evil PC, and I partly tried to plan with another player and the dm to have there be a climatic final battle with HER as the BBEG, with her losing. her motives were simple desire to survive, since she was already a 30y/o goblin she already reached the halfway point of her life and was desperately seeking to extend her life and protect her life at expense of any other. the campaign ended ubruptly with a "and you all end up in a tavern and go seperate ways" cause it was the last time we would all be able to play dnd together. so it was agreed that she just won and became capable of endless life and thats it gg.
Wowwww that's really kind of them :)
Selfish doesn't mean loveless and your character can grow to like the party and seek do to hide their lack of morality. They might even risk their life because they don't want to lose anything. Althought to them, a freind dieing or going off to live happlily ever after, but never seeing them again are just as bad. If dark elf, then they could be old and bored, wanting to experance somthing new. They might pretend to be good, but kill anyone who threatens their new fun.
Yo, that was actually a impressive tip, rly thx for that!!!
My pleasure, Julio! :)
I agree with a lot of what you said but you have missed out one key thing about playing as a evil character and that is you need to be able to work with your players if you don't do this you could end up getting kicked from the table even evil characters have friends and love ones the only difference is a evil character views on them is not going to be the same as a good character view on friends and love ones I am playing as a lawful evil Hobgoblin Bladesinger who was a mercenary veteran so her mentality is if you hurt someone in her band you are hurting her she kinda has the mob mindset
I made a character minmaxed for lethality. I wondered what the motivation for the character training so hard to be and, maybe it's mine? It just wants to kill. That's pure chaotic evil. but I don't want to ruin anything the others are doing, so "She is wise enough to know that all she has to do is hang around dangerous people for long enough, and her chance will come soon enough, again and again, to kill."
At its core evil is defined by selfishness. Compassion is a big part of it as well, but all of the alignment systems in DND are separated by selfishness. This is why truly neutral characters is difficult, because they're neither particularly compassionate, nor selfish.
*Assasin NPC:* How upset would I be if my character died next session?”
*Me:* _[finishing my 2nd backup character]_ I don’t understand the question
My favorite Evil Character for D&D is a Chaos Warrior from Warhammer Fantasy.
Chaos Warriors are plundering, pillaging and rapping (the second g is silent) Vikings in full plate armor which worship Demon gods. But they can absolutely work in a D&D adventure setting, because what matters most to an individual Chaos Warrior, is honoring their gods. They do that by defeating strong foes in 1on1 Challenges and offer up their triumph is victory.
So why would a Chaos Warrior help a merry band of heroes to defeat the Dragon King? Because he wants that things head on spike to carry home. No coin, no altruism, just pure glory seeking ego.
Instructions too difficult, trapped in time loop, please help! 😂
The way I play my Evil master assassin in campaigns is that he is completely selfish but sometimes this aligns with the party, layer the actions and reasoning, I saved a party member from an arrow to the back, a good alignment thing to do, because my character had affection for them however won't openly say it, its a weakness in the assassins world but also because they are needed for the party and their own plans.
The idea is who is true evil the one that kills for fun or the one that would erase your identity so you know your friends and family but they have no clue who you are, so your name will fade into obscurity?
Evil like good has its layers, which is why I only use the alignment system as a loose guide.
Because we have seen how differently aligned characters can coexist one such game is starcraft 2 Alarak with the rest.
Also Tying some actions into your characters religious and cultural beliefs and practices, something seen as barbaric and evil to one is lawful to another
So true! The line between lawful-chaotic and good-evil is often...blurred
@@assassin_npc Yep! 'Because the line of Neutrality often bleeds outward when the lens is not in focus.
And always surprise those around you.
Every betrayal does not make you untrustworthy, you could actually be someone that a part member can depend on because they can trust that you will do something selfish at some point over someone's motives that are still hidden completely.
And a good DM will always have alternate routes, say, one member gets caught off guard and is hanging onto a ledge, your evil character made it apparent they will not help but there are too many enemies for even them,
So the evil character jumps off the side of the ledge and takes them down with them, scene end and picks up later that something broke their fall or you can play that sequence out, regardless you saved both of you but intended to use them as a means of cushioning your fall haha!
But not every perceived death action need be instant death.
@@Zero-Catalyst Wise words!
Keep in mind; humanity as a whole survives by cooperation. There's a reason people need socialization but not a need to be isolated. This applies to good and evil in humanity's terms both in real life and in TTRPGs.
Currently attempting a difficult evil char idea with high level PCs and incredible magic items.
