Keep in mind that just because you're evil, it doesn't mean you can't like your non evil party members. Hell, I had an evil assassin who was a serial killer, and happened to be in love with the wizard. And the bard... oh also the druid.
This is correct. As is mentioned in the video, an "evil" character is someone who is looking out for themselves first. They are people to whom the ends justify the means. "Good" and "Evil" isn't so clear a concept. Evil doesn't mean "mindless murder machine who wants to destroy the world" (although such a person is likely evil). It's far more nuanced than that. Evil does not exclude loyalty, for example. Chaos does. Evil does not exclude love. Love, in fact, is what can drive someone to commit "evil" acts. And Good people can get along with Evil people. Good people generally believe in redemption and second (and third) chances. Perhaps the Good character really does like the Evil character - just not some of the things the Evil character does. That can lead to some good moments. And sometimes the Good may be quite glad that the Evil is there. "We need X to happen. I can't think of a moral way to get it done." "Let me handle it." "What are you up to?" "Don't worry. Just let me handle it." That can be a great area for role playing and tension without causing problems. Paladins are probably the ones who are most incompatible with the above, but even they can be worked with on some level. They may be working with you to show you how to lead a better life, how to control your impulses, how to view things from a different perspective, how to value and respect other people. And the Paladin will accept that everyone fails their personal challenges at some point. Forgiveness, acceptance, and gentle guidance could be a great sub-theme for the game.
Yeah, the lawful evil character I plan to play is interested in joining a group of adventurers because doing things alone takes too much effort and is dangerous. They intend to stay with that party until their goal is complete, and they know making the party hate them will make that goal more difficult to reach. It's part of their internal goal that keeps them in line, and part of their intelligence telling them not to spite their party
I completely agree and feel a little called out. One of my favorite evil characters was a Necromancer I had styled as an alchemist. She loved and worshiped her older sister who was another player and was the initial motivation for joining the party. The familial connection allowed for great RP when my Necromancer's sister would criticize her moral corruption but still defend her when things would come up with others. Unfortunately, as soon as I left that game the DM turned my character against the party and undid nearly everything I'd built up because our views on alignment differed dramatically. Evil is not a license to be a shithead, whether you're playing the game or running it.
@@alexanderhood8993 I was already leaving the game for a few reasons. So turning my character into a villain almost immediately just validated my choice to leave.
I know another way that blew my mind: there was a campaign on TH-cam where the evil character was a wolf in sheepskin, an Impostor up until the last episode. He was basically the replacement Paladin of the group. The unwavering purpose and believe in good of the party. Then in the last episode he became the prime pawn of the BBEG. I did not see that coming and it was awesome. Especially because his warlike nature and artistic but brutal Monk fighting style made somewhat more sense now.
This is how I would wanna do an evil character. I love the idea of not the mustache twirling bad guy who murders everyone. But the charismatic and manipulative wolf in sheeps clothing. Never lifting a finger but instead whispering in the parties ears saying “why not kill him? He deserves it. Think of what he did to you and your family.”
@@patrickbonnette1701 I’ve made this character and that’s his class haha. But I kinda made a rule set for him so he isn’t ruining the choices of the other players. So the manipulation has to come through RP and not dice rolls. Just because the dice rolls would make it seem more like mind control then manipulation. I desperately wanna play this character but I got to find the right group of friends so that people don’t get mad.
It's a scary spell! Especially since as a sorcerer some of the metamagics can make it even more dangerous. It's like mummifying someone right then and there
Pathfinder got this spell called mark of the lizard, which turns the target into a lizard over days using charisma damage. Would suit that purpose quite well. Nice idea you got there.
@@PlayYourRole My Chaotic Neutral Drow Feylost Death Domain Cleric will learn it and use it effectively against the enemies. Additionally, what if there was a party of all "Evil" Player Characters they may decide to work together in a Voldemort Death Eaters type situation.
Another VERY important thing to keep in mind when making an Evil aligned character: There is another half of the alignment chart. Is your character Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic. A Lawful Evil character WILL NOT be anything remotely similar to a Chaotic Evil character. I played a Lawful Evil Oathbreaker Paladin in a campaign of Descent into Avernus, and she was really only Evil in that she was willing to do ANYTHING to protect innocent lives. Her backstory I came up with for my DM is that she was to be a Devotion Paladin for Torm, but 3 slightly older Paladins who had made that Oath were abusing their power to get what they wanted, generally shitty people, but they remained in the Oath, so the day she was to make her pledge to Torm, she presented their severed heads to the temple and made a statement about how these so called Paladins had behaved, and for her trouble, she was exiled to Baldur's Gate to "atone for her actions" and was stripped of the right to take the Oath of Devotion. So she is a Lawful Evil character who puts innocent lives over all else. If a Lawful Good Cleric's insistence of not taking action results in the death of innocent lives, she would kill him without a second thought.
I wish I had been able to play more into that, but once you get into Avernus, you're basically JUST dealing with Evil who take innocent lives, so once we left Baldur's Gate her mindset was basically just what was expected in a party cutting down demons and devils left and right...
Alignment is super shaky, but that sounds like the definition of Chaotic Good to me, not Lawful Evil. "she was willing to do ANYTHING"- Chaotic by definition, not restrained by an external code, motivated only by one's internal values. "to protect innocent lives"- Very difficult to portray as anything other than Good.
@@CyanMedic She is Lawful Evil because she has a code of ethics she follows, but she was branded Evil by her home for calling out her church's hypocrisy, in many ways, I actually view Lawful Evil and Chaotic Good as two sides of the same coin, so I can see how you'd get Chaotic Good from my description of her. I say Lawful Evil because she leans into her branding. (Also, by the rules in the DMG, you can't play an Oathbreaker unless you take an Evil alignment, which is dumb)
@@Hey-Its-Dingo I usually ignore that ruling tbh, to me an Oathbreaker is someone who's broken their oath. I would understand if you can't take it because you can't be a "lawful" alignment. That makes sense since an oath is effectively a "lawful" thing to do. But an oathbreaker being an "evil" archetype doesn't make sense. Same thing with the death domain for cleric
@@kelmirosue3251 It's because the subclass wasn't actually designed for player use. It was designed to be used for Evil Paladin NPCs, and all of their powers are based around commanding an army of Undead, which, when the DMG was released, was all bundled under that Evil label. I'm sure it would be made very differently if it was released today.
It's amazing what kind of story moments can be created when you talk things like this out with your party and don't try to hold back for 'the surprise' factor. I was in a game (not D&D, but a TTRPG sent in a futuristic dystopia) where i missed an early session. when i came back, before we started playing, the rest of the party and the GM filled me in: one of the party members, who we as players already knew was lying about who she was, had been essentially contracted to try and kill my character by an NPC from my character's backstory. The other player kept repeatedly checking in with me as that plot thread began to develop, constantly asking if I was okay with how this story was going and making sure i knew that, if I asked him to, he would 'pull his punches' and make SURE his character would fail. Honestly, given the world of the story, I just wanted to see what happened, so I prepped a backup character and kept assuring him it was okay, to go for it. The attempt ended up failing, his character became an NPC after that point and he asked if he could make his new character an old friend from my character's background--and I had no hesitation in agreeing. Even though our characters had been in deadly conflict, the way he played it had inspired nothing but trust, and his new character became one of the most important people to mine--including saving each other's lives multiple times. All of this great story, which I still think of years after it happened, was possible because of the trust built between our whole group as players because everyone talked through anything that may have become an issue. there was plenty we all knew that our characters didn't, and it didn't 'spoil' the story for us: it allowed us to make it better without hurting anyone.
Thank you for sharing, that's confirmed some of the thoughts I've had on how to deal with that regarding the other players... obviously it seems fun in my head to keep things secret but then you have no idea if the other players would even want/accept that kind of a turn and you mind end up weirding people out so, I feel like this is the only right way to do it. If or rather when I end up running some of my more ambiguous characters, I hope I can make it work as well as you guys did!
