building a evil pc, I suck, wanted to emulate "the Emperor", and BoVD vs BoED questions/comparison

[RUMBLETiGER]

It sounds like the OP is asking 2 questions:
-How do I get into the mindset of an evil character?
-How to a mechanically build said character?

First off, understanding what sort of Evil you are. Are you the aggressive Evil? Sadistic Evil? Selfish Evil? Self-Protective Evil? The first 2 categories go out o their way to wrong others. the second 2 categories aren't so much going out of their way to harm others, as much as willing to whatever it takes to promote or protect oneself. Knowing your motive is vital.

The Emperor pursued Power at any cost, and was willing to manipulate others to get it. Secondly, he appeared to be pursuing immortality. Any sort of full caster fits that concept, and your idea of a Beguiler/Mindbender // Rogue sounds awesome. Illusions and enchantments will be your bread and butter. Find ways to apply Sneak Attack to damage spells. Sounds like a great concept for an Evil PC.

I'm getting ready to start a Pathfinder game playing a necromancer. His primary motivation is to Not Die. He's not looking to hurt anyone, but he would be willing to throw 20 people under the bus to avoid himself ending up there. He's Evil, not because he's going out of his way to be malicious, but he's willing to do literally anything to protect himself.

 

[sheadunne]

Perhaps Favored Soul/Storm Lord might make an appropriate Emperor

 

[emanresu]

I dont think the OP was really concerned of how to play an evil pc nor what type of arch villian he was aiming to be. I think he noticed a few things while trying to design his evil pc.

-Theres less stuff! The good guys have a lot more to pick n choose from. Us bad guys get screwed! Less info less splat less classes less everything.

-Poor quality! The evil guys get less prestige classes, and they are poor(r) quality. The spells are somewhat balanced, but still tip to the good side. The good guys get the BoED the bad guys get BoVD. I had brought up my opinion on this, and that it was unbalanced to the goodiegooddoers side.

last but not least I wanted, or at least was mildly interested in trying to ball park all the jedi & sith abilities and then trying to re-create into a dnd pc. Ultimately re-creating the Emperor.

 

[emanresu]

so I know the BoED has a "broken" spell called Luminous Armor. And I heard mention of others, perhaps not armor based, but equally as broken. Does the BoVD have any spells on par with BoED? Reason is I am making a evil pc, a Beguiler / Nightmare Spinner, and was "in the hunt" for some illusion spells with a dark/evil demeanor. Then I ran across Curse of The Putrid Husk spell. This spell sounded horrible in effect, mean spirited & cruel...YES! AWESOME!

At work its a bit rough searching between phone calls sooo I was wondering if any of you had knowledge of any other good "bad" spells from BoVD or other? Is there a list already out there? Oh and I did run across a list called "spells that F'ing Kill you" but it was on the WIKI site and I heard anything wiki was just wrong.

2nd part I had initially asked of your opinions of the BoVD vs the BoED and wanted to know what you all thought of these books, especially in comparison. It was my opinion that BoED "outshined" the BoVD, I could be wrong.

eman