D&D 5E Evil characters material not going to be in the PHB

[JamesonCourage]

Well, kinda sorta. After all, the 3e/3.5 PHB shows (AFAIK) no evil PC's. All of the iconics are either straight up heroic good or neutral at best. None of them are evil. Even Krusk, the half orc barbarian is often described as heroic and good, not evil.

I really don't remember the 3.5 PHB talking about their personalities at all, honestly. I'm kinda interested where this was. I think in the Spells chapter you see a picture of the Cleric casting Symbol of Pain (an Evil spell), and isn't the Wizard banishing a couatl or other Good creature?

And, if you read through the Adventurers sections of the 3.5 PHB and how it describes the classes, it's almost always good characters (or possibly neutral) being described. "A ranger often accepts the role of protector, aiding those who live in or travel through the woods." "Rogues adventure for the same reason they do most other things: to get what they can get. ... Quite a few enjoy a challenge. Figuring out how to thwart a trap or avoid an alarm is great fun for many rogues."

Right. It doesn't really go into Good that much, or Evil, as far as I remember. I don't see either of those descriptions as Good. And it explicitly mentions Evil Rangers and Druids, from what I recall, and the Rogue section you quoted here certainly seems more Neutral (or maybe in Evil for the first part) than Good.

Granted, sorcerers explicitly mention evil: "Evil sorcerers also feel themselves set apart from others - apart and above. They adventure to gain power over those they look down upon". So, there is at least a nod in the direction of evil PC's. But, by and large, "Evil PC" isn't mentioned in the class descriptions whereas "Good PC" is mentioned in almost every class.

I don't remember it coming off that way at all. I remember a more Neutral leaning. The Paladin was definitely a Good class, but that's about as strong as I remember it. Though, in fairness, the alignment section certainly seemed to encourage Good and Neutral over Evil, though it still had full descriptions of all the alignments.

 

[Random Bystander]

[X] "I am unable to vote on this option with the information provided."

I don't want the BoVD-equivalent (which I hope will be written to a higher quality than the 3.5e version) to be packed into the PHB.

However: There is absolutely no evil in the 3.5e PHB. I checked. I read the entire thing. During my read-through, absolutely no people were robbed, mutilated, killed, murdered, accidentally knocked off cliffs, ground into ink or forced to jaywalk due to reading the book.

I thought we were over BADD?

 

[The Human Target]

[X] "I am unable to vote on this option with the information provided."

I don't want the BoVD-equivalent (which I hope will be written to a higher quality than the 3.5e version) to be packed into the PHB.

However: There is absolutely no evil in the 3.5e PHB. I checked. I read the entire thing. During my read-through, absolutely no people were robbed, mutilated, killed, murdered, accidentally knocked off cliffs, ground into ink or forced to jaywalk due to reading the book.

I thought we were over BADD?

And yet many many people still ended up playing evil, neutral, creepy, or jerkish characters throughout 3e.

 

[Random Bystander]

And yet many many people still ended up playing evil, neutral, creepy, or jerkish characters throughout 3e.

Playing an evil character isn't an evil act.

I guess we aren't over BADD.

 

[GreyLord]

And yet many many people still ended up playing evil, neutral, creepy, or jerkish characters throughout 3e.

yes, you wouldn't believe the number of munchkins...

Or even worse Powergamers who made characters that had no logical Roleplaying reason to be the classes they were....

 

[The Human Target]

Playing an evil character isn't an evil act.

I guess we aren't over BADD.

Well I agree with you.

Though in my experience it usually is because the people who do end up hugely disrupting the game.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

The funny thing is that in the 2 campaigns I've been a player in that have had evil characters, they worked out quite well. My chaotic good character didn't really "get" that the lawful evil character was evil. He just thought he needed to lighten up a bit. And the evil character wasn't the "devoted to darkness" kind, just a guy who happened to fit LE. In the second campaign my neutral good character also got along fine with the two evil characters. The first was only evil because our DM took a very harsh stance on revenge as a character motivation. I would have put him on the high side of LN. The second character was fairly classic neutral evil out for himself (and we didn't really know he was evil at first), but actually turned from his evil ways due in large part to my character's example. The most disruptive character in the first campaign was actualy chaotic neutral--although in reality he was played as chaotic evil. So in my experience, it's not playing actual characters, who happen to be evil, that is disruptive. More likely it is playing charicatures that is the problem.

Anyway, that was just a tangental aside.

Please play evil responsibly ;-)

 

[Random Bystander]

To summarize my attitude, playing evil characters is only evil when a player does so to cause OOG harm, in which case, it is not the evil character that is the problem.

But that is far too complex an issue to rule on in a player's handbook for a game, and we should not be so scared nor "mommy may I" a society that the fictional spell in a fictional game in a fictional reality "protection from good" should cause us problems in handling it.

Edit: Although a player's handbook can give basic advice like "make sure everyone has fun" and "even in PvP games, you are not there to kill the other players."

 

[Scorpio616]

Not reading through 10 pages of comments, but I can't believe that people are FOR not having evil rules in the PHB. How could MORE OPTIONS for people be a bad thing?

Because some folks have wanted to keep Animate Dead out of players' grasp since the 70's. Can't blame them since it is way too useful in a target and trap heavy environment.

 

[The Human Target]

Yes.

Its all based on Animate Dead.