D&D 5E Evil Campaign?

[Li Shenron]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I was looking more at classes then a setting.

WotC has released only a very few bits of "evil" character material. Cleric's Death domain and Paladin's Oathbreaker are maybe the only stuff in core which is officially mentioned as evil options.

Truth is that, in core you can find a lot of stuff that you can easily turn into "evil" with small fluff adjustments. Some UA material (new Paladin's archetypes, summoning spells) is also presented as evil/darker character options. And "evil" is of course a lot more about the character's decisions and behaviour than the official name of abilities.

But your players might be of the type that if the book doesn't show you a name and a description that says what they want, they won't believe they are already playing what they want. Can't help you with that...

 

[Prism]

I have played in two evil campaigns with a fair amount of success

The first required us to be childhood friends who had grown up in a city together (Luskan) and then been forced to leave. This created a strong bond between the characters, both in their background and the fact that they needed to work together to build a life (of crime) together in their new home (Waterdeep). We played this campaign on and off over many years and the original three characters stuck together throughout although each was of evil alignment.

The second was set during the fall of a drow city (Ched Nasad). The group was thrust together during the upheaval and had to work together to survive and find a way free of the ruined city. Shared survival was the key here. Alignments ranged from LN, LE and NE and the party included a duegar and an imp. Noticeably, when the party got free of the city things turned sour very quickly and the party split up.

So basically, if you can come up with a common goal that the players can buy into then it can work. Working for an evil dude who gives you jobs probably wont do it, but a situation where each party member has a genuine interest in committing to the success of the group, it can work well.

 

[Corwin]

Evil is selfish. Its easy to get evil character(s) to want to save the world. Start by making sure, when the game starts, that they have a nice thing going. Whatever it is. Maybe the evil thief has a respectable standing in the thieves guild. Or the necromancer has a hidden lab and a modest network of graverobbers helping him secure those hard-to-find precious resources. What have you. Then, simply have the campaign antagonist's machinations threaten to disrupt their lives, and take away the "good thing" they got going. They'll get right on board playing ball to help take down that threat.

 

[Fanaelialae]

A pure evil campaign doesn't sound fun to me, personally. I've never tried it, so I could be wrong.

Now, playing a campaign where we are all gray, or something like chaotic good or chaotic neutral, could be fun. For instance, if we have to take the law into our own hands, and do some shady things in order to deal with even greater evils, or to enrich ourselves, but we draw the line somewhere, then I'm for it.

But a truly evil campaign, to me, would be killing children and innocents just because you could (chaotoic evil), or to take over the world and rule it like a dictator (lawful evil). Not interested.

That's a very one dimensional view of evil. Characters are more than their alignment. Evil characters are people too, with their own motivations and interests. It's simply that one of their driving motivations is self-interest.

While an evil character could kill children and innocents if they wanted to (for example, their self confidence is low and doing so makes them feel powerful and in control) they won't do so necessarily. For example, a chaotic evil character might have had it rough growing up as a child and feel sympathy towards children. While he wouldn't hesitate to slit another man's throat for a corroded copper piece, he won't do so if there are children watching, and he's even likely to risk his own life to protect a child from harm.

Similarly, ambition and alignment do not correlate. A lawful evil character doesn't necessarily want to take over the world. Perhaps he has the much more reasonable of ruling the local thieves' guild.

In the recent evil campaign I played in, the party's overarching goal was to save our area of the Underdark from being enslaved by an "alliance" between the Illithid and the Aboleth. Which is certainly a goal that a good party would strive for (and indeed, when the Deck of Many Things turned half the party good, our goals didn't change; only our motivations did). I'll grant you that our party did some unsavory things (the worst of which may have been wiping out a colony of flumphs who were in the way of a duergar mining operation) but because the majority of the party was evil the ends justified the means. We certainly didn't harm any children, and for the most part we were going against other bad guys, not innocents. My character always treated those weaker than himself with respect and dignity, and even did what he could to help them out. Of course, he did this because he figured that they would be grateful to him and he might be able to leverage that gratitude in the future to his favor, but that's simply what was going on in the character's head. As far as any of the other players were concerned, my character was just a genuinely nice guy.

I'm not saying you should give an evil campaign a shot if it isn't your cup of tea. This game is meant to be fun, so if an evil campaign isn't your idea of fun then don't play one. It's simply that an evil campaign can have so much more depth beyond playing murderhobos who want to take over the world.

 

[machineelf]

That's a very one dimensional view of evil. Characters are more than their alignment. Evil characters are people too, with their own motivations and interests. It's simply that one of their driving motivations is self-interest.

While an evil character could kill children and innocents if they wanted to (for example, their self confidence is low and doing so makes them feel powerful and in control) they won't do so necessarily. For example, a chaotic evil character might have had it rough growing up as a child and feel sympathy towards children. While he wouldn't hesitate to slit another man's throat for a corroded copper piece, he won't do so if there are children watching, and he's even likely to risk his own life to protect a child from harm.

Similarly, ambition and alignment do not correlate. A lawful evil character doesn't necessarily want to take over the world. Perhaps he has the much more reasonable of ruling the local thieves' guild.

In the recent evil campaign I played in, the party's overarching goal was to save our area of the Underdark from being enslaved by an "alliance" between the Illithid and the Aboleth. Which is certainly a goal that a good party would strive for (and indeed, when the Deck of Many Things turned half the party good, our goals didn't change; only our motivations did). I'll grant you that our party did some unsavory things (the worst of which may have been wiping out a colony of flumphs who were in the way of a duergar mining operation) but because the majority of the party was evil the ends justified the means. We certainly didn't harm any children, and for the most part we were going against other bad guys, not innocents. My character always treated those weaker than himself with respect and dignity, and even did what he could to help them out. Of course, he did this because he figured that they would be grateful to him and he might be able to leverage that gratitude in the future to his favor, but that's simply what was going on in the character's head. As far as any of the other players were concerned, my character was just a genuinely nice guy.

I'm not saying you should give an evil campaign a shot if it isn't your cup of tea. This game is meant to be fun, so if an evil campaign isn't your idea of fun then don't play one. It's simply that an evil campaign can have so much more depth beyond playing murderhobos who want to take over the world.

Ok cool. I still don't like playing evil campaigns.

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[knightemplar]

Go to Drivethrurpg and look for Way of the Wicked. It was an evil PF adventure path. Its not a bad series, if you want to run in their Talingarde or move it over to your own world. Most of the monsters are easily converted over to 5E or already have statistics in the various books. There is a free preview called prison break to check out if you want.

 

[seebs]

Never saw the appeal of the specialized classes. It seems like more of a prop than an actual character trait at that point.