@@th0rne_999 I hope it goes well! While it can be fun to plan a surprise, it can be just as fun if not moreso to craft something great together was my big takeaway.
You make some great points, but the thing you said early on is the key for me. An evil character that doesn't think they are evil. Fiction and history are full of evil people who thought they were doing the right thing. It's why Thanos worked in the movies. Another great hook for an evil character is a compelling flaw. That meshes well with also not thinking they are evil. You can have a selfishly evil character who operate on the premise that they have serious trust issues. Not being able to trust can cause them to see everyone as a threat, so their selfishness is justified to them as a survival skill.
You said to fight about alignment in the comment, so here's my hot take: Deadpool is True Neutral bc he can easily slot into the actions of any other alignment with no conflict Also, Neri was evil and y'all loved her
My experience playing a Lawful Evil character was Qoin- A Tiefling born and raised in the nine hells, and was functionally a very high-ranking accountant working with souls as currency. On the cusp of being promoted, she got screwed over by a colleague who framed her for fraud, and was demoted to Faerun as a soul collector. She has a plan to find an ancient relic of Mammon to earn back her position, but until then, evil souls are worth just as much as good souls, so this adventuring party will certainly come across plenty of death for her to skim off the top. Qoin knows what it's like be to betrayed, and wouldn't do that to her own party. She is very strict when it comes to plans and agreements, if she makes a promise she will keep it regardless of changes in circumstances. She would not steal or knowingly break local laws, and that includes unprompted murder, even though that would benefit her goal. I've only gotten to play her in a one shot so far, and the only conflict was when another player went against the plan they'd set. The player was right to do so, and Qoin acknowledged that it worked out, but if it happens again then they need to communicate with the party that the circumstances have changed and a renegotiation is in order instead of jumping into action and assuming there will be backup. She was super fun to play, and very different from anyone else I've done 😅 I love the idea that the nine hells is full of soul-sucking mundanity and wanted to play with it to make a evil character more relatable.
I completely agree I was playing a lawful evil character for a few years and because of these similar guidelines we as a party had some really fun roleplay moments
A good example of an evil character who would be fun to play in a party: Loki. "I am burdened with glorious purpose," is an amazing line for illustrating not only how such a character would think, but how they can justify teaming up with a bunch of apparent do-gooders. The group's ends might still serve their purpose, or at least help to thwart one of their own obstacles.
Me and friends are just about to start making a campaign with the new Strixhaven book that is going to be coming out soon. It will be for all of us (except the DM, who has DM'd other campaigns.) our first DnD game. I am going to be playing a Owlkin druid and I'm going to be childhood friends with another character. A great friend of mine IRL. After watching this video and your "HOW TO BE AN ARROGANT JERK" video, I thought it would be a really fun idea to play a good boy druid and as I level up I start taking more dark and "evil" spells. I haven't looked at the subclasses yet but it has really inspired me to kind of have a character arc change where I start to say or do more "morel grey motives" , and I leave it up to the group to figure out/ decide if I'm actually turning to the evil side, or if they think I'm just being a badass. I'm going to try and RP more narcissistic and bad. But if they don't catch on I want my character to go full evil and leave the party for a good few sessions. And if they do notice I want them to be like "Hey easy on the spells" or like "That was a bit overkill there" and talk me out of it. The DM is totally down for all of this and I feel like this would be a really good way to kinda "force RP" at least a little bit. My whole group has been friends with each other for over a year now, So its not out of the blue. I just felt like this would be a really good way to get everyone to RP more since from the start we were all going to be funny and have funny backstories and kinda joke the whole game. I'm all for it, but this twist I feel like will have a great impact for them and me to really flesh out later campaigns and have a more "RP focus" campaign. Please let me know what you think. Any input would be great. Plus i love playing the chaotic character and messing with things.
I made a chaotic evil dragonkin warlock for a 5e campaign. The whole party was good, but like I had this idea that if his goal was revenge then he wouldn't do anything to blow that. Also that if there was something that would prevent it or like a greater evil in the land it would be in his interest to stop it even if it meant working with good aligned characters. Basically before the game the DM tried to make him have an alignment shift so he killed himself with a nat 20. He was a great character.
There was a lawful evil fighter in a game years ago who was friendly, helpful and caring towards the party but was vicious, cruel and violent towards everyone else because they weren’t part of their tribe. He made a great bad cop when it came to intimidating or interrogation, and the player loved dancing on that line.
I feel like evil support is a fantastic sweet spot in a party of neutral/goods. I like having an evil healer especially who is aware of their vulnerability without the party, which naturally endears them to the rest of the group.
my first time playing a evil alignment went well, I was a Chaotic Evil Human Gloomstalker Ranger. his backstory involves being banned from his criminal group and was being hunted by them. His motivation to hang with the party was protection, he still liked the party, but one of the MAIN reasons he was with them was out of selfish needs. And the party had uses for me, i had the best wisdom/perception out of the whole party(20) and i was an amazing ambusher. One of the main things i learned to play an evil character is about opportunity. Instead of murdering civilians out of nowhere because Lol FunNy, I instead wait until the DM GIVES ME a choice instead of forcing my own. This usually becomes something like: Should I kill the last enemy of the raid, even though they surrendered? Or let's say I am given a reward of gold that i am supposed to distribute evenly to the party, but i could take an extra 10-20% of the cut and lie to them that it's an even spread. (i feel like anything more than 10-20% is just being a dick to the players xD but honestly that depends on the friend group you're playing with.) from my experience going off of the DM feels more natural and tends to not ruin campaigns. My DM later told me that i somehow became the only person they knew to successfully play an evil alignment character. So I guess i did something right.
HAVE A SESSION ZERO. HAVE A SESSION ZERO. HAVE A SESSION ZERO. Having a session zero to make sure everyone knows "hey, player characters can be selfish jerks, but we're not going to be kicking puppies and cannibalizing each other" makes everyone a lot more understanding and prevents dorknozzle players, at least in my experience.
Kill Bill might be an example of martial class weapon attacks. For physical attacks I'd use something like the first Jack Reacher movie or possibly a Bourne movie.
I do play a true neutral character. She is a half dragon and has been called "defective" by both good and bad alined characters. E.g. her father called her defective because she showed empathy. A trait he deams useless and sometimes even dangerous. But her empathy is highly selective. She is intelligent enough to act like she cares about people but she actually doesn't. Only when she spend time with another person and actually enjoyed their company does she develop empathy for them. Yet she had to endure a lot of torturous experiments on the hand of "good" alined people who held her captive in the believe that her race is unable to develop sympathy and that she was suppose to be a weapon of her father (they kept her alive as blackmail against her father). They made the experiments in order to find a "cure" of her "condition". But that's the main reason why she hates torture. In a simulation, a test that our group had to pass, they decide to threaten a monster we were tracking down with torture in order to find out what happened to a person who was kidnapped. But when my character saw that she interrupted it and stopped them. In an firecamp session we told parts of our backstory to each other and she explained why she was against torture. But if she meets her main tortures she will take revange and probably try to "payback" what they have done to her. I want to make that interesting that she'll actually enjoy taking revenge and will feel relieved and happy afterwards no matter how savage it will be. It's similar to her empathy that doing bad actually fulfills her but is also a really selective burning hatred. Normally revange isn't really fulfilling for humans and if it is it doesn't stay for long but I do want to make it that this is also different about her. She is a wild sourcerer armorer artificer and I made her a robot pet that she really likes but constantly puts in danger because she can fix it afterwards. The rouge of our party once asked:"Btw. Why does Curse (Robots name) like you?" Me:"That's because I programmed it to." Rouge:" I understand but what does it benifit from liking you or what do you do to make it express happiness and does what you say while he normally will try to avoid getting damaged?" Me:"well... I made it so it would even exist without me and besides if it dies I'll just bring it back." All of my party members looked at me with concerned looks as what my character described was the exact situation my characters brother is in because he is still with their father who also is a necromancer (we had an interaction with him when he told us to run while he was trying to fight being possessed). My character went red and screamed:" I'm NOT like my father,... right?" I love moral ambiguous characters and she is one of my favorites so far. She tries to be good just because she experienced something good once (when people helped her flee) but she has tendencies which she doesn't view as bad while those mirror things she normally would hate.
