D&D 5E (2014) Evil character in the party

[Shiroiken]

I have DMed for more than 20 years, and this is the first time I have an evil character on the players' group (running lost mine of Phandelver - 5E).

You must have been lucky

The player is experienced, and his character is a female rogue. He often tries to take treasures they find for himself, has been asking how much damage he would do if he attacked a sleeping character he does not like, and wanted to take over leadership of a bandit group they defeated. During most of the battles he avoids staying near the main action, and often explore other areas while their colleagues are fighting.

So how do you guys deal with this kind of behavior?

It depends on the group. I've had evil (and EVIL) PCs in games before, and usually it's more the player that's an issue than the character. Stealing from other party members, threatening to murder, and rallying minions is kinda par for the course for evil, and they don't have to be an issue if you have a mature group who can accept it and play it out in character. Disrupting play by stealing the spotlight (by taking actions while not part of the combat) and intimidating other players is generally not cool.

I mean, if the other members of the party are not punishing the guy (probably because they have a lot of respect for the player), should I do anything?

Sometimes I find it refreshing to have this character around, but other times it feels like the other players are not having fun as they would otherwise.

Talk to the other players individually and privately. If it's not a problem for them, then you shouldn't interfere. If anyone has an issue with it, then talk to the player about the issues and how to resolve them without hard feelings. If the players cannot come to an accord with you as mediator, then you need to oust someone. Judging by your post, I'm guessing it would be the problem player.

 

[Rune]

I'm going to guess that an experienced player knows full well how much damage his character would do to a sleeping character. From this, I extrapolate that the player must have had some other reason for asking the question, most likely a means of communicating facets of the character's personality to group.

This could be an effort to illustrate the evilness without having to act on its extremes. In which case, the rest if the group ought to be able to moderate on their own by establishing parameters of acceptability.

 

[Rod Staffwand]

I don't allow evil PCs just for this reason. RPGs are communal, group-based activities and having one player/PC out for themselves at the expense of the rest causes more trouble than it's worth. I'd only consider it if the whole group was on board and excited about the situation.

Too many times, this devolves into forcing the good PCs to play stupid concerning the shenanigans of the evil PC, which is a horrible thing to force on players. "Hey, none of you know that my character Baddie McKilleveryoneintheirsleep is evil! It's meta-gaming if you have someone watch me!"

I also put extreme limitations on extra-party activities. The party adventures together. The adventure is about what happens with the party. Scouting ahead is one thing, but if a PC wanders off for hours at a time, there's no reason to devote any table time to it. They don't find anything, encounter anything or experience anything. The player can make up any story they wish for what transpired. If plausible it might even be true...

 

[Wolfskin]

Anytime the DM is even thinking about giving players the option of rolling evil characters, it needs to be very clearly stated at the outset, and player feedback considered. I personally will always bow out of such a campaign because dealing with this type of behavior is not fun for me.

Ditto. As a player, I don't like groups with evil characters. As a DM, evil characters are IME trouble in the long run- the only evil PC I allowed tried to betray the party and was killed by the other PCs, straining player relations at the tal.e

 

[guachi]

My session zero went basically like this:

5e + old adventures (because I'm old-ish, I've had the material for ages, I've recently bought much of the old material that I didn't have because I now have money)
5e is a great system and works really well with old stuff.
I want players who will play characters who want to be heroes.
I care more about your background than your class or stats. You can change your stats or class if you don't like them (within reason). I don't care.
Here are the places you can be from. What sounds interesting?
I will make a document with what your character knows, convert it to pdf, mail it to you, and print it out so you can know what your character knows (max was 33 pages...)
No evil characters. I would be a bad DM for you.
You have to come up with some reason you a) want to adventure and b) would be in this town at the start.

Of course, I got that one guy, in the first session, decided to play his character like the OP. Chaotic neutral. Hide treasure from the players. Said "My character doesn't know you. Why is he adventuring with you?" He seemed miffed I was using published adventures (it was right there on the flyer I put in the FLGS...). If his wife weren't playing, I'd probably just ask him to leave. It's just not worth the headache.

 

[SirAntoine]

I have DMed for more than 20 years, and this is the first time I have an evil character on the players' group (running lost mine of Phandelver - 5E).

The player is experienced, and his character is a female rogue. He often tries to take treasures they find for himself, has been asking how much damage he would do if he attacked a sleeping character he does not like, and wanted to take over leadership of a bandit group they defeated. During most of the battles he avoids staying near the main action, and often explore other areas while their colleagues are fighting.

So how do you guys deal with this kind of behavior?

I mean, if the other members of the party are not punishing the guy (probably because they have a lot of respect for the player), should I do anything?

Sometimes I find it refreshing to have this character around, but other times it feels like the other players are not having fun as they would otherwise.

Even if everyone else is okay with it, if it bothers you, tell him to stop.

 

[Will Doyle]

Even Neutral characters can cause problems when theft comes into play.

We had a big row when one of my players pocketed a jewel on the sly. The player who caused such a fuss eventually admitted "getting treasure is why I play D&D: and you're spoiling that", which I thought was an honest and valid reason. People play for different reasons, and it's important to balance those desires even if your character's backstory says otherwise.

Nowadays I have a simple list of table rules that basically breaks down to "Be Heroic" and "Try To Work Together". These rules can only be broken if all parties agree.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

Adventurers bond together for protection. If this one is not a benefit to the group, why should they tolerate him? Even evil characters have friends and can establish trust with them. If this one can't provide that to the group, then empower the rest of the party to deal with him.

 

[Gecko85]

We started HotDQ last night. DM rule was no evil characters. One player created a neutral character (Rogue) but tried to play him as evil. The other players shut him down pretty fast. Example: After capturing a cultist and bringing him in for interrogation, the rogue wanted to cut off one of his fingers as a trophy. The cleric told him if he so much as tried, he'd be put down like a dog. That was that. I suspect he'll keep trying to be evil here and there, but the precedent has been set that the other characters aren't going to let it fly.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

We started HotDQ last night. DM rule was no evil characters. One player created a neutral character (Rogue) but tried to play him as evil. The other players shut him down pretty fast. Example: After capturing a cultist and bringing him in for interrogation, the rogue wanted to cut off one of his fingers as a trophy. The cleric told him if he so much as tried, he'd be put down like a dog. That was that. I suspect he'll keep trying to be evil here and there, but the precedent has been set that the other characters aren't going to let it fly.

If having an Evil acting character in the campaign, I recommend the players and GM discuss and resolve the issue. In-game solutions can sometimes work but in my experience characters threatening other characters probably won't change the players' behavior. (At least not for long.)