Everything is hinging on this group of individuals to sace the world from several different threats. One of which is a cursed personality sickness known as "The wack".
A disease that travels to highest authority of civilization and eliminates thousands of lives in the process. Also known by me to being the god of insanity.
My wizard contracted the wack while he touched a cursed book splitting his mind and fracturing it leaving him with a personality mesh. He has home brew rules for swapping personalities. I made backstory for each one and names so my players can identify who is out based on how i act.
The wack and my wizard have constant battles in hisnhead for control. And though my char is really strong the party didnt exactly help much in his fight against this wack. So at rhis point the wacl is winning
Anyway my wizard had this plan to use magic jar to escape his body. The wack is saposed to be insanity incarnate but I need to ensure I'm not just insane. So in a way I act sane, but do so in an insane way.
Interesting take. This will have to marinate for a bit
You basically say at the end that while the character is evil and seeks his own benefit at the expense of others... the player should be kind, concerned about others and helpful. That's like saying "learn to be a cunning and devious two-face guy, or like a spy or double agent" XD
this is exactly how i define good amd evil in my games
Or you could simply ensure that your character's evil actions aren't at the expense of other player characters except when planned with the table ahead of time.
The motivation for an evil character to stay on the party's "good" side? Self preservation, deception, apathy, manipulation, etc.
A great way to play an evil character is to play an asshole with friends. Remember that no one is evil 100% of the time and even bad people often have people they care about. That should be the party for your character.
I... play almost exclusively evil characters. My main is a devout Lolth-sworn drow. If evil is defined by a character who prioritizes their own needs over others, how does that make the characters expecting their own needs to always be prioritized not evil? Also, if you as the player need to break character "every few minutes" to remind the table you're not evil in real life... are the other players all 8 years old? I would highly recommend finding a table of adults who understand the difference between pretend and reality. The key to playing an "evil" character harmoniously is to understand what motives them and how their goals align and differ from the rest of the party's. I'm playing a drow in party with a cleric of Lathander. Both are motivated by their faith. They find common ground on that. There's no need to break character. The other players understand what my character's motives are and he has a vested interest in their continued support, so he prioritizes cooperation. It's that simple.
I actually play D&D in a club at my school and I always play a fighter and my current D&D character would be having an entire sub story with the villains right now if I wasn't told by the people who run it that I would be a dick and my character would instantly be sent to the 9th circle of hell if I betrayed my party despite that being completely in character. My current one f****** evil and he knows it. I also have a backup character who is basically the good the their evil and is probably the only one of all are characters who can go toe to toe with my current character.
You have experience ;)
I'd love to play an evil or morally very questionable character (a charcter who doesn't care about hurting others to achieve their goals)! I guess you have to establish rules like: make them want to stay in the party due to common goals, and to not harm party members or ruin quests, because it's more convenient to my character if they journey together with the player group. However, non-essential npcs could be treated very cruelly if it fit the moment. I guess the key is to talk it out with the DM, make sure players are ok with it, and not ruin the fun of other players. Still, I'm here to learn about anything to avoid
Wise choice mate! :)
I have a player who became lawful evil through a pact through and evil god, she didn’t make this deal out of selfishness but in order to make sure nothing else bad happened to the party she cares for, so how would that exactly be played?
Here is how I usually play evil. Even the most psychopathic monster in cinema has something they love. They need to protect that thing no matter what. They would do anything, to anyone, at any moment to protect that thing. It could be their reputation, or a family member, or a pet, but it is something. For my evil character, that is one or all of the other players. That prevents them from back stabbing the other players for the simple fact that they would absolutely lose that person they are tied to. However, there is nothing stopping the evil character from using methods that would make even the most resolute paladin vomit at the thought of it to keep their friend/s alive. The question you ask at every moment is "what can I do to improve the survival rate and comfort of the people I need in my life" and then ignore the more difficult solutions in favor of the simple, even if it is morally bankrupt thing to do.
I want to become a villain that betrays the group and becomes the next Big bad
all the best with that :)
Here's a character that's technically a "Lawful good" Paladin but a certain character doesn't feel that way...
Artorius Collbrande, the "villain" of Tales of Berseria.
And Velvet Crowe, who is "evil".
The thing to remember is just because your character is evil that doesn’t mean they have to be stupid about it.
Ill like to try playing as a lawful evil character.
Imo A good example for a dnd character who is evil Kagain from Baldur's Gate. Greedy and selfish, but not going out of the way to be horrifyingly evil and murder hoboish. While apathetic most of the times it's also shown that he does genuinely have standards and their are even acts that he wouldn't do (which could be used to justify an evil character sticking around with a group if they aren't doing it out of friendship).