A couple of characters like this would be good for a Thunderbolts/Suicide Squad type campaign setting. A Kingdom forms a special mercenary unit formed from military rejects, former prisoners, unlucky recruits, and a few unexpected volunteers to do tasks that a normal unit would not be able to do. Most would just be regular outcasts characters, but there could be a few evil ones as well.
22:26 Great point! Evil is not pretty. It only may appear beautiful or not as bad as the alternative. In my opinion being a bad person often comes from not having enough good in ones life.
An idea that I had for an evil character is essentially like Zuko from the last air bender. He isn’t the person who actually murders the person. Instead he whispers in your ear reminding you of all the horrible things they had done. No rolls, no magic, just flat out RP trying to convince your party to go beyond their boundaries. And evil charismatic whisperer. Telling you the person deserves it…
I feel like people who say “there’s no evil because everyone thinks they’re the hero” forgot about folks like Mao, Hitler, Stalin, Nero, Jack the Ripper, etc… There is evil in this world, the real world. It’s more rare and harder to define, but there are clear examples of it.
You could have at least used examples that were a bit less narcissistic or self riteous. Those 5 pretty much absolutely thought they were the heroes in their own lives.
@@Jessie_Helms as a sane person, I can say that while probably not all of them thought of themselves as good, in world history when the teacher taught us about WWII, it was stated outright that Hitler thought that he was actually in the right because that's how fucked up in the head he was. People can delude themselves enough to think that they are in the right. I bet Ethan of h3h3 thinks that he's a good person, despite saying that he wanted someone to "bomb the NRA convention" among other things. The people that tell others to #### themselves probably think that they're justified in doing so just because the person they said that to is a furry, or watches anime, or didn't like Steven Universe, or *did* like Steven Universe, or played Undertale "the wrong way."
I wanted to create a character whi was a Lawful Evil assassin. Now I didn't want to necessarily be evil, but the DM said if I wanted to play him he had to be. So I created this guy who was kind of like a CIA agent...he was willing to do what it took regardless to get the mission accomplished. On the rare occasion when one of the other characters gave him static on his methods, he would give up one of my favorite catchphrases. "I'm not the good guy, or the bad guy. I'm the necessary guy. " That being said , he had trouble connecting with the rest of the party, until a couple of the members were kidnapped and my character rescued them by strategically killing off the bad guy who had paid for it. Then things got better.
After 5 years of being familiar with dnd, i've finally created my first evil character. Not because i really wanted to play an evil character, but because everyone else at the table makes me upset all the time, and i wanted an excuse to not care about what their characters say or do anymore. I don't have an easy option to play with someone else either, sadly.
I play a Yuan-Ti Rogue, neutral evil of course, but his goals are to make people chase after their dreams and desires, I mean any desire, be it good or harmful to them. He does this to corrupt and indirectly have control over people lives. Even still the party is having fun because interestingly enough the goals of my character are the rest of the party achieving their goals.
Here's a quick lawful evil character that can play with good heroes, off the top of my head: A cleric who gladly served as the torturer for the king/baron (of a nearby land). He absolutely revels in the suffering of villains, but will not harm innocents. And obviously he follows and upholds the laws. Those laws just happen to not protect cultists from his mace and daggers. Plus if a bandit refuses to talk.. you have someone who can get that information.. one way, or another.
Evil action surge example: thanos pummelling cpt america into the ground and shattering his shield. Brutal, terrifying, makes u feel helpless...sounds like a good evil character
I'm confused how can someone be not comfortable with someone else playing an evil character? What is there to be uncomfortable about? They may not like it but that's completely different. Another thing i don't get is why it seems so taboo to play an evil character? Normally the whole table is full of evil characters is it not? I have never been in a group that enjoys playing good characters. edit: typo
Antithesis means opposite of, bro. Epitome is the word you were looking for, or possibly thesis. There are more words like eidolon, ideal (platonic ideal being the best of the best) etc. but antithesis is literally anti thesis and refers to something that is the opposite in every way. The antithesis of an antihero is an antivillain.
I killed my first Character in our Curse of Strahd campaign, because he was to fanaticly against Undead, while the others where cool with them. My second character is neutral to Undead and the loss of infighting really helped make the campaign feel better ^^
I have played one evil character. Still is. They started out lawful neutral but with how I played them they for sure were very evil minded. A warforged crown Paladin who serves another of the players, but developed a wish for life. So they deal with anything that would cause a threat to that in very lethal manners. Which makes this powerful and helpful warforged a source of constant fear.
So, I want to comment before watching my experience playing a Lawful Evil Bladesinger. Before the campaign began, the DM kinda grouped us together based on the backstories we gave him, and then he used our backstories to weave our characters together. This is a high level campaign, starting at level 11, so keep that in mind as I describe things here. I met the paladin and sorcerer while I was in service to a young red dragon. We were opposing each other, but I played a tactful wizard. I knew these two were strong. They got this far into the dungeon, and only I, the dragon's right hand, stood in their way now. If we fight, there's a chance I die. If I turn, there's a lower chance of death. These two are more powerful, and if I aid them, their goal is extremely achievable. So, I turned, and together, we felled a dragon, with the paladin landing the killing blow. Our story was spread, and soon we were known as an adventuring trio. I went into this campaign trusting those two characters with my life, as they had actively saved me in the past and I knew that they were aware of the people who wanted me dead. The rest of the group, I was hostile with. I'd sneer and insult, and we'd butt heads. At one point, a fight broke out between myself and the artificer. The two I knew instantly put up large sums of money betting I'd win. The fight lasted one round, as I rolled a natural 20 on the spell Steel Wind Strike, then followed up by action surging from my two levels of fighter to cast Haste, then attacked with a Booming Blade due to being a Bladesinger. The artificer went down before getting a chance to fight back. However, the next encounter was a challenging one, and at one point, the artificer protected me from the creature, so in response, I spent downtime crafting a hatchet for a joke. At the end of our downtime, I asked to speak with them, and ominously asked for a shovel to dig a shallow hole. Nobody knew what was going on, but when we got outside the gates where I could dig, I started out digging, then asked for help because wizard, you know. I then placed the hatchet in the ground, and we buried it together. From then on, we worked as a team, especially since we both knew how to craft weapons and tools for our party. Moral of how I ran it, trust is earned, but once earned, I'll treat you favorably. Like a master craftsman and his tools. If they serve him well, he'll treat them with care and respect with extra effort to ensure they can continue to be their best. That said, I do speak down to those who have yet to earn my respect with this character, and lie through my teeth to get what I want. Alright, so I'm now at the 18 minute mark, and you're now giving examples. Your arguments are definitely worth listening to. For the most part, I agree with you. A lot of care needs to go into creating an evil character. First rule I'd say is "Just because you're evil doesn't mean you hate everyone. A man with a crown does not make a nation" You'll need allies in your adventure. If your character cannot realize this, make a new character, please. You're ruining everyone's experience by being hostile to your friends at the table. Your characters are extensions of you. Just because your character says it to mine does not remove the idea that you yourself are saying this to me. Points where I differ are few, but here's one. ANY class can be evil. Even the Light or Life clerics can be evil. For instance, a Life cleric could worship a god of sacrifice and/or murder and/or torture. It's easier to revive those you torture than it is to find someone new to carve into pieces and rip the hair out of, smash the fingerbones of and so on. Hell, our paladin, who mind you is not evil, tortured someone by breaking his fingers and healing them, over and over, and he put them it in the context of a game. "Either you play, or you talk... Alright, I'll start with this one. If you scream, I get a point. If you don't you get a point." The paladin won, by the way. I think 8-3, all on one hand. The prisoner was tied up and couldn't flee.
My plan for a drakewarden ranger in an upcoming campaign is to start as lawful neutral, get progressively more ruthless and morally ambiguous out of necessity, but eventually come back around to redeem himself. Maybe he'll die to protect them at some point.
