D&D General How do you do smart chaotic evil?

[Toe Knee Nose]

Hogwash.
That is a silly sweeping statement.

Why would you say that? Dictatorships, where you have a single voice who has ultimate power and that power is used for selfish, self-serving ends, is the definition of chaotic evil.

That's the point of a dictatorship and very often why dictatorships rarely outlast the lifetime of the dictator. There are exceptions of course, but, in general, most dictatorships rise and fall on a single person.

 

[Maxperson]

Having laws has absolutely NOTHING to do with lawful alignment.

Were you conflating dictatorship with ditcator?

A dictatorship that has robust laws to help it function would be a lawful one. You can't have a chaotic evil dictatorship with a strong system of laws to help it function. Those laws create order and stability for the country, which is anathema to chaos. A chaotic evil dictatorship would have few to no laws, with those in charge just deciding everything as the mood strikes them. A dictator of a lawful dictatorship could be chaotic, though.

 

[Maxperson]

Why would you say that? Dictatorships, where you have a single voice who has ultimate power and that power is used for selfish, self-serving ends, is the definition of chaotic evil.

No, that's a dictator. A dictatorship is the country, not the person. A strong set of laws prevents the dictatorship from being chaotic. Some of those laws can be evil, but they end up creating a LE dictatorship, not a CE one.

That's the point of a dictatorship and very often why dictatorships rarely outlast the lifetime of the dictator. There are exceptions of course, but, in general, most dictatorships rise and fall on a single person.

Looking around the world, the opposite seems to be true. The line of succession isn't typically familial, but the dictatorship typically continues under a new dictator unless revolution got rid of it. And even revolution often just replaces one dictatorship with another.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Why would you say that?

Because dictatorships should not be caricatured as it is commonly done for a WWE-loving public.

Dictatorships, where you have a single voice who has ultimate power and that power is used for selfish, self-serving ends, is the definition of chaotic evil.

Please repeat after me King Solomon was a selfish, self-serving chaotic evil king.

That's the point of a dictatorship and very often why dictatorships rarely outlast the lifetime of the dictator.

The west loves to demonise and caricature dictators because reasons we are disallowed to elaborate on.

There are exceptions of course, but, in general, most dictatorships rise and fall on a single person.

I'm not arguing this point, the reason a dictatorship falls is more likely because the very structure of it is fragile and not because of some supposed inherent evil nature. Think closer along the lines of Sole Proprietor vs Corporate and their longevity.