I plan to play a lawful evil paladin. This'll be fun
I have a lawful evil knight in one of the campaigns I play.makes for great rp
Helpful video!
"But you wanted to play an evil character without being judged by your friends"
Most DMs ban evil characters. So it doesn't matter if you're good at it or not.
Legends of runeterra artwork 🎉😂
I WAS HERE WHEN ASSASSIN ONLY HAD 340 SUBS
You make me happy
Great video, well said
Huh i would be very very upset if my characters died next session, but honestly im at a point in game where i would be very very upset if other players characters died too
Another thing: Don't be evil every single session, a evil character can go along with the group and seem normal, what you want to do is be selfish in those crucial moments.
If you wake up first after every long rest and pour fireants in the other players boots because you are "Evil" then you are just annoying.
You are evil when after hundreds of sessions in the critical moment where someone is about to reach their goal you ruin it for them for your own benefit.
Your acts of evil against your party should be calculated and done only when necessary or goal defining.
While you can be evil to others, don't be evil to those that the party cares about. Don't torture the old lady that let you stay in her hut for the night, instead brutally torture the slavers that "deserve it"
Chaotic evil = Lawful Good
Ivr actuslly never been able to play good characters and its always a blast when i play at tables in 1 shots
I usually end up desecrating graves/urns of ashes when i can or just letting my fellow players go willingfully into traps or just being the slap stick humor of the table
I also end up either killing myself at the end of the 1 shots either by doing something completely stupid like once as a cleric, i got into a grave and fireballed the coffin i was in...
Or once as a pirate barbarian i tried intimidating everyone in the party to do what i wanted but ended up failing every roll and ended up loosing my role on the ship as captain, that was fucking awesome.
Or this other time where i have a selfish monk character who would show off by doing backflips and shit to get over puzzles or just normal gates only for other people to do the same thing and fail miserably and me just talk about how they have to do better next time😂
Its all just for fun and i usually end up being for the party but i also dont save the party aswell, im only in it for the gold of course.
Im going to try and make a good paladin tonight who is good and try to be good because rn my intrusive thoughts win every god damn time.
I hope you succeed in your good paladin tonight mate XD
*Two-facing, the Game*
Me who is looking to play an evil Paladin: 👀
amazing video
Thank you, mate :)
I would be upset if my character dies because I want to keep playing that character. I signed up for a campaign in which I am that character, not a backup character that gets rotated in if I die.
If there's resurrection options available or if I do something incredibly stupid and totally deserve the character death, then that changes things. Can't blame the DM for my stupidity. But if I lose a character and it's not my fault, I'm out. That table is dead to me.
Also, I have absolutely no interest in playing a character that is evil by the definition that was given near the start of the video, or anything close to that. That sounds incredibly unfun to me.
Fair enough! :)
Oh, fuck, I don't have that human, that did something bad to me, cause I am one xd
Getting someone kicked from the university D&D club because they complained that your running 'joke' about being a child killer and a cannibal was making them uncomfortable would be pretty much the exact opposite of this.
Getting the quiet guy who barely spoke kicked was not difficult for them since they were a little older than the rest of the club and they made people uncomfortable because they didn't make eye contact because of their social anxiety and poor social skills.
Yes this happened and the player sold their D&D books to a second hand book store a week after this and never played again and was quite upset about D&D after that, this person had poor social skills and social anxiety before this and this made those problems worse...
I know you are just going to brush this off as a "yeah , that happened ... I believe you honest..." story but I need to say it to help lift the weight of this from my mind.
If you want to play an evil character just don't be hostile towards your companions they are helping you fight why would you want to be antagonizing them.
And be mindful of what boundaries you shouldn't cross in the story you are trying to make it will most definitively make people uncomfortable at the table and get you kicked out if you cross them.
i keep seeing videos like this where they act as if evil character are the problem but in my experience its almost always a cleric or paladin that decided they want to make it a problem and try to find any reason to pick a fight at every chance
@@colorpg152 and most go for the stereotype I'm evil on paper so I'm justified to play as a toxic snarky edge lord I kid you not, that kind of player is what prevents me from playing online.
@@imabirdo i have literally never seem one of those
What if, your not good in real life.. but you try to be…
What? Who do you play with? Do people really have personal issues disconnecting themselves or others from the characters? I find it very striking to even think about but I guess I must consider everyone's life choices lead them to be exposed to different people.
the person i thought of HAS killed lmao