Any advice for people who occasionally go crazy from boredom and feel like disrupting the status quo? Example: target a random npc the rest of the group likes and try and kill them so the group is forced to react to their antics?
Playing as a chaotic evil Pirate in a new spell jammer campaign with friends. He is using them rn as a new crew until he finds someone or something that can benefit him more.
10:19 there are exceptions :D Character A-s life is in danger and the only way to save himself it to go to place X and dos act Y. While there is a boss fight :D self preservation is thing. I find a situation game wise "my character would make a decision for survival that hurts the group" t be fair quit real.
Oh I love playing lawful evil. Semi strong set of Morales, just not good Morales. Once played a battlemage set in mid fantasy ran empire. He was an agent for the legions. To be honest though, doesn't have to be obviously cartoonish evil. Most parties doesn't notice that my characters are evil.
I think that the freedom of being evil is good but I would much rather have a character that is deceptively good. I am a dm for a lot of new players so I tend to try and help them along a very entertaining backstory that they can add whenever they want. One of my favorite examples so far (and we haven't gotten to far into it so it's only in backstory) but it follows the story of a noble family in a very powerful theocracy that follows a pantheon of gods, however this particular family was tied to the goddess of love. both characters were adopted into the family at a young age and taught how to draw strength from certain sources, a paladin who was devoted to their god, and a sorcerer who used their ancestors ancient divine connection to the goddess to fight. The paladin fell in love with someone their family felt was unworthy and upon them finding out they killed the paladin's lover, and with it, her devotion to the goddess (the theocracy has a lot of instances of taking teachings to the extreme or simply misunderstanding it on purpose or on accident) She later left and joined the party to become the most reasonable and "cutesy" oath breaker paladin in the world. Later on in the campaign however, her sister and an assassin was tasked with returning the paladin in body or in spirit if need be. So we are straight up talking about pvp here, we haven't gotten far enough to see what happens however since most of them are very new players I suggested that they almost prove themselves to the rest of the party before just throwing themselves into a 2v4. Regardless of what happens I think this is a good way to portray some version of a villain character, they need to force someone else to do something, whether that happens or not is up to them.
Yuan-Ti Pureblood, Rogue Mastermind, Criminal background, and with Diplomat feat. A non-magic, master manipulator who has many sides to him and uses everything and everyone to help his cause to become a ruler whether by staging the coup of a king, taking over a failed assassin's guild, manipulating the party to take out the competition, blackmailing a single mail delivery man, or all of the above. All the while having a smile and facade of being a friendly, helpful lawyer who only has your best interest in mind.
First thing is, are you Saturday Morning Cartoon evil or war crimes evil? Also, most villains love an audience; what's the use of getting drunk with power alone? That's reason enough to not step on too many toes. It's when you're alone with a target, no paladin to alarm, no bard to terrify, just you and the hobgoblin chieftain you can truly show what you can do with that dagger and bag of salt.
Yeah I remember in a Dragonlance campaign I wanted to play a priest of... that settings version of Vecna... I cant remember their name... but we were playing through the Blue Crystal Staff story with returning the staff and bringing the gods back. I asked "Hey would it be cool if I played an evil priest/wizard trying to bring back only my god" and the table agreed, the GM and I hashed out rules and then session 1 one of the players immediately derailed everything to try and kill me.... it was so annoying cuz like we all agreed to me being evil and being in the game. If you dont like someone's character pitch dont agree to it.
Just as a note, I have played good evil characters before. Heck once in a Vampire the Requiem game my ST was talking about not wanting to assign a prince because he wanted the players to choose in game so I offered to play an evil Prince and sort of dick with the players, create my own B Plot and that would force the players to coup my guy and sort out the power struggle on their own. It was glorious as players were double dealing, back room plotting, and all of that, I had my body guard and was constantly prodding at others and there were several points where a coup almost happened and they never fired off. I ended up dying at the hands of my body guard because I prodded a bit too hard lol.
@@hugmonger I'm myself more of a Masquerade than Requiem guy, but I'm always down for a good Vampire (any White Wolf Vampire) story. And this one is damn good and very nicely shows the vampiric society at its finest. As our Anarchs of Prague in a VtM city larp said: "But we ARE Camarilla. Debugged Camarilla." (One of them was a Gangrel hacker and their lives were _hard_.)
I played a pyromancer sorcerer that used subtle spell immobilization to cause someone to spontaneously combust cause I saw them do something so wrong I wanted them to suffer my DM said my Alignment shifted to Neutral Evil that day xD
And cause I was a pyromancer that used a fire based spell I spontaneously combusted setting the building on fire and walked away as they burned to death the party was speechless cause I was rather reasonable up till that point.
Star wars Jedi Good Sith Evil do we want to Tell him about the Grey Jedi or Not :l Technically Nether Side is good or evil and Both Stem from the Grey Jedi the Balance
I have a chaotic neutral wild magic old one sorlock that is going to eventually either learn to control his own broken mind and chaotic magic, becoming a true neutral clockwork soul sorcerer instead, or his patron will infect his mind and twist his madness from neutral to chaotic evil and he'll become an abberant mind sorcerer... To make this work with the party, if he goes chaotic evil he'll still want to stop the bbeg and end the magical plague going around... But instead of saving lives or simple self-preservation and preservation of those he cares for, his motive is so he can once again cross the border to the country thats currently overrun by the plague, where his desert home city-state was, and utterly destroy his old home for exiling him bc of his wild magic. His motive goes from protection to sick twisted revenge, wanting to brutally tear down the order that tore him down and drove him off the deep end originally, and make it HURT. He still cares for the party, but they will become somewhat disposable to him if they get to be an inconvenience to his goal, but such a time would only possibly arise when the campaign is over anyway
I dissagree strongly with you suggestion that if anyone objects do not play the character. I am in a game to play my character can i also object about the lawfull good paladin and have them swap? If no then dont even bring up the sugestion that i must swap. They can make their objection and try to convince me. But in the end as long as you are not rping an asshole being evil is fine. Evil does not need you cannot do good, It means that you do not mind going to extreme lengths for what you want.
Nah, make an evil character if you want. DMs and other players alike only need to react as they would. If this causes them to kill the character, so be it. If this causes the party issues because they didnt distance themselves from their actions, so be it. If you're going to RP do so naturally, setting up a bunch of rules and borders beforehand just makes it stiff and forces people to divulge more about their characters than perhaps they want to. Good RP and good moments come from the unknown, not planning things out in advance. A good evil character will not be caught doing what they do.
I think I am a bad person. I'm not the good guy in my head, I know that If I was given power I would use it for evil and most of my goals are evil in nature.
Keep in mind that just because you're evil, it doesn't mean you can't like your non evil party members. Hell, I had an evil assassin who was a serial killer, and happened to be in love with the wizard. And the bard... oh also the druid.
Whoa dude, I am just passing by
That's a different kind of killer, just sayin'.
Hard to do this without creeping out the other players
This is correct. As is mentioned in the video, an "evil" character is someone who is looking out for themselves first. They are people to whom the ends justify the means. "Good" and "Evil" isn't so clear a concept. Evil doesn't mean "mindless murder machine who wants to destroy the world" (although such a person is likely evil). It's far more nuanced than that.
Evil does not exclude loyalty, for example. Chaos does. Evil does not exclude love. Love, in fact, is what can drive someone to commit "evil" acts.
And Good people can get along with Evil people. Good people generally believe in redemption and second (and third) chances. Perhaps the Good character really does like the Evil character - just not some of the things the Evil character does. That can lead to some good moments.
And sometimes the Good may be quite glad that the Evil is there. "We need X to happen. I can't think of a moral way to get it done." "Let me handle it." "What are you up to?" "Don't worry. Just let me handle it." That can be a great area for role playing and tension without causing problems.
