How Good can Evil be?

[domino]

An idea. An advisor to the king. He detects as evil. He doesn't like the party. He's whispering things in the ear of the king. Evil, right? Must be stopped, right?

But he's also loyal to the king, and country. His best place is next to the throne, where he gets all the benefits of royalty, can work the kingdom into his own ideas, with less of the crap that a king gets. He's also grooming and supporting the princess, so she'll keep her on, after the king dies.

But, he realizes that the best way to get a good deal out of the kingdom, is if the kingdom is fairly prosperous and healthy. He has a team of assassains/secret police to quietly deal with "problems" but for the most part the things he does for the people is generally good.

He just hates the adventurers because they bring with them chaos that disrupts his plans, and makes his life harder. But as long as they can be useful to him, he won't try to kill them.

So, is he evil, because he's purely selfish, or neutral, maybe?

 

[Crothian]

Lawful, maybe nuetral maybe evil...depends what the secret police is allowed to do I guess

 

[arscott]

Depends.

One consideration is, how much does he use his personal power? If he's embezzling wealth and living in luxury, then he's probably evil, whereas if He' lives in a 10x10 room and eats bread and water, then he's probably neutral (or a college student. take your pick).

 

[domino]

Well, the whole point of having the personal power and money is to be able to enjoy said money and power. And he's got both. And she knows it.

But why bother to embezzle the wealth, when he's got ready access to it already, and getting caught would just dry up his source?

 

[KingOfChaos]

Definately a lawful evil 'villain'. I wouldn't really consider the guy a 'bad guy' because he's really not trying to do anything overtly evil other than advising the king, who could just say "Hell no" to whatever he suggests. So really, the problem is the king and not the advisor who detects as evil.

 

[John Morrow]

So, is he evil, because he's purely selfish, or neutral, maybe?

Sounds Lawful Neutral to me. The dividing line to me is that an Evil person acts out of indifference to pain and suffering, malice, or often simply cruelty and the enjoyment of seeing others suffer. If you don't allow Neutral to cover "selfish", then what does it cover? Remember, by the RAW, Neutral people only need to show compunctions against killing the innocent. They are not prohibited from killing the innocent if it is the only way to get what they want.

 

[domino]

But in this case, you need to give him a reason to actively not kill you, rather than he actively needs a reason to do so.

 

[Jondor_Battlehammer]

"How good can evil be?"

As good as it wants, its evil...

 

[TheAuldGrump]

An idea. An advisor to the king. He detects as evil. He doesn't like the party. He's whispering things in the ear of the king. Evil, right? Must be stopped, right?

But he's also loyal to the king, and country. His best place is next to the throne, where he gets all the benefits of royalty, can work the kingdom into his own ideas, with less of the crap that a king gets. He's also grooming and supporting the princess, so she'll keep her on, after the king dies.

But, he realizes that the best way to get a good deal out of the kingdom, is if the kingdom is fairly prosperous and healthy. He has a team of assassains/secret police to quietly deal with "problems" but for the most part the things he does for the people is generally good.

He just hates the adventurers because they bring with them chaos that disrupts his plans, and makes his life harder. But as long as they can be useful to him, he won't try to kill them.

So, is he evil, because he's purely selfish, or neutral, maybe?

Need more information - He detects as Evil. Why, what does he do that is evil? From the description he is Lawful Neutral, what does he do that sets off Detect Evil?

The Auld Grump

 

[arscott]

Well, the whole point of having the personal power and money is to be able to enjoy said money and power. And he's got both. And she knows it.

But why bother to embezzle the wealth, when he's got ready access to it already, and getting caught would just dry up his source?

I meant embezzle in the sense of "Charge your Jaguar to the company account", not secretly steal money from the treasury late at night. I don't think that one's any less evil than the other.