Forked Thread: How can I play a teamwork-focused Evil character?

[Stormtalon]

Another trick is to have dovetailing interests for evil characters. Played a NE rogue once -- total sociopath, really, but focused -- who got along very well, with the party's necromancer. He liked to kill (a budding Jack the Ripper, as it were), and the necromancer always needed raw materials, and so they had an understanding.

Of course, part of the understanding included the very matter-of-fact comment from my rogue to the necro to the effect of, "Just so you know, if it looks like it's the end for all of us -- you die before me. Just in case." (The necro was working towards Lichloved prestige class....) He also made sure to have a plan to dispose of any of their erstwhile allies on the off chance they became inconvenient.

 

[Noumenon]

Just kick back, wait for the Chaotic Evil society to eat itself, the Neutral Evil society to encourage, then loot then stab eachother in the back while you gain political power in the Lawful Evil society for when you get to squash the weakened remnant of the NE group.

You just reminded me that bards do not make good lawyers or functionaries. "Alignment: any
nonlawful." I wonder what to do about that. I could be a neutral evil who worships a lawful evil god (still haven't found an appropriate deity), or I could be a neutral evil who thinks the organization exists as his stepping stone to power.

 

[Hereticus]

For the most part, an evil character is greedy and self centered, but has no desire what so ever to do bad things.

But since he seeks wealth and power by whatever means possible, he has no compunction to not do some bad things to get them. And even evil creatures have their limits.

An evil cleric who just poisoned and killed an entire family to get their land may be repulsed by the jerk who just shot a dog with an arrow.

Why?

Because that act of cruelty served no purpose to meet his goals.

 

[Dausuul]

One possibility is that you are a corruptor. For whatever reason, you like turning people to the Dark Side and watching them wreak havoc. Your ability to wreak havoc yourself is limited - the gods didn't favor you with much in that department, though you do have a formidable talent for spinning a web of lies - but you're very good at getting other people to do evil for you, and you've been looking for a suitable bunch of evil warriors to support and strengthen.

 

[Particle_Man]

Just kick back, wait for the Chaotic Evil society to eat itself, the Neutral Evil society to encourage, then loot then stab eachother in the back while you gain political power in the Lawful Evil society for when you get to squash the weakened remnant of the NE group.

This. IMO, CE folk will turn on each other unless they are ruled by someone that is clearly more powerful than they are. NE folk will turn on each other as soon as it is in their own interest to do so. Now you can "stabilize" these groups so long as there is a clearly more powerful ruler, long-term common interests, or both, but that usually requires some work on the DMs part.

Heck IRL even the loving spouses (that happen to be serial killers) tend to rat each other out when caught by the cops, a la plea bargain. So IMO, when one is NE or CE, love would not conquer all, when the poo hits the fan. (I would buy love conquering all for non-good and non-evil neutrals, since it specifically says in their alignment descriptions that they care for a certain group, like family, etc.)

What you want is the LE folk. They will work together. They have more of an affinity for teamwork and following the rules. They might still betray you, but if you know what rules they follow, and you carefully work within those rules, you can work to minimize the chance of that because you can make sure that they can't betray you without disobeying the rules that they subscribe to.

 

[Herobizkit]

One of my favourite Neutral Evil archetypes is portrayed in the character Julian Sark from Alias. Wikipedia describes him thus:

Little is known about Sark's background. He spent most of his youth in England, although a voice analysis reveals he spent a lot of time in Galway, Ireland. He is the heir to a vast fortune from his Romanov-descended father, Andrian Lazarey. He routinely changes his alliances, and his true allegiance seems to be only to himself. He is notorious for his flexible loyalties and his ability to evade and escape capture. Sark is a connoisseur of fine wine.

And this dialogue should be very interesting to you in the way of character design:

VAUGHN: Give me the override codes.
SARK: I don't have the codes, I swear. (Vaughn shoots Sark in his leg) You shot me!
VAUGHN: Yeah, and I'll keep shooting until you either give me the codes or bleed to death. Your choice.
SARK: You know, I didn't want any of this. Mass extermination isn't exactly my passion, Michael. I'm a businessman. You know, I simply wanted to come out on the winning end. I'll give you the codes, but you have to let me go after I do.
VAUGHN: Codes first, then we negotiate.

I would play your Bard as a "businessman"; a wo/man who does exactly what s/he's told until a better offer comes along. This doesn't necessarily mean that s/he'll turn and shoot allies on the turn of a dime, but would be willing to try and negotiate for the best deal for all parties involved (especially if the deal includes your life being spared).

 

[Set]

An evil cleric who just poisoned and killed an entire family to get their land may be repulsed by the jerk who just shot a dog with an arrow.

I've played this very character. An evil cleric of the death-goddess who worked at a boneyard, burying the bodies that were left at the entrance to the cemetary, he whistled a jaunty tune while he buried someone who'd clearly been killed by an assassin, and had a coin in his mouth as a sign of that (a suggestion to whomever finds the body to keep their mouth shut).

But finding a body that had been gutted by a serial killer? He made sure not to give her the proper burial rites, as he was kind of hoping she'd rise as some form of restless dead and go after her murderer. Serve the creep right!

He served a goddess of death, not goddess of psychopaths who desecrate a holy transition by doing it for *kicks.*

I'm at a loss for how to play chaotic evil (or even chaotic neutral, in most cases) as a good team player, but neutral evil is all about selfish opportunism and the more 'allies' between you and the troll, the happier the NE 'team-player' is. And lawful evil is even easier to work into a group situation, as they are significantly less likely to backstab an ally than the average Paladin I've gamed with...

It's not like the LE Blackguard of Bane is going to get his knickers in a twist and attack a fellow party member in self-righteous high dudgeon when you 'kill one of my prisoners' or 'interfere in my honorable single combat' or otherwise offend his moral code (such as it is)...

 

[Hereticus]

One possibility is that you are a corruptor. For whatever reason, you like turning people to the Dark Side and watching them wreak havoc. Your ability to wreak havoc yourself is limited - the gods didn't favor you with much in that department, though you do have a formidable talent for spinning a web of lies - but you're very good at getting other people to do evil for you, and you've been looking for a suitable bunch of evil warriors to support and strengthen.

A corrupter is monstrous evil for the sake of evil. That is generally not playable in a group setting.

Greedy evil is.

 

[Hereticus]

I'm at a loss for how to play chaotic evil (or even chaotic neutral, in most cases) as a good team player, but neutral evil is all about selfish opportunism and the more 'allies' between you and the troll, the happier the NE 'team-player' is. And lawful evil is even easier to work into a group situation, as they are significantly less likely to backstab an ally than the average Paladin I've gamed with...

When I play evil, that character is usually greedy and power hungry, and has little concern for the plight of the local orphanage. If I kill someone, it is for a specific reason.

And I usually see the group's success as an advantage for me, so I work to make my associates to be successful too, not to stab them in the back.

 

[MichaelSomething]

I say that the anime Death Note (the second half more so then the first) could be worth checking out to see how evil people work together.

You can all work towards a common goal, but sometimes that requires killing your teammates