Paladins are probably the ones who are most incompatible with the above, but even they can be worked with on some level. They may be working with you to show you how to lead a better life, how to control your impulses, how to view things from a different perspective, how to value and respect other people. And the Paladin will accept that everyone fails their personal challenges at some point. Forgiveness, acceptance, and gentle guidance could be a great sub-theme for the game.
Yeah, the lawful evil character I plan to play is interested in joining a group of adventurers because doing things alone takes too much effort and is dangerous. They intend to stay with that party until their goal is complete, and they know making the party hate them will make that goal more difficult to reach. It's part of their internal goal that keeps them in line, and part of their intelligence telling them not to spite their party
I completely agree and feel a little called out. One of my favorite evil characters was a Necromancer I had styled as an alchemist. She loved and worshiped her older sister who was another player and was the initial motivation for joining the party. The familial connection allowed for great RP when my Necromancer's sister would criticize her moral corruption but still defend her when things would come up with others. Unfortunately, as soon as I left that game the DM turned my character against the party and undid nearly everything I'd built up because our views on alignment differed dramatically. Evil is not a license to be a shithead, whether you're playing the game or running it.
I am going to assume that dm have gain a reputation where no one want to join his games ?
@@alexanderhood8993 I was already leaving the game for a few reasons. So turning my character into a villain almost immediately just validated my choice to leave.
@@temix3142 yeah I can tell
I know another way that blew my mind: there was a campaign on TH-cam where the evil character was a wolf in sheepskin, an Impostor up until the last episode. He was basically the replacement Paladin of the group. The unwavering purpose and believe in good of the party. Then in the last episode he became the prime pawn of the BBEG. I did not see that coming and it was awesome. Especially because his warlike nature and artistic but brutal Monk fighting style made somewhat more sense now.
This is how I would wanna do an evil character. I love the idea of not the mustache twirling bad guy who murders everyone. But the charismatic and manipulative wolf in sheeps clothing. Never lifting a finger but instead whispering in the parties ears saying “why not kill him? He deserves it. Think of what he did to you and your family.”
@@MrMossMan7272 I could see a bard playing like this 🤔
@@patrickbonnette1701 I’ve made this character and that’s his class haha. But I kinda made a rule set for him so he isn’t ruining the choices of the other players. So the manipulation has to come through RP and not dice rolls. Just because the dice rolls would make it seem more like mind control then manipulation. I desperately wanna play this character but I got to find the right group of friends so that people don’t get mad.
I love the Blight Spell! I used it as a spell that I would specifically use when my sorcerer was angry to show darkness in him.
It's a scary spell! Especially since as a sorcerer some of the metamagics can make it even more dangerous. It's like mummifying someone right then and there
It's like Anakin Skywalker's force choke.
Doesn't always bust it out, but when he's going to a dark place you're sure to see it.
Pathfinder got this spell called mark of the lizard, which turns the target into a lizard over days using charisma damage. Would suit that purpose quite well. Nice idea you got there.
@@PlayYourRole My Chaotic Neutral Drow Feylost Death Domain Cleric will learn it and use it effectively against the enemies.
Additionally, what if there was a party of all "Evil" Player Characters they may decide to work together in a Voldemort Death Eaters type situation.
Another VERY important thing to keep in mind when making an Evil aligned character: There is another half of the alignment chart. Is your character Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic. A Lawful Evil character WILL NOT be anything remotely similar to a Chaotic Evil character.
I played a Lawful Evil Oathbreaker Paladin in a campaign of Descent into Avernus, and she was really only Evil in that she was willing to do ANYTHING to protect innocent lives. Her backstory I came up with for my DM is that she was to be a Devotion Paladin for Torm, but 3 slightly older Paladins who had made that Oath were abusing their power to get what they wanted, generally shitty people, but they remained in the Oath, so the day she was to make her pledge to Torm, she presented their severed heads to the temple and made a statement about how these so called Paladins had behaved, and for her trouble, she was exiled to Baldur's Gate to "atone for her actions" and was stripped of the right to take the Oath of Devotion. So she is a Lawful Evil character who puts innocent lives over all else. If a Lawful Good Cleric's insistence of not taking action results in the death of innocent lives, she would kill him without a second thought.
I wish I had been able to play more into that, but once you get into Avernus, you're basically JUST dealing with Evil who take innocent lives, so once we left Baldur's Gate her mindset was basically just what was expected in a party cutting down demons and devils left and right...
Alignment is super shaky, but that sounds like the definition of Chaotic Good to me, not Lawful Evil.
"she was willing to do ANYTHING"- Chaotic by definition, not restrained by an external code, motivated only by one's internal values.
"to protect innocent lives"- Very difficult to portray as anything other than Good.
@@CyanMedic She is Lawful Evil because she has a code of ethics she follows, but she was branded Evil by her home for calling out her church's hypocrisy, in many ways, I actually view Lawful Evil and Chaotic Good as two sides of the same coin, so I can see how you'd get Chaotic Good from my description of her. I say Lawful Evil because she leans into her branding. (Also, by the rules in the DMG, you can't play an Oathbreaker unless you take an Evil alignment, which is dumb)
@@Hey-Its-Dingo I usually ignore that ruling tbh, to me an Oathbreaker is someone who's broken their oath. I would understand if you can't take it because you can't be a "lawful" alignment. That makes sense since an oath is effectively a "lawful" thing to do. But an oathbreaker being an "evil" archetype doesn't make sense. Same thing with the death domain for cleric
@@kelmirosue3251 It's because the subclass wasn't actually designed for player use. It was designed to be used for Evil Paladin NPCs, and all of their powers are based around commanding an army of Undead, which, when the DMG was released, was all bundled under that Evil label. I'm sure it would be made very differently if it was released today.
It's amazing what kind of story moments can be created when you talk things like this out with your party and don't try to hold back for 'the surprise' factor.
I was in a game (not D&D, but a TTRPG sent in a futuristic dystopia) where i missed an early session. when i came back, before we started playing, the rest of the party and the GM filled me in: one of the party members, who we as players already knew was lying about who she was, had been essentially contracted to try and kill my character by an NPC from my character's backstory. The other player kept repeatedly checking in with me as that plot thread began to develop, constantly asking if I was okay with how this story was going and making sure i knew that, if I asked him to, he would 'pull his punches' and make SURE his character would fail. Honestly, given the world of the story, I just wanted to see what happened, so I prepped a backup character and kept assuring him it was okay, to go for it. The attempt ended up failing, his character became an NPC after that point and he asked if he could make his new character an old friend from my character's background--and I had no hesitation in agreeing. Even though our characters had been in deadly conflict, the way he played it had inspired nothing but trust, and his new character became one of the most important people to mine--including saving each other's lives multiple times.
All of this great story, which I still think of years after it happened, was possible because of the trust built between our whole group as players because everyone talked through anything that may have become an issue. there was plenty we all knew that our characters didn't, and it didn't 'spoil' the story for us: it allowed us to make it better without hurting anyone.
Thank you for sharing, that's confirmed some of the thoughts I've had on how to deal with that regarding the other players... obviously it seems fun in my head to keep things secret but then you have no idea if the other players would even want/accept that kind of a turn and you mind end up weirding people out so, I feel like this is the only right way to do it.
If or rather when I end up running some of my more ambiguous characters, I hope I can make it work as well as you guys did!
@@th0rne_999 I hope it goes well! While it can be fun to plan a surprise, it can be just as fun if not moreso to craft something great together was my big takeaway.
You make some great points, but the thing you said early on is the key for me. An evil character that doesn't think they are evil. Fiction and history are full of evil people who thought they were doing the right thing. It's why Thanos worked in the movies. Another great hook for an evil character is a compelling flaw. That meshes well with also not thinking they are evil. You can have a selfishly evil character who operate on the premise that they have serious trust issues. Not being able to trust can cause them to see everyone as a threat, so their selfishness is justified to them as a survival skill.
Love the point about the character not grating against the rest of the party in their goals!!
I was tortured 5 days in a hospital (after getting resuscitation), so yeah... Everyone can be evil, even doctors.
You said to fight about alignment in the comment, so here's my hot take:
Deadpool is True Neutral bc he can easily slot into the actions of any other alignment with no conflict
Also, Neri was evil and y'all loved her
Hard not to love her chaotic evil ass
My experience playing a Lawful Evil character was Qoin- A Tiefling born and raised in the nine hells, and was functionally a very high-ranking accountant working with souls as currency. On the cusp of being promoted, she got screwed over by a colleague who framed her for fraud, and was demoted to Faerun as a soul collector. She has a plan to find an ancient relic of Mammon to earn back her position, but until then, evil souls are worth just as much as good souls, so this adventuring party will certainly come across plenty of death for her to skim off the top.
Qoin knows what it's like be to betrayed, and wouldn't do that to her own party. She is very strict when it comes to plans and agreements, if she makes a promise she will keep it regardless of changes in circumstances. She would not steal or knowingly break local laws, and that includes unprompted murder, even though that would benefit her goal. I've only gotten to play her in a one shot so far, and the only conflict was when another player went against the plan they'd set. The player was right to do so, and Qoin acknowledged that it worked out, but if it happens again then they need to communicate with the party that the circumstances have changed and a renegotiation is in order instead of jumping into action and assuming there will be backup. She was super fun to play, and very different from anyone else I've done 😅 I love the idea that the nine hells is full of soul-sucking mundanity and wanted to play with it to make a evil character more relatable.
I love all the insight into this and how interesting antiheroes can be. They're my favorite type of character and super fascinating to play!
I completely agree I was playing a lawful evil character for a few years and because of these similar guidelines we as a party had some really fun roleplay moments
Amazing content man, I can't believe you have so few subscribers
Hey I really appreciate that! Starting to pick up some traction so, that's helpful! Thanks for watching!
A good example of an evil character who would be fun to play in a party: Loki.
"I am burdened with glorious purpose," is an amazing line for illustrating not only how such a character would think, but how they can justify teaming up with a bunch of apparent do-gooders. The group's ends might still serve their purpose, or at least help to thwart one of their own obstacles.
Me and friends are just about to start making a campaign with the new Strixhaven book that is going to be coming out soon. It will be for all of us (except the DM, who has DM'd other campaigns.) our first DnD game. I am going to be playing a Owlkin druid and I'm going to be childhood friends with another character. A great friend of mine IRL. After watching this video and your "HOW TO BE AN ARROGANT JERK" video, I thought it would be a really fun idea to play a good boy druid and as I level up I start taking more dark and "evil" spells. I haven't looked at the subclasses yet but it has really inspired me to kind of have a character arc change where I start to say or do more "morel grey motives" , and I leave it up to the group to figure out/ decide if I'm actually turning to the evil side, or if they think I'm just being a badass.
I'm going to try and RP more narcissistic and bad. But if they don't catch on I want my character to go full evil and leave the party for a good few sessions. And if they do notice I want them to be like "Hey easy on the spells" or like "That was a bit overkill there" and talk me out of it. The DM is totally down for all of this and I feel like this would be a really good way to kinda "force RP" at least a little bit. My whole group has been friends with each other for over a year now, So its not out of the blue. I just felt like this would be a really good way to get everyone to RP more since from the start we were all going to be funny and have funny backstories and kinda joke the whole game. I'm all for it, but this twist I feel like will have a great impact for them and me to really flesh out later campaigns and have a more "RP focus" campaign. Please let me know what you think. Any input would be great. Plus i love playing the chaotic character and messing with things.
I made a chaotic evil dragonkin warlock for a 5e campaign. The whole party was good, but like I had this idea that if his goal was revenge then he wouldn't do anything to blow that. Also that if there was something that would prevent it or like a greater evil in the land it would be in his interest to stop it even if it meant working with good aligned characters. Basically before the game the DM tried to make him have an alignment shift so he killed himself with a nat 20. He was a great character.
There was a lawful evil fighter in a game years ago who was friendly, helpful and caring towards the party but was vicious, cruel and violent towards everyone else because they weren’t part of their tribe. He made a great bad cop when it came to intimidating or interrogation, and the player loved dancing on that line.
I played as an evil character for a year and a half at a table. He was a memorable character because he was lawful evil and on work release
On the Necromancy thing: As Matt Mercer had one of his NPCs address, Reviving magic is Necromancy.
I feel like evil support is a fantastic sweet spot in a party of neutral/goods. I like having an evil healer especially who is aware of their vulnerability without the party, which naturally endears them to the rest of the group.
Aang using air bending vs zaheer using it is probably a good example for the how it’s flavored example
my first time playing a evil alignment went well, I was a Chaotic Evil Human Gloomstalker Ranger. his backstory involves being banned from his criminal group and was being hunted by them. His motivation to hang with the party was protection, he still liked the party, but one of the MAIN reasons he was with them was out of selfish needs. And the party had uses for me, i had the best wisdom/perception out of the whole party(20) and i was an amazing ambusher. One of the main things i learned to play an evil character is about opportunity. Instead of murdering civilians out of nowhere because Lol FunNy, I instead wait until the DM GIVES ME a choice instead of forcing my own. This usually becomes something like: Should I kill the last enemy of the raid, even though they surrendered? Or let's say I am given a reward of gold that i am supposed to distribute evenly to the party, but i could take an extra 10-20% of the cut and lie to them that it's an even spread. (i feel like anything more than 10-20% is just being a dick to the players xD but honestly that depends on the friend group you're playing with.) from my experience going off of the DM feels more natural and tends to not ruin campaigns. My DM later told me that i somehow became the only person they knew to successfully play an evil alignment character. So I guess i did something right.
HAVE A SESSION ZERO. HAVE A SESSION ZERO. HAVE A SESSION ZERO.
Having a session zero to make sure everyone knows "hey, player characters can be selfish jerks, but we're not going to be kicking puppies and cannibalizing each other" makes everyone a lot more understanding and prevents dorknozzle players, at least in my experience.
Kill Bill might be an example of martial class weapon attacks. For physical attacks I'd use something like the first Jack Reacher movie or possibly a Bourne movie.
I do play a true neutral character.
She is a half dragon and has been called "defective" by both good and bad alined characters. E.g. her father called her defective because she showed empathy. A trait he deams useless and sometimes even dangerous. But her empathy is highly selective. She is intelligent enough to act like she cares about people but she actually doesn't. Only when she spend time with another person and actually enjoyed their company does she develop empathy for them.
Yet she had to endure a lot of torturous experiments on the hand of "good" alined people who held her captive in the believe that her race is unable to develop sympathy and that she was suppose to be a weapon of her father (they kept her alive as blackmail against her father). They made the experiments in order to find a "cure" of her "condition".
But that's the main reason why she hates torture.
In a simulation, a test that our group had to pass, they decide to threaten a monster we were tracking down with torture in order to find out what happened to a person who was kidnapped. But when my character saw that she interrupted it and stopped them. In an firecamp session we told parts of our backstory to each other and she explained why she was against torture.
But if she meets her main tortures she will take revange and probably try to "payback" what they have done to her. I want to make that interesting that she'll actually enjoy taking revenge and will feel relieved and happy afterwards no matter how savage it will be. It's similar to her empathy that doing bad actually fulfills her but is also a really selective burning hatred.
Normally revange isn't really fulfilling for humans and if it is it doesn't stay for long but I do want to make it that this is also different about her.
She is a wild sourcerer armorer artificer and I made her a robot pet that she really likes but constantly puts in danger because she can fix it afterwards. The rouge of our party once asked:"Btw. Why does Curse (Robots name) like you?"
Me:"That's because I programmed it to."
Rouge:" I understand but what does it benifit from liking you or what do you do to make it express happiness and does what you say while he normally will try to avoid getting damaged?"
Me:"well... I made it so it would even exist without me and besides if it dies I'll just bring it back."
All of my party members looked at me with concerned looks as what my character described was the exact situation my characters brother is in because he is still with their father who also is a necromancer (we had an interaction with him when he told us to run while he was trying to fight being possessed).
My character went red and screamed:" I'm NOT like my father,... right?"
I love moral ambiguous characters and she is one of my favorites so far. She tries to be good just because she experienced something good once (when people helped her flee) but she has tendencies which she doesn't view as bad while those mirror things she normally would hate.
the wise way to play evil :D and you kinda well summed it up good video
A couple of characters like this would be good for a Thunderbolts/Suicide Squad type campaign setting. A Kingdom forms a special mercenary unit formed from military rejects, former prisoners, unlucky recruits, and a few unexpected volunteers to do tasks that a normal unit would not be able to do.
Most would just be regular outcasts characters, but there could be a few evil ones as well.
22:26 Great point! Evil is not pretty. It only may appear beautiful or not as bad as the alternative. In my opinion being a bad person often comes from not having enough good in ones life.
An idea that I had for an evil character is essentially like Zuko from the last air bender. He isn’t the person who actually murders the person. Instead he whispers in your ear reminding you of all the horrible things they had done. No rolls, no magic, just flat out RP trying to convince your party to go beyond their boundaries. And evil charismatic whisperer. Telling you the person deserves it…
I feel like people who say “there’s no evil because everyone thinks they’re the hero” forgot about folks like Mao, Hitler, Stalin, Nero, Jack the Ripper, etc…
There is evil in this world, the real world.
It’s more rare and harder to define, but there are clear examples of it.
You could have at least used examples that were a bit less narcissistic or self riteous. Those 5 pretty much absolutely thought they were the heroes in their own lives.
@@alienplatypus7712 and any sane person would vehemently disagree.
@@Jessie_Helms as a sane person, I can say that while probably not all of them thought of themselves as good, in world history when the teacher taught us about WWII, it was stated outright that Hitler thought that he was actually in the right because that's how fucked up in the head he was.
People can delude themselves enough to think that they are in the right. I bet Ethan of h3h3 thinks that he's a good person, despite saying that he wanted someone to "bomb the NRA convention" among other things.
The people that tell others to #### themselves probably think that they're justified in doing so just because the person they said that to is a furry, or watches anime, or didn't like Steven Universe, or *did* like Steven Universe, or played Undertale "the wrong way."
@@koalabro6118 and that’s evil.
Telling someone to off themselves (with maybe a handful of exceptions for dictators and the like) is evil.
Gonna have to show this to the party warlock who insists on friendly firing the party every combat
I wanted to create a character whi was a Lawful Evil assassin. Now I didn't want to necessarily be evil, but the DM said if I wanted to play him he had to be. So I created this guy who was kind of like a CIA agent...he was willing to do what it took regardless to get the mission accomplished. On the rare occasion when one of the other characters gave him static on his methods, he would give up one of my favorite catchphrases. "I'm not the good guy, or the bad guy. I'm the necessary guy. " That being said , he had trouble connecting with the rest of the party, until a couple of the members were kidnapped and my character rescued them by strategically killing off the bad guy who had paid for it. Then things got better.
After 5 years of being familiar with dnd, i've finally created my first evil character. Not because i really wanted to play an evil character, but because everyone else at the table makes me upset all the time, and i wanted an excuse to not care about what their characters say or do anymore. I don't have an easy option to play with someone else either, sadly.
I play a Yuan-Ti Rogue, neutral evil of course, but his goals are to make people chase after their dreams and desires, I mean any desire, be it good or harmful to them. He does this to corrupt and indirectly have control over people lives. Even still the party is having fun because interestingly enough the goals of my character are the rest of the party achieving their goals.
Here's a quick lawful evil character that can play with good heroes, off the top of my head:
A cleric who gladly served as the torturer for the king/baron (of a nearby land). He absolutely revels in the suffering of villains, but will not harm innocents. And obviously he follows and upholds the laws. Those laws just happen to not protect cultists from his mace and daggers.
Plus if a bandit refuses to talk.. you have someone who can get that information.. one way, or another.
Evil action surge example: thanos pummelling cpt america into the ground and shattering his shield. Brutal, terrifying, makes u feel helpless...sounds like a good evil character
I'm confused how can someone be not comfortable with someone else playing an evil character? What is there to be uncomfortable about? They may not like it but that's completely different. Another thing i don't get is why it seems so taboo to play an evil character? Normally the whole table is full of evil characters is it not? I have never been in a group that enjoys playing good characters.
edit: typo
I recently made a paladin that her alignment is neutral evil but is on a path of redemption
Antithesis means opposite of, bro. Epitome is the word you were looking for, or possibly thesis. There are more words like eidolon, ideal (platonic ideal being the best of the best) etc. but antithesis is literally anti thesis and refers to something that is the opposite in every way. The antithesis of an antihero is an antivillain.
I killed my first Character in our Curse of Strahd campaign, because he was to fanaticly against Undead, while the others where cool with them.
My second character is neutral to Undead and the loss of infighting really helped make the campaign feel better ^^
I have played one evil character. Still is. They started out lawful neutral but with how I played them they for sure were very evil minded.
A warforged crown Paladin who serves another of the players, but developed a wish for life. So they deal with anything that would cause a threat to that in very lethal manners. Which makes this powerful and helpful warforged a source of constant fear.
So, I want to comment before watching my experience playing a Lawful Evil Bladesinger. Before the campaign began, the DM kinda grouped us together based on the backstories we gave him, and then he used our backstories to weave our characters together. This is a high level campaign, starting at level 11, so keep that in mind as I describe things here.
I met the paladin and sorcerer while I was in service to a young red dragon. We were opposing each other, but I played a tactful wizard. I knew these two were strong. They got this far into the dungeon, and only I, the dragon's right hand, stood in their way now. If we fight, there's a chance I die. If I turn, there's a lower chance of death. These two are more powerful, and if I aid them, their goal is extremely achievable. So, I turned, and together, we felled a dragon, with the paladin landing the killing blow. Our story was spread, and soon we were known as an adventuring trio. I went into this campaign trusting those two characters with my life, as they had actively saved me in the past and I knew that they were aware of the people who wanted me dead. The rest of the group, I was hostile with. I'd sneer and insult, and we'd butt heads. At one point, a fight broke out between myself and the artificer. The two I knew instantly put up large sums of money betting I'd win. The fight lasted one round, as I rolled a natural 20 on the spell Steel Wind Strike, then followed up by action surging from my two levels of fighter to cast Haste, then attacked with a Booming Blade due to being a Bladesinger. The artificer went down before getting a chance to fight back. However, the next encounter was a challenging one, and at one point, the artificer protected me from the creature, so in response, I spent downtime crafting a hatchet for a joke. At the end of our downtime, I asked to speak with them, and ominously asked for a shovel to dig a shallow hole. Nobody knew what was going on, but when we got outside the gates where I could dig, I started out digging, then asked for help because wizard, you know. I then placed the hatchet in the ground, and we buried it together. From then on, we worked as a team, especially since we both knew how to craft weapons and tools for our party.
Moral of how I ran it, trust is earned, but once earned, I'll treat you favorably. Like a master craftsman and his tools. If they serve him well, he'll treat them with care and respect with extra effort to ensure they can continue to be their best. That said, I do speak down to those who have yet to earn my respect with this character, and lie through my teeth to get what I want.
Alright, so I'm now at the 18 minute mark, and you're now giving examples. Your arguments are definitely worth listening to. For the most part, I agree with you. A lot of care needs to go into creating an evil character. First rule I'd say is "Just because you're evil doesn't mean you hate everyone. A man with a crown does not make a nation" You'll need allies in your adventure. If your character cannot realize this, make a new character, please. You're ruining everyone's experience by being hostile to your friends at the table. Your characters are extensions of you. Just because your character says it to mine does not remove the idea that you yourself are saying this to me.
Points where I differ are few, but here's one. ANY class can be evil. Even the Light or Life clerics can be evil. For instance, a Life cleric could worship a god of sacrifice and/or murder and/or torture. It's easier to revive those you torture than it is to find someone new to carve into pieces and rip the hair out of, smash the fingerbones of and so on. Hell, our paladin, who mind you is not evil, tortured someone by breaking his fingers and healing them, over and over, and he put them it in the context of a game. "Either you play, or you talk... Alright, I'll start with this one. If you scream, I get a point. If you don't you get a point."
The paladin won, by the way. I think 8-3, all on one hand. The prisoner was tied up and couldn't flee.
My plan for a drakewarden ranger in an upcoming campaign is to start as lawful neutral, get progressively more ruthless and morally ambiguous out of necessity, but eventually come back around to redeem himself. Maybe he'll die to protect them at some point.
I was screaming at my phone “SAY THE PUNISHER!!” Lol!!
Any advice for people who occasionally go crazy from boredom and feel like disrupting the status quo? Example: target a random npc the rest of the group likes and try and kill them so the group is forced to react to their antics?
Playing as a chaotic evil Pirate in a new spell jammer campaign with friends. He is using them rn as a new crew until he finds someone or something that can benefit him more.
10:19 there are exceptions :D Character A-s life is in danger and the only way to save himself it to go to place X and dos act Y. While there is a boss fight :D self preservation is thing. I find a situation game wise "my character would make a decision for survival that hurts the group" t be fair quit real.
Oh I love playing lawful evil. Semi strong set of Morales, just not good Morales. Once played a battlemage set in mid fantasy ran empire. He was an agent for the legions. To be honest though, doesn't have to be obviously cartoonish evil. Most parties doesn't notice that my characters are evil.
I think that the freedom of being evil is good but I would much rather have a character that is deceptively good. I am a dm for a lot of new players so I tend to try and help them along a very entertaining backstory that they can add whenever they want. One of my favorite examples so far (and we haven't gotten to far into it so it's only in backstory) but it follows the story of a noble family in a very powerful theocracy that follows a pantheon of gods, however this particular family was tied to the goddess of love. both characters were adopted into the family at a young age and taught how to draw strength from certain sources, a paladin who was devoted to their god, and a sorcerer who used their ancestors ancient divine connection to the goddess to fight. The paladin fell in love with someone their family felt was unworthy and upon them finding out they killed the paladin's lover, and with it, her devotion to the goddess (the theocracy has a lot of instances of taking teachings to the extreme or simply misunderstanding it on purpose or on accident) She later left and joined the party to become the most reasonable and "cutesy" oath breaker paladin in the world. Later on in the campaign however, her sister and an assassin was tasked with returning the paladin in body or in spirit if need be. So we are straight up talking about pvp here, we haven't gotten far enough to see what happens however since most of them are very new players I suggested that they almost prove themselves to the rest of the party before just throwing themselves into a 2v4. Regardless of what happens I think this is a good way to portray some version of a villain character, they need to force someone else to do something, whether that happens or not is up to them.
Yuan-Ti Pureblood, Rogue Mastermind, Criminal background, and with Diplomat feat.
A non-magic, master manipulator who has many sides to him and uses everything and everyone to help his cause to become a ruler whether by staging the coup of a king, taking over a failed assassin's guild, manipulating the party to take out the competition, blackmailing a single mail delivery man, or all of the above. All the while having a smile and facade of being a friendly, helpful lawyer who only has your best interest in mind.
First thing is, are you Saturday Morning Cartoon evil or war crimes evil? Also, most villains love an audience; what's the use of getting drunk with power alone? That's reason enough to not step on too many toes. It's when you're alone with a target, no paladin to alarm, no bard to terrify, just you and the hobgoblin chieftain you can truly show what you can do with that dagger and bag of salt.
I would love to play an evil warlock who hides his alignment through illusion magic and pretending to be a goofy wizard who forgets things.
I have wanted to play a lawful evil character and a paladin for the longest time now
This video is funny to me since to me the entirety of humanity is on the evil line of alignments
engagement
If your keeping secrets in character cool.
If your keeping secrets out of character for "surprise" your ruining your own rp lol
How do you forget Deadpool when talking about antiheroes
Yeah I remember in a Dragonlance campaign I wanted to play a priest of... that settings version of Vecna... I cant remember their name... but we were playing through the Blue Crystal Staff story with returning the staff and bringing the gods back. I asked "Hey would it be cool if I played an evil priest/wizard trying to bring back only my god" and the table agreed, the GM and I hashed out rules and then session 1 one of the players immediately derailed everything to try and kill me.... it was so annoying cuz like we all agreed to me being evil and being in the game. If you dont like someone's character pitch dont agree to it.
Just as a note, I have played good evil characters before. Heck once in a Vampire the Requiem game my ST was talking about not wanting to assign a prince because he wanted the players to choose in game so I offered to play an evil Prince and sort of dick with the players, create my own B Plot and that would force the players to coup my guy and sort out the power struggle on their own. It was glorious as players were double dealing, back room plotting, and all of that, I had my body guard and was constantly prodding at others and there were several points where a coup almost happened and they never fired off. I ended up dying at the hands of my body guard because I prodded a bit too hard lol.
@@hugmonger I'm myself more of a Masquerade than Requiem guy, but I'm always down for a good Vampire (any White Wolf Vampire) story. And this one is damn good and very nicely shows the vampiric society at its finest.
As our Anarchs of Prague in a VtM city larp said: "But we ARE Camarilla. Debugged Camarilla." (One of them was a Gangrel hacker and their lives were _hard_.)
I played a pyromancer sorcerer that used subtle spell immobilization to cause someone to spontaneously combust cause I saw them do something so wrong I wanted them to suffer my DM said my Alignment shifted to Neutral Evil that day xD
And cause I was a pyromancer that used a fire based spell I spontaneously combusted setting the building on fire and walked away as they burned to death the party was speechless cause I was rather reasonable up till that point.
Star wars
Jedi Good
Sith Evil
do we want to Tell him about the Grey Jedi or Not :l
Technically Nether Side is good or evil and Both Stem from the Grey Jedi the Balance
A great example: Raistlin Majere.
3:14 obligatory “from my point of view, the Jedi are evil!“
Eloquence bard is the most evil class.
had a player with an evil ranger. favored enemy: humanoid. that sh*t was terrifying
I have a chaotic neutral wild magic old one sorlock that is going to eventually either learn to control his own broken mind and chaotic magic, becoming a true neutral clockwork soul sorcerer instead, or his patron will infect his mind and twist his madness from neutral to chaotic evil and he'll become an abberant mind sorcerer... To make this work with the party, if he goes chaotic evil he'll still want to stop the bbeg and end the magical plague going around... But instead of saving lives or simple self-preservation and preservation of those he cares for, his motive is so he can once again cross the border to the country thats currently overrun by the plague, where his desert home city-state was, and utterly destroy his old home for exiling him bc of his wild magic. His motive goes from protection to sick twisted revenge, wanting to brutally tear down the order that tore him down and drove him off the deep end originally, and make it HURT. He still cares for the party, but they will become somewhat disposable to him if they get to be an inconvenience to his goal, but such a time would only possibly arise when the campaign is over anyway
I dissagree strongly with you suggestion that if anyone objects do not play the character. I am in a game to play my character can i also object about the lawfull good paladin and have them swap? If no then dont even bring up the sugestion that i must swap. They can make their objection and try to convince me. But in the end as long as you are not rping an asshole being evil is fine. Evil does not need you cannot do good, It means that you do not mind going to extreme lengths for what you want.
Nah, make an evil character if you want. DMs and other players alike only need to react as they would. If this causes them to kill the character, so be it. If this causes the party issues because they didnt distance themselves from their actions, so be it.
If you're going to RP do so naturally, setting up a bunch of rules and borders beforehand just makes it stiff and forces people to divulge more about their characters than perhaps they want to.
Good RP and good moments come from the unknown, not planning things out in advance. A good evil character will not be caught doing what they do.
Does anyone ever tell you you look like jayson tatum just a bit
There is true evil in the real world. It is rare but it exists.
I think I am a bad person. I'm not the good guy in my head, I know that If I was given power I would use it for evil and most of my goals are evil in nature.